Sunday, May 8, 2011

Devilman Half-Lite 50 mile Triathlon Race Report

swim 1 bike 40 run 9
 
Pre-race - didn't get to sleep as early as I would have liked because there was alot of noise at the hotel between 9 and 10 when people must have been checking into their rooms. When I travel for eagleman I plan on bringing my white noise machine with me. It makes a huge difference for me in terms of sleeping. I also didn't plan to get up too early since my wave didn't go off until 8:30 but again everyone around me in the hotel was getting up at 4 something for the tri so I was up too. Oddly the alarm clock in my room went off at midnight. that didn't make me very happy. I literally ripped the thing out of the wall. But I had slept well during the week so I didn't really feel too bad once I got myself together and the car packed up and was on the way to the race. I wanted to eat a clig bar for breakfast but I couldn't eat it. I don't think it was nerves thing. I just can't stomach food when I don't get enough sleep especially that early in the morning. I scoffed down as much of it as I could.

Got to the race and wish I brought my bike and supplies directly from the car before going to pick up my packet because it was a really long haul and it would have saved me a lot of time. thankfully I had enough time. One of my gripes about the race was that there was over 700 people doing it and it was just was not staffed well enough. The line for packet pickup took forever! If I didn't have plenty of time it would have been stressful. Also there was literally 1 guy working on bikes. the line for that was long too. I had to wait in it to get my pit stop. When I went back to my car I literally just yelled out does anyone have any tape and a bunch of voices came back "what kind of tape" Triathletes are better than boy scouts when it comes to be prepared. Taped the pit stop to my frame and headed down to transition. Transition was really tight which confused me a bit since they had a huge area in while to put it but only utilized a fraction of the space. The temperature was actually not too cold so I wouldn't be needing any extra gear beside my tri suit. Put my wetsuit on and headed down to the water.

The Race - my wave was the last to go in the swim start. The water was absolutely freezing. I got into the water telling myself out loud. it's not that cold... its not that cold... a women behind me goes "oh good, it isn't?" to which I reply, no it freezing I am just trying to convince myself it isn't. They said the water was 65 degrees but there is no way. My hands and feet pretty much went numb in the minute we were treading water before the swim start. Everything inside my wetsuit was ok. When we started swimming the coldness kinda clipped your breathing a bit. The worst part of the swim though was the men's wave that went before was just coming around for their second loop and it was just got ugly from there. Of course there was the usual get elbowed and kicked which i could deal with. That is just going to happen. What I wasn't fond of what that my legs were getting pulled on. I also felt like I was pushed under more than once. I swallowed some of the pond water which just had my coughing it up pretty much everytime I was trying to breath. It was bad. at one point I thought to myself wow, my day is going to end here. I am going to get pulled out of this water because im dying here. That kinda scared me a bit because I didn't come here to "swim" for a minute. So I literally just stopped swimming freestyle completely and switched to swimming breaststroke with my face out of the water all the water to the next buoy just to collect myself and get myself to the point where I felt like I could swim again. Luckily the plan worked, I of course lost a bunch of time swimming that way. The rest of the first lap wasn't much better Every turn was fight so i went back to breaststroke for it. finally by the second lap I felt like I could swim. There was still some bumping especially around the turns but it was definitely the better of the 2 laps. Part of it I think was the water conditions. Literally the water was a brown/black and you couldn't see anything in it. Normally I would see a person's feet before I felt them but not in this water. It was so weird to not be able to see that at some points I would just close my eyes in the water and only open them when I was breathing or sighting. I think my sighting was ok considering it was my first OWS of the season. I wouldn;t say my form was good on any of the swimming. I was breathing every 2 strokes either because the water was cold or because i had swallowed some of it and my lungs just hurt to breathe. or maybe a little of both. But I made it out of the water and considering the way the swim started that alone was little victory for the day! Time was 25 minutes. The run to transition was far and rough because you were running barefoot over these broken up shells. I had put all of my bike stuff inside of my helmet and put my helmet on my bike so I wouldn't forget anything and someone must have knocked it over because I was looking for my stuff. I was still feeling like crap from the swim and I was talking to myself in transition as I geared up to get myself together for the rest of the race. The things I say to myself sometimes are funny. I amused some other guy in transition because he yelled over to me that I was having entirely too much fun already. If he only knew i was just trying to get myself out of the bike course because i wasn't feeling well at all. The run out of transition to the mount line again was really far and on a dirt road with shells again. I had my tri shoes on but it wasn't a fast run for sure. I couldn't get my garmin started when I first got on the bike. I was a little worried It wasn't going to start but it eventually did and that was good because I needed it for my nutrition times. the bike course was mostly flat. The first 10 miles I was riding well averaging about 20 mph and I was pumped! I thought i was going to ride the course in about 2 hours! then the next 10 miles back you were riding into a head wind. Dropped my avg for those down to about 16. It was a 2 loop bike course and the averages stayed in tact for the second loop as well. I didn't have any issues nutrition and hydration wise on the bike. They had a bottle exchange which was helpful. The only issue I had on the bike was in the last 10 minutes my back and my crotch were killing me. I had to come out of aero a few times just to relieve the pressue and make myself feel better so I could ride on. I think most of it is I just haven't spent enough time on my tri bike. That is one of the drawbacks I see with using Crossfit Endurance training. I just wasn't conditioned to have myself rolled forward over the bike for that long of a period of time. Mostly because many of my workouts are shorter than that and due to weather, road conditions, riding with others etc. all of my longer rides were done on my road bike. Ill see how it turns out on my tri bike for some longer rides in the future. if it doesn't get better Ill have to switch out the saddle. I was passing people on the bike and that felt pretty good. Sad part is some of them passed me on the run but at least I am able to run! got 2:17 off my garmin for the ride. Long transition from bike to run again. My bike and race wheels felt great and I didn't have any issues with the aero helmet. I do right in the head up position so the long tail was down my back and not in the way. It was pretty hot by the time the run started. It didn't really bother me but I did make it a point to take in some water at every water station which was pretty much every mile. The first 2 miles I wasn't feeling my legs. Around mile 3 they started to feel better. In my mind I thought I had picked up my running pace but I don't thin kI actually did as I was running about 10 minute miles for the whole race (Except for the last one). I did walk while drinking my water taking my gel or salt but it was a only a few seconds. I was having trouble drinking on both the bike and the run. I was couching while doing it because my lungs still hurt. The run was also flat and the wind on it actually felt ok because of the heat. I got another nice sunburn. The best part of the run was that it smelled like the beach! The run took me 1:30. My knees were hurting when I was running. Finished the whole thing in 4:22 with transition times etc. I haven't seen the results/photos from the event yet. Curious to see those. THe times I got were off my garmin and the results posted that I saw before I left the race.
Post Race- I actually felt ok other than the lungs. I was still coughing after the race. Packed up the car and headed for the long drive home. That was rough. I am very happy that I won't be driving home from eagleman until the next day because i was tired and it was a long drive. Also jay's hydration protocols had me looking for a bathroom a couple of times. My knees hurt after the race but overall I wasn't really sore just tired. Thought I would sleep really well but while i did fall asleep at my normal time I also woke up at my normal time and various times throughout the night too. I felt good when I woke up other than the knee thing. I also felt pretty good today too. So i added about 20 miles onto my last tri distance and ill b adding another 20 at eagleman.


Only thing on the schedule was a 20 mile recovery ride. Did it with my friend who was recovering from a half -marathon so we werent riding hard but we were riding out in the country so there was hills to climb bu we were talking as much as riding. I am happy that i wasn't sore today. This knee thing a little scary though. It got much better as today went on. It will be interesting to see how the half -marathon goes this weekend. Im not expecting a great time.

meal 1 - bagel and soysage
meal 2 - 5 spice tofu & vegan mac N cheese, brown rice pasta, almonds
meal 3 - tofu, black beans, tvp, onions, peppers, guacamole, tomatoes, daiya & corn crackers. almonds

No comments:

Post a Comment