rmakela
11-17-2009, 09:00 AM
Clearwater 70.3 Championship
Pre-race
Ok, so that was fun. 4:42:27 of fun to be exact, plus a couple days on each end. My brother Martin (aka Sherpa, Paparazzi, Team Doc and Chauffeur) and I arrived Wednesday evening to dark skies, high winds and crashing surf. Went out for greasy seafood with Win at “THE” place to go, called Frenchy’s - and learned that gourmet seafood restaurant in Clearwater really means Surfer Bar that serves fresh Grouper fried in butter. Good thing we had a couple of days to get that out of our system. . .
Thursday morning we started taking care of business – got registered, picked up bike from Tri Bike Transport across the parking lot (seamless, easy, bike was all in one piece) and stopped by Race Day Wheels to add a set of Zipp 900 and 808 race wheels. Went out for a short run with Daniel and then we decided to go for a quick spin to check out the bikes with Win. This was my first experience on a full disk (don’t try anything new on race day, right?) but it seemed like a reasonable risk – until I tried to ride in 25-30MPH winds. Wow, this could be challenging come race day. Weather reports still called for things to calm down by Saturday, but there was a high surf/wind warning and Hurricane Ida was still making the weather tough to predict. I was getting pushed 3 feet sideways by the gusts and I thought maybe I’d save the rest of the check ride for the next day. Thursday evening was the pre-race banquet and briefing set up on the beach – which was entertaining watching plates of food get picked up by the wind and tossed down the tables.
Friday morning team Vo2 (Kara, Win, Kevin, Kara and I) met for an 8:30 swim. Surf was still pounding the beach and we had a “fun” time playing in the swells and riding the waves back to the beach. We went out for another ride, and though the winds were “only” 15-20 at this point I was still having some trouble taming the rear disk and 808 front. Hoping for calm winds on race day. Spent the rest of Friday relaxing, puttering and then out for an early Italian dinner after dropping bikes and gear bags off at race central.
Race Day - swim
Up at 3:45 for some oatmeal and a PB&J. Weather is dead calm and clear. Sipped on Infinit and ate a banana while in transit to the start. We learned the day before that they had moved the swim to the bay side, though the Gulf side looked fine to me. Given the constraints on the bay side the start would be a Time Trial jump off a dock, except for the pro men and women who went first. The other 1500 of us lined up by wave down the street and one or two at a time crossed the starting mat and jumped off the dock like so many Lemmings jumping off a cliff. As it turned out this sped up the start significantly and I was swimming by 7:30AM versus my 7:55 start time (my wave was second to last). This also spread out the waves a lot so there was very little bumping on the swim. Navigation was my only real challenge on the swim as we were swimming due east right at sunrise. I found it impossible to sight the buoys and tried to follow the pace line – but there was a slight dog-leg to the right that was tough to see. I definitely had a few sharp course corrections and I’m sure I added a few hundred yards to this swim. The exit was the most challenging, as we had to walk up a steep 30 foot gangway to the dock. As I approached, I checked my watch and saw 30:XX something, but then I treaded water for a while waiting for 10 guys in front of me to clear the exit. Frustrating but overall felt pretty good about the 31:28 swim (a minute + PR for me).
I then climbed up the gang way to the wetsuit strippers, and as I lay down to get my wetsuit off both quads/hamstrings cramped. Ouch. My brother said he saw me limping away from the swim and thought I was in some serious trouble, but fortunately they loosened up by the time I got to T1. Having bib #1499, I was literally at the end of the transition bag line and made it really easy to pick up my gear. Everything went smoothly and I was on the bike in 3:46 (it was a big transition area, ok?).
Race Day - bike
I tried to spin for the first few miles and take stock of my quads and hamstrings. Everything seemed to be holding together. The bike and disk felt good and I realized I was moving along pretty well. My bike had never felt (or been) so fast. The next hour was interesting, as I didn’t see any huge pace lines at this point as much as one big pack of bikes, 2-3 across stretching as far as I could see. I had 1200+ bikes ahead of me with age groupers going anywhere from 18-28MPH. This part of the race for me was more about bike handling and acceleration as I tried to pass people and stay clear of congestion. Took in a Gu every 30 minutes, 300 calories of Infinit and a couple bottles of Nuun water on the bike.
By the turn around on the back leg things had broken up a lot and this is where I started see real pelotons forming. With the disk wheel, a smooth road and bit of a tail wind on this leg I was able to push 25-26MPH in clear air. A few times it was difficult to sit back and let some of these groups go by, but I was riding fast for me anyway and having too much fun to worry about these guys. I did find that after they went by I could ride behind them at a legal distance for a few miles until my heart rate started to creep up and I still get some benefit from the sheer volume of air heading in one direction. Averaged 150 BPM for the bike portion and I knew if I pushed it much higher I'd never be able to finish the run. The roads were really smooth and flat for most of the race and especially on this leg - I had the thought that this was as close to flying as I’ll ever get under my own power.
At the half way, my average speed was around 24MPH and I calculated that this would put me in somewhere around 2:20. I thought my math must be off. I had one close call as I fiddled with my watch band that was coming loose and as I looked down I clipped one of the large divider cones. These cones had a three inch base and my front wheel didn’t like going over it at 24MPH. This could have been a disaster but somehow managed to escape unscathed, didn't blow the front tire and it gave me much needed wake-up call to pay attention.
There was only a slight headwind and false flat for a few miles toward the end – which was disappointed to see my speed slow down close to 20MPH. Funny how quickly my expectations changed . . . but I cruised over the bridge and into town feeling good. I have been focusing a lot on my bike power since Lake Stevens and I really think that the last few weeks “tuning” things up at the Vo2Performance Center made a big difference. Off the bike at 2:21:29 for an average of 23.75MPH. It was really fun to go this fast. I had hoped to ride around 2:40.
Race day - run
Through T2 uneventfully in 2:58 and then out on the run. Quads felt a bit tired from all the passing on the bike, but tried to ease into 7:45-8:00 for the first few miles. Things were ok until the long stretch leading up to the first bridge climb – when all of a sudden I realized it was really hot. Oh-oh, I thought - this is going to be a long 13.1 miles. I eased back a bit and made a point to hydrate and sponge at every water station. The support was great and getting two chilled sponges at each water station to stash in my jersey was really a lifesaver for me. The run was two loops across the Clearwater bridge. After the first loop I felt like “maybe” I could pick up the pace the second leg – but after the second trip over the bridge I was happy to hang on to 8 min/miles. I had really wanted to break 1:40 on the run, but my body seemed to be telling me that since it put 20 minutes in the bank during the bike it was going to take back a few – which it did. Water, Gu, banana, coke, water, sponge, repeat. I enjoyed seeing Kara, Kevin, Daniel and Win several times on the out and backs and waved to my brother in the crowd - and even managed to smile a few times. It wasn’t pretty, but I labored in at 1:42:46 for an overall time of 4:42:27. I wanted to go under 5 hours and had a secondary goal to finish in the top half of my age group. I ended up 67th of 138 in the 45-49 AG and I would have been on the podium - if only I was 20 years older! My rankings came out at 471/641/666 – so now my run is my weakest discipline as long as I only bike flat races next year.
Overall really fun trip, very well supported event. Race Day Wheels and TriBikeTransport were both great services and it was really nice to just switch wheels and walk the bike across the parking lot and drop it off after the race. I hope to see my bike again next week, but I don’t think I was planning to ride this week anyway! Here’s to some off season, cross training and a little work on increasing power/decreasing weight during the winter.
Thank you to Ben for great guidance and coaching and everyone else for your support and posts during the event. If someone had told me last year I would be competing in the 70.3 World Championship this year and finish in the top half of my age group I would have told them they were crazy. I would probably still tell them that. Special thanks to Kara, Daniel, Win and Kevin and Martin for the team camaraderie and fun times in Clearwater.
SWIM BIKE RUN OVERALL RANK DIV.POS.
31:28 2:21:29 1:42:46 4:42:27 757 666
LEG DISTANCE PACE RANK DIV.POS.
TOTAL SWIM 1.2 mi. (31:28) 1:39/100m 565 471
BIKE SPLIT 1 25.2 mi. (1:03:03) 23.98 mph
BIKE SPLIT 2 17 mi. (--:--)
BIKE SPLIT 3 13.8 mi. (2:56:43)
TOTAL BIKE 56 mi. (2:21:29) 23.75 mph
RUN SPLIT 1 3.5 mi. (27:26) 7:50/mile
RUN SPLIT 2 3 mi. (23:01) 7:40/mile
RUN SPLIT 3 3.6 mi. (28:15) 7:50/mile
RUN SPLIT 4 3 mi. (24:04) 8:01/mile
TOTAL RUN 13.1 mi. (1:42:46) 7:50/mile 757 666
TRANSITION TIME
T1: SWIM-TO-BIKE 3:46
T2: BIKE-TO-RUN 2:58
Pre-race
Ok, so that was fun. 4:42:27 of fun to be exact, plus a couple days on each end. My brother Martin (aka Sherpa, Paparazzi, Team Doc and Chauffeur) and I arrived Wednesday evening to dark skies, high winds and crashing surf. Went out for greasy seafood with Win at “THE” place to go, called Frenchy’s - and learned that gourmet seafood restaurant in Clearwater really means Surfer Bar that serves fresh Grouper fried in butter. Good thing we had a couple of days to get that out of our system. . .
Thursday morning we started taking care of business – got registered, picked up bike from Tri Bike Transport across the parking lot (seamless, easy, bike was all in one piece) and stopped by Race Day Wheels to add a set of Zipp 900 and 808 race wheels. Went out for a short run with Daniel and then we decided to go for a quick spin to check out the bikes with Win. This was my first experience on a full disk (don’t try anything new on race day, right?) but it seemed like a reasonable risk – until I tried to ride in 25-30MPH winds. Wow, this could be challenging come race day. Weather reports still called for things to calm down by Saturday, but there was a high surf/wind warning and Hurricane Ida was still making the weather tough to predict. I was getting pushed 3 feet sideways by the gusts and I thought maybe I’d save the rest of the check ride for the next day. Thursday evening was the pre-race banquet and briefing set up on the beach – which was entertaining watching plates of food get picked up by the wind and tossed down the tables.
Friday morning team Vo2 (Kara, Win, Kevin, Kara and I) met for an 8:30 swim. Surf was still pounding the beach and we had a “fun” time playing in the swells and riding the waves back to the beach. We went out for another ride, and though the winds were “only” 15-20 at this point I was still having some trouble taming the rear disk and 808 front. Hoping for calm winds on race day. Spent the rest of Friday relaxing, puttering and then out for an early Italian dinner after dropping bikes and gear bags off at race central.
Race Day - swim
Up at 3:45 for some oatmeal and a PB&J. Weather is dead calm and clear. Sipped on Infinit and ate a banana while in transit to the start. We learned the day before that they had moved the swim to the bay side, though the Gulf side looked fine to me. Given the constraints on the bay side the start would be a Time Trial jump off a dock, except for the pro men and women who went first. The other 1500 of us lined up by wave down the street and one or two at a time crossed the starting mat and jumped off the dock like so many Lemmings jumping off a cliff. As it turned out this sped up the start significantly and I was swimming by 7:30AM versus my 7:55 start time (my wave was second to last). This also spread out the waves a lot so there was very little bumping on the swim. Navigation was my only real challenge on the swim as we were swimming due east right at sunrise. I found it impossible to sight the buoys and tried to follow the pace line – but there was a slight dog-leg to the right that was tough to see. I definitely had a few sharp course corrections and I’m sure I added a few hundred yards to this swim. The exit was the most challenging, as we had to walk up a steep 30 foot gangway to the dock. As I approached, I checked my watch and saw 30:XX something, but then I treaded water for a while waiting for 10 guys in front of me to clear the exit. Frustrating but overall felt pretty good about the 31:28 swim (a minute + PR for me).
I then climbed up the gang way to the wetsuit strippers, and as I lay down to get my wetsuit off both quads/hamstrings cramped. Ouch. My brother said he saw me limping away from the swim and thought I was in some serious trouble, but fortunately they loosened up by the time I got to T1. Having bib #1499, I was literally at the end of the transition bag line and made it really easy to pick up my gear. Everything went smoothly and I was on the bike in 3:46 (it was a big transition area, ok?).
Race Day - bike
I tried to spin for the first few miles and take stock of my quads and hamstrings. Everything seemed to be holding together. The bike and disk felt good and I realized I was moving along pretty well. My bike had never felt (or been) so fast. The next hour was interesting, as I didn’t see any huge pace lines at this point as much as one big pack of bikes, 2-3 across stretching as far as I could see. I had 1200+ bikes ahead of me with age groupers going anywhere from 18-28MPH. This part of the race for me was more about bike handling and acceleration as I tried to pass people and stay clear of congestion. Took in a Gu every 30 minutes, 300 calories of Infinit and a couple bottles of Nuun water on the bike.
By the turn around on the back leg things had broken up a lot and this is where I started see real pelotons forming. With the disk wheel, a smooth road and bit of a tail wind on this leg I was able to push 25-26MPH in clear air. A few times it was difficult to sit back and let some of these groups go by, but I was riding fast for me anyway and having too much fun to worry about these guys. I did find that after they went by I could ride behind them at a legal distance for a few miles until my heart rate started to creep up and I still get some benefit from the sheer volume of air heading in one direction. Averaged 150 BPM for the bike portion and I knew if I pushed it much higher I'd never be able to finish the run. The roads were really smooth and flat for most of the race and especially on this leg - I had the thought that this was as close to flying as I’ll ever get under my own power.
At the half way, my average speed was around 24MPH and I calculated that this would put me in somewhere around 2:20. I thought my math must be off. I had one close call as I fiddled with my watch band that was coming loose and as I looked down I clipped one of the large divider cones. These cones had a three inch base and my front wheel didn’t like going over it at 24MPH. This could have been a disaster but somehow managed to escape unscathed, didn't blow the front tire and it gave me much needed wake-up call to pay attention.
There was only a slight headwind and false flat for a few miles toward the end – which was disappointed to see my speed slow down close to 20MPH. Funny how quickly my expectations changed . . . but I cruised over the bridge and into town feeling good. I have been focusing a lot on my bike power since Lake Stevens and I really think that the last few weeks “tuning” things up at the Vo2Performance Center made a big difference. Off the bike at 2:21:29 for an average of 23.75MPH. It was really fun to go this fast. I had hoped to ride around 2:40.
Race day - run
Through T2 uneventfully in 2:58 and then out on the run. Quads felt a bit tired from all the passing on the bike, but tried to ease into 7:45-8:00 for the first few miles. Things were ok until the long stretch leading up to the first bridge climb – when all of a sudden I realized it was really hot. Oh-oh, I thought - this is going to be a long 13.1 miles. I eased back a bit and made a point to hydrate and sponge at every water station. The support was great and getting two chilled sponges at each water station to stash in my jersey was really a lifesaver for me. The run was two loops across the Clearwater bridge. After the first loop I felt like “maybe” I could pick up the pace the second leg – but after the second trip over the bridge I was happy to hang on to 8 min/miles. I had really wanted to break 1:40 on the run, but my body seemed to be telling me that since it put 20 minutes in the bank during the bike it was going to take back a few – which it did. Water, Gu, banana, coke, water, sponge, repeat. I enjoyed seeing Kara, Kevin, Daniel and Win several times on the out and backs and waved to my brother in the crowd - and even managed to smile a few times. It wasn’t pretty, but I labored in at 1:42:46 for an overall time of 4:42:27. I wanted to go under 5 hours and had a secondary goal to finish in the top half of my age group. I ended up 67th of 138 in the 45-49 AG and I would have been on the podium - if only I was 20 years older! My rankings came out at 471/641/666 – so now my run is my weakest discipline as long as I only bike flat races next year.
Overall really fun trip, very well supported event. Race Day Wheels and TriBikeTransport were both great services and it was really nice to just switch wheels and walk the bike across the parking lot and drop it off after the race. I hope to see my bike again next week, but I don’t think I was planning to ride this week anyway! Here’s to some off season, cross training and a little work on increasing power/decreasing weight during the winter.
Thank you to Ben for great guidance and coaching and everyone else for your support and posts during the event. If someone had told me last year I would be competing in the 70.3 World Championship this year and finish in the top half of my age group I would have told them they were crazy. I would probably still tell them that. Special thanks to Kara, Daniel, Win and Kevin and Martin for the team camaraderie and fun times in Clearwater.
SWIM BIKE RUN OVERALL RANK DIV.POS.
31:28 2:21:29 1:42:46 4:42:27 757 666
LEG DISTANCE PACE RANK DIV.POS.
TOTAL SWIM 1.2 mi. (31:28) 1:39/100m 565 471
BIKE SPLIT 1 25.2 mi. (1:03:03) 23.98 mph
BIKE SPLIT 2 17 mi. (--:--)
BIKE SPLIT 3 13.8 mi. (2:56:43)
TOTAL BIKE 56 mi. (2:21:29) 23.75 mph
RUN SPLIT 1 3.5 mi. (27:26) 7:50/mile
RUN SPLIT 2 3 mi. (23:01) 7:40/mile
RUN SPLIT 3 3.6 mi. (28:15) 7:50/mile
RUN SPLIT 4 3 mi. (24:04) 8:01/mile
TOTAL RUN 13.1 mi. (1:42:46) 7:50/mile 757 666
TRANSITION TIME
T1: SWIM-TO-BIKE 3:46
T2: BIKE-TO-RUN 2:58