USAT National Age Group Championships 2010

On Saturday, I competed in the 2010 version of the USAT National Championships...

Here's the accompanying race report.

Background:
I was really looking forward to this race. I've never competed at a national meet and wanted to see how I would stack up against the best 50-54 year old athletes in the country.

This was my third "A" race this season. Memphis in May and Boise 70.3 in June were the first two. I had a build phase and taper for each of the first two. Needless to say, I wasn't sure how my body would respond to the third go round. Those worries were unfounded. It seemed to handle it just fine. I had three of my four biggest volume weeks of the year (20+ hours of training) in this final build and a two week reduction in volume and taper period.

Pre-race:
Dottie and I traveled down to Tuscaloosa Alabama with Daniela Williams, a friend and awesome triathlete in the 30-34 age group. The ride down was uneventful and ended with dinner at a great BBQ joint close to the hotel. Please note, this is the last time in this report you'll see the word "uneventful".

We woke up early and drove to the race venue to take care of our prerace workouts and course recon. As I was loading the bikes up afterward, I placed my aero helmet on bumper and reminded myself to not forget to pick it up and put it in the car...well, as you've already surmised, that didn't happen. We got back to the hotel and crap...no aero helmet. I went back and retraced our steps but it was gone..my guess is if you check the Tuscaloosa Craigslist today, it'll be there.

So, we went to Plan B....the race expo would surely have at least one brand on sale...nope. Nothing. On to Plan C..check out the local bike shops and pick one up....nope. There wasn't one for sale in the entire city.. The guys at the shop said I was the second person that day to come in an try to buy an aero helmet...the first guy ended up driving over an hour away to Birmingham Alabama. I wasn't driving to Birmingham so we went to Plan D...D for Duct Tape. I bought the cheapest helmet I could find and a roll of duct tape..here is the result. It's ugly...the helmet that is...and it was hotter than hell wearing it but the I 'think" it was faster than a typical helmet...Here's the end result.



Duct Tape Man.....Pathetic

Race Day:
We arrived on site early and went through the usual prerace prep and set up. The first glitch had to do with the race officials not letting me bring my trainer into the transition area. We weren't able to take the bikes out and get in a warm-up so I brought my trainer in take care of that....even though it was mentioned in the pre-race webinar we could, they wouldn't let us...no worries though. No one else was warming up either. At this time, I notice my hear rate monitor wasn't working...shit. I use heart rate to monitor my effort and as a whip to make sure I'm working as hard as I can. This race was going to be run with zero technology and exclusively by feel. I've read that a "low arousal" rate is important when racing..I kept that in mind and just went about my business and knew that I'd be fine

Swim:
The swim course was in the Black Warrior river. It was not wet suit legal and the current that plagued the event last year was not in play this year. My swim this year has been up and down. I hoped today it would be up. I needed to have a good one so I wouldn't have to dig myself out of too big a hole. At a race of this caliber, everyone can bike and run so the chances of me coming out of the water back in pack and doing well were slim. Thankfully, I felt pretty strong today. I was really focused on my stroke and felt like I was moving through the water pretty well. It was as good as I could do with my present stroke
Division place: 8th
Time: 25:44

Bike:
The bike course was a two loop affair with two substantial hills on each loop. It was tough but fair. Even though it didn't suite my riding style and strengths, I liked it. Because of my present wt of 160, I'm not a good climber but the descents were awesome. I hit 42mph on one of them.

I never felt smooth on the ride. I just felt average today. I'm not sure why....I just wasn't sharp. Because of no heart rate monitor, I couldn't really quantify how much work I was doing. I was just riding as hard as I could. On the first lap I yo-yoed back and forth with a guy in my age group. He'd dance by me going up the hills and then I'd fly by him on the descents. I wasn't working at my limit that early in the race,  so I kinda figured that I'd put him behind me eventually. That happened about 3/4's of the way through the first lap and I never saw him again. Apparently, I passed another guy somewhere on the course but I never saw him. Today was the first time I left T1 with my shoes clipped in. I had them suspended by rubber bands and was able to slip my feet in after the mount line. I practice it over the last couple of weeks and it worked great. My transition time was one of the better ones today...

Bike nutrition: 20oz Gatorade
Division place: 5th
Bike time and pace: 1:03:54/23.7mph

Run:
The run course was one loop with two pretty tough hills. I've had some pretty good training runs over the last month and was pretty confident that I'd do well. That turned out to be true. As I left T2, I felt heavy and the snap wasn't there..yet. As the race went on, I felt stronger and stronger. I'm pretty sure my last mile was the fastest. It was my best 10K run off a bike ever. That is exciting to see as I've been running for years and didn't think I'd ever PR again. On of my triathlon goals was to run a sub 40 10K and today it happened.



Run nutriton: two Powergels and a half cup of water at each aid station..probably about 16 oz total.
Division place: 2
Run Time and pace: 39:37/6:23


Post-race:
Overall Division place: 2
Overall Race time: 2:10:30


First things first...  I need to do a shout out to my wife....Dottie has been my biggest supporter and I would not be where I'm at without her support and love. I am blessed to have her as my partner. In the marriage arena, I have truly "overachieved".

I'd grade today's race at an 8 out of 10.
I swam to my capabilities.
I biked below my capabilities.
I transitioned to my capabilities.
I exceeded my capabilities on the run.

I was happy with today’s results and one of these days I'm going to have a complete race..today was close, but not quite. I'm sure the jiggered aero helmet and not having  heart rate #'s cost me some time on the bike.


As I look at my results and assess what my strengths and weaknesses are, this is what I see.
• My swim absolutely is holding me back from being a complete athlete. I will never be able to truly excel at this sport until I can consistently come out of the water in the first group. I'm not sure what I'll do this winter to improve, but I have to do something.

• I need to continue to work hard on the bike. I've gained ground this past year and with the addition of a power meter this winter, I think I'll be able to continue to improve.

• I love to run. I'll continue to do what I've been doing and hopefully stay injury free.

Thanks for reading this……It's been a great year of results...2011 will be fun