May 21, 2006 Columbia Triathlon

Race Report: Columbia Triathlon May 21, 2006

Distance: 1.5k mile swim/41K bike/10K run

Goals for the race: Beat my time from last year, hopefully place in the top 20 of my age group.

This was my second time racing Columbia, last year being the first. Last year I entered this race during the base phase of my IMFL training program and hadn’t done a whole lot of speed work. This year I haven’t had a formalized training program, but I’ve been fairly consistent with my training and tried to work in shorter intensity workouts with added threshold workouts. It’s been tough getting to pool at 5:30 a.m., but isn’t it for everybody. Needless to say, my plan was just to get through the swim as easily as possible without sacrificing too much time.

After setting up my transition area and duck taping over the vents in my tri bike shoes (I hate cold feet), I headed over to the swim start with my wetsuit in tow. Thankfully, I noticed the TriCAT tent set up at the finish was able to put my stuff down and worked in a 10 minute jog to get the blood flowing. Wow, what a beautiful morning! I squeezed into my wetsuit just as my wave was entering the water and jumped into the lake, trying to place myself toward the front as close to the bank as possible. Unlike other races, I wasn’t going to race with my HRM. I was just going to go on feel. I think I get too psyched out by my HR during shorter races and tend to ease up too much.

I remembered from last year that the start was pretty brutal. There’s about 200 swimmers all aiming for the same 1^st buoy and I believe the course somewhat pinches itself during the first 300-500 meters, almost like a funnel, bringing everyone together. I took a pretty good lick to the face in the first 200 meters, almost knocking my goggles off. Thank heaven for the Seal Mask I was wearing. Any other goggle and I think I would have had them permanently implanted into my eye socket. I took one more hand to the side of my face before getting to the first buoy. Things loosened up a bit from there on out and I tried to get into a comfortable groove. I felt like I was crawling along though. I attempted to draft a few times, but the feet I was following were swerving all over the place. Oh well, I guess I’ll go it alone I thought. About 2/3 through the swim I finally felt comfortable and felt that my heart rate was in the aerobic range. I plow up the bank and begin my run to transition. Although I’m usually in state of dazed and confused following my swims, I do hear Eric’s voice holler out, “Ole is about 20 seconds ahead of you!” Wow, I think to myself. I know Ole is a better swimmer than me, so maybe my swim wasn’t as bad as I thought (little did I know that Ole didn’t have his usual strong swim). I never did see Ole in transition, but I must have beaten him out of transition because I didn’t see him until later on the bike when he caught me. Swim time- 00:24:42.

I head out on the bike in a panic, knowing & feeling like I need to make up some time. I don’t drink anything for the first 10 minutes or so since I usually get side stitches if I drink too early from the swim. I feel pretty good. I’m catching people in my age group right off the bat. I give Eduardo and Martin a shout out as I go by. Great to see familiar faces in the crowd! I didn’t do any reconnaissance of the bike course before hand, other than knowing from last year that it’s a pretty steady rolling course. My strategy was to go like mad on the downhills and flats and stay steady on the uphill sections and try not to go too anaerobic. I was a little distraught when I started because my odometer wasn’t working, but after a few miles it kicked in so at least I would know how fast I was going. Note to self: make sure you wipe down the odometer after leaving your bike outside overnight. I think the nodes were just damp and not registering properly. As I was cruising along, a fella passes me. I think to myself, boy he looks familiar. I ride behind him for a bit and then it hits me, it’s Ole. Sweet! This last half will be just like a training ride. I holler hello and its game on. I follow Ole for a good bit and then pass him on a downhill section and then he comes around me for the last 2-3 miles to pull me along. This helped a lot. I did manage to get goo all over my right hand and break lever which distracted me a little bit. Stupid me, I open my goo and kept it my right hand as I’m taking a turn with my hands on the hoods, squeezing the goo all over my break lever and hand. I try to lick my hand and get some of the goo, but finally realize I should just try and clean up a bit and proceed to take in some water and spit it out on my hand, wiping it on my pants. I roll into transition knowing I had a pretty good ride and hope my legs are still good to run. Bike split: 01:13:14

I dash out of transition, ok, it’s more of ramble. I try to keep Ole in my sights for as long as possible, but he’s just too fast for me. I think I’m in a little bit of trouble because the first hill seems much harder than last year. I get into a nice steady pace and I’m following another age grouper about 20 yards in front of me. I think to myself, just stay in contact with this guy the entire run. I think this strategy sort of back fired on me later in the run, because my pacer started to walk up some of the uphill sections around mile 3. Well, I took this as a signal that it was ok for me to take a quick walk as well. Bad strategy now looking back. My legs felt fairly good, but I felt like I could never get my breathing rate down under control. I was redlining up the hills, but then I’d hit the steep downhill portions increasing my speed, never allowing me to get my breathing rate down. Oh well, it’s Columbia, right? After feeling like I was going to puke up the last hill, I realized I didn’t have too much farther to go once I saw the lake. Just hang on! It’s almost over. I managed to pull out a decent kick to the finish, right behind about 2-3 guys in my age group. Run split: 00:47:16

Finishing time: 02:29:21.

I managed to hit my goal for being faster than last year (by a little over a minute), but I fell short of my goal for making the top 20 in my AG (29^th / 199 in AG). I was fairly pleased with my race, but a little disappointed I didn’t suck it up more on the run. Mentally, I know I caved in a bit and didn’t focus well enough to have a stronger run. Guess I’ll have to wait until next year to improve my run.

Thanks for reading….