There's a smile in every isle at Hy-Vee.

                             

Over Labor Day weekend, Dottie and I were in Des Moines IA for the Championship Final of the 5150 Series put on by the Hy-Vee Food Stores. The 5150 Series is group of races across the United States and Europe that culminated with the 2011 championships in Des Moines. You had to qualify at one of the earlier series races to compete in these Championships. I qualified at the Memphis in May race.  5150 refers to the total distance of the race in Kilometers…1.5K Swim. 40K Bike, 10K Run.

Hy-Vee and the race management company PEM were just about flawless this weekend. I’ve been tomany races over the years and this one was one of the best I’ve ever attended. Perfect logisitics. Theweather cooperated. The course was fair. The competition was good and the volunteers were enthusiastic and extremely helpful. It was an awesome event.

This was a race that I’ve been targeting since I heard about it late in 2010. When they announced the series and the race, they also announced that there would be prize money/consideration for age group winners. $500 for first place…I had to get me some of that. And, as an Iowan, I wanted to do well in my home state.

We made it to Des Moines midafternoon on Saturday after driving through a rainstorm for most of the two hour trip. As soon as we got to the race site, the weather let up and I was able to get in a nice easy shake out ride and run. I felt great. The fatigue that’s been in my legs for the last three months was gone. Dottie was able to get in her run and we headed back to the hotel for dinner and relaxation. As soon as we left the site, it started raining cats and dogs again. (This is called foreshadowing).

Sunday morning arrived clear and cold. The Weather Channel had the temp at 47 degrees when we woke up at 4:45. I wasn’t looking forward to riding my bike while wet but it was better than 90 degrees and humid. After we parked the car and were walking to the transition area, I mentioned to Dot that because of the rain and cool temps, I bet the swim was going to be wetsuit legal. That was contrary to what we’d heard from the race organization during the week. On the rae website and at the prerace meeting it was mentioned a bunch of times that the race was most likely not going to be wetsuit legal….The website showed water temps in the mid to low 80’s. Well, game time water temp was 73 degrees. Wetsuit legal.  That caught a bunch of folks by surprise and they showed up sans wetsuit. I was lucky enough to think to myself on Saturday morning as I was packing for the trip to just throw the wetsuit in the bag. You never know. That was $250 “you never know”. (More foreshadowing)  Wetsuits are a huge advantage to have on during the swim. They add buoyancy which allows you to ride higher in the water. Higher in the water means less body surface underwater causing drag and you go faster. Those folks who weren’t wearing wet suits today would be severely handicapped in the race.

Swim

We were able to get in the water and warm up prior to the swim so I took full advantage of that opportunity, plus it was warmer in the water, so that was nice. Unlike the practice swims I had over the past couple of weeks, I felt like I had my stroke on. I felt smooth and strong. I finished my warm-up and sat in the water waiting for my wave to start. As I was chatting with a guy, I looked over and saw a group of guys standing on the water’s edge under the start banner waiting for the gun to go off. It looked like they had the same color swim cap as me. My first thought was ..”why the heck did they put the same color cap on two waves”. ….0001 second later, I figured out that was my wave and I was sitting in the water enjoying my last pee. I got my ass out of the water, through the starting gate, over the mat and ran down to the water. Fifteen seconds later, they sent us off. I didn’t have time to contemplate what would have happened if I missed the start. I was too busy swimming hard to try and clear the pack. There were a couple of guys ahead so I tried drafting off of one of them but that lasted about 30 seconds. The water was too cloudy to see their feet and they were swimming much faster that I felt comfortable with. So, I put my head down and focused on the things that were important for a good swim; a quick stroke cadence, good catch and strong underwater pull. I felt great. The only issue came as we were swimming along the back of the course directly into the rising sun. I couldn’t see much of anything and had to be directed back on to the course by a kayaker. That’s a first for me and probably cost me about 30-45 seconds. I didn’t get pissed, I just put my head down and swam a little harder. I finished the swim without any other eff ups..thankfully.

Swim time: 24:41 / 2^nd age group

Here’s a picture Dot took of my wave before the swim start. Guess who’s not in this picture?

Bike

The advice I got from my coach, Daniel Bretscher, was to treat the race as an 18 mile Time Trial. The race is about 25 miles long so I thought that was interesting advice. He went on to explain that the first 18 miles are a net uphill, the last 6+ miles were a net downhill. If I worked really hard the first 18, I could still maintain good speed over the last downhill section even though I may have over cooked myself…It was good advice and it seemed to work to my advantage. I was never passed during the bike and moved well up in the field. This race was also run with my focus on the trusty Quark(powermeter). I had hoped to average around 260 watts for the race. Although I had been feeling great on the bike lately, the watt numbers have been in steady decline since I raced in Memphis. In that race I averaged 261 watts and was hoping to at least match that number in this race.  It wasn’t to be. I averaged about 251. There’s a saying in the bike world... “It never gets easier, you just go faster”.  In my case, it never gets easier; I’m just not going as fast….oh well…it is what it is. On the whole, despite what Mr Quark said, I was really happy with my effort. I kept it on the rivet the whole way and finished the rest of the bike portion pushing as hard as I could. Everything was going just peachy until I dismounted coming into T2. As I swung my leg right leg over the bar and was in perfect position to do a running dismount, I must have squeezed the front brake a little too hard and the bike almost went over itself on the front wheel. Luckily, I was already off so I didn’t fall, but I did lose the right shoe off the pedal so I needed to go back and retrieve it…another 15 seconds lost. Not very smooth

Bike time: 1:01:38 / 24.2mph / 2^nd age group

Bike Nutrition: ~15oz Gatorade.

Run

I found my bike spot and immediately noticed that there was a bike already racked. Dang it, I was going to have to run someone down. I had already mentally prepared myself to run as hard as I could so there wasn’t going to be any change in the plan…I got my Newton’s on and just flew out of transitions. The legs did not feel great but I pushed hard right away. It was not comfortable by any stretch but I was not going to try and ease into the run and wait for them to come good. I didn’t have any gadgets with me on this run. No Garmin, No heart rate monitor. No watch.  This run was going to be a “non-negotiable” run. I wasn’t going to make deals with myself based on a pace or heart rate. I was going to run the entire 10K based on feel and that feel was not going to be pleasant. As I was running to a turnaround just prior to mile two, I had a chance to see the guy who I thought was in front of me. He was about two minutes ahead and looked like he was running strong. His cadence was quick and he just looked like a runner. Oh well, it was going to be really hard to make up that time on him but for whatever reason, I didn’t feel any less motivated to run hard to try and catch him. I just kept working hard. Just after two miles, a female elite and a 33 year old guy came up from behind. I picked it up and hung with them. I felt like I was flying. My cadence was good and I was on my toes. I was thinking to myself that I don’t think I’ve ever run this fast in a Triathlon. We stayed together until just past the 4.5 mile mark. As were running together, for some stupid reason I decided to announce to my two partners that the last time I was on this trail, it was a year ago and I was running in the Des Moines marathon. Let me state right now, when running at your limit, it is not a smart thing to try and string two sentences together. As I finished the last word, I was even more out of breath and my pace slowed noticeably. They started to pull away as I was catching my breath.  It took me about a hundred yards to get back in contact with the.  From now on, I’m keeping my mouth shut and just focus on the task at hand. My pace and cadence lasted until about the 4.5 mile mark. From that point the course went from the flat paved running trail to the streets of downtown Des Moines. There were a bunch of turns and transitions from sidewalk to street back to sidewalk. It also started to slope uphill. I got the wobbly leg feeling and I could feel my stride shorten. I was still working as hard as I could but at that point I didn’t have anything left to cover their push to the finish. They left me and one more guy passed me at about 5 miles. I was just barely hanging on. The last three quarters of a mile are uphill so it was a struggle to maintain any running form. I was just trying to put one foot in front of the other as quickly as I could. As I finished, I was a spent as I’ve ever been in a race. It took me about 90 seconds to get my hands off my knees and recover.  At that point I realized I never passed the guy that I thought was in my age group and figured I was second.

What a letdown.

I found Dot and we talked about the race and the fact that she didn’t think there were any other old guys that finished ahead of me. I told her about the guy I saw and she thought he had a 48 (his age) on his calf. I didn’t put much credence in that as his bike was racked right across from mine. It turned out Dot was right. He was 48 not a 50-54 guys. It didn’t dawn on me during the race but the rack numbers ran down on side of the bike rack and back on the other side. I was racer # 274. He was # 250 something.  

It was the result I wanted. First place. $500 bucks.

Run time 40:14/6:29 pace/ 2^nd age group.

Run Nutrition: Three drops of GU and ~three mouthfuls of water

Total race time: 2:11:03/ 1^st place age group/ 31^st overall.

Post Race thoughts.

As happy as I was with the effort I expended in this race I was equally unhappy with the execution. Almost missing the swim start. Going off course on the swim. The dismount debacle and trying to carry on a conversation with my running partners all cost me time in the race. It was time that I just gave away. Not good.

Now to follow up on the foreshadowing mentioned earlier in this report. During the awards ceremony, I was able to speak to the second place finisher in my age group. I ended up beating him by about 2 minutes. But, he had a faster bike time, a faster run time and was faster in both transitions than I was. The only thing I beat him at was the swim. I was faster than he was by about three minutes. Even though I tried to give it away, he couldn’t overcome the deficient out of the water. I never win races in the water. What happened? Did I suddenly become Michael Phelps? Nope, I wore a wetsuit and he didn’t. He had heard all week about the water temps and decided not to bring one. Big mistake. I don’t know if it actually cost him the race, but I do know he would have been much closer than two minutes behind me at the finish.

This is one of the aspects I love about triathlon. It’s about working hard. It’s also about being smart with your equipment and race execution. As you’ve already read, there’s a million things that can cost you time during the race. It’s not always the fastest guy that comes out on top.

The effort earned me a $650 gift certificate from the bike manufacture Orbea and/or Triathlon product company, Orca. It also earned me shredded legs. I haven’t been this sore after a race since last year’s marathon. It’s a sweet feeling. I hope I can duplicate it in November at the ITU Long Course Championships.

Here’s the scene from the awards area. It was a wonderful urban setting. That’s downtown Des Moines in the background.

Here’s a picture of the finish behind me. It was directly in front of the state capital building.

Thanks for taking the time to read this. I'm truly lucky to be able to train and compete at something I still have a passion for. And to be married to my best friend and partner, Dot.