10k race report

Unless something suddenly comes up, this will be the final race report of 2008... and it's not the "go out with a bang" type of report I was hoping to file. On Sunday the 26th I ran in a local 10k. The weather forecast was sketchy at best - calling for rain and cold temps - but I wanted to see how my fitness was holding up. I have been doing some unstructured running and swimming 4 or 5 times a week since Muskoka, but no speed or tempo work at all... just out for jogs, basically. My most recent 10k race was mid-April when I ran a 51:35, which had been a 2 1/2 minute improvement over a fall '07 race, and a 6 minute improvement over spring '07. Of course, I arrived at the race site later than I wanted to, and was limited to a warm-up of less than 5 minutes. It was chilly, but after jogging a little I decided on a short-sleeved T, instead of the long one I was wearing at the time. I also opted to wear gloves, as dorky as that probably looked with the shorts & T-shirt. This is a 2-loop course around a park and is a very nice place to run, as long as the geese stay out of your way when you're passing by the river. Getting chased by a pissed-off goose may not seem like much, but when they stretch their little heads out and run at you, their beaks are pretty much right at crotch level. And truthfully, I have no desire to get pecked in the junk by a territorial bird. Also, not to be rude, but their poop is really slippery. I can just picture myself slipping in goose poop and pulling a groin as my legs fly up and I go down on my back like I'm on an icy sidewalk, and then getting my eyes poked out while I roll around on the ground with a psycho version of Mother Goose on top of me. Bad times. So yeah, I tend to keep an eye out along the riverbanks. The horn went, and right away I felt sluggish and slow... no spring in my step at all. The first km seemed to go by quickly, and a glance at my watch showed just over 4 1/2 minutes. A little quick for me, but not too bad, seeing as how I was hoping for a time in the 47 to 48 minute range. In early September I ran a 5k to the tune of 22:07, which is screaming fast for me. The Daniels running calculator says based on my 5k time, I should be able to knock off a 10k in 45:51. Two words: not likely. During my Dan-world-record setting 5k run of 22:07, I was in "all out" mode for the entire race, and despite being only 5k I was totally spent at the end. I think I would have to be in full-on giv'er mode for the full 10k to go sub-46, and I don't know if I could make it that far in that gear without running out of steam. At the time of the 5k I was one week away from the 70.3, so I was pretty much in my best shape of the year. But lately, with the relaxed running schedule, it would seem I've lost any speed that I may have had. So I managed to run past the chute the first time by in almost exactly 24 minutes. Not a good sign. Running sub-48 pretty much went out the window right there, since this past year proved that "negative split" is not a phrase that is part of my racing vocabulary. Yet. So I focused on my start-of-season goal of running a 10k under 50 minutes... something I still wanted to accomplish, but now seeming kind of pedestrian compared to my new 5k best. The hills on the second lap seemed a little steeper and longer - not sure how they managed that. The wind was killer in some spots, while other areas had hardly any with all the trees. I tried to pick up the pace with about 2k to go, and while my effort certainly increased, I can't guarantee that my pace did the same. I crossed in 49:47... achieving my goal from the start of the season, but I didn't feel fast during any part of the race. So now it's time for the off-season. I'm going to do a more detailed post of my plans and goals, but it goes something like:

• 12 weeks (now until mid-January) of 6 workouts per week (2,2,2), plus 3 weight room sessions. The 6 will increase to 9 by the end of the 12 weeks. My goal is to gain strength and power while continuing to improve my fitness base.
• 16 weeks (mid-January until Mother's Day) for a marathon training program, using swimming, biking, and weights as cross training days. It would be my first marathon.

As mentioned, that takes me to Mother's Day. The season starts one week later with a duathlon on May 18th. I won't be signing up for it until I can assess how well (or how poorly) I've recovered from the marathon. If I feel it's too soon, then my first race will be the Milton Triathlon (750, 30k, 7.5k) on May 31. Looking forward to it already.

Official off-season coming up

Ever since the brutal experience known to me only as Muskoka, I've been taking it pretty easy. I've generally been swimming and running 2 and 3 times a week, respectively. I've mostly been doing it without a watch or HRM... just trying to get out there and enjoy it. I've read similar things from other people many times, and it is definitely true: just being able to relax and really enjoy the exercise is quite nice. Not having to worry about HR, lap times, zones, or any other junk like that. Of course, there is the minor issue of not having been on the Kuota since the 70.3 (over 5 weeks now). I do miss her a little, but I'm still plagued by memories of intense physical pain the last time I was in the saddle. We'll have lots of time to work out our differences on the trainer this winter. I am looking forward to having what I hope will be a kick-ass off-season, though. I'm likely going to race in one more 10k this Sunday, and then it's set to officially start next week. Last year on the bike trainer I did mostly base building stuff over the winter. I plan on doing more of that, but I will be adding some intense big-chainring workouts to that as well. For the first time since I took up triathlon I will be strength training 2 or 3 times a week, too. I'm hoping to really improve my core strength and work on previously neglected areas, like hip flexors, for one. That's it for now. There might be a race report coming after the weekend, but the weather around here on the weekend is supposed to be quite sucky... so if it's only a few degrees above freezing and raining, I might not make it to the starting line. As usual, time will tell.

Worst. Day. Ever.

I've been putting this off, hoping that if I waited long enough it would turn out to be a bad dream. Guess not, so here is a race report from Muskoka 70.3, my first ever attempt at the half iron distance.

The title of this post nicely sums up the race for me. In the short amount of time I've been doing this, it was certainly the worst, most brutal day of racing I have ever experienced. It left my spirit broken and my body battered and bruised. There were three specific times I wanted to quit, and if there happened to be a support vehicle in my area at those moments, I likely would have. I ended up making it to the finish line under my own power, and that's about the best thing that can be said.

The 5:00 wake-up call came and it revealed cold and rainy conditions. This wasn't exactly a shock, since it had been raining for a few days and it was expected to last through the weekend. It didn't ever end up raining really hard... just mostly steady drizzle that would make me feel colder than I could remember feeling while in the middle of a race.

The swim (2km): This turned out to be the best part of the day for me... not exactly what I expected. I knew from the pre-race newsletter that it would be a tough day mentally - I was the third wave off, which was also the first of the age-groupers. This basically meant that I would be passing very few people during the race, because it's not as though I was about to catch any of the pro men or women in wave 1 or 2. It also meant that hundreds of men and women, both younger and older, would be riding and running past me all day long. So, yeah... I had that going for me. Bad times.

There were 214 people in my wave... that was just M35-39... some of the races I have done didn't have that many total people in them. So it was a little more crowded than I was used to, but I knew it would be like that, so no big deal. I purposely stuck to the outside, because I knew that there would be faster swimmers coming soon, and I wanted to stay out of their way. I likely ended up swimming a little farther than the 2km, but I wasn't too worried -- it would have only added a couple of minutes to my overall time. I dealt with the congestion and rough-housing pretty well, not to mention the dude that insisted on slapping my head for about the first 300m. It was like getting cuffed in the back of the head by a bullying sibling. So for while it was stroke, stroke, breathe, CUFF, stroke, stroke, breathe, CUFF, and so on.

With less than 100m to go, I experienced something new... leg cramps during the swim! Yaay! I don't kick very much when I swim, and in the past I've been told by numerous People Who Know Things that with 50-100m to go in a long swim, start kicking a little more to get some blood flow down there and help prepare yourself for going vertical after being horizontal for a while. Well, on my 3rd or 4th kick, my right calf went into a massive spasm... it put me in pain and pissed me off - I mean, who gets a calf cramp when they're swimming?? It actually turned out to be a very good indicator of what was waiting just a few hours down the road for me (cue the Darth Vader evil theme music). I finally got to the stairs and a volunteer helped me out of the water. They had timing mats set up right there and my swim was cut off at 44:28... a little slower than I had hoped, but only by a few minutes - I'm a relatively slow swimmer. Besides, it's not like I was fighting for a spot on the podium or going after the prize money, or anything like that.

T1: This race has a long run from the water to transition, mostly up a giant hill. The eventual winner, Craig Alexander (yes, the former 70.3 World Champ and 2nd place dude in Kona last year... that Craig Alexander), had a transition time of 2:29, so that should give you some indication of what we were dealing with. As for me, I took my sweet-ass time and ended up just under 6 minutes. It's almost like I was delaying having to go out on the bike course. I didn't feel the leg cramp at all while I was running to my bike... in fact I forgot all about it (for the moment). T1 was also a good reminder that it was raining... I had kind of forgotten about that, too, while I was swimming, as weird as that sounds.

The bike (94km): Yes! 94! In order to avoid any out-and-back portions and "maintain the integrity" of the bike course, it had to be a little long, according to those who designed the course (including 11-time Ironman champion Lisa Bentley). Just what the novice first-timer wants... more distance! Yaay! This course also has the biggest hills I have ever seen. In fact, I know that opinions went both ways, but some people (who had experienced both) would go on to say that the hills were just as tough, if not tougher, than on the IM Lake Placid bike course.

I'm not going to spend too much time talking about this, because it just brings back bad memories. Early on in the bike, I could feel very faint pain in my quads as I climbed some of the hills... even for a non-pro like myself, it was waaay too early for that. It went beyond the feeling of muscles working hard. Something was wrong, and I didn't know what. My legs just didn't feel right. Much like the cramps during the swim, it was a new experience and I didn't really know what to do about it. The two bottle exchanges went well, I guess. It was my first time doing that, so I slowed right down... I mean slow... like, almost walking pace. I made sure I wasn't screwing up anyone behind me, and just took my time getting what I needed. The real fun came at about the 85k mark -- 3/4 of the way up a massive hill and both my quads just locked. I was almost at a complete stop, pushing down on the pedals when it happened... on my next revolution, my front tire went about 3 inches off the asphalt onto the sand, and I wiped out. Yes! WHO FALLS OFF THEIR BIKE GOING UPHILL?? Me. That's who. So there I am, lying on the pavement, feet still clipped into my pedals, and my water bottle goes rolling down the hill. Like, a kilometre down the hill. Yeah... not getting that. Meanwhile, people are asking me if I'm alright, and I'm saying yes, just keep going, don't stop your race for me, etc, etc (reason #256 why I love triathlon: people will sacrifice themselves to help out a fellow competitor... even a doofus who falls off his bike while going up a hill). So now I'm standing there beside my bike, only I can't move. Both my legs - quads and calves - are totally seized, and I am in immense pain. I can't even take a step. Not one single step. It's as though my muscles were replaced by rocks... and not the "rock-hard muscle" thing that people would want to have... no, this is just hard pieces of something under my skin that hurt when I touch them... a lot. I didn't think my calves could stick out that far. It looked kind of funny... if I wasn't almost crying from the pain, I'd would have almost been crying from laughing so hard. Bad times.

A couple minutes went by and my legs calmed down enough to continue. I eventually made it back to transition... more than half an hour after I thought I would. My support team -- my future wife & in-laws -- were apparently getting a little worried... especially after they saw a couple athletes getting carted back via ambulance and heard some horror stories from earlier athletes. Speaking of support teams, mine deserved a medal, I have to tell you. It rained non-stop and was cold. Not cool, not chilly, but cold. Yet there they were, waiting by transition to cheer me on. When I saw & heard them, it suddenly got a little dusty there in the Kuota saddle, despite all the rain.

T2: When I dismounted my bike, I realized how tough the run was going to be. I had a hard time getting unfolded from the aero position, I was so cold. Then there were my legs, which were busy singing me a few unhappy tunes. I got back to my racking spot and put on my shoes & socks, which were completely soaked despite being in a plastic bag. I'm talking wring-them-out type of water-logged here. That made my feet even more unhappy than they already were. My T2 time was not fast, but I was already a little off of world record pace, so I wasn't too worried. Plus I had to visit the porto-john to take care of some business. I finally found a place where there was no rain. Only huge amounts of stink.

The run (21k): And he's off! Slowly! I was in full running shuffle mode... you know, the one where you're making the running motion with your arms but your speed is more like a walking pace? Bad times. The run course was about as hilly as the bike course. And running down the hills sent more pain through my body than running up the hills. Another first for me. Other than the raining and shuffling, it was pretty uneventful until about the 13k mark, when both my calves cramped and seized again. I was in the middle of a wooded area on a pathway going up a hill, and I couldn't make my legs work. At all. In order to prevent myself from screaming out loud from the pain, I knew I had to sit down... but I couldn't bend my knees to get down there, so I just let myself fall back onto the paved path, landing on my ass. Since I was on a hill, it wasn't as far down as if I was on a flat section. That was the moment I most seriously contemplated quitting. I was sure that if I wasn't in the middle of nowhere I would have just hung up the shoes right there and climbed in a nice, warm support truck. But I just really wanted to finish the damn thing, even if I was the last one across the line and they were tearing down transition and packing everything up. I didn't want the months of training to be for nothing... even though it felt as though I'd never been on a bike or in running shoes before. On the run course, you have to go past transition and the finish line for a few more km before you're done... this gave my support crew a chance to see me a couple more times before the end. Hearing them certainly was a boost, and believe me, I needed it. I finally made it across the line... about 90 minutes later than I thought I'd be.

So, what went wrong? I really don't know. I can honestly say that I don't believe it was a lack of training. I put the miles in, and I think I deserved better. I thought I had a good nutrition plan and I was able to stick to it fairly well. It was tough sometimes to be right on schedule with eating & drinking, especially with all the hills. I know I was having trouble judging how much I was sweating because of the rain... I didn't know if I was drinking enough or not. The cold really seemed to affect me -- that plus not enough fluids, maybe... I really have no idea, and I doubt I ever will. So overall I don't really know what to think. It would be an understatement to say that I am discouraged. I had dreams of doing a full Ironman in 2010... but I think that's on hold now, after what went down in Muskoka.

It's a shitty way to end the triathlon season, no doubt. But I'll bounce back. My plan for next year is to stick to some shorter races, maybe a couple of Olympic distance tris, and really try to nail them. I'd also like to attempt my first marathon in the spring. The IM dream is obviously on hold, for now. But somewhere deep inside, it still lives on.