Elephant Man Butt Whupping

Did my first Olympic distance triathlon in EB last Sunday. Just writing about it now because haven't had time and I needed the time to gain perspective on the race. The race was a 1 mile swim, 27 mile bike, and 6 mile run. My thinking was to be under 3 hours based on my performances in sprints this year. A confluence of events caused me to rethink my strategy race morning.  First, I already had enough points in the SW Challenge Series so, unless I got first place in my division, it wouldn't effect my point standings if I came in 2nd or last in my division. Second, I looked around at the start and holy cow there were some studs there! There were teams from Univ of Arizona, the Black Dog Tri team, and overall some big dudes that looked like former Navy Seals that all had their game faces on.  Having no particular ego-induced delusions about my own athletic prowess, I meekly asked Coach Gretchen at the transition area, "Uh Coach, would you be pissed if I just 'experienced' this race?"  For those of you who don't do these masochistic events on a regular basis, when you don't have a good race you just say "I wasn't racing that event, I was just using it as training."  Works like a charm.  Gretchen told me this is your first Oly, this is a very, very difficult race, it's the last race of the season - just have fun! Well, that's why she's a good coach, so that's what I set out to do.

I repeated my prerace approach from Socorro and rode my bike from the hotel to the transition area.  If you have the chance to do this, I highly recommend it as your family doesn't have to get up at dawn, you bypass all the traffic and hiking to transition area, and you get a little warm up/equipment check for free. Besides that, you look cool riding to your race with your tri gear on your back (at least I think so).  Had a large contingent of local tri geeks in attendance. Training partners Brooks Vandivort and Art Sanchez were carrying the big stick and doing the 70.3 (both 1sts for them, which leads me to question their sanity because this race will definitely not be my first 70.3). Cody H. did the 70.3 as well and is a stud of all studs for doing so (he knows why).  Gretchen, Jason M., Greg G., Juan E., Lowry B., Dr. Mark and a host of others were doing the Oly.

As stated, the swim was 1 mile in open water although all agreed it looked a lot longer than a mile. My number one goal for the swim was to survive as the longest open water swim I had done was 500 yards in a pond at Dexter that's maybe 5 feet deep and that took me 12 minutes. I was less than enthused about swimming a mile where I could never touch the bottom.  I've been working hard on my swimming though so I figured 35-45 minutes would be acceptable.  The water was 78 degrees and no wake, no wind at all so perfect conditions. I wore a sleeveless wetsuit for the first time because I feel too constrained in the full.  I kept up with the pack for the first 100 meters or so and then settled into a quasi rhythm interrupted by frequent sight checks.  I can't swim a straight line to save my life but managed not to take too many detours.  I stopped one time early on b/c my wetsuit strap kept wrapping around my right arm and was driving me batty (note to tri newbies - make sure your strap is tucked in).  Overall, I kept a very steady pace but slow and managed to come out of the water in one piece in 45 minutes.

I really don't think there's any way to mimic open water swimming in a pool. You just have to swim in big bodies of water which we are unfortunately lacking in El Paso.  I suggest all local triathletes pool our money (pun intended, ha ha) and get us a nice man-make lake in which we can train.  We could call it Lake Proud in honor of uber athlete Diana Proud who just passed from ALS. Diana Proud local legend
Food for thought.

This race has by far the longest transition of any race I've entered. Turns out when you have a triathlon with an open water swim, and the body of water is at a record low level, you have to go a long way to get to the parking lot that is serving as a transition area.  And you have to go up a big ass hill, barefoot, in the sand.  At least I had a cheerleader in my corner.

This particular 8 year old cheerleader had just completed his race the day before with his old man running up the hill beside him yelling encouragement including that he was being passed by certain other 8 year olds.  So he dutifully told me, "Dad, he's passing you!" at about this point. You can see the burst of speed I put on while telling him there's a long way to go.

Thanks to my beautiful wife for taking the photos and also encouraging me all the way.

My calves cramped up when I sat down to have my wetsuit stripped but it stopped when I stood up.  Got on my bike knowing that sub 3 hours was probably out of the picture due to my swim and decided to push hard but not kill myself and enjoy the experience.  

Even with that, I managed to pass 30 people on the bike (yes, I counted).  The bike course has an elevation change of over 1000 feet because there are some good climbs in and out of some canyons. I had no problems on the bike despite the rough road surface and felt pretty good coming back into transition and my bike split was 1:33.

On to the run.  For perspective, Clay Mosley won the 70.3 in a time of 4:44.  I heard him say afterward that the run course was the hardest he had ever been on.  It was brutal.  No flat terrain, up and down winding hills, no shade, no relief.  I took my time like I've never done before, walked most of the uphills and finished the run in 1:06 for a total time of 3:30.

Do I regret not pushing myself more and putting up a more respectable time? Absolutely not.  I enjoyed the experience and for a first time oly distance on such a hard course, I'm happy with it. I even managed to have some encouraging words for other athletes and a smile on my face for parts of the race.

The race itself was well-organized with tons of helpful volunteers.  The race director? Not such a nice lady but I'm kind of spoiled by race director extraordinaire Gabby Gallegos who always had a smile on her face even though there were over 500 athletes at the Eagle in the Sun asking lots of questions.  I think Kori just wants everybody to show up, race, and keep their mouth shuts. I was very leery of her going in due to some comments she made after the Dam It man Triathlon but kept a open mind.  I know now how she earned her reputation as she was very terse and dismissive when I tried to ask a couple of questions.  That being said, the race was organized and executed beautifully so personal dislike for her communication skills aside, I give the race a thumbs up.

Holloman Raptor Duathlon

I know I've always had trouble in the past locating registration forms for the races held at Holloman AFB so when I located the form, I decided to post just in case anybody else has issues tracking it down. Here's the link: http://www.hollomanfss.com/FitnessNSports/Forms/Triathlon2011.pdf

It's a 5K, 30K bike, and 700 meter swim and it's called the "Raptor" for cyring out loud! How can you resist? See you there!

Yucca Triathlon, Weekend training

Did the Yucca Triathlon at White Sands Missile Range on Saturday.  I really, really thought about not going to this one. I am tired.  Just got a huge influx of cases from a big shot television advertising lawyer from out of town who decided he didn't want to handle his El Paso cases. Have a trial starting on Tuesday. Worked what seemed like 80 hours this week and I left all I had on the table at Eagle in the Sun. But come 9 the night before, I dutifully started putting my stuff together by shaming myself by asking what would Cody or Gretchen do? They'd compete and so I did. Not to mention this event was carbon made as a good training event for the upcoming Elephant Man as it was advertised as an 8K run, 45K bike, and 400 meter swim. Close to olympic distance and would be the longest distance tri I've done so far.

If you haven't done a triathlon at WSMR, I highly advise it. The base is never crowded, it's only a hour drive from the west side of El Paso, and they have good volunteers and are well organized. The schwag? Not so good but who couldn't use another cotton race t-shirt right?

Got up at 4 to get ready and make the drive and was searching the base for the staging area by 5:30.  When in doubt, just follow the other guys with tri bikes and they'll get you there.  There was noise about cancelling the race because only 30 people had signed up but they got enough late registrants to yield about 51 racers so we were on. Race was a reverse distance course.  Run was basically a 4.25 loop on streets and I felt good and managed to negative split the miles and came in just under 34 minutes.  I needed to put time on my Clydesdale competitor John G. because I knew he'd be coming for me hard on the bike.  The slightly longer run gave me an opportunity to get ahead of him but the longer bike to come would give him a greater opportunity to catch me and pass me before we got to the swim. We're about equal in the water, so I didn't want him passing me on the bike.

One of the good things about a non-USAT sanctioned race held on a military base is they are not sticklers for the rules. Case in point - no mount/dismount line.  You could run up to your bike, get your shoes on, mount and cycle right out of the transition area.  You could also do the same coming in off the bike which I took full advantage of and made for some lightning fast transition times.

The bike route was out the base down a long a gradual hill and then a small loop off the main road on a pea gravel road that shook the crap out of everybody.  You were on that road for about 12-13 miles and felt it later in the day.  No volunteers at the turn points anywhere so you just had to follow the crowd and keep an eye out for markers.  One guy missed the turn barrel and ended up doing the bike portion backwards but got it done.  After getting off the gravel road, you were back on the main road going back up that long gradual hill which strangely wasn't so gradual anymore.

Obligatory Cheesy Medal Shot

I thought I was flying down the hill and keeping the distance between me and John but at the 14 mile turnaround, he was right freaking behind me!  He looked beat though but I knew that didn't mean anything when it came to John.  I figured I could hold him off to maybe 20 miles and then he'd pass me but I kept going as fast as I could go.  Shockingly, he never caught me on the bike and into the pool.  I was Cadillac'ing the swim because there was nobody in front of me I could catch and nobody trying to catch me.  Swim was up and back in 25 meter pool for 8 lanes. I was looking for John and saw him coming up the first lane when I entered the 3rd.  The rest of the swim was something like swim, swim, swim, look for John, swim, swim, swim, look for John, repeat.  Finished in 1:54 and took 1st in the old fat guy division!

Then I looked at the Gretchen torture, er, training calendar for tomorrow hoping for the always appreciated but rare "off day."

Bo the wonder dog

Nope - I quote "This is a critical workout for Elephant Butte." 26 mile ride followed by 6 mile run. Gulp.  I was tired but, again, dragged my sorry butt out of bed and joined the group for the ride.  Kept up just fine until I got to 13 miles then turned around and headed back on my own. Grabbed my running shoes and my running buddy "Bo the wonder dog" and off.

6 miles was 2 miles to get legs under me, 2 mile at Yucca tempo (8/mile) and then last 2 doing 30/30s. I forgot to take my "sports legs" power pills this morning and my legs started to cramp something fierce while doing the tempo miles.  I managed to keep up the tempo but I could feel that if I tensed up my quads at all, they were going to lock up.  I had never felt that while running before. After the workout? Lotsa times. Never during. Note to self - load up the sports legs pills before any 2 hour or longer workout!

Eagle in the Sun 2011 Race Report

The race report for the race I've been shooting for all year! So the goal in my head was to significantly redeem myself from last year's piss poor effort. I wanted to do well last year but laid an egg with no excuse other than psyching myself out.  My times last year were 400 meter swim 10:52, 20K bike 39:35 and 5K run 29:37.  The first two times include transitions as they didn't break that out from the splits last year.  The bike wasn't bad for my conditioning level last year but I had swam closer to 9 minutes and had run a 5K in 22 minutes not long before the tri, so I was disappointed.  Due to that, and that I know a lot of the entrants, and that its my hometown, I felt like all my training this year and the good results I had earlier in the year would be a waste if I didn't do as well as I wanted in this race.  Enough melodramatic head drama Rob! On to the race report.

I had mucho trepidation going in because Gabriella enlarged the number of entrants to 550 - that's a lot of people for a sprint, especially with a staggered swim start. I was actually surprised at how well it went. Everything was very smooth.  Fellow Gretchen acolyte/trainee Art Sanchez and I rode out together and got there right at 5:30 for the 7:30 beginning of swim starts.  They had volunteers checking helmets and bikes for race numbers, bar inserts, etc. My word of advice to newbies - get there freaking early because Art and I snagged perfect spots for our bikes and got set up and ready to go before the multitudes hit. Saw Gretchen for a brief second and she was focused like a laser.  Saw Bobby, John Gardea, Trey Hancock and lots of fellow "veterans" from last year's race.  I can never get over what a great group of people triathletes are.

We all lined up and swim started rather smoothly. Just met fellow blogger Juan E. at Socorro Chile Harvest Tri and now he's stalking me! Actually might have something to do with the fact that he was number 190 and I was 188 and we have similar abilities and were within sight of each other all day. My swim was solid although I got a little discombobulated right off the bat when I jumped in the pool. We jumped in on the deep end and I can never quite position myself right - do I jump in headfirst, sit on the edge and slide in, or hop in? I've never committed to anyone one approach and invariably flop in as an adrenaline-ridden contorted mess.  One of the results of the uncoordinated water entry is water in the goggles and water up the nose. I ignored the suffocating feeling and continued swimming but for some reason I never felt like I was breathing properly.  I freaked out my wife a little bit because my unease finally got to be too much and I stopped in the middle of the 4th or 5th lane for just a second and stood up to clear my head.  Hadn't done that in a while. After that, I was cool and finished in 8:55.

Got on my bike super fast and was gone quickly.  I was very excited about the bike because of my new toy for the back wheel.  That's a Zipp 9 Disk baby! I've always hesitated to buy stuff like that because I don't want to be the jackass with all the fancy toys that puts his nose in the air (hate that guy).  But a little discussion I had with fellow clysdesdale Jason McClure included the advise "don't be ashamed to pay for speed." Took his advise and got this baby and LOVE it! Improved my bike split from last year by 6 minutes to 33:18 for the flat out-and-back 20k.  I was hoping to be at 35 or under but when I made the turn and started back I really picked up the speed and ended up with an average speed of 22.5 mph.

I passed a jillion people on the bike and only got passed by one - Mr. Escobar.  Worked out well because we took turns passing each other (draft legally, mind you) for the entire 20K.  I was happy with my flying dismount as I finally figured out how to get my feet out of my shoes while riding.  The only problem with the bike route is you have a lot of little twists and turns as you're coming in the last little bit which kills your speed but maybe that's the idea?

Had a really fast T2 of 45 seconds thanks to the aforementioned dismounting trick and off on the run.  Here's the only part that didn't go to plan.  In my restless nights leading up to the race, I imagined a "perfect" race of 8:30-9 on the swim, 35 on the bike with 1-2 minutes for transitions so I'd be on the run by 45 minutes and lay down a 23-24 minute 5K so my "perfect" time would be 1:08 or so.  I figured I needed that time to win the Clydesdale division - that is until I saw the Clydes signed up for this race included David Fairbanks.  Haven't heard much from Mr. Fairbanks this year but last year he won Clyde every time he entered, and was usually in top 3 overall.  His best time for a distance like this is in the one hour even range so I knew I had no shot of winning the division.  (Gonna stop the digressions -  I swear!)

Me and John waiting for results

Started the run feeling good but didn't have my usual level of speed.  I did the 5K at Socorro in 24 flat so I figured I'd top that but it wasn't to be.  Ended up at 25:19 with some thanks to Art and Gretchen who saw me finishing up and ran with me a bit to keep the pace up.  Thanks guys!

Overall time of 1:09:24 and 2nd in Clydesdales Master Division of 23.  As a side note, there were 28 under 40 Clydesdales and 1st place in their group would've been in 5th in the "old" clydes. So take that whipper snappers!  My good friend John Gardea told me in the transition area that this race was "just for fun" but he still almost beat me even with a slow T2 because of trouble with his knee brace.  That just makes me shake my head because there is no way John should be as fast as he is with a bad knee and weighing 400 pounds not that long ago.  He just amazes me.


So for those of you keeping track at home, I improved my time from last year by 11 minutes and went from 79th overall to 30th. I'm happy with that and now just got to figure out the pacing on the bike so I don't lose strength on the run.

 On a related note, do you think this photo means Nora's ready to start swimming and become a triathlete? I think so!

Next race will be the Elephant Man Olympic triathlon (my first non-sprint distance). I signed up for the Yucca triathlon this coming Saturday but it's probably going to get cancelled for non-participation.  Wish me luck for the 1 mile swim at Elephant Butte!

Countdown to Eagle in the Sun

I don't know why but the Eagle in the Sun triathlon next Sunday has taken up an inordinate amount of my mental focus all year. Maybe its because I laid an egg last year en route to a miserable finish and need to redeem myself. It's a great race with over 450 competitors, flat as a pancake, and well-organized. I personally know a large percentage of the athletes, El Paso being such a small big town. I put a lot of pressure on myself to do well in this race and last year was the first year it was held and I cracked. I had only been training about 10 months when I raced it and the swim completely freaked me  out. I had only swam (swum?) in a 50 meter pool one time before and didn't cope so well. The swim was simple -8 laps in a 50 meter lane for 400 meters, 8 lanes in the pool so no up and back in the same lane. Like I said, I freaked and about half way down the first lap, I popped up gasping, out of air, and stood up. I recovered okay but still took me 10:52 including the swim to bike transition, which was just awful. By comparison, I just did the same swim at Soccoro in 8:40. The swim threw me off for the rest of the race and I took 39:35, again including transition, to do the 20K bike, and 29:37 for the 5K (no transition excuse this time) for a total time of 1:20:04.

I was an age grouper last year and came in firmly in the middle of the pack. Hanging on my refrigerator for the last couple of months is a piece of paper with those times written out along with the winner's time for the Clydes last year - Mr. Jason McClure in 1:10:56.

This year I fully intend to redeem myself. My training has been really good the last month. In the last 7 days, I've covered 143 miles in about 11 hours of training. I've picked up my swimming volume quite a bit and my runs off the bike have been crisp.  My goal will be 8:30 or under for the 400 meters, 35 or under for the 20K, and 23 for the 5K. Put that together with good transitions and I'm shooting for under 1:10, hopefully 1:08.

Southwest Challenge Series

Guys that have been doing triathlons a LOT longer than me came up with an idea to keep track of results for a series of triathlons in the surrounding areas. They dubbed it the southwest challenge series and currently this year, there were approximately 35 races ranging as far north and east as Amarillo and Lubbock and west to places like Roswell, Albuquerque, Santa Fe and Farmington. Whoever took up this task of keeping track of the results of all these races and the athletes is to be commended. I can't quite figure it out but I know it's been around quite a while and they do a wonderful job.

And what do they get out of it? Well, that's a head scratcher. As far as I can tell, they get nada from anybody for going to all that trouble and they give out pretty nifty awards to the series winners at the end of the year. Like monogrammed fleece vests - cool, huh? The only thing I've seen similar in concept (at least as far as funding goes) is AA. I've been sober for almost 8 years and went to lots of meetings. I could never figure out how they kept the lights on when nobody pays any dues or membership fees. But they do and it's an incredible program helping to keep people sober for over 70 years. I'm not comparing AA to a tri challenge series in effect on world peace and families, but it is cool how selfless people believe strongly in something and sacrifice to share their love of sport with others. We that follow the Series thank you for sharing with us.

Im in the old big boy division, otherwise known as Masters Clydesdale. I just started tri's last year and didn't race Clydesdale because of ego and because I wasn't sure if I would stay above 200 all year. Well, this year I competed in Clydesdale and have stayed about 203-207 all year. I had pretty much given up on winning my category because John Gardea was a machine and seemingly did every flipping race for the first 6 months! After the Milkman Tri on June 4, he had done 9 races with 5 1sts and 4 2nds. I thought I stood no shot catching him. In the Series, you get 10 points for 1st, 9 for second, etc., etc. By the time we did Ruidoso the following week John had 74 points and I had 55 points Having done 6 races - no shot right?

Well, John did a couple more tri's after Ruidoso but then stopped because he was doing a half Iron in Boulder. He also sustained a knee injury (although he was able to gut out the half Iron with it). I've done 4 more races since then and the point standings now are dead even with 78 point each! We've both got 6 firsts and 2 seconds for our best 8 races. Technically, John has a quarter point lead on me because he's done 11 races and I've done 10 and you get a quarter point for each race past 8.

I've still got the Eagle in the Sun on sept 4, Yucca tri on sept 10, and Elephant Man on sept 25. John will be doing two of those with me and it sounds like an exciting finish in the fat boy division! I'm just glad I'm still in it because John is one heck of a competitor.

Elephant Butte Tri Clinic

My coach set up a triathlon clinic to prepare for the upcoming Elephant Man Triathlon on September 25. She had a good turnout with 8 of us there including Brooks, Art, and Laura. Several newcomers as well which is always good to see. There will be an Olympic (1 mile swim, 26 mile bike, and 10K run) and Half Iron (1.2 mile swim, 56 mile bike, and 13.1 mile run). I've done 10 sprints this year and have the Eagle in the Sun coming up on September 4 and I was honestly thinking about not doing the Elephant Man because the idea of swimming a mile freaks me out a little. I've done 99% of my swimming in a 25 yard pool with workouts going up to 2000 yards.  A mile is 1750 yards so I know I can swim the distance but swimming that straight in a lake is a lot different from swimming in a pool 25 yards, pushing off a wall and doing it again, all with the safety that you just can stand up anytime you have a problem. Not so much in a freaking lake.

I went to Gretchen's clinic because I need the open water training and I never miss the chance to participate in a clinic since there are so few in this area. Gretchen put on a great clinic. We swam for about a mile and I surprised myself and swam really well. No problems with my fitness at all. Swimming a straight line? - whole 'nother story. Not good AT all. Gotta work on my sighting because I suck at it. Can't swim a straight line to save my life. Irritatingly, there's no black line on the lake bed, not that you could see it if there was.

The bike route is a 26 mile loop described by Gretchen as gentle rolling hills followed by 2 steep hills and then a long descending ride back.  My idea of "gentle rolling" dramatically differs from Gretchen's but they weren't all that bad. Pretty rough roads all the way but no dramatic pot holes that I discovered (although I did discover several dead animals).  The two steep hills were as advertised and are rumored to bring bikers to walking the hill with their bikes.  It's about 16 miles on the winding roads and "gentle rolling" hills and you end up back at I-25 and then back on a small highway that leads back to Elephant Butte.  Screaming fast ride back topped off by a nice scenic view of the lake as you come back.  Very, very careful on the way back down to the transition area as it STEEPLY descends into the boat ramp area.

We finished with a brief run to experience the beginning of the run. It's through the sand up some small hills and then one steep little hill til you are at the road that goes over the dam.

After today, I'm definitely doing the Olympic distance!  This will be a tough course made even more difficult by the fact that this race doesn't start until 8 a.m. (the real studs doing the 1/2 Iron start at 7). That means if the swim takes me approximately 30 minutes and the ride 1:15-1:30, I won't get to the run until almost 10 a.m. If you read my blog at all, you'll know that me, heat and running don't get along so well. I will do it though.

I cramped up something fierce after I cooled down but one of the guys helped me out with a banana and some CR333. This guy, who I just met today, is named Bates Gaddy and is 30. He decided he wanted to do a triathlon and started training this year and has already done 3 half Irons and just did Vineman Full Iron 2 weeks ago! Freaking crazy! I'm not even thinking half iron til next year and MAYBE a full Iron the year after that. Hats off to Bates.