Aukeman Triathlon

After I had already made plans to come up to Juneau for a bit (flights and all), I found that there was a triathlon the morning after I was flying in. Since I am doing the race in San Francisco later in the month, I thought this would be a good idea to do, in order to get used to colder water swimming. So, I signed up for it around a month ago. All day Friday while traveling and Saturday morning also... I was regretting that decision... not really up for it. After the race started was a different story though.

I bought some neoprene socks and a neoprene cap for the Alcatraz race, so I planned to try them out here. I didn't see anyone in transition with the cap, so I stuck with just the socks. Turned out this was about the perfect setup. The water was surprisingly not cold (seemed maybe warmer than Boise, probably warmer than the first race I ever did in Show Low). At the start of the swim, I took off pretty fast. I felt like I was up in the top few for the first couple hundred meters. I felt like I was going too fast really, so settled down a bit. I was swimming with better form, but still heads up way too much, and once again the back of my neck paid the price (just slight rash, not as bad as Boise). I really need to figure out why I don't swim more normally in the open water. I got to the turnaround and back closer to the exit, and decided to try to read the clock... it was at 12 minutes and something, I was surprised. I ended up getting out of the water at 14:30, which blows away my previous PR for that distance by another 4 minutes or so (which I just set a couple weeks ago). I wasn't expecting that, but after it happened I had to keep pushing to try to put together a good overall race.

Running up back to transition was a long way, but my socks helped a lot there. I would not have been very comfortable running where we had to in bare feet. I got my swimming stuff off, my feet dry and into socks, and I was off on the bike. The bike that Rich borrowed for me was pretty nice. The handlebars were set pretty low, and right off the bat I almost made a big mistake due to that. Going out of the UAS parking lot was supposed to be no-passing (I guess), and there was a woman in front of me, who had to slow down because of a van in front of her... and there were speedbumps. I missed my brake the first time, so was about to run into the back of the woman or the van, so I had to swerve myself to the left. I passed the woman a little, who then said "no passing"... but I gave back the spot once I had my control back. The bike course was fun. I wasn't expecting the couple of hills there, but the downhills were fun. It started to drizzle a bit, so that was fun too... heh. Made it out to the Mendenhall Glacier parking lot, around the loop and back without much incident. Bike time looked pretty good, so back into transition I had to push myself even more on the run.

The run course started off with a pretty steep switchback section to get down to the road. This weighed on me for most of the way back, I didn't want to run up this at the end. As it turned out, it was not that bad. I walked a couple times on the run, but overall was pretty good. I walked farther back than I usually do close to the finish, but I was still able to run up the switchbacks, getting faster even and sprinting to the finish. I pretty much spent it all there, so I was really happy with the race. I set a new PR for this distance, and new PRs maybe for each leg of the race too. Overall time was 1:24:51.

Sonoita-Patagonia Time Trial

I came down to Tucson this weekend to go do this race (and to do other stuff). Even though the race has this special stuff for people that can average 30mph, I knew that wasn't a realistic goal for me. I decided that I would shoot for 24mph (finishing in 30 minutes or less, like a pizza). The race is downhill pretty much the whole way, and I thought I could maybe do that for 12 miles.

I started off probably a little quick. I think my instinct of not wanting to look slow in front of people probably kicks in on the start here (just like running in a big group at the start of a pure running race seems to make me go faster). I wanted to see if I could get up to 30mph and then see how much work it would be to keep that up... but that didn't really happen. I only got up to 30 a couple of times, on the bigger sloped downhills... when I was doing most of the work, seemed like I topped out around 24.

I did work about as hard as I could, and I was able to maintain it for the most part for the whole race. I finished in around 31 minutes (haven't gotten the official time yet). 31 minutes puts me at 22.6 mph, which is not too bad (well slow for everyone else, but pretty good for me). I did wear my HR monitor during the race to better judge my effort... and I did average 171 bpm, and I was pushing the biggest gears I could the whole way. I'm really still not sure how everyone else just whizzes by me, but oh well. I did a pretty good job of completely emptying my tank, which is all I can do really.

Now, to the problem... I did a pretty good job of completely emptying my tank. This is a one-way time trial, meaning that after I finished I then had to ride back UP the hill for the same 12 miles to get back to my car, while running on fumes. This was evil and sad. Took me over an hour to make my way back up... just more good exercise really, but it was frustrating. I was jealous of every truck I saw heading back up with bikes in the back (some people plan ahead and come in a group). Overall was pretty fun, and I might have to do it again to see if I can get faster. only 8 mph more to get the nifty 30mph shirt...heh.

Mountain Man Sprint

Looking at my personal records, I decided sometime last week that I should be able to smash the swim record for 750m, and I thought I could also break my 20k bike record here as well. Those were my goals, and I accomplished both of them, and by breaking those and putting in a reasonable run time, I also set a new PR for 750m swim Sprints as well.

Decided to go without a wetsuit for this swim. The water turned out to feel a little chilly at the start, but was pretty much fine. I did miss the flotation though, and I seemed to get pretty tired in my arms pretty quickly. I suspect that this had more to do with the fact that I haven't been swimming since the Boise race, rather than the fact that I didn't wear a wetsuit. Anyway, I managed through the swim, didn't feel that fast, but kept plugging along. My new goggles did still leak in a bit, and fog up a bit, ended up taking them off near the end. Time was ok, but I could be faster... still more room to improve there. (I had a faster pace at the 70.3)

Ran through to my spot in transition, had a pretty good T1, and was off on the bike. Felt pretty strong right off, then I had more work to do than I thought... think there was more hill there than I expected. Pushed through each bit of incline fairly well though. I also did a better job staying in the aero position, which I'm sure helped my time. Kept pushing myself through to the finish of the bike.

Right away starting off on the run I could feel both calves tighten up. I kept walking often at the start trying to stretch them out, but didn't really get them right. It wasn't until after about 2 miles that they really started to feel ok. Around that point I thought for a second I could just really sprint the rest of the way, but I didn't do that. Ended up walking a couple more times, but then the last kick I was flying. Probably left a bit in the tank, but was pretty good.

Overall, I did break both my swim and bike PRs, and the sprint PR, so I'm pretty happy with that. I think my calves are generally way too tight, so I need to work more on stretching, maybe would have been able to have a faster run without that... I think I could've beaten 1:30.