Well, my first race of 2012 is in the books and it was a
huge success! In case you couldn’t
tell from the title, it was the Rev3 Olympic in Knoxville. The following are 2 versions of my race
report: the short and long version, which you can choose depending on how much
time you have….Enjoy!
Short Version:
I finished 3rd Amateur Overall. 1st in M30-34. Short enough?
Long Version:
I had done this race the past 2 years, but since it was part
of my Ironman build for Coeur d’Alene, I raced the half both times, but never
the short-course Olympic. Actually,
this was the first Olympic event I truly raced since 2009. With a focus on an early-summer Ironman
and qualifying for Kona in 2010 and 2011, I was completely focused on
long-course training and racing from the start of the season. However, with my plan to race Ironman
Louisville (late-August) this year, I have the flexibility to race other early-season
events. So about 8 weeks ago, I
discussed with my Coach, Bonnie Karas from Fraser Bicycle, which race I should
do, the half or Olympic? We agreed
the it would be interesting and fun to see how I would perform on the shorter
distance. With that in mind, my
goal wasn’t only to race the distance, but my goal was to place on the Amateur
Podium: Top-3 Overall. Period. Based on my fitness this year and looking at past results,
it was a realistic, stretch goal. With
that goal in mind, we tweaked my training plan from the standard Ironman base
building to include more race specific intensity. I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again: there is nothing easy about racing an
Olympic; the training hurts!
Fast forward to the race weekend, I drove from Detroit to
Knoxville on Friday, May 4. Fairly
uneventful, but when we went out to dinner in Market Square it was completely
packed with people. Apparently the
first Friday of every month the City has an outdoor concert/festival/party in
Market Square. Definitely
something to keep in mind if you ever decide to visit. It looked like a great time. Saturday was also fairly uneventful,
which is a good thing on race weekend.
Pretty much it was final inspection of gear, easy ride and run and a
practice swim in the river. The
practice swim was nice since this was my first open water swim of 2012 and the
wetsuit always feels tighter than normal during the first few minutes. The interesting part came when I went
to pick up my number. I was
333. This got me thinking, was
this some type sign of things to come? I mean this was my 3rd race in Knoxville, my name
has a “third” attached to the end, my son is 3 years old, and I was aiming for
a top-3 overall. Seemed like there
was a theme here…
Race Day:
As usual, up early to go through my standard pre-race
routine. Even though it has been
over 6 months since my last race, I was able to progress from one activity to
another without skipping a beat.
Before I knew it, everything was ready and I was right on schedule: done
by 6:45 and I had about an hour until my wave start at 7:50. After my run, we headed down to the
start area, where I continued getting ready for the swim. Since this is an in-water start, there
is no swim warm-up allowed, so any swim warm-up is done before getting in the
water. I was able, to find a place
out of the way and hooked up my swim cords, which resulted in more than a few
odd looks in my direction! Oh
well, they worked and I was ready to go.
With about 20 minutes before start, I took my Biest-Booster, and with 10
minutes to go I took my gel. On
with the wetsuit and now time to get in the water. It’s go time!
Swim:
With no real swim warm-up, I made it a point to get in as
soon as possible, which was about 5 minutes before the gun went off. At least I was able to get used to the
water and had a few short swim bursts.
While I was swimming, I missed out on the front row at the start line,
and ended up about 5-6 feet behind the line about the 3rd row
back. Finally, the countdown and
the horn sounded! We were
off! It was the usual bumps and
knocks for the first couple of minutes, but after that I was able to get into a
good rhythm. I found what
seemed to be a good set of feet to follow and settled into a steady pace, which
allowed me to focus on my keeping good form. The swim is a river swim, that is about 1/3 upstream,
where we turn-around and head downstream to the swim exit. There is virtually no current, and the
water is flat; absolutely no waves or chop at all and typical of river swims,
the visibility was about 6” (I couldn’t see my hand at all during the
swim). About halfway through the
swim, I decided the feet I was following were not moving fast enough, so I
decided to pull out and go for it.
By this point, I was feeling good and kept the same RPE through to the
finish. The swim exit here is a
bit different. We swim up to the
floating dock and heave ourselves out of the water, and being in our black
wetsuits, I felt a penguin trying to land on an iceberg….hoping that we launch
ourselves enough out of the water so we don’t fall back in! This has to be pretty entertaining to
the spectators. As I ran up the
dock I glanced at my watch and saw 21:18 (1:28/100m avg)! Based on my training, my target was
23:00, so seeing this was awesome; I was ahead of plan, but with no time to
waste, it was on to T1. My placing
at this point was 26th overall.
T1: They move
this about ¼ mile further down the road than last year. I figured it would add about 2 minutes
to my T1 time and I was close. I
was in and out on the bike in 3:51, not great, but good enough to pick up 1
more position, I was now 25th.
Bike:
After racing here the past 2 years, I knew what to expect on
the bike. Plenty of climbs,
descents and curves with a few technical portions and speed in excess of 40
mph. So in other words, it’s not
really a course where you just settle into a pace and ride. On the flip side, it is a fun course
that is honest; not overly challenging, but not easy either. Going into the race, I estimated that
if I average about 0.90 Intensity Factor (IF), my time would be about 1:00 –
1:02. So that was my plan. Based on some key race simulations,
this puts me right in the “standard” Olympic pacing range and still have a
strong run after. In general, the
bike went as expected. I worked my
way through the earlier waves of Half-Iron Distance competitors and at the same
time passed a few in my race as well.
From mile 10 until about 18, I had a nice battle with another rider
swapping positions every couple of minutes. We were pretty even on the flats, but I was faster on the
descents and he would pass back on the climbs. On the little out and back around mile 13, I was
finally able to get an idea on my overall position. Counting the riders heading back, I figured I was in 6th
place at this point, with about 10 miles to go. The good news is that I was climbing the overall rankings,
but I still had a ways to go get on the podium. Since every position counts, I knew I had to drop the rider
I was swapping positions with. I
couldn’t let him get away and wanted to beat him into T2. Even if we had the same time, I at
least wanted the psychological advantage of being back first.
Finally on the last major climb and technical descent I was
able to get a gap and pull away.
For the rest of the ride I kept the hammer down and passed what seemed
to be another unlucky rider with a flat about ½ mile from the finish. I was back into T2 after a ride
of 1:01:08 (23.55 mph avg) and move up to 4th Overall, 2nd
in M30-34.
During the race I paced myself to what seemed to be the
correct effort for the distance, but in the end my average power was about 0.85
IF. This gave me a bike split of
1:01:08, which was right where I thought I would be and it was the 3rd
fastest amateur bike split (I missed the fastest bike split by 6 seconds….damn,
I was close!) Based on my training
I think I should have been able to ride at a slightly higher power, but the
effort seemed correct. I think
pacing off RPE is better than trying to hold a certain power number, since it
gives better chance of a strong run when you listen to your body. Something to look into for next time.
My nutrition plan for the bike was pretty simple. 1 bottle (2 scoops) of First Endurance
EFS, plus 1 serving of gel. In my
water bottle, I also added ½ scoop of First Endurance Pre-Race. Man, this stuff really is rocket
fuel. This was about 300 cal/hr,
which was enough to keep me fueled, but not enough to overload my system at the
high intensity. To keep things
simple, I only carried this 1 bottle on my bike….between my extensions, of course!
T2: I flew into
T2 and again move quickly and efficiently. I slipped on my K-Swiss K-Ruuz 1.5 with speed laces (no
socks), grabbed my number belt and visor and headed out on the run. In and out in 1:11, still in 4th
overall.
Run:
As I left T2, I heard the other riders entering Transition,
so I knew I needed to find my running legs pretty quick. Normally, the first mile always feels a
little bit off, both in terms of pace and form. Today was not that different. I went out at my target pace for the first 3 miles (goal was
sub-6:00 min/mile), and while I was holding sub-6:00 (first mile was 5:56) my
form definitely felt a little clunky….but I knew I had no choice; I had to keep
pushing. As expected, my running
legs came around about 7-8 minutes into the run. Now I was still pushing the pace, but my form felt a lot
better and running felt more natural.
By this point I couldn’t see anyone in front of me or behind me. Knowing there were at least a few
racers ahead of me, I knew I needed to keep pushing. At this point, I slowly saw my speed increase: mile 2 was 5:50. Somewhere between mile 2 and 3, I knew
the turnaround was getting close and it was time to finally check my
position. First I saw 1 runner,
then another, then another. Damn I
was 4th and getting close to the halfway point of the run. Surprisingly, as I rounded the next
corner, there it was! The
Turnaround! At this point I
figured I was about 40 seconds back from 3rd place with about 3.5
miles to go. My first reaction was
to put my head down and charge full speed ahead. After a minute or 2, the thoughts started to creep in to be
content with my position, 4th is still a good race, etc. But I knew I wanted that podium,
and I would be disappointed in myself if I didn’t give a full effort. I didn’t know if I would catch him or
not, but I knew I need to keep the pressure on. The good news is that I continued to see my times fall: Mile
3 was 5:41 and Mile 4 was my fastest yet, at a 5:36, but I couldn’t tell if I
was catching 3rd place or not.
The run at this point is in a wooded, meandering path, and
you couldn’t see more than a few hundred yards at any given time. Finally, I reached the end of the
path and we were back on the main road that parallels the river. As the road came into view, there he
was! I was getting close. I was still about 25 seconds back, but
at least I could see I was making progress. We passed the aid station around mile 5, and he still had a
20 second lead. I knew this was
going to be close, and with the few small inclines (they were not really hills,
but the rise and fall of the road), my pace had dropped to 5:48 for mile 5.
The last ½ mile of the course is a climb to the finish, and
just before that, the course enters a sidewalk with a couple of switchbacks to
enter a tunnel to cross under the road.
I knew I didn’t want to get into a sprint finish on the uphill, and all
the turns in the switch back would be hard to make up any time. So this was it. I had to do something within the next
0.75 miles, and I was catching him.
At this point, I had no idea on my pace, and I really didn’t care. I knew what I needed to do, and it was
right there! As I closed in on
him, I knew I wanted the pass to stick, so I paused for a few strides to
recover (very slightly!) and then charged past as fast as I could. As I passed I didn’t even look over; I
kept looking forward and just ran.
After about ¼ mile I turned around, and he had dropped back about 10-15
seconds. From this point forward,
I kept the pace up and charged up to the finish. Finally halfway up the hill to the finish, I turned around
and no one was in sight. At this
point, I knew I could was going to do this! I started to get excited, but still kept the pace on and
finished my last mile in 5:42. As
I crested the hill, I could finally see the finish, and there was my family
cheering me on! I ran down the
finish chute and finally I was done!
After the finish line I finally looked at my watch and saw I ran a 35:31
for the 10k run (5:44 min/mile avg), which is my fastest 10k ever, and a total
time of 2:03:00! At this point I
knew I was third over the line, but the race wasn’t over yet.
Now came the waiting game. While I was 3rd over the line, there was a second
wave, so it wasn’t until about hour later that I finally knew if I reached my
goal of finishing on the podium. During
what seemed to take an eternity, the results were finally posted, and there it
was: confirmation I finished 3rd! What a race!
I am extremely happy with the result, not only because of my placing,
but also because I know I raced at my full effort. Regardless of my position, I know I raced the best possible
race and that’s what really counts to me.
I also need to thank those that have supported me in helping
me achieve my goals. As always,
the support and help of my wife and son are essential in everything I do. All the people at Fraser Bicycle,
especially Coach Bonnie Karas for providing the plan to get me “Olympic race
ready” in 8 weeks, Ron Schmid for getting my bike ready after a long winter and
Paul Rogers for his continued support. Also, my partners, First Endurance for the producing the best in
nutrition products, K-Swiss, SLS3 and H20 Audio for making the long swims much
more enjoyable!
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| This race is definitely a thumb's up! |
