St. Anthony's Triathlon Race Report

I am happy with another PR and really pleased with my swim/ bike time. Cramps killed my run again for the second year in a row.  I am disappointed that I am still dealing with racing cramps even after trying out so many different methods to prevent them. Full recap of the weekend below.

I drove home to Glenview late on Wednesday night and was able to sleep in my own bed which was really nice.  I woke up Thursday, relaxed for a bit at home, got in a swim, had lunch, biked and then ran. Right after the workout I saw my chiropractor and got a pre race tune up and adjustment.  I went to bed early on Thursday and got plenty of sleep after packing up the bikes. I had been having a few nosebleeds throughout the week after Tuscaloosa and my mom started to worry when I got one during the end of my run on Thursday.  Friday morning I actually went and got my nose cauterized to prevent any problems during the race.  After rushing a bit to get that taken care of, Chase (a friend of mine who was doing the race with me) and I headed out to Midway Airport.  We went from Midway to Atlanta and then to Orlando.  We rented a car and then drove half way to Whole Foods for dinner (heck yes), which was awesome. We finally got to the house we were staying at around 12:00am.  It was a long day and night but we were able to sleep in which was good. Woke up on Saturday and had some breakfast right away.  Put the bikes together and then headed down to the expo/ transition area around 11am.  First, we put our bikes in transition and then went for a swim.  I felt great in the water and really fresh.  After the swim we went to get our bikes but they wouldn’t let us out.  I guess the rule is, no matter what, once the bikes are in the transition area (even the day before at noon), they cannot be taken out. We had a big fight with this prick that was guarding the area.  We had to wait 2.5 hours to find the race director and get him to let us out with our bikes. I needed to make sure that everything was working properly after putting it back together out of the box. So within these 2.5 hours, I went for a small jog, right around 15:00 with 5x: 20 sec build to race pace efforts. My form and cadence felt good and I was getting up to speed with very little effort. Finally, I got my bike out and hit a 20:00 ride with a few: 20 sec efforts. Again, I felt very smooth and fresh and I was able to find a comfortable position right away.  Eventually, around 4:30 we made it back to the house (long day before the race in the heat). We cooked dinner ourselves on Saturday night and went to bed early before a 3:45 wake up call.

Morning came and I had breakfast right around 4:00am (1 package instant oatmeal, peanut butter with flaxseed, banana, few blueberries and raspberries, 1 small coffee, some water). We got our things together and headed down to transition. Got there around 5:15, set up the area and I went for my warm up around 5:45. Got in a 10:00 run with a few efforts and felt pretty loose. After final prep, got my gear and headed down to the swim start around 6:20. Wet suit on took a Roctane gel and I was ready to go. Male elite was 3^rd wave, (first of non pro’s).  They corralled us in a start and then had us walk out to the middle of the ocean before the gun went off.

The swim course is a long straight away paralleling the beach, a slight left turn, a right turn and then another right towards the transition area.  I was able to get out in front right away and get into a small group.  I did a bit of the pulling for maybe the first 400m but then put in a pretty strong surge to catch the group up ahead.  I was able to hold onto the feet of 2 guys in this group for the remainder of the swim and I was feeling super fast without going out of control.  I made the final turn and started to really work my kick to get some blood back in my lower body and prevent the small twinges I get sometimes when exiting the water. This worked perfectly and I was flying into transition.  I looked down at my watch and saw I was just over 20:00. A perfect spot to be and I was pumped with a new swim PR.

Perfect transition 1 (and great flying mount).

I got out on the bike and focused on getting into a rhythm right away.  My nutrition plan was slightly different this weekend rather than last weekend.  I took 1 roctane gel before the start of the swim, I took 1 gel right at the start of the bike and I took 1 gel right at the end of the bike before the run start. I took 2 bottles rather than 1 bottle.  I had nuun in my main bottle and just water in the bottle on my down tube. I mostly took the second bottle to wash out the salt water after the swim.  Right from the start of the bike my legs just felt great. Powerful and smooth.  I was able to find my optimal cadence and power right away.  I just simply put my head down and hammered. The course has a lot of turns but there are literally no hills. It is fast and flat and I was crushing it.  I had a small battle with two other guys which made me push pretty hard and I was passing a pretty good amount of pro women who started 5 min before us which gave me confidence.  I came in from the bike, great flying dismount and headed into T2.

Perfect transition 2, no problems at all.

After exiting T2, I looked down at my watch to see where I was.  I saw 1:23 for total time.  That gave me 37:00 for 10k to break 2 hours. I was stoked.  I knew I had to just relax, keep my cool and click off the miles. I know I can run a sub 37:00.  Mile 1 was 5:40, came through 2 mile at 11:40, mile 3 at 17:48. I was flying and felt great. I was taking in a bit of water at the aid stations but mostly just putting it over my head. Still, pumped as hell to be close to 2 hours if I could just keep it together.  Also, the run is an out and back so I saw the pro men coming back the other way.  They were flying and that put some lift in my step.  Shortly after them, I started to see the other amateur elite men and counted. I only counted 8 guys ahead of me.  I was sitting in 9^h place at the 3 mile.  In the whole freaking race! (Except the pros).  Ahh, my mind was feeling great and I started to think I had the best race of my life wrapped up. Then, I felt my hamstring a little bit. Right at the 5k turn around.  I shortened my stride to be cautious and then it just went.  My hamstring went completely straight, I couldn’t even bend it.  I had to stop, stretch, walk a little bit, stretch and just watch my position and time dwindle away. I downed like 10 salt tablets and the cramp went away.  I started to run again, got maybe 1200m and then my left hamstring went. Same thing, completely straight. Same routine afterwards: down the rest of my salt tablets, maybe 5 of them, (I kept 2 just in case it happened again), stop, stretch it, walk a little bit, hobble, get passed by a pack of guys and lose time. I eventually got going again and was very cautious. I ran miles 4-5 super slow, if I had to guess, somewhere around a 7:00 pace. I started to get passed while I was running and I was not going to let that happen. I took a risk and just went for it.  I wanted to break 2:05 at this point and just get a PR. I had I think somewhere around 7:30 for the last 1.2mi to do it.  I just started to work and if I cramped, then I cramped. Thankfully, I didn’t cramp again and was able to re-pass 3 people in the process. I was disappointed when I crossed the finish line because I was not 100% gassed. I still had some fuel left in the tank.  My body felt great, my mind was in the right spot but the hamstrings just wouldn’t let me go.

Still, this was a PR and it gave me confidence that I am in the right spot on the swim and the bike. I was a little worried last weekend because my swim/ bike combo was not as strong as I thought it would be. I know that if I put a St. Anthony’s swim/ bike with a Tuscaloosa type run, I will be right on 2:00. 

I am gaining experience and working hard.  I will get there. I still need to experiment with what causes the cramps.  I seem to get them much more frequently than other people and only when I race; so it is very hard to figure out what works because I don’t get them in training. Because the cramps subsided after the salt tablets, it leads me to believe it has something to do with salt but I really do not know. I am hoping that it is just a simple fact of coming from Iowa to Florida. It was a hot, humid and sunny day and it may have just been the climate.

I learned a lot and I keep gaining experience in racing which is what the goal is for the season.  Fast times and good places are just a byproduct of the hard work. I am happy this two-week crazy travel block is over with even though it was really fun and a great experience.  I am ready to recovery and then get back to work over the next 3 weeks and prep for Kansas City 5150 on May 20^th. I want to say thank you to my coach, Craig Strong, from Precision Multisport who helped get me ready for these two races and has put together the training program that has led me to such great improvement so quickly. I also want to thank CycleOps Power and GU for getting me through training and racing with the best products on the market.  


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That is all for now! Splits from the race are below. 

Official results:

Swim- 20:58

Transition 1- 0:58

Bike- 1:00:25

Transition 2- 0:50

Run- 41:24

Time- 2:04:33

Overall place- 82^nd out of 2689

Division place (amateur elite)- 28^th out of 65