Wednesday, June 16, 2010
PSA
If you've got anything that needs doing the next day. Then I'd recommend staying away from the fried pickle/jalapeno platter at Redbones.
Wednesday, June 9, 2010
Rev3 Quassy Race Report
Well the rumors are true. Quassy is hard.
The swim is up hill, the bike is up hill and the run is uphill...oh and T1!
No but seriously.
I was having a good day up until I got out of the water and looked at my watch. I was feeling good and positive in the water. But I'm amazed that when, for some reason, I race a Half I can only seem to do 1:45 per hundred. How's that happen? I was not working that slow. Perhaps it's the sighting, or the people cutting across you?
Any way up the hill to the bike racks. I was pleased that there were still plenty of ponies keeping my steed company.
The advantage to being a crap swimmer and pretty good on the bike is that you're not lonely once you head out on the road. That's probably my favorite part right now; doing my thing, staying in my zone and passing people on the hills. Albeit some times it's a pretty slow overtake. Plus with such a hilly course you got to have little chats. Like when you hear someone say, "This is the last hill right?" on the first hill.
Then I don't know where this one guy came from but he rolled up to a bunch of us on this steep section about mile eight and was yelling at everyone for drafting. "You're drafting! You're drafting! That's so illegal!" Dude, it's the beginning of a race, we all just got slinkied into this hill, we're going 10 mph on an up hill and there's just not a lot of room or need to pass. Just ride your own race.
Eventually things did string out and I was playing a little leap frog with Ryan Whitehead, although truth be told, I was mostly 20 meters behind him unless it got technical. But then he dropped his chain/his bike wouldn't shift and I didn't see him for the rest of the bike.
Sometimes I fear a turn-around on a course because you see where the competition is. But this time it was nice to be able to count the AG's ahead of me and see that some Pros weren't too far up the road.
The long steady hills on a Tri course aren't really such a bother. Generally you're limited by your zone, be it RPE, watts, or BPM, and you know if you go too high you'll pay for it later. But the constant undulation is a harder game to play. Attack the little hills and while you're HR/RPE isn't high you're making watts and lactate. But then it's down the other side and your HR drops off again and your legs turn to bricks.
Very scenic bike course though. With some nice views, farming country and some ripper descents. I think I hit 48 mph coming back into town. YES!
Awesome coming into T2 and only seeing 5 AG bikes racked. But knowing that my run has been hampered this spring my thoughts went immediately to keeping people at bay.
The first couple of miles went as planned, if not better than planed, but they were also down hill. As usual it took a few for my legs to come around off the bike, but they never really matured into zippy fresh run legs.
I had to stop and pee after mile three. First time I've had to do that. I loosely tried to go while running, but it wasn't gonna happen. I'm sure I only lost like 15 seconds, and I got to take my mind of the run while I contemplated the dense shade of my urine. Akin to not hydrated.
From there it was shady and hilly and lonely. At the mile 5.5 turn around a couple of Pro women passed me and then I saw the hounds. This was one of the turn arounds I fear. But what was I to do? I just kept chugging along drenching myself with water at the aid stations and ticking one mile off after the next.
It took until the second turn around at 11.5 for Mr. Whitehead to pass me back and for Frank Sarosdy to over take me. The latter wasn't very friendly post race, the former was really nice, we had a chat.
To add insult to injury the last mile has just a brutal hill and I watched those guys slip away with nothing to respond with. But the good news is that some guy was gaining on me and I kept him at bay! Even though I think he started 3+ min behind me and would overtake me on the results board.
Such a hard day of racing, but good mental conditioning. And relative to the rest of the field and the course it was a good result.
The swim is up hill, the bike is up hill and the run is uphill...oh and T1!
No but seriously.
I was having a good day up until I got out of the water and looked at my watch. I was feeling good and positive in the water. But I'm amazed that when, for some reason, I race a Half I can only seem to do 1:45 per hundred. How's that happen? I was not working that slow. Perhaps it's the sighting, or the people cutting across you?
Any way up the hill to the bike racks. I was pleased that there were still plenty of ponies keeping my steed company.
The advantage to being a crap swimmer and pretty good on the bike is that you're not lonely once you head out on the road. That's probably my favorite part right now; doing my thing, staying in my zone and passing people on the hills. Albeit some times it's a pretty slow overtake. Plus with such a hilly course you got to have little chats. Like when you hear someone say, "This is the last hill right?" on the first hill.
Then I don't know where this one guy came from but he rolled up to a bunch of us on this steep section about mile eight and was yelling at everyone for drafting. "You're drafting! You're drafting! That's so illegal!" Dude, it's the beginning of a race, we all just got slinkied into this hill, we're going 10 mph on an up hill and there's just not a lot of room or need to pass. Just ride your own race.
Eventually things did string out and I was playing a little leap frog with Ryan Whitehead, although truth be told, I was mostly 20 meters behind him unless it got technical. But then he dropped his chain/his bike wouldn't shift and I didn't see him for the rest of the bike.
Sometimes I fear a turn-around on a course because you see where the competition is. But this time it was nice to be able to count the AG's ahead of me and see that some Pros weren't too far up the road.
The long steady hills on a Tri course aren't really such a bother. Generally you're limited by your zone, be it RPE, watts, or BPM, and you know if you go too high you'll pay for it later. But the constant undulation is a harder game to play. Attack the little hills and while you're HR/RPE isn't high you're making watts and lactate. But then it's down the other side and your HR drops off again and your legs turn to bricks.
Very scenic bike course though. With some nice views, farming country and some ripper descents. I think I hit 48 mph coming back into town. YES!
Awesome coming into T2 and only seeing 5 AG bikes racked. But knowing that my run has been hampered this spring my thoughts went immediately to keeping people at bay.
The first couple of miles went as planned, if not better than planed, but they were also down hill. As usual it took a few for my legs to come around off the bike, but they never really matured into zippy fresh run legs.
I had to stop and pee after mile three. First time I've had to do that. I loosely tried to go while running, but it wasn't gonna happen. I'm sure I only lost like 15 seconds, and I got to take my mind of the run while I contemplated the dense shade of my urine. Akin to not hydrated.
From there it was shady and hilly and lonely. At the mile 5.5 turn around a couple of Pro women passed me and then I saw the hounds. This was one of the turn arounds I fear. But what was I to do? I just kept chugging along drenching myself with water at the aid stations and ticking one mile off after the next.
It took until the second turn around at 11.5 for Mr. Whitehead to pass me back and for Frank Sarosdy to over take me. The latter wasn't very friendly post race, the former was really nice, we had a chat.
To add insult to injury the last mile has just a brutal hill and I watched those guys slip away with nothing to respond with. But the good news is that some guy was gaining on me and I kept him at bay! Even though I think he started 3+ min behind me and would overtake me on the results board.
Such a hard day of racing, but good mental conditioning. And relative to the rest of the field and the course it was a good result.
Tuesday, June 1, 2010
Memphis In May Race Report
In May, Memphis is hot. Sunny, humid and 90 hot.
Sweating while setting up transition hot.
77.8 degree water hot. Making for an additionally hot swim because it's wetsuit legal.
I roughly calculated my 'wave' or AG to start about 50 minutes after the first AGer at 7:15. With the TT start one person entered the water every 3 seconds. So, lets see; That's 20 a minute. 200 every 10 minutes. My number was in the 1000's, which is 5 sets of 200 right? Or five sets of 10 minutes right?
Well for whatever reason my math didn't pan out and I jumped in with the girls starting in the 1100 block. But not to fear! Since it was an individual, or TT start my time started when my chip hit the mat.
But starting so far back still meant swimming, biking and running past a lot of people.
I didn't find a real sweet rhythm in the water, but still made it out in pretty good order all things considered.
In and out of T1 without trying to sprint my way through.
Oh and as an interesting note. Since we had to start the race from the transition area, the transition area never closed. It was really weird to see people milling about and still tinkering with stuff as athletes were coming out of the water. Additionally when the Pros went off at 10:30, people were still finishing, others hanging about and others taking apart transition set-ups. Very odd.
Once on the bike I had to adjust to using HR and RPE instead of Watts and did my best to find a good mix of pushing the tempo, but not going overboard in the HR department. The course was mainly flat but did have a little undulation. The dozen or so 90 degree turns started to become annoying, especially while having to navigate traffic.
I should have stocked the bike better for the heat, but figured my solo bottle would be enough, and I could refuel at the water stops. But it turns out the RD decided one poorly staffed bottle stop would suffice. Plus, it just came out of the blue. Bam! Water! Bam! Nothing!
Let me just say that, yes I should have loaded up with more water, and yes I should have known where the water stop was. I did know there was only one, but when it came I was surprised that was it. When you have a constant stream of a thousand bikers for two plus hours going at least two abreast, having only one guy to grab a bottle from is not a sufficient water stop on sunny 90 degree day. (As an additional aside, the pros didn't even get a water stop, as Matt Gloekler describes here. Ouch)
So after I grabbed a bottle took a couple sips and poured the rest over me I was rest with the last few oz of drink on my down tube.
Shortly before the 'water stop' I was passed by a guy I pretty much started with by passed while he was fumbling to get his shoes on. He was pushing it on a decline, while I was happy to spin it out at 30 mph for a minute. It gave me something new to watch for a while, as he bobbed and weaved ahead of me doing the 'legal draft' around the slower folk. I did the weave here and there but man, this guy was trying to grab every draft off of everyone he passed.
I did catch back up to him and he was nice enough to give me a sip of his water before I over took him. John Hanna, you're a good guy. Also he saw me after the race and we had a nice chat for a minute.
Once I was out of T2 I was astonished to see a pair of guys wearing MickeyDees kits. Hey that's me behind the golden arches! Looks like that guy should maybe look to Bgood for next year's sponsorship....I'm just saying.
With recent ITB issues in my mind I just plopped along for the first couple miles trying to keep things consistent and hopefully throw down some negative splits. And I'll just tell you right now, that's what happened. It was hot and a 7 min/mile def felt like work. It did feel good to hit the turn around and kick things up. There was carnage all over the course and the med/'cooling' tent was pretty busy.
My 2:06 wasn't record breaking but it's a good way to kick off the season considering the conditions and the previous few weeks.
Rev3 ho!
Sweating while setting up transition hot.
77.8 degree water hot. Making for an additionally hot swim because it's wetsuit legal.
I roughly calculated my 'wave' or AG to start about 50 minutes after the first AGer at 7:15. With the TT start one person entered the water every 3 seconds. So, lets see; That's 20 a minute. 200 every 10 minutes. My number was in the 1000's, which is 5 sets of 200 right? Or five sets of 10 minutes right?
Well for whatever reason my math didn't pan out and I jumped in with the girls starting in the 1100 block. But not to fear! Since it was an individual, or TT start my time started when my chip hit the mat.
But starting so far back still meant swimming, biking and running past a lot of people.
I didn't find a real sweet rhythm in the water, but still made it out in pretty good order all things considered.
In and out of T1 without trying to sprint my way through.
Oh and as an interesting note. Since we had to start the race from the transition area, the transition area never closed. It was really weird to see people milling about and still tinkering with stuff as athletes were coming out of the water. Additionally when the Pros went off at 10:30, people were still finishing, others hanging about and others taking apart transition set-ups. Very odd.
Once on the bike I had to adjust to using HR and RPE instead of Watts and did my best to find a good mix of pushing the tempo, but not going overboard in the HR department. The course was mainly flat but did have a little undulation. The dozen or so 90 degree turns started to become annoying, especially while having to navigate traffic.
I should have stocked the bike better for the heat, but figured my solo bottle would be enough, and I could refuel at the water stops. But it turns out the RD decided one poorly staffed bottle stop would suffice. Plus, it just came out of the blue. Bam! Water! Bam! Nothing!
Let me just say that, yes I should have loaded up with more water, and yes I should have known where the water stop was. I did know there was only one, but when it came I was surprised that was it. When you have a constant stream of a thousand bikers for two plus hours going at least two abreast, having only one guy to grab a bottle from is not a sufficient water stop on sunny 90 degree day. (As an additional aside, the pros didn't even get a water stop, as Matt Gloekler describes here. Ouch)
So after I grabbed a bottle took a couple sips and poured the rest over me I was rest with the last few oz of drink on my down tube.
Shortly before the 'water stop' I was passed by a guy I pretty much started with by passed while he was fumbling to get his shoes on. He was pushing it on a decline, while I was happy to spin it out at 30 mph for a minute. It gave me something new to watch for a while, as he bobbed and weaved ahead of me doing the 'legal draft' around the slower folk. I did the weave here and there but man, this guy was trying to grab every draft off of everyone he passed.
I did catch back up to him and he was nice enough to give me a sip of his water before I over took him. John Hanna, you're a good guy. Also he saw me after the race and we had a nice chat for a minute.
Once I was out of T2 I was astonished to see a pair of guys wearing MickeyDees kits. Hey that's me behind the golden arches! Looks like that guy should maybe look to Bgood for next year's sponsorship....I'm just saying.
With recent ITB issues in my mind I just plopped along for the first couple miles trying to keep things consistent and hopefully throw down some negative splits. And I'll just tell you right now, that's what happened. It was hot and a 7 min/mile def felt like work. It did feel good to hit the turn around and kick things up. There was carnage all over the course and the med/'cooling' tent was pretty busy.
My 2:06 wasn't record breaking but it's a good way to kick off the season considering the conditions and the previous few weeks.
Rev3 ho!
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