Chattanooga Olympic Distance Tri Report 7/13/08

[Matt G]

Chattanooga Race Report 7/13/2008
1500K swim/25 mile bike/10K run

Second race of the year of my second year doing tri’s and I am real
excited for this race. I had a short tune up race 6 weeks ago and
feel much more prepared mentally. I did this race last year and think
it sets up real well for me. The swim is point to point so it is
straight with a time trial start and there might be a current and the
bike course is hilly, which I like and it is basically 12 miles out
and back on a highway. My time last year was 2:53 I am shooting for
low 2:40’s. Got in to town around 9PM and stayed at a hotel literally
one block away from transition. Got up at 5:00 AM drank my Met
Endurance with OJ and a protein bar. I love race morning especially
a big race. It is great to see everyone getting ready and you can
literally feel the energy in the air and it is contagious. I had
everything all set except I forgot my saddle bag with my gear to fix a
flat. Had to go buy a tube, air cartridge, and levers. Luckily I
brought some extra zip lock bags and decided I would just put in my
back pocket of my tri top. Got on the bus to get to the swim start.
Thank god they were going to start on time this year. I decided to
stretch and just chill by myself for the 45 minutes I had to wait. I
was feeling real good, so good for the first time ever before a race I
didn’t need to use the port o potty right before the start.


I really like the time trial swim start. Unfortunatley word is there
is no current to speak of. The race director calls 300 and up over
the microphone and since I am number 305 I get in line. Walk down the
ramp get my goggles on and jump in and hold on to the dock and
anxiously wait for them to call my number. “305 GO!” I’m off and
since I had no chance to warm up I was a little nervous to see how my
stroke felt. So far so good. Nice and slow, reach long, keep my
elbows up, and don’t lift my head to breathe. I feel nice and relaxed
and keep telling myself I am doing great. Swimming in a river is so
easy no turns and you really don’t have to sight because all you have
to do is just watch the people passing you to keep you on line. (I
dream someday that I can sight off people I pass!) I am chugging along
and realize that I have not seen anyone passing me for a while. I
decide to look up and realize I veered off to the middle and was off
line. I head back to the left. Still feeling real good I know my HR
is much lower than the 180 it was last race. I swim under the last
bridge and no I am close. I look up and realize that I veered off to
the middle again. DAMN! I was almost done and now I have to swim a
little bit extra. Make the only and last little turn to the stairs. I
see a hand and get pulled up. I look down at my watch and it says 14
minutes. Another watch malfunction! I really need to read the
directions of my Garmin forerunner 305. My HR was 170 coming out.
SWIM 32:10 Two minutes faster than last year and considering 5 weeks
ago I swam 1000 meters in 28 minutes I am real happy with that time


They changed the run to T1. (2:43) It is a lot longer this year. Hello
beautiful! I see my bike and there are actually 3 or 4 bikes left on
the racks next to mine. I am stunned! I actually beat some folks in
the swim because they grouped the numbers by age group and we all
started within a couple minutes of each other. I mount up on the bike
and I am ready to hammer. It is lightly raining and I start to go.
The one thing I was determined to do on this race was have a fast bike
split. Once I got on the highway I start cranking up my cadence and
start passing a decent amount of people. This year I had a strategy
because I actually looked at the profile of the course. After
climbing the longest and steepest hill at mile 5 it essentially all
down hill except for a couple rollers. So as I crest the hill at mile
5 and gear down and just hammer it. I continued to pass a lot of
people. I am feeling real good. I didn’t have a bike computer
because I am racing on borrowed wheels that didn’t have a magnet on
them, so I didn’t know how fast I was going and I decided not to look
at my watch because I didn’t want to get psyched out by my time or HR.
I just knew I had to go as fast as I could for 25 miles. The other
cool thing about the long out and back profile is that you can see
everyone else on the course in front of you coming back. I see the
motorcycle police and there is pro Michael Lovato flying. He avged.
25.8 mph. I look to the person I am passing and say “were right on
his tail” He says “I am going to get him on the run” I think this is
one of the coolest things about racing tri’s is that you get to race
the same course at the same time as the pro’s. I don’t know of any
other sports you can do that in, I got to the turnaround and started
the home stretch mostly up hill. I continued to feel good. I did get
passed by a few guys along the way but they all had discs and aero
helmets! Hit the hills pretty strong and just kept telling myself
that I am doing great and really concentrated on making sure I was
still giving maximum effort. Looking back at the last race I realized
I had a lot of mental drift where I lost focus and wasn’t present on
every pedal stroke. This is a race, I am only doing 3 this year and
this is the only Olympic distance I get to do and don’t want to have
any regrets. I hit the top of the last big hill and start the biggest
descent of the race. I finally spin out on a downhill and according
to my Garmin I hit 40 MPH. I did get passed by a guy on brand new
Cannondale slice on the downhill and he was probably going 42 because
as he passed me at the bottom and said “I never want to go that fast
again on a bike” I bring it home and push it all the way back even all
the way to the dismount and almost skid to a stop but gracefully saved
myself. I look down at my watch and it says 1:14:48. Sweet that was
my goal! BIKE 1:15:03. Avg. HR 166 This was a 5 minute improvement
from last year and a 20.8mph avg. I really wanted to hit 21 mph.
Anyway I finished #36 out of 165 in my age group.



T2 (1:50) the run was going to be the wild card for the day. I hadn’t
run in two weeks because I strained a tendon in my ankle on a long run
and I wanted to play it completely safe and not risk making it worse
by continuing to run on it. I also didn’t hold anything back on the
bike. As I leave T2 I hear the announcer tell the crowd that heavy
rain is coming in. I start the run feeling good. The first part is
straight up hill. There is another racer in front of me about 100
yards I catch up to her and she is going at a great pace. I decide
not to look at my watch at all because my game plan was to leave it
all out and I really didn’t care what my HR was or my time. It feels
like I am running about 8:30. We crest the hill and the clouds open
up and I mean pour! It was the kind of rain that you pull over to the
side of the road for. I stay right with the woman in front of me and
decide to hang on. I feel OK. I can feel my HR starting to creep and
the rain is still pouring but isn’t bothering me, except my shoes are
very heavy. I focus on making the turn and start counting to 100 in
even numbers to try to disassociate with the pain that is starting to
creep. I try to grab some water but I am breathing too hard to really
get any down. I hit the turnaround and decide I better get some water
so I walk to get the HR down and some much needed H2O. My pace buddy
was long gone. I walked for about 45 seconds and started running
again. Starting to feel a little worse but just kept focusing a
giving it everything. I hit mile 4 and started to feel a little light
headed and my front quads were starting to cramp and were real close
to spasming. My ankle started flaring up as well. My pace stated to
slow and I think I vurped (a burp with a little vomit). I hit mile 5
and knew I was almost home but I was really hurting by this point. I
knew this would happen and really tried to prepare myself for it but I
still slowed down more than I would have liked. I think being at 169
avg HR for the last 2:35 was starting to take its toll physically and
mentally. I hit the last hill before the downhill finish and walked
up. Looking back I am real upset about this. I should never slow
down during the last mile of a race! Hit the summit and turned it up
a little bit heard the loving and supportive sound of my Dad with
about 200 yards left. Crossed the finish line and found a grassy spot
and collapsed! I was spent! RUN 54:34 (8:49 mile per minute pace)
avg. HR 169. 2 minute improvement over last year.

I beat last year’s time by 7 minutes. About a 5% improvement. It was
a new PR and I finished just in the top half of my age group. I
improved in every discipline. I was really happy with my swim. It
was a huge improvement and it really has given me hope and motivation
to keep working on it to stick with tri’s and not crossover to
duathlons and road racing. I was disappointed with my run. However I
didn’t run the last two weeks and I didn’t pace myself on the bike to
have a decent run. I also didn’t hydrate myself well. I drank 16 oz
on the bike with 400 calories of carbopro and didn’t drink much on the
run. Going forward I need to keep working on the swim and run and
keeping my HR down. 10 weeks till SC ½ IM.

[E. Wayne Williams]

Thanks for the report and happy for your improvement and outlook. Have
you ID'd your next event?

Wayne

[GAMCOK]

Congrats Matt...it was fun seeing another one of our gang out there.
I thought it rained hard and then I watched the conditions Gary, Dave,
and Bishop had in IMLP and maybe it wasn't *that* bad LOL.
Great effort and thanks for taking the time to write it up.
D

[E. Wayne Williams]

So Dwight .. did you do the chocolate bar on the asphalt again?

Wayne