Captex oly race report

Short version: 2:42 as 33/3/1:12/2/52

37/123 in AG.

Long version...

I raced this course last year and though that it would be a good mid year race to test gains vs last year. It also provides something short to focus on between the cowtown last feb and imfl this fall.

I decided that it would be fun to bring the wife and kids, get a suite and make a weekend in Austin out of it. A family travel test run for imfl. As it turns out, I learned much more about traveling with small kids than about racing.

Kids don't care that you have a race coming up. And they really shouldn't. At age 3 and 7, they should have center stage. And if dad is going to be preoccupied with how many gels to put in his race belt, or where the bike out is, then mom is gonna need help. And that will only be more true in November.

When I have an important race coming up, I turn inward. I get quiet. I visualize. That is my natural method of preparation. But it will not work with little kids. For my kids, daddy = playtime. So there was extra stress as I felt the pull to turn inward on Sunday before the race and they tugged me outward. Combined with being out of town and Terri did not have her usual places to take them. It was tough.

Sleeping was a problem. We had a beautiful hotel suite. Pull out bed for kids, separate bedroom for us.

BUT

Our 3 yr old has massive tonsils that should come out. It effects her sleep and she snores like a freight train. So 7yr old was in our room by midnight complaining. On Saturday night, I gave her my spot in bed. At first I tried to sleep with CC, but the snoring was absurd. So then I tried to sleep on the floor. That was tough too. Ended up on the foldout with CC and just not sleeping much. On Sunday night, the night before the race, same thing again. This time, Ellie just got in bed with us. I don't sleep well the night before races anyway.

The bottom line I think is that taking children to a grown up hotel is not the best choice for us. A house or condo would be better. And CC needs to see the specialist about her tonsils.

At 5am Monday morning, I was finally allowed to focus on the race. I had breakfast and coffee and a shower and headed down to set up transition. I was out the door by 5:45. 15min walk and 45 min to set up. Which is plenty of time. I don't have much stuff.

I had between 6:45 and 8:02 to wander around, pee 59 times and watch the pros go off. At 740, I had my pickle juice and my gel, put my wetsuit on and was in line  10 min before my wave.

I have a history of major swim anxiety in races in the past. It feels like a panic attack. Spiked hr, chest tightness, trouble breathing. Scary scary shit. It happened a few time last season. The only consistent data point was that I did not have a panic episode in races where I was able to swim on the course prior. I had planned to do this at this race but with the demands of family, I didn't. The closest I got was taking Ellie for a kayak ride on the lake that we would be racing in. 

As I waited to get in the water, I could feel the fear creep in. It isn't rational. I swim 3x a week. I am in my 3rd season and have never had any genuine trouble in the water. But something about the natural adrenaline of a race start can make the swim start a tough place for me. So I told myself to focus on that boat ride from the day before. How happy she was. How smooth the kayak was in the water. I would imagine that I was that red boat with Ellie on my back. Safe and confident.

When it was time to get in the water, I stayed towards the back. I lined up in the middle but in more or less the back row. The swim is a deep water start, rectangle with right turns.

At the horn, I just went really really easy. My plan had only one objective: avoid the panic. My hypothesis was that if I stayed away from the panic float breaks that my time would be ok even if I didn't put out much effort. I got into an easy rhythm and just kept repeating the mantra "I. Am. A. Boat". Over and over. Each time my right hand hit the water I said another word. I was able to keep calm. Mission accomplished.

A couple of minor problems did pop up. My right goggle kept taking on water. This effected my ability to see the buoy line which was on my right. I emptied the goggle a couple of times but it would fill right back up again. I am still not sure why.

So I ended up breathing left mostly. But I was also pulling left like mad. I could not stop. At first I thought it was the current. But when I hit the first turn, the problem persisted. In the end, all I could do was sight about 2x as often as normal and course correct. My only guess is that it had to do with my only breathing to one side.

At the end of the day, I swam slow, crooked, wide  and panic free. I will take it. My swim split was bottom 1/2 of my ag. I need to find a coach...

T1 was fine. There had been a ton of rain so it was a mud pit but nothing major.

The bike itself was ok. I ended up riding at 95% of FTP which would have been my target. But that was coincidence as I really wasn't focused on it. Mostly, I was focused on not hitting anyone. The course is 4 laps so by the end it is packed! I was 1:10 faster than last year.

The bike almost ended poorly. The dismount line is after a sharp turn. This is good as it forced folks to slow down. It is also in about 5ft wide. This is not so good.

Feet out of shoes. Right leg over seat, leaning on left foot holding pursuit bars coasting to dismount. Slowing down ready to hop off at a trot. Guy ahead of the guy ahead of me falls trying to clip out. Guy ahead of me hits him. Pile at the dismount line taking up entire lane. I had left enough cushion to hop off and run around them. Get ready early.

T2 was fine. Rack bike. Helmet off, run shoes on. Grab hat. Fix race belt as I  running out.

On the run, I decided to focus on hr and not look at my pace. 170bpm is red line for me. So I figured that for the first 5k, I would aim between 160 and 165. For the next 5k, just keep it under 170 till i thought that I could hold on to the end. Sometimes, Rpe gives me the nudge to change that plan. This time the plan seemed right so I stuck with it. A couple of times, I felt the tug to check my time. My stretch goal was to go 2:3x and my brain told me that if I knew I was close it might motivate me. But thinking it through, I knew I was running as hard as I could sustain. That I was suffering. So knowing overall time and trying to do the math didn't seem worth it. I opted to stay in my box, keep the effort at the right level and run from mile market to mile marker. About 4mi into the run, I see Terri holding cc and Ellie on the side of the road. I had told the girls that if they saw me, they needed to give me a high 5 because it would give me a turbo boost. They were very excited about this so as I got closer, they had their hands up. BUT they were standing on the other side of the active car traffic lane. So I had to time my street crossing carefully. Which was surprisingly difficult that deep into a race.

The end result was the best start to finish oly bike/run combo I have ever put up and I didn't feel like I was really going all out ever. I just never slowed down.

I ended up 37/123 in my AG. I can do better.

Post race, I had to grab my stuff and get back to the hotel. Sure enough, I could hear my kids tearing the place up from the elevator.

This week is unstructured for me. I hope to build speed and strength this summer and most importantly, FIND A REAL HUMAN SWIM COACH. No DVDs. No YouTube. A real human.

 

April 2013

I've been away for a while. After cowtown, I was finally able to put my feet up for a bit.
I had gone from the prep for mt tremblant 70.3 to the prep for Austin 70.3 to the prep for cowtown without much of a break. All while working 2 jobs and raising to little ones.
I am now building bike and swim short course speed. Lots of FTP and vo2 max intervals on the bike and short sets with rest in the pool. The plan is to get as fast as I can between now and August before it is time to build volume again.
I skipped the Crossfit games this year. It started right after cowtown and I just didn't care. But it is good to be back in the gym. Building my oly lifts back up will help with power.
Running is on the back burner for a couple of weeks. My Achilles are both inflamed. Not ideal, but they are demanding a break so they are getting it.
Right now, I am up in the air with Ellie on our way to Florida. I am going to do some social riding up to st Augustine and get a little ocean swimming in. And hang out with my big girl before she gets too old and cool to be seen with me.

Cowtown marathon race report

3:52. Love it and hate it.
All of the externals lined up really nicely for this race. I didn't bring the kids. I did my longest run 3 weeks out so I would have time to get sick and get over it by race day. I rested the day before the race. It was cold with no wind. Perfect weather.
My plan was to run mainly by heart rate. To break the race up I to 4x6mi sections with 2.2 at the end as a victory lap. In my mi d, the race was section 4 from mi 18 to 24. The rest was warm up and cool down.
I didn't really feel anything special race morning. Just a little anxious because I knew it was going to hurt.
I had my pickle juice in an 8oz flask clipped to my shorts. I had gels in the pockets of my compression shorts. I wore throw away gloves and a good will sweatshirt over a shortsleeve shirt.
Temps would range from 40 to 50 degrees. Maybe 10 degrees Warner than ideal but still nice. I also carried an 8oz flask of perform so that I could skip the water stations for the first 8mi.
My heart rate targets pre race by section were 155, 158, 160, 163 then whatever I could muster. My goal time was anywhere below 355. My super secret best time was 345.
Then the gun went off.
Section 1 hr was 155
Section 2 hr was 156
Section 3 hr was 158
Section 4 hr was 161
Last 2.2 was 162.
So I ran a couple bpm slower for most all of the race. I just didn't have the conference to push any harder. This is marathon #7 in the past 5 years. But it was also a 28min pr. So this was uncharted territory. And while I did run a little faster on my last 2 long training runs (15 sec/mi faster in my 22mi run a few weeks ago) I just couldn't bring myself to risk blowing up by going any harder.
Cramping has been my nemesis. I have cramped in every other marathon. This time I drank a pickle juice before the race. At mi 22 I felt a cramp trying to come on. I got one at mile 23, drank my pickle juice and had no more problems.
I was able to push as hard as I could up the last hill with no cramping.
In comparing this race to my 22mi run on trainingpeaks, I was struck by the NGP data for both runs. NGP adjusts pace for hills and variability in terrain in an effort to level the effort between one session and another. The NGP pace for the race and my 22mi run were the same. The computer is saying I got the same work out of my body but the hills slowed my pace. Interesting.

Time for some rest now. Pretty sure that was my last cowtown. 5 is enough.

Cowtown race week

Ok. Here we go.
Swam on Monday. 15x100 working on leaning on my lungs.
Kinda lazy mentally but that is ok. Took extra rest. Didn't worry about send off time. Earlier in the day I took my kids for a hike and later I would take them swimming so this was my break.
Tuesday was a short track session. 6x400. Times were mostly 1:33. With one 1:23 where I went out too hard.
I feel pretty good. I know Sunday is going to hurt but I feel as ready as I could hope to feel.

Cowtown week 15

Ok. Here we are. Not quite as sick. But not well.
Day 3 of anti biotics. I wake up feeling ok but by mid day a headache sets in and it is crushing.
Tuesday got 3x1mi done at track. My hr was really really high compared to last set of 1mi repeats in December.
Got a bit of squat and deadlift as well.
On Wednesday I got on the trainer in the morning. I was gonna do strength at lunch but the headache set in and I am done for.
Got in a 6mi run on Thursday and a bike and swim on Friday. Saturday was 10mi in 1:21. By the end I felt like myself for the first time in a few weeks.
It looks like things are timing out well this go around. I'm not sick anymore and my injuries are pretty minor.

Cowtown week 14

Got on the bike a little on Monday just to spin the legs out. Walking pretty well. Achillies hurts today but not like it did Sunday. At lunch I did a timed workout consisting of 100 pull-ups, 140 push-ups and 180 sit ups.
I have a cold. Hopefully it will not become a sinus infection.
Tuesday was 8x800. My target time was 3:13 but I knew that was not going to happen. I'm flat. From the 22 or the cold or both. Times were more like 3:30. Actually, a little better for the first 5 then I just couldn't recover by the start of 6 and my times fell off a bit. 800s really suck though. Long enough for me to peg my hr, but not long enough to ever really settle in to a pace. The good news is that the achillies is better than it was a week ago. At this point, with less than 3 weeks to go getting healed and not getting sick are the top priorities.
Wednesday was to be bike intervals and a strength session. The bike was a bit weak so I bagged the strength. Still not recovered.
Thursday was a 5mi tempo and the strength I missed yesterday. The tempo was 5mi @7:40. It sounded fast by I checked my logs and I did it at 7:30 in December. By the end of the first mi I knew I was in trouble. After 2@7:40 I shut it down and jog walked the rest of the way. Still sick/not recovered.
Today is Friday. I am staying in bed.
Just too much stuff piled up at once, couple with a light day at work.
Saturday was 13mi. My plan was marathon pace. Coach mikes plan was 20 sec faster than marathon pace.
I gave his plan a shot for a couple of miles but I just wasn't up to it. My hr was elevated and my legs were heavy.
Ended up 1:54 a little slower than marathon pace with an avg hr 5bpm faster than mp.
Guess I'm still sick. Big question now is do I pull the trigger on antibiotics or try and kick it au naturale. I seem to spend most of my life with a low grade sinus infection.
I think that if I still feel it Monday I will take a short course. I'd really rather not have to though.

Sunday evening. Zero energy. Played with the kids in the pool for 30min and needed a 2 hr nap after. Gonna hit the antibiotics in the morning...

Cowtown week 13

22mi 3:09:45. Thank you very much. Last 10mi were the fastest at about 8:35 pace. Started slow, first 6mi were just under 9min pace. I didn't really watch any metrics at all. Just ran by feel. When I felt good, I sped up. Stomach was getting sour. Skipped the gel at 180min because I was almost done.
For day before nutrition, had bagel, 2bacon and egg tacos, turkey sandwich, 2more bagels over the course of the day, some chicken breast and noodles for dinner. No dessert.
Still had potty problems that I had to hold during the race. Not sure what the change was.
The other sessions of the week were unremarkable. Did a Crossfit, did a swim, hit my track session times and was a little slower than target for the 8mi tempo.
Now, how will I recover? I felt a col coming on Friday night before the Lon run. We will see what develops.