Race Report - Magrath 'I Swam The Dam' Triathlon

I competed in the Magrath 'I Swam The Dam' triathlon this past weekend. My results were as follows:
53 place overall
Bib #462
Category OLY40-49M
Swim: 00:44:34.00 was 73 overall and 10th in category
Bike: 01:18:27.45 was 39 overall and 8th in category
Run: 00:55:24.40 was 41 overall and 8th in category
Overall: 02:58:25.85, and 9 / 10 in category

The swim was both better and worse than last year. I am showing some progress, and that makes me happy. My friend Gina helped with supervising my only open water swim before the race. we discussed what was making me get wound up and panicy during the swim, and discussed ways for me to handle the swim. What we came up with was a longer warmup, lots of time in the water blowing bubbles before the race starts. Do at least one sprint, so that I can get my heart rate up, then bring it down again. After 20 minutes in the practice swim, I was fine.

So, I made it to 500m doing a combo of front crawl and breast stroke. Was feeling really good. then I got hit by three swells in a row, where I was breathing water instead. I had practiced not getting excited, but just waiting for the next chance when I had a splash in the pool. but the three in a row did me in. I tried to switch to breast stroke, and couldn't do it without getting water in my mouth. Tried backstroke, same thing. I was panicing. I was ready to say 'I'll take the DQ thanks, come get me'. waved a kayak over. They gave me a kickboard. 'I am allowed to use this?' I ask. 'Sure' comes the response. Not like I was in any danger of winning.

So I finished the swim with a kick board. Its not easy to swim this way, so the fact that I beat last years time by 2 minutes tells me that I was doing really good on the swim before I cratered. One other thing I did differently was using both neoprene cap and ear plugs. I felt good, tired but good when I finally came out of the water. No dizzyness like last year.

Finished 73rd of 75 for the swim, keeping alive my triathlon streak, never last in the swim, but 2nd or 3rd last every time. I think I was talking to 74 (Niki Kearl) and 75 (Jacquie Brezovski) at the start, we were the ones hanging out in the back, being nervous about the swim.

Through T1 was fairly quick I thought. Body-glide on socks works like a hot damn. Had minimal T1 anyway. My T1 equipment list is Bike, shoes, socks, helmet, sunglasses, mesh cap, race bib, and garmin. Stowed 1 package of Shot Chomps in the tri-suit, f0r 180 calories on bike.

The bike ride was great. There was a little bit of a breeze from the west, so we had a little headwind on the outbound 7k. This was fine by me, as I was not in the mood, or shape for that matter, to want to crank it up anyway. Had to stop once on th eoutbound, because I could hear the speed sensor magnet making contact with the sensor itself. These sensors dont have a good way to hold position on this bike, so shit happens.

So after the turn-around, I was ready to crank it up. This was first ride of the year on the TT bike, and I love it even more. I had tuned it up a little, to correct 2 problems from last year. First was that I dropped the chain twice when shifting to big ring, and I had some trouble with the Speedo, more on that later. Now, on big ring shifts, you have to just slightly slow the cadence to get it to grab, and had no problem with that adjustment. Now I could go to big ring with confidence, and I did so many times. On two downhills, I hit peak speeds of 60 kmh. I briefly remember thinking that if anything went wrong, I was likely a dead man. but it felt great, and not at all scary. I also removed the bento box, and did not have it bumping my knees, so there was nothing annoying about the bike. Other than some saddle soreness, as I did not have enough time in this saddle before the race.

I also had one 5k segment where I averaged 45kmh. I had a smoking ride, and fun too.

The run was what it was. I knew when I was cranking it on the bike that it would affect the run. My hamstrings were sore, and I was spotted by someone I knew when I was stretching. Funny how those moments catch your brain and say 'hope that doesn't happen to me', and 'been there done that'. Anyway, I was able to keep a reasonable pace, with some walk breaks to stretch it out. I had to pee when I started the run, and decided that I would need it later. Was I ever right. It was Hot Hot Hot. I did not drink anywhere near enough on the bike, and had a constantly dry mouth on the run. Still ran a 55 minute 10k, which is OK by me. I saw Debbie Scott somewhere before the turn-around on the run, and made a valiant effort to catch up to her on the run. Finished a mere 3 seconds behind her. Kudos to her, she had a great race.

So, all in all, I am happy with the results, given the non-specific nature of my training, and knowing that the swim still has my number. I have the following take-aways:

• neoprene cap + ear plugs are excellent accessories
• spending time with the bike, and fixing problems was nice
• need to practice open-water swimming, and also some strategies for handling swells.
  
• my minimal transitions worked fine
• need to hydrate more on the bike. way more. Did not finish 1/4 of my areo bottle, and its only 750ml-ish. Drank most of a dose of e-load heat formula.
• e-load heat formula, despite the name, tastes gross when its warm.
• Electing to not use sunscreen resulted in some painful radiation burns on my shoulder and arms.
  

The bike computer worked this time. Last year, the sensor magnet slipped, and then the computer didn't register speed. Since there was no speed, it decided every 5 minutes to stop showing cadence. Annoying, and fixed for this year.

Still have to look at the garmin traces, and I will update if I find anything interesting.
Update: I walked for between 15 seconds and 1 minute each kilometer.

Coaching philsophy.

Had an interesting chat while swimming with Debbie, in our Tri/SwimFit group.

She ran the Red Deer marathon on May 22, and had what she felt was a terrible race. I asked her what feedback she got from her coach, and the reply was "Nothing". Her coach had given her workouts, and little else, unfortunately.

As I am building my personal philosophy for coaching (and my focus is the late onset athlete, like myself), I think this this is an important point. I believe that a coach should guide you to the best race possible. and you can't start by making assumptions, like the most common, Lack of Fitness is the problem. Workouts is the solution.

A coach/athlete relationship should begin with a discussion and examination of the athletes goals, including examinations of past goals, and achivements or failures, and some quick evaluation of the potential causes.

Then you start with inventive goal setting.

One thing I found to work well for me is inventive Goal Setting. For example, when I started running marathons I had no specific goal, other than upright and smiling, and perhaps more injury free. As I got faster, I starting setting goal times, that ultimately were not based on my fitness level. Then I got a little inventive, and starting making the goal "run a good last 10k".

First time I succeded at this, I ran a huge PB, and near boston qualifier.

The larger point to be made is that coaching the late onset athlete requires you to look at fixing specific problems, that are keeping the athlete from reaching the goals. Look at all the areas. Diet and nutrition should be discussed, if a problem the athlete is dealing with is Gastric Distress, and Bonking. Sloshy Stomach is not caused by having the wrong fitness level, but it will make the athlete run slower.

Race Report - Scotiabank Calgary Marathon 2011

I ran the Calgary Marathon yesterday, and now that I have had a day to think about the results, here is my race report.


- Getting to the start line on the day

Yikes, another boondoggle with getting to the start line. By the time to were getting to the zoo parking lot, it was closed off for the race! After looping around a few times, we finally drove downtown, parked at a hotel, hopped a cab, and had him drop us off at the memorial drive LRT overpass.

- the start

Not the best start. I usually have this routine that I go through, chatting up the fellow competitors, and then having the pre-race Gas-X, 2 Advil and a Gel. well, we started, and I was getting to the bridge over memorial, past first K before I realized that I had not done that yet. So the process of getting a Gas-X opened while wearing cloth mitties was fun. Finally had to take them off to get it done. This was a good thing, as I had to do the 2 advil and the gel, and they would have been tough with gloves. Way to get your mind into the race.

no sign of the pace bunny, probably a good thing, after my experiences with last years.

- First 10k

Not a lot of chatty people this year. Tried to strike up a few conversations, but nothing coming back. Shut up and run.

Saw a homeless guy with a bag of bottles try to cross the race route in front of me. He actually did quite a good job of dodging runners, and altering his path to keep out of their way, until he found the guy who was running and looking at his feet. Heard a single swearword behind me, so I pretty much knew what happened.

Had my water bottle with e-load. That stuff does not actually taste good, I decided during this race. I did not finish it all by the 10K mark, and actually was still drinking it up to the Shaganappi hill, finally pitched it at the last aid station before the hill. The nice thing was that it let me skip the water stations for the first almost 15k of the run. They are always chaotic and crowded, and once you get rid of the rabble of the halfers, they become much more civilized.

- Shaganappi Hill

I think I managed the hill very well again this year, slowed down so that my heart rate did not climb more than 10 BPM, and I think I saw a peak of 156 BPM, well below threshold of 165.

- Fun in Varsity

The up and down of the little hills did not seem to bother me much this year. I will say that by this time, I was not paying so much attention to the Garmin, and I distinctly remember one steeply banked curve in the residential area, thinking that any velodrome worth visiting would be proud to have banked turns that steep. Luckily, there was only one that silly, and it was not that long, so didn't cause too much bother.

There is one part where the road goes through a golf course, and we ran past several golfers coming across the road. I yelled "thats what I should have done this morning, gone golfing instead of running." They laughed, and asked our pace, which was now headed for a 3:30. They seemed impressed.

I chatted with a fellow runner after this, as he confirmed that we were about on pace for a 3:30. My real concern at this point was whether I had to pick up the pace at all in order to get that 3:30, as I was starting to get more pains than I should have in this area. This was leading back to the 31K mark and the Shaganappi hill.

- Down the hill, and the last 10K

No bonkage!!!! I was wondering if I would feel any bonking, or symptoms during this race, and none were to be seen. Of course, this is when my weird knee pain started, and I think it was starting before the downhill, so I can't really blame it on that. My pace down the hill really didn't get better than 4:50, which surprised me, being downhill and all.


- Happy to be finished

Seriously thought about picking up the pace to a tempo run at the bottom of the hill. Really. The engine was fine. but the various pains would not let me go any faster. Kept saying to re-evaluate at 7k and 5k, and got the same answers from my body. Not Today.

Yikes, that last 3k was hard. I had lots of pains showing up everywhere, the knee was feeling weak rather than painful, as if it would give out if I landed wrong. Pushing the pace was difficult, and I did the best I felt that everything would put up with, which was luckily about my 5 minute pace to get me in for the 3:30.

I managed to get my water and keep running through the last aid station. surprised me, but then only a little went in my mouth, and the rest on my head.

Got my medal from Shawn DeFo :-) gave him a big hug for the honor. Geoff and Helen were at the finish line screaming for me. But first, I had to stand in the mist for more than a little while.


Quote of the day, courtesy of Rob Mott: "You can't fake a marathon. You can fake a 10k, and perhaps even a half marathon, but not the marathon."

Oh yeah, and his other quote. Response to 'How was the race'?

"Ouchy"

- Final thoughts

Eh, it was good and bad. Ran only 2 minutes slower than my PR, so thats good. But the whole race felt like work, as I never found that easy stride that I usually have.

Las Vegas Marathon - 2010 - Rock and Roll Baby

This is going to be a short race report.

I had the pleasure of running part of the race with Scott Jurek, ultra-endurance runner extraordinaire. I had seen him the day before at the fitness fair, and had read an article about him in Runners World, so I recognized him. I had made a few comments about the race to him, and chatted a bit. I then said that it was rare that, running the pace we were running, the he wanted to talk at all, and that everyone was so focused. He immediately apologized for sucking up my oxygen! My response, oh no not at all, and if he would let me, I would talk his ear off during the race.

What was nice about talking to him is that we kept the pace up. Usually when I get to talking, the pace falls off, and then when I recognize it, i really have to make up time. So that made the first half just seem to fly past.

I believe that my time for the first half was 1:40, so I am right on track to my 3:20. Then the second have hit. When you round the corner, you see the first hill, which is the freeway overpass. Its not a bad hill, its just psychological. but it looks big. and it feels hard. I slow down.

The second half was tough. lots of trying to keep pushing, but not keeping it up for long.

I finished in 3:28:27, so in reality, I ran the second half in 1:48, which is a decent half-marathon time. I had higher hopes. It is only 13 seconds slower than my PR, a race in which I ran the last 7K at threshold pace. There was no threshold pace to finish off this race.