Wilmerding Pumpkin Chase 5k

Race: 5k run
Date: 26 October 2013
Location: Wilmerding, PA
Time: 25:57
Overall Rank: 11 out of XX
Age Group Rank: 3 out of X

Another run in 34 degree temps, but it was a beautiful morning otherwise, and I dressed warm enough for it. I decided to speed down the first hill and got tired by the first mile marker. In fact, I kind of got bored. I had started at the front of the group and maintained a position toward the front, so there were only 5 people ahead of me, spaced widely apart. By the end of the race, another 5 people passed me so I ended in 11th place. I don't think I slowed my pace, but I may have. Having so few people in front might have led me to revert to a slower pace since it was kind of like a regular run rather than a race. The 8:22 mile/min pace is good, but I've gone faster than that several times before. In fact, I was 33 seconds slower this year compared to the same race last year. I don't care that much about this shortfall; I have barely trained for anything in the past two months.

AMYMSA Swim Meet

Race: Masters Swim Meet
Date: 20 October 2013
Location: Indiana, PA
Results: http://www.amymsa.org/Results/S2013-2014/IndianaOct13.html

Second swim meet of the season. I felt great, even though I haven't been doing a lot of training in the pool lately.

Event #1: 200 freestyle
New personal best of 2:38.11. This beats my old personal best of 2:38.45 I set in April 2013. This was a great swim. It felt perfect. I shattered my seed time, which I always set as my personal best so I know immediately if I have set a new record. I made a mistake this time, though. I submitted a seed time for the 200-free based on the 200-IM, so I did not shatter my old record by as much as I initially thought. Oh well, it's still a new PB.

Event #2: 50 backstroke
I swam this in 38.49, missing my personal best by about two seconds. I was still tired from the 200 free, and I misjudged the wall and failed to do a good turn.

Event #3: 50 butterfly
This went pretty effortlessly. I swam in 33.17, which was just a half-second away from my personal best of 32.43. I could have sped up my stroke rate and gone faster.

Event #4: 100 Individual Medley
I swam this in 1:15.24 which bested my previous time by 0.67 second. I was pretty tired by this time but this felt good. I was breathing really hard after I got out of the pool, so I know I did my best.

Penguins 6.6K Run

Race: 6.6K run
Date: 6 October 2013
Location: Pittsburgh, PA
Time: 34:52
Overall Rank: 535 out of 3051
Age Group Rank: 39 out of 167 (top 23%)
Results: http://runhigh.com/2013RESULTS/R100613AC.html

Oddly, with a 8:30 min/mile pace I landed in the top 23% of men in my age group (39 out of 167). I don't think I've ever placed so well with a pace like that. It was a good pace, but it is far from that of a top runner.

The run was fun until the end when there is a hill and I was going faster than normal because I was trying to keep up with a guy who I was having a conversation with. I very slowly got dropped as the finish line approached. Good bye, new friend! Good bye....


Penguins 6.6k run in downtown Pittsburgh

AMYMSA Swim Meet

Race: AMYMSA Swim Meet
Date: 15 Sept 2013
Location: Pittsburgh, PA

This was my first AMYMSA masters swim meet of the season. I started with a 400 warmup. It felt good, so why push it? No stress.

Event #1: 100 freestyle
Finished in 1:07.37, about 1 second off my personal best. This is great, since it is the first swim meet and with the triathlon season just finishing, I haven't been training for short races. Dive was great, first turn was perfect. Then my turns got progressively worse. I felt sick with lactic acid for several minutes after this race, so I know I worked hard. My stroke felt really wild; my body was not rigid as it should be, so there is a lot of drag I can reduce and wasted energy I can recoup with improved form and less panic.

Event #2: 50 free
Finished in 29.53, which is a personal best. I knew this was going to be a fast swim when I was in the water. It felt perfect.

Event #3: 50 breast
Finished in 37.34 seconds which beat my old personal best by 1.28 seconds. That's a big improvement, and it was probably due to my dive and underwater glide. My coach and I practiced that a couple days ago. I put it to good use and didn't surface until well past the 15-yard line. Otherwise, my stroke felt rushed and inefficient. I was fast (for me), but there is a lot of improvement I could still make.

Event #4: 25 fly
Completed in 13.74 seconds, which was 0.98 seconds faster than my previous personal best. I smashed it. My dive was great, I did some strong dolphin kicks to get to the surface, and then I sped up my stroke cadence. In the past I have paused a bit with my arms outstretched ahead of me but I have been working this summer to get rid of the pause.

The Nation's Triathlon

Race: The Nation's Triathlon
Date: September 8, 2013
Location: Washington. DC
Time: 2:49:32
Overall Rank: 952 out of 2864
Age Group Rank: 149 out of 316 (top 47%)
Results: http://nationstri.com/results/2013-results/#/person:&entry_id=945:1391895807835

My third season of triathlon has now closed and this race was a great ending. I must confess a malaise crept upon me during parts of the summer; I did not always look forward to my training sessions in the pool, road, and trail. Nor do I particularly enjoy the actual racing; it is hard. But the day after a successful race can be fantastic. That is how I feel today. I feel accomplished. I feel like a triathlete and not someone who just does triathlons.

My friend Geoff and I travelled to Washington, DC on Friday. On Saturday we picked up our registration packets, browsed the expo, attended the pre-race meeting to go over the race course, and left our bikes in the transition zone. On Sunday morning, we left Geoff’s parents’ house and drove into the city, arriving around 6am. The first wave of the race began at 7am. An hour seemed like plenty of time to set up, but I had no time to spare. We parked in the suggested parking lot, but I didn’t realize we would have to walk >0.5 mile to the starting line. The transition zone entrance was a snarl of people and it took a while to get in and out. The Nation’s Tri is billed as the largest triathlon in North America. There were more than 3,000 athletes registered. All of them had to pass through a 12-foot width entrance to the transition zone at least twice (going in and going out) in the half hour before the race began.



From official race website.

SWIM (1.5 K = 0.9 mile)
I finished in 30:58, which was ranked 78 out of 316 (top 24%) in my age group.

The course was in the Potomac River near the Lincoln Memorial. Swimmers swam upstream and under the Arlington Memorial Bridge, then turned around and came back. The swim was a time-trial start, with waves of 8 athletes pushing off every 15 seconds. This really helped to space people apart and minimized the bodily contact that I had to deal with in my previous open water races. I did well in those past races, but I really didn’t feel like fighting people today, so I chose to swim out to the side and make wide turns around the buoys. This means I probably swam greater than 1500 meters, but it was stress-free and I felt good. The water was 79.5 degrees (wetsuits not legal) and as smooth as open water could possibly be. My time of 30:27 does not impress me, since I covered the same distance in choppier water at the Pittsburgh Triathlon in July 2013 in 25:27.

I exited the water just behind my friend Geoff. He had a head start by several minutes, but I didn’t know by how many, so I wasn’t sure at that point whether I had swam fast enough to compensate for the faster run time I expected he would have.

T1 transition (3:51)
This went really smoothly. Given nearly 3,000 athletes, the transition zone was huge, so probably a minute of this time was spent running from entrance to exit. I also had to slow down a bit in order to pass an athlete in a wheelchair. I felt bad about rushing past him.

BIKE (40 K = 24.9 miles)
I finished in 1:14:50, which was ranked 152 out of 316 (top 48%) in my age group. My average speed was 19.9 mph.

The course was made up of two identical loops. We started out near the Lincoln Memorial and went across the 14th Street Bridge to the Pentagon, where we did a 180-degree turn and looped back to the Lincoln Memorial and travelled north to George Washington University. We did another 180-degree turn and headed west on the Whitehurst Freeway to near the Key Bridge and then another 180-degree turn to take us back towards Lincoln again. There was yet another 180-degree turn along Rock Creek and Potomac Parkway. The tight turns on this course were my favorite parts. I feel I have excellent bike handling skills and took the turns as fast and tight as I could to get ahead of my competitors. While there were some sights to see, most of this route was on multi-lane highways closed to car traffic. It was not as picturesque as I expected, but I was concentrating on racing and wouldn’t have appreciated the scenery anyway. There were two tunnels we passed under, and it got really dark under there. I made sure to go “hooooo!” under one of them, as is my custom.



From official race website.

I felt good on the first loop but after mile 14 my back started hurting. It gets that way if I have not trained enough in the bent-over position that fast bike riding requires. I decided I would not let this pain get in my way and I don’t remember it hurting on the rest of my ride. However, my calf and hamstring muscles were starting to twitch and cramp at mile 20 and I slowed down a tad to give them a break. I have had leg cramps spoil a run in previous triathlons, so I knew this was something to pay attention to. I drank plenty of water while on the bike, and I also consumed a gel, which I have never done while on the bike before. It did not prove difficult, and it may have helped with the cramping issue.

On the second loop, approaching the Pentagon (which, by the way, I never saw because I was always looking at the road), I came upon a bike crash involving at least four cyclists. The bikes were strewn at random angles and two people were sitting on the pavement being attended to by race officials and medics. I think all of us who passed by this scene became less aggressive on our bikes for the next mile or so as we processed the fact that what we were doing was dangerous. With so many bikes on the course, we were almost always next to another cyclist, passing them, or being passed. Just like driving a car on a highway, you have to look behind you to make sure there is room before initiating a pass. There are also “slow drivers” that are hazards and some elite cyclists that zoom past you without warning. I even yelled at one of the latter, telling him to “pass on the left, dude!” When I use the word “dude” in this context, you know I was not being friendly. Overall, I had great fun on this bike course, and people were mostly following the rules about drafting, blocking, and no passing near the bridge.

I never saw Geoff while on the bike. I assume that meant he was still behind me, meaning I had preserved my lead. But I couldn’t be sure.

T2 transition (2:58)
I felt better than I was as I racked my bike in the transition zone. As I bent down to change my shoes, I realized that I was super stiff in my hips. I most certainly didn’t feel like running, so I took my time and walked out of the transition zone. The spectators would not have that, so they yelled at me encouragingly until I started to run.

RUN (10 K = 6.2 miles)
I finished in 56:56, which was ranked 188 out of 316 (top 59%) in my age group. This equates to a 9:11 min/mile pace, which was only slightly slower than my run segment in the Pittsburgh Triathlon earlier in the summer.

I felt surprisingly good during the first 4 miles of this run. I kept a steady pace, but not rushed. I figured I would go a bit faster in my last mile. There were some folks who had stopped to walk, and a few were moving their arms but their feet weren’t keeping up. I passed them. It felt good to do so. Running is not my strong suit. There were spectators in places, many of them clapping, ringing cowbells, and dressed in banana suits. Yes, you read that right. There were several people dressed as bananas. It made me smile, and a smile is worth a lot when you are starting to get fatigued.

Between mile 4 and 5.5 I started to feel ill. My stomach was upset from the exertion and the heat (it was in the mid 80s at this point). My heart rate monitor told me I was peaking out in the 170s bpm. My vision was a little dim. But then a spectator said “look, you can see the finish line!” and she was right. There, about half a mile ahead, I saw the finish. So I kept going. I even quickened my pace and held my head high for the photographers.

This was a big regional race. The top 25 finishers in the whole race were from 10 states and the District of Columbia. Overall, I finished in 2:49:32, which was faster than the 3-hour goal that I had set. It ranks me 149 out of 316 (top 47%) in my gender-age group, and in the top 42% of all male competitors. In such a large field of athletes from all around the east coast of the United States, I feel really good to be better than half of them. I also beat my friend Geoff by more than 10 minutes, which is a second little victory that I celebrate, but it is done good-naturedly and with great respect for his excellent performance. I would not have been upset if he beat me, because this race is about what I can do independent of what he can do. I gave it everything I had and feel stronger and more alive today because of it.

I thank Geoff for his friendship and companionship. I also thank him for tolerating my erratic driving on the DC highways. Thanks are also due to his parents for hosting us and cheering us on. It was great to finally meet them.

Presque Isle Sprint Triathlon 2013

Race: Sprint Triathlon
Date: August 24, 2013
Location: Erie, Pa.
Time: 1:24:13.45
Overall Rank: 111 out of 370
Age Group Rank: 16 out of 29
Results: http://runhigh.com/2013RESULTS/R082413GA/AgeGroups.htm

This was my fourth triathlon of the season and I have one more in two weeks. This one went fine but it was another mediocre or ordinary experience for me, as I improved my time compared to last year’s race by just 34 seconds. That amount of improvement is not satisfying given the more intense training I’ve done this year. However, it’s still an improvement and I did quite well considering my month of August has featured a lot of traveling and stress at work.  I recall saying last time that I was not worried much about being slow in transition zones, but with this race, I can see that I could save a minute or two by having faster transitions, and that would at least make me feel better about my overall time, even if I had no measurable improvement in the actual swimming, cycling, and running. I will have to consider how to speed things up in all areas next year!
 

SWIM segment, 640 yards

Time: 13:34.10
Age Group Rank: 2 out of 29
Overall Rank: 39 out of 370

If I can celebrate anything with this race, it was the swim. Compared to last year, I improved my time by 17%, finishing 2:16 faster. When I look at the overall results, I was ranked #39 out of 370 competitors. That’s an incredible feeling, knowing I was faster than almost 90% of the field. I attribute this to better sighting (swimming more in a straight line to minimize overall distance covered), a stronger stroke (I have increased my speed over the last year), and my new wetsuit (no wetsuit last year). The wetsuit not only provides warmth in 74-degree water, but it also increases buoyancy in the torso and legs, which helps the swimmer reduce drag. The water was somewhat choppy. It was also filled with seaweed that got in my mouth sometimes! The swimmers were released in “waves” according to their reported confidence in open-water swimming. I was supposed to respond to an email a few weeks ago asking me about my confidence, but I have been on several trips and didn’t read the email until the day before the race. Therefore, I was placed in the fourth of five waves, which ended up being composed of less-confident swimmers. The same thing happened to my friend Dan, so we positioned ourselves up front and soon got ahead of our group. We had a few minutes of time in the water without other swimmers around, and then we started encountering the waves of swimmers ahead of us. Traffic jam! I feel like I was fighting these swimmers for the rest of the race, often coming into bodily contact with them. I have lost my fear of being hit y someone, and I just try to plow through the human mass as best I can. It’s not fun, but I think I do it pretty well.

T1 TRANSITION

My transition time between swim and bike was 2:25.20, which was just a fraction of a second faster than last year. This is significant, since last year I was not wearing a wetsuit and this year I was. It takes a bit of time to pull the wetsuit off, so I am happy to see that it didn’t slow me down at all. I should still work on being faster, though, as I was ranked 25 out of 29 in my age group.

BIKE segment, 13 miles

Time: 38:06.75
Age Group Rank: 19 out of 29

Here is the big surprise. I finished this segment around a minute slower this year compared to last year. Cycling is my strongest sport and my goal was to burn rubber on the road. Dan and I were evenly matched on the swim, so he was just a couple bikes ahead when I started the cycling segment. He increased his lead almost immediately. Several things worked against me. First, I was last on my road bike two weeks ago, doing the North Park triathlon. My legs did not feel strong, then or now. Second, and more acutely, I was out of breath when I started the ride. I don’t remember having this issue before. Third, I experienced a mild stomach cramp almost as soon as I started riding. Fourth, my front wheel began rubbing one of my brake pads. When I noticed this, I slowed down and attempted to adjust the brake pad with my hands with no success. I thought about stopping to take off the front wheel and then re-install it. But I knew if I stopped to service my bike I would lose valuable time. So I just kept going. At some point I figured the rim would wear away enough of my brake pad that it would stop causing friction. I assumed that happened, because after a couple minutes I forgot about the problem. After the race, as we were walking our bikes back to the car, Dan said “what’s that noise?” and I saw the issue had not been resolved. So, it appears I raced the whole time with a misaligned wheel or brake pad, and that could certainly be a cause for my slower performance this year. I really hate to blame it on a mechanical issue, though. I was not in top condition. That is still a big reason why I rode slower than expected.

 

T2 TRANSITION

My transition time between bike and run was 1:27.10, more than 17 seconds faster than last year. I would have gone even faster, but I was super thirsty after my bike ride and paused to take several squirts of water from my water bottle. Maybe I should have loaded my bike with a water bottle instead of keeping it in the transition zone. For sprint-length races, I keep it in transition because the bike segment isn’t long enough to require me to drink. At least, that is how I reasoned it. But next time I will take water with me. It doesn’t weight that much.

RUN segment, 3.5 miles

Time: 30:56.30

Age Group Rank: 21 out of 29

I ran this segment 46 seconds slower this year. I am really disappointed in that, because I actually felt like I was running fast. However, it took a mile of running to feel that way. I had to run my first mile at a very slow pace because my calves were starting to cramp. When I feel that happen, I just slow down and give them a chance to adjust; else they go into a full cramp and force me to quit completely. This must-avoid-the-cramp period must have gone on longer than I thought. Eventually, I was running at a good quick pace and was passing a lot of people in the last mile.

To sum up, I swam faster and improved my transitions. Then I got tired and couldn’t ride my bike or run as fast as I wanted. I still beat my old time, so all is well, and I look forward to this race again.

Ostrich Uproar 5K

Race: 5K run
Date: 16 August 2013
Location: Chicago, IL
Time: 24:20
Overall Rank: 19 out of 40

This was a small race with about 40 participants. I came in 19th place. My competitors were all my professional peers; it took place during the annual conference of the American Ornithologists' Union. Apparently, people who study birds for a living run quite fast! I went out too quick and burned out by mile 2. The person who came in second was a college kid attending the conference for the first time. He said he would have come in first if he hadn't stopped to vomit during the race. Too funny!

When I mapped the distance, it appears to have been shorter than 5K. Instead, it was 2.94 miles, which gives me a running pace of about 8:16 min/mile.

This is the turn-around point of the 5K run in Chicago. We started downtown near the tallest building.