Rose City Sprint Triathlon – Race Report

On Sunday, I completed my very first triathlon. It was the Rose City Sprint Triathlon. It consisted of a 650m swim, 13 mile bike, and 3.1 mile run. My final time was 1:54:08. My sister Alana did this triathlon with me, but she is much faster. She managed to win her age group (50-54), placed second in the Masters category (40+), missing 1st place by just 15 seconds, and placed 9th out of all the women.

The day started off with us arriving at the transition area around 6:15am. There must have been perhaps 20 athletes already there and setting up their transition area. There were no assigned racks so Alana, being more experienced, had us choose spots that were near the bike in/out so as to minimize how far we had to walk in our bike shoes. We had one hiccup in that I couldn’t find my tire pressure gauge and since the gauge on my pump doesn’t work, Alana ended up borrowing one to pump her tires. I decided to not touch mine and trust the pressure was OK. I found my gauge when we got home. It had slipped into a hidden compartment in my bag.

After setting up, it was just a matter of waiting. Alana did her warm up routine and also did a warmup swim. I chose to simply wait and contemplate the upcoming swim. It was not a wetsuit legal swim and while I did a 650m swim earlier in the week without my floaty pants, I was still a bit nervous, more so after my swim fiasco at Ironman 70.3 FL. In the back of my mind in the days leading up to the race and on that morning was that I had to get through the swim. It was almost as though that was a prerequisite to having any sort of success at Ironman AZ in November.

The swim was organized into 4 start waves, each 5 minutes apart. I was in the second wave and Alana in the third wave. I was joking with her that she will pass me on the swim despite starting after me, but I will catch her on the bike.

Once the first swim was off, my wave was called to line up. I chose a point away from most of the swimmers and not right at the front. I wanted to minimize having people swim over me and also from trying to go out too hard.

Once the starting horn was sounded, I waited a few seconds before starting so as to allow the faster folks to take off and then I started swimming, and swimming, and swimming. For the first several minutes I had people nipping at my heels or swimming into me from the sides, but it wasn’t anything that really bothered me. I did my best to swim my pace. I didn’t do any sighting at the start as I was side breathing from both sides and when breathing I would see folks on both sides so I figured I had to be at least going in the right direction. Eventually I was alone and had to sight. It wasn’t too bad and afterwards when I look at my swim track, it was pretty much spot on. My issue is that the swim was hard. I was slow and it was tiring. It wasn’t so tiring that I had to stop and hold on to a kayak to rest, as I saw several people having to do, but it was tiring enough that I couldn’t wait for it to be done. I had to tell myself to keep going! It was a HUGE relief when I got to the end of the swim and was out of the water. If I ended my race at that point, I would have considered it a success!!

Once out of the water, I made my way to the transition area. I wasn’t surprised to see that Alana’s bike was gone. I later found out that she got out of the water 5 mins ahead of me. Since she started 5 mins after me, it meant her swim was 10 mins faster. Of the 200 participants, my swim split was 183rd. I was among the slowest and near last.

My transition took just under 2 mins which I was happy with. I know it wasn’t super fast, but in the end it was only 1 minute slower than the fast transition folks.

I don’t know if it was because if I was tired from the swim, but after walking my bike past the mount zone, I had a really hard time clipping in my first foot. I eventually got it in and was able to start riding. I had one gel which I ate in the first few minutes of the bike.

The bike course consisted of a lot of rolling hills. Once I noticed that, I tried to go as fast as I can on the downhills so that I can get a lot of momentum on the following uphill. One guy passed me in the first 1-2 miles, but after that no one else passed me on the bike and I passed a ton of folks. I spent most of the time in the aero position. I did have one hiccup though on the bike. For the bike and run, I planned to wear my running t-shirt with the bb number pinned on. I didn’t need it on the bike, but I didn’t have a tri belt and I figure it out be OK . But, one of the safety pins became undone so one corner of my bib number was hanging down the entire time, flapping in the wind and acting like a parachute. Lesson learned! Next time I’ll use a tri belt. The other issue is that I know I didn’t drink enough. It was tough to focus on and remember to drink while in the middle of a race.

My eventual bike time was a middle of the pack performance. Of the 200 participants, my bike split was 89th.

Coming into T2, I dismounted at the dismount line and walked into transition. I racked my bike and changed my shoes and was about to head out on the run when I had another hiccup. I was about to head out with my helmet still on. That would have been a disaster as I would have been forced to run with it (on my head or carrying it) for the entire run. Luckily a volunteer pointed out my faux pas before I left the transition area. My T2 time ended up being about 1:45

I headed out to the run walking. I ate a gel near the beginning and then ran/walked the entire 5K. I ended up averaging about 13 min a mile. The one concern I had was that I started to cramp about 1.5 miles into the run. It was manageable and I hope it was only because I didn’t really consume any salt or electrolytes. Lesson learned! Next time, I will ensure I consume enough electrolytes even for a short race like a sprint triathlon.

My eventual run split was near the bottom. I was 180th out of the 200 participants.

My overall place among all participants was 163rd out of 200. Since I placed so low in the swim and run, only my bike split prevented me from placing near the bottom overall. But even then, Alana still had a faster bike split than me by about 90 seconds. That was disappointing to me.

In the end, the triathlon brought a mixed bag of emotions. I was extremely glad to complete it and I was ecstatic that I got through the swim. If I had failed in the swim, or had not completed the triathlon, it may have doomed my upcoming Ironman. If I couldn’t complete a sprint, what hope would I have for an Ironman!

But, that doesn’t mean my confidence has been boosted. The swim was disappointing in how long it took. I swam it at a 3:00 pace per 100 yd whereas in the pool. I would do 2:15 regularly. I know part of that is due to not having my buoyancy shorts, but I don’t know how much can be attributed to that. The bike was at the pace I want for the Ironman and the run was also at the pace I want, but placing so low overall has me concerned about whether I am, or will be prepared enough. And, while I was thinking I may have a good amount of buffer to make the various cutoffs, I am starting to wonder if I really do that those buffers. Am I going to be among the last coming in with just minutes to spare?

Ironman Training – Week 20 – September 9 – September 15 2019

This week marked the end of the first two thirds of the training plan. Only 10 weeks left!

For this week I managed to do all the workouts, but many of them were cut short so in the end instead of about 12.5 hrs of training, I only did 8.5. The only good thing is that for the 4 hrs I came up short, 3 was from the long ride. I didn’t want to do a long ride just before my sprint triathlon on Sunday.

Yes, I did my first ever triathlon. I wouldn’t discuss it here as I’ll write a separate race report.

Unfortunately, upcoming week 21 may also be a shortened week as I have to attend scuba training on the weekend and so that will mean yet another week without a long ride. I should be able to get the long run done though.

Ironman Training – Week 19 – September 2 – September 8 2019

This was a decent week of training, but I did about 3 hrs less than originally scheduled.

The week didn’t start too well. I got up Monday morning to do a run and after about 0.25 miles, I realized my body wasn’t ready. I was still tired from my monster training session on Saturday. Even though I took Sunday off, I needed 2 days. So I ended up not doing my run nor my swim scheduled for that day.

The highlight of the week though was my swim session on Tuesday. I wanted to see if I could actually swim the Ironman distance swim, non-stop, so I tried that…and I was successful. I swam 4300 yards in 1:38:41. I am super pleased about that. That will give me a lot of buffer in my actual Ironman.

The main concerned is how I felt about 1-2 hours afterwards. My whole body and stomach felt weird. I don’t know if I was dehydrated or needed food. Eventually after eating and drinking, I started to feel better. I plan to do this IM swim distance a few more times before the actual event. The next time I will try eating a gel right before and right after and to also hydrate immediately.

After doing that long swim on Tuesday, I skipped my swim on Wednesday so I only ended up swimming that one day for the week.

For my long ride, I tried eating more salt every 5 miles, but I still ended up getting cramps, but they were delayed. Instead of getting them around the 2-2.5 hr mark, I got them at the 3 hr mark. At this point I’m not sure what to do. I may try even more salt next time.

Ironman Training – Week 18 – August 26 – September 1 2019

I thought week 17 was as close to a perfect training week as I had gotten for the last couple of months, but this week was even better.

I got all my workouts in, but the highlight was my monster workout on Saturday. The Be Iron Fit plan had called for me to do an Olympic Distance triathlon and an optional 2-hour bike ride in the evening. I was not going to do an actual race, but I was going to train and do the distances.

I wasn’t keen on doing a 3-sport brick session in the morning and then having to ride 2 hours in the evening, especially as it would be pretty hot here in Texas. But, in looking at the bike distance for the Olympic distance which is 40km or 25 miles and the distance I can ride in the optional 2 hour ride, I realized the total distance would be just a bit more than the Half Ironman bike distance. In addition, for the swim, an Olympic swim distance is 1,500m, so by adding just another 400m to the swim, I would have a Half Ironman swim distance of 1,900m. So with that, I formulated a plan to do a Half Ironman swim and bike followed by a 10K run.

I didn’t want to end up running when it was too hot, so I started the swim at 4am in the morning. The continuous swim went well and I was done in 48 mins. This was just about the time I had expected.

I then had to drive home and start the bike. Even with the drive, my transition was only about 15 minutes. For the bike, I decided to use my aero helmet. I also rode in my triathlon shorts. I did the entire brick session in my triathlon shorts.

I wanted to use this to practice my nutrition and also to see if I could avoid the dreaded leg cramps that have been popping up on my bike right at the 2-2.5 hour mark. I decided to drink my normal Gatorade Endurance, but just 4 bottles over the 3 hours I was expecting to ride. That worked out to about 1 bottle very 45 mins. The 1 bottle every 30 mins on my last long ride was too much liquid. I also took my Oreo cookies with a plan to eat one every 15 mins. And, I took my tic-tac container of salt. The plan was to have 3 licks every 5 miles.

I actually stuck to my nutrition plan really well expect for the last 30 mins. I was tired of the Oreos. I plan to take the regular Oreos again, but I’ll throw in some Golden Oreos next time for some variety. Most importantly though, I did not experience any cramps on the ride which took me 3 hours and 5 mins. I did have on hiccup with about 45 mins to go. I was refilling my aero bottle and I dropped my bottle. So, I then stopped, but I stopped too quickly and was not able to unclip. So my bike came to a stop and I was still clipped in and I did a slow topple to the right. I ended up scraping my my knee and forearm. The knee was just a bit irritating, but my forearm was worse. The part where my skin rubbed off was right where I would rest my arms on the aero bars. I spent the remainder of the ride fidgeting and trying to find a comfortable way to stay in the aero position. Without that fall, I may have had a good chance of finishing my bike split right around the 3-hour mark!

Once the bike was done, I had a 5-min transition to the run. It was longer than my normal weekly brick sessions as I changed shirts and also used the bathroom. I was OK with that as for my actual race, I plan to do the same and taking 5 or even 10 mins to transition during the full Ironman is not an issue.

My biggest problems were on the run. While I didn’t cramp on the bike, I started to cramp on the run almost immediately. I had to stop often to stretch my quads. I still had my salt so I decided to lick a lot and ended up taking 3 licks every mile. I don’t know if that is what did the trick, but by around miles 4-5, the cramping stopped.

In the end, I got through my planned workout in a total time of 5 hours 30 minutes which included about 25 minutes of transition time. If I added another 7 miles to do a full Half Ironman, I would have gotten a time of around 7 hours. I would take that any day!

In the end I don’t think I have solved my cramping issues, but I think I’m getting there. I plan to up my salt intake moving forward. So on the bike, instead of 3 licks every 5 miles, I’ll try 4. Then on the run, I will continue to take salt licks every mile.

My next big 3-sport brick session will be in about a month’s time, when the plan calls for me to do a Half Iron distance race. I wouldn’t be doing an actual race, but I will do the full distance in training.