We Swim. We Bike. We Run. We Disco!

I am now officially an Olympic distance triathlete!  I finished the Disco Triathlon yesterday morning with a total time of 2:43:23.  It felt awesome in spite of an incredibly horrible night’s sleep beforehand.  My splits and transition times were really good.  I finished 27th in the Male 35-39 age group.  I completed the 1,500 yard swim in 28:42 with an age group rank of 24.  T1 time was 2:32.  My 23 mile bike split was 1:13:18 at a 18.8 mph pace (age group rank: 29).  T2 time was 0:55.  Finally, I ran 10K in 57:57 (age group rank: 25), which is not far off my sub 57:00 10K PR.

This was my first Olympic triathlon and the first beach swim start.  The swim felt really slow.  I figured I was in last place or very near it.  But I kept my cool and worked hard to use the Total Immersion technique created by Terry Laughlin.  In the end, the swim was cake and I burst out of the water, crossed the timing pad with a hearty “WHOOP!”, and sprinted to the transition area.

Once out on the bike course, I got my heart rate in check and stayed in my zone just about the whole way (144-159) with the exception of a couple of hills that I just had to attack.  A big thanks to Coach Kristen of Texas Triple Threat for helping me get my zones and telling me to slow down on the bike.  My capacity has REALLY improved such that I have to push myself to keep my heart rate in the lower end of the zone.  Most of the course was pretty smooth and fast until we turned on to this one road with that rough chip-seal pavement.  I really felt slow during that part.  Then we turned down a smaller road that had smoother pavement but a lot more bumps.  I ended up being able to stay with a group of folks from about that point until the bike finish.

I ran out of the transition area and doused myself with water.  The run was my favorite part.  As I made my way out, I gave encouraging shouts to the runners on the sprint course making their way back in to finish.  I continued that through just about all of the run encouraging those who passed me and the few whom I passed.  I saw my buddy Ironman Phil and gave him a shout out but he didn’t acknowledge.  I found out later he was trying hard not to throw up.  The final mile or so got even better.  I started talking to my fellow runners trying to break the tension for myself and hopefully for them.  I started speeding up, too, forgetting about staying in my steady state zone and trying to leave it all out there on the course.  I told one runner to leave it because we wouldn’t need it after we finished.  Someone could carry us if necessary.

Getting closer to the finish, I came up behind this big dude and starting singing the chorus of “The Battle Hymn of the Republic”.  He cheered me on as I passed him and ended up coming in not far after me.  I found out later that he’d won a medal in the Clydesdale category.  I overheard him telling his girl about my singing.

Coming down the finish chute, I heard them announcing my number, name, and city and gave two thumbs way out and another “WHOOP!”. I “Superman” landed on the first timing pad, crossed the second, and then got down on one knee to say a quick thank you prayer to Jesus for bringing me through.  A lady rushed up to me and asked if I was okay.  I think I almost knocked her over when I stood up quickly and pointed up to the sky.  They gave me a sweet Finisher’s medal and t-shirt and congratulated me.

By far, the ultimate moment was kissing my girlfriend, Kathryn, and having her put the medal around my neck.  She was my strength before and after the race:  getting up sooo early and arriving at my place in time for us to leave; getting us to the race site on time and driving so I could get a few extra moments of rest; just being there through the whole event.  I was very focused during the race, but I could see her out of the corner of my eye and hear her yelling for me as I came out of the water and went through T2 and charged down the finish chute.  I can’t imagine experiencing my first Olympic triathlon without her there with me.

With that under my belt, I now have the confidence to take on my first half-Iron distance triathlon:  the Longhorn Ironman 70.3!

jb

Cardio Fitness Testing

I went in for a Cycling and Running VO2 test with Texas Triple Threat yesterday afternoon.  I was very encouraged by the results.

I’ve been running for few years but only seriously biking for a few months.  That definitely showed up in the results.  I have a lot less control on the bike but an excellent base on the run.  I was pleasantly surprised by my performance on the run.  But it makes sense because I started out slow and have been gradually increasing my speed over the past few years.  I’ve heard it said, “It’s all about the base.”  That is so true.

So what do I do with this information?  The best part is that I get to increase my speed on my run workouts.  I need to do steady state workouts at a HR between 153 and 162.  I’ve been doing my long and easy runs in the mid- to high-140s between 11:00 and 11:30 per mile pace.  I should be able to do those workouts at a 10:00 or faster pace going forward.  At the same time, I need to pull back on my running and get more bike workouts into my schedule, as well as swimming and strength training.  I also need to slow down on the bike and work on building my base in that discipline for a while.  This next week, I’ll put together my new training plan and have a consultation with Coach KW to go over it.

I highly encourage you to go in for this testing.  I did mine with Texas Triple Threat, but there are other groups such as PlayTri that will test you, as well.  It will help you determine where you are fitness-wise and what your training schedule should look like.  Who knows?  You may be in better shape than you thought.

jb

The Hardest Part of My Triathlon

Since I completed my first triathlon a little over a week ago, a couple of people have asked me, “What was the hardest part?”  It’s been difficult to answer because, in reality, it wasn’t really that hard! 

Thinking about it more, I’ve come up with two reasons for this.  First of all, I’ve been training for several weeks for the event.  The hard part came before the race as I took time to get in the pool or get on my bike or go for a run.  Those early mornings and busy Sunday afternoons paid off.  All the reading up on nutrition information and incorporating that into my diet and pre-race routine benefitted me.

The second reason is that I feel like I could have pushed myself harder.  Being my first tri, I really didn’t know what the actual experience would be like.  My goal was to get out there and finish in a respectable time.  I actually set my goal time at under 1 hour and 30 minutes.  I wasn’t timing myself during the race.  I just watched my heart rate on the bike and did negative splits on the run based on my breathing.

As I approach my next triathlon tomorrow and future events, the hard part now is figuring out how to balance my training to include enough of all three disciplines as well as strength training.  More on than in another post.

jb

Cycling Events Calendar

I should point out a REALLY good calendar resource for cycling events in the North Texas area. Bicycles, Inc. has a great calendar that includes weekly rides from their various locations and others. They also have upcoming races, rides, and rallys. The cool thing is that they include triathlons and duathlons. If you ride a bike in the events, it's on their calendar!

That's how I found out about the Cleburne Ironhorse Sprint tri. After the Frisco-to-Fort Worth MS 150 bike ride--actually on Day 2, which got canceled due to the threat of bad weather--I was like, "What's next?" I checked out of few other calendars but they weren't very complete. When I saw the one at Bicycles, Inc. and saw the triathlon events, I knew I had found what I was looking for.

Go check it out and find your next ride.

jb

Inaugural Post

I wanted to start this blog before my first triathlon but blogging is just one of those things that takes a lot of effort for me. So here it is: The first post.

I am now officially a triathlete.

I completed my first triathlon yesterday morning in Cleburne, TX. The 2nd Annual Cleburne Ironhorse Sprint Triathlon. What a great feeling! It was a whole lot of fun and very neat being in the midst of people of all ages and fitness with one thing in common: a love for that which we call "triathlon". What makes the triathlon unique is the fact that it is truly an individual test of fitness. Everyone there has different strengths and weakness across a fairly broad range of physical efforts. This is exaggerated when the swim start is staggered. You really don't have any gauge on your performance other than what you know of yourself. You can't look at the person on the bike in front of you and go after them with a whole lot of confidence that it will be worth the extra effort. The aspect of racing against others is quite far removed from the time you start to the time you finish.

At least that is my view from a little behind the middle of the pack and as a noob.

As far as results go my chip time was 1:28:22. My splits were as follows: 300 yard swim in 5:31, T1 3:30, 15.2 mile bike in 50:07 (18.2 mph avg), T2 1:12, 5K run 27:59 (~9:00 pace). I finished 117th out of 246 and 24th out of 29 in the Male 35-39 age group, a highly competitive one I might add. I'm happy with my performance but feel I can do better. That will come with experience and increased fitness over time. There are quite a few "free" seconds and possibly minutes I could reclaim in all the segments, especially in T1.

I could probably go on for quite a bit about the experience but if you're really interested, you can read much more detail about the experience on my race log over at BeginnerTriathlete.com.

My thanks go to all of my good friends and family who provided support and inspiration. This includes texafornia over at Zen and the Art of Triathlon for his super cool podcasts as well as holisticguru and her awesome nutrition info. Extra special thanks go out to Jack Weiss and the team at Ironhead Race Productions for putting on a great race that was well planned and executed.

Next up: Day 2 of the 14th Annual Metroplex Sprint Triathlon over at Joe Pool Lake in Grand Prairie, TX. This one will be my first open water swim. Should be fun!

jb