Well, the Magic Mountain Man ½ Ironman is in the books! It was a great day for racing and a very well
organized event. Kudos to Renegade Racing, if you get a chance to do one of
their races, do it, you won’t be disappointed!
 |
| 5th Overall, 1st Age Group. Satisfaction! |
Having spent the last blog going over some pre-race planning
ideas and then developing a race plan for this long coarse tri, let’s take a look
back at how things went. Now we could dryly go over each item but that would be
well, dry. Living in California for two + years now I have noticed a plethora
of award shows I never knew existed. Of course you have the Emmy’s, the Oscars,
the Grammy’s but you also have the S.A.G. awards (apparently for worst cosmetic
surgery) and the Kids Choice awards and People’s Choice award (apparently kids
are not people). So I a decided to stage my own the Race Plan Execution Awards!!! Let’s call them the Kona’s. Here goes:
Thanks for coming to tonight’s show, every year we are getting
a little more popular and hopefully next year we can score a TV deal and so you
won’t have to read about our show in someone’s blog. Let’s go through the
awards as they happened during the race.
The “Hey Dude” Kona for being too laid back in a discipline:
Envelope please… Goes to the Swim!!! At
the outset of my plan I noted this was a Bike Heavy triathlon. A good finish
was going to be determined on the strength of the bike time. So I went into the
swim trying to be relaxed, saving energy for the bike and generally not losing
the race by over doing the swim and being unable to bike well. Problem was I
took this to the extreme! Taking my foot off the flipper, so to speak, is not
my strong point. By Over-Relaxing I slowed my stroke down too much and caused myself
all sorts of sighting problems. I could not go in a straight line to save my
life, usually not a problem for me. About half way through I gave up and hit
the gas. Things improved but the damage was done. 39:34 shooting for 33 to 34. Yuck!
The “Get down and the deck and flop like a fish” Kona goes
to, wait for it…. Transition 1! Trying to cut my losses after that swim, I
raced to T1 and proceeded to strip out of my wetsuit. But in my haste I pulled
the suit down to fast and rolled it up on itself, making it impossible to get over
my ankles. My T times are usually very fast; I waste little to no time there and
often get out before people who come in before me (free time! I am always thinking).
But in my second miscue of the day I forget the golden rule, don’t try to over compensate
for an earlier error. Just go on with the plan and forget about it, you cannot
change it now. T1 was 3:04, a full
minute slower than planned. But the struggles with my suit also settled me down
in a strange way. I reminded to myself: Stay on plan, make sure you have everything
you need before you leave, Make sure you drink you Gatorade, Do Not Compound
Your Errors, chillax dude.
The “Blazing Saddles” Kona for Best Performance in a Single Discipline
goes to the bike!! I knew it was going
to be hilly, hot and a little windy. I planned to use the road bike because of all
that climbing and descending. I also
recognized the importance of a staying within myself at the start and letting
the ride come to me, instead of trying to beat it right off the bat. The extra
time the ride would entail meant bringing enough Gatorade at the start, two
full bottles on the bike (plus some right before and right after). I moved a
lot of fluid through me and that GSeries Pro really helped me stay balanced. The
first climb was 7.2 miles to the top and started the second we left the
transition area. I dropped her in low and spun it up the hill, trying to
control the HR and leave as much as possible in the tank for the next 50 mi or
so. After that hill I just continued to build on my effort, putting out a
little more on each climb until the last one where I felt I was literally flying
up the hill! Also warranting a mention was the factor the bike made on the descents.
The road was fairly rough in spots making for a lot of jostling around. The
majority of those on their Tri bikes where up and on the brakes for a great majority
of the down hills. I flew by them and was very comfortable doing it. The
advance scouting of the course, and the willingness to try out different ideas
(road vs. tri bike) paid off. My time was 3:12:14 good for the third fastest time
of the day and a full 15 minutes faster than the plan! Now I had some wiggle room.
The “Barry White” Kona for Smoothness goes to T2! After that first
transition I was determined to fly in and out on the next change. Being sure not
over reach, just doing everything I usually do and doing it smoothly. I was bueno
and I got a time of 1:06, total t times 4:10. I had allotted a time of 5:00 for both transitions combined
so I came out ahead on that plan too (barely).
The “Ease on Down, Ease on Down the Road” Kona for best
pacing goes to the run. Being a mass start tri I knew where I was in the
standings and I had now accumulated some extra time. I took this info and
plugged into my planned run time. I was 6 overall off the bike, I wanted top 5.
I felt my goal time should accomplish a top 5 finish. The important thing now
was to follow the plan!!! Don’t try to go out and catch Mr # 5 in the first
mile. Relax, run your run, and let him come back to you. It does not do any
good to bomb out of transition, move up in the standings, and then be found lying
on the side of the trail all cramped up a ½ mile from the finish. This theory
was tested about 5 minutes into the run when Mr # 7 blew by me! He was moving and
it made no sense to chase him, his pace would have buried me early. I stayed
focused and eased into the run. This was a two loop run with an Olympic
happening at the same time so for the middle part of the run it was hard to
tell who was who until you came up on them and saw their number, blue numbers ½,
red ones oly. This also allowed me to stay focused on the plan. Running my run,
building pace. I knew the heat and the hills of the ride would prevent me from
a fast time but, the run course was a lot harder than advertised! Since it was
75% trails, and I wasn’t sure exactly which trails, my pre race scouting mostly
come from the director’s description of the course. It was in fact a quite
challenging rolling course, and with the dirt trails slowing you down, as
compared to paved road. As I moved into
the second lap the crowd started to thin with the Olys finishing off their runs.
It was now mostly ½ Irons running. I was confident I had passed 3 other
competitors and was now in 4th. With about 4 miles to go a smallish
runner, with a very quick turnover, came up alongside me. He was 53, or so says
his calf, and moving at a good clip. I had not seen him at all during the race
so I thought he was just on his first lap so I let him go (not that I could
have stayed with him very long anyways!) and stuck to my pace. Come to find out
he was on my lap and become the 4th overall finisher, very
impressive!!
The finish was uneventful; the last good point about a mass
start is you can see if there is anyone in front or behind you. I had no one as
far as could see either in either direction with about 2 miles or so to go. The
heat and the hills had started to give me some twinges of cramps so I began to
cruise. I wanted a 1:45 on the run but threw that idea out after I saw how hard
the first loop was. I ran the last 2 miles at 9 min each, being sure to finish and
not cramp up all the while watching for anyone to come up from behind me. I
finished with a 1:50.
Kudos goes to Coach Tony for his training plan and his
advice on the course, both proved invaluable. I owe such a good finish too him.
Also hydration and nutrition wise things worked out flawlessly. The Gatorade
GSeries Pro proved to be enough electrolytes and fuel for the day, preventing
the need to fuss with tabs or capsules.
Final results where:
5th Overall, 1st in Age Group.
Planned time 5:53, Gun Time 5:46:49,
a little over 6 minutes better than planned!
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