It’s that wonderful time of the year, my first tri of the
season. As with last year, it is the
Kinetic half (70.3) in beautiful Lake Anna, VA.
I have really come to enjoy this race, a great lake for the swim, a fast
but challenging bike course and a run course from hell. This run route and I have developed a love,
hate relationship but more to come on that.
This offseason has been a bit strange for me. I had to take
some time off due to a medical issue, it took me a while to get myself back
into the groove of training. Coming into
this race I was worried I had miss too many workouts in the last few months but
the week before help put all that to rest.
My training partner Steve
Smith and I had a 90 mile ride followed by a 3 mile run. Both were to be done at Ironman pace and
afterwards I felt amazing, like I could have done it all again easily.
A big part of this is a change I have made to my nutrition
and hydration plan. This came from a
lesson learned during Ironman Louisville last year. Where the issues I had on the run could partly
be linked to those two items. Luckily
for me the Snapple
Triathlon team took on a new sponsor, Osmo
Nutrition. I was lucky enough to be
introduced to their co-founder Dr. Stacy Sims, she helped me develop a plan
that included a greater fluid intake based on body weight and using solid and semisolid
foods for my nutrition over gels. I am
fine tuning the plan but the results so far are awesome. A big thank you to Snapple Team Pro, Katie Thomas for her help in fine tuning the plan.
Since this race is my season opener it was not scheduled to
be an “A” race so there was very little taper leading up to it. An extra day off and some lighter workouts.
Lodging had a bit of a logistic snag this year and Steve and
I didn't have a campsite or a place to stay a few weeks out. Luckily a friend of Steve’s had a big spot
for their 5th wheel and let us put a tent on a corner of their
space. Thank you so much to Katherine
& Bryan Lindler and their family for your hospitality and cheering us on!
This race had a cool twist as a large group of the Hampton
Roads triathlon community was in attendance.
It was great to see everyone before, during and after the race. This group is an amazing bunch of people to
race and hang out with, I feel very lucky to be a part of it.
Race morning arrives and like last year the skies were grey and
wet from a storm the night before.
Watching the weather report the hope was that any rain would hold off
until about 10:30 or 11 AM, just about the time we would be getting off the
bike. Thankfully, the weather gods were
good to us.
I started the swim in the second wave at 7:04; Steve was to
start at 7:12 as he moved up in age groups this year. Another training buddy, Steve Keller started
in the first wave with all the youngsters (I have reached the age where anyone
under 30 is a youngster, ha!).
My main goal here was to swim well enough that Steve Smith
didn’t catch me and maybe if I did really well, catch Keller. Actually my goal was to swim faster than last
year and hopefully be under 30 minutes.
The swim started off and I felt good at first but I could
not get my breathing into a rhythm and my arms started to feel heavy. I was not able to get in a good warm-up
swimming, next time I will plan better. Also, my navigation was off, I kept pulling
to the right. As I closed to first turn
buoy I was feeling frustrated but called myself down and started to hear my
swim coach Steve Hennessy in the back of my head, “Stay long, follow through
on your stroke, control your kick and pick up the pace!” This helped and the rest of the swim went by
pretty fast. When my hand hit sand and I
stood up, of course the first thing I did was look at my watch and saw 31:56. A
faster time than last year and Steve S. didn’t catch me (but he did have a
better time, great swim brother!).
Official time: 31:56
5th AG, 52nd Overall
T1 went well for the most part, I added taking in some nutrition
& OSMO but everything else was basically same old.
Official time: 2:21 3rd
AG, 45th Overall
To start the bike this year I was trying something new. A
flying mount, basically having my cycling shoes on the bike and slide your feet
in while on the move. I figured this would
be a good plan since I had to deal with taking off the wetsuit. I had reached out to our tri group and I was
warned against this but the warnings I got were more about trying to get your
feet in right away and the pile ups at the mount line. My plan was to ride about a mile or so and
then slip my feet into the shoes. I followed
that plan and when I was clear I tried to slip my feet in. Let’s
just say it did not go as well as it did when I practiced it. I had to finally stop get one foot in and
then the other a little while down the road.
Moral of the story, practice a lot more on new things!
The rest of the ride went pretty well, I spend most of the time
alone wondering if I was still on course or made a wrong turn. I did wind up having a mechanical issue just
after mile 40 that caused me to stop. On
a decent I slowly pedaled backwards and when I went forward again my crank was locked
up. I realized the chain had come off and was jammed between the frame and the cassette. Thankfully, it did not take long to break
free and I was able to get back underway quickly, very happy for that.
There was the addition this year of wind that did make a
bit of an impact on my overall time and speed, but not too bad. My new nutrition/hydration plan had me
feeling awesome throughout the ride. Overall
pretty pleased with the results and a few minor items to work on.
Official time:
2:31:36 4th AG, 31st Overall
T2, felt like it took forever. I put socks on with the shoes
which went pretty quick then grabbed my fuel belt on but could never get it to feel
right. Also as part of the new plan I
was eating some soft pretzel bites as I changed and the plan was to eat the rest
during the first mile or so. I also was carrying
a bottle of Osmo Pre-load/Active mix for the start. Having to deal with the bottle and fix my
fuel belt and race number became cumbersome and frustrating.
The pretzels were heated up on Friday since we were camping and they were hard to chew, lesson learned there and working on alternatives. When it was all said and done, it was a
slower than average T2 for me but not a bad one.
Official time: 1:27th
AG, 74th Overall
The run, as mentioned earlier this course and I have a love/hate relationship. It’s
a three loop course with a short but steep hill at the start of each loop that
when you reach the top turns into a steady climb for another maybe ½ mile. After that there is some flat ground and then another steady climb in the middle that is about just
over a mile long (at least per my Garmin), both kicked my butt last year. The plan was to take the first loop nice and
easy, especially on the 2 hills and pick it up from there.
My goal was to stay between 7:45 and 8:15 min/miles on the
first lap and work down from there. As
for the first lap this worked ok, maybe a little too well as my mile was almost
8:30, but I stuck to the plan. Right after
the hill I was passed by a kid (28, so yes a kid), ironically he tried to pass
my on the bike and we could not allow that so I guess he felt he need to try
that again on the run. I kept to the plan and by the time we hit the
first hill on the second lap I was overtaking him again, this time for good.
The second lap went really well, I was right on pace and
best of all I was feeling awesome! Thank
you Osmo! This entire lap I was able to keep an avg. pace of 7:55 which was
faster than the first lap but by 6 seconds.
The plan is working. Right about
the 6 mile mark, I hear footsteps behind me and just knew who it was. I joked prior
to the race that if I could hold Steve off until mile 6, it
was a win. 6.61 was when he caught
me. Steve CRUSHED the run this year.
The third lap, by the time I got to the top of the first
hill I was actually feeling pretty good and dropped my pace down under 7:30 for
mile 11. Mile 12 was mostly through that
climb in the middle and I hope to keep my pace right around 8 but dragging 195
pounds uphill takes its toll. The good
news was I quickly recovered and held the next 1.1 miles under 7:30. The overall avg. pace for that lap was
exactly where lap 2 was but for me that is a victory. Also as with my swim time
the run was faster than the year before, another victory!
Official time:
1:43:58 6th AG, 61st Overall
At first I was disappointed when I saw my official time as I
thought I had a PR, and I really hoped I would make the podium. (having the
battery die in my truck did not help my mood much either). After talking with Steve and looking at the
data I realize this was a very good race for me. Improvement in two areas that I have been working
on, a great new nutrition and hydration plan that is showing amazing results
and a good base to start from as I work towards Ironman Lake Placid in July.
Overall time: 4:51:16
5th AG, 35th Overall.
I would like to send a huge thank you to Damon Bowe and Rose Physical Therapy! Rose PT is a new
sponsor to the Snapple tri team and Damon came up to me right after the race to
introduce himself and let me know his folks had a tent set up and were
providing PT services. This was just
what the doctor ordered and the soreness in my legs and hips were gone thank to
them. Damon also took some amazing
photos during the event, thanks again!
A huge thank you to Osmo
Nutrition, Xterra wetsuits, Clif Bar, Rudy Project, Louis Garneau and of course Snapple.
Lastly, congratulations to Steve Smith on winning his age
group and finishing in the top 20, to Snapple teammate Holli Finneren for her
age group win and 5th overall female, to Joel Bell on his 3rd place masters, finishing in
10th place overall. As well as to all
the Hampton Roads Triathlon athletes that all had a stellar day racing!
