Race Prep:
This would be my first race with the new Zipp 404 front wheel. I'd taken off the TriRig Omega brake and replaced it with the OEM dual caliper brake, and this made for too little clearance. The wider rim brought the lever arm of the caliper down, and the apex of my tire was rubbing against the brake's bottom. After fiddling with it unsuccessfully, I went into my LBS and ultimately through some tinkering and a new brake cable, we were able to make it work. If only just. Might be time to put the Omega back on over the off season and see if it fits better.
Pre-Race:
Stayed in the beautiful home with our friends up in the Twin Cities. They went to an Asian night market while I lamely rested at the house. I got an interrupted night's sleep before driving the ~1hr north to Chisago, snaking on some baked goods from the local grocery and continuing to hydrate.
While there is reserved parking for long course athletes at a little parking lot, it had easily filled well before my arrival 75min before the race. I parked a 1/4mi away on a residential street and rolled into transition.
Swim:
Pic of the beach from the Paradise Park website
The sun continued to climb over Paradise Park and it was announced the lake was too warm for wetsuits. This was simultaneously great news and bad news, as I'm both critical of how wetsuits neuter the difficulty of the swim, but also hypocritically didn't really train for the swim. At all. So off I wandered in just my tri shorts down to the beach.
The beach is nicely sandy but there are rocks once you hit the waterline. After a while milling around we got the countdown for 10 seconds. It's been a while since I've been able to race so I was loving it- looking forward to the swim and taking in the energy before the race. The gun went off and we ran into the water. The one loop swim was pretty uneventful, with the main challenge being that there was no shoreline structure to sight off of, so you had to go buoy to buoy. I got a few wet hugs from the lake in the form of rag weed, but ultimately came out of the swim in an unremarkable 39:58.
Swim time: 39:58 / 1:54 per 100yrds
Swim Lesson: actually train for the swim! I easily lost 8-10min given my swimming background.
"Train your weaknesses, but don't neglect your strengths"
T1:
T1 was a short, quick uphill run into the park. I found my bike right away and had the presence of mind to roll up my tri jersey (just like you can roll up socks for a fast transition), so I passed the two guys adjacent to me who were already at their bikes.
T1 time: 2:05
Bike:
After a short stretch over grass to reach a bike path, we reached the broad-shoulders of forest lined roads that would serve as the very pleasant bike course. The sun gave a slight bit of warmth to the cool morning, and I set about quietly riding the first hour so I wouldn't burn any matches. I remember my first Ironman race when dozens of guys would blow by going +25mph as though the bike was a 40km, only to then shuffle along awkwardly on the run. "Don't be a hero," I reminded myself. I let the new front Zipp wheel and my rear wheelcover do most of the work as I cruised along, munching on my bike nutrition of Clif Shot bloks, powerbars, and GU energy gel. I knew things would heat up after the bike so I tried to pre-hydrate, taking on three salt tablets and +30oz / hour of Gatorade instead of the usual 24oz. This seemed to serve me well later on during the warm run.
I held a nice, constant pace for the entire bike ride. There was one relatively small hill but other than that it was a gentle, rolling course. A long stretch of two-lane highway on the back end of the bike into a headwind wasn't fun, but helped eat up the miles. There were a decent number of flats along the course. I was glad I'd rehearsed "fixing a flat for time" as that gave me some piece of mind I wouldn't have too long of an involuntary rest break should my tires quit on me.
Bike time: 2:48:20 , 20.0mph
Bike Lessons:
-happy to pretty easily stay in the aerobars for the length of the race. Train for the aero position, people.
-My right quad became a little over-used, which hadn't cropped up in training. I should do more long time trial efforts to sort out position issues. Train, uh, train for the aero position...
T2:
The second transition was a quick affair where I slipped on my shoes while grabbing my hat and race number belt and bolted out onto the course.
T2 time: 1:09
Run:
I'd read online that the course was exposed and hot. Fortunately I'd trained for this, timing my 10-13mi training runs in the heat of the day to try to help my body adapt. This exposure training really worked, along with wearing a Craft cooling arm sleeve for ice and water, a hat for ice, and grabbing liquid like it was going out of style at each aid station. I wouldn't necessarily recommend it, though. Consult your doctor or coach before making any deprivation training choices. Fortunately, I am a doctor, so I consulted myself and got the go ahead.
I'd trained much more for the run than for the bike, given my limited training time, and this really seemed to pay dividends now. Even though I left transition with the stiff, grandpa-esque gate of a triathlete, I opened up a bit over the miles and felt solid the whole time. The course was sunny and fairly exposed, but after ~3 residential miles on the out-and-bike run course, we hit some nice dirt road running through mixed forest and prairie which was a beautiful setting to run though.
The run course was very well-stocked with aid stations, and that helped take the edge off of the heat.
Run: 1:59 / 9min per mi pace
Run lesson:
-no substitute for run mileage.
-I need to do more core work and supplemental leg muscle strengthening. A strong core makes for a faster run.
Finish:
Heading back into Paradise Park, the finishing stretch had us wrap around and up the small hilly park before making a final turn and then hey, you're done! Overall time of 5:31 and I was quite pleased given my current situation in life.
Driving back down to the Twin Cities, a final cap on the day was seeing my wife and our friends, who offered me a legendary fish-shaped ice cream waffle with red bean filling.
Ice Cream Red Bean Fish Dessert Waffe: the post race choice for Toughmen everywhere
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