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July 24, 2007
Vineman 70.3
Vineman IRONMAN 70.3 Race Report
We left for Sonoma County about 7:30 AM on Saturday, arrived at Windsor around 11:00 AM. Sign in was a breeze, as the race was very well organized. Waited for the 1:00 racers meeting, and suffered through way more details about drafting and red cards/yellow cards than any of us wanted to hear.
After the meeting, I set up my run transition in the grassy area behind the gym (the swim is 15 miles away), and then we set off to drive the course. I think my wife has a much better understanding of just how big an accomplishment this crazy 1/2 iron distance is - we were both exhausted by the time we finished driving the route.
We stayed in Guerneville, at a little place called "Dawns Ranch Lodge". Booked it sight unseen, and we were just a little bit apprehensive, based on some of the comments about Guerneville (think dueling banjos).
We were pleasantly surprised, the place was clean, rustic but cute, and literally filled with triathletes. In fact, we had a great conversation with Chris Lieto and his buddy at dinner - Chris went on to finish 4th in the pro division.
Anyway, had a great dinner, walked down to the beach to see how the transition area shaped up, and they were still putting it together at 8:30 PM - so I figured I'd just have to sort out the details of where to put my bike in the morning.
Went back to the room, and did my final loading of my fuel, water, checking off all the things I would need in the morning. Finally went to bed around 10:00PM, and tossed and turned until 3:30 AM – when at last I decided to get up and get ready. I’m pretty sure I never really slept – I know that I never hit that “REM” stage of sleep. What was especially ironic was the fact that I brought not one, but two alarm clocks to make sure that I woke up on time - and did not even need an alarm....
With my 6:30 swim wave, I knew I would have to get up early - but I was hoping for just a little bit of real sleep.
I checked out the transition area around 4:30 AM, looked high and low for a cup of coffee but there was none to be found in the Town of Guerneville at that hour of the morning. I had figured this would be the case, and had a "cold" starbucks coffee in reserve - but a hot cup would really have been nice.
Anyway, got all my gear together, had a bagel with peanut butter, banana, and a shot of water and a gel - and headed to the beach. The beach was walking distance from our hotel, which really made it nice - no parking hassles, and my wife was able to sleep in a little bit. Set up the transition, and went down to the beach for the final word on wetsuits - water temperature was 77.2 degrees - so wetsuits were allowed!!!!
Put on my suit, a last hug and photo with my wife and into the "holding corral" I went.
SWIM:
Really not much of a warm-up - other than walking around, and setting up the transition area. Paddled around a little bit waiting for my wave to get sent off.
This was the first race I had really experienced the "washing machine". Once the horn blew, people started slamming into me, and it continued almost the whole race - it is a narrow river, and my pace seemed to be the exact same pace that everyone else in my wave was going. My swim pace felt pretty good through the whole swim, I just focused on not getting kicked and knocked out, and tried to swim as efficiently as possible.
My goal this race was to draft a little - I have never really been successful with that in past races. I did find a few sets of feet to follow for a while, but invariably one of us would go off course, and then they would be kicking me, rather than me following them. I did seem to provide a good lead vehicle for someone, however, as they were drafting off of me (and tapping my feet and ankles) most of the swim.
As usual, right near the end of the swim I felt a cramp coming on in my right foot - I just quit kicking all together and was able to make it go away - and just powered in to shore just using my arms.
Overall I am very happy with this swim time - I held the same pace that I have done in much shorter races, across this much longer 1.2 mile course. I finished the swim in 43 minutes, 13 seconds, with a pace of just over 2 minutes per 100 yards.
T-1
Long transition run - as well as having to pick up all my swim equipment, stuff into my bag and hand off to my wife (next transition was 15 miles away). That all went good, but I'm sure I lost some time there. Total T-1 time was 3 minutes, 31 seconds.
BIKE
Started out real easy - knowing that this was going to be a long day. Settled into an 18-20 mph pace, taking in Gatorade and nutrition. My plan for this event was mostly solid types of food on the bike (granola bars, fig Newton’s, peanut butter crackers, etc.), and then switch to more readily available sugar types (Shot Blok's, GU's, etc) on the run. I alternated between water and Gatorade on the bike, and the aero bottle set up worked excellent.
I pre-froze the aero unit, and then used dry ice to keep it frozen (since our hotel did not have a freezer). That actually worked perfectly, as it thawed out about mile 10, and I was able to have ice cold water for much of the ride. When it finally went dry, I just grabbed a new bottle at the aid station, dumped it in and never really even slowed down.
I told myself very early on to take it easy on the bike - and to enjoy the ride. It was absolutely a stunning ride, as the fog was rolling through the lower portions of the valley, rolling through the vineyards and oak woodlands.
I probably could have cut 5-10 minutes off my time, had I "raced" this, rather than "rode" the course. Since this was my first time at this distance, I wanted to make sure I did not blow up early, and then have trouble with the run. Also, since I had not been across the course on a bike, I was a little unsure of myself, as there were plenty of hazards just waiting to jump out and grab the unsuspecting cyclist. Just 7 or 8 miles into the race, I say a racer down the embankment, with his bike even further down the embankment, being tended to by the medics – that helped reinforce to me that I’m not really in that big of a hurry.
Bike ride really was pretty uneventful – I had one guy passed me, and about that same time I moved over to the left to avoid a pothole – and we “clicked” handlebars. I really glad that turned out OK. Most of the race spent behind other riders, trying to keep from getting a “drafting penalty”, and passing people when I could. Around mile 30 met up with my wife at the intersection of 128 and 101 – I stopped, gave her a sweaty hug, and a kiss – and posed for a photo. Yea, I know this cost me some time – but it was worth it to recognize her, and to help her feel like she was part of this Ironman experience.
Around mile 40 I'm cruising along, one hand holding a powerbar, the other on the areo bars, doing probably 20 plus miles an hour on a downhill stretch, and I feel some kind of an insect whack me in the helmet. I landed right between the helmet and my sunglasses, and I could feel it crawling around after the impact. My first thought was, Oh, Great, now I have a Bumble Bee, stuck underneath my helmet, with a really bad attitude since he just had his morning flight interupted - and sure enough, by the time I could mentally process what had happened, it stung me just above the left eye. If someone would have had a video camera trained on me I sure I would have made a pretty funny site - me careening down the road, whacking myself in the helmet with a powerbar (the only hand I had that was free at the moment), trying to get that damned bee out from under my helmet. Luckily, I either killed him, or he figured out how to exit on his own, and I was able to continue on after a few choice words.
Mile 42’ish we hit the much internet chat room talked about “Chalk Hill”. All I can say is that the wine people do not know a hill when they see it. Sure, it put me down in low gear for a few minutes – but after riding Humboldt, Cohasset, Honey Run and Table Mountain – this could at best be considered a “bump in the road”, rather than a real hill. Of course, I was passed by about a dozen riders going up this “bump in the road”, but I’m starting to get used to that feeling. Once we hit the flats coming back into town, I realized that I was in high gear again – I had noticed that I spent a lot of time in high gear this trip. Normally, I do not pull high gear unless I’m on some kind of downhill. I was hopeful that this fact would help my overall bike time (which it did). I ended up finishing the 56 mile bike in 3 hours and 9 minutes, which worked out to just under 18 miles per hour average. After 5 years of racing, this was my fastest pace ever – so I was very, very happy with that.
T-2
Transition started with a long run (probably at least 75 to 100 yards of running with your bike). Unfortunately, I got behind a gal that really was not in a big hurry to find her spot - and there wasn't really enough room to pass without being a real jerk. So, I calmed down, again focused on enjoying the experience.
Even with the long, slow run in and out, my time was only 2 minutes and 12 seconds. The water bottle I had left frozen in the ice chest the previous day was still about 1/2 ice - which meant that I had 28 ounces of beautiful, ice cold water to drink and to dump on my head, as the temperatures really were starting to heat up.
RUN:
Run started pretty well (Oh, I guess most of them do). My first mile was just a bit over 8 minutes, and I quickly realized that I was going way too fast - slowed down to about a 9 minute mile for the next few miles. As I followed a runner (female) out of the transition, I was kidding her because her mom was there, giving her a bad time for not wearing a hat (just like mom's do). Anyway, I've fallen in behind her, and I notice that she is really sweating profusely on her legs - I can see the sweat beading up and literally running down her legs - and then I realize, this is not sweat...... That was enough of an "ewwwwe" factor to motivate me to pass her. I had always heard stories of athletes not wanting to stop to use the porta-potties – but this was way too graphic of a testimonial that the practice does exist.
This course has lots of hills - and I made a calculated decision to walk the crest of each one, to help keep my heart rate under control. I was alternating between water and Gatorade at the rest stops, supplemented with my own water I carried. After the half way point, I was then getting one Gatorade, and two waters, dumping the second water over my head. I could feel my core temperature rising, and knew that I was also getting dehydrated. I ate three gels, and two shot blocks during the first 8 miles or so, and really wanted to take in more, but was not sure my stomach could handle it.
About mile 10, I briefly considering "kicking" it out, and trying to bring my time in under 6 hours - it's only a 5K, I thought to myself. Luckily, I quickly threw that idea out as being no good, and stuck with the nice, slow pace back to the finish. By mile 12, I was really glad I didn't try to speed up, cause my right calf was trying it's damn’est to cramp up on me, and by favoring it, now my left quad was also talking to me. The only bright spot was that now my head was throbbing so much from the previous bee sting, it really helped distract me from the much more serious problems of dehydration and cramping.
I sucked it up and just keep moving, headed towards the finish chute. Once in the chute, it was very emotional, my wife was crying, and I was pretty close to it. They ladies at the finish line did a great job of catching us at the finish, wiping us down with ice sponges, and handing us our medals and water bottle. They had a photographer at the end, and they really took care of us through the whole race.
WARM DOWN:
Walked around, drank two bottle of water, and my chocolate milk (that my wife had brought with her, in a bag of ice). She took the extra ice and put it in my jersey, and dumped the water over my head - what a great way to cool down in a hurry.
EVENT COMMENTS:
This is the biggest race I have participated in - 1800 plus racers. The organizers did an AWESOME job - they had over 800 volunteers out helping us, it was on time, everything was where it needed to be - and the course was spectacular. I really enjoyed this race, and I am hopeful that my schedule will allow me to come back next year.
Posted by Dennis at 06:37 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
July 14, 2007
Swimming with the Pro's
I'm putting together my final race plan for Vineman next Sunday - and going through the literature, I find out that my group (45-49 males) will be the first group to swim at 6:30 AM - just five minutes behind the 30 some professional triathletes that have signed up for this race. How cool is that!! I'm sure this is the closest I will ever be to "competing" with the professional triathletes - and it's pretty sporting of me to give them a 5 minute head start!!!
The other really nice thing about starting early is that I should be able to finish by around 1:00 PM - before it gets incredibly hot. The poor guys that do not start until 8:30 that are as slow as I am will have a long, hot aftenoon - it looks like the temperatures are going to mid 90's by afternoon.
I'm busy packing, working thru my checklists, and trying to make sure that I am "prepared for anything". I have more that just a little bit of nervousness - this is by far the longest triathon I've done (about twice a far as my olympic distance last year). Lots of little things to think about - such as band-aids. On 1/2 marathons and longer, I always put band-aids on my nipples, to keep the friction from getting ulgly about mile 10. Now, I have to worry about putting them on before the swim, and hoping they stay on - or taking extras, and putting on in transition between bike and run.
Tomorrow I work on the the bike - new tires, tubes, a good wash job, oil the chain, and go thur the toolbag to make sure I'm ready for 56 miles of fun (and any curves that the course may throw at me).
Final sign-ups for this race were limited to 2000 "age-groupers" such as myself, and 30 or so professionals. My hope is to finish this race in less than 6 hours and 30 minutes, which should put me in the front "half" of the group.
If you are curious how well I lived up to my goal, the results should be posted here sometime Monday afternoon
http://www.vineman.com/index_main.php3?l=h
Just click on Results, then Vineman 70.3 July 22, 2007 for the race results.
Posted by Dennis at 09:08 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
July 09, 2007
12 Days till Vineman
Only 12 days left until race day!!!! I can't believe that I am done with all the serious training - only thing left now is a sensible taper, and a gradual reduction in calories up until race day so that I arrive on race day, fit, light, and ready to run the race of my life.
My last big brick was yesterday, I did a 40 mile, pretty fast paced bike ride, then took off on a 5 mile run. I did all of this in the heat of the afternoon (started at 90 degrees, finished the run at 98 degrees) to replicate the weather conditions I will likely see on race day. The bike ride was ok, but the run really, really sucked the life out of me. By the time I clicked off 5 miles, I was totally spent, out of water, out of food, and out of energy. This workout was a good reminder to me to stay focused during the race, and do not push the bike ride too hard - that can have a terribly bad effect on your run pace.
Just a series of lighter workouts this week, a pretty easy weekend, then a series of 3 way bricks next week - all short, but higher intensity. I'll probably take two rest days (Friday and Saturday), and then it's off to the race.
Posted by Dennis at 09:12 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack