First Triathlon of the Season

     This post is a little overdue since training has been taking up a lot of free time, but here it is!  Since I mentioned training I'll start with that.  It's been pretty crazy putting all the time into swim/bike/run lately.  I've gotten up to 11hrs/week already and I'm only in the base phase, which is the beginning segment of a schedule that pretty much gets your body used to the training regimen.  None of the workouts are hard or intense, they just simply need to get done and so far it's all been at a low heart rate.  If you know what Ironman is, you'll realize that for most people (myself included) it's not a highly intensive race.  To swim 2.4mi, bike 112mi, and then run a marathon is really a test of endurance so most of the training is at level that one can sustain for quite a long time.  So yeah, it's mainly just putting in the time and preparing your body to go the distance...I'm sure you (whoever you are that's reading this) can do it to!

     Well, next phase is the build phase and it starts next week for me.  A little bit of intensity is added and training hours increase to about 15hrs/week.  I'm pretty much looking forward to all of it except the addition of a third swim!  Not that I don't like swimming, it's just the most inconvenient to do.  Go to the gym after work, change, swim, shower, change, and then I'm out at the perfect time for traffic...and I still have to either bike or run afterward!  I'll try to stick with it, but, of course life does sometimes get in the way of training...or is it the other way around haha!

     Ok, so we had our first triathlon this year on June 24th at Bigfoot State Park in Lake Geneva, WI.  It was another group event that turned out really well.  We headed out there the evening prior and went out to dinner, pasta and beer of course!  I ended up getting this beer that was described as being hopped only at the end of the brew so that the hops only flavor the beer and not bitter it.  Being a homebrewer I thought that was weird but I'll try it anyway...wasn't too crazy about it, a good malty, hoppy beer should have some bitterness to it.  Alright, sorry for the beer snobbery...back to the race!

     After dinner we stopped by a supermarket to pick up things for the morning and then headed to the hotel.  When we arrived and got all our gear together just about to walk through the front door and the two ladies working that night were outside smoking (Country Inn and Suites near Lake Geneva by the way).  As soon as I wheeled my bike past the door one of them started to tell us we can't have the bikes in the hotel rooms.  Every triathlon I've done except Chicago I've stayed in a hotel and this has never happened anywhere else.  We were quite surprised and tried persuading them to let us bring them in explaining to them that our bikes probably cost more than their cars!  It was a no go, so we ended up bringing them back to the car and locking them up inside.  We were all a little nervous but they were still there in the morning.

     Finally race morning!  We got up early, had some oatmeal, a banana, coffee, and sipped water/Gatorade.  It was nice getting up and leaving early since we got to take our time setting up our transition area.  Usually we get there with only just enough time to spare which is no good since you're more likely to forget something.  After the transition area closed we hit up the port-o-potties and then headed over to the start at the lake.  The triathletes doing the sprint distance went first, of my friends those were Katie, Arlie, Jeff, and Hector.  I saw Katie's wave start and tried to get her attention but she didn't hear me. Then the rest of us (Marty, Chrisy, Maureen, and Peter) doing the olympic distance met up and got in the water to warm up a little while we waited for our wave.  Marty and Peter went first, I went two waves after them I think, then Chrisy, and finally Moe.

     The swim was great!  Very congested at first, as usual, so I had to fight my way to as far in the front I can get.  Once I got a good position I made sure I was heading toward the buoy and as close to it as possible.  I set into a good pace which was actually faster than usual since this was mainly a fun race for me and I wanted to push it a little to see how my run came out.  It was ok for a while until I started catching the other waves ahead of me and it got a little congested again, but nothing like the start.  Near the swim finish I caught a guy in a red swimming cap (started two waves ahead of me) and he wouldn't let me pass him.  Ok, fine...I stayed with him the last 100yds or so and took off on him as we got out of the water heading to T1 (first transition).  Finished 4th in my age group in the swim.

     Got to my bike in transition got through it pretty quick.  Well, quick for me as I usually take a little longer, but there is definitely room for T1 improvement.  There was one guy in front of me getting out of transition and I recognized him, "hey, that's Peter!"  He's a good swimmer and he started two waves ahead of me so I was thinking he took his time in transition!  Once I got to the mount line I hopped on my bike just to Peter's right and my foot slipped getting into the pedal.  I ended up bumping into him, getting on my bike, looked back and said "sorry Peter!!".  Luckily it wasn't someone else, I think that calls for a penalty.

     So coming into the bike I was a little terrified of my impending doom...HILLS!  We read that the course was rolling to very hilly and with us being from Chicago those hills were bound to kick our butts.  I told myself I'm going to power through it, though.  Where there's an uphill there's a downhill, where there's a headwind there's a tailwind the going other way.  No matter what I told myself, those hills were a killer and the lactic acid build up in my quads felt like it was going to burn a hole right through them!  I felt the second half was a little better since there was mostly tailwind.  There was a really good few miles where I just felt like I was flying and I hit 31mph at one point.  I was relieved to see the bike course ending soon so I took my feet out of my shoes, slowed a bit, and jumped off before the dismount line and ran into T2 (second transition).  Came 27th in my age group on the bike.  T2 was uneventful, just took off my sunglasses and helmet and put on my running shoes and got outta there!

     Ah, the run...my favorite part!  So I pushed the swim faster than usual, I hit the bike hard averaging 20.05mph even with those hills...I was wondering if I'd overdid it.  I was already breathing hard coming out of T2 and I was hoping to keep a 7:10/mi pace for the 10k run.  I wasn't sure about that pace since the run course was mostly off road on the grass and had really short but steep climbs and uneven surfaces.  It was a 2-lap course and I'm glad the last mile of each lap were the easy miles!  I pretty much kept under the 7:10/mi I wanted except for the first and fourth mile, that was a tough section of the course.  It was also nice to be passing some people since I got my butt kicked on the bike.  To those who passed me on the bike, thanks for being my roadkill on the run haha!  I remember getting to mile 5, pretty dead by then, thinking "one more mile of pain, that's it, just one more mile".  So I went into my pain cave, I embraced the pain, I made the pain bow down to me!  That last mile, as much as it hurt, I cranked out a 6:52 and ended up 6th in my age group on the run and 8th place age group for the race...AND, if the bike course was 40km instead of 38km I made a huge improvement of 8min since my last race of this distance (which had WAY less hills)!

     Overall a good race!  Everyone did well and put up some awesome times, especially considering the difficulty of the course.  A special mention to Maureen for completing her first olympic distance tri, great job!  Afterwards we went to the same place that we had dinner the night before and chowed down on some burgers...it's becoming quite a tradition to have a nice big greasy burger after a race.  Oh, and then we had some ice cream...can't forget that!

Knocked out after those burgers

     From here on out it's strictly training and racing geared toward the November Ironman.  Ok, except for this mud and obstacle course 5k at the end of July that I just had to do since everyone else is doing it...peer pressure lol.  Happy training everyone!