2014 Boulder Sunrise RR

Yesterday I had a great race at the Boulder Sunrise Olympic Triathlon, although I admit it's pretty nice to be sitting at home this morning, drinking a cup of coffee.  I hope to get out for a short "recovery ride" this afternoon, but don't plan on more than a dozen miles.  But yesterday, was a great day by most accounts.  Here's the rundown:

After spending Friday evening at my parent's house, I woke early Saturday morning and was out the door.  I felt more awake and less tired than I'd expected after a busy week of work.  When I arrived at the Boulder Reservoir around six, I started to pull my gear together so that I wouldn't have to be tracking back and forth to the vehicle a lot.  Unlike OMT where I was parked about 50 yards from transition, the car was a bit further away today.  As I started to pull my things together, I started to panic as I could not find my wallet anywhere.  I was about ready to go and plead my situation to the race officials when I finally noticed it sitting inside my bag.  With everything together, I made my way over to the transition area.

Pre Race:
At packet pick up we were told that there was a mix up with some of the bibs/ numbers not arriving that morning.   Rather than making a big deal of this, or delaying the race start, the organizers simply told athletes not to worry about it, since we were body marked.  In truth, this turned out to be a really nice thing, as I didn't have to be concerned about getting a number on my bike, helmet, etc.  It also meant there was no worry about forgetting to put my race belt on for the run either.  I imagine it will be a bit more difficult to find any race pictures once they are published, but they are usually so expensive that I don't bother with them anyway.
Setting up transition was smooth and there seemed to be a fair amount of space for everyone.  They actually have fairly specific spots for everyone, but it seemed like most folks just racked their bikes in the general vicinity of their designated area.  I kind of did the same and quickly got everything set.  I did a very, very small transition this time, even forgoing the small towel I usually put on the ground.  In the future, I think I'll stick with the towel however, as it was a bit more difficult to find my spot during the transitions.  After the requisite bathroom stops and final check of my gear,  I got down to the beach and had enough time to do a quick lap in the warm-up area before lining up for the start of my wave.

The Swim:  
The swim start at this race is a running start from the shore into the water.  It's a fairly narrow area and so just before the start, I found myself pretty much at the front of the wave, which isn't exactly where I wanted to be!  With only about 10 seconds to start, there really wasn't much choice, so I decided to go for it, figuring that I might be able to get a fast start and avoid some of the washing machine that usually describes the first 50 meters of any triathlon race.  This strategy actually worked pretty well as I managed to get free from others fairly quickly.  My goal in the swim was to simply stay relaxed and do the best I could in terms of staying focused and concentrating on swimming well. With a small group of swimmers and really perfect water temperatures, this seemed to be going well.  I had even decided to skip wearing a watch for this leg of the event, figuring that it would be more of a distraction, and would perhaps even stress me out a bit to worry about how fast or slow I was going.  Through the first half of the swim, I felt that I was moving at a steady pace, and I felt good about my navigation and staying on course.  Rounding the buoy for the long swim back to shore, I even considered that I might be swimming faster than I imagined.  I also seemed to be staying fairly straight, so I put my head down and swam towards the shore working to pick up the pace a bit.  Every minute or two, I'd look and I could see the arches at the swim finish ahead in the distance almost directly in front of me.  And then, as I went to breathe to my left, I noticed that something was out of place.  The swim buoy that was supposed to be on my right, was now on my left about 15 yards away.  I stopped swimming for a moment and tried to make sense of what was going on.  I soon realized that while I'd managed to be swimming back towards shore, I'd slowly drifted to the right a fair amount and was now more or less off course.  Not wanting to risk a disqualification, I turned and swam perpendicular to the buoy before turning right, and back onto the swim course route. While I doubt it made a difference of more than 15-20 seconds, my confidence in how the swim was going, immediately evaporated.  I spent the last part of the swim making sure I was on course.  My result would say that my swim was a 31:31 (Performance Result: About Average).  This is one of the slower swims I've had at this distance in several years (last fall was a 29:25 so I was a good two minutes slower this year).  More on this later.

Transition One:
Mercifully, the swim ended and I was out of the water and back to T1 in short order.  The distance from the reservoir to the transition is fairly close so I made it back to the bike fairly quickly.  I got out of my wet suit (a bit of trouble with the timing chip leg).  In going to put my shoes on however, I felt just a twinge of a cramp starting in my calf muscle as I fought to get my left shoe on.  Not wanting to deal with that kind of an issue right at the beginning of the bike, I stepped back for a moment, and slowed down enough to get my shoe on properly.  I repeated this with my other shoe and jogged out of transition ready for the bike.  My total time in T1 was 2:19 which is again, slower than I'd like it to be for an Olympic distance race (Performance Result: Average).

The Bike:
I could feel my heart pounding pretty heavily during the first couple of miles and I struggled a bit to catch my breath.  Still, I felt good overall, and the bike is an area where I've improved a great deal in the last year.  The added volume and more practice riding "hard" at times, has paid off.  A highlight of this race is that I was only passed by two other athletes and in both cases, it didn't last.  I quickly caught each one again and passed them within a mile or two.  In fact through the first twenty miles of the race (before it merges with the sprint course and things get confusing), I kept passing rider after rider.  The strategy of being a bit more conservative through the first 10 miles before opening it up on Nelson Road proved to be a good one.  At Nelson Road, there are several really good sections of downhill so I rode several miles at a pace between 25 and 30 mph.  In the latter part of the race, there was a bit of wind and some very gradual climbing which slowed me down a tad, but I kept pushing and kept my average speed just under 20 mph on those stretches.   By the time I turned back towards the reservoir, I was back over 22-23 mph the rest of the way.   Unlike a year ago, where I started to fade a bit at the end of the ride, I felt strong through the entire time. In the end, my time on the bike was 1:13:53, about 40 seconds faster than last year (Performance Result: Great).

Good downhill provides some faster speeds!

Transition Two:
I was tempted to try the whole "feet out of my shoes before dismount thing again," but given the issue this caused for me at OMT, I decided against it.  I figured it wasn't worth risking a cramp or a muscle strain, especially with a 10 kilometer run still to complete.  I had a more "traditional" dismount which in truth, didn't cost me much time.  I managed to run past my "parking spot" for my bike and had to double back and this is where a small towel would have been a nice landmark to see where I was located.  Once I found my place, I was able to get my socks,shoes and visor on.  This took a bit more time than I'd hoped, but once again, I did not practice this at all prior to the race.  I'd intended to, but the week before was just too busy. My time for T2 was a glacial 2:27, which is at least 30 seconds slower than I would have liked (Performance Result: Average).

The Run:
As I'd expected, it all would really come down to the run.  I knew that my bike was pretty close to the year before (based on my average speed) so even if my swim was slower, a good run would be enough to make up the difference.  As I came out of T1, I felt the best that I ever have coming off of the bike.  I kept my leg turnover high and it took me little time to fall into a steady pace.  My plan was to run each mile between 7:45-8:00 minutes. Through the first couple of minutes,  I had forgotten to switch "sports" on my watch and so I ran the first quarter mile or so in "bike mode."  At any rate, the first two recorded miles were between 7:30-7:40, which gave me a bit of a cushion.  The weather was just under 60 degrees and it felt really nice.  I made it to the turnaround feeling pretty good but by the third mile, a bit of fatigue started to creep in.  I kept pushing at the same effort but my pace dropped by 20 seconds or so.  I was now at the "slow" end of my range, but I kept putting one foot in front of the other, and willed myself to run harder.  Although my pace didn't get any faster over the last three miles, it didn't get any slower either.  I managed to stay close to eight minute miles the rest of the way in and probably picked that up a bit towards the end. My final time for the run was 48:09 (a 7:46 pace overall).  I felt fairly confident that combined with the ride, I would have a course PR this time (Performance Result: Great).

A bit off, but a general idea of run times.

After the race, I bumped into an old friend from high school named Bruce.  I hadn't seen him in about 3 or 4 years so we spent about 45 minutes catching up.  Bruce is an amazing athlete and had been there to do the Duathlon, which he won.  I won't go into details but if you put his two 5k times together, he was a good 14-15 minutes ahead of my run time!

Conclusion:  
Based on the goals I'd set, my overall performance was smack dab between "Good" and "Great," and I'm happy with that.  I'd really wanted to PR and I really wanted to finish under 2:40:00 for the race which I was able to accomplish.  I didn't have a strong swim and didn't meet my goal for this, but I reached my other goals completely.  It felt great to have such a strong bike ride and not get passed, and I was happy to follow this up with a strong run. My finish put me in the top 25% (46/179) of all finishers and in the top 33% of my age group (6/18).   This is pretty much identical to my finish a year ago.  As I've said before, this means I'm either at the back of the "Front of the Pack," or the front of the "Middle of the Pack."  Considering that the 5th place finisher in my Age group was a good 15 minutes ahead of me, it's probably the latter, and I'm fine with that.

The obvious area for improvement has to be the Swim.  Although I've been swimming more lately, I seem to be slower than in the past.  While some of this may be psychological, I think I've found my new "limiter" and I intend to do something about it this summer.  Throughout the first part of the year, I've been pretty consistent about swimming twice a week.  Over the course of the summer, I plan on doing a bit more (3 to 4 times a week), and adding a bit more volume for each of my workouts (during the year, I can only realistically swim about 1600 in the mornings).  I'm also going to do a bit more research on swimming and may even look at a couple of lessons to be sure that my stroke, etc. is dialed in right.  A huge challenge will still be the OWS practice as I just don't have many options where I live.  That said, I hope I can figure out a way to squeeze a few practices in later this summer as I get closer to the Harvest Moon Triathlon in early September.

2014 Boulder Sunrise Triathlon Race Plan

In a little less than a week, I'll complete my second of four planned triathlons this year, the Boulder Sunrise Triathlon.  The first was the OMT here in town that took place a couple of weeks ago.  In late July, my brother and I will do a self-supported 70.3 distance, and then in early September, I will compete in the Harvest Moon Triathlon (also a 70.3).  Harvest Moon is my "A" race for the year.  There are a few other activities planned during the summer, but from a Triathlon perspective, these four races are the only ones I'm going to do.
While this will be the first time I've done the Boulder Sunrise Triathlon, it isn't really a "new" event for me.  Last August I completed the Boulder Sunset Triathlon, which is the exact same course (I also did the Sprint Version back in 2010).  The only difference is the time of year, and the start time, with the Sunset starting about ten in the morning.  I'm hopeful that the Boulder Sunrise, with its 7:00 a.m. start, will be a bit more forgiving in terms of temperature.  I had a good race the last time I was out, but rising temperatures during the run phase, really zapped a great deal of my energy and it took me a little over 54 minutes to complete.  Although I wound up a respectable 6th in my age group, I feel that I can improve on my 2:42:29 finish time if the weather conditions are a bit more favorable.
Fast forward to now, nine months later.  After a bike crash and recovery in the fall, a long winter, and some early season racing, I'm ready to give the race in Boulder another go.  I don't know whether I have quite the same base of fitness as a year ago, but I've done a lot more "intensity" in the last couple of months.  All things being equal, it will be interesting to see if there's any positive difference in my results this time around.  Back in August of 2013, these were my goals for the Boulder Sunset:

After the race, I discovered that my swim time hadn't really changed at all, my bike performance was certainly better, and due to the hot weather, I was WAY OFF on my run by at least 8 minutes.  I also had a fairly ambitious set of time predictions:

In the end, the run really did me in, so I wound up with a less than average final result.  No matter.

Goals for 2014: 
My plan this time means staying consistent with a year ago, with the biggest difference coming on the run:

1) Swim:  I'd really love to complete the swim in 30 minutes or less.  A lot will have to come together to make that happen, but I have done more swimming than I had a year ago (from January to August 2013, I swam about 61,000 yards.  To this point this year, I'm already at about 65,000 yards).  A week ago, I did a 2.5 mile open water swim and while I didn't have a great performance by any stretch, I believe that a 30 minute swim is within reach.  Last year my time was 29:25 for the swim.

2) Bike: At the OMT three weeks ago, I managed a pace of about 21.4 mph over the 12.5 mile course.  According to TriCalc3, that same pace would be about a 1:14:00 overall time.  I would be very satisfied with this or anything close to the 1:15:00 mark.

3) Run:  The run is where I would expect to see the biggest improvement from a year ago.  My average pace per mile then was about 8:49.  If it isn't overly hot, I think that I should be able to average about a minute faster (give or take) with a pace between 7:45-8:00/ mile.  That would put my finish time for the run somewhere between 48:00 and 49:40.

If I can hit most of these targets, especially the run, and have decent transitions, that should translate into a final time that is somewhere under 2 hours 40 minutes. That's a touch faster than last years time, and given where I'm at in my training, this is possible, but it will still require a good deal of effort. Like a year ago, I can't have anything left.  Here's my traditional chart of possible outcomes:

Keys to the race:

1) Swim: Stay relaxed and focused.  The best thing I can do is to relax and concentrate on my breathing and technique.  I can't get distracted by sighting or feeling like I'm off course.  Success means coming out of the water without feeling overly exhausted.  Even a slightly slower swim can easily be made up if there's energy left for the bike and the run.

2) Bike: The bike portion requires me to stay positive and build my pace as I go along.  The first portion of the ride is slightly uphill, but that rapidly changes to a fair amount of downhill.  It will be important not to expend too much in the early stages of the ride.

3) Run: This is where the majority of the time from a year ago gets made up.   To have a great performance here, I don't have to be a speed demon.  Eight minute miles will keep me in the hunt for a course PR, and so I need to remember that.  Assuming that all things are going according to plan, I will see how I'm feeling at three miles.  If I still feel strong heading out onto the second loop, then I can give myself permission to go a little harder to the end.

4) Transitions: My times a year ago were both under 2:00 minutes which isn't too bad.  If I can cut those by about 15 seconds each however, that would be better.  I plan on practicing T1/ T2 a little later this week to that end.

So that's the plan for next Saturday.  Here's hoping it all comes together!

First race of the season complete! OMT Race Report

Saturday morning was the first race of the season for me, the 2014 Ordinary Mortals Triathlon.  It was also the first I'd done since crashing at Ironman 70.3 Austin last fall.  The OMT is a reverse order sprint that begins with a 3.1 run, followed by a 12.5 mile bike ride, and a 300 yd pool swim to finish things off.  I last competed in this race back in April 2012 and in 2013, I volunteered to help with set up.  This year I decided to do both.  This is our local tri club's big event so it seems to make sense for everyone to do their part.

Set-Up
 I arrived at the starting line right around 6:00 a..m.. There were a variety of tasks at set up but my biggest contribution was to sit on the back of a slow moving truck and hand out cones to be set onto the race course.  I kind of chuckled at this task considering how much trouble a single cone in Texas had caused me.  Maybe I was appeasing my subconscious by making sure there would be no wayward cones placed out on the course.  By seven there wasn't much left to do which meant that I had almost two hours to kill before start time.
Given the amount of time I had available, I decided to go ahead and get body marking done and to get set up in transition.  That way, I could choose the spot I wanted and wouldn't have to worry about squeezing in somewhere as more people arrived.  I prefer a simple transition area: a small towel, bike shoes, and swim goggles.  I kept my glasses and my bike maintenance (tube, tire lever, CO2) inside my helmet which rested on my handlebars.  Well, that took five minutes. Done.  And more time to kill.
Normally in the lead up to a race, I will develop a rather extensive race plan (see example) but  I did not have that luxury this past week as work is busier than ever.  I did manage to sit down and create my chart to describe various levels of performance.  As always, the chart identifies a range of results for each of the individual disciplines and sorts them from an Epic Performance (PR type of stuff) to Average Performance (Just another day at the office).  I don't include anything below Average because I don't see the point in planning to have a crappy day.  I imagine I will know it when I see it:

Despite the lack of a detailed plan,  I did have a few goals that I hoped to accomplish.  My biggest goal for this race (and probably for most of my races this year) was to turn in a strong performance on the bike.  I know that biking has been my biggest limiter and although I've started to fix that in the past year, I still have a ways to go.  As I get into longer distance races, I know that a strong bike leg is what can set me up for a successful run.  I always prefer to race, and not just survive. For me, strong is anything with an average of over 20 mph and for such a short distance, I really hoped to keep my pace even a bit higher than that.
Another goal was to have a strong run.  In most triathlons, this is the last leg, and I always feel like I have an advantage over my more run-limited competitors.  For this race, however, I know that a strong run is necessary to get some distance prior to getting on the bike.  I would love to have a sub 7:00 minute pace, but something in between 7:00 to 7:30 would be fine, especially considering the rather hilly course for the OMT.
Lastly, I hoped to have a top 20 finish.  While an age group podium would be great, the reality is that since I'm in the 40-44 age group, it's always going to be a challenge.  For a small local race like this one however, I believe a top 20 finish is doable and would put me in the top 10% or so for finishers.

Where's Waldo?  Oh . . . there he is!

Race

Just a few minutes before nine, there was a briefing for the athletes right by the starting line. Mostly a quick review of the course and some of the more significant turns, although I would suggest that a quick review of the rules around biking would be helpful considering the number of new triathletes that participate in the event. Next they presented the flag while a young lady sang the National Anthem.  I'm always moved by this moment and reminded how blessed I am to live in a country where I have the opportunity to spend a beautiful spring morning doing something that I love. After a cheer and a round of applause, it was time to race.

Starting up the first hill after a 6:30 split!

Run
Nearly the entire first mile of the race is downhill and so people start off way too fast, even more so than your typical race.  I must include myself in this group this time.  I let the momentum carry me but I didn't really feel like I was overexerting.  The hilly nature of this course means that you can't really keep a "consistent" pace throughout.  At any rate I figured a fast first mile would help with my overall time, especially considering that there are two fairly steep climbs along the way (This course is anything but flat!).  Still, I was surprised to blow through the first mile in 6:30, but I knew the looming hill would slow me down fairly quickly, which of course it did.  Mile two which involved both uphill and downhill portions came in around 7:30 and I was sucking wind.  By that point I had started thinking about the bike and was a bit concerned that I'd burned through too much on the run.

Downhill Start

 I can't remember who made the analogy (maybe Macca) but any time you race, it's a bit like having a book of matches and you only have so many to burn.  If you burn too many early in the race, you won't have any for later on when you might need it.  Since having a strong leg on the bike was my main goal for the day,  I made it a point to slow my pace a touch for the last mile (this was helped by a fairly long climb back around the west edge of CSU-Pueblo).  Garmin says that my last mile was around 7:50.  I circled back around to the starting line and after trading "high fives" with a couple of youngsters cheering alongside the road, I turned back to the transition area with an official time of 22:40.  This was 20th overall and fourth in my age group.  According to my chart this is a little slower than "great," but I was satisfied with how things were going and felt like I still had some matches to burn.

Transition One
I didn't spend a lot of time in transition, but if I ever get to where I'm focusing on Sprint and Olympic distance triathlons, this is an area where I will need to improve.  My T1 time was a whopping 1:34 which was slower than it should have been considering that this is a reverse order race and it's much easier to get out of running shoes and into biking shoes as opposed to the opposite.  Of course, it's one thing to plan on being fast in transitions, and quite another to actually practice that (something I didn't do leading up to this race).  The other "oops" was that I managed to leave my race belt on meaning I had a nice flapping bib ready to go for the bike.  Oh well, it was a less than "average" T1.

Heading out of T1 and onto the bike course

Bike
The first mile of the bike follows an almost identical course to the run.  Instead of turning back up towards the university however, the course heads east onto the highway.  It's a simple out and back affair of approximately 6.5 miles each way.  The "out" portion is downhill, so it's a great place to gather some speed and to catch your breath.  It didn't take too long to fall into an easy rhythm and I was pleased with my average speed.  At this point, I imagine that I was somewhere between 20th and 25th place.  I wasn't quite sure, but the further I got into the bike, the more I passed people.   The pace on the bike felt good and I was averaging between 21 to 23 mph through the first portion of the ride.  This is important because my experience is that once you turn around you are confronted by a mostly uphill return that is accompanied by a head wind.

OMT Bike Course Elevation Map

I've ridden this course many times and seen a difference in time of as much as 10 minutes due to this fact.  Pleasantly, there was actually a slight tail wind for the way back.  My pace didn't change significantly from the out trip, but I was also headed uphill at this point.  I hoped to keep my pace at less than three minutes per mile and with the exception of the first mile (which also included some transition time), that seems to be the case.  With about a mile to go, I put in a little extra push to crest the small climb up the exit ramp going back onto campus.  In so doing I noticed a slight, cramping sensation in my left calf.  It wasn't anything major or painful, just a slight squeezing kind of feeling.  The feeling didn't last however, so I managed to keep riding the last mile to T2.  Coming up to the finish, I noticed that the person in front of me was getting out of his shoes for the dismount.  Initially, I had decided not to do this because the ride finishes on an uphill and I thought it would be difficult to do. But then I decided to go for it.  The right foot came out no problem, but I didn't execute the left foot properly.  Now don't worry, I didn't fall over or anything embarrassing like that.  However, as I managed to free my left foot, I felt a sudden and very painful feeling in that left calf.  It was as if someone grabbed the muscle and twisted it.  I grimaced and took a deep breath, but  managed to dismount and hobble into transition.  I had an uneasy feeling for sure as I took my socks off and grabbed my goggles (once again forgetting my race belt was still on). My race time for the bike portion was 35:06 (21.4 mph) which was right at an "Epic" pace for me.  Even better, this was the 10th fastest time overall for the race, and the third fastest in my age group (all of the bike times in the 40-44 range were within about 1 minute of each other).

Transition Two
Because of my sudden "calf" issue, I give myself a pass for my time in T2 (1:09).  It still didn't take a long time, but I had to very gingerly run out of transition and up to the pool.  While I do have a bit of a strain, I don't think it is anything too terrible.  I managed to run at a fairly steady pace up to the swimming pool and I believe that a few days off from running is probably in order, but that shouldn't be a problem.  Considering my calf issue, this was almost a "great" transition.

Swim
What can I say.  The swim is the swim, especially coming at the end of the race instead of the beginning.  The swim was only about 300 yards and it's done in a "serpentine style" meaning that you start at one end of the pool and then swim up and back in one lane, before ducking under the lane rope and swimming up and back the next lane.  This continues as you work your way from right to left across the entire pool.  Once you reach the end of the 6th lap, you've done your 300 yards, and it's up and out of the water and onto the finish line.  Having the swim be the final portion of the race is definitely a "weird" feeling.  I was a little short of breath but I managed to turn and breathe more frequently which helped.  Overall I felt good about the swim, although I probably could have pushed it a touch faster.  I was quite a ways ahead of the next competitor as well as quite a ways behind the athlete in front of me, so I didn't have a lot of immediate incentive in terms of the swim.  I knew that in terms of place at least, I would finish right where I was. A bonus was that my goggles didn't fill up with water.  My overall swim time was 6:52.2 (including running).   Subtract the running, and this would probably be about a 5:52, which is only around 1:57 per 100 yards. This was the slowest in my age group and only 26th overall. That matches up to a "good" swim overall.

From the race directions, this maps out the swim course so you won't get lost!

Finish
My overall time wound up at 1:07:23 which makes for a race that was very "good," and less than a minute from a "great result."  I placed 15th overall which is in the top 10% of the total racers.  I also managed a fourth place finish in my age group, which is better than I thought I would do.  Compare this to 2012 when my overall time was 1:13:08.  That puts me nearly 6 minutes faster than previously.  Overall, I met each of my goals for the race.  My time on the bike was right at about 35 minutes, and I was excited to have the tenth fastest time overall.  I give credit to a more aerodynamic bike, but better bike fitness also plays a role.  The run was good too.  A 7:19 per mile pace is fairly strong running considering that I had to bike and run afterwards.  Lastly, I finished within the top 20 and 15th overall.
 And with that, my first race of the season was over.  I managed to find the massage table a few minutes after being done, and they went to work on my calf muscle right away.  There's definitely some soreness there, but at least I'm not hobbling around the house.  I'm going to get back to more stretching and rolling in the next few weeks to see if I can keep this thing from pestering me all summer long. Up next for triathlons is the Boulder Sunrise Triathlon.  This will be an Olympic distance event that takes place in early June.  I did the "Sunset" version on Labor day weekend last year, and I'm anxious to get back out there and see if I can get a faster run time this year.  Between now and then, I'm sure I'll have a few more adventures!

Note: Emily Sanchez took pictures for the Ordinary Mortals Triathlon and posted them on Facebook.  Several of these photos are used in this post. Thank you!