# 94 - St. Anthony's Triathlon

Pre-Race: This weekend is my first tri of 2010; I had planned on doing two tris before this but Florida's frigid winter kept water temps very low even into April. Wetsuits are helpful but 56' is still pretty cold water. I've done St. Anthony's 9 times before, starting in 1995, but have not been back since the 2005 race. It's grown now to 4,000 triathletes, so it should be a major show. My wave is 25 out of 32, starting almost 2 hours after the pro's. Also it's fun to join the club Sandy & I both belong to, the St. Pete Maddogs, who throw a great party Friday night. The club does homestays for all the pro's so you get to meet some famous people at the party. Sandy got a chance to talk with Katie Knight-Perry, one of the first Maddogs. Saturday morning's mini-tri, The Meek & The Mighty, features children and adults competing together around downtown St. Petersburg and is great fun to watch. We did manage to get into a B&B, the Sunset Bay Inn, within walking distance of everything, which makes the congestion easy to deal with. We had a great breakfast Saturday morning after I had a short bike ride.

Race Report: We had a great weekend and I had a great race. One of the issues with big races like this is the fact that it takes a huge effort to organize and work out the logistics to have 4,000 triathletes race at the same time. I got up at 4:30 AM and walked the 3 blocks over to transition. Once I had set everything up (bike was racked on Saturday), I walked back to Sunset Bay and relaxed until 8:00. Sandy & I then walked the mile to the start at Spa Beach and waited for the 8:39 start for Wave 25.

The wind, which had been blowing since sunrise, began picking up along with the waves and the race director decided to shorten the 1.5K swim to 1K, which delayed the race 36 minutes. They were already pulling swimmers from previous waves out of the water. Finally the gun went off and we began. It wasn't too bad and I finished the swim in 18:51. A long run through transition (it looked like 10 acres of bike racks) and I was off on the bike.

Great picture, Sandy!

By now, the wind was blowing 15-20 from the south with higher gusts. By mile 5, my AVS was only 16.4 MPH! As you rounded a corner, you'd get hit with a big headwind that slowed you immediately. At mile 10 I felt I was getting into a good rhythm but everything clicked at mile 17 and I was really cranking with a strong tailwind. My speed jumped to 25-29 MPH and as I headed into transition, my AVS was up to 19.7 for the 25 miles! I drank 2 bottles of Perpeteum during the 1:15 minutes bike ride so I was well hydrated & fueled.

As I ran out of transition, I swallowed 2 Endurolite capsules in case of cramping. Sure enough, at 1/2 mile the first hamstring cramp hit; I slowed and stretched and at the 1 mile waterstop I had 2 more capsules and continued on. My speed kept increasing and after a Hammer Gel at Mile 4, I was flying. I finished the 10K with a time of 58:23 (9:18 mile) which was slow as I lost about 2-3 minutes with the cramp. My final time was 2:39:47, which was skewed from my previous times by the shortened swim. One nice thing on the run was the overcast and the wind, which was really blowing by now. I finished 35th out of 100 competitors in the 55-59 Male age group, so I was very happy.

Here's the finish with Celine from Ireland by way of the Cayman Islands. We spent most of the bike and run leg within sight of each other. Great race!

Injury & Recovery

In all my years of racing, I've been thankfully free of any severe injuries. For several weeks now, after the Disney Marathon, I've been bothered by a sports hernia/groin strain. It generally manifests itself after a long run so after several doctor visits, I'm being more careful with more stretching before and after training and racing. It's difficult to start slowing down just as the season is ramping up but the message as always is "listen to your body". It knows what it can do and what it needs to accomplish these tasks. So from now on, I'll be a little more careful.

Winning, losing, and finishing

Here's an issue that triathletes have contemplated since the first (modern) triathlon back in 1974 in Mission Bay, San Diego. As triathlon has always been viewed as an endurance event, just finishing a tri was looked upon as an achievement. Since the media has portrayed tris as a grueling, heart wrenching contest (ala Julie Moss), whenever you mentioned the word "triathlon" the reaction has been "Ironman". When I began my first tris, my objective was to finish. I viewed that as an achievement, as opposed to my days of auto racing, suffering DNFs* due to a blown engine, fried clutch, and my last race, a defective radiator cap. I've never DNFed at a triathlon despite flat tires, cramps, bonking, or injuries. (*Did Not Finish)

And then I turned 50. This momentous occasion coincided with more people than ever competing and with a boom in the number of races in Florida. While I got my first trophy in 1994, 5th place in a Clermont Sprint, my first win came as a complete surprise in 2004. Now I was really excited! It didn't matter that the increase in races or my age meant that there were now fewer people in my age group. A win is a win, and a place is a place. It's made me more competitive and less complacent, made me train harder and with more planning. At the big events, I'm happy to improve my performance over previous years. With 93 tris complete, I currently have 8 Firsts, 8 Seconds, and 9 Thirds, in Sprints and Olympic distances. One of my happiest finishes in the 2009 season was my third at the Downtown Orlando Triathlon, because I beat someone I thought was unbeatable. It's also amazing to me that my times would occasionally win the next youngest age group.

I still enjoy competing and I love finishing; after the results are posted it's just icing on the cake to see my name at 1, 2, or 3.

The Right Bike

Here I am in Chicago (Evergreen Park) in 1963; I rode this bike to school and back 4 miles (1 mile each way & home for lunch) everyday. For a child growing up in the late 1950s/1960s, a bicycle meant freedom and a chance to explore your surrounding. One speed, balloon tires, probably 45 pounds. I was totally unaware that bicycle racing existed.

1994 Softride Power V; before carbon fiber was light. This was my first tri-bike; before this I used a Specialized road bike for a few races. Great bike but the carbon frame was a bit heavy. It eventually developed a crack and Softride replaced it with the frame below. Greg Welch won the Hawaiian Ironman on the Power V in 1994. This picture looks so dated now.

1999 Softride Rocket TT7, very aero. Softrides were still a bit heavy and they had a higher center of gravity due to the frame shape. The aero shape was better than anything else at the time and amazing on long downhills. I hit 51 mph descending Hospital Hill during a race in Clermont, FL. Weighing 175 pounds helps on downhills!

2005 Litespeed Tachyon; light & fast! I love this bike! The titanium frame with the carbon fork/seatpost does a fabulous job absorbing road shock and keeps the bike nice and light. Litespeed discontinued this model in 2008 and their aero shape tri-bike was a half pound heavier. I added a FSA Compact Crank (36/48) to give my old knees a break climbing hills.

You can do triathlons with any bike but having a tri/forward seatpost frame certainly helps to alleviate the "dead-legs" feeling I used to get off the bike on the run. The theory is that with the seat forward, you're utilizing a different set of leg muscles to pedal. You can find bike bargains on Craigslist or Ebay (if you know what to look for) or check out your Local Bike Shop's end of year sales. I got the Litespeed in 2006 when a LBS dropped Litespeed and cleared out their inventory. At the last race of 2009, I got a kick out of passing a 30 year old on a Cervelo P3 Carbon (disk wheel/aero helmet). Bicycling legend Eddy Merckx is quoted as saying, "You want to go faster? Pedal harder". You can buy speed on the bike but you still have to train to go fast. So which is the Right Bike? It's the one that feels right for you.

Never give up

I'll pass along to you a lesson I learned on September 13, 2008. I was competing in my 5th Downtown Orlando Triathlon. It's an interesting sprint tri since the finish line is 3.5 miles from the transition area. You swim in Lake Underhill (which is bisected by the 408/East-West expressway bridge), bike through downtown Orlando, and then run back to downtown, finishing in Wall Street Plaza. Since I work downtown, it's fun biking and running past my office.

I had a good swim and a great bike and was running along fairly steadily when at Mile 1 I was caught by a guy who, after a quick glance at his age on his calf, was in my age group. Steve and I chatted as we ran along for the next mile and discovered we lived about 2 miles from each other. At mile 2, he said he'd like to stretch his legs and pick up the pace a bit. I had earlier stated that I thought we were probably in 4th or 5th place and I let him lead out. I was feeling a bit tired as just a day earlier, I had a 8 hour flight back from a vacation in Ireland. Steve pulled ahead and I could still see him after the last turn down Orange Avenue to the finish. He finished about 21 seconds ahead of me. I probably could have stayed with him but just took it easy, figuring we were too far back.

You can probably guess the outcome; we were not in 4th or 5th. I was in 1st when he caught me and if I pushed it, I would have run with him for a big charge to the line. However, Steve's focus is mainly running (this was his second tri) and he may have just rocketed away from me. The point is I took it easy and defeated myself. I learned a valuable lesson that day in my second place finish.

The picture above is of Steve and I at the awards presentation.

A postscript occured at the first sprint tri in Clermont, Florida in 2009. I caught a fellow competitor on the run with about a 1/2 mile to go. I felt sure he would repass me if I went past him so I hung back while making sure no one else was catching us. He knew I was there and began picking up the pace as we neared the finish line. We were fairly flying when we crossed the first readout pad in the finishing chute. The announcer called his name first and I surged past him in the 20' to the finish, beating him for second place by one second. Lesson learned; never give up!

Footnote: This hasn't happened yet but I continue to push hard through the run now because though another competitor may finish 1:45 minutes ahead of me, the possibility of a post-race 2 minute penalty may put him 15 seconds behind me. Another reason to never give up!

Swim Training

Swimming has always been my weakest link in the triathlon. While I swim a lot during the spring/summer/fall, my training has always fallen off during the winter. I always plan to do some more swimming during the winter but each year in April I realized that I missed it again. The upper body weight training has helped but nothing replaces swimming.

So last Tuesday, I did a 30 minute swim workout as a guest at the new LA Fitness club near my home. It's a 25 meter pool with 4 wide lanes so 8 swimmers can use the pool simultaneously. Plus it's temperature is 82-85' so it's pleasant to workout in. My wife, Sandy, joined too because they have aqua aerobics classes there which she always enjoyed.

My goal is 3 swim workouts per week with the desired result by exiting the water sooner, I won't be passing as many people on the bike leg, a least in the start of the season. My other goal is to have a swim PR at St. Anthony's Triathon on April 25 in St. Petersburg. This will be my 10th time doing the race and my last was 2005; in 2009 the water was so rough, the swim was cancelled. It'll be fun to return and see it now that it has 4,000 competitors.

Marathon training & Garmin GPS

Above is our Training Log for the Marathon (click on it to enlarge). I have to give credit for my great time in the Disney Marathon to Bernadette and the great training program she put together. We ran together every Sunday morning from October to the week before Disney.

The truly amazing device she used was a Garmin Forerunner 205. While this unit has many diverse and interesting features, I loved the real time speed it displays. If our goal was to run 10:20 miles, it told us immediately if we were on that pace or not. It made a great training tool and I am now looking at getting the 305 which incorporates a heart rate monitor also.