2021 Year In Review

Over the next couple of weeks I plan to post a series of "Year-in-Review" updates as well as pivot towards my plan for 2022.  First up is a summary of my total training volume in 2021 as compared to the prior 10 years: 

Several points are probably worth highlighting:

1. 2021 was a year where I made a concerted effort to ramp up my swim volume.  I popped over 300,000 yards right before Christmas on a swim with Anders at his health club in Cali.  I'm taking this week off from swimming as my local pool is undergoing its annual maintenance, but I plan to hit the swim hard again in 2022--right from the get-go.  In early 2021, I wasn't able to swim much due to CoVid and so comparatively I would expect to have a much stronger first quarter in 2022.  My expectation would be to set a new annual swim volume record this year (359,000 is my current record) and perhaps get close to 400,000 yards.  I'd like to average over 40,000 yards/month for the first three months in 2022.

2. My run volume was off dramatically in 2021, which was a conscious choice.  My knee really needs to be replaced (hopefully after Kona in late 2022) and so I had decided to mostly focus on swim/bike with a plan to ramp up my run volume during the summer.  I had begun to do that when Kona was cancelled again in August and I stopped running and pivoted to mostly hiking/walking/climbing.   My plan is once again focus on swim/bike during the 1st quarter in 2022 as I think that's my best bet as far as getting ready for Kona, with my knee.

3.  I had another big bike year and probably would have surpassed 2020 if Kona had stayed on.  As it was, I did 12,791 miles on the bike, which is an average of 35 miles every day in 2022.  I'm going to hammer the bike again ("bike monster") in Q1 with the majority of that in Delaware on my Zwift Kickr bike.  Given CoVid, I'm currently not planning any Q1 warm-weather camps at this time.

4.  I'd also point out that 2015 was low due to my back problems that year and the need for me to take the year off from training...

2021 Training phase review and initial thoughts about 2022 training plan

Find below weekly (trailing 4-week average) Training Hours, Swim Yardage, and Bike/Run Mile charts.  I also highlighted, what I would call different "phases" to my training as the year unfolded.  Here is that interpretation:

1.  Started the year with a major focus on the bike, as part of my "Bike Monster" strategy.  I ramped up to my highest volumes very early in the year as I had set the foundation for that in Nov/Dec 2020 out in Palm Springs.  I actually had my biggest bike mileage the week of 1/18 where I hit 375 miles (including a 164-mile day).  I wasn't able to get into the pool (due to Covid) until that same week and began a big swim surge then.  Due to my knee, I limited my "run" to an occasional hike.

2.  My bike volume began to dip a bit in February as I surged my swim and I had my biggest swim week the week of 2/22 (15,000 yards).

3.  Decided to do Eagleman with Anders as it seemed like Covid might recede a bit and we had our vaccinations and so beginning the week of 4/26 I actually began to run some and ramping that led to lesser volume on the bike/swim.

4.  Generally, from mid April through mid August I was in an Ironman build phase (first to get ready for Eagleman and then get ready for Kona).  My volume didn't really jump (20-25 hours/week of training) but I began to do longer bikes and swims (and rarely longer runs).

5.  In the middle of this build, I threw in a taper/recovery phase around Eagleman, which was a real success for Anders and I.

6.  On 8/19 Kona was cancelled for 2021 and I basically pulled the plug on serious training in 2021.  I still rode a fair bit (because I always do) but my swim began a pretty steady fall-off.  In contrast, I started hiking/walking more (my "run") as I no longer needed to save my legs for Bike Monster.

7.  I basically just exercised (and not that much) from mid-October to mid-November as we had Alex' wedding, Anders IM down at IMFL, and then a mini-vacation down in Florida.

8. Beginning mid-November I began ramping up the bike (especially) and lately the swim (while maintaining a fair amount of hiking).  This has led to a ramp in my total training effort and I actually had my 4th biggest week just this past week--I'm basically replicating the foundation work I did in Nov/Dec last year, but starting just a couple of weeks later.

Here's what all of this looks like in charts:

Looking ahead to 2022, I have decided to do a big Swim/Bike block (with limited run work) during the 1st quarter.  This will look similar to early 2021 but hopefully with more swim volume.  More on my plans later...

One possible blip is we were at a party this weekend and in close contact with someone who tested positive for Covid.  We are fully vaxed, and in pretty decent shape, so hopefully this won't become an issue.  In the mean-time we are laying a bit low and following CDC guidelines....

Onward and upward (I hope)!

 

OK, it's on. I'm going to give this one last time--it's all eyes on KONA 2022

 Sorry for being so radio silent for so long.  With this post, I promise that will change (not that it really matters!)

Quick background/bring up to speed:

--I really need to get a total knee replacement of my left knee.

--Anders and I qualified for Kona at IMAZ in 2019--plan was to do Kona in October '20 and then get the kneedone and move on to the next phase of life (trans-continental bike ride at the top of the list)

--COVID

-And this year COVID again....

--Meanwhile, my knee has really deteriorated.  I mean it has got to the point where I really can't sleep for more than say 30 minutes.  GRRRRR...

--Anyways, it is what it is.

--Kona is "on" for next October and so for the second year in a row, I'm postponing my total knee replacement (in part because my surgeon says no Kona if I get it done).

--Not looking for sympathy nor for you saying I should do something different because:

--I'm full send on Kona 2022!

--I'm now on that path...going to be tough but its not a sacrifice because its what I want to do with this one crazy life I have.....

-------

So, I though I'd bring you up to date on the whole training thing and you know me--that means data and graphs....

So, find below an analysis of this year versus 2019 (when I qualified--but also climbed some big mountains in Bolivia) and 2020, were I tried to get ready but got COVIDED...

So this first chart is my monthly training hours over the last 3 years.  Bottom line, is my knee is really beginning to limit me...

You can see this as well in the graph below.  Having said that, I'll be over 1,000 hours training this year again, and for a 64-year old, at the end of the day, that's still exceptional.

OK, let's look at the 3 disciplines.  First the swim:

Monthly swim volume varies a lot for a variety of different life things--so no worries if you you find this next chart confusing!

The cumulative chart below illustrates better what has been going on in my swim life.  2019, the year I qualified for Kona was a pretty typical swim year for me...lots of swim volume concentrated in the back half of the year.  2020 brought us COVID and I had a hard time finding a "safe" place to swim.  I tried to build my swim in 2020 once I was able to access open water swimming in June but Kona 2020 was cancelled and I never really saw the point in building my swim volume in 2020.

In Dec 2020 I cranked it up and I was full-on to intent on doing 400,000+ yards for 2021 in prep for KONA and then on Aug 19th, that dream was crushed again.  Note, the slowing in the green line after June.  further, I basically stopped swimming mid-September...(I'm back in now--see below)

My bike strategy for 2021 was a continuation of "BIKE MONSTER"--let's face it, I ride a lot of miles on my bikes.  I tried, vis-a-vis 2020, to do more quality work so I biked a bit less through mid-year, but I was well on my way to having the bike fitness I needed to execute Kona when it was shut down again in August.

Still, once again, I will do over 12,000 miles in 2021 and (see below) I'm already on it for 2022...

The big thing for me is the run (walk/climb)--so painful now.  I've gone from it being a competitive disadvantage I could work around to something I hope I can skate by at Kona next year.  It sucks (and its very painful, but there you go...)

So, I've just got back up on The Ironman horse and I'm committed to making it work one last time (Kona 2022).  I'm back in the pool this week.  I'm up above 20 hours training time.  I have a full-on PT attack and injections/draining on my knee (plus a new high-tech brace).  Perhaps, my weekly bike volume illustrates this best:

OK, it may not be very smart, but I'M ALL-IN.  ONCE AGAIN. FOR THE LAST TIME.

onward and upward!!!!

check back in the next couple of days and I'll finally update my (very surprising) 2021 racing results...

rc

Training volume Update--30 weeks in

Here is an update on my training volume over the first 30 weeks of 2021....

First to put things in perspective, here is a summary of my training volume and average speed going back 10 years or so:

A couple of observations:

1. There is no 2015 data as I had my major back issues that year and generally took the year off to recover/rebuild.

2. Note how my swim volume fell off post 2015, with this year on track to pre-2015 levels.

3. My recent bike emphasis (bike monster) is quite evident.

4. The dramatic reduction in run volume this year really stands out.

5. Principally due to the later, my total training time is down quite a bit vs. 2019/2020.

6. Speed-wise, my swim has been pretty consistent since 2016.  I do appear to generally have swum faster prior to my back problems.

7. Even with the increase in bike volume, my average speed has increased over the last three years.  While I don't have the same top-end speed I had 10 years ago, there is no question that my time investment into biking is keeping my bike pretty competitive.

8. The run numbers are really impacted by the amount of hiking/climbing that is rolled into them (I count both under "RUN" since I've done a lot of both, especially after 2012.  The slow down that is evident beginning in 2013 is principally due to this run/climb mix change as I trained for the seven summit climbs.  The 2021 number however is largely run only (not climbing this year) and you can see how I've lost nearly 4 and a half minutes per mile over the last 10 years--yuck!

9. The 2021 volume numbers are annualized and I suspect my actuals will be quite a bit lower as my season effectively ends in mid October after KONA and then I am planning to have my knee replaced.

I'm also tracking how my weekly training volume (displayed as trailing 4-week averages) compares to 2012 and 2014 (two of my three Kona years--I don't have the data in as much depth for 2010):

First, in terms of Total Training Time, note how my weekly volume has generally run higher than 2012/2014 but has fallen behind over the last 5 or so weeks.  This is in-part driven by a number of work and personal factors but has become a bit of a concern to me.  I would like to raise my average as I get later into August and then early September back up to near 25-hours/week.

This recent fall-off is especially evident in my swim.  Some of this was due to Eagleman and my taper/recovery for it, a driving trip to/from Kansas, and the most recent dip is a function of my bike crash in the Lenape race (more on that in a subsequent post).

With my "bike monster" orientation, I've been generally ahead of 2012/14 with a bit of recent softness.  I intend to re-up my effort in the weeks ahead...

And finally the run.  Th big blip up in 2014 is principally a lot of trekking/climbing.  Absent that, in 2012/14 I generally was able to sustain about 20-40 miles/week of running and you can see that I have trouble sustaining even 10 miles/week this year.  So not only do I not do much running, I do it very slow and this of course is why I basically suck at running!

Lastly, I think it's useful to look at my cumulative volumes over time:

First, total training hours.  In spite of my concern about my recent training volume, I do in-fact invest more time training now then I did back in 2012/14 and this should be reassuring.  Of course, what really matters is the training in the last 12-14 week build period win front of the IM so I do what to look more closely at that and make sure I'm doing an appropriate amount of work to get ready for Kona.

My swim efforts, after my traditional slow start at the beginning of the year have been relatively strong.  You can see the impact of my bike crash in the recent week but I expect that to turn around this current week and going forward.

My "bike monster" approach is evident below.  I think I work harder than just about anybody else my age (that I know).  I know, I get a bit nervous when my weekly volume drops below 250-300 miles during the summer and at this moment, I feel the need to ride more despite what this graph says.

This run chart needs no explanation....

Kona Build: Century Bike Rides Update

 One of the most important parts of my Ironman build program, over the last 12-14 weeks before an Ironman, is a weekly (or so) 100+ mile time trial.  I'm not going full-out racer mode in these rides but I do actually take them pretty seriously and definitely put a bigger than normal effort into them.  My overall objective is to get my 100-mile time down under 5 hours (20+ mph) at some point during the 10 or so century rides that I typically do in a build.

I did my first century on 6/29 and yesterday I completed my 4th (so 4 in 26 days).  Here is summary of the stats from those rides:

Here are the main takeaways from this data:

1. My four times have been: 5:46, 5:27, 5:13, and 5:16 (in blue/bold above).  Yesterday was the first ride where I didn't get faster.

2. In the main data field are the decimal versions of my 5-mile splits.  So, for instance, my first 5 miles on 6/29 was completed in 16.98 minutes or just under 17 minutes, which is about 17.6 mph.

3.  The color coding is: if I'm more than 30 seconds faster over 5 miles in a split than I was for the same split in the previous ride, it's shaded green.  If I'm more than 30 seconds slower its shaded red and in between is yellow.  For the 25-mile splits the time delta is plus or minus 2.5 minutes, for the 50-mile splits its plus or minus 5 minutes and for the whole ride its plus or minus 10 minutes.

4.  Lots of green for rides 2 and 3 as I improved considerably from ride1 to ride 3.  Yesterday's ride featured a lot of headwind early and that partially explains the red/yellow for the first 65 miles.  Coming home this wind became a tailwind and I was faster down the stretch.  In the 5-mile split section if I ride faster than 20mph (sub 15 minutes) the times are in bold and you can see that even though the overall ride was a bit slower, I did go 20+mph for 4 of the 20 segments yesterday (21.4 mph was the fastest) and I had only done that in 2 of the previous 60 5-mile segments.

5. The average of the 5-mile segments is displayed on the far right with my 7 fastest shaded green, 7 slowest shaded red and the 6 in the middle shaded yellow.  A quick glance indicates that between 25 and 60 miles I'm going slower than I am at the beginning and end of the rides so maybe I need to bring more focus to those parts of the rides.

6. You can also see that my first 50 and last 50 are pretty similar on average with my second 50 being actually about 1% faster than my first 50.  Also, my last 25 miles, on average, has been about 4% faster than my 1st 25.  So clearly, I'm not fading but it seems its the middle part of the ride I need to work on.

7. Lastly, if you take my best 4 25-mile segments (out of the 16 I've completed), I'm still only at 5:08, so I still have quite a bit of improvement I need to make to get to my sub 5-hour goal.

Onward and Upward!

Avalon 1.2-mile Open Water Swim Race Report

 Date: July 11th, 2021

Location: Avalon, NJ

2021 Endurance Event: 5

Conditions: 74 degree water, wetsuit legal, Helping tide

As soon as I completed the Stone Harbor sprint triathlon, I packed everything up and rode back to our house, which is less than a mile from the race site.  I did a little reorganizing and then Judy and I drove north on the Island to 21st street for the start of this OWS race.  A bit crazy to do a triathlon at 7am and then do an OWS at 10 but that was what this day had on tap.

The swim was billed as a 1.2-mile point-to-point swim through the inter-coastal waterway from around 21st street in Avalon, down to Avalon Yacht Club.  I had done this swim or a very similar one 2x before and as I recall, my times varied from 24 to 38 minutes--which illustrates the huge impact the tides have on the time it takes to complete this swim.  I didn't know how strong the tide would be this year but given how high the water looked, it seemed we were likely to get at least some push as the tide level would be clearly heading down after a high tide peak.

There were a few other loonies doing both races and a total of 79 swimmers entered in total.  The start was a self-seeded time trial start and I decided to start towards the back as I was chatting with some of the other competitors and its kinda fun to swim pass slower swimmers throughout the race.

When my time came, I went down the stairs, across the timing mat and jumped in.  There isn't much to report on a far as the swimming goes except to say I felt nice and strong the whole swim and passed lots of earlier starters and didn't get passed by anyone.  I caught Stef and Bonnie (a couple of my training partners) at the big left-hand turn near 7th (about 2/3rds through the race) and figured I must be having a solid swim as they are strong swimmers and had started before me.

As you can see from the Garmin files above, I averaged 1:21/100 yards over the 2,063 measured yards of the course for a total time of 27:50.  Clearly, we all got a nice push from the tides as alas, I am not a 27-minute Half-Ironman swimmer.  If you look at the first 500 split above (8:28) and compare to the next three (5:47-6:46) you can get a sense for how much the tide was helping this morning as the tidal push really kicks in when you make the first left-hand turn into the main channel.  Also, I think the tidal push was getting stronger (which it does as you get further away from high tide) as the race unfolded (this means I got an advantage starting towards the back).

My guess is I got somewhere between 6 and 8 minutes of push this morning, meaning I was probably swimming in the 34-36 minute range for a H-IM swim distance.  This would be consistent with what I had done the week before at the Freedom Mile swim.

Overall I finished 25th out of 79 (69.6 %-tile) and 2nd out of 6 (83.3 %-tile) in my Age Group.  Both of these relative placings seem pretty consistent with my typical local OWS race results.  I did also look at the times of six people I know who swam last year and this year and they were from 13 to 26% slower this year (less tidal push) with an average of 19.5% slower.  I was 17.4% slower and while this is hardly scientific, it does seem like a good swim and maybe even a bit stronger than I did last year.

Finally, a picture with Judy post race--happy to race twice (notice the two different race numbers!) and be done before 11am!

 

Stone Harbor Triathlon Race Report

 Stone Harbor Triathlon Race Report

Date: July 11^th, 2021

Location: Stone Harbor, NJ

2021 Triathlon Race Number: 3

Career Triathlon Race Number: 162

Conditions: 70-80 degrees and humid.  Light wind. Water temp in the mid 70s/wetsuit legal

 

Background

The Stone Harbor Triathlon was my first triathlon, way back in 2001.  Prior to this year I had competed in this race 6 times (2001, 2002, 2004, 2005, 2006, and 2010).  I made a decision in 2010, after seeing a car strike one of the competitors, that the Island was just a bit too dangerous to race on given that the bike/run course was not closed to traffic and the mid-July beach crowd just wasn’t used to the kinds of speeds that we were hitting—especially down-wind, which frequently is an issue in mid-July.

 

However, for this year, given that it’s likely my last real triathlon year (knee replacement surgery post season) that I decided to come back and do it one last time.  On this race morning, there were 251 starters and 17 in my AG.

 

The Swim

The swim is a one loop, quarter-mile swim in the Stone Harbor Yacht Club basin, which is where I frequently do my training during the summer.  In my experience the turn buoy placements vary from year-to-year, which does complicate comparisons across years.  That said, my prior times here ranged from a best of 6:33 (2006) to my slowest in my first race of 10:00.  I was in the 5^thwave with the other old dudes and the youngest dudes.

 

I started on the right, away from the buoy line and was able to break free of most of the pack relatively easily and I basically had a drama-free swim the whole way.  I wasn’t pushing it that hard but felt like I was doing a reasonably competent job of swimming.  My Garmin had my swim at 7:13, but my official swim time was 7:32.  This puts this effort at my 4^thbest of the 7 times I’ve raced this swim course.

 

Relatively speaking, I had the top swim time (out of 17) in my AG and was 48^thOA (81.3 %-tile) so all things considered, I’m pretty happy with my swim.  Here is where we stood after the swim:

 

1.         RC                                ---------

2.         Idler                             + 0:03

3.         Sullivan                       + 0:47

4.         Kirsch                          + 0:52

5.         Scarpa                         + 1:03

 

Transition One

Once climbing up out of the water I ambled up the ramp and around the Yacht Club building.  I must confess I took it pretty easy but probably should have pushed it a bit harder.  

 

As a side note, I’ve analyzed my Garmin split data in comparison to the “official” results data and have concluded that the official numbers clearly have issues and are not an accurate reflection of my race, and this is more than just a location of the timing mats issue (I return to this topic in T2 below with my “proof” of this) and so I have decided to use my splits as the more accurate representation of my T1 through T2.

 

I completed T1 in 2:39, which was just 134^thOA (a pretty sad 47.0 %-tile) and was 6^thfastest in my AG (70.6 %-tile).  I definitely took it too easy in T1.  Bryan Sullivan, a good friend, and the top guy in my AG was a whopping 69 seconds faster—as I consequence I started the bike 22 seconds behind Sullivan:

 

1.         Sullivan                                   --------

2.         RC                                            + 0:22

3.         Idler                                         + 0:28

4.         Scarpa                                     + 0:41

5.         Kirsch                                      + 0:44

 

The Bike

Bryan had called out to me in T1 as he headed out to start his bike and so I knew I was about 20 seconds or so behind him.  I expected to have pretty good “pop” in my legs and I felt strong right from the get-go and so I looked up the road and decided to try and see if I could run Sullivan down.  

 

The Stone Harbor bike course is about a half-mile out and back to a 3-loop bike course—each loop being a bit more than 3 miles.  About halfway through the first loop, I caught up to Sullivan and decided to just track him from about 30 yards or so behind and get my heart rate back down from the big surge I had put in.

 

We caught a couple of the “elite” racers who had started in the first swim wave and who were now on their second bike loop.  When Sullivan passed them a couple of them jumped on his wheel and began drafting him. I’m not going to name names, but it was pretty blatant.  I know it must have been frustrating for Bryan.

 

I watched this unfold for the balance of the first loop and then as we started my second loop I decided “what-the-heck”, I can’t really run anymore anyways so I might as well make a statement on the bike.  I pushed “full send” and went past the draft train at about 26 mph.  I could hear the surprise in their voices, and I could also hear a bunch of scrambling behind me.  At one point I looked back and saw I had now picked-up some drafters.  I kept pushing harder than I should but couldn’t break away from them and as we neared the end of my 2^ndlap and the exit from the loop section for the “elites” they repassed me.

 

I settled in for my 3^rdlap and tried to keep the power up, but I definitely burned a few matches with my so-called statement.  Bryan repassed me and I tried to stay reasonably within contact of him but he gradually pulled away as the final lap progressed.

 

I finished the bike in 29:40 and measured the course at 11.51 miles and so this translates into an average speed of 23.3mph, which I’m reasonably happy with.  Historically, three times I did this course at 28:27/22:28 (24.3mph), so I’m about 1mph (4%) slower than I was 15 years ago.  I was 1 second slower than Brian and so had 2^ndfastest (94.1 %-tile) bike in my AG and I was 4^thOA on the bike (98.8%-tile).  I’ve usually (4 out of 6 times) had the fastest time in my AG and I’ve typically been in 98^th/99^th%-tile on the bike so this was, on balance, a pretty good effort.  Interestingly enough, I was 8-seconds faster than the last time I did this race, back in 2010, although in all fairness to me back then, I was just a couple of weeks passed finishing IM Germany in early July of that year.

 

In any event, the AG standings looked like this after the bike:

 

1.         Sullivan                                   --------

2.         RC                                            + 0:23

3.         Kirsch                                      + 2:30

4.         Scarpa                                     + 2:31

5.         Rose                                        + 8:21

 

Transition Two

I dismounted my bike determined to do a better job in T2 than I did in T1.  As I ran around the building in transition I called out to Bryan and told him I had tried to help him get the drafters off his back.  As I mentioned before, this is my “proof” that my official splits are all messed up as the official numbers have Bryan starting his run21 seconds before I had even finished my bike.  It’s hard to talk to someone in T2 if they leave T2 before you enter it!

 

In any event, I got to my transition area and had a very, very difficult time getting my brace on. Something was clearly weird, and I had to mess with the straps a bit in order for it to fit onto my leg—I remember thinking that it almost seemed backwards.  This unfortunately took a bit of time and I ended up completing my T2 in a very slow 3:07.  This was, not surprisingly, the 226^thfastest T2 OA (10.4 %-tile, probably my worst T2 of all time) and the 13^thfastest in my AG (29.4 %-tile).

 

I knew I had a horrible transition but tried to not worry too much about it.  Even with great transitions, given how bad my knee is if I had known I only had 150 seconds on 3^rd/4^th, I would have assumed that I was going to fade to 4^thon the run.  AG standings after T2:

 

1.         Sullivan                                   --------

2.         RC                                            + 2:06

3.         Kirsch                                      + 3:12

4.         Scarpa                                     + 3:20

5.         Rose                                        + 9:05

 

The Run

As I started my run, I pretty quickly realized that my transition challenges were not quite over, as it dawned on me that I had put my brace on my right leg, and my left knee is my bad one!  Unbelievable, I’ve lived with this problem for 25+ years, my left knee frequently (and painfully) reminds me it is the problem, I have a bunch of protective clothing items on my left leg to protect against chaffing from the brace—so it’s clear just by looking which leg should get the brace.  I’ve never made this mistake before (and have probably used the brace 500+ times now)—amazing!

 

I started laughing out loud and now it was clear to me why T2 was so challenging—what an idiot!  I spent a minute or so moving the brace back to its proper location (had to adjust some of the straps that I had changed in T2) and I was soon on my way.  The rest of the run was painfully slow (literally) and I got the usual supporting stuff from folks about how tough I was, inspiring, etc.  I had one guy run past me and say “well, at least I can beat the handicapped guy!”  Thanks, dude!

 

Anyways, I completed the run, with my unexpected pit stop, in 32:02 and I measured the course at 3.15 miles.  This works out to a blazing 10:09/mile.  Not surprisingly, I dropped to 4^thin my AG (82.4 %-tile) and 87^thOA (65.7 %-tile).  I remember, not too long ago running my miles in triathlon sprints in 7:30-7:45/mile and not being happy with how fast I was.  Little did I know!  Oh well, it is what it is, and I must say, while I’m not the triathlete I used to be, I still really had a good time and a pretty darn good swim and bike.  Onward and upward!

 

1.         Sullivan                                   ---------

2.         Scarpa                                     + 5:37

3.         Kirsch                                      + 7:04

4.         RC                                            +12:01

5.         Piorkowski                              +15:35

Columbia Triathlon Race Report

 Columbia Association Triathlon Race Report

Date: June 20^th, 2021

Location: Columbia, MD

2021 Triathlon Race Number: 2

Career Triathlon Race Number: 161

Conditions: Hot and humid. Very little wind.  Pool swim with about 80-degree water

 

Background

After spending most of the week recovering from Eagleman, I drove back down to Maryland on Saturday afternoon.  I went by the race site and checked on the course and then went to bed early in my La Quinta hotel room.

 

I was down in Maryland to compete in the CAT Super Sprint, which is a 200-yard pool swim, a 5-mile bike and a 1.75-mile run; one of the shortest triathlons I’ve ever participated in. There were just 67 competitors on this morning, and I was the oldest participant.  In fact, there were no other racers over 60 and as such I was the only person in my AG.

 

The Swim

The swim was a 200-yard “snake” swim—essentially down one lane, duck under the lane divider and back down the next lane, progressing across the pool.  We lined up on the pool deck according to our expected swim times.  I was about the 10^thor so person in line.  In front of me were a bunch of under-20 competitors, most in their local team or USAT National team tri-suits.  I was thinking before the race that I could get smoked by a bunch of these kids as this clearly wasn’t their first rodeo.

 

When it was my turn to start, I jumped in and did my thing.  I was passed by Tan (whom by the way is an eleven-year-old girl) but otherwise swam by myself for the whole swim.  I exited the swim at 3:30, which is a reasonably good outcome for me.  In reality, with the traverse of the pool, it was probably about 210 yards, so my swim works out to be about 1:40/100 yards, which I’ll take any day without a wetsuit.

 

Officially, my swim time was 4:26,as the timing mat was set-up at the entrance to transition, which was about a 100-yard run across the pool deck and then out and down a fairly steep hill.  I posted the 12^thfastest swim (83.6 %-tile) time and was about a minute behind the afore-mentioned Tan, who was leading the race after the swim:

 

1.         Tan                              --------

2.         Ehrlich                         + 0:17

3.         Dimitrova                    + 0:18

4.         Hollingsworth             + 0:25

5.         Belgrave                      + 0:25

12.       RC                                + 1:03

 

Transition One

 

The rest of the transition went by quickly as there was no wetsuit to deal with and I was racing in my swim-skin.  I didn’t think my T1 was particularly fast, but at 56 seconds, it turned out to be the 3^rdbest OA (97.0 %-tile) and consequently, I had moved up to 6^thOA.  Tan, also had the fastest T1 to back up her swim and I was now 1:20 behind her.  Here is where we stood after T1:

 

1.         Tan                              --------

2.         Ehrlich                         + 0:29

3.         Hollingsworth             + 0:52

4.         Belgrave                      + 1:09

5.         Dimitrova                    + 1:13

6.         RC                                + 1:20

 

The Bike

The bike was a fairly hilly (two big climbs) 1-loop neighborhood ride.  The bike course actually had more elevation gain than the 56-miles of Eagleman (which is more of a commentary on how flat Eagleman really is!).  I was in full-attack mode and basically, I was going full-tilt for the whole ride—it was very much like a FTP test.  I passed everybody in front of me and eventually caught Tan about halfway through the bike.

 

My bike took 14:15 (14:38 officially), which works out to be 21.1 mph, which seems slow, but I think was actually a pretty solid effort.  In any event, I had (by far—second fastest was 17:22) the best bike split OA, out-riding Tan by 3:23 and as I ran into T2 after dismounting, I was convinced that I was leading the race.  Here is where we stood after the bike:

 

1.         RC                                --------

2.         Tan                              + 2:03

3.         Ehrlich                        + 2:47

4.         Hollingsworth             + 3:52

5.         Slopek                         + 4:06

 

Transition Two

I tried to hurry through T2 as fast as I could as I was sure there were soon going to be a lot of much faster runners chasing after me.  My T2 was 1:00, which seemed pretty good, but turned out to be just the 8^thfastest overall (89.6 %-tile).  Tan was 18 seconds faster and she put a total of 35 seconds on me (officially) in the two transitions—in reality it was quite a bit more than that as that number doesn’t include the post swim run down the hill to the timing mat.  In any event, here is where we stood after T2:

 

1.         RC                                --------

2.         Tan                              + 1:45

3.         Ehrlich                         + 2:41

4.         Hollingsworth             + 3:28

5.         Dimitrova                    + 4:17

 

The Run

 

The run was about a half-mile across the thick grass of the athletic field where the race was being held and then on local roads and a walking path.  There was one significant hill about 1.25 miles into the 1.75-mile course.  Given the short length of the run , I didn’t bother with my off-loader knee-brace and tried to limp along as fast as I could.  Unfortunately, this was only about 10 minutes/mile and behind me, Tan was running 8:35s, and a little past the 1-mile point she came speeding by me. I gave her a shout out and chuckled to myself that I was being passed by an 11-year-old girl in the last 0.6-miles of a triathlon.

 

Anyways, I did the best I could and ended up running a 17:39, which works out to 10:05/mile. Pretty slow, but it was still good enough for 14^thOA (80.6 %-tile) in what, objectively was a relatively weak triathlon field.

 

My overall time was 38:39, which was good enough for second OA (98.5 %-tile) and 48 seconds behind Tan—probably all attributable to being out-transitioned.  Here are the final standings:

 

 

1.         Tan                              --------

2.         RC                                + 0:48

3.         Ehrlich                         + 1:15

4.         Dimitrova                    + 1:21

5.         Hollingsworth             + 3:00

 

Obviously, a low-key event but I’m still happy enough to finish 2^ndOA and while I had no competitors in my AG, it still counts as my 52^ndAG win over my career.

 

Onward and Upward!

Freedom Mile OWS Race Report

 Date: July 4th, 2021

Location: Wildwood New Jersey

Distance: 1 mile OWS

2021 Endurance Event #3

Conditions: about 73 degrees/wetsuit legal

Marshall (Kara's SO) and I decided to get up early and drive the 10 or so miles to this inaugural race.  I was a little tired from driving out to Kansas (2400 miles of driving) and back to pick-up Jen and Riley, but up we were and down to Wildwood for the race.

There were 173 people in the 1-mile swim (11 in Marshall's Age Group and 15 in mine) and we decided to jump off the pier towards the front of the pack (self-seeded time-trial start format).  Marshall jumped in in-front of me and I probably crossed the timing mat a second or two behind him.

It was a bit of a fall and I definitely got a little charge out of that but soon was right into swimming.  I felt immediately pretty good and focused on all of my swim-smooth technique cues.  Marshall pulled away from me, which is not unexpected given he is a much better swimmer (but not as well trained, given his schedule, on this race morning).  We hit 0.12 miles and they had an in-water timing arch and Marshall was 11 seconds in front of me already.  At this point I was in 4th in my Age Group and was 36th overall.

My swim strategy, for this distance (not sure if it's that good, but it's mine) is to try to swim pretty easy over the first 5 minutes or so and then to build progressively from there.  The net of that is I don't overcook the first couple of hundred yards (you can see I was pretty steady for the first 1,000 yards in my splits below).  I began to consciously push after the arch and about 1/3 of the way into the race I pulled even with Marshall.  He breathes on his right side and I my left and since I was to his right, we basically swam the rest of the race looking at each other.  I'd surge and he would match.  He'd surge and I would respond.

We hit 0.82 miles with me up a second and proceeded to both swim as hard as we could (my pace dropped below 1:30/100 yards). In the end, I nipped Marshall by 2 seconds.  Marshall swam 27:09 for the mile which was good enough for 2nd in his Age Group.  I swam 27:07, which given the number of old guy fast swimmers at the Jersey Shore, was only good enough for 5th in my Age Group.

I finished 33rd (82% percentile) and Marshall was right behind me.  My Garmin measured the course a little short at 1,692 yards (0.96 miles) and my average pace per 100 yards was 1:37.  This is the equivalent of a 33:57 H-IM swim split and I feel a much better indicator of my current swim fitness than my swim time at EM, a couple weeks earlier.  That said, I was at my limit on this swim and would never swim this hard in an a Half-IM but it seems to validate what I thought was true in that I think I'm about 36 minutes or so H-IM swim fit at this point in the year.

Lot's of fun and a great day!  Onward and upward!

Eagleman 70.3 Race Report

Eagleman70.3 2021 Race Report

 

Date: June 13, 2021

Location: Cambridge, MD

2021 Triathlon Race Number: 1

Career Triathlon Race Number: 160

Conditions: Outstanding for Eagleman. 70s/80s, very humid, 5-10 mph wind, overcast for the bike and part of the run, 73-degree water with a hurting tide

 

Background

 

I originally signed up for Eagleman 2020 and the race was deferred until 2021 due to CoVid.  I’d previously competed at EM 4 times from 2005-2008.  In May, Anders decided to fly out and have a go as well.  He spent the week with us in New Jersey and we took the ferry across on the Friday before the race.  We stayed up in Easton, MD about 20 miles from the race site.  We did our usual pre-race stuff, went to bed early on the 12^thand got up about 3:45am on race morning to begin our adventures.

 

There were 1,617 triathletes entered in the race with 158 in Anders’ 35-39 YO AG and 46 in my 60-64 YO AG.

 

Swim

 

The swim was in the Choptank River, which is brackish, subject to tides, and frequently choppy. It’s hard to compare swim times here from year-to-year due to the tidal effects.  My best time was in 2007, when I swam 32:45 and my worse was in 2005, when I swam 45:33.  Despite this, I targeted 38 minutes with a range of 35 to 42 minutes.

 

Anders and I wanted to start the swim together and given he has had 25 to 27-minute Half-Ironman swims, we elected to start towards the front of the time-trial format swim.  I expected to be about 7-9 minutes slower than Anders on this morning.

 

Anders started 5 seconds in front of me and immediately tracked towards the swim buoys.  I went right, intent on minimizing any other swimmer drama, and making sure I didn’t impede the faster swimmers starting behind me. I had a rather uneventful swim and pretty much had clean water the whole way.  It was a bit choppy, especially as we headed up stream towards the finish line. I felt pretty solid, neither particularly fast nor slow.

 

I was disappointed (but not surprised) to hit the swim exit ramp at just over 40 minutes.  My official time was 40:27, which is slower than I expected, and I don’t think is very indicative of my swim fitness.  I was 5^th(91.3 %-tile) in my AG and 532^ndOA (67.2 %-tile).  Both of these relative stats were the best I’ve recorded at EM (prior AG best was 78.3 %-tile in ’07 and prior OA best was 66.0 %-tile in ’06). The best guy in my AG only swam 36:56 and given all of this, it’s hard to feel particularly bad about my swim.

 

Anders swam 32:36 officially which was good enough for 101^stOA (93.8 %-tile) and 10^thin his AG (94.3 %-tile).  This time was slow for Anders but given his relative performance and the fact we were about 8 minutes apart I do think it’s reasonable to believe the conditions were objectively slow today.

 

Here is where I stood in my AG race after the swim:

 

1.         Collazo                        --------

2.         Miller                          + 0:08

3.         Lewellyn                      + 0:46

4.         Hanlon                        + 2:31

5.         RC                                + 3:31

 

Transition One

 

The transition area at EM is large to accommodate the field size and given my challenges running this tends to lead to relatively slow transition times for me.  My official T1 was 4:13, which was my slowest T1 at EM. Despite this, I actually had the 3^rdfastest T1 in my AG.  Anders, of-course was much quicker through T1, taking just 2:45.  Here is where we stood in my AG after T1:

 

1.         Collazo                        --------

2.         Lewellyn                      + 3:00

3.         Miller                          + 3:56

4.         RC                                + 4:22

5.         Coquelin                      + 5:35

 

Bike

 

I, of-course, had no idea where I stood in my AG, but probably would have been surprised, as I started rolling on my bike, to learn I was in 4^th.  I felt very good on the bike and was immediately riding in the 20-23 mph range with a great deal of ease.  This was faster than I expected as my target was 2:44, with a range of 2:38 to 2:58.  Pre-race, Anders had told me he thought I would ride faster than this.  Indeed, these are modest targets as my prior four rides here were all 2:24-2:28 (albeit I was in my 40s/early 50s when I did this).

 

It turns out that I was riding quite a bit faster than most of my AG competitors and by 10 miles I had moved into 2^ndand within 4 minutes of the leader, Collazo.  About 10 miles in, I decided to “push send” and to really go after this ride.  I knew this would hurt my run, but given the state of my run, it didn’t really seem to matter.  The road was smooth in some places but not that great in most and this slowed things down a bit.  Also, the wind, although modest, helped and hurt in various parts of the bike.  Despite this, I was consistent throughout and my slowest 5-mile split was my first at 20.3mph and my fastest was between 40 and 45 miles where I averaged 22.9mph.

 

By 32 miles, Nowakowski, on his way to his AG win and fastest bike split had passed me.  I ended up with a 2:36:41 (21.4mph) and this was good for 3^rdin my AG (95.7 %-tile) and 300th OA (81.5 %-tile). My AG relative performance was in-line with past EM rides where I’ve come in at 94-98 %-tile, but age has slowed me down relative to the OA field (in my 4 prior EM rides I was 92-93 %-tile).

 

Anders rode an amazing 2:16:46 (24.6mph!!!) and rode himself into 3^rdin his AG with the 3^rdbest AG ride (98.7 %-tile) and 22^ndfastest ride OA (also 98.7 %-tile).  Here is where we stood in my AG after the bike:

 

1.         Nowakowski               --------

2.         Collazo                        + 3:12

3.         RC                                + 7:08

4.         Coquelin                      +12:27

5.         Gordon                        +14:21

 

Transition Two

 

I was pretty fried after my bike (rode faster than my fitness today) and as a consequence I took it pretty easy through T2.  My T2 was 6:11(13^thin my AG or just 74 %-tile).  Anders blasted through his T2 in 2:18. Here is my AG after T2:

 

1.         Nowakowski               --------

2.         Collazo                        + 3:00

3.         RC                                + 8:27

4.         Sajonia                        +15:10

5.         Gordon                        +15:34

 

The Run

In times past, before my left knee fell apart, leaving T2 with 7 minutes over the 4^thand 5^thplace guys, I would have been confident in my ability to run home to a 3^rdplace.  However, that was definitely not the case today where the better question was how much of the run could I actually run.  

 

I donned my off-loader brace in T2, and this led to quite a few amusing interactions along the way. I either got “you’re inspiring” or had people tell me about their medical issues.  By 4 miles I had dropped to 5^thin my AG as I alternated running and walking.  It began to feel pretty hot out there, so I really didn’t push it much and basically persevered to a very slow 2:51:37 (13:05/mile).  I had targeted 2:48 with a range of 2:42-3:05, so in-spite of being slow, this run was pretty much what I expected.  I was 30^thin my AG (31.0 %-tile).  My overall race time was 6:19:07, which was just 4 minutes off my target and given the slowness of the swim, I’m generally pleased with this race.  I finished 14^thin my AG (71.7 %-tile) and 872^ndOA (46.1 %-tile)—true middle of the pack performance.

 

Anders blazed to a 1:28:26 on his run which netted him a 4:22:51 H-IM, which is his best IM branded Half-Iron distance race.  He finished 3^rdin his AG and a very impressive 16^thOA (99.1 %-tile).

 

All-in-all, a good day for the Christoffersons and positive step towards Kona in October!