Tri season ends !!!

Swim, bike and run.... for fun !

Since my last posting dealt with the upcoming Tri season it is appropriate to get the blog going again. It has been an interesting year to date. My father passed away May 17 and that has changed my life in many ways. On just about every free weekend I have went to Des Moines to help Mom keep her life on track, which she is doing well. I help her with what household repairs I can and last weekend we trekked to Branson, one of her favorite vacation destinations.

The photos below are from the Brewhouse Tri in Duluth on Aug 2. Photo compliments of Lisa, thanks ! That was a very good event and a good test of my tri conditioning up to that point. The only real negative factor are the rough roads with many potholes and unfilled deep cracks. A person gets jarred on the bike pretty good.

Most days this Summer I have worked out 1-2 hrs per day either swimming, biking, running or at yoga class. Swims have been in local lakes and my purchase of a new wetsuit, Blue 70 Reaction, earlier this year has greatly helped my swimming. All swims are now a minimum of one mile, more than I am used to, but manageable for me. Added buoyancy is the primary benefit of a wetsuit: keeping the hips and legs raised so the body tracks in a flatter line, plus the suit has a slick outer shell reducing drag. The drawback in the added time it takes to remove it before the bike. Most say that for swims of over 1/4 mile it is a positive trade-off to wear one. I love swimming in this suit and am very glad I finally bit the bullet and purchased it at Gear West, although there was a great deal of buyer's remorse. A year ago I also bought a used Trek 1500 road bike that has greatly helped my times. The narrow tires with 100 lbs of air, lighter weight and aerobars are very beneficial to faster times with the same physical output.

The start of the run, the final event, at the Brewhouse. The trick here is to leave enough "umpf" in the legs from the bike to be able to give it a good effort, while getting as high of a biking pace as possible.

In this pic you'll see all three events, me coming out of the lake; stepping carefully over the pebbles on the asphalt, a lady entering on her bike, and another taking off for her run. Tris start in 5 - 24 waves depending on the number of entrants, based on age and gender. My first tri this year at Buffalo had 24 waves and today there were six. As a result there are racers coming and going for each event at varying times.

The start of the swim in Duluth. A gray, cool day, but perfect for racing.

Today's tri was the Lakes Country at Baxter. My tri friend Terry and I went up the prior night and got a hotel room, carbed up on pasta and hit the sack early. At the Brewhouse, I lost much energy the second lap of the bike and thought it was partially due to a lack of calorie intake the days prior, so focused on a good calorie, and carb, intake for this race. The two nights prior I also got ten and nine hours of sleep, well rested.

My goal for tri races this season was to finish in the back of the middle of the pack, having been far back in prior years. winter training was hampered by numerous injuries but I still felt this goal was realistic. For this race, I had very specific time goals having run the race two years prior.

Distances were: 1/2 mile swim, 17.3 mile bike and 3.9 mi run

2007

swim tran 1 bike tran 2 run ttl time

20:28 3:49 1 hr 4 mn 1:08 43:02 2:12:58

Est projections

19 3 52 1 39 1:54

2009

17:22 2:24 53:44 :46 38:53 1:53:07

finished 210 out of 300 finishers, back of the middle of the pack.

My goals for this race were to hit the swim and bike as hard as I felt I could, while leaving enough energy for the run, hoping to get under a 10 min pace, and cut my transition times. Since a person spends the most time on the bike, and my running is my weakest event, this plan seemed reasonable, and worked!

While sitting home the week before the race I penciled out what paces I felt I could do; note the projections above. These figures were from the Duluth Tri finishing times and based on the fact that I had maintained my conditioning between the two events. As you will see, I met most of these goal times, and for those of you who are avid runners, you will see my deficiency is my running, so that will be this winter's focus.

Lower transition times were due to changes not wearing socks and wearing the singlet under the wetsuit. I can also reduce another 30 - 40 sec by buying speed shoe laces removing the task of having to tie shoes and allowing them to be slipped on. At those trans times I will be very content.

Today's weather was perfect with a sunny sky, low wind and finishing temps in the mid 60s.

I have enjoyed the three tris I finished this Summer and will admit I am very disappointed to see the three month season end, but I have many other interests I can now focus on, and a month or so break will do me good physically. No major aches or pains, but...occasional aches in both feet, the left achilles, left groin and shoulders, so yes, the body could use a break. But I will maintain conditioning with many weekly workouts and weekly 1 -2 yoga classes. This winter I will also add regular weight workouts at my gym, Golds in Monticello, and of course there's that five lbs of body weight I could loose.