Litchfield TriathLou

Two weeks ago I was just coming off some good bike races, some good running races, and feeling a bit unstoppable. I decided I was going to race a triathlon a week later, despite not having been swimming in over two years (since before Will was born), and not even having assembled my time trial bike since we moved to St. Louis over a year ago. Oh, and I had an awful cold. What was the worst that could happen?

I signed up for a membership at the nearby WUSTL pool and went swimming four times that week. I didn’t put in much distance (the race would only be 400 meters). I did just enough to reacquaint myself with the water, but not enough to be make myself sore. Frankly, I was shocked at how (reasonably) well I did. I assembled my TT bike and did a few (very) short rides on it. I got my first flat on my tubular race wheels, which was a pain in the butt to fix only a couple days before the race. But everything (sort of) came together.

TT

I woke up at 4:45 am and drove to Lake Lou Yaeger near Litchfield, IL last Saturday morning. I hadn’t raced a triathlon in 28 months, and only raced once in the last three years. I wanted to make sure I had plenty of time to set up to ensure I didn’t miss anything (like leaving a cleat cover on my bike shoes).

The air temperature was cool, in the high 50’s. The water temperature was much warmer, but still a bit chilly. I debated for days about whether or not to wear my wetsuit during the swim. It would have kept me warmer, and I would have swam faster (thanks to the added buoyancy) but I opted against it at the last minute. My wetsuit is potentially tricky and time consuming to remove and I didn’t want to take the chance of something going wrong with my very limited practice.

Lake Lou Yaeger

The swim was hard. Even though it was short it was still long compared to the 0 meters I’ve been swimming until the week before the race. There was another guy who was swimming the exact same speed who kept bumping into me, though I suppose it could have been me who was bumping into him. I exited the water with the 6th fastest swim of the 96 competitors in the sprint-distance race. Not bad.

I had a quick first transition, passing two people in the transition area. Then I got off to a good start on the bike, passing two additional riders who were fumbling to mount their bikes. This was pretty good evidence to support the stereotype that triathletes generally don’t have the best bike handling skills.

Transition

The first half of the bike I couldn’t see anybody ahead of me or behind me. I was actually in 2nd place at the time, but I didn’t know this yet. I did know there was at least one person ahead of me, because I saw them riding away while I was in the transition area. I didn’t know how many others there were. Just before the turnaround at the halfway point a rider passed me, but he wasn’t going much faster. I stayed near him for a while. It was pretty clear, given his aero shoe covers, that he was on a relay team, so I didn’t worry too much about it. In fact we leapfrogged each other for most of the second half of the bike leg.

My second transition didn’t go quite as smoothly as the first. I tried to change shoes while balancing on one leg (like a flamingo), but my hypoxic body wasn’t cooperating and I lost my balance a few times. I eventually got my shoes on and ran out. The timing chip on my left leg was a little too tight as I noticed pretty quickly my left foot was a little numb and tingly. This went away pretty quickly and I was able to pick up my pace quite a bit at that point. I missed the first mile split, but I was 5:58 and 5:59 for the next two miles. I easily passed the relay runner who started just before me. I made up over a minute on the first place guy during the run, but his lead was unassailable by that point. So I finished 2nd overall.

100_9941
Photo courtesy of Racemaker Productions

My swim was as good as I could have hoped, given my lack of training. My bike leg was the 2nd fastest, but it should have been a bit faster (and with more training on my TT bike it will be). My run was by far the fastest, with only one other runner covering the 3.1-ish mile course within three minutes of my time. So the race went well. Presumably next year I’ll have more swim and TT bike training and I’ll be able to do even better.

Forest Park Cross Country Festival

I screwed myself again, or so I thought. The week before I ran the Macklind Mile in July I did a really hard speed workout, you know, to prepare for the race. Instead what happened is that my muscles were sore the rest of the week, including on race day.

Having just completed three days of bike racing during Gateway Cup I decided to take it easy last week and only run once. But it was a doozy. You see, the heat just broke and we’ve had a few 60˚F mornings–approaching ideal running weather. I took advantage of this to knock around five minutes off my fastest time for my 10-mile Forest Park loop. Once again, this left my muscles sore the rest of the week, including race day. But I’ve been looking forward to this one for a while, so I was going to run no matter how awful I felt.

The Forest Park Cross Country Festival is mainly a high school event, but they have an “open” race for non-high-schoolers. The race is 4km (around 2.5 miles), so it’s short and fast. The 2km grass loop has two small hills. I told myself what I tell myself before every race: start slow then build from there. The bizarre thing is that I actually did it this time, and I think it was due to my soreness.

Dozens of runners passed me in the first couple hundred meters. After a half mile I started to pick up the pace a bit. Then around three quarters of a mile I really picked up the pace. I passed the first mile in 5:41–fast, but not killing myself. But I was still accelerating at this point, passing runner after runner. I ran the entire second loop by myself, with the next closest runner unattainably far ahead. I passed the second mile also in 5:41–even splits, perfect.

I finished about 30 seconds faster than last year (when I was in very good shape), and I did it with sore legs (which were now incredibly sore). When they posted the results I was shocked to see that I actually came in 4th place overall (after finishing 25th last year). Okay, the competition wasn’t quite as good as last year, but still, a good result is a good result. It was especially helpful as a morale booster after Monday’s awful bike race.

Maybe I should run more races on sore legs… or maybe not. Melissa was sick of hearing me complain about my pains and she suggested I might be doing to much athletic activity. I responded that I only did one workout last week… well, and four races.

Gateway Cup

Gateway Cup has come and gone. I raced three of the four days–Friday, Sunday, Monday. The short version is I raced pretty well, but had no results to show for it.

Tour de Lafayette

Flyer

Friday evenings’s race, the Tour de Lafayette crit, was hot–around 100 degrees. I got off to a poor start, placed very far back in the huge, 120-rider pack. I spent the first half of the 45-minute race working my way toward the front. The second half of the race I shuffled around the front third of the pack. I was in the top 10 with one lap to go. With two of the final four turns remaining I made the mistake of moving towards the center of the pack in an effort to shield myself from the wind. At that point I got swarmed by riders on the outside and blocked in so I couldn’t move. This left me about thirty places back for the final sprint.

It wouldn't be a St. Louis outdoor event without lots of beer

The good thing here is that, for the first time in my life, I actually was able to sprint at the end of a bike race. I even passed more people than passed me. I was probably in 25th or so place when I crossed the line. I say probably because I don’t know–the officials didn’t score that far back. Right before I reached the line there was a massive crash directly in front of me when I was going about 36 mph. I had to swerve at high speed no less than three times to avoid various crash-related obstacles (first a wheel, then some handlebars, then a rider’s head!). I thought for sure I was going down, but I somehow managed to keep it upright. So, unfortunately, my best result of the weekend wasn’t counted.

A few days later I was talking to a neighbor who works at the closest hospital to this race. He was on-duty when four riders from that crash came in with multiple broken bones each. 120 riders is simply too many for a cat 4 crit. Half that would be a good size.

The later races took place in the dark(!), which was a bit crazy. My pal Mark (who started bike racing at the same time as me, and who I beat our first 5-6 races) is now a cat 2 and racing against professionals (including the current national champion). I watched the pro/1/2 race for a little while before retiring for the evening.

National champion

Apparently there was a big crash in Saturday’s cat 4 race as well. What a shame I missed it.

Giro della Montagna

Sunday’s race, the Giro della Montagna, was the one I was most anticipating. The first race was flat, whereas this one had a long, gradual hill on each lap. I typically have more success on hilly courses than I do on flat courses. Again I started poorly, much too far back in the 110-rider field. I spent the first half of the race simply making my way to the front. The second half of the race I worked to maintain my position.

With five laps to go I was in the top 10 when we rounded the first turn and I heard a crash behind me. Apparently it was big enough to block the course because the officials stopped the race to clear the course. After 10 minutes or so they started the race back up (with the same mass-start style as the beginning of the race) and once again I was 50 places back. Bad luck. The next three laps I really worked to get back into the top 10. As the bell rang with one lap to go I was sitting in 5th, ready to push up the final hill just two turns away. We rounded the first corner and the guy in front of me slid out. I had to screech to a halt to avoid crashing into him and by the time I started back up I was 40 places further back. More bad luck. My race was over.

I stuck around to watch some friends in the cat 3 race. Right in front of my eyes at turn 4 was the biggest crash I’ve ever seen. There had to have been 40-50 riders involved. There were bodies and bikes stacked five feet high. It happened near the front of the field immediately after a tight corner so all the riders coming into the corner couldn’t see that they were riding directly into it. It was awful.

Benton Park Classic

Monday’s race was the most technically challenging. All the others had 4-turn, rectangular courses. This race had 10 turns per lap. The wind was blowing much harder that day too, meaning any little gaps that form in the group might be difficult to close down.

I showed up plenty early, only to find they races were already 90 minutes behind schedule (apparently they had to tow a bunch of illegally parked cars). I got off to a poor start (are you noticing a pattern here?), but this time it would hurt me much more than the others. The field was strung out into a long line with the leaders a few turns ahead so that I couldn’t even see them. The turns were so frequent that it was difficult to pass people.

After a couple hard laps yo-yoing towards the back of the pack somebody in front of me let a gap open up, which essentially ended my race. I worked for two or three laps to close the gap. Just as soon as I regained contact at the back of the main pack another rider a few in front of me let another gap open. I spent the rest of the race chasing.

Recap

Gateway cup

So I had one finish in the top quarter of the field that wasn’t even scored. Then I had two finishes in the top half of the field, one of which was a great race marred by bad luck, the other was a poor race from start to finish. Next year I think I won’t try to cram all my bike races into a single month.

August 2011

Photo of the Day

August 2011

Running

1 mile into DHS alumni race

A couple good races, and lots of good training. I feel better acclimated to the heat than ever before. There’s lots of races coming up this fall I’m looking forward to.

Month Distance # Workouts Avg per Workout
January 13.54 Mile 3 4.51333 Mile
February 33.47 Mile 7 4.78143 Mile
March 71.64 Mile 10 7.164 Mile
April 31.12 Mile 6 5.18667 Mile
May 71.9569 Mile 10 7.19569 Mile
June 85.87 Mile 11 7.80636 Mile
July 49.47 Mile 7 7.06714 Mile
August 116.34 Mile 13 8.94923 Mile
Total 473.407 Mile 67 7.06577 Mile

Running 2011 8

Cycling

Comp

I had my best ever performance in a cat 4 crit, along with lots of good practice races at Carondelet park. I’m looking forward to Gateway cup (which is a big deal around here), a series of four races this weekend, starting tonight.

Bike Distance # Rides Avg per Ride
Bianchi 41.1 Mile 9 4.56667 Mile
Pocket Rocket 87.31 Mile 6 14.5517 Mile
Thundercougarfalconbird 289.98 Mile 10 28.998 Mile
Total 418.39 Mile 25 16.7356 Mile

Month Distance # Workouts Avg per Workout
January 35.32 Mile 4 8.83 Mile
February 0 0 0
March 3 Mile 1 3. Mile
April 36.25 Mile 7 5.17857 Mile
May 272.94 Mile 25 10.9176 Mile
June 344.02 Mile 26 13.2315 Mile
July 306.77 Mile 12 25.5642 Mile
August 418.39 Mile 25 16.7356 Mile
Total 1416.69 Mile 100 14.1669 Mile

Cycling 2011 8

Walking

Art

I really do enjoy walking, but now that I’m healthy enough to run and bike more it’s really not a tough decision to spend my time doing those instead of walking.

Month Distance # Workouts Avg per Workout
January 56.9 Mile 16 3.55625 Mile
February 47.6 Mile 14 3.4 Mile
March 83.4 Mile 24 3.475 Mile
April 84.3 Mile 26 3.24231 Mile
May 64. Mile 19 3.36842 Mile
June 57.3 Mile 17 3.37059 Mile
July 14.5 Mile 7 2.07143 Mile
August 31.7 Mile 9 3.52222 Mile
Total 439.7 Mile 132 3.33106 Mile

Walking 2011 8

DHS Alumni Cross Country Race

The 2011 DHS alumni cross country race turned out to be nearly identical to the 2010 DHS alumni cross country race. The course is a little bit tougher than a typical XC course, thanks to the addition of a long technical single track trail. There was a small handful of DACC/DHS/SHS runners ahead of me. I finished in 11:47 for the two mile course, just a few seconds faster than last year. I was once again the first alumni finisher, once again finishing a few seconds ahead of Jared Anderson, with Todd Orvis once again a few seconds further back. The major difference was this year I wore a hat.

1 mile into DHS alumni race

2011 halfway

First lap

2010 halfway

Finishing the DHS alumni race

2011 finish

Finish line

2010 finish

The race was a lot of fun. The whole extended family (parents, grandparents, aunt, cousins) came out to watch. I saw plenty of familiar faces, including my (now retired) high school coach who I probably haven’t seen since I graduated. Once again I went to the Custard Cup after the race, where I once again ran into Jared. And my grandparents.

Gravois Kiwanis 5K Cross Country Race

The Danville High School alumni race last August rekindled my passion for cross country racing. Cross country races take place on grass, and while they’re usually more challenging that road races, they’re usually not quite as tough as trail races. They’re a happy medium of speed and technical challenge.

After moving to STL I ran a big cross country race, where I got trounced by the big city competition. Then a few weeks later ran a much, much, much smaller race. Then cross country season (fall) ended, I got injured, I recovered, I got in shape again, and fall is fast approaching. I found a cross country 5K down by the river last weekend and I figured it would be good to get a race under my belt before this year’s DHS alumni event.

I didn’t know what to expect given my two previous STL cross country races had 117 and 9 participants, respectively. I showed up an hour before the race started and there were like 8 cars in the parking lot, so I quickly determined it would be closer to the latter. Many XC courses consist of loops run multiple times, but this course was one continuous 5K path. I decided to run the entire course as a warmup. I didn’t want any surprises during the race. There was a risk this would leave me tired for the race, but it seemed unlikely. The older I get the longer it takes me to warmup and on most of my 7-10 mile runs lately I’ve been at my best during the middle few miles.

Gravois Kiwanis 5K

Participants trickled in and by the time the race started there were 45 runners. Only two or three others looked potentially fast, but looks can be deceiving. Right from the gun a guy about 10 years my elder took the lead and I stayed on his shoulder for the first mile. I quickly noticed I was struggling to keep up with him on the downhills, but I had to hold myself back on the uphills. He started to slow around the mile mark, by which point we had a huge lead on the rest of the field). The next uphill we reached I passed him, trying to make it convincing. I built up a 20 second lead pretty quickly, which stretched to 45 seconds by the finish (though I later learned he had to stop and tie his shoelaces, D’oh!).

So I won, following up good performances at two bike races earlier in the week. Speaking of bike racing, this is the first foot race I’ve run using bike racing tactics, which is still weird when I think about it. I didn’t go all out from start to finish, as I typically do. I followed other people’s moves, played the waiting game, attacked at the right moment, then soloed to the finish line. I don’t think I’ll have many chances to do that, particularly in bigger races with stronger competition.

The awards were Christmas tree ornaments, which was unique.

Born to run

That makes it two races I’ve won since high school, both 5Ks, one road, one cross country. It was a fun race on a good course. I would have liked to have run faster, but I wasn’t mentally prepared to do that all by myself at the front. My next two cross country races will have tough competition, so I’m hoping I can run a bit faster in those.

Edwardsville Crit

Edwardsville Crit course map

Due to my knee problems over the winter I got off to a late start with competitive cycling this year. I’ve been doing the Tuesday night practice crits at Carondelet Park the the past six weeks or so. Today I finally rode my first race race of the season, the Edwardsville Criterium.

Edwardsville Crit bib

The race started at 1pm. It was 97-ish˚F. A fairly large group started, seemingly well over 50. Despite my best effort to get towards the front at the start I found my way to the back of the pack and I spent the first third of the race yo-yoing off the back. I had to close a number of gaps left open by riders in front of me. By the halfway point I moved up about midway through the dwindling pack.

Cat 3

(photos from cat 3 race)

The race didn’t particularly suit me. It had seven corners, four of them sharp and narrow. Let’s just say cornering isn’t my specialty. It was flat. I prefer hills. It was hot. I’d take 40˚F over this any day. That having been said, I’ve been making strides in each of these areas.

Corner 2

When the lap-remaining count reached single digits I started moving up a few places each lap. When the bell rang with one lap to go I was sitting comfortably in the top ten and still moving up a bit. Unfortunately my efforts to move up from so far back took their toll and I had nothing left for the final sprint. I got swarmed with about 200m to go and fell to 17th before crossing the line. 42 riders finished.

Machines

So it was a good race, not great. This was actually the first cat 4 crit where I finished with the lead group (it’s been over a year since I last raced). It was also the first race where I brought my spare wheels to the wheel pit, though thankfully I didn’t have any mechanical incidents so I didn’t have to use them. There was one crash about five laps in that I safely navigated around. I don’t think anyone was injured.

Mike leads cat 3

I recognized a number of other rides from the Tuesday night races, but I don’t actually know any of them. The only person I knew there was former Wild Card rider Mike, who rode the cat 3 race later in the afternoon. That race had a nasty crash in the final corner of the final lap, with two or three guys flipping over the barricades into the crowd. Yikes!

Solo winner, sprint for 2nd, pileup in last corner

July 2011

Photo of the Day

FlickrCalendar_1.jpeg

Running

Ready to run

I had a decent race to start the month, vacation, and a handful of 9-10 milers in brutal heat. The good news is that these slogs really paid off, as I’m handling the heat much better now.

Month Distance # Workouts Avg per Workout
January 13.54 Mile 3 4.51333 Mile
February 33.47 Mile 7 4.78143 Mile
March 71.64 Mile 10 7.164 Mile
April 31.12 Mile 6 5.18667 Mile
May 71.9569 Mile 10 7.19569 Mile
June 85.87 Mile 11 7.80636 Mile
July 49.47 Mile 7 7.06714 Mile
Total 357.067 Mile 54 6.61235 Mile

Running 2011 7

Cycling

What are we waiting on?

I’m not getting out of the house as frequently as usual (fewer short rides), but I’ve been ramping up the longer rides for the first time this year. I’ve been racing the practice crit at Carondelet Park almost every week, gradually improving.

Bike Distance # Rides Avg per Ride
Bianchi 16.2 Mile 2 8.1 Mile
Pocket Rocket 11.76 Mile 1 11.76 Mile
Thundercougarfalconbird 241.57 Mile 8 30.1963 Mile
Total 269.53 Mile 11 24.5027 Mile

Month Distance # Workouts Avg per Workout
January 35.32 Mile 4 8.83 Mile
February 0 0 0
March 3 Mile 1 3. Mile
April 36.25 Mile 7 5.17857 Mile
May 272.94 Mile 25 10.9176 Mile
June 344.02 Mile 26 13.2315 Mile
July 269.53 Mile 11 24.5027 Mile
Total 961.06 Mile 74 12.9873 Mile

Cycling 2011 7

Walking

Stream crossing

Again, less total distance here, but a bit more quality with some hiking in place of the usual treks to daycare.

Month Distance # Workouts Avg per Workout
January 56.9 Mile 16 3.55625 Mile
February 47.6 Mile 14 3.4 Mile
March 83.4 Mile 24 3.475 Mile
April 84.3 Mile 26 3.24231 Mile
May 64. Mile 19 3.36842 Mile
June 57.3 Mile 17 3.37059 Mile
July 14.5 Mile 7 2.07143 Mile
Total 408. Mile 123 3.31707 Mile

Walking 2011 7

The Macklind Mile

That’s right, it’s August 5th and I’m writing about a race that took place on July 4th. I remember reading about the Macklind Mile shortly after we moved to St. Louis last fall and bing intrigued. I haven’t run such a short race since high school, though I’ve always kind of wanted to. I thought I would do speed work all spring and be ready for it this July. In reality I did one speed work session on the Wash U Track… five days before the race… and my hamstrings were still sore on race day. Needless to say the race didn’t go quite as I had hoped.

1.0

The one thing I (and everyone else in the race) had going for me was that the race was largely downhill, making the times artificially fast. I started too fast and I paid for it during the second quarter mile, which was slightly uphill. The last half was all downhill, but I was so tired by the halfway point I could no longer push. I just cruised on in to the finish line. I crossed the line in 5:01 (44/318 OA, 9/68 AG), a time I would have been happy with on a flat course. I can’t help be be a little disappointed after seeing just how much downhill there was. It was okay, but not great. Maybe next year I’ll actually train more appropriately.

Ready to run

After I finished Will ran his first race, which was very exciting. You can read all about his race here.