TRI CAMP
My coach, professional triathlete A.J. Baucco, sent me an email in October about getting together for a tri camp at his winter quarters of Clermont, Florida. He had a grand scheme of getting together a large group of athletes and training for a week in the warm Florida weather culminating with a race in Key West, the Bone Island Tri. Really? I was all in. Fast forward to January.
"Come to Florida they said, it will be warm they said." Pushing off for our first ride of training camp proved to be a little cooler than I had hoped with temperatures topping out in the mid 50's. Cool yes, but a lot warmer than the negative temps back in Cleveland and there is something good to be said about the Florida sunshine and blue sky. It was a little cooler than typical for the area the whole week but it sure beats training indoors in Cleveland during the month of January.
The group that A.J. had hoped for never reached the intended numbers and I'm thankful. The 3 other camp members were a great group of guys and friendships quickly developed. We trained, played games in our down time, ate as a family, and joked around with each other as brothers. They always say time flies when your having fun and this was true with camp. With 200+ cycling miles, 25+ running miles, and countless yards in the pool it was time to wrap up camp. We bid farewell to 2 members that wouldn't be racing, grabbed our bike mechanic and we loaded up the truck for the trip to the southernmost point in the Continental US, Key West. While we may have lost two in Clermont we would be picking up two awesome members of Team Baucco in Key West.
MY RACE
The weather was absolutely amazing on race morning. The sunrise over Key West, the calm water, and warm breeze all combined to make the morning magical. The 5 of us from AJB Coaching gathered for a "team" picture and we all wished each other well as we readied ourselves for the wave start.
THE SWIM- Wave 4, 8:15 start. The horn blows and we are off. I took an inside line to start and fell into a nice rhythm sighting the first turn buoy fairly easily. During camp, we had practiced drafting techniques and I was about to give it a try. I tucked into the armpit of the swimmer next to me and matched his stroke. I was blown away at what little effort I needed to exert to maintain my speed. As I reached the first turn, it was obvious that my draft was not going to keep that pace up for the whole swim, I moved onto my next victim and drafted on his toes for nearly half the swim. As I sighted, a few things were quite obvious to me. #1. The course markings were really spread out and made sighting difficult. #2. This would not be the time to have a cardiac event because there was very little race support.
I noticed that I began passing green swim caps, the group that started 5 minutes in front of me, so I knew my swim was going well. I took a breath to my right and that's when I noticed the pink cap and distinctive swim stroke of team mate, Heidi. She started 5 minutes behind me so she was having a great swim! I kept turning over my arms for what seemed like an eternity and ended up climbing out of the swim at 42:22. This was significantly longer than my ability and I was kind of surprised. Later, I got word that the swim was just shy of a quarter mile longer than normal. This obviously affected every one's swim times so we were all in the same boat.
THE BIKE- When AJ started coaching me he insisted that I get a heart rate monitor. He used the heart rate monitor to set up training and performance heart rate zones ranging from "recovery" ZnR to "all out" Zn4. Racing and training in the zones with the monitor takes out the guesswork and allows you to maximize your performance. If you are not familiar with HR training there are tons of articles available on the Internet. While there are pros and cons, I have found HR training lets me know when I'm dogging it on days that I need to go hard and more importantly tells me when I'm going too hard on recovery workouts. Back to the race...
I felt great getting out of the water and quickly sprinted to my bike. I wasted no time in transition and was pedaling towards US-1 for the 28 mile out and back ride. A.J. gave me strict heart rate ranges for the bike and I was way out of my zone to start. I backed off on the gears, slowed my cadence and fell into a rhythm that brought my heart rate into my zone. The goal was to maximize output within the HR zone, refuel with PowerBar gels at 2 per hour, rehydrate with PowerBar Perform at 1.5 bottles per hour. This plan would be crucial in keeping the tank full heading into the run. One thing I've learned over the past two years is that proper nutrition on the bike will make your whole race.
If you've never been to the Florida Keys, US-1 is the main road tying the keys together and is essentially a 2 lane highway. Our bike course consisted of the roughly 3 foot wide berm of US-1 and you could expect to be passed by large RV's towing Jeeps, delivery and semi trucks, and any assortment of cars. Riding on such a busy road didn't really bother me at all but post race I heard a lot of comments that the traffic made them nervous.
About 15 miles into the ride another cyclists and I started playing cat and mouse. He'd pass, I'd chase, I'd pass, he'd chase. This went on for a few miles and as he started to pass again we talked to each other. He was from Seattle and the race was his first time riding outside in months. As we neared the halfway point, I noticed he was working hard to keep up with me. To be quite frank, I was holding back. We rounded the cone marking the half way turn around and now the cross wind was slightly on my right rear quarter. Time to hammer back to T2.
I took note that there were not that many people ahead of me so now it was time to really take advantage of a favorable wind, my solid nutrition plan, and my consistent training. I rolled up behind another 45-49 AG and you could tell this guy was a cyclist. Time for me to reach out of my comfort zone and pace off of him. I held on tight dropped a gear and went after him. My heart rate was at the top end of my zone and I didn't care, this was my competition. I watched the road ahead for a clear
pass when I heard a "clink" and I watched as my competition rolled off to the side with a dropped chain. I didn't let up and I finished the last few miles of the ride with nobody in sight in front or behind me.
THE RUN- I quickly transitioned and exited the bike corral and started running the HR zones A.J. suggested. I was running around 8:00 miles to start and I was super jacked up about how I felt. The run was two full loops and one small loop to total 13.1 miles. The aid stations were really far apart and offered water, cola, and the dreaded Hammer Heed. I have never been a fan of Heed's taste and it doesn't sit well in my stomach but that was my only choice to keep my sodium intake up. At the first stop, I took in Heed, poured a bottle of water down my neck to cool off, and grabbed a gel. I was about to open the gel but the flavor just sounded gross so I tossed it and pressed onward. Looking back, I think it is time for me to pick up a fuel belt and carry what works for me. I don't process Heed very well and I have upcoming races that will have Heed on the course.
As I finished loop one and headed back out to loop two it was evident that it had warmed up considerably. At one point on the course, I took note that the pigeons were all sitting on the ground in the shadow of the light posts and curiously watched me as I passed them. It was as if they were wondering why I was running and I asked myself why am I doing this? I'm nearly 45 years old and many of the guys my age are sitting around a bar drinking beer, 45 pounds overweight and bitching about life. There was my answer, I'm living my life and enjoying every step along the way. After all, have you met anyone that bitched about crossing a finish line and completing a goal? Time to turn the voices in the head off and push onward. Pigeons, I'll see you again on lap 3.
I grabbed water and cola at the aid station, I couldn't stomach the thought of drinking Heed. As I rounded the distant turn my pace had slowed considerably. My heart rate was up from the heat, my foot turnover was nowhere near where it had been. At this point, I made it my goal to run easy until the shaded area about 3/4 of a mile ahead. Then I would buckle down and push. Did I mention it was getting hot? The push to finish loop two was on and off, I wanted to keep my heart rate in the zone but also didn't want to walk.
Thankfully, the last loop was just a short loop maybe 1/3 the distance of the previous loop. I buckled down and kept the legs turning over. As I rounded the turn and headed towards the finish I heard a spectator comment, "nice leg turnover, keep it going, you got this!" He was right, I did have it and I crossed the finish line to the cheers of my teammates for my 4th Half Ironman Finish and an 8:00 PR.
THE KEY WEST AFTER PARTY - Sorry folks, you just had to be there. Let's just say I may have the script for Hangover 4.
No comments:
Post a Comment