Left Arm Bandit

For a quick recap scroll down to the bottom and watch the last video.


My race prep for blue lake wasn't as good as it could be.  I spent the previous 2 weeks traveling for work and wasn't as physiologically and psychologically prepared as I wanted to be. In addition, I didn't eat very well the night before or the morning of.  For the next race I need to get up and put some fuel in a little earlier.  Thankfully, I made it to the race course early enough, had plenty of time to set up transition and take a nice warm-up run.  Stretching my legs a little felt great and it got my heart rate up.  Also, I got in about 10 minuets of swim warm-up in my wetsuit.  Before I got in to the water I saw my friend Drew (who took all the photos and video in this post) who came out to watch.




I swam the whole 1500 meters one arm freestyle.  I've been doing a bit of work on that and not doing any more side stroke.  Freestyle helped save my legs for later but I was all over the place.  I think I swam an extra 100-200 meters and really need to work on sighting better.  My swim time was 0:36:09, a little slower than Duck Bill a few weeks ago.



The transition to the bike was a bit slow.  I struggled with the wetsuit as it got stuck at two different places.  The caps and goggles came off easier, but then I had to put on my shoes, helmet and sunglasses.  Finally, I had to run the bike out.  All in all, it took 3:38.

The bike leg was a bit frustrating as well.  The first half I had people drafting off me, was all over the road and had a hard time passing.  Also, my stomach started to revolt.  I threw up 3 times in my mouth on the bike.  I probably should have just let it go, but I swallowed it back down (gross, I know) thinking I'm going to need those calories later.  A few times on the bike I got pissed at the people drafting me so I pushed the pace and dropped them.  Probably not the smartest thing to do, but whatever.  At the second turn, I caught a guy who I'd been chasing through most of the leg.  That seemed to be some motivation for him, and together we pushed each other on the way back.  I'd lead for a few mins with him about 4 bike lengths back (that's the legal distance), then he would pass me, and I'd drop back 4-5 lengths. Bike time of 1:02:56

I beat my new friend out of transition and headed out on the run.  The first 1/2 mile felt pretty good, but then my stomach issues came back.  The rest of the run sucked. It felt like it was going on forever.  Not once did my legs and core feel good.  I was getting passed left and right.  At 3 miles I started to develop a side ache.  With 2 miles left it was so intense that I was groaning with each step.  The last mile was shooting pain in my side every step.  I wanted desperately to stop but kept pushing on.  The final .2 miles were the worst and that's where my coach saw me.  Saw me stumbling along being passed, dang.  I managed to finish strong in the last 200 meters.  Run time of 52:34, suck.

Total time of 2:37:56

Team Time Trial, well it sucked. Or rather I sucked.  My teammates set a blistering pace, and I didn't have the confidence to stay tight in the corners. Every corner a gap would open up between myself and the rider in front, and I would have to chase back on.  I made it 3/4 of the way around the first look before I was dropped.  The rest of the guys killed it and took second in the cat 4/5 race.  After getting dropped, I settled in for a solo TT effort, which was was pretty hard.  Next year I need to do more Individual Time Trials.  Its not the same as a triathlon where you need to save some for the run. Road Time Trialing is all out, all the time, and I don't think I was ready for it.  Anyways, I'm putting that behind me an looking forward to Blue Lake in a few weeks.

The Rehearsal Road Race is the OBRA category championship, but it is not a practice race as the name would imply, and is my last race as a Cat 5.   The course was brutal, but I ended up with a 9th place finish.  The first lap was pretty fast.  The pack fractured on some of the steeper stuff, and in the last 300 meters it split into about three groups.  I didn't make the first group but wasn't too worried because the next section was 6 miles of sweeping downhill.  My group, the second one, easily caught the first about 500 meters into the descent.  The descent was fun and easy.  Sitting 5 wheels back you had to do almost no work.  The majority of the dropped riders caught us on the descent.

After awhile I was bored just sitting in, so I took a nice long pull on the front; huge mistake. After my pull I drifted back to get some rest.  About 30 seconds later the road ticked up and the guys on the front attacked.  I was about 20 wheels back, boxed in and had no prayer of going with them.  The field totally shattered. The lead group was made up of 5 or 6 riders and the small groups of 2 or 3.  I got in with a teammate, and we worked together to catch 2 Fred Meyer guys in front of us.  For the majority of the second lap climbing one of the Fred Meyer guys wanted to do all the pulling so we let him.  Sitting on his wheel grinding away. The guy who eventually finished 8th bridged up to us, and we were now a group of 5.

The Fred Meyer dude dropped his chain on the last big climb.  He looked pretty toast when we all went by him, and I didn't see him the rest of the day.  On the downhill section we worked really well together.  30 second pulls on the front then rotating back.  As we passed riders they joined our train.  By the end of the downhill we had about 10 riders in our group.  The rotating pace line was the best pace line I've been a part of in a race situation.  Then after 15-20 minutes of awesomeness it all came crashing down.  We passed some Cat 4 riders and something happened behind me.  I was 4th wheel back and kept up the pace, but the guys behind me suddenly dropped.  The road ticked up a bit, and they never caught back on.  One of the four guys in out group dropped in the first hill, and soon it was just three.

The three of us worked together up the hills about a mile, but on the top of the final hill the third guy had enough and sat up.  Then there was only two of us.  We started the last hill together and then started working on the downhill. Working as a group of 2 is a lot different then working as a group of 10 or even 5.  You don't get nearly as much rest.  We pushed it down the hill and even caught sight of a group of 5 riders ahead of us but simply couldn't catch them.  I think the group of 5 split because we picked off a few solo riders in the last 2 miles.

The finish was uphill and hard.  I sat on my partner's wheel and could see the guy in front of us.  He accelerated in the last 500 meters and I simply didn't have the legs to go with him.  Finishing 9th in the Cat 5's is pretty respectable.  I thought I was going to be much further down.  All and all it was a good day.  We finished off the day by taking a "cool down" lap by doing the course again.

Results are here.

Wow Duck Bill Thrill was awesome! The course was much more challenging than I anticipated. Here's the quick rundown:
Total time: 2:36:26.
Swim: 0:33:46,
T1: 0:02:40,
Bike: 1:08:10
T2:0:00:57
Run:0:50:53

I woke up super early Sunday morning at 3:30 am to head down to Eugene.  The drive down was pretty uneventful there was some pretty cool mist on parts of the road but I didn't get a picture.  I arrived at the race course with plenty of time to spare.  Almost too much.  I set up my transition area, was last in line for packet pickup, then last in lie for body marking.  Next race I'll be bringing my own sharpie to mark myself with.  Waiting in the lines meant that I didn't get that much time to warm up in the water.  I would have liked to swim 500 yds or so and that's what coach told me to do but I only got about 200. 

The start of the swim was a huge cluster.  I went out with the side stroke, huge mistake.  I was quickly over swam by people then we stopped almost completely as the people in the front were trying to get things figured out.  Next time I'm going to go out one arm freestyle.  The swim was a 2 loops of 750 meter each.  The first look I did side stroke, the second was one arm free.  I swam pretty straight for the most part and after the first 500 meters or so did not have any issues with running into other people.  I was able to just go out and swim my own race.

The swim to bike transition went well.  I felt pretty good getting on the bike and the first part of the course was a major descent.  At the bottom there was a T as I approached the turn, I went to grab my front break but it didn't slow me much.  I had forgotten to close it after I put my wheel on!!  I totally over cooked the corner and almost wrecked.  Thankfully I was able to keep the rubber side down and the next section was fairly flat so I was able to reach down and close the break. I guess I learned my lesson.  Always check you breaks.  The res of the bike was pretty good.  I passed a ton of people.  The course was much hillier that I thought it was going to be which was nice.  I really like a challenging course. 

Bike to Run transition went really smoothly.  It was pretty fast.  I think getting some Tri specific bike shoes would make it even faster.  They are easier to get on and off.  I was able to find my run legs about 1.5 miles into the run which was also more chalenging that I thought it was going to be.  The first section was down hill the on a rocky gravel trail accross a damn.  The up through some fairl serious "rolling" hills. and then back again.  I tried to run down a few people in the last half mile but was only able to get one of them.

All in all a good strong performance and my first Olympic post ski accident.  I'm happy with the bike but want to swim and run faster.  I guess we'll have to work on those two things.

Duck Bill Thrill starts Sunday at 8am in Eugene.  That means I need to be at the race course at 6:30 to get my packet, prep transition and warm up before the race starts.  Which means that I need to leave Portland by 4am at the latest to get there on time! Wow that's early!  I'm getting all my stuff together today and tomorrow. Tomorrow afternoon I'll be heading over to Athletes Lounge to pick up a neoprene cap to keep my head warm on the swim and a new set of goggles.  I already have a set of gloves to keep my right hand warm. It might be really cold out there. 

I'm going to try something different this race in an effort to reduce my T1 transition time.  The last two were almost 5 mins long!! The plan is to wear my heart rate monitor, arm brace and top under the wetsuit.  This should drastically reduce my transition time.  Also I'm going to go sans gloves if its warm enough.  Hoipefully this will put me closer to 2 mins instead of 5.

Finally Duck Bill is my first Olympic distance (1.5k/40k/10k) race post skiing accident and I'm a little nervous about it. Now to get back to work and fit in hair cut, yoga, swimming, running and church into the rest of my day.  Looks like I'll be working some tomorrow.

Wow, what an awesome weekend! Stellar!!!

Saturday we had a team time trial practice out on Sauvies's Island.  The first lap was a little sketchy.  Riding my Kuota K-Factor in aero position in a group takes a lot of trust and confidence.  You have to trust your teammates and yourself to hold your lines and speed.  The breaks are a long ways away when your hands are out on the aero bars. I really needed the practice, but afterward I felt much more confident in my areo position bike handling skills, even if I scared my teammates a few times with a few jerks and some slowing on some of the corners.  The adjustments I made to the bike helped out a lot.  My shoulder did much better than last week, and I could generate a little more power.  I still need to work on my hip flexors.  They are not that flexible and are causing some knee pain.

Sunday was the Hawthorn Farm Triathlon .  It was amazing.  I was late registering, but the race director Rod graciously found me a spot even though it was with the super fast swimmers.  The format was a 500 meter pool swim, 13 mile bike (20.9 kilometers), 3 mile run (5 kilometers) point to point.  It was the first pool swim triathlon and first point to point race I have done.  Point to point means that the transitions and finish are at more than one location.  In this case the swim was at the Hawthorn Farm Athletic club while the bike and run both finished at Hilsboro Stadium.  With a pool swim you keep doing laps until you reach the distance required.  Usually there are 4 swimmers to a lane.  Often the faster swimmers need to pass the slower ones so they tap on the feet of the slower ones to go by.  I lucked out and there was only one other swimmer in my lane.  For a second I thought that I was going to get to be all alone.  Here's how the morning went down.

I woke up nice and early and full of nerves. Spent some time around the house, ate breakfast and headed out to the course.  The first stop was to setup my T2 area.  Chilling out to some good music I took my time getting everything just right.  Towel set, shoes set, wrist brace set up, rain shirt ready and then covered the whole thing with a plastic bag to keep the it dry in the event of rain.  Then it was off to T1 and the swim start.  At T1 I found a spot for my bike and got all my gear arranged.  Because of my shoulder disability I need to run in a shoulder brace.  I decided to put that on in T1 instead of in T2 because it goes under my top.  After getting everything just so it was time to go watch a few heats and eat some Cliff Shot Blocks and mentally prepare.

Just before the swim start I told my lane mate that I was a little slower and to go ahead and pass me which she did, twice.  I felt pretty strong on the swim especially since I haven't been swimming that much.  I did the whole thing side stroke.  I thought about going with the one arm free style but I'm just not confident that I can hold that and transition between side and free when I run out of O2 swimming free style.  That's something I need to work on.  The swim took 10:21 and I was expecting to be the last one out of the water, but I wasn't.  That placed me 127 of 219 swimmers.

Transition 1 went badly again.  Trying to put on my shoulder brace while wet just doesn't work. I'm going to have to adjust how I do T1 in the future.  It felt like a long time in T1 but, unlike last time, I didn't let it phase me.  I built up speed and intensity on the bike course.  For the first 2 miles I just let myself settle in.  That was a big difference from Elma where I dialed it up to full intensity right away.  Letting my legs adjust really paid off.  I felt strong and confident the whole bike phase.  I probably could have pushed it a little more and hopefully with all the stretching I'm doing my hip flexers will agree in two weeks down at Duck bill.

The bike to run transition was fast and smooth.  The only slight issue was the bike dismount.  I need to practice that a few times. Coming out of T2 my heart rate strap fell down, and I was without a good reading for the run.  This time I built into the run just like I did the bike.  What a big difference.  The few brick workouts that I've been doing lately are really paying off.  I felt super strong for the whole run.  Again, I probably could have and should have pushed the second half more.  Coming through the finish was awesome.  My Dad and a few friends were there to cheer me on!  Felt so good to finish strong.

Afterward I hung out for a bit enjoying the nice sunny weather and chatting up my father.  I always love it when my family members make it out to a race.  Little brother is coming up to visit in May or June so hopefully that comes with a race too.




Next race is Duckbill Thrill in Eugene, OR on May 17.  That will be the first Olympic distance race and should produce my qualifying time for PC nationals in New York on July 26th.  This week more training and a rest day on Monday!

No, this is not about a rest week or a down week or whatever you call it.  It's about a week that went sideways on me.

This week my training was hit and miss, particularly on Friday and Sunday.  You would think that those are two days where I would have a lot of time, but you would be wrong.  Here's what I was supposed to do and how the week shaped up.

• Monday: 5 mile Z2 run and 2500 yard swim, done and done.
• Tuesday: Tuesday PIR race. There were some technical difficulties with laptop power at registration so I only got 2 mins of warm up. Needless to say, the race could have gone better. It wasn't bad but not good.
• Wednesday: Track workout 1200's and 400's. I rocked it.
• Thursday: 10 min hill repeats on the bike.  Also killed it. Each successive repeat was stronger and farther that the proceeding one.
• Friday: 8 mile Z1-2 run and 2500 yard swim.  I slept through my alarm and missed the morning swim then misread the run workout and did a Z2-3 run instead.  Most of it was solidly in Z3.
• Saturday: Brick workout with 2.5 hours of biking followed by 45 minutes of running. I took out the Kuota K-factor for this one.  My right scapula got really sore with all that weight bearing.  Also, I had a hard time generating power and getting my heart rate up.  The bike needs some adjustments.
• Sunday: 11 mile run and 1000 yard recovery swim. EPIC FAIL, did neither. I made the mistake of thinking I could fit life around my workouts.  This was yet another lesson why its good to get things done early in the morning.

Having a crappy training week is pretty rough.  It's down right discouraging.  The events of Sunday are particularly bad because a little better planning and everything including the 2-3 hours of workout could have been accomplished. 

When you are down and need some motivation having people to turn to is great.  I've got some good friends who are relentlessly optimistic.  Talk to them and you've got no choice to be the same.  I was super encouraged when I got into work this morning and read Heidi's latest blog post, Remember This.

This week's goal: balance workouts and the rest of my life.  It's going to be tough to fit everything in today, but I'm game.e.