Snapple Tri Team

Halfway through the first of six laps, I remembered advice on how to ride cobblestones from when I was watching the Tour de France on tv.  I had no idea it would ever be useful information.  ”Keep a loose grip on the bars, let the front of the bike go where it wants to go,” I remembered hearing.  I opened my hands, relaxed my arms, tried to follow the bikes flow, and was amazed by how much smoother it felt.

Having been too slow to pull the registration trigger for the Giro di Coppi, but itching to race, Zack and I decided to race the Oxford Road Race in sunny southern PA (it was 900 degrees at the race start).  The race had limited entrants, so the race director decided to combine all categories into a single field.  The course was 6 10K laps with a roughly 2K lollipop stick for the start and finish.  There were two decent-sized climbs per lap, but more significantly, there was a 2 mile stretch where the PA Department of Transportation had ripped up and milled the road surface.  Hands loose, teeth rattling, body shaking worse than it did in the area’s recent earthquake, I imagined I was pounding the cobbles in Belgium as we attacked the milled roads.

2 miles, 6 times of PA-style cobbles

My legs had been slow to recover from the three races last week during the Lord of the Flies races, so I wasn’t sure what to expect.  Zack and I had time for a brief warmup before the race, and I was glad my legs seemed to be responding.

As always seems to happen, I found myself losing a lot of ground in the pack during the supposedly neutral rollout (neutral rollouts, I’ve decided, are really just racing while you’re pretending to not be racing).  On narrow roads, I had little choice but to hold my position and move up incrementally through the first few flat to downhill miles of the course.  When the race first hit the unpaved road, the group collectively seemed alarmed by the severity of the road surface.  The diversion caused a split that divided the field into nearly equal halves.  I found myself in the back.

I sat in hoping the back group would organize.  Several miles later–with the gap only seeming to grow–I decided to bridge.  I jumped across.  One rider followed.  The rest of the back pack fell off the pace and never recovered.

I more or less sat in this group until the fourth lap when I decided to test the field with a few attacks.  I attacked solo and got dragged back a few times.  Finally I got away and had a strong break partner with me.  We rolled hard into a climb.  A quick effort over it and I was confident our break would stick.  Then I looked down and my chain was wrapped around my bottom bracket.  I screamed obscenities.  My break partner rode away.  A chase group road away.  What was left of the peloton rode away.  I screamed more obscenities.  Finally, I got things sorted out.  Took a push from neutral support, and started turning myself inside out to chase.

(Incidentally, I hope I corrected this problem for good.  The Bicycle Pro Shop in Georgetown set my bike up with a chain catcher that will hopefully keep the chain wrapped around the gears where it belongs).

I chased for several miles before finally catching back on to the main field.  Once there, I sat in and recovered a little, but my former breakaway partner was still up the road.  As we moved through the 5th lap, I worried he might stay away and started to get annoyed that no one would chase.  Finally, I came around.  I tried to bridge, but didn’t have the legs to get away and wound up pulling the group back together.

Once back together, I was pretty fried, but a little inspired by the fact that no one chased the other guy at all.  So I decided to attack again.  This time a strong looking riding came forward and pulled me back.  When he caught me, I was like “What the f*#k?  you didn’t help at all when the other guy was up the road.”

“That guys my buddy,” he said.  The two riders weren’t on the same team–subtle politics of local bike racing.

The rider who bridged stayed on the front as we came through the unpaved stretch.  He set a hard tempo up the unpaved climb and was keeping it rolling through the flatish stretch on top.  I was sitting comfortably behind him–honestly pretty glad at the work he was doing because he was shredding what was left of the field.

Then he found some paved road and instantly opened a gap.  It was impossible to cover the move on the shredded pavement, so the 5 riders left in the main group just rode for damage control until we turned back onto a paved road.

One rider tried to bridge.  I followed and we wound up with a 3 man chase group.  I tried to get people to work to pull him back, but no one would.  I thought I could get him, but if I was the only one who worked to do it, I knew the result would be me finishing 4th in a four man final sprint.

Instead, our 3 man chase more or less soft pedaled as we jockeyed for position.  The least patient man in any group, I of course wound up in front.

About .5K to the line

I tried to jump, but there wasn’t a ton left in my legs, and one rider wound up coming around.  I took 3rd overall and promptly proceeded to drink every ounce of water I could find.

Soon after, the race director handed me an envelope full of cash.  I won’t be retiring any time soon, but it covered gas and lunch for my teammates (Zack riding, Mindy cheering and snapping pics).

I hate to say it, but it’s almost a shame that PA will ultimately pave the roads.  The milled asphalt made a tough race epic, and I’m glad I had a chance to race it.

Thanks for reading.

Bart

Virginia Run was one of the first triathlons I ever raced.  It’s early in the season, close to home, well-run, and a lot of fun, so I’ve been back almost every year.  The familiar course and competitors make for a nice benchmark as the season ramps up.  This year, there was some disappointment but plenty to be happy with–I guess that’s what keeps us coming back for more.

The swim is obviously my weakness, so I’ve spent some time in the pool.  I can’t say I dread the swim any less, but at least the dread isn’t lasting as long.  This was my fifth time racing here and this was the best split I’ve posted, so iI’m encouraged that the work is paying off.  I’m also confident that yesterday was just a single point on my general trend of swimming improvement as these plenty more hard work in the pool to come.

The bike legs just wouldn’t go at first.  It’s a two loop course and by the second loop I had things rolling, but I wasn’t surprised to see a slower time than I posted last year, even though I’ve, in general, been riding much stronger this season.  Transition closed at 6:25 am, so my only warmup was a 5 minute run and I felt it.  I talked to another athlete who said he brought his road bike so he could warmup after transition closed.  A smart move.  I’ve got to try something like that for these early races.

The run is where I think I saw my improved fitness.  Final run split was 17:16 for the 5K.  I know Zack looked at the fast splits and wondered if the run was short, but we both agreed that as far as we could tell the course was the same as it had been for the past 5 years, and I emailed the race director who said she was confident the course was the both the same and the right distance, so I’m going to say I think it was legit.

Would my hair look so ridiculous if I hadn't just ran a full 5K??

In either case, the results are a bit hard to figure out, but as far as I can tell, I had the 2nd fastest bike, the 3rd fastest run, and the fastest bike/run (by less than a second!!).

I finished 3rd overall–under the previous course record and only 30 seconds from first.  My biggest frustration is that transitions literally decided the race.  The gap between me and each of the 2 guys in front of me is exactly the same as the difference in our transitions.  Every second counts the same and there’s no excuse for giving up so much time.

A huge congrats to Jason McKay and Ken DelRaso for putting together great races.  Both are racing better than ever, and as much as I hate not winning, I’m excited to see everyone racing well.  The two go head to head again in Lake Placid, so I’m excited to see how they stack up on the long course.

It’s May.  Means warmer temperatures, Mother’s Day, and the Virginia Run Sprint Triathlon.   I did this as my first race back in 2005 and have been back every year since except for 2008.   Things sure have changed.   Have progressed from asking questions like whether or not I should wear swim goggles to debating the merits of race wheels and tri bikes.

Swim:  250 meters

Goal:  Break 5 minutes.

Have been working hard on swimming this year.   Been in the pool at least 3 times a week for the last month.   Swim felt okay.  I never have any clue what is happening in the water, but the pool is nice because I can’t wander off course. No watch so no idea on time until I got the results.

Time:  4:57 – sweet!

Bike – 20K

Goal:  Catch Team Snapple friend Mindy Ko on the bike and talk some trash as I go by.

OK. Swim’s over. Time to get on with the real race.   I felt great on the bike.  Probably went out a bit too hard on the first loop and didn’t quite have the fitness to hold it for the whole race. Thankfully, I realized my error and backed off the pace on second loop.    I just nabbed Mindy at the finish line.  Technically she was off the bike before me, but I was quicker in getting off and hit the timing mat about two tenths of a second in front her talking trash as I left her in my dust .   I won’t cop to it unless there are race photos/videos, but it could be said that I lunged at the line!

Time:  31:04.  40 second drop from last year, but considering how I have been riding most of the year I am happy and it portends well.

Run – 5k

Goal:  None

I didn’t know what to expect on the run.  I ran a 5K two weeks ago and my balls to the wall effort netted a 19:51.  I didn’t have one second faster in me and seriously contemplated walking with about a half mile left.   Below is picture of me dying in the last 100 meters.

I have to say I was pleasantly surprised.   I ran smooth and it didn’t feel very hard.   Can’t really explain it, but while it didn’t feel super hard, I didn’t leave much, if any, time on the course.  Most encouraging aspect is that I felt I had the same pace left in me for quite a bit more time.

Time:  18:34.  Hmm…..that seems awfully fast.  I have done this race a bunch of times and the turnaround point seemed like it was in the same place, but it doesn’t take much to throw the times way off in a 5K – especially on an out and back course.   I’ll take it, but I wouldn’t argue with anyone adding 30 seconds onto that run.

Total:  56:31 – 7^th overall.

This was the most fun I have had racing in quite some time.   Race Directors Shandra Richardson and LJ White did an excellent job as always and timing company TrakkersGPS had instantaneous results.   Finally, I wanted to recognize the race performances of Jason McKay, Ken Delraso, Snapple teammate Bart Forsyth, and Scott Bailey.  Va.  Run is a really fun race and the same crew of people show up each year.  Nice way to see where you line up early in the year.   These guys raised the bar for everybody with each of them going under the previous course record (held by Jason) with Jason narrowly beating Ken and Bart.

Thanks for reading,

Zack

Been a tough start to tri season, but finally getting some work done.  Spent most of the winter trading calf injuries.  As soon as right calf healed, left calf acts up, then right again.   Hoping am finally passed the frustration of cancelling workouts.  Last couple weeks have been great – tiring – but great.   The hardest part is getting back up to speed.   I am getting used to getting dropped on rides, but it still is a tough spill to swallow.   There’s something not right about working hard and watching your teammates sitting up in front of you in the road and not making up any ground on them!   Maybe let some air out of their tires when they aren’t paying attention?  Get the brakes rubbing against the back wheel?  Any and all suggestions will be considered.

Bart talked me into a run after our 50 mile ride yesterday morning and it was utter agony – I have no idea how slow I was going (and don’t want to know!), but the important thing is got through it and was able to get up crank out tempo run this morning and recovery ride this afternoon.    Best part was knocking back nachos, burger, and fries post workout and not feeling the least bit guilty.   I know Matias and Rebecca won’t approve, but I promise I was good the rest of the week.

Virginia Run (aka Sprint World Championships) in a few weeks.  I need to find my cycling legs if I want to keep my streak alive of improving every year.    It’s funny that my strongest sport is causing the most frustration and hardest to get back up to speed on.  Swimming faster than I ever have – though that isn’t really saying much – so that’s encouraging.    Watching my teammates crushing it every weekend certainly helps the motivation.  I mean, who wants to be the slow guy?!?!?

Zack

Training for duathlon/triathlon doesn’t exactly translate to other sports.

I joined a Street Hockey league and played my first game on Wednesday (well, technically it was the tryouts). Ouch, babe. I felt fine during the scrimmage — the sprinting left me breathless, but bounced back pretty easily.

The pain set in the next day. Hips, lower back, thighs — where did all these muscles come from? Today (3 days later) is the first time I have felt halfway normal. Running was okay after the first 5-10 minutes, but biking sure was hard. 40 easy minutes on the trainer? Not so much.

I’d blame old age, but I’m not that old yet. Highlights the importance of using all your muscles. I figure next week will be worse then it will get better for the rest of the year. These had best not be famous last words!

Zack

My goal for the last couple months has been a sub-30 at my annual Thanksgiving Day 5 miler.  This is about the most focused I have ever been in training.  Running 6 days a week, tempo runs, track workouts — the whole nine.   Having a goal time is actually making nervous.   Come through or come up short.   That’s it.

Was feeling lazy on Thursday and Bart talked me into bagging tempo run, jogging with him, and doing a 5K as a fitness test.  Sold — why work hard today when I can put it off until tomorrow?

Found the BA 5K — BA stands for Biliary Atresia, which is a rare liver disease that affects newborns and requires a liver transplant.  As a rare disease not much is known and not much money is invested into it.   The Moss family has a daughter with the disease and put on this event to raise money for further research.   If they can raise $30K then they will get a matching grant from NIH – -or some other organization, not sure I have the details exact.  Either way, they are at $23K so if anyone is looking for a worthy cause to donate to check out more info on the Sydney Moss Fund.

Onto race.   Weigh in race day morning =  194.8.  Hmm….ouch.  Why the hell do I never lose weight?  Seriously, I have been trying.  I guess those Doritos still count — even if you balance them out with a lot of fruits and vegetables.  Ran into Holly G. at registration.  Quick warm-up and time for pain.

Felt pretty good through first mile (5:54).  Figured that I would be able to slowly pick it up and crush last mile.   Yeah…not so much.  Second mile was pretty tough.  Not sure of split, but I would guess a couple seconds over 6:00.   Was ready to pack in a bit, but this little squirt who I had passed right after the first mile marker reappeared.  I had no desire to be passed so picked it up. Actually finished pretty strong.   Final time was 18:24 with junior right in tow.     Stoked to finally have a race under a 6:00 min/mile pace, but not quite what I need to bang out my sub-30 — especially since my Thanksgiving course is pretty hard and this one is pretty easy.

Hoping that I get some good fitness gains from this race and can crush it in a few weeks.   Stay tuned for the exciting conclusion of Zack’s Quest for Sub-30 after Thanksgiving.   Things may look a bit bleak now, but miles to go before I sleep.   I know that you are all on the edge of your seat with anticipation.

Zack