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Race: Tinman Triathlon

Location: Tupper Lake, New York

Distance: 1.9K swim, 90K bike and 21.5K Run

Description: Swim was in a lake with a rectangular buoy line. Bike was rolling with good pavement conditions. Run was hilly for the first 5 miles then relatively flat (mix of pavement and trail).

Conditions: Cool and [...]]]>

Race: Tinman Triathlon

Location: Tupper Lake, New York

Distance: 1.9K swim, 90K bike and 21.5K Run

Description: Swim was in a lake with a rectangular buoy line. Bike was rolling with good pavement conditions. Run was hilly for the first 5 miles then relatively flat (mix of pavement and trail).

Conditions: Cool and overcast.

Place: 2nd Overall (4:13:44)

It was nearly a month since my last triathlon so I was eager to see where my fitness was. My goal for this race was to really nail my hydration (more on that to come) which would allow me to be competitive throughout. The previous weeks have shown me that my bike is becoming a strong asset as well as my run. The swim though, as always, was a question mark.

Race morning was calm and cool. This was strange turn of events as it had been calling for thunderstorms with rain.

The swim had wave starts with mine starting first. It was a nice change as most times I’m last and have to fight through throngs of people. My goal was to draft as much as possible and try to stay as close to the front as I could. Before starting, another guy called out his friend as the “guy to watch for”, as in he would have the fastest time; point noted.

Off we went into the warmish lake waters. The buoy line seemed to stretch out forever. I got off to a good start and found a small group to hang in with. To my surprise, I surged out of this group and moved forward to find faster swimmers. At the first corner of the swim course, I had found my speed. Two other swimmers, 1 a girl and the other, “the guy to watch for”. I swam right on their feet for the remaining distance. Exiting the water I was relieved to see a new PB, 29:09 for 1900ms. The swim time is starting to pay off! Not only that but I was in 5th spot!

The bike course was undulating. Ups and downs. It was all about how you could carry the momentum. My goal was to keep my fluid intake to 1100mL per hour, something that is very tricky to keep track of but I had worked a recipe beforehand: I drink 50mL per sip and at 3min intervals I would reach my goal quantity. So I set a timer and off I drank.

At 10miles though my day could have been over. My right shifter started to skip gears. Not just 1 or 2 but all of them. The screw that holds the handle on had come loose. At the beginning it wasn’t too bad as I could jimmy it to at least hold a gear. With no on board multi tool I was at the mercy of the shifter. Somewhere along the way, I lost the screw and was now down to just the handle! This meant that I now had to hold the shifter in place in whatever gear that I wanted. It also meant that I couldn’t sit up because then my gears would shift on their own.

This was all going on as I powered through the hills. This whole fiasco never really bugged me till some of the bigger hills on the way back. Because I couldn’t sit up, I had to aero position every hill. Interesting to do in practice but in a race, comfort is more important.

My splits were near identical, 1:09 for the way out and slightly more for the way back. This was good enough to put me into 3rd position going out on the run.

I thought I had it on the run. After 7K I was in second place and had a 500m deficit to second. But something strange happened, I couldn’t catch the guy in front of me. It was like a yo-yo. I got closer to where I thought the next hill I’d be making he pass, then as I crested the hill, he would be far off again.

My thought process was about maintaining a strong speed to catch him but it never came. I finished the race in second but then had to wait and see if my time would hold up (as the other waves finished).

It held up. After looking at the results and seeing that I lost time only in the swim, I felt decent about my performance. I don’t hold the shifter as an excuse but it would have been nice for that not to have happened!

This race has showed me that my swim is coming along, the bike strength is getting better and my run is good even though there has been little work on it. It’s going to be interesting to see what happens come November after a couple of months work on my running form.

Thanks for reading. I’m a little sore today but in good spirits. Hope you had a good weekend.

Cliff

Enter 2010 and the biggest running week I’ve done all year is 60 [...]]]> Before this year, I ran at least 60 kms a week.  My reasoning was I thought there was a hypothetical minimum number I needed to keep my “base” but also allow me to continue progressing as a runner.  There wasn’t much science behind this and it’s showing.

Enter 2010 and the biggest running week I’ve done all year is 60 kms!  Leading up to Saturdays race, a 10K in Ottawa, I had only run 3 times in two weeks.  Not because of injury but that my focus is not on running at the moment.

The race for me went better than expected; considering my lack of mileage and travel/training in the last few weeks.  I was shooting for top spot which had a payout of $500, I placed fourth, out of the money (the worst spot to be as one guy said to me).  What was interesting though is I was able to hang with some quality runners (31:30, 2 x 32:30 mins /10K).  It wasn’t till the 6K mark that my legs started to feel the discomfort that was setting in.  From there it was a steady decline but I manged to keep things together to get a new PB; 33:50 (blew away my 5K PB with a 16:30 performance).

From the start of the race I stayed in a tight pack of 5 which after a few kms became 4.  A surge by the top two individuals left a fight for third.  I battled, attacked myself and really tried to crawl my way into that last spot.  But on that day I just didn’t have the legs.

I’m interested to see what happens when my mileage does go up.  Is it going to make me faster by allowing me to delay the onset of fatigue?  This fall, we’re going to find out.

Thanks for reading,

Happy Trainin’

Cliff

This is not your typical event.  This is a weekend consumed by triathlon.  Each day is a physical and mental challenge to keep you moving.  Over 3 days, the body will have raced longer than an Ironman distance.  However, the race is broken up into “manageable” distances. 

Here is a recap from my perspective.

Day [...]]]>  

This is not your typical event.  This is a weekend consumed by triathlon.  Each day is a physical and mental challenge to keep you moving.  Over 3 days, the body will have raced longer than an Ironman distance.  However, the race is broken up into “manageable” distances. 

Here is a recap from my perspective.

Day 1 – Super Sprint Triathlon (SST) :Swim – 250m, Bike – 6K, Run – 1.6K

Start time was 5pm on Friday, this was to ensure everyone driving to the event had time to check into their motel/cabin or tents.   I’ve never done a SST so I was pumped to give it a shot!  At just over 20mins in length, this was a great way to kick off the weekend! 

The course was not built for speed however.  The swim was a muddy beach start with swimmers let off at 3-5s intervals much like Ironman Louisville, KY.  The bike had a 1Km climb with sections of 6-15% gradient and the run course was an out and back over a wet grassy section.  Add in 450 participants and you’ve got one giant mess!

For me, this was all about getting the legs stretched out.  Driving 13 hours from Ottawa, I was just happy to be not sitting in a car!  I went out hard but having talked to some previous racers; this was the least important race.  If you’ve never done a SST though, I recommend giving it a shot.  Its a true shock to the system.

Day 2 – Olympic Race 1 (OR1): Swim – 1500m, Bike – 40K, Run – 10.5K

Olympic Race 2 (OR2): Bike – 40K, Swim – 1500m, Run – 10.5K

Yes this was going to be an interesting day.  After a huge lightning storm the night before, so intense it set my car alarm off, we found out that the mornings original bike course had to be closed because of depris.  So both OR1 and OR2 had the same bike course.

Start time for OR1 was at 7:30am.  With the nights rain, the water level has risen by a few feet and was also a balmy 60 degrees F.  It was the same format as the SST, swimmers started 3-5s apart based on seeding times (these were submitted prior to the event on your predicted total finish time of the TTT).  It was a two loop course which for the most part, is very relaxed due to the slow enterance of all the athletes.

The bike was daunting, a triathletes worst nightmare: big hills.  After leaving transition its almost an 8K climb before you can seriously go aero.  Then, you descend another 6K to a flat section of road to the turn around where you get to do the course in reverse.  On the website is says bring your climbing gears: if your not a mountain goat, consider riding with a compact crank.  There are some steep grades but for the most part it’s just a grindfest.  Knowing that I had to do this again in less than 8 hours made me reserve a bit.  But for the most part everyone was giving it full gas.

This run course should get an award alone.  After leaving transition the race begins to climb up and up and up.  Its literally 5K up and 5K down all on trail.  Having previewed the course before the race, I knew what I was getting myself into.  Thankfully, I like hills and like trails running even more!

My goal for OR1 and OR2 runs were just to run a hard steady tempo; don’t blow up and keep the effort consistent.  Looking at the previous results, so many people blew up on Sunday.  Reserving  energy was going to be crucial to getting through the weekend.

Upon finishing OR1 it was time to fuel up.  My goal was to eat roughly 1600 calories before starting OR2.  I had a mix of solid and liquid foods at my disposal and went about consuming them slowly as I rested.

When 3pm came around, the start of OR2, the electric energy that had been there in the morning was turning into a dimming light bulb.  Instead of jumping in the water the race had us start on our bikes in the same format as OR1 swim.  The race quickly separated as the better cyclists got to show their cards.

One cool element of the TTT is they have a team challenge as a part of the weekend.  Teams of 2 (men, women or Coed) can compete together with the total time of their races added together.  The top 3 teams get prizes at the end.  In the SS1 and OR1 the athletes have to compete separate but in OR2 and  the half, they are allowed to draft off each other.  They must also finish together so blowing your teamup will only hinder your time!

Having done the same ride in the morning everyone knew what was coming; lots of climbing!  I managed to shave a couple of mins off the morning time as I entered T1.  Instead of running shoes it was into the water for a 1500m swim!  If you’ve ever tried to get into a wetsuit when your sweaty, let me tell you it’s tough!  Make sure to bring plastic bags for your feet as it makes it easier to slide the suit on.

For me the swim went well.  Some people had a tough time adapting to the cold water temperatures where their legs literally locked up.  There were only a few people in the water as I got in but the numbers slowly grew as I made my way around the 2 loop course.

Again, it was back to the hill for another 10.5K bashing.  I kept with my tempo and realized that I was starting to feel better as these events went on.  It also helped that I was passing a lot more people as the effects of todays events were really beginning to show.

After finishing, it was again back to eating, stetching and relaxing.  My body had a hard time shutting off as I didn’t get to sleep till late.  Racing and traveling was beginning to take its toll.  At 5am when my alarm went off I felt like I had been hit by a bus.  Just 2 hours before the last event: the Hardenst half ironman distance on the planet!

I can’t tell you how important it is to keep eating throughout the weekend.  Instead of my usual light breakfast I had to add in a lot more fuel.  My body was preparing me for what was to come!

It didn’t come as a surprise that people were late getting into transition.  The race got off about 15-20mins late as people slowly sauntered in; “the death march” as the TTT people call it.  Just before jumping into the water I had a quick look at the results, the first time I had looked at them all weekend.  To my surprise, I sat in 5th spot for the top solo!  This gave me a good boost which lasted until about  the first buoy!

What makes this the toughest half distance?  That would have to be the 3200 ft of climbing on the bike and then following it up with running two loops of the 5K up and 5K down course.  Also, having done arguably a half iron distance the day before; you get why this is tough.

The bike course was different from OR1 and OR2.  It had much more ups and downs on tight narrow roads.  If you like a challenging technical course, this would be it. 

Pedal, pedal, pedal.  Eat, drink, eat, drink.  My goal was to go under 3 hours for the bike and I completed it.  In most 90K training rides I would be disappointed in a 3 hour time, however I was just happy to be done!

Out on the run is where the carnage began to add up.  The Ironman shuffle was in full effect.  Guys/gals that had beautiful strides just 24hours earlier were now walking.  It paid to stick to my strategy as I made my way to 4th by the end of the half.  Upon finishing I was also given the pleasant surprise of finishing in 3rd overall!  A great bonus on an awesome weekend of training!

Thanks for reading, I’m off to have a nap!

The race location is just outside Portsmouth, Ohio which has some local chain motels with not much else.  Most people stayed at the many camp sites or cabins located near the venue.   These book up early so if you’d like to give this race a try, put a reservation in early!

The weeks have flown by since my last race in California 70.3.  My time has been filled with a lot of training but even more with soul searching; where to next? 

Racing has started to become a large portion of my life, especially in the absence of a true 9-5 white/blue collar job.  Getting [...]]]>

The weeks have flown by since my last race in California 70.3.  My time has been filled with a lot of training but even more with soul searching; where to next? 

Racing has started to become a large portion of my life, especially in the absence of a true 9-5 white/blue collar job.  Getting up on a Monday morning knowing that there are 14-20 workouts before next week may scare some people but it’s like anything I guess.  Once you get in a routine, you naturally adapt to the stresses.

When I’m not training, I’ve been spending a lot of time studying about nutrition.  My interests are the science behind food: how it breaks down, how fast the process takes, how can it be faster/slower, are there better/worse things to eat, etc.  What I’ve noticed is there is still so much information that is unclear.  The biggest problem, with the lack of concrete evidence, is everyones bodies are different.  What might work for me could cause you gastric distress.  So much about eating and exercising is trial and error.  Those that do their homework, figure out what they need for what their doing, come out on top (or at least have a better shot at accomplishing their goals).

All this food practice is going to be tested in the Triple T in Ohio this weekend.  On tap is four triathlons in 3 days.  The schedule:

Friday 5pm - Swim: 250m Bike:8K Run: 1.6K

Saturday 7:30am - Swim: 1500m Bike:40K Run: 10K

Saturday 3pm (double olympics) – Bike: 40K Swim: 1500m Run: 10K

Sunday 7am: – Swim: 1900m Bike: 90K Run: 21.1K

This is a stage race so time is cumulative (all added together).  Also, top 3 finishers get a 30s bonus. 

Climbing is the hidden gem behind this race.  Every course has lots.  Bring your climbing gears has been mentioned on just about every page of the athletes hand book.  I’ve seen the profiles, they’re like jagged teeth.  But you can’t change that, so you may as well have fun with it!

So how does one tackle an event like this?  Well, just like the stages in cycling, eat and drink often.  How much?  Let’s break it down.

Fridays “Super Sprint” is basically negelible.  As long as you ate right the day of and after the race it should be ok.  Saturday to Sunday is obviously going to be a tough one to tackle. 

 Table 1 – Calories expended and sweat loss during the race.

Table 2 – Calories consumed and hydration gain during the race.

 As you can see from these tables, there is going to be a loss of 1700 calories (3400) for both races.  There isn’t much you can do in race to make those numbers higher except, eating smart before and after.

Pre-race storages have to be topped up and the in between race is going to be crucial to get calories in.  I think it’s possible to get in close to 1600 calories (800 x 2) in between and after the races.  The key is to have food available that is easy to digest: starches such as rice and potatoes. 

If it’s hot hydration could be an even larger enemy.  Losing a kilo of water weight may not affect you the first race but if you haven’t replenished after the second race, kiss Sundays results good bye.

Sunday is about survival.  It’s going to take a strong person to win the overall competition. 

 Table 3 – Calories and sweat loss during the race.

Table 3 is basically double Saturdays races combined.  There is a potential to lose over 4 more pounds of body weight!  Eating and drinking almost become survival to those who want to finish.  This isn’t a race it’s a weight loss plan!

But seriously, it’s going to take a lot of fuel to keep everyone moving.  From my exchange of emails it sounds like the race director has an army of cooks to prepare food for all the participants.  Good news as they are going to need it!

Happy (I want fries on everything!) Trainin!

Cliff

Did a 10K on the weekend, Running Room St. Patricks Day race, to test the leg speed.  I’m always impressed what the body can do on tired legs.  After leading from start to finish I finished in an overall time of 34:06.

Did a 10K on the weekend, Running Room St. Patricks Day race, to test the leg speed.  I’m always impressed what the body can do on tired legs.  After leading from start to finish I finished in an overall time of 34:06.

My race had 3 different events spread out over 2 hours.  The first race was a 1500m time trial, [...]]]> On Saturday I participated in the second of three swim races held at the University of Ottawa.  This series called, “The Shark Tank”, is a mix of long distance swimming and life guard race drills.  

My race had 3 different events spread out over 2 hours.  The first race was a 1500m time trial, the second was a 400m obstacle course and the finale was a 200 TT on a zig zag course. 

If your wondering how the actual swim was prepared I’ve prepared a couple of sketches seen below. 

Swim course 

This is my beautiful picture of the pool.  So first thing, we had the entire pool to swim (8x50m).  One lap around the outside of all 6 buoys was 100ms.  The 1500 TT was 15 laps around the outside 6 buoys.  My lines are the obstacles for the 400 which were pulled during the 1500.  The 200 TT started at the top left buoy went down to the bottom left buoy up to the top middle buoy then down to bottom right and finished at the top right.  Confused?

So the 1500 TT was probably the best experience you could get for open water swimming in the winter.  In our “heat” there were 6 people.  Heat maybe an understatement as there was actually only 6 of us in total for the entire 2 hours!.  It wasn’t much of a race as everyone quickly spread out.  I swam around in no mans land except when I got lapped or lapped some of the others.  One lady did the entire course breast stroking!  Props.

The 400m was again done on the same course but this time the obstacles were brought in.  How this worked was the obstacles were submerged about 2.5ft and you had to swim up and under them as you went around.  It’s a weird feeling to be freestyling then all of a sudden dive down to go underneath a gate.  Neat experience. 

The night ended with the 200 TT.  It was an ambush to the first buoy which resembled a tri.  A couple of the life guards chose to join us for the last one.  Making it a little more congested (just a little).Overall the Shark Tank is a good experience.  It’s too bad there were not more people but I guess when it’s winter, people are not thinking triathlon training.  

Next one up is in March.

Race 1 – Super Sprint

Friday, May 21st, 2010 at 5:00 P.M.

SWIM: The 250 meter swim is a counter clockwise loop course in Turkey Creek Lake with participants starting in a time trial start every 3-5 seconds. Swim start is a dry [...]]]> Up for an adventure this spring? Four triathlons in 3 days!

Race 1 – Super Sprint

Friday, May 21st, 2010 at 5:00 P.M.

SWIM: The 250 meter swim is a counter clockwise loop course in Turkey Creek Lake with participants starting in a time trial start every 3-5 seconds. Swim start is a dry land running start. Wetsuits allowed.

BIKE: The 5 mile bike course is a challenging loop course to the top of the resort and back. Bring your climbing gears.

RUN: The 1 mile run course is an out and back course on Lamp Black Run trail.

Race 2 – Olympic Distance

Saturday, May 22nd, 2010 7:30 A.M.

SWIM: The 1500 meter swim is a counter clockwise loop course in Turkey Creek Lake with participants starting in a time trial start every 3-5 seconds. Swim start is a dry land running start. Wetsuits allowed.

BIKE: The 24.8 mile bike course is a challenging loop course on park fire roads within the park and state routes outside the park. Bring your climbing gears.

RUN: The 6.55 mile run course is an out and back course on Lamp Black Run trail.

Race 3 – Olympic Distance

Saturday, May 22nd, 2010 3:00 P.M.

BIKE: The 24.8 mile bike course is a challenging out and back course on the infamous route 125. Bring your climbing gears or pay!

SWIM: The 1500 meter swim is a counter clockwise loop course in Turkey Creek Lake with participants starting after the completion of the bike. Swim start is a running start from the transition area. Wetsuits allowed.

RUN: The 6.55 mile run course is an and back course on park fire on Lamp Black Run trail. This is a tough course. Same as morning run course.

Race 4 – Half Ironman

Sunday, May 23rd, 2010 at 7:00 A.M.

SWIM: The 1.2 mile swim is a counter clockwise 2 lap course in Turkey Creek Lake. Swim start is a dry land running start. Wetsuits allowed.

BIKE: The 55.5 mile 2 lap bike course is a VERY challenging loop course on paved fire roads within the park. Bring your climbing gears. This course is awesome – you won’t forget it!

RUN: The 13.1 mile run course is a double out and back course on Lamp Black Run trail. This is same course you’ve run on all weekend. You love it or hate it by now!

May 21st through 23rd, 2010 – in the majestic Shawnee State Park and Forest located in Portsmouth, Ohio, just 1.5 hours by car from the Columbus, Cincinnati and the Tri State areas.

The Shawnee State Park and Forest is known for its spectacular beauty, peaceful bliss and a wide variety of recreational activities as it is nestled in the southeast corner of Ohio and Tri-State area.

Portsmouth, OH

Shawnee State Park
4404 State Route 125
Portsmouth, OH 45663

On Saturday, Amanda and I ran in the 4/5 in the 5Peaks series held near Wakefield QC.  If you remember, I had been here once before racing at the National Snowshoe Championships.  In fact it was the same (or very similar) course.

Both of us knew we had lost fitness from the summer.  [...]]]>

On Saturday, Amanda and I ran in the 4/5 in the 5Peaks series held near Wakefield QC.  If you remember, I had been here once before racing at the National Snowshoe Championships.  In fact it was the same (or very similar) course.

Both of us knew we had lost fitness from the summer.  How much, well we were about to find out!

The race was 10.4K in length and the terrain was hilly to put it mildly (1600 ft of climbing/descending).  There were 96 participants that took part.

Since I had a good idea of the course, I positioned myself right at the front.  It  payed off as I led out the race for the first 200ms into some very narrow sections.  After this I let others take over the pacing and settled in for 5th place.

Whats funny is I was running against the same people who I had competed against in the snowshoe championships in the spring.  The only difference was I wasn’t wearing shoes that were twice as big!  Game on!

At about 3K I was in 5th spot, biding my time.  There were 2 guys who were about 50ms ahead which I kept an eye on.  I decided to move up into 3rd, just to be safe, and also to see how strong these guy were.

Then, the guy who was in 1st took a wrong turn, putting me into second.  Shortly after the gent in front fell over (tripped on a tree).  That left me to lead this race.  And that was it.  From then on it was just me.  I looked back a couple of times to see if anyone was around but I couldn’t even hear foot steps.  Great, cruise control on!

As I crossed the finish line I was met with some puzzled faces as people were expecting somebody else to win.  Sorry (not really) to spoil the party.

Amanda had a great showing to, finishing a solid 4th overall in the womans race.  She’s done very well in her first year of XC running.

Thanks for reading!

Happy (Back to using rabbit ears to watch TV) Trainin!

Cliff