USAT Long Course Nationals

2102 USAT Long Course Nationals aka REDMAN

 

Oklahoma City, Oklahoma was the site of the final installment to my 2012 Triathlon season. The REDMAN triathlon was hosting the 2012 USAT Long Course National Championship (as well as Club Nationals and a Full Distance triathlon). Dot and I were last there in 2009 when we competed with the Midwest Extreme Tri club in their quest for club points.

Background

This was one of my A races for the 2012.  My goal for the year was to win my age group at the USAT Olympic Distance Nationals, Hy-Vee 5150 Championships, and USAT Long Course Nationals.  It was a package deal. I wanted to stretch myself this year and this was the third leg of the stool. I accomplished the first two legs but for my stool to stand on its own, I needed to do well in Oklahoma. Coming into the race, my bike and run workouts had been going as well as they had all year. I was confident that if I didn’t screw up the race execution, my fitness would not let me down.

We left Cedar Rapids early Friday morning for the ten hour drive. If you like easy, boring drives then the trip through the farm and oil fields of Iowa, Missouri, Kansas, and Oklahoma is one you have to try. It was uneventful and thankfully went by quickly.

We arrived at the race site and did the usual check-in, bike and run shakeouts. For the first time ever, I used the local bike tech support to help with fixing an issue on my bike. As I was putting the race wheels on Thursday night, I noticed that the rear disk was sitting in the rear drops cockeyed. It was sitting off to the left and not tracking in line with the bike. Picture a dog running with its hind legs off to the side. That’s how my bike looked. I tried to fix it on Thursday but couldn’t get it in line. The tire was rubbing on the frame. I’m not sure what happened since the last time I used it, but it was effed up and I wasn’t able to fix it. Oh boy! The only option was to use the on-site race support when we got to the packet pick-up the next day. Needless to say, the wheel issue ruined any chance I had of getting a good night’s sleep on Thursday.

The good folks on site were Schlegel Cycling. They were never able to completely fix it but they got the wheel centered to a point where it wasn’t rubbing on the frame or the brakes. I had to run with the brakes wide open but the wheel spun freely. Whew!  

Dottie finished her workout; we loaded up the bikes and headed to the hotel. Got all checked in and headed to Chiles for some well-deserved carbo loading.

Race morning

Pre-race Nutrition: Two bagels and 48 oz of Diet Coke was the prerace meal in the car on the way to the race.

We arrived at the site and made about a ¾ mile walk in the dark to transition. For whatever reason, I’m always amused by these walks. It’s fun to try and pick out the athletes and guess if it’s their first race. They are usually the ones chatting up other athletes they’ve never met before like it’s 4:30 in the afternoon rather than 4:30 in the morning.   Some athletes look confident and are ready to race. Some athletes look like they are walking to their doom.

I got everything set up in transition with no issues and had plenty of time to relax before the swim. Well, that's not entirely true. I was relaxing and Dot was running back to the car to find the CO2 adapter for my spare tire. She made it back with five minutes spare.

Swim

34.01 / 1^st in age group

As are most lakes in the Midwest and Southwest, Lake Hefner was low. Really low. It was about a 100 yard walk from the normal bank to the actual edge of the water. But, it was wetsuit legal.

Red mud and a low Lake Hefner 

This was the first swim start I’ve ever been at that ran parallel to the beach. There was a cinder block on shore and a buoy placed about 25 yards out. We were instructed to line up behind a line between the two. It was a no brainer. I lined up behind the brick in about 2” of water. When the gun went off, about 8 other guys and I ran along the shore and through knee deep water for about a hundred yards. I’ve seen the pros do it at ocean swim starts that have serious rip currents. The gun will go off and they will start running down the beach and enter the water so the current will carry them to the first buoy. As I was doing my last dolphin dive I glanced over to my left at all the folks that started the race swimming. I had a legal ninety yard head start….hot damn.

The rest of the swim went fine. I was really focused on sighting well and not as worried about swimming hard. I stayed smooth and there were only a couple of times when I popped my head up to sight and I wasn’t able to see the next buoy. I never struggled and felt that I was having a good swim. My brain was quiet and as I got out of the water, I had good sense that, so far, the race was going smoothly. As an aside..this was the first time I’ve ever had someone draft off me for an extended period of time. There was a guy whacking my feet and calves for about 75% of the race. It was really annoying and amusing at the same time. Annoying due to the constant hitting of my feet and amusing because the guy was following ME! I kept thinking that the guy was nuts. If he only knew who he was following he would have found someone else’s feet after about 100 yards. It still makes me smile.

Bike

2:24:00/ ave 23.2mph / 1^st age group

Nutrition - ~ 300 cal Power Gel and ~70oz Gatorade Endurance

All of the races I’ve done this year have been Olympic Distance. The bike portion is about 25 miles long at that distance. I can work really hard for 25 miles. Heavy breathing and snot coming out of my nose are normal in an Olympic effort. This race’s bike portion was 56 miles. I really needed to dial the effort back to make sure I lasted.

T2 was uneventful and I made my way out on to the course.

Sporting the BMS kit

I felt really good right away. The goal was to keep it between 225 - 230 watts average for the entire ride. This is one of the advantages of a power meter on the bike. I was rested and constantly having to dial the effort back and not ride to what felt “easy”,  but to ride to what my training told me I could ride for two plus hours.  If I had ridden to perceived exertion, my guess is that I would have paid for it at the end and struggled home.

The ride went by fast. It was nice to be able to race and not have snot pouring out of my nose from working hard. I was able to stay aero and keep my pedal strokes smooth. There was on long section of the course that went over some really crappy road.  The divots and chunks were well marked but it was still a chore to ride over/through. I wish I would have thought to count water bottles that were ejected on this stretch of road. There was one hundred yard section that had four scattered in the middle of the road. I’m guessing there were at least fifteen over the course of three or four miles. It was during this section of road that I ejected my gel flask with all the nutrition I had on board.  Uh oh….I made a quick game time decision to not go back for it. It was a pretty cool sequence of internal debates I had with myself within 15 seconds of hearing the flask hit the pavement. The first thought was to stop and go back for it. But I knew that I had Gatorade in both of my water bottles and that Gatorade was available at the upcoming aid stations. I also knew that I’d already consumed most of the gel and that I was past the halfway point of the ride. I also knew that I had a full gel flask waiting for me in T2 that I had prepared for the run.  I also knew that I had more calories between the two flasks than I would actually need. I decided to roll with Gatorade. (Well, I may have exagerated a bit with the 15 second internal debate...by the time I came to the conclusion that I was going to be ok with calories, it was probably a mile down the road and there was no way I was going back :-)). It turned out to be an ok choice. I didn’t bonk on the bike and made it to T2 feeling strong. The only downside to replacing the gel calories with Gatorade calories was that my biking shoes were sopped at the end of the ride. I peed two times.

The ride was over before I knew it and I was able to ride the last four or five miles averaging over my 230 watt average. I felt I may have left some watts on the course but wasn’t too worried about it. I was just looking forward to begin the run.

Run

1:30:01 / 6:53 pace per mile / 1^st age group

Nutrition – 600 cal Power Gel and a mouthful of water at ever aid station (10)

 

I got off the bike in good shape. There were no bikes racked around me yet, so I knew that I was the first one in my age group off the bike. And the good news was that I felt like running.  I was worried about the heat on the run so I had Dot tell what the temperature was as I left T2….75 degrees. Perfect. I do well in heat until around 82 – 83 degrees.

 

One of my favorite sensations in the world is when I’m just “running” and everything is just flowing.  I call it RAIF…Running As I Feel. No stopwatch… no GPS… just running. It took me about a mile and half to work the bike out of my legs, but from that point, to about mile 10.5, I was RAIF’ng. I knew I had a good lead. There was no reason to risk anything and push too hard. I was wearing my Garmin but I never looked at it. I didn’t want ruin the moment.  The course was deadpan flat with two laps on a paved bike path. The aid stations were frequent and well stocked. I took water at every opportunity and finished my gel flask by mile seven. Nothing of any note happened during the first lap, except for the first time ever in a race, I saw Dot and ran over and gave her a kiss. At the time it seemed like a great idea…but if you notice the time at the top of this section, you’ll notice I missed going under an hour and a half by 1 second. One of my triathlon goals is to run the half marathon in a race under 1:30. Dang! Maybe next year.

I started the second lap still confident that I was leading my age group. No one had passed me during the first lap and I didn’t see any old wrinkled guys within striking distance. Dot confirmed that as I passed her. I asked how far back the next guy was. She said she didn’t know, they were too far back for her to keep track of. Miles 7 – 9 were fun. I knew I had enough in the tank to finish and had a really good chance to win.  As much as I would have cruise the entire run, that wasn't going to happen. Starting around mile 10, things started to degrade. I was no longer RAIF’ng. I had to work to maintain my pace. It wasn’t a bonky feeling, it was just a slow decline in my comfort level. At about mile 11 I remember consciously making a decision to try and shut down my brain. Just work hard and finish strong. It didn’t work. Miles 11 and 12 were two of the longest I’ve run in a long time. I could feel the heat and I was really starting to sweat. I remember my mouth being dry and slowing to taking water at the last aid station. That's something I normally don't do. Usually I just blow by the last one with my sights set on the finish like. I was really uncomfortable and glad to see the finish line. Dottie said it was 85 when I finished. I wasn’t surprised.

I was hurt'n for cert'n

Wrap-up 

4:31:50 / 1^st in age group / 17^th overall

Overall, I was happy with the race and the result. I met my expectations.

 

Back in the fall of last year when I was trying to decide how the 2012 season was going to look, I wondered if anyone had ever finished 1^st in their age group at both the USAT Nationals Olympic distance and Long Course Championships. It seemed like a good goal to shoot for. As I sit here, about a week after the race, it’s still hard to believe that things worked out to allow me to accomplish it.

 

I was lucky to not have any injuries that kept me from consistantly training.

I am blessed to have a supportive wife and kids who makes it easy to set lofty goals and try to attain them.

I’m smart enough to work with and listen to Daniel Bretscher, an extremely talented Triathlon coach.

And, I’m just screwy enough to like to spend my spare time swimming, biking and running.

Thanks for taking the time to read this.