The day
before, Carlos called me to go over some race tactics, give me some nutrition
ideas, and to offer up some encouragement.
Race
tactics were pretty simply really. Stand
up a few times during the last few u-turns and/or turns of the bike to stretch
out the legs for the run. At this point,
the bike is over and he’s seen too many guys hammer it into T1 to beat an age
grouper in front of them. He said it
wasn’t worth it. As for the run, he said
that since I was in really good running shape, it would be hard to blow myself
up, but if I did, it wouldn’t be a big deal as this is only a “B” race for
me. The first mile should be where I
find my running legs. After that, I
should be teetering on going into the red zone and then hang on for the second
lap.
As for
nutrition, he indicated that I should eat a normal breakfast at least THREE
HOURS prior to when my event was to go off.
Since my wave started at 6:58AM, I needed to get up around 3:30AM and
start eating around 4:00.
Breakfast
consisted of the following:
·
1/4C
egg whites
· 1
piece of whole wheat toast
·
2T
peanut butter
·
2
or 3C of coffee
·
Undetermined
amount of water
·
1
Kre-Alkalyn capsule
It should be noted that I made 1/2C egg whites and 2 pieces of toast, but just couldn't finish it all.
On the way to the event, I also consumed:
On the way to the event, I also consumed:
·
16oz
of water with my Beta-Alanine in it
·
2
small size CLIF Builder bars
Nutrition
for the swim was 1 gel 20min before the start.
On the bike, we both agreed that I would need about 400 calories. Initially, he wanted me to put it all in my
water (in the form of EFS), but I told him that would be too sweet for me and
that I can only handle about 200 calories (2 scoops) in one 28oz bottle of
water. I told him that I experienced
good things with the EFS Powershot a few rides back and thought it would work
well in the race. If you recall, the
flask holds 400 calories by itself, so I would have a total of 600 on board
with the EFS. The only problem was with
the flask itself. It doesn’t fit so well
into the small pockets of a tri top, so I had to break out the Bento Box that
sits on my top tube. Actually, it worked
out real nice since I didn’t have to mess around with opening gel packets or
worrying about getting them out/putting them back in my jersey. I also wanted to carry some plain water as
well since washing down a berry powershot with fruit punch EFS doesn’t work so
well for me. With 20min to go in the
ride, I wasn’t to take anything else in.
Once on the run, Carlos wanted me taking both water and sports drink at
every aid station. While I can run, and
take gels with no problem, he told me not to.
After
getting into the non-wetsuit legal water, I found my old buddy, Eric Svans
right up front, on the outside. While we
were treading water, I tried to lighten the mood by telling him that I could
stand on the bottom (knowing he would give it a try himself). I wonder how quickly after slipping
completely under water he realized that I was messing with him. When he came up, we were both laughing….”I
should have known”, he said. The next
thing you know, we were horizontal and racing.
I know
Eric is fast (57min IMAZ 2011 fast), so I wanted to stay with him as long as
possible. I was able to keep up right
until we ran into the 45-66 men’s wave that went off 4 minutes ahead of us. It was at this point that I ran over several
bodies and had to navigate between many slower swimmers. I ultimately found a good, clean line, and
found my way around the turnaround buoys.
The swim home was mostly clear water as I didn’t have anybody around me
until the last couple of hundred meters.
Once again, I inadvertently climbed over several people from the waves
before us. I round the last buoy and
head for those familiar stairs. A
volunteer pulls me out of the water, I cross the timing mat, and hit the lap
button on my Garmin to start the timer on T1.
24.43?!? My prediction to Carlos
was 21 – 22! A whole TWO minutes
slower? That works out to about a 1:30
min/100yd average…..something I do at Bartlett every Friday for 2+ miles! Oh well, guess I gotta make up for it on the
bike, right?!?!
Who says a
bad swim means you have to be in a bad mood getting out of the water?
During the
Rio Salado sprint, I RAN to get my bike in T1 and I RAN my bike to exit
T1. I then RAN to rack my bike and RAN
out of T2. This time around, I wasn’t
going to spend precious energy sprinting to, and from, the racks. I would slowly jog, or walk, to help lower my
HR and get focused. As a result, I had
some slower transition times. Garmin had my T1 at 2:43 & T2 at 2:10.
We weren’t
out on the bike course for more than a mile when Carlos came up beside me (he
started in the wave 4 minutes before me) and yelled some words of
encouragement. At that point, it was my
goal to keep him in eyesight. If I could
keep pace with him, I knew that I’d have a good ride. I was able to stick to the plan pretty well
as my Garmin showed a time of 1:03:56 (23.2 mph) while Carlos finished in an
official time of 1:02:38 (23.8 mph).
As I was
entering T2, I saw Kristi and the kids on my right. I ran by them and slapped high fives.
Once at my
rack, right next to the event barrier, I saw them run up shouting, “Go Daddy,
Go!” It was awesome. After I got my shoes, socks, and race number
on, I realized that I didn’t have a hat.
I always run with a hat.
DAMN! Wait, what was that on my
son’s head?!? It was my IMAZ2010
hat!!!! I yelled to Kristi to toss it to
me before telling her that I only had 6.2 more miles of hell ahead of me. Visions of cramping right out of T2
immediately came back from Rio Salado, so I kept my pace in check. Carlos reminding me to find my running legs
for the first mile also kept my pace in check.
During Rio, I jammed out of T2 at about a 7:30 pace. This time, however, it was closer 8 or
8:15. I quickly settled into a
comfortable pace, but didn’t look to see what it was. All I knew was that I was feeling good and
that I was running a bit faster than usual.
This was good. As usual, I was
passed quite often on the run, but this time, not as many passed. Progress.
I stuck to the plan of water and sports drink at every aid station. Since it’s tough for me to get anything in
while running, I had to slow down a bit so as not to spill it everywhere. As the run went on, the day got hotter. On lap two, every cup of water found itself
being poured over my head. Now that I
think about it, I may have poured a sports drink over my head too! As I made the turn onto the Mill Avenue
bridge (the last part of the course) a guy passed me with a “39” on his left
calf and an “O” on his right. He was in my
division and he was cruising. It was a
long shot, but I kinda wanted to reel him back in, so I picked up the
pace. The HR rose, the heat seemed to
increase, and the sweat was pouring into my eyes. It didn’t seem like I was gaining on him at
all. A bit more effort and I could tell
that I WAS gaining. Did I have enough
real estate left or was the finish line too close? Strategically, I told myself that if I caught
him, I didn’t want him to know I was there until it was too late. I would make the pass in the finish
chute. As we approach said chute, there
are two paths. Go to the right to
continue running. Go to the left to
finish. Just as we reach this fork in
the road, I make my move. I pounce like
an African lion on an unsuspecting zebra.
He was mine! I thought to myself,
“How ya like me now dude?!?” I really
felt like a big shot until I realized that he went right at the fork. He still had 3.1 more miles to run. Oh well, my second ever Olympic ended
seemingly just as fast as it started. I
grabbed my participation medal, whatever sports drink they gave me, and a cold
water. I eyed the family waiting for me
on the other side of a barrier and went over.
I handed Kristi my tri top and the kids were allowed through. After playing in the cooling misters for a
bit, it was time to make small talk with other teammates about the race, grab
my bike, and head home. A quick look at
the Garmin showed that I PRd the 10K with a time of 52:48. For those of you keeping score at home,
that’s good enough for an 8:28 pace.
All times
above are as of my Garmin, so here are the OFFICIAL results:
·
SWIM
= 25:02 (1:31/100yd) – 6/72 (AG)
·
T1
= 2:06
·
BIKE
= 1:04:07 (23.3 mph) – 6/72 (AG)
·
T2
= 2:14
·
RUN
= 52:48 (8:29 pace) 35/72 (AG)
·
OVERALL
= 2:26:17 (9/72 AG & 69/560 OA)
Finally,
here are some e-mail and text exchanges between me and Carlos:
CARLOS :
Poor sighting could have been the reason for not getting the
swim you expected.
One thing to take away from this. We have not been
prepping you for an Olympic race, this was merely a speed workout and that is
how I view it for you so there is really nothing to be disappointed about.
Also, it was HOT, and that impacted the run. I still
believe based on your workout data that you could have run 8 min miles.
What typically happens when you don't trust you run fitness based on past
race experiences is that athletes hold back for fear of blowing up and based on
our conversation it sounded like you held back a bit.
Don't worry about it, the weather is cooling and you will be
running more.
ME:
FYI, your response to my TP (Training Peaks) race recap was spot on.
CARLOS:
Trust your fitness.
ME:
Gonna take some more time to trust my run….I’ve been blowing myself up
for two years now. I got comfy @ 8:29 (a
PR pace) and thought it was awesome.
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