Tupper Lake Tinman Race Report

Well I never got a chance to finish my training camp logs, but here’s the quick recap:

Camp was amazing, Saturday on the bike course rocked, windy, but so much fun, and the scenery was incredible. It was a big confidence boost going into the race next month, just knowing that I had two loops in me, and I still felt okay after. Hanging out with, and meeting/getting to know more people from Train-This was by far the best part of the weekend though. I’m so lucky to have gotten in with this group, they’re all amazing! For that I should probably thank Alexa! Sunday ended with a nice recovery ride with Kim, Mary, and Tim. Then Mary and I went for a swim, which was great. We sat on the beach and talked while we waited for Kim and Matthias to finish up their runs. I had an amazing talk with Mary about Ironman, and a bit of where I want to go starting next year. The ride back with Matthias was great as well. He’s a good car buddy. I’m very glad that he decided to come up, and that we carpooled together.

Now onto the big story for this weekend, my Tupper Lake Tinman race report!

I have some discussing to do with Mary about this race, to try to figure out where things went wrong before I head up to Placid next month. During the race, it was hard to not think “This is just a half, what the hell am I going to do next month if I’m in this much trouble now?” I wish I could say that I successfully stayed positive the whole time, but I didn’t. I am, however, proud of the way that I forced myself to put things back into perspective and pulled myself out of a pretty dark place. But here we go…

Woke up at 5am, was happy for an 8am start time. Thank you so much to Stefany for letting Amanda and I set up our air mattress on your motel room floor! Also, congrats for crushing your race Saturday! It was a bit chilly in the little cabin we were in, but outside it seemed much warmer. It was raining though. I was a bit worried about being cold on the bike, but I’m used to the rain, and this spring I’ve gotten through much colder rain than 63F. Ate breakfast, then headed over to the race site. It was raining pretty good at this point. I tried to stay as dry and warm as I could, and got marked, grabbed my chip, and set up in transition. I then headed back to the car to relax and stay dry. I was feeling pretty good. I felt confident. About 30 minutes before race time, I got my wetsuit ready and on, and then got in my gel at about 20 to go. I headed over to the lake, and watched the sprinters go out. 10 minutes to go. I got in and swam maybe a 100yds or so easy. Hmmm, I’m not feeling all that great in the water; tried not to think about it. 1 minute to go was announced, and I got ready. Off we went, and a bad swim was begun. I couldn’t find a rhythm, I had a ton of trouble sighting the course for some reason, and as such I couldn’t find anyone to settle in and draft off of. It took me until the turn back in to shore to find anything resembling a comfortable rhythm, and I focused on trying to reel back in the group that had gotten away from me. I definitely brought some time back on the way back in, and felt good okay coming out of the water and into transition. I took an extra minute getting my socks on, because I really didn’t want to bike 56, and run 13 sockless in wet shoes. I think it was a good decision.

Swim: 28:14 was good enough for best in my AG and 16^th overall.

T1: 2:16

I headed out on the bike, and again had trouble finding a good rhythm. We rode into the wind on the way out. I had stretches when I felt good, but they were interspersed with times when I felt like I was pushing, and not going anywhere. I was annoyed when I was passed by a paceline of 5-6 guys, but shrugged it off and focused on how I was feeling. At the time I felt like for the most part the ride out was solid. I wasn’t comfortable, but I felt sustainable. I didn’t really look at my watch at all. I try not to look at my data right after races, I like to let things sink in first, and I think it lets me put things into better context, I’ll be doing that later today. On the way out, I was happy with the position I was in, and I felt stong, and I was ready to bring it back, and have a strong run. I don’t know what happened. I think I was maybe a bit light on nutrition, but I wasn’t much behind. I had a little over a bottle of drink in me over the 28 miles out, and 5 shot blocks. My stomach felt solid, which is a big deal for me. After the turn and heading back through Cranberry Lake I thought I spotted Kellman and his neon yellow Fleet-feet kit. The trip back to Tupper, I just struggled. I felt heavy, I started to feel some quad pain that I’ve been dealing with lately, and I couldn’t keep my heart rate up even though my effort felt really consistent. It was pretty demoralizing. By the time I rolled back into town, I hurt, pretty much everywhere, but I never felt as though I had overdone it, nor did I think that I was lacking in nutrition. I’m still not sure of what went wrong, but I’m hoping talking with Mary will help clear that up. T2 was smooth, Amanda asked how I felt I gave her the “no good” look/head shake, and headed out.

Bike: 2:33:40

T2: 1:21

The run brought the hurt. The first mile or so I felt pretty good. I had trouble feeling my effort, and I think I took that first mile out a little fast. I didn’t hurt so much for that little while, and I thought I was settling into a good sustainable pace. I was wrong. At mile 2.5 everything came crashing down on me. Whatever high I had been riding left, and I was in a world of pain. I took a minute to stop, and go to the bathroom. At that point I thought I was done. I couldn’t see myself running again. I couldn’t even see myself walking the distance back to transition. I took that minute to talk myself back down. I’ll go through my inner dialogue for you here:

Why am I here? I love this sport, I love what I’m doing right now.

Why am I here? Everyone has a bad race, this is your first, this is where you see how strong you are.

Okay, how can I continue? Keep it slow and steady, get your legs back. Forget about the time, just focus on completion.

I got running again. Set a pace that I knew I could easily handle, I tried to settle in around 8min/mile. I long run that pace all the time. I know that pace, it’s comfortable, it’s my running happy place. I walked for about 15ish seconds a couple times before mile 5, negative thoughts crept back, I pushed them away. By mile 5 I was able to settle in. I still hurt, my focus was one foot in front of the other. I walked aid stations to try to get as much sport drink as I could. One quick note, if your race is sponsored by Coke, you freakin better have Coke on your damn run course! Especially when I need it! I ran the rest of the course, walking aid stations, and just holding on for dear life. I finally made it to mile 10, just a 5k left. I can do this in my sleep. I allowed myself to check out the time, assuming about 30 minutes for the swim, I realized that I have plenty of time to make it sub 5. I even had a shot at my goal of 4:50 if I just maintained. I didn’t try to push it in, I just kept with what was working for me. Run 1-1.5 walk 10-15 seconds of the aid station, continue. Before I knew it I had about 0.5 to go, and I left myself pick things up a little. I crossed the line with the clock at 4:51:20ish My official time ended up a bit slower than that. I think maybe they started us a bit less than 10 minutes after the sprint start.

Run: 1:46:47 (if not for flower city half back in May this would’ve been a 13.1 PR)

Overall: 4:52:15

As much as things went wrong for me during the race, I’m happy with the result. I’m very happy with the result. After, I got a ton of support from my team. The Train-This crew is incredible. I agree with Mary, If I can do that on a bad day, I can’t wait to see what a good day might look like!

I also need to thank Amanda. She's amazing! She rode all the way up to Tupper, and spent most of the day either in the car, or in the rain. She was cold and soggy all morning, and I'm sure that there were other things that she'd much rather be doing then watching me ride and run around some little town 4 hours away. She also bought me a delicious Rolo McFlurry, which was just as god as any AG award I've ever won! So thank you dar, your support is everything to me!

Now it’s time to look ahead to Placid. Just one more week or so of work, then on to a 10 day taper. I’m almost there. I still have my days when I’m scared of the race. I have some goals, but I’ve decided that I’m okay if they don’t happen. I can look back at the little journey I’ve made and be proud of the result. In a month I’m going to be an Ironman. Come hell or high water, I will make my way across that line, I don’t care how long it takes me. I’d love to hit those goals I have, but this season I’m realizing how much I love Olympic and 70.3 racing. I had a bad day Saturday, and I still loved it. We’ll see how IMLP goes and reassess. The plan right now for next year is Rev3 Cedar Point. I may make that the 70.3 though. It’s too early for decisions, I’m a wait and see kind of guy. I’m excited to race mini-mussel coming up and get my sprint on! It’s been almost two years since my last sprint, which was my first ever tri. Then I’m extra pumped to volunteer Musselman and cheer on my buddies John and Seth as they take on their first 70.3.

27 days to IMLP

33 days to Wedding!

Lake Placid Training Camp Day 1!

So I decided to write a log of training weekend in placid, so you all can live this awesome weekend vicariously through my words!

Friday:

Today started with my meeting Matthias at Amanda’s mom’s house in Farmington, it’s a long story why we ended up meeting there, and we’ll just leave it at that. We got on the road at about 9am, and enjoyed some lovely conversation on the way up. About two hours in we grabbed some lunch, and continued on into the mountains. At Tupper Lake I took a wrong turn and we got a nice little drive-through of Long Lake in, it was totally worth the 30 minutes it added to our drive… or not. We rolled in to the wonderfully cheap Alpine Air Inn at about 3:30ish, just late enough that we wouldn’t get to hit the 1hr recovery ride everyone else headed out on. We got everything situated in our room, and hung out a bit before heading down to mirror lake for a swim.

The lake had the lines in, and was all set up for what looked like crew, so we swam along the buoy lines all the way to the other end of the lake. My swim group consisted of Mary, Ken, and Don. Mary drafted off me the whole way. This was impressive, because I sprinted the whole thing, and didn’t breathe once. Or, I put in a nice medium effort, and made good time down. One of those two is true, I won’t say which one though. We waited for Ken and Don to come in, and chatted for a bit. Mary made me show her some of my water polo “ups”. She was impressed (as she should be!). The swim back went pretty quickly, passed a few people a long the line. I pushed a little harder for most of the way back. Ken and Mary came in just a few meters behind me. We all headed back to the motel for showers, and to relax before heading to dinner.

Dinner was at a place called Milano. It was very good. I got some tortelloni with tomato basil cream sauce, and grilled chicken. I got to know Kim and Travis better. They’re great. We all had a lot of fun, and some interesting conversations. For example, how exactly is puffed corn different from pooped corn? It’s clear they’re different, but how do they puff puffed corn. Kim said it’s something like *puffffff*. That answer didn’t really satisfy. After dinner we stopped at Rite Aid where I picked up some tooth paste, (I always forget something!) then headed back to the motel. I missed Amanda so I gave her a call, and talked to her and Pretson a bit. Then I headed down for a chat with Kim, Mary, Ken, and some others. It’s now 9:46 and I’m more than ready for bed! So it’s time for sleep! 112+ miles on the bike tomorrow, followed by a 30 minute run, and a swim in there somewhere as well. Lake Placid was beautiful tonight, hopefully it is tomorrow too!

37 days until IMLP!

Keuka Race Report

What a crazy weekend. Crazy fun, though. Began Saturday with an hour-thirty ride, in the rain... again. I think that standing in the parking lot of the park unpacking my bike, feeling those first raindrops falling, ties with the last mile of my run yesterday with the most mentally tough parts of my weekend. I've had about enough of the rain. It took everything I had to talk myself onto my bike. I knew if I could just get started then it wouldn't be so bad. I ended up putting in about 26 miles of easyish endurance. I felt strong, and that got me excited for the race coming on Sunday.

Headed down to Canandaigua to stay the night for a shorter drive to Penn Yan in the morning. Got up at 3:45 and showered, laid down a bit, then got back up at 4:30 to get ready to go. I was excited to wake up to almost no wind. Good to go for the race wheels! Made my smoothie for breakfast, and left for Keuka, a bit late around 5:40. Arrived at the race at about 6:20 after parking and everything. Saw Kim and her boyfriend Travis as I got my stuff out of the car. Headed down to where transition was set up. Found out that registration was all the way across campus (yay) and headed over there to get set to go. Saw Ivan at registration, chatted for a bit, then back to transition to get everything set up. Stood in line and got body marked. Chose the wrong line. For some reason there was three markers for the line on either side of mine, and one for mine. That always seems to happen though, got tired of waiting, and just walked up to the next available person. At this point it was about time for transition to close, and I felt not so good. Cue severe intestinal distress. I'll spare the details, but I spent long time in a port-a-potty. Seeing as I have a irrational fear of public bathrooms, you know it was bad when I'm willing to use the port-a-potty.

Anyways, I made it down to the beach about 30 seconds before my wave was supposed to start. Forgot my garmin. The state troopers that were supposed to staff the bike course weren't there yet, so I had a few minutes to calm down, and get ready to go. My wave went off, and I started fairly strong. I looked to see who was going to be leading, then found them and tickled their toes for the next 1.4km or so. About half way through I saw I was being drafted off of too, he decided to take the lead after the second turn, and I just stayed where I was. I was pretty happy with the pace, and I wasn't pushing myself very hard, so I was content. Typically there's at least one good swimmer who's not so strong anywhere else, so I took that gamble. We cruised into shore, and got up, ran up the stairs, and I noticed it was Travis. He slipped across the mat just before me, but the jokes on him, because I'm still listed as placed higher in the swim than him! We fist bumped as we headed into transition for our good swim.

Swim: 21:27 1:25/100m, or 1:18/100yds (for Alexa!)

As I headed to my transition spot I saw the kid who passed us in the swim. He was barely like 1/4 out of his wetsuit. That gave me a pretty good indication that I made a good call not pushing too ahrd to catch him, he wasn't a threat. Travis was about two slots down from me. I had some trouble getting my left foot out of my wetsuit, and ended up leaving transition a bit behind him.

T1: 1:10

Travis freakin took off on the bike. He dropped me pretty early, but I took my time and stayed strong. I got some nutrition in, and set a solid pace. I was caught by Nick Brodnicki about 5ish miles out, and then again by another guy. I didn't get caught up in racing them. I just kept my solid consistent push. There wasn't too much to talk about for the bike. I was pretty zen. I kept my cadence consistent, and my effort high, maybe a little beyond what I thought of as sustainable. Jeff Henderson passed me on the way up skyline. He was booking it. That guy can ride. At the turn around on skyline I was running about 6th (not including later waves, just people in front of me), I picked up two on the way back to transition. This is including almost being run off the road by some jerk in a truck. Just after that Curbeau came up to me, and I rode into transition a few seconds behind him.

Bike: 1:09:15

At this point I also noticed that I was only a few seconds behind Travis as well. Somewhere out there I must have pulled him back a bit. Took off the helmet, slipped on my running shoes, grabbed my visor, and headed out. I was a few steps behind Curbeau, Jeff Henderson, Travis, and some other guy. I started my run pretty solid, and settled into what felt like a strong pace. Kim yelled to keep Travis in sight as I headed out, that wasn't going to happen. I settled in behind Jeff Henderson, and stayed relatively in contact with him until just after the turn around at 3.1 miles. Through then I felt solid. My pace felt strong, and I felt good. No GI issues this time! From there, I gradually started to hurt more and more. By mile 5 it was BAD. I just focused on doing everything I could to maintain until I was over that line. I made it, barely. My goal going in had been 2:15. I crossed in 2:14:48.

Run: 42:19 6:50 pace
Total: 2:14:48 12OA, 2AG

Overall, I'm really happy with my performance, I've made huge gains since last fall. I'm racing well, and feeling strong. I'm excited/scared for Placid. Some days it's hard to tell which one I'm feeling more!

Coming into the home stretch! I have training camp coming up the 17-19th. Tinman the 25th, mini-Mussel July 16th and IMLP July 24th! Then the weeding July 30th, then The honeymoon after! Lots of fun times on tap!

One block left before IMLP! 48 days to go!

Pictures to come shortly!