I am too lazy today to write up a separate training log for my website, so you will have to live with the report log that I sent to my coach
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I still feel good. No pain or illness.

My swim sessions are improving. Still need some more time in the pool, but rests are getting fewer and pace is on schedule.
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Today I signed up for my main B-race of the season: The 2013 NJ State Triathlon!

I haven’t had a thorough look at the 2013 season yet, but when the New Jersey state triathlon announced that it was going to be the Mid-Atlantic regional championship for 2013 I just had to sign up. A regional championship will draw more/harder competition and I like to compete against the best, even though I get my butt kicked
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During my 2012 races I have been running in a very old pair of Asics DS Trainer, so old that I really don’t know the model number. But I must have had them for 5 years and done at least 1500-2000 km in them (they are not my only pair of running shoes). Before I started racing triathlons they had normal laces, but in an effort to get some faster transistions, I changed them into some quick laces.

This setup has worked ok – not perfect – just ok for this season. My mayor issues with it has been that even with quick laces open to the max and lots of Body Glide in the shoe I still struggled to get in the shoe. Often my heel wouldn’t get in so I had to use my fingers to pull out the heel of the shoe, which then just resulted in my fingers getting stuck in the shoe… And more than once I have finished runs just to realize that I hadn’t tightened the laces.
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Today I started the off-season strength program that my coach put together.

The problem is that now I can’t move my arms and I don’t know how to get to my dentist appointment when I can’t turn the steering wheel in the car…

The days before triathlons I always try to visualize the different legs of the race:

Going all out at the start of the swim, keeping good technique during the swim and having a strong and fast exit out of the water.

I try to see the best possible tranistion where I run faster than everyone else in the pack, put on glasses, helmet fast, speed out of T1 overtake as many cyclists as possible in the most aerodynamic position I can achieve.

Lastly I try to visualize T2 and the run especially the last couple of miles during the run where good run form with the right cadence, light feet, upper body posture and correct arm position can help me being as fast as possible.

The problem with all this visualization is that the events often have photographers that tend to get closer to reality than I like.

Swim exit visualization:

The strong swim exit

Swim exit reality:

Silly looking swim exit…

Strong bike visualization:

Strong biking

Bike reality:

The helmet was straight when I left T1

Fast running and victory:

The win

Not close to winning

Straighten those arms, close your mouth and head up!

I’m done for the season. Today was my last triathlon of 2012.

I got up at 6 am, eat my pre-race breakfast of bagel with peanut and jelly and drove off towards Point Pleasant. After a few days of 25 degrees Celsius the weather decided to turn a little colder and the car thermometer said 5 degrees at 6 am.

I had packed a set of arm warmers and gloves just in case – I still remembered the rather cold experience of the first race of the season in April. Luckily the temperature climbed a bit before race start so I left the arm warmers and gloves in the backpack.

The swim took place in the Point Pleasant bay/river so the water was pretty warm, but I still decided to go with the wetsuit to get the extra buoyancy.

At the race start I got too far back in the pack and it was hard getting further ahead in the large pack. As always the start was pretty hectic, but today even more so. After a few minutes in the water my goggles got hit by somebody’s hand/elbow and they were basically torn off my eyes. Even though I ought to just have continued without, my instinct took over and I got on my back and spent some time getting them on again. By the time they were on I was even further behind the lead pack and I spent the rest of the time trying to catch up.

I got out of the water in 32nd place (of 135) spending 7:06 in the water. Not a perfect swim by far but okay considering the goggles mishap.

T1 went okay and I got out on the bike. My plan was to go out at around 240 watts for the first lap (of 4 laps all together) and then go at around 250 for the last 3 laps. My Garmin was acting a bit strange though so I had a bit of problems getting a read on my average power and my heart-rate was also all over the place. All I had left was my cadence reading which I tried to keep around 93-95. Around halfway through the bike leg I finally got a solid reading on my power that was around 255 watts – a bit more than I wanted, but at that point I just kept on going.

Just before T2 I caught up to one of guys in my age group and we entered T2 together – or at least close. I actually missed the exit chute and had to to a emergency stop at the bike dismount line, getting one foot caught in the shoe and looking pretty ridiculous… But all together I was pretty happy with my bike, coming in in 9th place on the bike leg and averaging 22 mph and 255 watts/94 rpm.

Exiting T2 my dismount problems had caused me to loose 15 seconds on my fellow competitor but my run form has been pretty good in the last couple of weeks so I was confident that I could catch up.

Unfortunately he was had a even better run form and I never saw him again until we said hello in the finish area.

First 2k was a bit tough. My legs weren’t responding all that well, but I managed to do the first 2k in 8:26. After this my legs started to feel better and I did the third 3k in 4:11, 4k in 4:05 and the remaining 460m at a 3:52 average ending up with a 4:09 average for the run.

All in all I came in 9th of a 135, but only 7th in my age group due to a lot of fast 35-39 year old triathletes.

Now on to 2013…

I spent the most part of an hour today getting rid of the race number stickers on my helmet that have been on there since my latest race back in August (I really need to be better at removing those things as soon as the races are over instead of waiting until they are almost integrated with the helmet.)

Well, my youngest son came by the workshop a few times to see what I was doing and decided that he didn’t want me to go completely without a sticker on my helmet and so he offered me this nice turtle sticker. I hope it’s not a sign about how tomorrow’s race will be going…

Thanks son…

This week will be my last triathlon of the season. I am doing the Treasure Island Sprint Triathlon this Sunday. Expectations are high even though it’s late in the season.

It has been a really exiting season for me, but I can also feel the many training sessions in my body.

So far (on this the 277th day of the year) I have done 269 training sessions and spent 220 hours training and even though I did take almost 4 weeks off in August and September, small signs of wear and tear is starting to show:

I broke a rib a few weeks back just from coughing, I had 3-4 days last week of major back pain and my right ankle is starting to give a bit of pain in the morning… So either I am getting old or it’s just time to move into a more off season schedule.

Not all things feels like riding into the sunset though. I did my fastest 5k ever during a brick run this week. 20:28 is another 5 seconds off last seasons best and I hope to find a 5k run later this year to see if I can edge below the 20 min mark. Cross your fingers…

This year’s A-race was this weekend: The U.S Age Group Nationals. Its a race I have been preparing for all year and I have spent 9-10 training sessions pr week for the last 16 weeks on (A nice, big “Thank You” to my wife is due)

I have already done 3 sprints and 1 Olympic triathlon this year and in these smaller local races I have done pretty well with an age group win and 2 top-3 results in the sprints and coming as number 16 in my age group in the NJ State Triathlon.

However looking at the 2011 national results I knew that I would have a hard time even being in the top 50% overall or even in the top 100 in my age group (the 2011 edition had 126 people in my age group)

So I set up two personal goals for my race that I would like to obtain:

Goal 1: Do a new Personal Record, preferably below 2:25 (current PR was at 2:26)
Goal 2: Finish the run leg at a better level than at the NJ State Tri where I did a 48 min run

The weekend started Friday with a 7 hour car ride with the family to Vermont. All things considered the trip went well. The kids had square eyes from playing Nintendo and iPad and my butt hurt at bit after staying the var too long but we made it to Burlington safe and sound.

After arrival I had to check-in my bike, but before I could do that I had to pick up my race packet and that was apparently NOT next to the transition area but 2 miles away at the local Sheraton hotel. So I had to bike up to the hotel and get the packet. On the way back it started to rain heavily so I got soaked and I almost got run over by a car that apparently felt that getting fast into a parking space was more important than to keep an eye out for cyclist….

With the race numbers on the bike I got into the transition area where around 2000 other bike (that is approx $10 million worth of bikes!!!) started to fill up the area.

Of course the Burlington hotels were sold out by the time I started looking for rooms, so the closest hotel room available was 45 min away in Stowe. Once more the kids and wife were loaded into the car and we moved on. To my surprise Stowe was actually a very nice little town with a few good restaurants so at least the trip out there wasn’t in vain.

Stowe

The alarm was set for 5 am and with my newly discovered peanut butter jelly breakfast in my stomach we set off back to Burlington with two very sleepy kids.

The transition was absolutely buzzing with activity with 2000 triathletes running around, putting on wetsuits, setting up their transition areas and re-racking bikes.

My own transition area was quickly set up even though the space was a bit tight especially with the guys next me having much larger towels as their designated areas. On of the guys only had a pair of shoes and race belt on his huge towel, while the other towel was packed to capacity with helmet, 2 x shoes, race belt, sunglasses, nutrition etc… I just tried to squeeze in between the two.

We need bigger towels

My start group was the 5th wave so I headed towards the pier a few hundred meters away from the transition area to get ready. My wave was called forward just as I arrived so all I had time for was a quick photo with the kids and a kiss to the wife.

The kids and the sealion

The course was inside the Burlington Waterfront park and should in theory be protected a bit from the waves due to the large pier along side the course. Apparently somebody forgot to tell the waves because they were pretty big that day. Some of the bystanders talked about 3 foot swells and I could definitely feel the waves especially on the first part were the swimmers headed directly into the waves. I got into a nice rhythm though and I got to the first turn buoy without problems. At the turn the sun was directly in to my eyes so even though the waves were now in my back the swim wasn’t any easier.

Halfway to the next turn I was suddenly stopped by the officials boat as they cut into the course. They pulled a person from the watertight in front of me and immediately started to preform CPR in the boat. After a short time the boat made its way towards the pier (I later found out that the person, a male triathlete in his 50′s had died…).

The incident left me stunned for a few seconds until my mind decided that I couldn’t really stay in the water all day and I started to make my move towards the end of the swim course. During the competition I didn’t really think too much about the incident – I guess the mind is too busy trying to focus on the immidiate job at hand, but of course I have spent a bit of time thinking about it afterwards especially as the triathlon deaths seem to escalate. Only 2 weeks before the Burlington tragedy another athlete died during the triathlon in New York.

I made it to the transition in 29:55. My slowest swim so far, but considering the waves and hold up on the course I was pretty happy. And contrary to my NJ state swim, my legs felt fine and I had no problems keeping my freestyle stroke all the way.

At the transition the family was there cheering on and even though I didn’t have the energy to stop and give them a hug I could hear and feel the cheering. T1 was pretty good and I made way way out on the bike course. The plan was to stick to my newfound HR range of 158-160 for the course so I started out taking it pretty easy. The course had a bit of turns and ascent during the first couple of miles until we hit a nice stretch of newly paved highway… Very nice.

At mile 8 I looked down and realized that I wasn’t wearing my timing chip! After 10 seconds of panic I decided that there wasn’t a thing I could do about it and if the race directors didn’t have a backup system I would always have my Garmin 910XT to keep my time. It wasn’t as if I was racing towards a top-3 spot anyway. The course profile had looked pretty flat after the initial ascent but there were actually quite a few nasty short hills on the course and after the halfway point a headwind started to have a bit of effect as well. I spent most of the last 10 miles playing a game of elastics with a few riders where they pulled away of the straights and I planted them on the hills.

The last part of the course had a general decent in towards the transition and even though I tried to ride hard my HR it slowly started to fall and I ended up with an average of 157. Unfortunately most of the athletes that ridden with on the way back also rode away from me as there were no more hills for me to catch them on. With my average HR little low, I had to take comfort that at least my legs felt absolutely perfect heading into T2. I had also kept my nutrition plan consuming around 300 calories and 30 ounces of water during the bike ride.

Entering T2

My official time for the bike was 1:09:36 but due to the timing chip mixup this time was including my T1 time. My own unofficial time says 1:07:27 (35.1 km/h) so around 2 km/h slower than at the NJ state Tri. Now was the time to tell if the slower bike speed would pay off during the run.

Unfortunately the first 300 meters had a heavy gradient of 9%!!!. Not the easiest start. Around 25% of all the people on the hill were walking that first stretch but I was able to keep a nice stride up the hill even though my pace was only around 5.25 pr km for that first part. Again my wife and kids were there to cheer me on and take a few photos of me trying to climb the hill. You can see the guy in orange behind me. He left me on the hill and I thought that I had seen the last of him…

The orange guy and me

After the hill the road started to be more flat and even had a small decent that helped me get some speed into my legs.

I took it pretty easy for the next 2 1/2k focusing on fueling up with some Coke and gel and did the 2nd and 3rd kilometers with a 4:27 average.

I kept this pace at 4k but at 5k I decided just to go all in. And suddenly at 7k, there was the guy in orange. He kept at pace around 4:25, but I was going at around 4:15 so I passed him without problems. And as you know, once you make the pass you better make sure that you stay ahead so I upped the pace to 4:10 pr km for the kilometers 8 and 9. At 9k there was nothing left to do than just sprint as hard as I could. Luckily the course seemed to be bit short (or I might have hit the lap button a bit late after T2) so at 9.65 I passed the line. I did the last 650 meters at a 3:54 pace. I couldn’t be more happy. The official run time was 42:47, my own GPS said 42:09, but that might be my own fault not being able to figure out where the timing matts were.

The last stretch

A quick look at my Garmin told me the cold hard facts: 2:23:35… New PR by 3 minutes.

Not too bad for my second try at the olympic distance. I finished as number 665 out around 2000 athletes. So I basically got my assed kicked by a lot of very talented, hard-working triathletes but I guess that is ok. That is what happens when you go up against the best.

All the all the numbers look like this:

Overall: 665/1988
Male: 550/1138
Age Group: 80/129

Swim: 29:55 1192/1988
Bike: 1:09:36 691/1988
Run: 42:47 616/1988

Total 2:23:35

Now it’s time for a beer!!!

This is the second installment in my evaluation of NJ State triathlon and preparation for the US age group nationals coming up in a few days.

The first post was about the nutrition and can be found here.

This post will be looking at the conclusions from a bike threshold test that I did together with my Coach Chris Draper.

But first a recap of my bike stats from the NJ State Tri:

Distance: 41.04 km
Time: 1:06:58
Avg Speed: 36.8 km/h
Avg HR: 168 bpm
Max HR: 180 bpm

You can also find the entire bike leg here: http://connect.garmin.com/activity/202280175

And some of the other valuable personal HR info to take into consideration when looking at my performance:

Resting HR: 48
Max HR on the bike: 180

The mission with a threshold test was to evaluate IF I worked too hard during the bike leg and if this could be the reason to my tired legs during the run leg.

The test itself was pretty basic:

5 min @ 65% of max effort
5 min @ 80% of max effort
5 min @ 90% of max effort
15 min TT

I won’t go into too many details about the numbers that came out of the test, but it ended up with a range of 158-160 as the optimal average HR for an Olympic Triathlon, so that is what I will try and go with for the race this weekend.

Another key take-away from the session was that I could pick up my cadence from my normal 85 rpm to 90 rpm. With a rpm at 90 I can keep a higher power level with the same heart rate level.