Wildflower 2012 - Race Mojo :-)

This last weekend (May 5th/6th) I've been down at the 30th Wildflower Triathlon Festival at Lake San Antonio, near King City. 2 years ago I did my first half Ironman there in preparation for IM Switzerland. The next 2 years were just a bliss, with a sub 10h Ironman, a Kona slot, Kona and 2 AG 1st's last year. Some of you may have noticed that I was struggling to find the right kind of motivation for 2012. And after a disappointing sub-par performance at the Metro Duathlon some 2 weeks ago I had real issues getting pumped for this one. But I am happy to report that the tides have turned after this amazing race. So let's roll!

View of the lake with Olympic Distance race in progress

Brett and I drove down Friday afternoon, stopping to pick-up pre-ordered food at Olive Garden - genius! All went well with packet pick-up, pitching tent's, etc. It was quite nice to have GGTC and SFTri clubs right next to each other, good set-up. I did go to bed around 9.30, but somehow slept terrible - which lately always happens when I don't care too much about the race (oddly enough). 

Transition Area

Ah what am I boring you with my pre-race routine, let's just say all went well and at 8.30AM the horn blew for my wave start. First Triathlon swim of 2012 - let's see if all this time in the pool paid off. The lake was really nice and warm, a tad too warm for me even. And there it happened again, few hundred yards in I find myself questioning the whole Tri-thing and nothing I can think off get's the dark picture out of my mind. Yet given the options, I decided to continue. Stoked to come out of the water with the race clock under 1 hour, ie sub 30min swim for Stefan (for all of you that want to say that this was a fast swim - no it wasn't! It was the darn hours spent in the pool!!!!). This is where things really picked up for me and the good tri-vibes seem to come back after the big post 2011 nadir. 

Smooth transition onto the bike and out along the lake to go up the first big hill. Kaiser-style I motored up over it and out of the park. This was the one and only point where someone passed me all day on the bike, I tried to hang on, but quickly decided against it. So a lot is being said about these hills and how you should take them easy. I would disagree. I am not advocating to attack them (and I certainly would go at them differently on a training solo-bike ride), but let's face it, you need to put a good time in to be close to the top finishers. Enough said. The rest of the ride was a total blast, keeping food/fluids/HR/etc under control I was gobbling up people that started ahead of me at a constant pace. This is a tricky situation though as you feel so fast and you need to remind yourself constantly to ride aggressively to stay on pace. 'Nasty grade' comes and goes and I still haven't seen Brett, who I pictured either catching up to me before 'nasty grade' or not catching me during the bike. When I rolled down into transition I was shocked to see so few bikes back 'home'. Hummm, must have been a fast ride. Switch shoes, ready to run, out of T2. 

Felt good for the first couple of miles, although the downhill running already seemed to be incompatible with my legs. I really wanted to run a 7min/mile average, and held on to it until about mile 4, which harbors the big hill (really big hill). Wasn't too worried to go below that pace, since I figured I could make it up later. This is where I was passed by Kevin Coady, who just runs so amazingly fast (how?!?). Walking up the really big hill I passed to guys that said that 3rd place was just ahead. Darn - I knew it - he was the guy that I caught up to on the bike, until we jo-jo'd into transition (me-light-guy-uphill-fast <-> him-heavier-guy-downhill-bomb). I kept a constant distance until the wheels really fell off after the big descent at mile 6ish. Running through the campground I sucked no positive energy at all from the cheering crowd, it was pure pain. There were apparently people half-naked with beer and hotdogs, haven't seen anything. Finally mile 9 marks the turn into the pit, at the bottom of which, shortly after the turn-around I see Brett coasting down the hill yelling 'FINALLY'. I knew my day was doomed, but yet, somehow got a little bit of a push for the crawl out of 'the pit' and according to Brett actually pulled away on the flats. I felt like a carrot dangling in front of him, although he probably pictured a corn dog or something more substantial ;-) With about a mile to go, we enter the final stage, all downhill until the finish. I am running with everything I have - which looking at my watch was very little. I hear the tap-tap, tap-tap, and just shout out 'NOOOOO', turns out that's not Brett, it's Rich Viola, who just took 10mins out of me (how on earth can you swim so fast?!?), he asks if I am cramping - 'no' I say, just want to stay ahead ;-) But tap-tap, tap-tap again. Here he is, just yards behind me, the finish in sight, Brett catches up to me, we turn around <- no one in sight. ?Epic battle with potentially deadly outcome? Or just enjoy? We run side-by-side up until the finish line, where Brett takes the win he deserves, since he really slowed down to run with me for the final 200 yards. He was the stronger athlete and took 5th that day. Big congrats. That was the most fun racing I ever had. Beautiful!

Overall I am super happy with my result. Given the lack of focus, this turned out to be a great race. PR'd the course by almost 30mins compared to 2010. 6th AG, 23rd overall and 15th fastest bike split (courtesy of M2 and powercranks), outbiking my fellow team mates Brett and Virgilio (ups did I just say that). Now onto a revised training plan --> it's all downhill from here ;-)

Great weekend also for fellow athletes, Sandrine AG4th, Virgilio-Erika-Norman relay 2nd, etc ...

Brett and myself before the start of the race

Another beautiful morning in San Francisco - Air temperature 55F - Water ... about the same

M2 Group Aquatic Park Swim April 27th 2012

Just in time to get the Open Water Mojo for Wildflower a few of us M2 athletes gathered for quick AP swim this morning. 7AM and the sun just making up over the Berkley hills, we got ready with our usual routine of applying body glide, corking orifices and adding layers of neoprene. Mike started his ballet routine ...

Looking awfully good this morning (missing Kahn, shown later)

The water was colder than last week, but tolerable (OK it's cold, but hey, it's AP after all). Some of us ventured out to the opening and caught a glimpse of the Golden Gate Bridge, while some stayed along the buoy line, all of which are acceptable options. Kahn and I had a quick wrestle - perfect preparation for wildflower ;-) ... but then he was gone ...

A quick 30-45mins later everyone was back on dry land ... some already dressed ... some never got wet ...

... while others had the technique for sand removal nailed:

Great fun it was. See you all and more next time as the M2 group practices mass starts, kicking and banging as well as drafting. Put Friday 7AM on your calendar for this summer.

Race Day Fluids - Part 1

You must have heard the phrase 'nutrition is the fourth discipline' in Triathlon multiple times - why do you ignore it then? Time after time I see folks putting in seemingly endless hours training for a Triathlon, but they pay little to no attention to nutrition and fluids. Ask around next time how many people know their approximate sweat rate? Their caloric need or intake ... you'll be baffled by the responses.

I am not saying that my strategy is perfect, but I wanted to pass on some thoughts on this topic. This blog post is mainly geared towards long distance races or races in extreme heat, in my opinion in a sprint distance race you can pretty much do whatever if you finish within about an hour and half (please don't eat a burger now in your next sprint). We start by this:

Determine your sweatrate:

Next time you go out on a ride or run weigh yourself in. This is best done with minimal clothes (nude for Europeans), but likely that's not suitable in most cases. Make sure you weigh in with an empty bladder and account for the additional fluids taken in and lost at a pit stop.

Simple example

• weigh-in with empty bladder at start of workout: 150lbs
• intake 2 500ml bottles = 1000mls = 1kg = 2.2lbs
• additional loss at pit stop approx 500ml (this is hard to guess) = 1.1lbs
• net: 
• You should weigh in at 151.1lbs (150lbs+2.2lbs-1.1lbs)
• You weigh in at 149 lbs
• You lost 2.1lbs of something =  0.95kg or almost 1liter of fluids
• sweat rate = 1liter per (duration of workout in hours)
• I think I have this right

Now note that this is highly dependent on the actual temperature of the day and workout intensity. I know for example that at a constant workload an increase in workload (from 50% to 70% of max effort) my sweatrate doubles. So consider this guidance not exact science. If you have had a net loss of about a bottle on a 4 hour ride on  a cool overcast day and you are going to race in the heat you need to adjust dramatically. Consider that most experts believe that a small loss of total body water, low 2-3%, reduces your physical performance substantially (http://goo.gl/gIQX5).
What are indicators of hypovolemia? That's difficult to assess in race day, unless you experience full blown dehydration with dizziness and more severe outcomes, what you want to prevent is even the mildest form of water loss. Look for signs of pee frequency, thirst (very late sign), increase in HR at same effort level and count your bottle intake.

The next critical topic is salt. Sodium in the form of sodium chloride is the most important one, but recent data suggest that potassium is also very important.  So step one know the salt content of your nutrition. Your loss is a bit harder to get to as it is highly individual. If you are a 'cruster' (you know what that is if you are one, otherwise no need to know) you will need a lot more than someone who has never seen the white lines of doom on their jersey. There are tests being offered now to assess the salt content of your sweat, which seem a god way to get an idea, but then again like with fluids, these data may vary from day to day and condition to condition. You should fall somewhere between 150 to 700 mg / salt / hour. If you are on the low end, a bottle of most electrolyte drinks will suffice, if you are on the high end, you need to add salt in the form of tablets. I find that taking two 100mg pills / hour are a good addition. Now when you play with salt tablets, take them with lots of fluid and test (read 'in training') how many you can tolerate in a single serving (salt water is given to kids to induce vomiting, try it for yourself, I tried 8 at a time once and boy did I feel nauseous!). 
Another good thing to do is to salt load in the days leading up to a race by eating salty foods and adding salt to most meals you take in the 3 days leading up to a race. Salt has been blamed for an increase in cardiovascular events, but consider this an effect of chronic salt overdosing, and recent research even shows a negative effect of low sodium diet in the long run. This would be a separate topic, but for today and for race day you probably don't have to worry about your salt intake, although no study has this really addressed to my knowledge. So asses your sweat salt and play with substitutions.

... to be continued as part 2 on nutrition

THE Diabolic Triple

Here is a good one. Last year I fell in love with Mt.Diablo (Nicole it's a different kind of love). Riding it for the first time inspired me to make this a mainstay of IM preparation / training in general. With it's seemingly never ending 'gradual' slope, the fast descents, the views and the option to climb from both the North and the South - why wouldn't you. After doing a single climb early last year for starters, I quickly designed the triple climb and termed it the 'diabolic triple' - go up via North Gate Road, up via South Gate Road and up again from the North. This, for me, is about a 6 hour day, with 75 miles of climbing and just about 11.000 feet of elevation gain. I was very pleased to have Mike V. join me this time. Going up the third time is truly a test of all kinds of things and somehow it must have some benefit one would think.
So this last Saturday we drove to Walnut Creek and started our ride at 8.30AM.

Here is what the day looks like in feet-terms ;-):

 

Temperatures seemed perfect for climbing (I revise that later, because they were freezing for the downhill). Mike put out a great effort and kept me honest on this first summit. I was about a minute slower than my very best time, which I had done on my TT and with no powercranks. Given that the old and faithful and yellow Giant TCR is 25lbs with powercranks - this seems like a good day. So here we are at #1:

 

What followed was a very (very very) cold downhill, which only increased our lust for the second climb - this time up from the South Gate. On the way we chatted with 2 guys training for the Death Ride, doing 1.5 climbs. Not bad, but Mike and I were in for more. 2nd time's a charm they say. And it was. The hardest thing is that you just know that after all that climbing you still have to do that nasty, completely unnecessary final 100 yards that seem to go straight up! But here we go, we did it:

I initially had my camera zoomed in, so here is a shot of Mike surely expressing his real feelings:

But hey, we didn't come to stop now. So down via the junction again, turn around at the North Gate and up again. Driving out to Walnut Creek I was secretly hoping to better my time on the 3rd climb, but ... nop not today. It was a challenge, but well worth it and ...

... here we go #3! Welcome to the Diabolic Triple Club Mike. This is the 3rd time I have done it and you are the first one that stuck it out. More to come this season and hopefully one day I will just go out there for a single assault to see what the best time can be for me without worrying about another 2 summit pushes. As true athletes of course we finished it off with a 4 mile brick run ;-)

How wants to join next time?

I composed this 'manual' for anybody interested in trying it:

I would drive to Walnut Creek, take the Ygnacio Valley Road exit and park at Sportsbasement. There is everything you want there, restroom at the grocery store, burrito, pizza, bakery, etc. When you start riding go out at the end of the Chase bank, continuing the direction away from SF. At the first major intersection, just a couple 100 yards past where you parked you go right along Walnut Avenue (bike lane). You'll come to a roundabout where you take the first exit on the right to Oak Grove Road and then an immediate left to North Gate Road. That's it. It sounds more complicated than it is. The you continue on North Gate road until you pass the gate to the park and shortly thereafter the climb starts. Climb until the junction ranger station (water/restrooms) about half-way and continue to the summit. Last 100 yards suck, but worth the vista (restroom and water at top). Then down to the junction station, this time go left to the south gate. You will roll down past one gate area, which isn't the base, continue until you hit the second gate, when you feel like you are at the bottom (the road turns into a private road, which is cool, but it sucks, bad road). Turn around at this point. Elevation-wise you are a bit higher than at the north gate. Then back up to junction and up the summit. The rest is your choice.
From the car you can T-run back to Walnut Avenue, turn left this time and run along walnut (called Bancroft here) until you hit a small trail along the canal to the right, just before another shopping plaza. Go along the canal path until you hit a crossroad, or continue, but that's 2 miles.

Gettingreadyfor 2012

No comment - we'll see how long it lasts this time. Gee I hope I have good dental coverage ....

Having fun on the Cyclops 400PRO

I was riding the new M2 toy 400PRO in this mornings class  at M2 and I thought I share my thoughts, well knowing that this was the last time I rode the thing (because you will all jump on it now). 

 

While it appears to be similar to the 300 in physical appearance, the resistance dial is a mere dummy and you control the wattage using the little joystick on the right of the Joule head unit that you never used before. Pressing it down cycles between 'gear', 'target grade' and 'target power', while nudging it up or down moves the set value up or down (you guessed that). M2's recommended warm-up is on 'gear', where a higher number indicates an easier gear. I would find a sweet spot and then go up 2 (easier) for the cadence and down 2 (harder) for the stand. Moving into the main set of intervals it's pretty simple. Put it to 'target watts' and dial in the watts you estimate you can hold. Note that the unit will make you overachieve this target by about 10-15 watts on your average (ie you set it to X watts and you end up averaging X+15watts). A clever trick is to keep the 'gear' in a high gear so that when you come off a hard effort you can push down on the toggle switch and it becomes easy to pedal/rest. This works great, but there is a slight delay in ramping up and down and it's a bit tricky for very short intervals (ie 20s). Also the watts you are actually pushing fluctuate quite a bit (set point X, will make you push X +/- 20 watts), you can either like this as a rode-like feeling, or hate it. Your choice. I like it.

Overall fun experience, give it a try

Powercranks week 3 and beyond

I realize that I haven't been updating my progress with the Powercranks. Guess I shouldn't have promised weekly write-ups. As of today it's been around 6 weeks. Right after my last update on Dec.17th I left for a trip to Germany/Switzerland with about 2 more 2x20min indoor sessions. Before leaving I felt pretty confident using the cranks on early season group rides and I was looking forward taking them out for a spin in January. 

First ride in 2012: I went on group ride with the M2 training group. It was a decent paced group ride and either Christmas took its toll, or I wasn't ready for the pace ... after about 40 miles it HURT! I was trying to paceline with Dan to catch the other that left us at the pit stop, but I couldn't keep the pace. Riding home the last 15+ miles was SO HARD. Every stroke took a lot of mental focus and I was very close to lock the cranks. Of course that didn't happen. With that experience I continued my 2x20min indoor sessions during the week (twice a week)

Second ride 2012: M2 groupride again and I felt that I was mainly suffering from post holiday lack of fitness. This weekend we were up for a ~75miler through Sausalito, Fairfax, Pt.Ryes and back via HWY1. This time I felt great, we did several rounds of pacelining and I was able to go with the boys. Climbing back over Tam on the return hurt, but I was able to hold on. I am still not confident enough to get out of the saddle, especially in a group ride.

Looking ahead: I'll continue to use the cranks indoors twice a week for easy spins and I'll take them on more group rides. Let's see if they help improve ;-)

Here is another movie I found on youtube. Seems like a Swiss company picked up the concept as well and of course we trust the Swiss!