The Mountain

Me: "I think I know what a tough hill is like."
Mountain: "You know nothing, Jon Snow."

Hampton Roads is, in general, a pretty flat area. Hill training is tough to come by, so on Friday I burned a vacation day and drove 2 hours West to the Appalachian Mountains. Skyline Drive is a beautiful road that rides along the crest of the mountains between Charlottesville and Harrisonburg, and that was where I was going to cut my teeth. The plan was to bike 26 miles up to a campsite that was open (where I could refill my water bottles), and then turn around and bike back.

Hills are ranked in 5 categories based on grade and length: Cat 5 hills are the easiest, and Cat 1 are the toughest. This route had one Cat 3 hill, two Cat 4 hills, and ten Cat 5 hills. This was all new to me so I had absolutely no idea what to expect.

It was going to be a warm day, so I packed three bottles of gatorade (two in cages and one in my cycling jersey) and a bag of fig newtons. This was my first ride on my brand new Gatorskin tires (made of kevlar to resist punctures), but I brought a spare tube and small pump just in case. Getting stranded on the mountain would not be a fun time.

The route immediately began with a 2.65 mile long Cat 4 hill. I shifted into the easiest gear and slowly made my way up. While it was difficult, my legs quickly got used to the climb and I fell into a nice groove. It was challenging, but not impossible! By the time I made it to the top I was sweating and breathing hard, but had a big ego boost. Mountain training isn't out of my league! Even more rewarding was the view at the overlook, followed by 5 miles of coasting downhill at 30mph.

I was quickly humbled by the next hill, the massive 3 mile long Cat 3. I settled into the same groove as the first hill, but this one was obviously steeper: I was going slower, and each pedal stroke was difficult. It was like doing hundreds of one-legged squats in a row. There is no shoulder on this road, but halfway up I had to admit defeat and pull over into the grass and take a short breather. That did the trick, and I trudged along the rest of the hill at my slow 7:00-per-mile pace. This view was waiting for me at the top, at an elevation of 3,000 feet:

Charlottesville Reservoir in the background

Despite struggling on the hill, I felt great. I came out here to challenge myself and test what I could handle, and I came away with an answer: Cat 3 is the extent of my capabilities right now.

The rest of the ride was easy by comparison. I cruised along at as fast a pace as I could manage, stopping at many of the overlooks to catch my breath and snap some pictures. I made it to the camp site at the 26 mile marker right at noon. There was a restaurant open selling burgers, fries and hotdogs, but I didn't want to eat anything heavy so I snacked on my fig newtons and refilled my water bottles.

At this point I had a decision to make. I could turn around there, or continue on the road for another 5-10 miles. There was a chance of thunderstorms in the afternoon, and I could see them in the distance to the West, so I decided to go ahead and turn around there. My GPS was fine until this point, but after my 10 minute break at the camp site it had trouble locating me on the map, so I turned it off. This was too bad, as the downhills on the way back were much faster. I was easily going 50mph, which is terrifying on a mountain road on a bicycle. I road the brakes quite a bit. It felt good to coast so much on the second half, because my legs were worn out.

Overall it was 52.34 miles biking, with 7380 total feet of climbing. My fastest mile was 2:09, and my slowest was 7:19. I ate my sandwich in my car and headed home, which was an agonizing 3+ hours in traffic. I would love to bike Skyline Drive again, though supposedly there are a lot more cars in the fall. Here are the rest of the photos I took:

Monticelloman Olympic Triathlon - Race Report

First Olympic distance triathlon, first wetsuit race, first race on my triathlon bike.

Things have changed a lot since I entered the world of triathlons at the Patriot Sprint last September. I finished that race feeling OKAY, but beat. I didn't pace myself well: I came out of the water light-headed, and then pushed too hard on the bike. The Monticelloman Olympic was completely different. I had a race plan and I executed it perfectly. Here are the important numbers, in case you want the short version:

Swim: 34:52 (2:24/100m)
T1: 3:24
Bike: 1:21:53 (3:29/mile)
T2: 1:36
Run: 58:00 (9:20/mile)
Total: 2:59:45

My swim time was significantly slower than predicted, my bike was right where I predicted, and I far-exceeded my run predictions, squeezing under the 3 hour mark.

For those of you who want to read the boring details, here's the full race report.

PRE-RACE

The race had an unusually late 9:10 start, so I got to sleep in later than normal: my alarm got me up at 4:00am. Showered, forced down a fried egg sandwich and coffee, and sipped on gatorade. We left the house at 6:00, encountered almost no traffic, and arrived at the race at 7:30. I ate a cliff bar in the car and then unpacked my stuff.

Packet pick-up was quick, and then I set up all my gear in transition. Despite getting there early most of the racks were already filled, but I found a spot somewhere near the front of my assigned section. 

We had lots of time to kill. By the time I had set up my gear and put on my wetsuit we had an hour to wait. The half-ironman race was starting at 8:30 but we opted to wait in the clubhouse instead of the cold beach. Did I mention it was overcast and windy? I was already dreading the swim and cold bike ride.

20 minutes before the start we headed down to the beach and waited. After some announcements from the race director the first wave (men 18-49) lined up on the beach. One young racer declared to everyone around him: "Okay, let's have a good clean fight, no punches below the belt, okay?" The race director counted down and then sounded the airhorn, and we were off!

SWIM

I'm in the very top-left

I ran in a few steps and then dolphin-dove under the water. It was so cold that it knocked the wind out of me. The first few strokes were painful as I tried to breathe, but after about 30 seconds the wetsuit did its job and warmed me up. I started near the back because I didn't want to get run over by faster swimmers behind me, but this just meant running into the people in front of me for the first 100 feet. After a few minutes I found some room in the water and managed to get into a good rhythm.

The course was a triangle: we were to swim out to a yellow buoy and turn right, swim down the lake to another buoy, and then swim back to the beach. Swimming in a straight line in a pool is easy because you have the tiles at the bottom of the pool to stare at, but in open water it's far more difficult. I have been practicing "sighting" at the pool, which means every 10 seconds or so looking forward out of the water to make sure you're still on course. I was doing this very well: every time I sighted I was still pointed directly at the yellow buoy. Plenty of other people were struggling with this and swimming diagonally or off-course.

I had clear room around me to swim for most of the first leg, but when we got to the first buoy things bunched up a bit. After swimming around it I positioned myself to the outside to make sure I had plenty of room again. It worked, and I never bumped into anyone for the entire second leg of the swim. However, halfway through this leg I started seeing green swim caps passing me: these were the 40+ men in the wave that started 4 minutes behind me. The first one passed me very fast, and I would later find out he was the overall winner.

I got to the 2nd buoy, and more people were bunched up here since more green caps had caught up to the first wave. I rounded it and started the final stretch still feeling good. My arms weren't tired, though my shoulders felt a little numb from the cold. At this point a woman in a pink cap (the third wave, women 18-40) was swimming next to me. I breathe to my left, and she was breathing to her right, and we swam alongside one-another for several minutes perfectly in sync, facing each other every time we breathed. She eventually pulled ahead and left me in the dust, and I considered pushing myself to keep up with her but decided to stay conservative. I popped out of the water feeling great, exactly on plan. However, I was not happy with my time: my watch said 34-ish minutes, much slower than I expected. Finishing under 3 hours would be tough.

Note the fast green caps from the 2nd wave that had caught up to me.

BIKE

I ran up the beach and into transition, stripping the wetsuit to my waist while running. I had no trouble finding my bike in the 200+ feet of transition area. The two bikes that were racked next to mine were already gone, so I had plenty of room to sit down and go through my transition routine: strip wetsuit, dry feet, put on socks/shoes, put on cycling jersey, put on helmet/sunglasses, grab bike and GO! 

The beginning of the bike was uneventful. There was a dangerously-steep hill in the first mile, which was a "no passing zone", so everyone coasted until then. Immediately after that was a big hill to climb, and that was the trend of the day: downhill, uphill, downhill, uphill. I was suddenly very glad that I do all of my long rides at the hilly Yorktown Battlefield Trail. 

The course was pretty crowded for the first few miles, and I passed a lot of people struggling up the hills. The nice thing about biking on hills is that your legs get a break when you coast down the other side, and this definitely helped keep my legs fresh. As one of the "larger" triathletes (195 lbs) I get a lot of momentum going downhill as well. There was one woman in a white jersey who leapfrogged with me for several miles: we seemed to pass one-another every few minutes. Some of the faster riders passed me, but in general I passed more people: at the start of the bike I was in 219th/351, and finished the bike 184/351.

20 minutes into the race I passed two guys with flat tires within 50 feet of one-another. I said a silent prayer to the tire gods, since I didn't bring the tools to fix a flat. I will be bringing them on longer races, but for something as short as an Olympic I didn't bother. The roads were also open to cars, and although they were infrequent it did add some extra danger to the race. The speed limit was 35 but several cars were FLYING by only one foot next to us, and we later heard that someone on a bike got hit by a car. Thankfully that didn't happen to me.

I was really enjoying the race. The course was on beautiful wooded back-roads, and the sun was starting to come out. I yelled words of encouragement at every person I passed, and every person who passed me. I executed my nutritional plan perfectly too: I drank gatorade every 5:00, and consumed a gel pack and some caffeine after 20:00 and 60:00 on the bike. I never felt thirsty, and had plenty of energy the entire ride.

Bre was waiting near the end of the bike to snap some pictures:

The end of the bike was a pain: we had to dismount and then run about 300 feet with our bike before entering transition. This isn't easy to do in bike cleats! There was no clock here to show us what time it was, but after that hilly bike course I knew I would have to run a fast 10K to end up under 3 hours. Not likely. 

RUN

Transition 2 was much easier than the first one: rack bike, remove helmet, take off shoes/socks, put on running shoes, put on race belt.

Right from the start on the run I felt fantastic. My legs felt fresh, as if I hadn't been swimming/biking for the previous 2 hours. Bre was positioned to see me right at the beginning of the run:

Please excuse my terrible, terrible running form here.

After passing Bre, I realized the run was going to be just like the bike: rolling hills for 6.2 miles. The first hill was demoralizing for many people, as I saw several racers forced to walk up it. Thankfully my legs felt fresh and I cruised along as if nothing was wrong.

A few minutes into the run, when I realized my legs were good-to-go, I pushed the pace. I didn't have my GPS on me, and there weren't any mile markers on the run course, but it felt like I was close to a 9:00/mile pace. While this is a great pace for me, most people are still faster: I started the run in 184th/351, and finished in 201/351. There were water/gatorade stops roughly every mile, but I felt so energetic that I only took water. 

At one point the woman in the white jersey from the bike course passed me and said "We're going to cross the finish line at the same time! We've been leap-frogging all day!" I laughed and told her I would catch up to her, but I never did: she was hauling ass. 

Sometime around the 40:00 mark an older guy (in his 40s?) tried to pass me. I pushed myself to keep up with him, and we ran side-by-side for a little while. "I thought I was going to be able to pass you, but I guess you've got a lot left in the tank," he said to me with a laugh. We ran with each other for a good 15 minutes, chatting the whole time: his name was Ben, and he lived in Charlottesville, working in the Army. Chatting helped keep my mind off the blister forming on my right foot, and we pushed each other. Finally I said "I'm going to try to surge at the end" and we split up. 

My watch said 55:00 when I left Ben, and I figured there was about 1/2 mile remaining until the finish line. I pushed myself but still left a little bit in reserve, wanting to finish strong. Suddenly I rounded a corner and the finish line was a hundred feet in front of me, sooner than I expected! I sprinted the final length, and the clock at the finish line said 2:59:30. I had given up on finishing under 3 hours, so seeing this pumped me up. I yelled "COME ON!" and fist-pumped when I passed my wife, and finished feeling pretty damn good.

Fist-pumping at the finish

Finish Time: 2:59:45

201 out of 351 (Overall)

153 out of 225 (Men)

17 out of 23 (25-29 Age Group)

Some take-aways from this race:

• I can swim faster. While I think the course was longer than 1500 meters, I was very conservative on the swim and my time was much slower than I expected. In the Jamestown Olympic on June 8 I want to push myself much harder and finish ahead of a lot of people. I hardly use my legs at all while swimming, so it's only my arms that I would be wearing out.
• I got a good feel for pacing in this race, and now it's time to tweak things a bit. In my next race I want to take it easy for the first 15 minutes on the bike, push myself for the middle 40-50 minutes, and then take it easy again for the final 15 minutes before the run. 
• 1 bottle of energy drink on my bike was perfect for this race: I sipped every 5 minutes and ran out only a mile before transition. It may not be enough in a hot, sweaty June race though. I may bring a second bottle with me in my next race.
• Hill training on the bike is important. I saw tons of people struggling with the hills, and I had no trouble with them at all.
• My run fitness is exactly where I want it to be. I wish I knew my mile splits, but I know I was consistent throughout the run. 
• I loved this race. I felt great in all three parts, and enjoyed myself. I will definitely be racing again next year. 
• Triathletes are friendly, supportive people. Most people who passed me (or got passed by me) said some words of encouragement, and I reciprocated. It feels good to be friendly to the people you're racing with/against, and makes the entire experience more enjoyable. Especially for someone like me who has no chance of making the podium any time soon.
• Although the Patriot Sprint was my first triathlon last September, finishing this race was the first time I truly felt like a triathlete. How you feel when you finish a race can be far more important than the race result itself.

Now that I've completed an Olympic distance triathlon, the next distance to tackle is the Half-Ironman: 1900meter swim, 56 mile bike, 13.1 mile run. I'll be doing that in Williamsburg in June, and I feel confident and ready. Bring it on.

Monticelloman Olympic Triathlon: Race Predictions

The Monticelloman Olympic Triathlon is tomorrow, and I have a few simple goals:

1. Don't go too hard on the swim
2. Don't go too hard on the run
3. Don't go hard until the last 5K of the run

This race is only a stepping stone to longer races, and to have fun. I want to finish feeling strong instead of using up too much of my energy on one of the first two legs of the race. 

Having said that, I do have a goal time in mind: under 3 hours. That kind of race would look something like this:

Swim: 30 minutes (2:00/100m pace)

Bike: 1 hour 21 minutes (3:23/mile pace)

Run: 1 hour 2 minutes (10:00/mile pace)

Transitions: 7 minutes 

Total: 3 hours

Anything in that ballpark and I'll be happy. 

April Training Review

Here's how things went for the last week in April:

4/22: I got to the pool late, so I did a short workout: 1600m total (400 warm-up, then 6x200 sets).

4/23: 20 miles of tempo riding, as mentioned in the previous post.

4/24: A 2300m swim before work in my wetsuit (400 warm-up, 1500 long in 28:15, then 4x100 cool-down). After work the weather was so beautiful that I went to the park for 30 easy miles on the bike.

4/25: 5K running. My legs were very heavy after the previous two days of biking.

4/26: Rest Day (I'm trying to be better about scheduling these)

4/27: The killer half-century bike ride, bricked with a 5K run. I had a TERRIBLE saddle sore after this.

4/28: I was scheduled to run 6-8 miles, but I could tell me legs were still tired so I only ran a 5K. The first half I ran with the Esposa.

Weekly Totals:

Swim: 3900 meters (1 hour 33 minutes)
Bike: 100.90 miles (5 hours 54 minutes)
Run: 9.33 miles (1 hour 35 minutes)
Total: 9 hours 2 minutes

My running suffered a bit, but biking has been a higher priority for me so I don't mind. I was pretty fatigued by the end of the week, so it will be nice to have a rest/taper week leading up to Monticelloman on Sunday.

Despite starting the month off with a knee injury, April was a very good month. The final three weeks were filled with training, and I'm pleased with how quickly my fitness has bounced back.

Some highlights:

SWIMMING

• 15,800 meters total (9.82 miles)
• 6 hours 29 minutes over 8 workouts
• 3,428 calories burned 

BIKING

• 266 miles total
• 15 hours 26 minutes over 13 workouts
• 11,970 calories burned
• Highest month of cycling volume to date

RUNNING

• 31.5 miles total
• 5 hours 16 minutes over 8 workouts
• 4,656 calories burned
• Lowest training volume since Oct 2011

• 27 hours 10 minutes over 29 workouts
• 20,054 calories burned
• Workouts on 22 of 30 days
• 7 days with multiple workouts
• 3 bike-to-run brick workouts
• Weight change from 192.9 lbs to 194.4 (+1.5)

Noteworthy accomplishments:

• Bounced back from left knee injury
• First tempo ride, holding a consistent 20+ mph for 11 miles
• Several wetsuit swims
• 100+ miles biking in a week

I have a few goals for May. I want to finish the Monticelloman triathlon with confidence, and have plenty of energy on the run. Running has taken a back seat to biking, so I want to get my mileage back up around 20 miles per week. This is especially important with the Historic Half Marathon in Fredericksburg in two weeks. On the bike I hope to get in at least three 50+ mile rides, as well as bike a total of 400 miles. On Memorial Day I'm planning a half-iron trial run: 1900m swim, 50 mile bike, and 10 mile run. The goal is to nail down my nutrition before the Rev3 Half Ironman race in June. I do not have any swimming goals aside from maintaining my currently level of fitness, which I'm pleased with.