Redman 140.6 Swim Report

As I said in my earlier post, I am going to breakdown Redman into three separate posts. The first of the posts is of course going to be the swim.

I woke up at 4:15 that morning and went downstairs of the hotel to get a bagel. Then I was back in the room getting ready and trying to get myself psyched up for the race. I started having some serious doubts at this point about the race. I knew I would be fine on the swim and the bike ( as long as I had no flat tires like Branson 70.3) but I was really worried more about the run.

We got to the race site and my bride dropped me off and went and parked the car. It was a long walk to the site it felt like, but it really gave me some time to myself to get into race mindset. The road was dark and lonely and I was accompanied by a few triathletes, but we were not really saying much to each other.

Setting up my transition area was really different for me because this was the first race I had done that had a changing tent. I had my bags (1 for T1, T2, Special Needs Bike and special Needs Run) and I was not really sure what to do with them, so I really just kind of followed everyone lead. I dropped off my special needs bas and then just placed my transition bags at the foot of my bike. I then decided that I was just going to take the entire bag with me to the changing tent, so there was no need to spread everything out. Later I figured out they had bins for us to place the transition bags in (lesson learned). So once everything was laid out, I took Stella (my bike) to get the tires topped off and put my wetsuit on halfway. I then hung around my wife and son and talked to them and also spent some time talking to Jeff from Dangle the Carrot! Jeff was doing the HIM and he killed it!

The temperature that morning was 57 degrees, and it was cold. I was so ready to get into the water (temp 74 degrees). My feet were freezing while I was waiting for the swim to start. Soon they got us into the coral and then we waded out in the water.

The swim was in Lake Hefner in OKC. The course was a rectangle course and we had to do two laps. The first wave started at 7:15 and it was just the full triathlon athletes. I had finally decided to not worry about the run yet and just get ready to swim. They began the countdown and then we were off.

My first thought after the siren?  "I am doing an Ironman!" My second thought? "Dude, there is a lot of bumping going on!" This was one of the rougher swims starts I have ever done and it wasn't until midway through the first segment that I found open water. I felt good. the water felt good. The wetsuit felt good, it is rare that I get it on and it feels good, but this time I got it right. I got into a groove and kept reminding myself to back off some, I was not interested in cramping up because I went out to hard, so I really wanted to control myself on the swim. The second segment went fine as well, but since it was a rectangle course, and it was not a wide distance between the sides, I did have some trouble sighting. On the second lap, there was more traffic because the other waves had started, so I really had to work through others swimmers, but it wasn't that bad.

Once I was finished with the second lap, I headed to the swim exit. They had some guys standing in about knee deep water that was helping all the swimmers up, so I headed for him. He helped me stand up and undid  my wetsuit and unzipped me. I got my wetsuit down to my waist and was directed over the wetsuit strippers. I had not really talk to anyone about how this was suppose to work, but these two high school aged girls yelled at me to lay down, which I did, and then they ripped my wetsuit right off and threw it on me! Easiest I have ever gotten that thing off!

I made my way to my bike, dumped my suit, goggles and swim cap, grabbed my bag and headed to the changing tent.

SWIM TIME: 1:28:52

T1 and the bike report coming soon!

Oh Yeah, There Is A Run Involved!

This may be a rookie mistake, but I have been so focused on my biking for Redman, that I feel like I have neglected my running. This is not to say that I have not been running, I mean I hit almost 60 miles last month, and will probably go over that mark in August. What I am saying is that my longest run to date has only been 11 miles!!  And that is starting to concern me.

My concern is this: I wanted to be so ready for the bike because I know bike fitness is very important on the run. No bike fitness, no run finish is the way I see it. So I have really been concerned with my bike miles and time on the saddle. Worse case scenario is that I end up walking a majority of the run. This is not what I want.

Now I plan on walking some, I am not in an unrealistic state of my fitness. I just want it to be a planned walk rather than I hafta walk. So I figure I have 3, maybe 4 weeks of training left before taper and here is what I want to accomplish.

1. 100 mile ride on my Specialized Transition Elite
2. 15+ mile run in my Brooks Glycerin
3. 4500 yd swim with my Zoggs goggles
4. medium bike/short run brick using my Timex Global IM Trainer

This is all doable, and when I hit these marks, I know I will feel more confident at exactly the right time going into Redman.

***I have a couple 4000 yd swims done already, I have an 11 mile run and a 71 mile run already under my belt, so don;t worry about me going to far too fast***

MIM Olympic Race Report 2013

This is one of my favorite races of the year, and also one of the first tris of the year, so it is always a good gauge of where my fitness stands. So, I was looking forward to having a great race this year.

The Day Before:

We got to the hotel on Saturday afternoon, and tried to check in but they had zero rooms ready, which was frustrating, but we made the most of it. This gave us plenty of time to hit the expo and get checked in and checked my bike into transition. By the time we finished all that, we had a room with a nice view of the pool. Since I had not been in open water all year, I really wanted to get the wetsuit on and jump in the lake (I also was curious about water temps). My wife and kids went down to the pool and I went to jump in the lake. I always like to swim both the start and exit of a swim, so I know exactly what to expect. The word about the race area was that the water was at 74 degrees that morning and would most likely be a wetsuit legal race, but after being in the water, I was not really sure if I would wear it or not. I wasn't sure if the time gain vs the time it took me to get out of would be better. I was not the only one that was considering not wearing it according to other racers I talked too. After my swim I went and joined the wife and kids at the pool until we decided to go eat and then hang in the room until bedtime.

I slept horribly that night, waking at 11:30, 1:30, 2:30, 4:00 and 4:58, right before my alarm was to go off. Not sure why though.

Pre Race:
I got up at 5 and went into the bathroom to wake myself up and not wake up the whole family. I ate a bagel and drank some water before gathering what I needed to take down to transition. This year I waited to get my kit on and went down to transition and body marking in shorts and t-shirt. This is one of the benefits of staying at the host hotel I guess! Transition did not take me that long to get everything set up, as I had only gone over it about 3 times that morning alone. So back to the hotel to get on my grab. I had decided to go with the wetsuit, I mean it would give me some speed, and I hardly get to wear it anymore, so why not. Back in the water and then found some friends, chatted it up and then before you know it, it's time to swim!

Swim:
27:56
1:41/100 yd Average
I dove into the water like a pro, only to have my goggles slip and I got some water in the left side. I thought about trying to tough it out and swim with it, but I had only gone like 10 ft, so I decided to stand up and fix it. Good choice! The swim went really well. There was limited bumping but I could tell there were a lot of new swimmers ahead of me because anytime I touched someone, they  would stop and look around. I felt like I passed a lot of people also. (My AG was the 3rd to last group in the water) I tried to stay consistent while swimming and not overdo it. As I was exiting the water heading for T1, I looked at my watch and knew I had PR'd the swim. I had high hopes for the remainder of the race.

Always nice to have a ton of bikes still in T1, especially after starting near the end of the swim line!

T1
2:45
Stupid wetsuit! I had a hard time getting it off my ankles, which was the one concern I had about wearing it. I also had issues getting my HR monitor on, so T1 was slower than I wanted, but I did not forget anything and that is the important thing right?

The Bike:
1:17:25
19.15 MPH Average

The bike course at MIM is extremely flat. I mean pancake flat, which is normally a good thing, but with it being so flat, there are always winds involved. usually you can count on a headwind for the 1st 13-15 miles, then it turns into a tailwind on the way back. This year was no different. The winds going out were very strong but I was able to stay in aero most of the time. I did get one massive calf cramp around mile 10 that almost made me stop, but after that I was fine. It was almost like I knew it was going to happen, so my body decided to get it over with all at once. It did not really seem very hot on the bike, but I still had two gels (one at beginning and one at mile 20) and drank my entire aero bottle and then refilled it at the bottle swap. So I felt good about my nutrition, and I felt fast when I was flying by people, another benefit of starting at the back of the line.

T2:
1:25
Not a lot to say here. Everything went about as well as I could expect. Not sure if I would have done anything differently expect maybe run faster to my spot!

Running out of T2! See the hands of my wife and kids trying to give me a high five? Well, I did not and I ran right past them!  Sorry everybody, but I was on a zone!

Run
1:03:17
10:12 mile pace

This run is the worst. It is one of the more mentally tough runs I do every year. I always think I have it figured out, but I have yet to actually have a good run on it. Somewhere between T2 and the run course, the temperature always shoots up about 400 degrees! This year the freshly paved black asphalt did not help things as far as the heat goes, but there is zero shade anywhere. The first mile seemed long, but I was doing better than I thought I would, but somewhere between 2 and 3 it started slowing down. It got to the point where I was counting the traffic cones to try and keep my head occupied instead of thinking about the heat and the struggles I had. I did get an extra bit of motivation from the guy I caught cutting the course (I blogged it here). The funny thing about this course is that the last stretch always catches me by surprise! It's like Oh we are here!! I told the one guy running next to me that I was running it out, I might puke, but I was running it out! I knew my PR was gone at this point, but I wanted to finish strong.

Finish :
2:53:19
330/872 OA

Me and my Boys, Jake, Jared and Jesse, and yes, jake is rockin a RUN DMC shirt!

Some highlights:

• I finally got to use my Timex Global Trainer in a race. It worked beautifully, even the GPS worked on my swim. Only issue was a user issue and I did not get it into multisport mode before I left out. My fault.
• I was happy with my bike, especially for logging so many trainer hours instead of road hours.
• PR'd my swim. I know it was wetsuit, but 1:41/100 is awesome for me. Top 20 AG in swim
• My Zoggs goggles really gave me no problems at all, no fogging either. Just wish I had put them on better at the beginning.
• My 2XU wetsuit still fit me like a superhero!
• My Brooks Glycerins were awesome all race.
• Was great to hear plenty of people cheering for the Warriors Team!
• Stella, my Specialized Transition Elite bike, was great. I had zero issues. I always work about a flat tire after IM Branson!
• This sounds like a NASCAR post race interview.
• Loved hearing my wife and kids cheering as I ran down the final chute, my middle son even ran along side me, and thanks for all the pictures Babe!

My cheesy Olympic medal biting shot!!!

Now I can turn my sights towards Redman and start preparing for that race. This race is going to be tough and quite the challenge!