So This Is How It Feels

Chisago Lakes Triathlon was the Minnesota debut (as far as I know) of Team Trinity Designs. Here are 3 charter members - Stomper, Me, and NS Rob. There were a lot of us out there and it was kind of fun. NS knew some team members through kids, but didn't know they were on the team.

So this is what it feels like. I'm trying to remember what they call this. Oh yeah! It's racing. After months of focusing on going long, keeping effort sustainable it was really really fun to ride that edge. To push on the swim and bike and hold on for the run.

For the swim I started in the first row and went out hard. Early on a guy was 1/2 body ahead so I tucked in behind him. He was a strong kicker so the water was really churned and easy to follow. I no longer had to worry about picking my way through the numerous floaters, back and breast strokers. This guy was flying. I lost him at the turn despite executing a perfect stroke, backstroke, stroke turnaround. Now I was slightly overcooked with no pilot fish. Took a few breast strokes to catch my breath and put my head down to get to the beach. Where the heck is the beach? I know I was flying on the way out and I haven't lost that much on the way back. Why is this taking so long?

Clearly the swim was WAAAAAAAAAAY long. The fastest pace in the sprint was 2:04/100m which is crazy slow. Finally:

I hit the beach and made it up the hill in 10:11. The usual T1 - not fast but not too slow - 1:59. Wow my heart rate is up there. Took a bit of easy spinning before it dropped at all. I had been hoping to hammer out 22mph for the bike but could tell early that wasn't going to happen.
Rode along at around 21.5. Being in the 3rd sprint wave there weren't a lot of people in front of me. I had expected to get passed constantly but that wasn't really happening either. There was one stretch of road that was rough (the rest was awesome!). I hit a bump and heard what I thought was a tube popping. It was windy so the handling was just squirrely enough that I thought I was going flat on the rear. Pull off, hop off. No flat. Aha. Also no extra tube that I had wedged in between my bag and seat. It had stayed in there for all of IM CDA and numerous other rides, hauls on the rack, but it couldn't last as I charged over the bumps. Only lost 30 seconds as opposed to the minutes it would have taken me to change out the rear.
Finished the 21+ mile ride in 58:52 for an official average of 21.4mph.

My heart rate hovered above 160 for the bulk of the ride. That's way higher than the 135 I'd been training to ride for 6 hours. Not sure how the run will go.

Rocked T2 - 38 seconds. Jog bike to rack, slip off bike shoes and helmet, jam on running shoes, grab pile of gear (hat, glasses, watch and belt) and head out. No reason to stand there putting on the pile. Didn't realize I had another pair of glasses in the hat. Didn't realize it until I took the hat off to dump water on it at first stop. When the glasses hit the pavement I knew. Turned around and picked them up. Now I've got 2 pairs of sunglasses. Tuck 1 into the side pocket of my Trinity Designs top and kept moving.

I didn't look at my watch for heart rate or pace. Just tried to ride that fine line - pushing up to, but not over, the edge as far as my legs were concerned. Once I hit the park I tried to kick it in. There was a woman who had gone back and forth with me on the bike. She passed me early in the run and I thought I wouldn't see her again - yet there she was as we came into the park. I tried to encourage her to run it in hard - "you've got this" she said to me.
Finished the 5k in 27:44. At the finish I was in second but it was really early. Quickly I dropped to third. I never thought it would hold up. After some post race pancakes and soft serve (sweet!) they were calling my name. 3rd place in the Clydesdale division. Sweet. I had hoped to make the podium. I also finished ahead of Stomper - so it was a good day indeed.

After some research I may have discovered what happened to Stomper.
If you're smiling this big during a sprint you are NOT riding hard enough. Keep smilin' at Turtleman Stomper!

Ramsey lost his triginity. Here he is crossing the line. Pretty impressive for a big man training for Twin Cities Marathon in 2 months. He's hooked! Looking to do another race this year before TCM. Easy big fella. We'll get you out there plenty next season.

What a great day for a race. NS and his family came over to the cabin afterwards for some post race beach fun. What a great day!

Chisago Lakes Sprint - mini report

I was tired of the negative post about the upcoming Turtleman swim leading off the blog so I wanted to get something else up. No pics yet. Full report soon.

Short story - raced well despite rookie mistakes with electronics, balky electronics, and phantom flat. We were in the 3rd wave of the sprint and I didn't think my time would hold up, but it did. Took 3rd in Clydesdale. I had been hoping to hit the podium even though I know I have no control who shows up (only supposed to set goals you can control).

Met Steve in a Speedo briefly before the race. Trinity Design was well represented and everyone had a good morning.

Anyhow - "So this is how it feels" post coming soon.

Turtleman 2009 Swim Preview

NS Rob - Read no further as I want you to grab one of the remaining spots.

Muck . . . Yuck . . . Ouch . . . Yuck (repeat)

Turtle Lake is low, really low. If you've done the race before you are familiar with the submerged roadbed and the watermelon sized rocks. I almost met one with my face last year. Those rocks are now DRY.

This morning I met Stomper, NS Rob, and Ramsey for a little OW swim in Turtle Lake.

They must have added some sand at the beach - piled it right on top of the muck as it has a springboard feel to it. (the Muck)

You're swimming in/over weeds until you get to the roadbed (the yuck). To the left of the big dry rocks there is a relatively large rock free area that's about 4 inches deep then goes to knee deep for a while. There are smaller rocks though (the Ouch).

Then it is back to the weeds. (more Yuck)

Eventually it deepens enough that you're out of the weeds.

At some point you turn around and get to do it again.

Ok, this may be an overly negative post, but the swim is not going to be great with a stretch that requires walking on the way out and the way back.

I wouldn't predict that Turtleman is going to challenge Minneman for event of the year this year, which is too bad since Tman is such a great event.

I'm still looking forward to the Race for the Turtle. Heck, I'm even looking forward to the swim. Hoping to see how good I can go swimming "only" a mile. There are just going to be some people really freaked out by the muck, the weeds and the walk.

Mentally prepare yourself and rock the swim.

The Fourth Discipline

Most of you know the 3 disciplines of triathlon - swimming, biking and running. There's a 4th one, and without it we would ever get to race the other 3: volunteering.

Zman and I started our 4th of July off volunteering at the Minneman Triathlon in Oak Grove. I've done the race twice and last year took 2nd in the Clydesdale division. It's WAAAY too soon after CDA for me to racing so I figured I'd give back. I'm a member of the club that sponsors it so I figured I better sign up. We were assigned to the finish but had to be there long before the athletes - 5:15 am. The sun was coming up over the lake as we left the cabin and it was gorgeous. Even Zman thought it was cool. It did make for a really long day with the party and fireworks later but he seems to have recovered.

They grabbed us to pass out chips which was pretty cool - sooner or later every athlete came to see us. I haven't been a spectator at a sprint before. The Minneman has a special novice division which had 2 waves this year. The distances are particularly short - .25, 13 and 3 and it attracts a lot of newbies. It was great having them pop down their kickstands to get body marked and answering their questions.

One of the things I love about this sport is how generally open to newbies it is and how helpful people are. Sure there are a few overly intense jerks but most the most part everyone is out to have a good time.

An athlete came up to us and had forgot her goggles. I directed her to the PA who asked over the soundsystem. No fewer than 6 pairs of goggles were delivered to the PA table for use by anyone who forgot theirs.

Here's a pic of Zman passing out chips.

After the start we made our way to the finish line. We didn't have long to wait for pro David Thompson (placed 2nd at Escape from Alcatraz) who broke his course record - coming in under 54 minutes. I'm sure he was back out on the road that afternoon completing his training for the day.

There were about 5 kids passing out water and taking chips. They had absolutely no feel for who needed a little space after crossing the line but all the athletes were good sports about it. I was at the exit to the finish corral - making sure we got all the chips. A lot of athletes forget about their chip, grab a water and keep moving.

I met another member of the triclub which was nice. It was a beautiful morning and a fun time - even if we missed out on the hotdogs. Zman and I more than made up for it later at the neighbors. Wendy even made me a special fruit pizza! There were 2 ROUNDS of desserts and I tried them all.