blog.zgraggen.name  All-day insanity or I have a blog too!

I did this race last year, back then it was only my 3rd Triathlon. By now I have a couple more under my belt and wanted to improve last years time. The main difference from last year’s race is that the start was during high tide, which meant we had to swim the full length! This would make my task to improve my time a little harder. During the packet pickup I talked to Adam Daniels a friend with whom I did a couple rides/runs. We concluded that the two of us are at on a similar level and that it might come to a tight race towards the end. We also decided both on the same race strategy, go hard in the swim, go hard on the bike and see if we can keep it up on the run.

For some reason, I slept horrible the night before the race. I woke up many times and couldn’t sleep. So I ended up eating half of my race breakfast at 2am in the morning during one of these awake phases. It was weird, because this race was more for fun and nothing was at stake here. Except my ego!?

Getting up at 4:30am and race prep as usual. Nothing special.

Swim: We started waist deep in the water and I focused from the beginning on a smooth from with a strong stroke. I was in a lucky spot from the beginning on, without a lot of pushing and searching for free space. I kept a tight line to the buoys and was making good progress. Towards the end I rested my legs a little a couple meters, which to my surprise you can see in the HR-chart. One funny thing during the swim was, that one guy swam into me, head first (from the side). I am still wondering how you can swim that crooked

T1: This wasn’t a smooth transition at all. First I couldn’t get my wetsuit off. It got stuck on the timing chip and I needed 3 attempts to peel the suit off. Then I noticed that someone played around with my bike, because the rubber bands which I installed to keep the shoes in place were gone. This meant that I had to fiddle with the shoes for a couple of seconds before I could jump on the bike. I also noticed that Adam’s bike was missing, which meant he was ahead of me. (I took a time-split here. See chart below #1)

Bike: I was pushing it hard on the bike from the beginning on. From my performance test I knew that my threshold was around a heart rate of 150. But for most of the race I was well above 160. I was wondering if that would influence my running capabilities but then that was part of my race strategy to find out. The bike ride itself was uneventful. At the beginning of the ride I overtook a couple of people. But 20 minutes into the ride I was mainly riding alone. Unfortunately, I also wasn’t able to spot Adam. The last 2.5 miles are along the run course. Last year, the leading man was right there at mile 2, this year nobody was insight. Not until around mile 1 where I saw the police bike with the first runner behind. I started counting and saw 12 other runners up to the transition. Whereas the last one was Adam. He just left transition when I came to transition. So he was about one to two minutes ahead of me. There might have been some additional people between him and me who were in transition and I didn’t see them. Because of all the counting I forgot to get out of my shoes which led to a balancing exercise before the dismount.

T2: Very fast, nothing to mention. (I took a time-split here. See chart below #2)

Run: At the beginning of the run I felt slow and had to push myself to keep going. After a mile, I was wondering if I could keep this pace up, since again my HR was above threshold again. But the few other runners I overtook gave me confidence to keep going. My friends which were finishing the bike ride encourage me to keep it going. After a while I settled in. I felt like doing 6:30min/miles but I didn’t know for sure since I missed the first 3 mile markers. When I turned around for the second loop the course was suddenly crowed there were many people on their first loop now. But no one with my pace who could have helped me to keep it up. I realized that I should be able to finish with the current pace even though my back was tired and sore and I still felt sluggish. On the last two miles I continuously increase my pace and was surprised that I was able to push my HR above 180 for an extended time. Then finally the liberating finish line.

I finished the race in 2:13:43. This is a new Olympic distance PR for me. I improved the Nations Triathlon time by 4min and the last years KIC IT time by over 7 minutes. I am very please with it. During the run, I didn’t think I will PR at all. But apparently I managed to run almost a 6min/mile pace. (Maybe the course was a little short?)

Overall results here

Adam was already waiting for me. This was only his second Triathlon and he beat me by over 3 minutes. Impressive! I thought we would finish closer together, but then as it turns out we placed 2nd and 3rd in our AG. How exciting. It got even more exciting during the awards ceremony when they only called Adam and my name for the M30-34 AG. (I guess this was because the first in our AG was second overall and got a price for that.) The reward for my place was a beer glass, but unfortunately it was empty. I changed that later in the day…

I really enjoyed this race! It is so much fun to do a local race where you meet a lot of people you know.

Congrats to Adam Daniel (2nd M30-34) and Matt Woods (3rd M45-49) and ALL my other friends who finished this race! There are too many to list hem all here

Side Note: I even made it into the news. Stamford Advocate, picture #20

HR-Chart:

Last Saturday I went to Boston for the Brewery to Brewery (b2b) ride. It is organized by the Harpoon brewery and the slogan of the ride is: “148miles for a Harpoon”. My friend Javier convinced me a couple of months ago to sign up for this ride. He thought we could ride it together, since he always wanted to do this ride. Unfortunately, I got in and he didn’t. Since, I have never been to Boston before, I looked forward to this trip especially since the ride was on Saturday which would give me one day for Touristy things.

The longest ride I did prior to this ride was 60miles in about 4h. Therefore I was a little worried and intimidated by the distance. But I knew that I would/could finish it. The question was how fast. I decided to start with the 30km/h group. Which was the perfect decision in hindsight. The riders were started in inverse order according to their estimated speed. The first riders started at 5:15am and as a faster rider I could sleep in a little because our start was after 7am.

Miles 0-16: Our Peloton consisted of 25 riders and we started all together through down town Boston. Because of the parade for the Bruins (which won the Stanley cup) there were 100s of spectator already waiting along the street and cheering us on. The speed was very moderate especially with all the red lights were we had to wait. During that part of the ride I talked to a couple of other riders, but mainly to Steven who is a very nice guy and a strong rider than me. Once we were out of the city the pace picked up a little and shortly after we were at “a rest stop”, or better said “Porta Potty City”. I didn’t have to pee yet, but I decided to wait for my new friend.

Mile 16-48: The field increased the pace. We were riding much faster now. Whereas before it felt like a relaxed Sunday ride, now there was some tension in the field. This tension got even bigger once our Peloton tried to overtake 5 other riders. Instead of latch in on the end, they decided to merge in the middle. This made for a very aggressive feel in the field. People were competing for “good” position within the group, which I didn’t like and though were completely unnecessary. So I stayed at the very back out of all trouble. From time to time I was still chatting with Steven and it seemed that the two of us had similar goals for the day. My hands started to hurt after 2 hours since I was riding on my triathlon bike in a non-aero position. I couldn’t wait to split up the group so that I could ride in an aero position for parts of the race. To my surprise the whole group stayed together until the first rest stop. But I knew the group would split up now since some people seemed exhausted already. Note: I noticed 2 people turning back before the first rest stop.

Mile 48-100: Me and Steven were ready to go after a couple minutes and decided to start alone. After a while some riders caught up with us. Eventually we had a nice group of around 10+ riders. We were rotating and were making very good progress. Even though Steven and I wanted to hang back till mile 100, we ended up pulling the Peloton. This felt great till about mile 97 where there was a long uphill to the next rest. I couldn’t keep up with Steven anymore. I was suffering and was questioning if I could finish it. Or I should say, I knew I could finish it, but this way it wouldn’t be much fun anymore. I started to realize that I screwed up my nutrition and didn’t drink/eat as much as I should have and I was also running out of water. Once I reached the 2nd rest stop I saw Steven waiting for me. How nice of him. I decided to drink a lot (Water, Zico, Coca Cola) my goal was to have to pee which I couldn’t 4h into the ride. All this drinking helped and I started to feel better and before long the two of us were on the road again.

Mile 100-126: Initially it was just the two of us but eventually there were 6 riders and we were rotating and made really good progress. >40km/h on flat parts. I seemed to have some strength back. Except on the uphill I was still missing my power. I also enjoyed all the aero riding I was doing when I was leading the group. About 90min into this section, I was in third position. The person in front of me dropped out of the Peloton. So I thought to myself that he must be tired and can’t lead. A few second later the leading person indicated that I should take the lead. This was only after a 30 second effort on his part. Well I didn’t mind and started pulling again. A couple minutes later when I indicated that the next should take over. Steven came next to me and laughed that we lost half of the group. Well it was up to the 3 of us now to finish the last couple miles of this section. This part was flying by and went over much quicker then I thought. At the 3rd and last stop I drank a Zico and a Coke again. Also I ate a banana, a pickle and some salt pretzels which tasted all delicious I finally achieved my goal and was able to go pee after 6h of riding.

Mile 126-148: Steven and I decided that we didn’t want to wait any longer and so the two of us were on the road again. The wind had picked up and it was harder to ride but after a while we had a small group together again and we made good progress. Except for the hills, where I still had a hard time. About 8miles before the finish a really fast group with some professional rider overtook us and Steven jump on their back. Unfortunately this was on an uphill section on I lost him. But on the top of the hill another fast group overtook me which I latch onto. We were rotating again, even though some people made barely any effort upfront. Luckily we also had some Triathletes which were pulling the Peloton very strongly. One weird experience was a wooden bridge which was covered and there was almost any light in there. I barely could see the ground and was keeping track of the other riders by looking towards the end of the tunnel (silhouette). This and the fact that I was really tired made this a very freaky experience. Unfortunately there was another hill before the finish and I couldn’t keep up with the group. On top of the hill there was a sign which made me unbelievable happy! It read: “All downhill from here”. What a joy, a couple minutes later I crossed the finish line. Amazing I did it!

I did the 239km in 7:40:20 (pure riding time, without rest stop time)

I really enjoyed this ride and will consider doing it again. I definitely recommend this ride to any other riders. But it might be a good idea to do more then 60miles as longest preparation ride. Here is a map of the ride.

Facts of the ride:

HR-Chart

I signed up for this race a long time ago, but since I already had a slot for the World Championship I wasn’t necessarily motivated to do this race. Mainly because it included a 5h drive each way. But one week before the race, I decided to do it. In hindsight, it was well worth the 1000km drive! I considered this race a “fun” race and wanted to do a little experiment. I planned to push myself a little harder on the bike and then try to still perform well in the run.

As in Texas I got up at 4am and ate my breakfast. After a 30min drive to the race location I tried to get ready for the race. Since it was only 5C at this time, my main focus was to stay warm. Apparently, I failed miserably at this, since several people made comments about my shattering teeth. It was almost a relief to go into the water (15C) which felt warm at first.
Swim: I was happy when our wave finally was allowed to start. I got used to the cold water within a few minutes, except that I didn’t feel my feet anymore
The swim felt great and I thought I made great progress till I excited the water and noticed that I was exactly the same time as in Texas (down to the second).

Transition 1: This might have been my worst transition so far. I stumbled to my bike and hit my big toe into a root in the process; the good news was that I still had some feeling in the feet :-). As in Texas I tried to put on my compression socks, at the end I had to sit on the ground to put them on. Thanks to the cold feet and hands I felt like a kid who learns to put on socks themselves. I am so glad nobody filmed that part.

Bike: Initially, I was cold on the bike. But fortunately, the sun came out and warmed up everything. Also the hilly course helped a lot to stay warm. It was a two loop course with a steep 5 km long climb. On my first loop I already saw some people pushing their bike up the hill, which I thought was surprising, especially since they were at the very beginning of the hill. As a lightweight, I have an advantage here and I played this card on all the steep parts. No one overtook me uphill… but my heart rate was also through the roof. On the first loop, I thought that the hills weren’t that bad. Well second time around it got much harder which also meant that there were many more athletes pushing their bike uphill.
This race I had a new experience. I got my first penalty. On the first loop a guy overtook me right before the aid station. He then grabbed a water and slowed down a little for that. I didn’t take anything in the aid station. Since he overtook me I was supposed to fall back out of his drafting area, I just stopped pedaling for a few seconds. This wasn’t enough to clear the drafting area since he was slowing down even more. Once he started fiddling with the bottle and slowed even more, I decided to overtake him. That is when a referee gave me an overtaking violation (yellow card). This meant that I had to stop in the next penalty tent to get my # and name taken and all my race numbers marked with a “P”. Unfortunately, with my last name it took me “forever” to spell it to the guy. (Side note: I talked to the head referee after the race. He said that I shouldn’t have gotten this penalty and he will check with the referee who did it… He told me that at aid station safety comes first and there is some leeway in applying the rules because of that)

Transition 2: This time I was very quick, in and out. No problem.

Run: Once again, I felt great at the start of the run. I was concerned about my feet at first since I knew that I had forest soil in my socks and in my shoes, but I didn’t even notice this till after the race. I started out with quick feet and passed the first mile marker at 6:30 which is too fast. I slowed down a little and did the second mile in 6:40 which is still faster then I wanted and so I focused on slowing a little more. At this point I started to feel tired and my back started hurting. For a few second I was wondering if I can finish this race. After all I have a WM slot and this is only a fun race, right? But then: Giving up is not an option for me! Still these thoughts stayed with me for a few more miles since I was wondering if I pushed too hard on the hilly bike course. I decided to keep my running pace and see how far I will get. (Remember this was my goal)
So far the run was flat, but then suddenly there was this hill. I should have known it, after all it is the first part of the bike course but I was still surprised. I was even more surprised by how much my calf hurt going up. Then the downhill was even worse, I never had such a stinging pain in my shine before. In hindsight these first 4-5 miles were the hardest, once I pushed through all these different issues it seemed to become “easier”. This was mainly because the pain level stayed the same and I seemed to get used to it.
I noticed during the 5th mile, I suddenly had completely different problems. My finger were super sticky from the Gatorade I spilled over my fingers. This annoyed me so much, that at the next aid station I used the water to clean my fingers. (I had to repeat the same procedure a couple miles later). I would never have though that non-sticky fingers can make for a much better run experience. But in such a race it is also these little things which drain energy from you.
At the turn point, I noticed that it only took me a little over 44 minutes to do the first loop. Wow, this meant if I keep the pace I could finish the half marathon in under 1:30. So there I had a new goal! This was very helpful since no one around me was running my pace. So from then on I was just running against the clock. At mile 10 I started to feel really tired, but I said to myself: “You haven’t walked yet; there is no reason to start something new!” For the next two miles I had to push myself not to slow down. And then on mile 12 a women closed in on me and overtook me. Finally, I had someone who was running about my pace. We ran together to the finish line, unbelievable how much easier it is to keep the pace if someone else is running at the same pace.

I finished the race in 4:53:26 which placed me 10th in my AG. At the awards ceremony, I was eligible for a slot for the World Championship again. This was a good feeling to know that I qualified here as well. But all that mattered to me was that I ran the hilly half marathon only 7min slower than my flat out half marathon best time.

Things that ROCKED:
=> Post race food: BBQ chicken, Corn on the cob, cookies, ice cream
=> TREK-Speed Concept: I love this bike! (Yes, Amy I love you too =) )
=> Infinit Nutrition: No upset stomach, no cramping and lots of energy!
=> Scenic area with all the trees and the lake: It reminded me a lot of Switzerland

Heart-Rate Chart:		Time splits:

FYI: Link to the official results will follow once they published it!