Race Report: Boulder Peak Triathlon

I should really label this race "Reality Check" because that's what it was - read on for more.

The Boulder Peak Triathlon is a prestigious race. I have no idea where it ranks on a national list of Olympic distance triathlons, but I'd bet money that it's at or near the top. It's prestigious enough that the top 3 amateur male and female athletes can automatically obtain pro cards if they so choose. This means the race is competitive - very competitive. To give you an idea of how competitive, in the 5430 Sprint and Loveland Lake-to-Lake triathlons (in which I competed four and three weeks ago respectively), I placed 20th and 16th, respectively, in my age group. In the Boulder Peak Triathlon, I placed 39th.

While the race started at 6:30 and although my wave didn't go off until 7:05, I woke up a little bit on the early side - partially due to setting the alarm incorrectly and partially due to traditional pre-race night, poor sleeping. One positive fallout from this, however, was that I was able to find a decent racking spot for my bike. I ran into Rob and Oier in the parking lot and Rob again in transition. After setting up our gear, we went for a warm-up run. We ran into Oier about the time we were turning around and checking out the far East side of the swim course. We ran back and said good luck to each other as we split up at transition. I finished setting up my gear and got in line for the toilets.

I made it out of the toilet with about three minutes to spare before transition closed. I then realized I hadn't put on body glide or sun screen so I quickly did both attempting to be sure that I didn't miss any glaring spots as the sky was cloudless and while it was still pretty chilly, it's rather easy to get sunburned here if one isn't careful. I grabbed my wetsuit, cap, and goggles stuffing a Gu into my cap (knowing I'd want it before my wave started but not needing it so early before my wave start time) I made my way towards the water. I found a grassy patch and methodically put on my wetsuit.

I had plenty of time to get a decent warm up in on the swim and while it was ok, for some reason I didn't feel like 100% in the water. I don't know if it was nerves or something else but it was definitely something. Less than 10 minutes before my wave went off, I got out, walked over to the water station and ate my Gu. I then went over to the front of the corral where the people in my wave were grouped. A minute or so after the wave in front of ours went off, we were let in and I went out and practiced a swim start before turning around and lined up with the start buoys.

A few minutes later we were off and as is typical with triathlon swim starts, the first 50 meters were a churning mass of arms and legs as people jockeyed for position. I swam over people as people swam over me. I expected it to settle out after a few hundred meters, but for some reason it wasn't. As I turned to breath or lift my head to sight, I saw many other swimmers with the same colored swim cap as myself and my first thought was that I was swimming a lot slower than normal. My other thought was that somehow I was with the lead pack. The pack of green caps lasted until the first yellow turn buoy when we started mixing with swimmers from earlier waves. That helped break everyone up and I thought I finally had some open water to swim. Rounding the second and last turn buoy, I accidentally swam up over someone else in my wave because he decided to take the turn tight and cut me off. As I slid off him to the right and kept swimming I felt a hard blow to my head and after a second realized that the guy had actually punched me. I was shocked but as I kept swimming just let it go because I found a pair of feet to draft off. As is typical with drafting in the water, it's so much easier to swim behind someone one has to watch their speed to keep from swimming up on the person one is drafting. Additionally, several times I felt he was going too slow and tried to pass only to find that I was unable. All of a sudden, the guy stopped and started doing the breaststroke and I wound up getting kicked pretty hard in the face. I remember yelling out "Fuuuuck!" as I turned to breathe. My jaw is still sore a day later.

I came out of the water and my run up towards T1 was without incident. I ran straight to my bike, pulled off the remainder of my wetsuit, put on my shoes, helmet, and glasses, grabbed a Gu and ran out mounting at the line. I consumed most of the Gu before exiting the res but wasn't able to wash it down with anything until a few moments later. As soon as I hit the first hill out of the res, my rear derailleur started jumping gears. I'd put a new chain on last week and while I ran through the gears on Saturday to ensure smooth shifting, apparently it was quite different when the chain is under a heavy load. I managed to figure it out soon enough so it wasn't driving me crazy (though it still skipped around at times) and was officially cruising along on the bike.

The first five or six miles are all uphill with only slight reprieves along the way - false flats, if you will. However, once you turn onto Lee Hill from 36, the road noticeably tilts upwards. The closer you get to the mouth of the canyon and Old Stage, the more it tilts up. In fact, before you even hit the Lee Hill and Old Stage intersection the road sucks. Crossing through the stop sign at the Lee Hill begins the brutal climb that is Old Stage. As I did in training, I refrained from standing on my pedals and just pedaled up. I was being passed by guys in my age group, but I had a disc wheel and they didn't and I knew I would catch back up on the way down. Finally, I crested the first and hardest part of the hill and cranked into a higher gear to get some speed for the next section. The speed served me well and I was able to fly up the second section as it wasn't nearly as steep. Upon cresting the top of Old Stage I took some deep breaths and let it fly keeping my eye open for the speed trailer and the cop with the radar gun.

You see, due to several folks ending up under cars in 2005, a speed limit of 35mph was instituted by the race organizers. I remember the 2005 race and specifically the ambulance flying past me on the steep part of Old Stage. Additionally, I remember seeing the body under the car as I flew by the accident. Amazingly the guy survived.

I saw the trailer and that I was going too fast but still didn't see the cop. I slowed down and as I rounded the slight left bend at the bottom I saw him. Once I passed him I really opened it up and started flying by people, including those who passed me near the bottom of the front side of Old Stage. The rest of the bike is just a blur, but I remember hammering most of the way.

Having royally screwed up my dismount at Lake-to-Lake, I kept reminding myself to pull my feet out of my shoes before getting too close to the dismount line. I remembered far enough in advance to where I was able to hit the line and into T2. I knew where my racking spot was but I couldn't find it. I actually had to run back out to the end of the row and make sure I was in the correct row. I was, and just simply didn't see it. I should have, as my stuff was in the first rack of the row but I just missed it. Once I found it I dumped my helmet, got on my socks and shoes, grabbed my visor, race belt, and Cliff Bloks and got the hell out of T2. I popped a blok immediately and followed with some water right at the T2 exit and as I rounded the first corner to head out on the road portion of the run, I noticed my knee was bothering me.

It was my left knee and it hurt in the exact same spot as it did months ago. I was given an exorcise to do to strengthen my gluteus medius muscle (basically, the outside of the butt - in this case to the left of my left butt cheek). After the pain went away then, I stopped doing the exercises. However, during the early part of the week before Lake-to-Lake, the pain came back and I did the exercises enough to have it go away in time for the race. This time, however, there was no pain during the week and so I didn't do the exercises.

The pain was pretty bad and I didn't know if I'd be able to finish. After dwelling on that for about 10 seconds, I told myself to just take one step at at time and not think about it. I was hoping it would go away or at the very least I would forget about it. But something even better happened. As soon as I hit the dirt section of the run, about 2/3 of a mile into the run, the pain went away. Since the run was out and back, most of the course was dirt and I wouldn't be back on the pavement until I had less than a mile left. I wasn't sure how hard to push it on the run. I felt ok, but there was no cloud cover and the run is completely exposed. It wasn't hot yet, but it was getting there.

About the time I reached the first water station, a little past mile one, I was warm and while I popped another blok and took a sip of water, I dumped the rest on my head. I repeated the process at the second and third aid stations. On the way back, I saw my sister (whom I passed about 1/2 mile before the Jay Road and 51st intersection) and Oier. Approaching the middle aid station (a little after mile four) I stopped with the bloks and just did water and a sip of Gatorade. I repeated the process for the last aid station at mile five. I was running pretty well but I saw a few of the people in my age group pass me. I wanted to catch back up but I just couldn't will myself to go any faster.

I hit the end of the damn and ran onto the road for that last half mile. My knee was fine and I wanted to finish strong but found I wasn't able to up my tempo much before feeling the effects. As I approached the last turn to the finishing chute, I made a quick glance back to make sure no one was on my heels and cruised down the finishing chute where I saw the clock. Knowing I started 35 minutes down I realized I just missed my goal of breaking 2:30:00 by around 20 seconds - most of which, I realized later, were wasted in transition. What hurt a little more, however, was that there was only 22 seconds separating 35th place from 39th place in my age group. I got 39th.

Now, out of 163 in my age group, that's not bad and it shows just how competitive this race was. But after placing 20th and 16th at the sprint and Lake-to-Lake, I couldn't help but be a little disappointed with the placing even though I was totally stoked about the time.

The Stats:

39/163 AG; 187/1363 OA; 162/812 Male

Swim: 25:41 (1:42/100m; 22/163 AG; 143 OA)
T1: 1:15
Bike: 1:13:58 (21.1mph; 46/163 AG; 190 OA)
T2: 1:20
Run: 48:12 (7:47/mi; 52/163 AG; 316 OA)

Total: 2:30:23

3 Miles, 6 Miles, 9 Miles

No, it's not a geometric progression, it's my workout from yesterday:

3-mile warm-up for the Bolder Boulder.
6.2 miles for the Bolder Boulder.
9-mile run home.

The race was great though I missed my time goal. This was mostly due to my not doing my math homework ahead of time to determine exactly what pace I needed to hold to make my time goal. As a result, and as you might expect, I missed my time goal.

What was my time goal? I'd hoped to break 43:00. Actual chip time: 43:48.29. A full 16 seconds faster than my previous 10K time done at the Canine Classic 10K just weeks ago. Mile breakdown is as follows: 6:54.51, 7:06.74, 7:14.62, 7:02.44, 6:51.08, 7:08.24.

I started way too fast and saw my 1/2 mile split and slowed down. It's hard because the course is downhill for the first 3/4 mile. But, it's not a race to the first mile marker and once we all settled in I started passing a bunch of people. Because I qualified for the B wave I'd thought things would be better than racing in the C wave a few years ago in which I spent the bulk of the time weaving in and out of people and darting through gaps where I could find them, but it turns out the same thing happened, only to a lesser degree. There's always people who go out way too hard and you have to go around them because they've blown a gasket. It's particularly bad in the corners where everyone seems to move in to the apex and slow down. It's very frustrating actually. I was told by a friend, it's not much better in the A wave though I'd think that the faster you run, the less people with whom you have to deal.

But still, I can't be too disappointed. it's still a new PR and considering I've been doing Ironman training for the last 7 months the fast twitch muscle fibers are working pretty well. As I only plan on doing Olympic distance or shorter next year, I'm very curious and excited as to just how fast I can become.

After the race, we gathered in our usual section (work employees) where I chilled (literally, it was getting cold) for a bit before deciding that it was time to leave. Finding my sister, we walked back to the car, got ready for the long run home and headed out. I wasn't feeling great for those first 1.5 miles, but after a short stop at her boyfriend's apartment for her fuel belt, I was feeling good. The legs felt great and I was moving. I suspect it was the caffeine from my sports drink, but I didn't care. The run itself went by really fast and I can only hope this will be the case in my Ironman. The last mile was all uphill as I made my way from Baseline over to South Boulder Road via several open space areas on a bike path and what I can only describe as Louisville's version of L'Alpe D'Huez complete with a ridiculous number of switchbacks including some connecting segments that are so short you literally take one step before having to do a 180 to continue on the path.

I don't even remember my time and haven't yet downloaded my HR data but will do so soon.

Race Report - Canine Classic 10K 2009

I went to bed a little later than I should have because I was watching a movie on HBO and it's usually really hard for me to stop watching a movie halfway through. I'd not even bothered turning on the TV but I was verifying the start time of my race and realized that I was off by well over an hour. The 7:25am I saw was when registration opened, not when my race started - it started at 9am. So, I figured I had more time.

Then, this morning, for whatever reason I kept thinking that it started at 9:30 and was planning my warm-up, stretching, and post warm-up BM but then realized on the way to the reservoir, I was wrong in my planning and was very glad at that point that I'd left really early.

The weather was cold, 35-40 degrees with light rain on and off on the drive over but none at the res itself. I got my race packet and taking the rest of the crap in the bag back to the car I affixed the number to my race belt, strapped the belt around my waist and headed out for what was a 3-mile warm-up. Good rule of thumb: the shorter the race, the longer the warm-up needs to be. I'm not sure if 3 miles was necessary, but I was nice and warm (and unfortunately also somewhat wet from sweating) when finished. I got back to the car with about 20 minutes before start time so I did my normal stretches, stripped to my race gear (HEP tri shorts and my sleeveless running top emblazoned with HEP logos and the faint white outline of an iron - apparently the Howie's ironing board needs a little more padding - from when Jen ironed on the logos) donned my Halo headband, and jogged to the starting line with about 5 minutes to spare.

(The race strategy my coach came up with was breaking the race down in to 3 parts: 2 miles, 2 miles and 2.2 miles hopefully negative splitting the parts but shooting for a time goal of 45-47 minutes. The first part was to be Z3/Z4 cusp, the second, mid Z4 but below threshold, and the third, whatever I had left. The goal was also to get faster by only increasing the cadence. As I don't have a cadence sensor on my Garmin FR 305, I have no idea if I did just that, but my times did come down at the end.)

As there was no one at the starting line and indeed no less than 5 volunteers had no idea where the starting line even was I wasn't worried about missing the start, but rather staying warm. Thankfully, we started right on time and since it's the Canine Classic, there were dogs everywhere, including in the run. I started out a little quicker than normal to stay ahead of the slower people and doggies but some of them passed me (never to be seen again until after the race...there were some fast doggies). I settled in to a low Z4 pace and essentially wound up running with this really tall guy and a couple and their two border collies.

Somewhere between miles 2 and 3, I dropped the tall guy and the collies and caught up to the dog/owner in front of me passing him in a corner. I never saw any of them again though I peeked back a few times to see where they were.

As we were running counterclockwise around the res, anyone who knows that section of the road knows it's rather rolling. I'd thought that my mile splits would either stay the same or slow a tad, but because of taking advantage of the hills and upping my cadence I was able to drop the times rather significantly for the last two miles which leads me to believe I was too conservative in the middle part of the run (explained below), a mistake I will not repeat for the Bolder Boulder.

My splits were as follows: 7:10, 7:22, 7:17, 7:19, 7:04, 7:03.

I think I was a little nervous after the first mile and backed it off a tad to make sure I had enough left at the end. As briefly touched on above, I think I might have over reacted a bit and backed off too much. Ideally, for the Bolder Boulder, I'd like those last miles to be sub-7 which, with that nasty hill at the end, might be hard.

Goal for Bolder Boulder: sub-43.

Today's Workout

3000m swim (various)

Did master's instead.  Main set was 100m, 200m, 300m, 400m, 300m, 200m, 100m on a 1:50 base.  In hindsight, this was probably a little slow and I should have changed lanes because while we descended (time wise) through each block, my last 100 was on 1:27.  Which is very close to my PR which means either I am in way better shape than when I did my PR of 1:23, or I totally slacked off when I did that PR....or I totally slacked off during the main set.

Either way.  It was a good time.