Lifetime Minneapolis Race Report

Another city, another new race and another long road trip came together for the 7^th race of my 2012 season at Lifetime Minneapolis. Below is a race report of the whole trip and some of the events that took place in the days leading up to it. Enjoy!

After finishing the Lifetime Philadelphia race on June 24^th, I came back to Chicago with some serious focus and dedication.  I wanted to go into Minneapolis as fit as I have ever been with the intention of getting top three and qualifying for the Toyota Cup race in Dallas, Texas.  If I were to get top three in Minneapolis, I would receive a free entry to the Dallas race in addition to a $500 travel stipend (a pretty sweet deal).  So that Tuesday after Philly, I got back on the horse and simply trained harder, ate better and focused on my recovery. I had my best two weeks of training and I was feeling great 1 week out from the race, more confident in my swimming, biking and running than ever before.

Saturday July 7^th was exactly one week away from the race and I had my last hard session planned before the pre-race taper phase of my training schedule.  I planned to ride for roughly 3 hours with 2x 20:00 efforts and 1x 45:00 effort. I got out there early that morning to beat the heat and felt great from the start. I hit the first 20:00 interval right on and got ready for the next. I got about 15:00 into the second interval and then BAM…. CRASH.

Hello Body, Meet Pavement. 

I was going downhill at roughly 30 MPH and in the process of dropping into my aero bars, I hit a pothole and flipped right over the bars, skidding 20 feet in the process. I had no broken bones and no concussion but I was pretty beat up and had some nasty road rash. All I could think about was Minneapolis, a mere 7 days away.

Sunday morning I woke up pretty sore and just took it easy.  I took it easy on Monday as well and was able to finally start some shorter tune up workouts on Tuesday.  Still, the road rash was pretty nasty and I simply could not swim.  I pretty much had the “it will be fine” method on this whole crash and just crossed my fingers it would actually be fine in the end.

I made sure to get in with my miracle-healing chiropractor Monday and Thursday last week to get everything properly adjusted.  We left on Thursday afternoon to make the 6-hour drive and I was still feeling sore from the crash but surprisingly, my legs felt rested and fresh. 

We got in Thursday night around 7pm, hit up the Whole Foods right away for dinner/ groceries and then settled into the hotel.  I hit the hay pretty early on Thursday night (sleeping on the awful pull out couch in the hotel room).

The trip was served a dual purpose for the Metzler family, my sister, Jillian, is currently in the process of college searching so the three of them toured the University of Minnesota campus on Friday morning. This left me to take down the shake down, course preview and packet pickup on my own.  It was not a problem at all except for not having the ability to drive the course and pay attention to what was going on at the same time (while also messing with my Garmin to get a rough estimate of the elevation on course). Lets just say I got a little lost out there and after about an hour of driving the same road back and forth, curse words were yelled and maps were thrown out the window in anger! (Not really though, I didn’t want to litter)

After struggling to figure out the course, I swam a loop of the course (the first time I had swum in 8 days), biked around on the course and then ran for a bit. I had a light stretch, hit up Whole Foods one more time to get some dinner essentials and then went to packet pickup to get my race numbers. After that, I got back to my hotel, organized my things and then put my feet up before my 8:45pm bedtime.  

I did not sleep very well the night before; I could not stop thinking about the race.  I was actually pleased when my alarm finally rang at 4am (really not that bad considering the 3:20 wake up call for Philly). I switched it up from my normal pre-race oatmeal and had some rice cakes with peanut butter/jelly/banana (rice cakes being my new addiction).

We got to the race site around 5:30; I set up my transition area, walked through the entrances/ exits and then jogged around for 10:00 to warm up.  I had a light stretch and then got down to the beach to swim for a little and warm up the arms. I mentally prepared to race hard all day and got focused before the 7:14 gun went off.  

The swim is a simple triangle shape going clockwise around the buoys. Before the Elite Males, the Professional Men and Women went off and 1 oddly placed charity relay wave. The gun went off, arms were flung and punches were thrown as usual and then within maybe 100m we got caught up in the charity relay wave participants. I got stuck behind 1 or two of them and missed a group of 3 faster swimmers who pulled out in front. The rest of the swim I tried to bridge the gap between these 3 swimmers and myself but just could not pull them in. I worked hard on the swim but was all-alone out there. I exited the water in 4^th position in a time of 21:31 (a pretty slow time to be out of the water 4^th overall, only: 60 behind the fastest swim time). Overall, I was still happy to be in this position after only swimming once in the past 9 days.  (Also a bonus confidence booster was the fact that my entire road rash was still in tact after the swim!)

Transition 1 went pretty smoothly and I got out on the bike in 1:14.

I got on the bike and passed one of the three guys in the lead swim bunch right away.  The first half of the bike course is flat but still technical and bumpy.  I let my heart rate come down a little bit after the swim and took it easy the first 2 miles, just getting some fuel back in and getting some blood back into my legs.  Still, I was moving pretty quick and bridging the gap on another one of the racers from that lead swim group.  I ended up catching and passing him somewhere around mile 4 and started to pick up some serious speed on this section of the course. I was hammering and was feeling good but riding right at my Olympic distance threshold pace, not over it. Around the 8-mile mark, I was riding along at a steady/ hard pace with 1 guy on my tail.  All of the sudden a group of 3 guys BLAZE by me at what seemed to be around 35 MPH. I tried to keep pace but then realized their pace was jus too strong and I backed off.  As they disappeared into the distance, another 2 guys went past and they too were holding a crazy pace.  I didn’t event try to go with them and let them just pull away once again.  Around the half waypoint, a group of 2 guys bridged up to me and the three of us traded spots for the rest of the ride. Around the 20 mile mark, two guys who had gone off with the group that went past earlier in the ride fell back into the group I was around. The 5 of us came into transition at the same time. With a bike time of 1:02:10, I was pretty pleased especially because I clocked the course on my cycling computer to be about .50 to .75 miles long. I was also happy with this time because there were points on the bike course where it was so bumpy that I was simply holding on for dear life. I think this caution to not go down may have had something to do with going down HARD just one-week prior.

I ran into T2 with two other guys and we made our way over to our racks.  There was one guy ahead of me and one to my left. The one to my left went to the first rack in the row and the one ahead of me proceeded straight to the rack I was in.  Then out of nowhere, the guy on the left knocks down the bike rack, going directly into the guy ahead of me and blocking me out from my transition area.  I channeled my inner hurdler and hopped over the rack/ racer/ bike conundrum that lay ahead. I got my shoes on and hit the run course with more ease than expected given the roadblock that just presented itself. I was in and out in 1:13.

The run course is two 5k loops around the lake and is 100% flat.  Out of the group of 5 I came into transition with, I was in third position. I also realized that I was probably somewhere between 9^th and 12^th place overall, well off the goal of top 3.  At this point I just wanted to put my head down and run hard.  I had swam at my threshold and biked at my threshold and I just wanted to polish it off with a gut wrenching run. I passed one of the guys from the 5-man group within the first half-mile and watched the other guy pull ahead who decided it would be cool to run with Sarah Haskins who was on her second loop of the run course.  I let the two of them go ahead and just stuck to my plan.  I hit the first 2 miles steady but hard enough to keep the pace honest in 12:35. I was feeling good and started to push at this point. I was at 3 miles in 18:30, 4 miles in 24:30.  I really started to bury myself miles 4-6.  I saw a few guys up the road and went into warrior-attack mode on them.  I passed 3 guys in the final 2 miles and came into the finish completely depleted in 37:13.

My finish time was 2:03:23 and I was 6^th place overall in the Elite Male field. Even though it was not a top 3, the competition was much more challenging than I had expected given last years results.  I raced as hard as I could the whole day and was very pleased with my effort, especially with what I think was a slightly longer swim and bike courses. I was also super pleased with my ability to come back from a rather inconveniently timed wreck just one-week prior.  I did not let it distract my mental focus and I did not use it as an excuse, all qualities that I am happy to see myself show in times that it would be very easy to get distracted and make up BS excuses.

After the race, it took me about an hour to come back around to even half function.  I was able to cool down with a 20:00 easy jog and stretched out some very tight legs. I also made 3-6 trips to the Zico cart and stocked up on some coconut water. That counts as a cool down too, right?

I may or may have not taken 15 of them....

I lugged my bag with the Zico’s in it to the car and we got some breakfast at this crazy good diner in downtown Minneapolis.  It was also great to see my best friend and roommate, also named Justin, from Iowa who lives in Minneapolis and came out for the race (even though he was feeling… under the weather? Lets just say the hungry man’s breakfast from the diner did the trick to make him feel better!)

This dude thinks he's strong or something. 

My post-race breakfast choice. Vegetable/egg white/ avocado scrambler, fruit and sweet potato tater tots. 

After heading back to the hotel for a quick shower, we loaded up the car and hit the road towards home! 

I am getting pretty pro at in-car-post-race-delicoius snacks. 

And one more...... 

Next up are a few weeks of solid training and then a local sprint race in Naperville, IL.  I placed second there last year and I am gunning for the win this year! The following weekend I am doing Rev3 Wisconsin Dells to validate my qualification for the 2013 Collegiate National Championship.  After that, the season is not set in stone.  I am doing the 5150 National Championship HyVee Triathlon but I am going to listen to my body and decide whether or not to add another race or two.  I will be sure to keep everyone updated! 

I want to give a quick thanks to my coach, Craig Strong, at Precision Multisport who put together the pre-race/ post-crash plan to get me to as close to full form as possible on race day. Thank you to Cycleops Power supplying the data that allows me to improve my bike power every training session and Running Away Multisport for hooking me up with a disc wheel for the race! Also consider checking out Eleonore Rocks, any donation is much appreciated! 

Philadelphia Insurance Triathlon Race Report

Below is the breakdown of the Olympic distance race in the City of Brotherly Love, Philadelphia.

The day started off with my earliest wake up call yet… 3:20am! I did not sleep very well the night before the race and I had a hard time getting my heart rate to calm down. All I could think about was the race. 

After getting up pretty easily out of my semi-asleep state, I had my regular breakfast of oatmeal and peanut butter, a bit of coffee and we hit the road.  We flew downtown from where we were staying about 20 minutes away and after getting a little lost, somehow managed to get to the race site parking. We got our things together, pumped the tires and rode our bikes down to the transition area. 

After getting organized and ready to go, Alex and I took the bus down to the swim start at St. Joe’s boathouse down the river. I hit up the port-o-potty and then the two of us went for our warm up.  We jogged along the river path for about 15:00 and I was able to add a few shorter pickups and felt very fluid.  After a light stretch, I put my Kiwami on and went down to the dock where we jumped in.

Water temperature was 81.3 degrees, which meant no wetsuit.  I was pretty happy with the call because I think that I actually benefit from a non-wetsuit swim. The course is a straight shot down the river (with the stream behind us) before a quick right turn to the swim exit.  The pro men went off at 6:30am, the women at 6:31 and I was off at 6:33.

Right from the start there was a pack of about 10 guys who went out front. I was on the back of that pack and swimming comfortably.  I was happy to make the front group, which had been a bit of a struggle the past few races. I hammered along for about 100m and then realized this group was easily 50 meters away from the line of bouys in the middle of the river.  I had two choices, either stay with this group and be what I thought was off course, or break off from this group and join 3 or 4 others who were swimming right along the bouy line. I quickly realized that swimming out of the way was not the best decision and broke off from this group to grab onto the other swimmers feet who were swimming along the correct line.  And this was….. the wrong move! I went over to those guys and then after a few strokes realized I was either swimming much faster than them or they were fading hard. All I could do was watch the group to the left gain distance on me as I stayed along the bouy line by myself.

I exited the swim in 20:19.  A pretty strong swim time alone but I had planned to go a lot faster and I believe that if I was part of that group, I could have gone faster. Either way, they gained about :50 seconds on me total. :50 seconds I would have liked to have but I had to just deal with the decision I had made.

T1 was pretty smooth without a wetsuit. I got out of the water, made my way to my bike and headed out on the course after running through the long transition area.

We had driven the bike course twice on Friday evening and I had a pretty good idea of what was ahead of me. It is two loops, each with four major climbs. There is 850 feet of climbing per lap for a total of 1700 feet. It was not as hilly as the Pat Griskus race last weekend but still very challenging with a number of technical turns and bombing descents. I got on the bike and rolled up to the first hill, less than a mile out of transition. I may have taken this one too hard from the start because I got over this first hill and was pretty shot. Maybe I didn’t give myself enough time for my heart rate to come down after the swim but I really did not feel right until mile 8 on the bike.  The following climbs were pretty much what I expected and I really worked to gain speed on the down hills. After mile 8, I was able to push the pace a little bit and put some good power down on the pedals. I put my head down, worked hard and pushed through the course. I started to feel it again around mile 20 but managed to come into T2 with a 1:03:13 bike time. Not blazing fast and not really what I had planned but still pretty solid for the course.

T2 went great, I dropped my bike off and hit the run course with no problems at all.

The run course is pretty simple and flat. There is an out and back to the right of the transition area, a .4 mile run on the grass behind the transition and then another out and back on the other side before coming into the finish. I started conservative as usual and missed the fist mile marker, missing my first mile split time.  I felt like I was pushing and told myself to just calm down a couple of times. My legs felt like they were rolling and I thought I was doing pretty well. The two mile came up and I checked my watch for the first time to see 13:00.  About 30 seconds slower than what is usually pretty conservative pace for me. From that point on I started to push harder.  I just put my head down and gritted the last 4 miles out.  I may have gone a little too hard on miles 3-4 because I was hurting pretty bad towards the end.  I was reeling in a few of the pro women but only caught a few Elite males. Right at the 6 mile mark, I saw an elite male up the road and tried to catch him.  I put in a surge and left it all out there. I missed him by :02 seconds in the end, coming in with a run time of 37:55.

My total finish time was 2:04:24.  I would have really liked to be somewhere around 2:00:00 for this race but the bike course was challenging and I made a wrong decision in the swim. I pushed hard from start to finish and was content with my result. I finished 9^th overall in the Elite Male division, keeping my top-ten streak alive. I was also 23^rd overall out of 1589 competitors. It was a solid day and I am traveling back to Illinois a happy racer.

I also want to give a huge shout out to Alex Libin who took 1st place in the Male Elite field.  He is one seriously fast dude and an awesome friend to be with throughout the whole east coast trip. 

Sorry for no pictures this time, no personal photographer for this one! You can check out the professional pictures (and even some videos from the finish and the swim exit) from Brightroom here http://www2.brightroom.com/98163/143

I would also like to point out that I am currently ranked 1^st in the nation in the 18-19 division on the USAT Rankings. You can see it for yourself at www.usatrankings.com.

A huge thanks to Coach Craig at Precision Multisport, Eleonore Rocks Triathlon Team and  CycleOps Power. Also thank you so much to my family who came out to watch me race. Love you guys!