After I decided to do Ironman Canada 1999, I needed some warm up events to increase my triathlon experience. Prior to Wildflower, my only triathlon was a sprint event held in 1996. I breaststroked the swim, used my mountain bike with stubby tires and survived the run. There has been a fair amount of training since 1996 and I am a lot more fit. The race report of my second triathlon follows:
Training
Since December, I have been right into multisport training. My average week involves 5-6 bike sessions, 4-5 run sessions and 3-4 swim sessions. The overall training philosophy is a high number of shorter sessions, rather than a fewer number of longer sessions (my old ultrarunning method). I have found that the shorter sessions increase my recovery and enable me to stay fresh for each workout. The time commitment, however, is intense with total weekly volume moving between 15-21 hours. Longer workouts are saved for the weekend.
I am using the coaching services of Troy Jacobson to help with my workout planning. I have read tons of literature on ironman training but decided to use a coach because I didn't have the time, or the expertise, to build my own program. Troy's program is great but we do have some communication difficulties because I am based in Hong Kong and he is in Maryland. E-mail makes life a lot easier.
Swimming is my weakest event and I have been religiously attending Masters swim workouts with the Hong Kong National squad. I swim in the slow lane, they swim in the fast lane. The nice thing about starting swimming is the very rapid progress that one makes in the first few months. For a while it seemed like I was faster every week. Now the progress is much slower but still rewarding.
Wednesday - The Arrival
We arrived in San Francisco the Wednesday evening before the race. My wife, Angela, and I stayed at a local San Jose hotel for the night and awoke around 5:00 a.m. due to our jet lag. We (probably more accurately, "I") had a massive breakfast and then headed over to pick up our unit.
The drive down to Lake San Antonio took about five hours including stopping for groceries and some outlet shopping. We arrived at the lake at 4:00 p.m. and already the Redonda Vista campground was full. Huge bummer combined with our jet lag nearly had us at each other's throats. It took several false starts but we managed to find a site that was unoccupied. Apparently there was much aggro with the sheriffs and rangers having to get involved and settle some disputes over certain sites. We didn't have any of these hassles.
I assembled my KM40 and went for a short spin to make sure that everything was functioning smoothly. No problems but I was already in awe of the assembled group of hard-bodied competitors. There were some seriously fit looking people around the place. It was a bit of psych-out but I told myself that I was primarily in the race to learn about pacing and hydration strategy. I had also set myself fairly achievable goals.
Thursday
Angela and I awoke early and after a leisurely breakfast headed down Lynch Hill for a swim. I wanted to swim around race time to get a feel for the sun, water and exit. The start/exit is pretty straightforward but a lot narrower than I expected. This didn't concern me at the time:
After a short swim of 450 meters, we hung out on the grass and then hitched up the hill. Around 11:30 a.m. I hitched back down and waited for Steve Blum to turn up. After a pasta lunch (made by Angela like all other meals that weekend), we saddled up to check out the bike course. Steve is a high-energy guy and made the ride lots of fun by spinning past Wildflower stories while alternating between bolts of coke and coffee. Definitely a man fueled by caffeine. I sat in the back of the car trying to mentally determine the grade of each hill while traveling at 50mph. It was tough. I was left with the impression that the hills were less steep than expected but more sustained.
Thursday evening was a short bike ride down for registration and bike check. Forgot to screen up and pulled down a little more sun than I would have liked. Headed back up the hill, had a monster dinner and turned in early.
Friday - Race Morning
Woke up around 5:00 a.m. after having a great night's sleep. Had to get up about three times during the night to unload some of excess hydration. I had been pounding water for the three days prior to the race.
The RV was excellent because, although it was cold outside, we were able to fire up the heater and have a toasty breakfast. Ate a Samurai breakfast of rice and soy sauce (I know that it is not a textbook meal but I like it). After breakfast I screened up and spread ample amounts of body glide over my sensitive areas. Threw on my race kit (Speedo bottom and Rip n Hammer top). Put on a fleece top and bottom, grabbed my bag and headed down the to transition area.
The ride down to the start is downhill and was a long glide from the campsite. However, I didn't have any gloves so my hands got really chilled. Once at the bottom, I cruised into the transition area and started setting myself up. It was at this stage that I saw that my Jetstream (front water holder) was missing the strap that holds it to the handlebars. Visions of dehydration danced through my mind as I weighed up: (a) doing without; against (b) racing back up the hill to get the strap. After a futile search for duct tape from my fellow competitors, I managed to locate a volunteer with a huge roll of tape. It was a relief to be able to secure my bottle.
The time passed fairly quickly but I was glad that I had allowed a large amount of time. I had stopped hydrating about two hours before the start so didn't need to spend a huge amount of time in the toilet queues. At about fifteen minutes before race time, I grabbed my wetsuit and headed over to the starting area. We took a few pre-race photos and I headed down to the start. By this time I was getting focused on the race and feeling pretty serious. I was really cold and shivering despite having my wetsuit on. I took this as a good sign because I always race well when I am cold at the start.
The Swim
Wildflower is a wave start and the 30-34 age group was about the fifth wave. We all wore colour coded swim caps and the low 30s were navy blue. I would have preferred red or green but that wasn't to be. The waves were sent off at 3-4 minute intervals and each wave had a chance to warm up immediately after the preceeding wave took off. I did a very short warm-up figuring that the swim section of the race is really the warm-up for the rest of the day.
I positioned myself in the middle center of my wave, took a look over my shoulder, saw that the two guys immediately behind me looked fast and put them in front of me.
10-9-8-7-6-5-4-3-2-1
We were off. My first mass swim start. I was expecting hell but was pleasantly surprised that the guys in front of me pulled me right along. I had positioned myself perfectly at the back of the fast pack. The fast guys pulled away and left me in the middle of two packs.
Having heard so much about drafting, I tried to get on some people's feet but they (or I) were zigzagging too much for me to get much benefit. I also went way too fast on the first 250 meters and was totally blown after three minutes. Made a quick adjustment in strategy to relax, slow down and just cruise through the swim on an easy stroke.
Had the occasional drafting opportunity and took them when they were there but probably swam 90% of the swim solo.
Coming up to the end of the first long leg of the triangle, I was run over by a 35-39 age grouper. This didn't hurt but I started to get worried that there were going to be masses of bitter old guys running me down and snickering as they pushed my head underwater. Started to swim wide and let the masses blow by me on the inside. This made me feel better but it turned out that there weren't any masses and I was able to escape any further incidents.
At the turn for the return leg, I had a look at my watch and saw that it was 17 minutes. That was great and I was doing far better than expected. The swim back was pretty uneventful except for the opportunity to draft a couple of older guys that cruised past. Managed about 50 meters each time before they dropped me.
I noticed two main things on the swim. First, I have a tendency to pull to the right. This is most likely due to the fact that I only breathe on my left. I should practice more open water swims and try to straighten out my stroke. Second, a clockwise course is much tougher when you only breathe on the left. Makes it a challenge to see the turn markers. Bilateral breathing would save me time.
T1 - Got to the end of the swim and swam virtually all the way up the boat ramp (a tip gleaned from RST). This made it really easy to get up. Came out of the water and headed up the stairs. I didn't bother leaving a set of shoes at the base of the stairs because I figured that I would be running on plenty of adrenaline. I was 100% right and didn't notice the lack of footwear one bit. Angela was right at the top of the stairs and managed to snap a photo of me looking very unhappy trying to get my drawstring. I hope wetsuit stripping gets easier with practice. My calves were unhappy and cramping a bit. I hoped that they would loosen on the bike.
Stopped in a wide area just after the top of the stairs to take off my wetsuit. Despite huge amounts of KY Gel on my calves and ankles, this proved to be quite a hassle and I lost about 45 seconds here. Gave the wetsuit to a random stranger and said "the purple jacket is Angela". She figured out that I was looking for a delivery and kindly passed it to my wife. Angela was at the top of the stairs enjoying the beefcake parade. Ran to my transition spot and threw on my bike shoes. I had my race kit under my wetsuit and this was a good move. However, being wet it meant that I was still quite cold.
Time out of the water: 30 minutes.
The Bike
Headed out of T1, looked at my watch and was totally stoked to see that it was 35 minutes into the race. I had expected it to be around 45 minutes (I'm not a very fast swimmer in a pool). Thank God for wetsuits.
Remembering Jonathon's warning that the first turn is famous for people wiping out, I took it easy and got around with no problems. Started riding, got down on my aerobars and sure enough went off-road on the second sharp turn. This was much to the delight of the guys I had blown by while on the bars. It was a kind place to make such an error and I was able to get back on the course without difficulty. Mental note: don't hammer in the first five minutes of the bike. You have too much juice going from the swim.
The bike course is very challenging and a lot of fun. You get hit with a big hill at the start, followed by 16 miles of rolling hills. Then it is pretty flat for about 16 miles before one big hill and some more rollers on the last third. Having driven the course the day before, I had divided the course into thirds. My plan was to take it easy for the first third, get aero and steady for the second third and push on the last third. Reality turned out slightly different.
The first third was really crowded with lots of people hammering the hills and slowing down on the descents. I prefer to keep a steady output, which means slower on the climbs and fast on the descents. There were some other guys following my strategy and we were constantly passing and being passed. Very frustrating especially as people were not keeping to the right. I didn't give the situation much mental energy but it involved a lot of weaving. Once we hit the flats, the speedsters headed off into the distance and I was able to get a descent pace.
I was really cold for the first third and was worried that my legs would start to cramp. It didn't happen so I guess that I won't worry next time. My hip flexors were very tight but perhaps this is normal for a race.
The flats down the backside of the course were fast but I found them quite boring (no hills to break things up). I also had some moderate leg pain. They were mentally hard but didn't last too long. By this time most riders were fairly evenly spaced and, beside the occasional zigzager, everyone pretty much kept clear of each other. I didn't see one draft marshal the whole time I was on this section. With the exception of three people I saw who were blatantly cheating, everyone was very respectful of the no drafting rule. Even the three "cheaters" broke it up a bit when I said "nice pack" as they rolled by me.
Just before we reached Highway 101, we turned right and started through some rolling hills heading towards "the dreaded Nasty Grade". The rollers were nice and gave me an opportunity to pull myself mentally together and take stock of the race. Around this time there was a fair amount of position changing going on with the fast older guys blowing through and the fading young guys sliding down a few places. I was somewhere in the middle of this. It felt like I was being passed more often than I was passing people.
Finally arrived at the base of Nasty Grade and decided to open it up a bit on the uphill. I felt great and love climbing (must be my mountaineering background). Deep steady breathing and pumping on the legs. Steadily climbed the hill and passed lots of people. Got a big boost when I caught and passed some of the guys who had blown by me early in the race. Lots of people appear to have toasted their legs by pounding down the backside of the bike course.
Nasty Grade doesn't last all that long but does have a nice false summit that would have been evil (if I didn't know about it from Steve's drive and commentary). By this stage, people had pretty much stopped passing me, except for some of the strong 45+ year old cyclists who were catching us about this time. They really seemed to get a boost from passing "the kids".
A huge flat out, right on the ragged edge, hope I don't wipe out downhill is followed by another hill but this is shorter and not as steep as Nasty Grade. By this time, I was feeling good and enjoying myself. However, I had to pee really bad but didn't want to stop and lose a minute. Managed a fairly respectable pee off of my bike. Gave a bit of a shock to a family who was driving the other direction.
Not long after the hills and the pee, it was time to turn back into the park. For some reason, people were starting to regroup at this stage. I ran into a guy that had been right beside me at the start and he made the comment that we had to race that far just to be riding side-by-side at the end. I had an evil thought along the lines of "Yes, but can you run?"
The ride through the park is very quick except for one last hill, which tires the legs but doesn't take too long. The base of my quads was very tight and I started to get myself mentally ready for the unknown of the run.
Bike Assessment: I started out too fast and went off road. Need to exercise more control in the early part of the bike next time. I had very good energy on the climbs and this probably means that I could have afforded to go harder on the flats. I need to spend longer on my aerobars on my long training rides. Need to build my "aero" muscle groups for Ironman Canada. Given that I felt so good, I could have also pushed harder on the last third of the bike.
Rough bike splits: 1/3:1/3:1/3 58:55:59 = 2:52
T2 - Rolled into T2 and had a great transition of about three minutes, including putting on some socks and giving Angela a big kiss. She told me that I was going really fast and that gave me a big mental boost. For some reason, I had been thinking that she would be upset with me for blowing past her on the stairs after the swimming. It felt good to see that she was rooting for me. Of course she would have been, but the heat of the race can do strange things to my thinking.
Looked at my watch while exiting the run and was stoked to see that I was 3:30 into the race. Running a 1:45 half marathon would mean achieving my stretch goal of 5:15. Yeah baby. Still, my legs were very stiff and I had lots of fear about what the hills would do to me.
The Run
I had prepared a frozen bottle of Clip for me to pound after the bike (under my left arm). It was still half frozen but tasted great. I like Clip because it contains some ingredients, which settle my stomach and stop the inevitable acid build-up caused by long hours of Gu and Sports Drinks.
Drank half of the Clip bottle and chucked it at the first aid station. I had made the decision to run without a bottle. Took another electrolyte cap and prayed that my legs would loosen up after a few miles.
I was surprised that I had to take another pee and pulled into the port-a-loos at about 1.5 miles. Was very happy to see that my urine was clear and I was well hydrated. I also think that the break shortly after starting to run enabled my legs to loosen some more. I started to feel slightly better and open up my pace.
Until about the three mile marker, I had been very cautiously passing people. My main fear was that they knew the race better than me and I was going to hill the wall from running too fast. There were supposed to be topless girls at the mile four aid station but I didn't notice any of that as I rolled through saying my mantra "water, water, one in my hat, water, water, one in my hat". Perhaps I was too focused on my run.
The hills over miles four to six are steep in places but pretty similar to the hills that we train in Hong Kong. I actually liked them because the uphill lets you use some different running muscles. I had also hooked up with a younger guy who set a great pace up and over this part of the course. I didn't get his name but owe a lot of my good run to following him and opening up my pace.
At the top of one hill around the mile five marker, we came across this guy walking along covered from head to toe in dirt and dust. Someone asked if he was OK and he said, "no problems". He must have either fallen over or sat down in the dirt. There were definitely several walking wounded by this stage. It was heating up and getting ugly.
I didn't like the long downhill towards the mile six marker but loved running on the dirt tracks once it flattened out. Decided to go for it at this stage and really started passing people. It is a huge rush and confidence boost to feed off of other people's energy and cruise on past a lot of folks. I kept repeating to myself, "who wants it, you want it, go get it."
Around the mile seven marker I felt really bloated from all the water and Gu I had been throwing down. Skipped the next three aid stations and this let my stomach clear.
Mile nine was enjoyable and made a nice warm-up for mile ten, which was just as difficult as everyone promised. By this time I was really in the zone with a good running stride and total focus on the finish. I realised that I was going to come under 5:15 but wasn't sure how far.
After mile ten there was a long gap where I didn't have too many people to pass. Reeled in one older guy over about 1/3rd of a mile. This gave me something to focus on.
Really opened up on mile 12 remembering the RST advice that it is all downhill from the mile 12 marker.
The last mile running down Lynch Hill really sucked because your quads are trashed and it is tough to get good leg turnover.
Spotted a guy in my age group a little way in front of me and that gave me something to focus on. Ran up behind and passed with authority to discourage him from following. As I sit here typing that makes me smile because it wasn't like we were competing for a Kona slot. Still, I can't help myself in a race.
I was now running flat out and almost at the finish chute. Passed five people in the chute with a strong sprint finish. I didn't see it but Angela was right there at the end and saw me finish.
Run time was 1:34. This is the part of the race that gives me the most pride. Tough run course and a great run. No one passed me after my pee break at mile 1.5. I would not change anything about the run. It was perfect for me. I credit my strong run to my trail running background and the high volume of training that I have been doing. This made my bike routine and gave me the juice to hammer the run.
So add it all up!
Swim: 30 - T1: 5 - Bike: 2:52 - T2: 3 - Run: 1:34 = Total: 5:04
If I go back next year I will be targeting 4:50. Ten minutes out of my bike, three out of my swim and one out of T1.
Next race is the Escape From Alcatraz but I will not be hammering as I am there to get some open water experience before heading up to Penticton to ride the bike course.
I hope you enjoyed the report.
gordo - May 8, 1999