Race, Recover, Repeat

It's June and summer has unofficially arrived - the days are long and beach weather is here.  In my last post I mentioned some of the early season races I had planned.  It's been a relatively unusual early season for me with bone Island back in Jan when I'm typically taking some down time and unstructured training.  Instead, I trained through the holidays and cruised into February needing to take things easy and go with the flow a bit more than usual.  I definitely stayed active but never really got settles into a consistent training progression.  My primary goal for this season is IM Chattanooga on Sept 28, so I knew the timeline didn't require too much through early spring. So even though I stuck with my racing plans I haven't been as prepared as previous years for these early events.  I just finished a month of what can best be described as race, recover, repeat...although the recoveries have been less than complete due to the 7-day turn-around cycle.  I didn't plan it out specifically but this was essentially a one-month kick-start to my 2014 training - a little fitness by brute force.

Here's the rundown:

May 10 - Kinetic Half - A perennial event for me with a challenging run course.  The swim always feels like crap this early in the season but my run is typically pretty decent despite the two significant hills on each of the 3 loops.  This year I had a solid bike but dialed back the run knowing that I wanted to get some quality training on over the next few weeks before Raleigh 70.3.  Still, I probably couldn't have run more than 3-4min faster if I was giving it 100% - definite sign that my run training is lagging.

May 17 - Cary Long Course Duathlon -  Another race I've done every year for 4-5 years.  The run course was different this year because this was the USAT National Championships and they moved the transition area to accommodate a larger field.  I'm usually top 5-10 in this race but this year actual duathletes showed up - guys who had been training for this specific race for months. I struggled some on the second run and I got my ass handed to me but didn't think much of it. Still qualified to race for Team USA at the World Championships in Zofingen, Switzerland this September - as if I can afford a trip to Switzerland for a 3-hour race.

May 24 - Mountains of Misery -This isn't technically a race but if you are at all competitive then a 100+ mile ride with 10,000ft of climbing is a challenge you might be interested in accepting.  I learned last year that the lead group doesn't stop at aid stations...EVER.  They literally rode over the the first climb at 60 miles and kept on trucking.  I had no choice but to stop to fill my bottles and grab some calories.  This year I was prepared with 4 bottles and plenty of nutrition.  I didn't stop but just barely missed hanging with the lead group to the finish.  This was still my best ride on this course in about 5 years and I was in the top 20 overall - not bad for having one 60-mile long ride in dead flat VA Beach for for training.

Here is my TrainingPeaks file and Strava log for the data geeks.

June - Raleigh 70.3 - This was initially planned to be an "A" race but really turned into a "B" race because I simply hadn't been training specifically for it as a priority.  Still, it was a good test of my current fitness to see where I'm starting from.  I had my typical swim, a good bike although on the slow side based on my split, and respectable run.  I'm basically a perpetual 32min swimmer no matter how early or late in the season.  I suppose I could put some focus on my swim training but it would take an inordinate investment of time to trim a couple minutes off my race...and I don't like swimming.  There was a light but steady head wind for most of the ride so I'm assuming that's why my split was slower than I expected.  My goal for the run was to go out easy and not blow up despite knowing that I didn't have good long run training.  I struggled a bit around miles 7-10 but managed to hang on well enough to finish 4th in my AG and earn a slot for the Ironman 70.3 World Championships in Mont Tremblant, Quebec on Sept 7.  I passed on the slot because IM Chattanooga is 3 weeks later and that's my priority this season.

Splits from IM 70.3 Raleigh - HERE

June 8 - Jamestown Gran Fondo - Another NOT race but why not go as fast as you can?  This is a pretty flat course and we had a small lead group of 5-8 most of the morning.  Around mile 20 I looped back to help a friend who got a flat and had to push it pretty hard for the next 20min to get back on the group.  I don't know if that ultimately hurt me but I cramped up badly with about 6 miles to go and had to sit up and cruise it in easy.  I logged a decent 4:31 for 100+ miles on a road bike.

All in all it's been a busy month with a series of big weekend events separated by a week of marginal recovery training.  I still managed an AG podium at Raleigh 70.3 and a couple of World Championship qualifications so I guess I can't complain. Overall I think it will do me some good and it's early enough that it won't impact the start of my IM training.  One last kick in the nuts before I settle in for a few months though - Ragnar Trail Appalachians this coming Fri/Sat at Big Bear Lake Campground in WV.  I'm racing with an ultra team so I'll get about 35 miles of running over ~18 hours.  My team was second overall last year and this is probably the best trail running I've done in my life.  I highly recommend checking it out.

Year of the Masters Mowhawk

Welcome to 2014! It's only the first week of February but I already have most of my 2014 season mapped out and locked in - IM 70.3 Raleigh and Ironman Chattanooga set the structure and everything else serves a purpose in between now and then.  Many of the events I'm doing are fairly typical for me - Cary Long Course Du, Mountains of Misery, Kinetic 1/2.  I've got a couple of other cycling events mixed in - Blood Sweat and Gears and Jamestown Gran Fondo, and I'll for sure be making a couple of weekend trips out to ride my favorite Skyline Drive in the Blue Ridge Mountains. 

So with that taken care of I logged a very early season race to kick off 2014. I typically take some time off through the holidays and definitely forget where the pool is for a few months but this year a group of us from VA Beach decided to invade Key West for the Bone Island Triathlon, so that kept me mostly motivated to maintain at least some consistent level of training. I've only been swimming 1-2X per week for ~2k each and been loosely following a high intensity off-season plan (primarily tempo and threshold work) with some modifications to get a long run and ride in when the weather cooperates.

By all accounts the swim was a good 200m long at least but we all swam the same distance so it's not a big deal.  The bike was flat and relatively fast, if not very interesting.  I rode fairly strong and felt good coming into T2.   I've basically held my FTP exactly where it was when I peaked for B2B back in Oct and rode the same power for this race so I'll come into the spring without any drop in my bike fitness. Even though I've had some decent run training I just wasn't feeling it and lost all motivation after the first loop. I wasn't expecting to crush the run but I had hoped for something in the 1:30-1:32 range off of a solid bike. The temps got into the upper 70s but it felt hot.  A respectable race overall but nothing to blow my socks off.

S: 36:xx
B: 2:18:38, IF - .87, DATA
R: 1:34ish - Garmin missed the first 2-3min, DATA

This race also apparently marked my arrival in the "old" category - surprise to me. Based on USAT rules your age group is determined by how old you will be on Dec 31 of that year.  So even though I'm still 39, I'll be 40 in September so this year I race in the M40-44.  I was 5th overall at Bone Island and expected to get the M40-44 first place award...until I heard my name called for the Male Masters Champion.  Can you believe that shit?  I didn't realize it but Masters division is 40+ so I snuck in and cherry picked an award from the old guys. Personally, I would have rather they had top 5 overall podium instead of top 3 but this was a relatively small race so I understand.  Doesn't change how I races and it was kind of cool to enter a new phase of my tri career still feeling like I'm in the hunt for overall podiums.

I won't go into detail on a race report and review but in general I have to say that I'm disappointed with the quality and management of this event.  It's definitely not what I have come to expect fro SetUp Events.  If you are interested I posted some comments on a thread over on Slowtwitch. We had fun regardless and it was great to have a group of friends all racing together and supporting each other.  All in all it was a nice break from the frigid weather we've been having in VA recently and has kept me honest with some training through the holidays.  That should pay dividends coming into the spring and hopefully help me show up in Chattanooga a step above where I would otherwise be - On-On to Kona?

Old guys wave start - I'm 4th from the far right going counter-clockwise - in the black wetsuit and white cap :)

Party Koozie was on hand along with the Final Kick Sports crew to lend support to the racers.

A final note on the race - my wife kicked ass riding the bike leg as part of Team 757 Chicks.  This was her longest bike ride ever and she cruised right through although she did learn a valuable cycling lesson - Chamois Butt'r is your friend on long rides :)

Team 757 Chicks celebrates their accomplishment!

Of course the race was mostly a cover for all of us to travel down to Key West and celebrate Paul McGraw's birthday in style with the first (annual?) Paul McGraw Birthday Pub Crawl.  I won't even try to recount how many drinking establishments we frequented that day but I'll leave you with a bit of photographic documentation.

The man himself with his birthday shirt.

Those might just be 32oz mojito glasses.

The "all day" crew still going strong.

I introduce you to the Masters Mowhawk.

Instagram from Sunset Pier

More photos from the weekend in my Facebook album.