The official triathlon thread

[Eddie]

Stuff I'm learning while riding a little more:

1 - biking with padded shorts is nicer than biking without them.

2 - biking in the wind sucks. Those slight uphill rides that you normally go along powering through without even changing gears suddenly feel like the alps. Those slight downhill rides that used to be heaven because you can keep peddling and you are flying you suddenly have to work for. Even the flats feel like hills. Biking in the wind with a mountain bike doubly sucks. You can't really even maintain a low profile position to avoid being a sail in the wind.

3 - before this triathlon at the end of the month I'm going to have to beg, borrow, or steal a road bike. I thought I was doing well with a mountain bike with slicks - which really is OK for training. But then Wednesday I sneak up on this guy on a road bike, and give him a "good morning" as I pass him going up the little hill. He flies past me going down - while peddling at a slower cadence - and leaves me in the dust. Then today some woman pulls up to me, gives me a smile and a nod, and easily rides away from me while my legs are moving as fast as they can.

At least those are my observations for this week.

[BigPiney]

My wife went up to the Pearl Izumi outlet in Park City and picked me up a pair of the Pro tri shorts for $50.

Won't have them in time for my olympic this weekend, but only 7 weeks to the 1/2.

[HuskyFreeNorthwest]

Resurecting the triathlon thread...

It's been about a week and a half since I ran the marathon. I figured running that, I was in pretty good shape, right? Next week I start a 9 week training program for the Spudman the end of July. (Really, I'm modifying a 16 week program.) It's a pretty simple program - with the idea of just finishing and being respectable rather than seriously competing.

Spudman is a great one for people like me that suck at swimming, you can float and get a decent swim time. I did 2 Spudmans (or Spudmen) they were both a lot of fun, hard to get into though.

[Eddie]

I'm heading out for beautiful Burley, Idaho tomorrow morning. I've worked some overtime so I'm taking the day off and figure getting there earlier and hanging out will be a nice relaxing change versus getting up there in the evening.

My bro-in-law loaned me an old Trek road bike. And by old, I in no means intend to disparage this baby. It has been VERY nice to ride the last 3 weeks. I'm sure when it was new it was state of the art. Shimano 105 components, etc. What's weird about it is that it has some kind of bonded carbon fiber frame (you can see the line where it changes from carbon to aluminum) and then an aluminum fork and seat. It seems like the new bikes I'm seeing that are only partial carbon are the reverse, having an aluminum frame and carbon seat and fork. I'm going to enjoy the ride much more than I was planning to on my mountain bike with slicks for sure.

I've set some basic goals for the race, and some that would be "cool".

Swim = 20 minutes; anything with a "19:XX" or lower would be cool.

Bike = anything under 75 minutes; 70 minutes or less would be cool.

Run = anything under 60 minutes; closer to 50 minutes would be cool.

I haven't really had an overall time goal, but I'd like to finish in the top 25% of the over 40 clydesdales. I've lost some weight since signing up and will be at the lower end weight-wise, so I think this is doable.

As I've thought about raw time, I think if I run a good race and have no mishaps, I can do this in close to 2:30. That is probably my "pushing it" goal, since it doesn't allow time for transitions from the above goals.

I'm starting to get excited. The sprint tri was fun, but to be honest didn't feel like much of a challenge. I think this olympic tri will give me the challenge I was looking for in that one.

I'm also VERY nervous about the swim. I know I'll finish it, since the river will eventually carry me to the end, but how long will it take? I just haven't swam in a wetsuit before, and I haven't swam more than 25 yards without having the edge of a pool to push off. I'm starting to think maybe that was a mistake as I'll be swimming straight through rather than pausing to kick off again every 25-30 seconds or so.

I guess we'll see how it goes...

[mtnbiker]

Good luck, Eddie. It'll be interesting to read your full report.

[Eddie]

Back from beautiful Burley, ID!

I had read on the Spudman website that some people camp at one of the city parks where the transitions take place, but my wife was worried about getting there and having nothing. So she got us a tent site at "Village of Trees" RV and Camping in Declo. We were surrounded by 5 dogs - just in the two campsites next to us - and their barking combined with kids screaming as they played Ghost in the Graveyard well beyond 11pm, bright lights on all night, and the sound of the freeway nearby all have me convinced that the city park would've been preferred. It was nice having a shower at the end - and sharing the air with the kid sitting on the toilet for 30 minutes while smoking pot probably helped with some of the muscle pain recovery. But in the end - it wasn't THAT worth it...

If motel rooms are full and you decide to camp - I would say to skip the campgrounds as they have no problem allowing tents near transition areas and even on the golf course driving range (which was obviously closed to golfers.)

Overall, I was VERY excited and pleased with how I did. That said, I can see that there are still things I can do to improve.

The Swim: The open water swim was quite an experience. My friend and I kind of hung back a little to avoid the gropefest. We were probably 75 yards behind the line, which cost me some time. I also learned that at some point I've got to learn to swim straight - I kept having boats honking at me and telling me to go more to the left. I'd look up and see that the rest of the swimmers were 50-75 yards away.

At one point I looked up and saw that I was headed straight for the point of an island in the river, when I should've been midway between the side and the island. At the end of the swim they had some bouys arcing into shore to follow - I looked up and was probably 30 yards outside of the bouy line and ended up having to swim under the ropes to get to the water exit.

I think working on breathing out of both sides would help some, as I had no idea I was that far from the left bank. I also need to remember my scuba/snorkling anti-fog stuff for the goggles - being able to see better might've helped some.

I ended up just over 23 minutes for the swim. I think I could've easily been in at 20 if I had been closer to the starting line at the gun and kept from swimming zigzags. This was really my only frustration with the whole race - though I did see some things I would do differently, I think they are fairly minor.

T1: Friday night as we were setting up, it was raining on and off. So we ended up leaving our stuff tied up in garbage sacks. Getting them untied again slowed me down a little. Somewhere between the bike rack and the transition exit I lost my sunglasses - never to be seen again. And I got stopped by some woman and her daughter who needed to know which wave I was in so that they knew when to look for their husband/father. It's also a little strange transition in that you have to bag up and carry all of your gear with you to a drop point before hitting the bike.

It took me 4:53 to get through the transition. Some of that is because the sucking thing is 200 yards long and you have to get from one end to the other. I know I can knock some time off of that - trying to hurry and do everything at once slowed me down some. But let's be honest - I will never be one of those guys who has his shoes already attached to the bike and doesn't wear socks.

The Bike: The bike route was awesome. About as flat as you can imagine anything being. The slight inclines and declines through most of the ride were nearly inperceivable. The back part of the ride was a little rougher of a road, which made coming around onto the final leg feel like riding on glass. There were a couple of hills in the last 4 miles, but they were short and easy to power up standing for no more than a minute.

I drank so much water in the swim (it was windy = choppy water) that I had that sitting in my gut for most of the ride. Consequently I didn't even finish a whole bottle of water during the ride and was actually a little nauseous at times when I tried to drink some. About 2/3rds through the ride I passed a gal who was down on the road. They had her covered with a blanket and I passed the ambulance making its way to her a little later. More on ambulances later.

I felt pretty good at the beginning and was passing folks. As I got further along, I was passing fewer. Then about midway I ran into some packs and passed a bunch more again - must've been the slower folks from the earlier wave. About that point a couple of gals came upon me riding what looked like high-priced tri-bikes with the solid wheels, aerobars, a higher gearing than mine, and wearing those teardrop helmets. They zoomed right past me.

I'm pretty happy with the fact that in all I was only passed by 4-5 people, while knocking off at least 50-75. At one point I passed a couple of guys, who then passed me back going down a short hill. But as soon as we were headed up the other side I passed them and didn't see them again.

Going into the race I was hoping to average 20mph and be done around 75 minutes, with 70 minutes being my target if everything went great. I did a little better than that and finished in 1:08:27. I think I could knock some more time off of that with more practice riding - particularly in the down position. And I'm curious what aerobars would do for my time as well.

T2: T2 took me 2:27. Again, I think I could knock some time off of this one. I found it interesting that the entry and exit points to the transitions were so dang narrow. going into this transition the guy in front of me stopped and there was only room for one person at a time in the gate - so I was stuck behind him waiting. I think before I do this again I'm going to try pre-tying my shoes and pulling them on to run - just to see how I like it. I don't like my running shoes too snug, but I'll admit that I am a little particular about them feeling "just right", which slows my tying. So I'm thinking I might be able to shave a few seconds here.

The Run: Coming out of T2 there is a short flat and then nice climb - maybe 400 yards is all - until you get up to the level where most of the running takes place. After that - it is a very flat course until the end, when you come down the same kind of hill and head to the finish. Since I hadn't drunk much while riding, I grabbed my gatorade bottle off my bike and took it with me. I walked up the hill, drinking as I went, and then carried the bottle with me for maybe the first half mile. I was still somewhat nauseous from drinking river water and then trying to drink while riding, so at that point I decided to take a big long drink and ditch it - still about 1/2 full.

They had water at mile 1, 3, and 5. I'd grab a cup, take a couple of swallows, and dump the rest over my head or in my hat. There were also a couple of spots were they had water trucks with showers on them to run under. And in the area where you were near homes, some folks had sprinklers on next to the road to run through. I stuck my head in the shower a couple of times, but didn't want to get the rest of me wet - particularly my shoes. The run is primarily on roads, but there was also a section of dirt/gravel road along a canal. Overall, pretty nice. And again I took a lot of pride in the fact that I passed many more people than passed me.

I finished the run in 51:10 - second among 40+ year-old fat men. Again, there were points I could've shaved a few seconds. And I needed to pay closer attention to the 305 to see when my pace was slowing at times. I think it was worth walking up the hill at the start - as I think that would've taken longer to recover from than it was worth to run it. And I probably would've taken a smaller gatorade or water bottle with me given the choice. I thought the absolute worst I would do would be 1 hour. I figured I should be able to finish in 55 minutes, and if everything went extremely well I might get near 50 minutes. So I'm happy with this time.

Overall I had set a goal of coming in around 2:30. I thought it would take really doing well in some areas to make up for transition time, etc., and I thought it was a goal that would push me but was doable. I ended up coming in at 2:30:07. And I'm VERY excited to have hit that goal, particularly since I feel I lost time on the swim.

More on the ambulances - to those of you who have done this before, how common is it for folks to be hauled off in ambulances? There was the gal who wrecked her bike, my wife told me about another crash coming into T2 where one bike went down and 2-3 others piled up as well because it was so narrow - including someone in the crowd getting hit. Some of those folks were hauled off by ambulance.

And then as I was waiting for my friend by the portajohns later a medic came through and had me help him carry a stretcher (pushing and yelling through the crowd) to the finish line, where someone had collapsed. They ended up hauling him away with lights and sirens a few minutes later.

At the beginning of the race the announcer said something about how great it was to have the daughter of the guy who died racing a couple of years ago there entered this year. I was just glad my wife was down at T1 to miss that announcement.

I guess I knew it could be difficult. I didn't know it would be quite that dangerous to folks.

Overall it was great. When I finished the sprint tri I did last year, I remember thinking "that wasn't so tough. I want to at least be pushed a little". Well - this one pushed me.

Having experienced it once, I'm now thinking this is something I'm going to have to do again. And I'm thinking at some point - at least 2-3 years from now - I might just have to try a 1/2 ironman.

[ERCougar]

Those are some really nice times, Eddie! I wasn't crazy with my transitions either, but I did leave my shoes attached to my bike, and it seemed to cut a lot off my transition (without adding much to my bike time). It's not very hard to get down.

A friend of mine wrecked and broke her clavicle--I'm guessing she was one of those ambulances you saw. I still haven't talked to her to see how it happened.

Are you going to do another one soon? I'm planning to do either the Pumpkinman or the Powell tri near the end of October (they're the same weekend). It'll be my first olympic length too. I'm not so excited about trying a 70.3.

[Eddie]

I doubt I'll do another olympic tri this year, though I might get talked into one of the local rec center sprints. Football is starting and my son will have games or practices every Saturday morning from now until November - which makes it tough to do anything that isn't right near home. I have been looking at possibly doing a 1/2 marathon, and my buddy is trying to talk me into the St. George 1/2 that is in January.

Races - especially the big tri's and anything over a 5K - are expensive enough that I'm trying to keep it to just a couple each year. With the Ogden Marathon and then this, I'm probably done with organized races until next year.

I am looking at calendars to decide what to do next. While part of me wants to try somewhere different, I also think that the Ogden race was so well organized and supported that I might stick with that if I'm to run another marathon next year. And now that I know what to expect at the spudman, I might rather stick with that one too. Particularly so that I can compare times straight across.

I don't know. I do know that I've got to do something to keep up my reason for exercising. I'm going to keep swimming once a week and work on breathing under my left arm. I'll probably try to bike once a week too. I also figure it's a good time to do some speed work, since I really do want to hit a 20 minute 5K before I die.

Speaking of which - the guy who won the Spudman finished the 10K in 34:14. Are you kidding me??? 34 MINUTES!!!!

[mtnbiker]

Nice report. Interesting. Thanks.

[BigPiney]

Nice race.

[ERCougar]

I did a really fun sprint this last weekend to kick off the season--SHAC Spring triathlon in St George.
The swim was indoors and only 400 yds. Nice for me, because I'm not a swimmer. They had me at 8:04, but I'm positive I finished it between 7:00 and 7:10 (on my watch). It was a rolling start, meaning they just kept running people into each lane as the previous one finished (instead of heats), and I assumed my time started as I entered the pool. Actually, it started as soon as I stood on this black mat at the entry to the pool. I lost a minute because I didn't hurry into the water. Oh well. I've gotten in the pool twice this year, so I could cut some time here.
The bike was 2 laps of a 5 mile loop. Beautiful weather, no wind, but pretty hilly, and I lost some time on the 4 turnarounds. 33:18 for 18.0 mph average. I've ridden a bit on the trainer, but very little outside, but I'm guessing most everyone is in that same boat with the weird March weather we've had.
The run was 2 laps of a 1.5 mile loop. Again, pretty hilly, but a nice trail. I'll never get used to the feeling of bricks on my legs when I follow a bike leg. 21:40 for a 7:13 average.

Overall, finished at 1:05:13, 5/26 on my age group, 41/328 for the field. If I take off a minute for knowing how the swim time starts and actually get in the pool a few times over the winter, I can improve on that a little next year. Oh...and not working a 95 hour week ending at midnight before the race might help some too.

Fun to be racing again!

Final Time: 01:05:13.6
Race Distance: Sprint
Overall Placing
Place: 41
Time Back: 00:14:46.300
Gender Placing
Place: 38
Time Back: 00:14:46.300
Division Placing
Sprint M 35-39 Place: 5
Time Back: 00:08:53.100
No Name Interval Time Total Time Pace Overall Place Overall Back Gender Place Gender Back Divsion Place Division Back
1 Swim 00:08:04.160 00:08:04.160 2:01.0 81 +2:28.9 81 +2:28.9 12 +1:19.8
2 T1 00:00:57.875 00:09:02.035 5 +0:19.1 5 +0:19.1 1 +0:00
3 Bike 00:33:18.243 00:42:20.278 18.0 49 +4:18.5 49 +4:18.5 5 +1:30.3
4 T2 00:01:13.212 00:43:33.490 118 +0:40.1 118 +0:40.1 11 +0:07.7
5 Run 00:21:40.111 01:05:13.601 7:13.4 48 +1:45.3 48 +1:45.3 5 +1:45.1

[Donuthole]

I did a really fun sprint this last weekend to kick off the season--SHAC Spring triathlon in St George.
The swim was indoors and only 400 yds. Nice for me, because I'm not a swimmer. They had me at 8:04, but I'm positive I finished it between 7:00 and 7:10 (on my watch). It was a rolling start, meaning they just kept running people into each lane as the previous one finished (instead of heats), and I assumed my time started as I entered the pool. Actually, it started as soon as I stood on this black mat at the entry to the pool. I lost a minute because I didn't hurry into the water. Oh well. I've gotten in the pool twice this year, so I could cut some time here.
The bike was 2 laps of a 5 mile loop. Beautiful weather, no wind, but pretty hilly, and I lost some time on the 4 turnarounds. 33:18 for 18.0 mph average. I've ridden a bit on the trainer, but very little outside, but I'm guessing most everyone is in that same boat with the weird March weather we've had.
The run was 2 laps of a 1.5 mile loop. Again, pretty hilly, but a nice trail. I'll never get used to the feeling of bricks on my legs when I follow a bike leg. 21:40 for a 7:13 average.

Overall, finished at 1:05:13, 5/26 on my age group, 41/328 for the field. If I take off a minute for knowing how the swim time starts and actually get in the pool a few times over the winter, I can improve on that a little next year. Oh...and not working a 95 hour week ending at midnight before the race might help some too.

Fun to be racing again!

Final Time: 01:05:13.6
Race Distance: Sprint
Overall Placing
Place: 41
Time Back: 00:14:46.300
Gender Placing
Place: 38
Time Back: 00:14:46.300
Division Placing
Sprint M 35-39 Place: 5
Time Back: 00:08:53.100
No Name Interval Time Total Time Pace Overall Place Overall Back Gender Place Gender Back Divsion Place Division Back
1 Swim 00:08:04.160 00:08:04.160 2:01.0 81 +2:28.9 81 +2:28.9 12 +1:19.8
2 T1 00:00:57.875 00:09:02.035 5 +0:19.1 5 +0:19.1 1 +0:00
3 Bike 00:33:18.243 00:42:20.278 18.0 49 +4:18.5 49 +4:18.5 5 +1:30.3
4 T2 00:01:13.212 00:43:33.490 118 +0:40.1 118 +0:40.1 11 +0:07.7
5 Run 00:21:40.111 01:05:13.601 7:13.4 48 +1:45.3 48 +1:45.3 5 +1:45.1

My BIL did that tri this weekend. Is there a place to look up the results? I'd like to know where he finished so I can send him a text mocking his finish time.

[happyone]

My BIL did that tri this weekend. Is there a place to look up the results? I'd like to know where he finished so I can send him a text mocking his finish time.

My BIL and nephew did this also - I haven't heard how they did

[Eddie]

Spudman Part II

I took another trip to beautiful Burley this past weekend.

Learning from last year, we camped on the driving range at the golf course. It was nice - the grass was so well kept I probably could've slept with much less padding. And the group there was a lot more sensitive to everyone's desire to sleep. It was pretty quiet by just after 10pm.

I was a little apprehensive going into the race this year. Last year I was swimming 2-3 times a week. This year I swam once the week before the race. Last year I was doing some pretty long workouts - biking for 150 minutes or running for 90. This year I only had 2-3 bike workouts longer than about 20 miles and only 4-5 runs over 4 miles post Ogden marathon. Last year I did at least one brick every week, this year I did 3 bricks total - which simply consisted of running a mile or so after a bike ride.

So I had worked out, but I'm not sure how much I "trained" or was ready. But I felt like I should be able to do as well as last year in the bike and run, as I was in a little better shape to begin with.

Surprisingly, my biggest improvement was in the swim - taking nearly 3 minutes off my time. I'm going to attribute this to being a little closer to the start line, paying better attention to do less zigzagging (though I did pay the island a visit again) and the fact that more runoff probably lead to more water in the river and a faster current. This last one was probably the biggest difference...

They changed the bike route some, and had us ride the route backwards from years past. They also put the waves 5 minutes apart instead of 10. The intent was to keep runners and bikers from crossing paths mid race. But it made the bike portion MUCH more congested. There were packs of bikers everywhere. The rule is no drafting, but at times the road was so thick with folks that you had to follow the guy in front of you to get through. At one point a group of 3-4 riders that were drafting and helping each other came by, and I used them as a rabbit.

To keep the spirit of the rule, I didn't get in behind them but rode next to them - using them as motivation to keep pedaling strong. I'm sure I got some drafting benefit even not being directly behind them. Enough folks were drafting without anyone seeming to be concerned for the rule - that it makes me wonder if they just care about it for the elites. And makes me wonder about just jumping in with the rest and participating next year if no one cares.

For some reason they didn't have a T1 time this year; my assumption is that it was added onto the biking time. Taking that into account, my T1 and bike time ended up being about 2 minutes faster this year. I know I was faster through T1 and I thought I was faster on the bike, but they also moved the dismount back a bit and I had to run further with my bike which could account for some of that time.

Going into the run I was feeling pretty good. About a mile in I had one runner yell at me to not go out too fast or I would crash and burn, but I just kind of blew him off. I knew this was my strong part of the competition.

However, I also think that my lack of bricks and longer distances probably came back to bite me. I was hoping to average 8 minute miles for the first 4-5 miles and then kick it in for the final mile. But by mile 4 I was struggling just to keep pace and speeding up was out of the question. I ran past one gal who was running backwards - and still passing people. I told her I thought she had a good pace for backwards, she just said "If I was going forwards, I would have to walk."

Down the final hill and a sprint to the finish. I saw a guy ahead of me a little ways and decided that I wanted to catch him before the finish line - so I was really burning. And I just passed him as we crossed the line. In the end, my run was about 30 seconds faster than last year.

So overall I took nearly 5:30 off of last years time. And that sprint to the finish put me in 2nd place in my division - beating the guy in front of me by .3 seconds. I can only assume that he was the same guy who I sprinted by at the end.

In some strange twist of fate - looking at last year's times to compare how I did, I noticed that the guy I beat for 2nd place this year came in right behind me in our division last year too.

Not sure why, but they had the old fat men wave go last. As a result, the entire field was in front of me to start the race. I ended up passing a TON of people, which made the race fun. I couldn't count the number I passed on the bike, meanwhile I was passed by maybe a half dozen riders. Same on the run - passed too many to count and was only passed by 8-9 runners, at least half of which were part of relay teams.

Overall it was a fun race. Out of more than 1600 participants, I came in around #300. I am hoping to do a little more riding between now and my next tri - to gain a little strength and speed - and continue running (avoiding injury) - so that I can keep ahead of that poor SOB who has come in behind me twice in a row now...

[ERCougar]

Awesome, Eddie! Second place without training--nice.