Kinetic Half

The 2013 race season has finally started!  This off-season has been interesting, fighting off a few minor injuries and deciding to do my first Ironman.

The first planned race of the season was to be a half marathon in March, but for the first time in my racing career I had to pull out due to injury.  At the time, I was just starting to recover, I did not have a lot of running volume and I didn't want to risk aggravating it.  Soon after I came across a 5K that fit well with my training plan, this is a distance I had not run in a few years.  The race went awesome, set a personal record of 19:53 and finished 5^th overall and 2^nd in my age group. 

The 5K was a great but the start of tri season is what I have been waiting for and May 11^th, Kinetic Half (70.3) was that race.  This race is held at Lake Anna, VA, with the bike and run course both on rolling hills.

This will be my first tri as a member of the Snapple Tri club and I was hoping to live up to the great times recently put up by some of my new team mates.  I was also racing with my training partner and Snapple Club teammate Steve Smith.  

Since the race is held in a state park, Steve and his family had secured a camp site and were nice enough to let me borrow a tent and a corner of their lot.  This was the first time I had been camping in a very long time.  In true campground fashion, we were graced with a nice thunderstorm Friday night and it rained most of the night and into the morning.  I do have to mention that the best part was the rain force the only camp site (it seemed) who was not racing, to go inside their camper which in turn stopped their game of corn hole (never realized how loud and annoying those bags are hitting the board) and blasting of their country music (which I am not a fan of).

Even with the rain and cooler temperatures, I did not get a good amount of sleep. Mental note: when someone offers you two sleeping mats, take both!  One is not very wide and my large rear end was almost wider than the mat, this made sleeping interesting. 

Race morning has arrived!  Where are my chocolate fudge pop tarts? A race day must, and ironically one of the few things my nerves and stomach will let me eat.  When I first sat up and realized it was still raining I grabbed my phone.  Per the Weather Channel app, thunderstorms were a strong possibility all morning, GREAT!  Oh well, what you can do right.  So I got dressed and got the gear ready, shortly after Steve and I were headed over to the race site.

After setting up my transition area, getting marked up and doing a short warm-up, I got the wetsuit on, eat a package of Sport beans and we started walking down to the swim start.  There was a little time as we were in the second wave (young guys first, old guys next, it makes catching the first group just a little more satisfying. LOL!).

Swim: 32:54

The swim was a beach start, so basically you run until it seems deep enough that your hands will not hit bottom.  The start went well, only a little bumping but I got some space quickly.  Soon as I found a rhythm and my swim coach Steve’s voice quickly started to play in my head, “distance per stroke, body roll, swim efficient!”  Oh wait, there is no blue line, sight, I have to sight.  I learned last year that sighting is an art as much as the other aspects of open water swimming and if I can find someone to pace, I use that person’s feet or bubbles, if not I try to sight on every 6 to 9^th stroke.  No one to pace with so by stroke count it is, this worked well and I was literally bumping the buoys as I passed them. After the first turn we were parallel to shore and I had found a nice grove.  Before I knew it there was the second turn buoy and the finish markers.  This leg went well until I was about 500 yards from shore.  Now, the upside, everyone around me had a red cap on (the first wave, I was wearing white) the down side, everyone crowded together for some reason and every stroke was landing on top someone and someone hitting me.

Finally, I fought my way through until the water was shallow enough to stand up and run to the timing mat.  As soon as my feet hit the bottom, I reached for the zipper and started pulling my arms from the suit, by the time I hit sand, the suit was at my waist (like I planned it!).  Once I crossed the mat, I heard my name and there was one of my riding buddies Steve Keller, pretty cool seeing a friend mid-race. 

Overall I was very pleased with the swim and after seeing the data from my Garmin, I navigated pretty much on straight line.  I shared the data with my swim coach, he was pleased that my time was right in line with the work I have been doing in the pool and on track for my Ironman swim goals.  Got to love it when a plan comes together.

T1 went well, based on rain at the time I decided to not wear my sunglasses or my calf sleeves.  Shoes went on with no issues and I was heading for the mount line in 3 minutes, 14 seconds.

Bike: 2:29:49

The night before the race, Steve and I drove the course and to be honest it is a bit intimidating.  A lot of hills and a few long climbs BUT just as long descents, oh and it was raining, FUN!  Right as you leave transition there is a small but steep hill and I got some insight the night before, have the chain in the small ring to start.  Great advice!  The first few miles of the ride took us out of the park, onto a few rollers than onto one of the long legs of the course.  Since the roads were wet I had to be cautious and this first leg had some really nice descents. Now, this race had a few first for me and my girl: first race with a power meter, first on a new cassette (some shifting issues) and first on new race wheels and tires.  I mention this because on the first long decent the back of the bike got “squirrly”, a little scary at 30 MPH. 

As I mentioned, this was the first race with a power meter and I now know why these are a big deal.  My coach Adam suggested keeping my watts within a range of 250-270 and try to stay under 315 on any climb.  

So, “Whoopty Do, What does it all mean Basil” (in my best Austin Powers accent).  Well, since this tells you how much effort you are exerting while cranking the pedals, you can easily monitor said effort.  Watching these numbers really help me stay in control of my “chase instincts”, (basically any time someone passes me, I must catch them) as well as it really help me “not burn my match sticks” early climbing these hills.

A few guys did pass me and I am proud to say I let them go, figuring I would catch them by end.  Which I am proud to say that I did catch a few of those guys before we got back to the park. 

The middle part of the course (miles 25-35) had a long climb but surprisingly it was not the leg killer as I expected it would be.  Also by the time I got to the top, I had a lot of energy left to really enjoy the long decent and experience some very fun speeds.

On the last part of the course there were a few climbs and one caught me off guard, I burnt a little more of those match sticks than I would have liked.  So I took a few minutes to spin the legs out and luckily recover quickly.  Soon after that, I see the turn back into the park.  The ride back to transition had a few small rollers and I was trying to decide at what time I should pull my feet out of the shoes.  There was a bit of a downhill heading to the dismount line and being barefoot and on wet roads, did worry me a bit.

Dismount went fine and as always it took a moment to get my legs back under me as I ran to rack the bike and grab my shoes.

T2 went ok, out in a minute, nineteen.  Since this run was 13 miles, I wanted to wear socks and at first tried to put them on standing, I realized quickly how stupid that was.  So I plopped my butt down and got the shoes and socks on nice and fast.  Next, I grabbed my hat and fuel belt, spun my race number to the front and took off to the run start.  A little side note; this is only my third year doing triathlons and it is still pretty cool hearing the race announce say your name coming off the bike and then again heading out to the run.  

Run: 1:43:13

I am on the bigger size than the average 6’1” guy.  Why didn't I stay that skinny little kid I was in my early teens, LOL.  I mentioned this as I have learned that as I work to get faster my size works against me on the long runs.  This is relevant as I am a healthy 193 pounds, the 5 guys who all placed ahead of me and 4 of those 5 all caught and passed me on the run including my buddy Steve Smith (still proud it took him until mile 4 to catch me), are all around 150 or less.

Let’ talk about this course, the run is a three loop rolling hill course through the park.  Right out of transition and the start of each loop is the very lovely STEEP hill out of the parking lot.  As I climbed it the first time, I knew I had to keep this in mind for each lap and reserve energy for it.  As I made it to the top and turn onto the course I see one of the lovely race photographers, why are they always in the spots to catch me at my worst!  Oh well, on the upside the next part of the course was pretty flat and about a mile later we hit a nice gradual incline.  I have to say that on the first two laps I did not even feel the incline but I am getting a head of myself so more on that in a minute.

 

Lap 1, looking good

As normal for me, coming off the bike my pace was faster than I like it to be on the first mile but I have learned to let it go and just dial it back to match my race plan.  I thought I had been doing just that but as I got to mile three I notice my average pace was 10 seconds faster than my plan but I was feeling good! 

Meet lap 2, there is that hill again and this time I felt it a little but soon after I was back to form and holding pace again.  At this point, I let the thought enter my head that I might PR this run big time….BAD ADAM, BAD ADAM, BAD! Here is a tip, don’t ever think that at mile 6 of a 13 mile run! (Murphy's Law)  Miles 7 came up and as I just got past the gradual incline, I notice my pace was slowing but my effort felt the same.  Hmmmm, miles 8 slower, mile 9 slower….ah crap!

 

Lap 2, feeling good

Meet lap 3, on this lap that hill got me, oh and there was that friendly photographer! It felt like all my energy was drained and mile 10 was my slowest lap of them all.  As I came up to that gradual incline, I was hurting and to add to the fun, the sun was out and the temp was rising.  At this point, two things really helped, first the HUGE amount of DC Tri club (that is one big group) and Ignite Endurance racers all yelling “go Snapple” or “keep it up Snapple” at me as we passed each other and dumping ice cold water on my head and down my back, WOW, that will wake you up!

 

Lap 3, I HATE THAT HILL!

Coming up to the last three miles, 11 and 12 were tough but also seeing Steve K, and the cheers I received when I past Steve Smiths family really helped, I was started to get some momentum back in my legs.  I negative split those last three miles and got my pace back under 8 mins/mile, I also sprinted the last quarter mile to the finish line as at this point, this run needed to end!

Overall: 4:49:48

I was very pleased with my time, this was my second 70.3 distance race and add that this one was on a rolling hill course to be just over a minute off of my PR was exciting.  My bike time was even faster, thank you Mr. Power meter.  Also, even with all the issues I had on the run, it was the second fastest half marathon time and was also just about a minute off my PR, so overall I could not be happier and I learned a lot.

I finished 6^th in my age group (Steve Smith took 3^rd, congrats bro, you ran a great race) which I was happy with especially based on the times put up by the athletes we raced with, who were amazingly fast.

After some pizza and water, Steve and I head out for a 10 minute cool down run and then enjoyed the after race festivities.

Thank you so much to my coach Adam Otstot, and my Master’s swim coach Steve Hennessy, to the Snapple Tri Club and all of their awesome sponsors, Xterra wetsuits, Rudy Project and HED wheels to name a few.  Thank you to Steve Smith, his wife Kelly and their children for letting me borrow a tent, sleeping bag, a corner of your camp site and thanks for the pasta dinner Friday night.  Most of all thank you to my wife Maggie for putting up with all this and the time commitment it takes for an old guy to kick some ass!  I am starting to really loving my 40’s!