Success in Seneca!

One of my goals heading into 2013 was to make Team USA in both the Olympic and Long Course distances for 2014.  As we all know, I failed to make the Olympic distance team and I have made peace with that.  I wasn't going to allow that failure to impact my attempt to make the Long Course team, so off to South Carolina I went!

Unlike the Olympic distance, USA Triathlon doesn't hold a stand alone event to form their Long Course team.  For whatever reason, the longer distances are not as popular in the world of ITU World Championships.  So for the Long Course National Championships, USAT piggy backs off an existing half Ironman distance race.  This year, the half iron selected was the Rev3 Half Rev in Anderson, South Carolina.

Something noteworthy is that even though we use a half iron (or 70.3) as a Team USA qualifier, the ITU Long Course distance is not equal to the half iron distance.  The long course distance is one that I wish was more popular in the US as it is basically a 3/4 Iron or a triple Olympic.  The distances are a 4K (2.5 mile) swim, 120K (75 mile) bike, and 30K (18.6 mile) run.  It is not necessarily a distance that is beneficial to me as the swim is longer than Ironman and the bike is shorter.  What I do like is that it is a long, tactical race that doesn't end with a full marathon and doesn't require the recovery that a marathon demands.

So, onto the race!

Jet and I made the nine hour drive down to Anderson on Friday before the Sunday race.  While it isn't much fun to sit in the car for that long, it gave my body a good opportunity to get some recovery as I had been pushing pretty hard in the two week period between the Deer Creek half and this race.  Things were good in training, but I could tell I had some fatigue.  The weekend in between the two half irons, I rode a very hilly bike tour in southern central Ohio on Saturday and then ran the Findlay Red, White and Blue half marathon on Sunday.  Even though they were both training events for me I felt like I had been racing a lot lately and that takes its toll mentally.  So on this drive I took the opportunity to catch up on a bunch of triathlon podcasts, zone out on the scenery, and allow my compression tights to work their magic on my legs.

On Saturday, I went to Lake Hartwell and participated in the sanctioned practice swim where I just wanted to loosen up, check out some sighting points on the course and familiarize myself with the area.  After quickly picking up my packet at the Anderson Civic Center, I then linked up for a bite to eat with my buddy (and crazy fast triathlete), Nick Chase.  It is so great to have friends in the triathlon community to link up with across the country at different events.

The rest of my Saturday consisted of watching the Kona broadcast on Ironman Live, a short two mile run, a quick roll on the bike to make sure everything was working correctly before she got racked in T1, and then a trip to the Greenville/Spartanburg Airport to pick up my gorgeous girlfriend, Kim.

This event utilizes two separate transitions, but it isn't exactly a point to point.  Basically, the swim venue isn't capable of handling the volume of cars associated with the event so T2 and the finish line are located about three miles away.  Rev3 does a great job of making this as easy as possible.  We drove to T2/finish line where I set up my bike-to-run transition.  We then took shuttles to T1/swim start.  Upon completion of the swim, my De Soto wetsuit, goggles and swim cap went into a plastic bag marked with my bib number.  Race staff then collected these bags, transported them to T2, and placed everyone's bags next to their bikes while we were running.  Big thumbs up to the Rev3 team for their athlete-centered focus and attention to detail.  They put on a top notch production, for sure.

After getting my bike set up and finding the necessary pre race facilities (park bathroom), Kim and I walked to the swim start.  After splashing around for a few strokes and doing some dynamic stretching, it was time to go!

Swim: 33:01

I have never claimed to be a good swimmer, but I have been swimming well lately.  So... in my defense, I'm quite sure this course was long.  I had it at about 1.4 miles on my Garmin and I've heard of others being as high as 1.7 miles.  It's tough to say for sure as swim course measurement using GPS is a bit wonky.  Either way, I lined up at the beach start in the second line of swimmers thinking I would be able to allow that first wave to pull me along during their initial ~400m adrenaline-fueled surge. This was a national championship, right?  These guys will be fast swimmers, right?  Well, not the guys I was behind.  I found myself swimming over rubber covered bodies all the way until the first turn buoy.  You win some, you lose some.

The water was very nice.  76 degrees, calm, and luckily the sun was not blinding and made sighting pretty easy.  I tried to follow feet as much as possible, but I never found that perfect candidate like I had two weeks prior.  It was a good swim and I never really exerted myself.  I stayed smooth, strong, and in control.

T1: 1:34

I had my De Soto Speed Vest off by the time I got to the rack.  I pulled off my SpeedTube pants, and threw everything in my bag.  Put my Skin Cooler beanie on under my helmet and ran out.

Funny story: I registered late for this event and was put in a rack with other late registrants and relay teams.  When I got to my bike, there were a couple middle aged gentlemen, who were presumably the designated cyclists for their relay teams, chatting next to my transition spot waiting on their swimmers to arrive.  They told me that they had been admiring my bike and began asking me questions about various components.  I LOVE to talk about bikes probably more than anyone else in the world, but now was not the time!  I had to chuckle to myself as I got underway - did that really just happen?  Did I not look like I was in a hurry? Gotta love it.

Bike: 2:23:46

When I registered for this event I was under the delusion that this was a rolling bike course. For those who have raced Muncie, that is what I had in my mind.  Not so much.  Luckily, I decided to pre drive much of the bike course and I knew what I was in for.  According to my Garmin, we climbed 3,150 ft in 56 miles.  That's more than rolling.  With that said, I'm super happy with this bike split!

Coming out of the water, I knew I wasn't in the lead group, but I didn't think I allowed that many guys to slip away.  I exited the park, put on my shoes, and immediately began climbing.  I allowed myself 5K to get settled in and allow my heart rate to drop from it's breakneck T1 pace.

Basically my entire bike ride was a series of bridging gaps to groups up ahead.  I did have a rider (who eventually went on to win the race thanks to a 1:18 half marathon) catch me around mile 20 and I was excited to have someone to work with.  After he passed me, I replied with the ritualistic re-pass to signal that I wanted to ride together, but then I looked back and he was gone.  I'm not sure if he needed to feed, or evacuate his bladder, or what, but I just continued to ride as he fell further back.  Eventually I got to a group that I was faster than, but I didn't seem to be pulling in the next group.  So I made a decision at nearly 40 miles to put in a hard five minute effort to try to reel them in.  Luckily, it payed off and at the end of the five minute effort I was with the guys I would stay with until the end of bike ride.  I had also pulled along the best riders of each group I rode through, so we had a strong group of guys heading into T2.  I am thankful for this because I was content to sit in the line for a bit and let someone else stick their nose in the wind.

I knew that I wasn't with the overall leader since I hadn't seen Nick, but I knew I had to be close.  As it turned out, I got off with another guy who, along with me, shared the lead for our division.

T2:  1:40

This took a little longer than I wanted, but I took time to put on socks this time.  I had escaped without blisters running sockless two weeks ago, but I wasn't willing to tempt fate.

Run: 1:32:34

I knew I had a really good bike split, but I was afraid that it may have come at the cost of my run.  Similarly to Deer Creek, I headed out and ran by feel for that first mile and waited for my watch to pop up my first mile split.  To my delight, it displayed 6:42.  In the back of my mind I still knew this would be a tough run, no matter how hard I had biked, due to the topography.  The grades weren't steep, but they were constant.  There wasn't a flat foot on this run course.  It just began to grind you down.

The run course was a fairly simple two loop, out and back.  Right at the first turnaround, I made the pass for the lead of the age group and knew that unless I blew up, I could hold him off.  A term that stuck in my head from the Kona coverage the day before was Matt Lieto describing Luke McKenzie's run as "ticking them off".  In this case, "them" are miles and that is what I wanted to do; tick off the miles, one by one.  I didn't want to run overly hard, but just steadily keep hitting mile markers.

Kim caught the pass about to happen

As I began lap two, I was swiftly passed by a guy within my division.  Kim had informed me just before then that I was leading the age group.  It was right then when I realized that the pass not only meant I wasn't winning the age group, but I had just lost the title of USAT Long Course Male 30-34 National Champion.  It was tough to swallow, but it was apparent that, on that day, he was a superior runner and he went on to beat me by a minute and 50 seconds.  Congrats to him and I tip my hat to his impressive run after he got off the bike nearly four minutes down.

My focus quickly became to hold on to this 2nd position.  I could see my splits beginning to slip, but I hadn't completely hit the wall.  From the best I could tell, I had a slight buffer behind me to anyone else.  This can be difficult to determine on a two loop run though.  At the last turnaround, I noticed a runner coming up the hill looking strong, but I had nearly a quarter mile on him.  Those last three miles became fully focused on running my best and not allowing him to pass me, but I was hurting.  To my shock, at the last aid station I glanced over my shoulder and he was RIGHT there and coming on fast.... damn.  Well, it was time to bury myself in the hurt box.  I instantly picked it up and pushed as hard as I could.  I told myself that this is what I train for and that it would all be over soon.  When I hit the finishing chute, I knew I had held him off and I was totally relieved.  I'm not sure I really slowed down until after I hit the line though, and then I was doubled over in distress.  I waited the 13 seconds for him to finish and congratulated him.  My guess is that he had burnt all his matches catching me and didn't have any more when I took off.  He quickly told me that we weren't in the same age group after he crossed the line.  That would have been some helpful information for me to know about two minutes before!  If I hadn't looked at that last aid station, there is no doubt he would have silently passed me and I'm not sure I would have had the energy to fight back.

In the end: 4:32:35 2nd Male 30-34, 14th Overall

Despite this time being seven minutes longer than my race two weeks prior, in my mind this was a far superior performance.  While Deer Creek is a legit course, it is definitely a fast course.  This Anderson, SC course was not fast.  Are there tougher courses?  Yes, much tougher.  I would call this course challenging.  It is right on that line where you don't really change your race strategy, but you know it's gonna hurt.

Just like all my other results, I am realistic.  I am really happy with this performance and it has little to do with my placement.  I am fully aware that there is more than one other man between the ages of 30 and 34 that is faster than me at this distance in the United States.  Were they there toeing the line with me on this day? Nope.  On this day, on this course, and in this race, I placed where I did and I'm proud of it.

With my placement, I am securely in a position to join Team USA in Weihai, China in September 2014 to take on the best long course athletes in the world.  (U-S-A, U-S-A, U-S-A...)

I have so many people to thank for this race:  My girlfriend, Kim.  My coach, Rich Laidlow.  Hector Gomez at TriPainRelief for keeping my battered body coated in sweet Arnica relief.  The boys over at Trendy Charlie for keeping me clothed in things other than spandex.  De Soto Sport for making the best technical garments and wetsuits.  Wedgie for keeping my bike setup clean and aerodynamic.  Friendship CrossFit for meeting my strength training needs this season.  And last, but certainly not least, my Team RWB family who made this race possible.  Rev3 supports Team RWB and donated my race entry to this event.  Please visit my supporters page and support those who support me if your needs call for any of these products or services.

Again, thanks for reading.  Please let me know if there is something I can do to help you chase your dreams - no matter how big or small!  Who would have thought four years ago that I would have the opportunity to represent my country in China!?  Not this guy!

Cheers,
Ryno

The whole is greater than the sum of its parts

As most of you reading this will know, the continuation of the second half of this season has continually hinged on the result of the latest event.  I have had some seriously disappointing performances, some seriously encouraging performances, and not much in between.  Even with those encouraging results, I still hadn't put together a "great" day at the half iron distance in 2013. This all changed last weekend down in Mount Sterling, Ohio.

When I returned from Las Vegas, I knew that I was beginning to burn the other end of the candle.  I had started my racing season with an iron distance race in early January and really hadn't taken a serious break since.  Knowing this, I concentrated on the remaining events that I really wanted to do and to put a circle on the calendar when the 2013 racing season would end.  The first of these events was the Deer Creek Half Iron.  It is locally produced by HFP and I knew it would be a solid event, but without any major pressure.  I love racing the half iron distance and I really wanted to get out there and enjoy the day.

The couple weeks leading up to Deer Creek had gone exceptionally well.  I was swimming as well, if not better, than I ever have.  I was riding strong, like I should.  And my running was coming around with the welcome addition of some track sessions, hill repeats, and tough tempo workouts.  If there was one thing that I really think was still lacking after my hip surgery, it has been my run speed.  A few days prior to the race, I saw fellow RWB'er, Robin, at the pool and told her that I thought I might have a really good day.  She joked about how it would, of course, come at the local event versus the much larger races I've participated in this year.  A little foreshadowing, I suppose.

As luck would have it, Ohio State played one of their few home night games in school history the day before the race.  As I knew I would, I stayed up and watched till the end and didn't get in bed until after midnight.  Luckily I had slept late that morning, so I wasn't overly worried.  The half iron distance didn't begin until 9:15, with the closing of transition at 8:30 being my true time cutoff, so I didn't have to be up too crazy early to make the 50 minute drive to Deer Creek State Park.

Kim, Jet and I arrived around 7:45 and I quickly set up my bike, grabbed my packet, and got everything into transition.  I then waited patiently in the port-o-potty line followed with a very quick warm up swim.  With a quick kiss from my girlfriend, it was time to start.

Swim: 28:38

Like I said before, I had been swimming really well lately - at least by my personal standards.  In the past, I've felt this way and then only had decent results in the open water.  Taking a lesson from Vegas, I decided I wouldn't go out of my comfort zone so I could come out of the water ready to attack the bike.

My wave consisted of all the elite males, and all men 39 and under.  This meant that the winner of the race would almost certainly come out of this wave.  We had experienced some cooler weather leading up to the race but the water hadn't cooled drastically.  The official temperature announcement was 70 degrees, but honestly I think it felt a little cooler than that - it felt great to me!  I wore my proven combination of De Soto Speedtube pants and my Speedvest sleeveless top.  This has continued to be the best setup for keeping me cool at race intensity, giving me full freedom of movement, and still providing the buoyancy to really help my often substandard swim form.

When instructed, we all quickly high stepped into the reservoir and I allowed the first line of swimmers to begin their dolphin dives and give a little separation before I jumped in and began to stroke away.  I think I really lucked out and unknowingly put myself in a great position at the start line as the draft arrow quickly formed directly in front of me.  I found some feet and defended my space like my race depended on it.  There was another swimmer who stayed directly off my right shoulder and I was able to easily use him and the bubbles in front of me to minimize sighting.  Somewhere on the first lap, of the two lap course, my draft buddy with the quick feet pulled up and I had open water ahead of me.  Luckily, my right shoulder friend kept pushing and I immediately made the great decision to follow his little piggies.  I rode his draft until my fingertips were grabbing sand.  This was not only my best half iron swim (minus a down river swim at Augusta in 2010), but the best job of drafting in the water I have ever done.

I quickly ran past the guy I followed out of the water and commended him for a good swim.  I hope he didn't see this as insult to injury because I said it in full seriousness, but I could see how it could rub someone the wrong way.

T1: 1:38

A race of this distance almost never goes perfectly.  There are always problems.  The great performances come when you deal with these problems well.

This day, my problems almost all came in transitions.  This is frustrating because this is the one part of the race which really doesn't require any fitness.  When I arrived to my bike, I already had my wetsuit top in my hand and I quickly discarded my bottoms.  I then popped on my De Soto Skin Cooler beanie and began to put my Giro Selector on.  As I grabbed the helmet, a piece of padding fell out.  I grabbed it and quickly attempted to put it back in, but it wasn't happening so I threw it on the ground near my wetsuit.  I then attempted to don the helmet once again and the bottom fairing came unclipped from the helmet.  I took it back off to clip the fairing back in.  Third time was a charm and I got the helmet on and buckled before running out of transition.

I felt like I had taken FOREVER in T1, but when looking at the results, it wasn't that bad.  It definitely put a little fire in my legs when I hit the bike course in an attempt to recapture some of the lost time.

Bike: 2:21:33

Once I got my shoes on, I quickly re-passed my swim friend as he had beaten me out of my haphazard T1.  While I was still passing a good number of people, I am quite certain they were all from other distance races that were taking place simultaneously.  I was in no man's land.  There was an out-and-back section that only the half iron athletes took and this was my first time to see where I lined up against the others in my race.  Now my challenge was to distinguish the duathletes from triathletes.  From what I could tell, I was third, with first being held by professional triathlete, Jim LaMastra.  Upon completing lap one of three, it seemed that the fourth place cyclist was gaining on me and that didn't disappoint me too much.  I was ready to have someone to race with.

I had been riding hard, but not recklessly.  I was minding my power output and trying to keep my cadence slightly lower than what I have been averaging this year.  I focused on riding strong, not hard, and keeping relaxed.

Somewhere between miles 20 and 25, the fourth place rider caught up and passed me.  I went with him and knew that this was what I needed to keep me on track.  Obviously he had been riding faster than I was, so as long as I could keep up and pace with him, this would only help in the big picture.  We quickly passed back and forth and set the understanding that we would keep each other accountable to the pace while keeping legal separation.  There was no doubt that we were making up time on second place and by the third out-and-back he was less than a quarter mile ahead.  I told my bike buddy at the turn around that "number two is right there" and he acknowledged, but I could tell that he was beginning to fall back ever so slightly and the rest of the work was on my shoulders.  As I climbed a nasty, little blip on the elevation map, number two was within a stone's throw.  On the very last climb up the dam before we reentered the park to hit T2, I caught him and made the pass.  I told him that he had a good ride and I thought maybe I caught a little exhaustion in his reply.  I was hopeful that I would be able to make this pass stick and keep him behind me on the run.

T2:  1:14

Not nearly as stressful as T1, but it still wasn't good... and it was my fault.  Before the race when I set up my transition, I totally forgot about the ball of socks that I had placed in my pair of Zoot Ultra Kiawe.  This not only meant that I had an obstruction in my shoe, but I didn't have any socks ready to slip on.  I guess my mind had been in short course mode as I don't wear socks on the run for anything less than a half iron.

I made the quick decision to forget the socks and gamble on the sockless properties of these triathlon specific shoes.  I knew it was risky and likely to backfire, but I couldn't bear to sit there putting on socks while watching the guy run away that I worked so hard to catch.

Run:  1:32:28

I exited transition alongside the rider who held second place for the majority of the ride and with my bike pacing buddy just behind.  I continually asked myself "can you run to the end at this pace?"  I love to race, but I couldn't be stupid.  As I saw number two begin to pull away, I knew that I would certainly blow up if I tried to go with him.  This potential mistake could end up costing me many more spots and it wasn't worth it.  So I smartly found my pace and stuck with it.  I hit mile one right at 6:55 and felt good, but knew that I might need to dial it down a touch to have my best run.

As the runner in front of me continued to pull away at an impressive pace, the runner behind me was hanging in there and not giving me any room for error.  At the first turnaround 3.5 miles in, I felt like I was possibly putting a little space between myself and position four.  I concentrated on my stride, relaxing each body part from my head down, and getting in nutrition at each aid station.

Finishing lap one, it was clear to me that I wouldn't catch the runner in front of me unless he blew up and that was out of my control.  The good news was that I had definitely put time into the runners behind me.  I had a comfortable buffer, but I knew that if I slowed it wouldn't take long for them to take it back.  The worst part of the run for me was on the way back out to the turnaround on lap two.  I felt like I was going to hit the wall and had a one mile split show up at a race slowest 7:22. I began double fisting Cokes and Gatorade at each aid station to prevent a blow up.  I also allowed myself to slow enough at the aid stations to get it all in.  Once I hit the turnaround I just told myself that each step was one step closer to home and that I wouldn't have to see that piece of the course again.

I had passed my buddy, Chris Gregg, right before I hit the turnaround as he was running back in the opposite direction.  I concentrated on catching him before I made it to the finish line and he turned around to begin his second lap.  At the end of the dam, right before we reentered the park, I found Chris and managed to mumble something like "good job, Chris" through my labored breathing.  For the final two miles I pushed as hard as I thought was responsible knowing that if I could maintain my pace I would finish in the 4:20's.  I had never been able to break 4:30 and I had the opportunity to blow that out of the water!

I came into the park full speed ahead and crossed the line at 4:25:33.  I was exhausted and ecstatic.  I found out that the runner in front of me had begun to suffer and only crossed the line two minutes ahead instead of the estimated seven or eight he had on me at the last turnaround.  I didn't care.  I knew I had put together my best performance and I had nothing left to give no matter how much he slowed.

(By the way, no blisters!)

Overall: 3rd Overall, 2nd Amateur

I am not only really happy with how this day went together, but how smartly I executed.  There is no doubt that I had the help of my fellow competitors on both the swim and bike, but it was within the limitations of the rules.  Some look at this as taking advantage, but I think it's just smart.

I have run a faster half marathon. I have definitely rode 56 miles in less time. And with the help of a current, I have swam faster than I did at Deer Creek. But what I did at Deer Creek is put together three solid splits. When you put together three solid splits, you get a great race.

A huge thanks goes to my coach, Rich, for finding some great sessions to tune up my worn out body for this race. As always, a big shout out to all my supporters for making this race and season possible.  Next, I will take on the USAT Long Course National Championship at Rev3 Anderson and then the Columbus Marathon before retiring the 2013 season.

Stay warm and race fast!

Ryno