Say "Hello" to Sharkboy

I finally got my new wheel cover stickers. They were a pain to put on, and I didn't do a great job, but they ARE on there. Here are two pictures of the new "disc" wheel.

The "Sharkboy" story is not much of a story, but here it is. When I first started training with Texas Iron, I was doing just the swim clinic. There were about 3-4 other Dan's in the group, and for the first few sessions, the coaches couldn't remember my name. So . . . Jamie Cleveland called me "Sharkboy" a few times because of my shark tattoo. The name stuck for a while and a few others called me that, too. Since then, it's kind of fallen by the wayside, but I thought I'd bring it back!

I drew the shark myself and had a graphics guy digitize it, clean it up, and put it into a sticker format and make it fit my wheel cover. I like the results! My first race on it will be Buffalo Springs Lake 70.3 in Lubbock in three weeks!

Race Results - Silverlake Sprint Triathlon

Race Number Two for the year is now in the books, and it was both a fun and frustrating day. The long and short of it is that I did very well . . . especially on the bike and run, but I can't help feeling a bit disappointed for the race. Here's the short report:

400m Swim: 7:07 (1:47/100m)
Transition 1: 0:52
10-mile Bike: 24:34 (24.4 mph)
Transition 2: 0:57
3-mile Run: 20:33 (6:51/mile)

Total Time: 54:00 (13th overall)

Overall Results Link
Age Group Results Link

Pre-Race:

Not much different than usual. Lisa and I were staying with her friends Becca and Grant, who live in the Silverlake subdivision in Pearland. They were great hosts, even giving me a big carbo-loading meal on Saturday night! As for the race prep, I just had everything out and ready to go that evening. Went to be at 10:00 PM and woke up the next morning right before 4:30 AM, when my alarm was set to go off.

I had a banana and an english muffin with peanut butter for breakfast, gathered my stuff up, hopped on the bike, and lightly pedaled over to the race start, which was not more than 2 miles away. I got there at 5:20 AM, or so, just as people were starting to arrive. Got body marked immediately, and then headed into transition to set up. Turns out the guy who won the event was in my age group and was already there setting up. We chatted a bit, with him complimenting my Guru and my set up, while I was taken with his Zipp disc wheel and his nice Cervelo bike.

After what seemed like ages, we finally got our timing chips and headed to the lake to get ready for the swim. By a little after 7:00 AM, we were off in the first wave.

Swim:

The swim was very frustrating. Our wave was the first one to go and also the largest of the event. I started out pretty good, but some guy to my left kept bumping me and pushing me into the guys on the inside. I got poked and smacked and kicked a lot in the first 200 meters, so I finally eased up a bit and let the guys trying to smoke it just go on by. As a result, I got out of my rhythm and never got back into it. I felt like I was laboring a lot more than I should have been on that short 400-meter swim. My pace was pretty slow, too, at about 1:47/100-m. Even at such a slow pace, I felt like I was working WAY too hard. I think I need to swim more.

Anyway, I came out of the water in something like 11th or 12th place in my group.

Swim Time: 7 minutes, 7 seconds.

T1:

My transition from swim to bike was going pretty well, except that I couldn't get my helmet snapped on. I was using my new Rudy Project Syton aero helmet and somehow got the chinstrap twisted around so it wouldn't fit around my chin. I had to take the helmet off twice to get it unraveled and in the correct place. I'm sure it cost me a few seconds, but more importantly, it got me a bit ticked off. Still, my T1 time was good:

Time: 52 seconds.

Bike:

I think it's time for me to start practicing my swim to bike transitions a bit more. Once again, I had a LOT of trouble getting my feet into my shoes on the bike. This week's debacle was MUCH more frustrating than last week's, and also much more costly. I did a pretty good flying mount onto the bike and took off well with my feet on top of the shoes. However, once I got going well, I still couldn't get my feet into the shoes. It was frustrating because this time I made sure the straps were locked so the opening would be big enough to slip in. It still didn't work well. I got the left foot in alright, but while putting my right foot in, I actually unclipped the shoe and almost lost it on the course. Luckily, I managed to keep it on and then pulled my shoe on using the loop on the back. Still, I lost a lot of momentum and got passed by a couple of guys while I struggled with it. ( I would pass them back, though.)

Well . . . the course was not exactly a great one for speed. I bought my 11-23 cassette because I knew the course would be flat and I wanted to be able to fly. Unfortunately, the organizers decided to make it a very twisted and turning course rather than have 2 loops like they apparently had last year. So, it was frustrating to build up the speed and then have to slow for a hairpin turn.

Anyway . . . about 3 miles into the bike, the guy who won it all came zooming up past me. I'd beaten him out of the swim and transition, but he was pushing it on the bike. I was actually able to stay with him, though. I just settled in about 3 bike lengths back and followed. We were passing almost all the guys that beat us out of the water. Another guy that I had beaten out of the water passed me about 9 miles in, but I then turned on the jets and passed both him and the winner. The guy that won, however, passed me again and I got tired of playing see-saw with him, so I settled in and just followed him to the bike in line. Turns out we passed everybody except one guy, so at the end of the bike, I was in 3rd place.

Somewhere in the middle of the bike, I heard Lisa and Becca cheering for me. They had started walking over to the event at about 6:50 AM. I got to see them twice because they saw me right before we did our big turn around, so I came up behind them first and then saw them coming back about a minute and a half later. That was nice to have cheering right about there!

At the bike in, I was a second behind our eventual winner and we could see the other guy in transition. I did a nice running dismount and headed into transition. Turns out I had the 4th fastest bike split overall.

Bike Time: 24:34 (24.4 mph)

T2:

Not much to tell with my second transition. The only bad thing about it was that the bike racks were too short and my bike wouldn't stay up. After two tries, I just let it "fall" over to the side a bit and hang crooked. I slipped on my shoes, grabbed the race belt and visor, and took off.

Time: 0:57

Run:

The run was not too bad. It was all on a sidewalk/running path, though, and it was not blocked off for just the triathlon runners. So, we had to contend with folks out for a Sunday stroll. More about that in a bit.

I saw Lisa and Becca again on the run at a little past the first mile marker. I had just been passed by one of the faster runners, so I was now running in fourth place. Also, I'd lost sight of the eventual winner, but could see the guy in second place about 400 meters ahead of me. I really thought I might be able to catch him, but I just couldn't get into a good enough and quick enough run cadence to get caught up.

At about mile 2, I had the run-in that ruined my run zone. I was coming up behind a woman walking her dog on a retractable leash. She was walking way to the right and her dog was weaving all over the path. I should have gone around her on the right and just run on the grass a bit, but I saw her dog move right and so I went to pass on the left. That's when the dog heard me and moved way left, turning around to sniff me. I got the leash full in my chest and got wrapped up by the dog. Luckily, I was able to just shove the leash off me and keep going, but it broke my stride and my concentration and I was a mess after that.

With about 200 meters to go, some little guy from my wave appeared behind me from nowhere and passed me. I ended up finishing 2 seconds behind him for 5th place in the age group. The official results say I'm 4th place, but that's because the overall winner was from my age group and he got taken out for the awards purposes. So anyway, I was somewhat pleased that I was able to run faster than a 7:00 minute mile pace, but the dog incident was disheartening and very disruptive to my overall race feeling.

Run Time: 20:33 (6:51/mile)

Total Time: 54:00

So, there we have it. Two races in the books. Two good finishes. Next race is the Cap Tex Sprint Tri here in Austin on Memorial Day. More to come then!

Big Success at The Rookie Triathlon!!!

Hiya, family and friends! As the title suggests, my first race of the season, The Rookie, put on by Jack & Adam's Bicycles, was held yesterday, Saturday, May 12, 2007, and was an excellent success, especially for me. So, without further ado . . . on to the race report.

The Rookie is a local race that is put on mostly to encourage new triathletes. It's commonly the very first tri done by many. The race consists of a 300-meter swim, an 11.1-mile bike ride, and a 2-mile run. Given the name and the short length, it's not the most competitive race out there, but it does draw some pros to help support the local triathlon scene. This year, the pro field included James Bonney, who finished 8th or so overall at Ironman Arizona, local pro studs, Todd Gerlach, Jason McMillian, and Patrick Evoe. All these guys are well-known around Austin as some of the city's best. The big star at this year's race, though, was Desiree Ficker, who finished as the second overall women's finisher at the Ironman World Championships in Kona, Hawaii in 2006. Also, our esteemed governor, Rick Perry was a participant. Needless to say, it was a star-studded affair.

Now, before I get into my actual race report, I need to set the stage. The race had your typical "age group" divisions, but it also had an "Open" division, which included all the pros and anyone else who wanted to race in that division. The Open Division was not counted in the overall age grouper results. So . . . on to the report:

The Short Report:

300-meter Swim: 5 min. 10 sec . (4th in age group, 48th overall)
Transition 1: 1 min. 9.7 sec.
11.1-mile Bike: 29 min. 37.5 sec. (1st in age group, 8th overall)
Transition 2: 1 min. 4.2 sec.
2-mile Run: 13 min. 4.4 sec. (4th in age group, 29th overall)
Final Time: 50 min. 6 sec. (1st in age group, 13th overall, 2nd overall male age grouper)

Here are the links to the actual results:

Overall Results
Age Group Results

The Long Report:

I didn't sleep well the night before the race. Friday, I was off work helping Lisa at the school with Field Day for the kids in her class. It was doubly difficult because, not only are they preschoolers, most of the kids in the class have disabilities and need extra assistance and patience. It was a wonderful experience, especially seeing all these kids having the time of their lives running through water sprinklers, climbing up inflatable slides, and rolling balls through tire hoops. They were having such a good time, I really enjoyed it. However, it was exhausting!!! I say again, that I don't know how Lisa does it day in and day out. Anyhoo, I was beat, so when I finished, I got home and napped for a few hours. That screwed up my sleep pattern and I couldn't fall asleep when it was time for bed!

So, after about 4 hours of fitful sleep, I got up at 4:15 AM and had some toast with peanut butter and a glass of orange juice before heading out to drive down to New Braunfels for the race. I left really early because I had to stop along the way and pick up my friend, Shelley, who was doing the race, too. Her house is pretty much on the way. I got to Shelley's house a little after 5:00 AM. We loaded up her bike and then headed down to the race.

The transition area opened at 6:00 AM, and we got there almost right on the hour. We got a great parking space and then unloaded the bikes and went through the pre-race rigamarole of body marking, transition set-up, and what-not. Needless to say, we were all finished with everything important by 6:30 and still had an hour and a half until race time. So, we milled around transition checking out the competition and talking shop for a while.

Around 7:45 AM, Adam Reiser, the announcer (and one of the founders of Jack & Adam's) gave the pre-race course talk and explained the course in great detail for all the new triathletes in the race (definitely more than half of the participants). Just after 8:00 AM, the "Open Division" wave started the swim. James Bonney, the eventual winner, swam the whole 300 meters in about 3 1/2 minutes. It was impressive!

My wave, Men 35-39 was the fourth wave to go. After the open wave, we had to wait for the Men 29 and under and Men 30-34 to go, too. Then, it was our turn.

The Swim

I actually had a decent swim. My time wasn't great based on my 100-meter splits, but it was good enough for fourth in my age group. I lined up on the very inside, next to a fellow Texas Iron group member, John Lewis. I mentioned John before in my Iron Star race report -- he was the guy I passed on the bike who gave me some encouragement. Well, John aged up since Iron Star, so we're in the same group now. When the gun went off (okay, it wasn't a gun, it was the spectators counting down from 10 and shouting "GO"), we all started swimming like mad. There was one guy inside me and John and he kept swimming over into me, forcing me into John. I kept whacking the backs of John's legs as I swam and he eventually knocked my goggles askew (all of this by accident). Anyway, we both let the other guy go ahead and then it was smoothe sailing from there.

I think a lot of the new folks went out WAAAAY too hard early in the swim. In the first 150 meters, I could see at least 10-15 pink caps (that was our color) ahead of me. After the turn around and about 15 strokes, the next time I sighted, I only saw one or two ahead of me. I know I caught at least one more guy before hitting the beach, but I had no idea how many guys were ahead of me. I later learned that three guys had faster swim splits. That's okay. It was such a short swim, they couldn't get more than a few seconds on me.

Swim Time: 5 minutes, 10 seconds (1:43 min/100-m), AG place: 4th.

T-1

First transition felt a lot faster than it was. Looking at all the other times, I guess it wasn't too bad, but I didn't think it took me that long to get out on the bike. I always try to start these things with my shoes clipped in. The Rookie was no exception. I got out pretty quickly and hopped on the bike to go.

T-1 Time: 1 minute 9.7 seconds.

The Bike

The bike is always my favorite leg. I had a little trouble on two parts, but other than those unexpected things, I hammered pretty well.

My first trouble on the bike was getting my feet in my shoes. It's been a while since I practiced this, and I just couldn't get going. I got on the bike just fine, but I had forgotten to make sure my shoe straps were open, so I had to get going and then work pretty hard to get my feet in the shoes. It took longer than I'd hoped and resulted in a slow bike start. One guy I'd passed as I was getting up speed before slipping into my shoes passed me back before I could get into the shoes and get going.

The shoe problem was exacerbated a bit by the fact that almost right out of transition there is a "hill" that is really the culmination of an exit ramp off of I-35 to the access road and a bridge crossing I-35. It's a short, steep climb, but it's a rude introduction to the course. Had I gotten into my shoes a little faster, I might have had a little more speed going before I hit that hill. As it was, I got up it fine, but my heart rate was pretty high before I finally settled into a good bike rhythm.

The rest of the bike was mostly long flats and rolling hills. It's MY kind of course. I hammered much of the course up near 27-30 mph in the flats and downhills. I was passing people from prior waves left and right. I do remember passing one guy with a 35 or 36 on his calf, so I know he was in my wave. I think I beat the other two, who had finished the swim ahead of me, out of transition, so I never saw them on the bike. Anyway . . . I was really motoring on the bike. It felt great to be out there.

As I neared the end of the backside of the course, right before turning back onto the I-35 access road for the home stretch, I encountered my second big problem on the bike. I was shifting gears going up a slight incline and dropped my chain. I was worried I'd have to get off and fix it, but I tried that trick of putting the bike in the big chain ring and small cog and slowly spinning the chain back on. It took a few seconds of coasting and trying, but I finally got it to work. The good news is that I didn't have to stop, but the bad news is that it cost me several seconds I'd like to have back. If I'd known then how close I'd come to finishing under 50 minutes, it might have totally screwed with my head!

Nevertheless, I did get the chain back on and got going fast again. The final mile and a half of the bike is all down hill, so I motored! About 400 meters from the finish, I came up on a guy who was riding way on the left. The rules don't allow us to pass on the right, so I yelled at him to get over. He didn't move. I yelled again, this time, I'm closing to within a bike length of him. Still nothing. Just then, a marshal on a bike pulled up beside me. It looked like he was writing down a penalty, but just then, the guy in front of me slowed and moved over and I took the moment to zoom past him. I cruised into T-2 with my feet out of the shoes and hopped off my bike right at the bike dismount line and ran into the transition area.

Bike Time: 29 minutes 27.5 seconds (22.5 mph pace), AG Place: 1st.

T-2:

Well, T-2 could have been disasterous for me. As it turns out, another Texas Iron person had her stuff on the rack directly in front of mine. (We had chatted pre-race.) Anyway, turns out, she uses a blue towel very much like mine and her running shoes are virtually the same color. So, I cruise into T-2, rack my bike and start to put on my running stuff. I look down and see the shoes with a pair of Texas Iron socks. Luckily, my brain was working and my first thought was "I didn't bring any socks!" That's when I realized I was in Lori's spot, not mine! So I grabbed my bike and moved one rack back to the right spot. Probably cost me at least 10 seconds in transition, but at least I got it right!

T-2 Time: 1 minute 4.4 seconds

The Run:

The run at the Rookie was pretty darn good. It was nice and flat and I felt great running it. It wasn't terribly exciting . . . just an out and back run, but I was in a good rhythm directly out of transition and never felt really tired. I just focused on the guys ahead of me and tried to catch them without blowing up. It seemed to work, too, because I ran at a 6:32 pace, my fastest ever. Granted, that's not hard to do when you know you only have 2 miles to run, but still . . . I think I may be faster than last year, and that's a good thing!

Run Time: 13 minutes 4.4 seconds (6:32 min./mile pace), AG Place: 4th.

The Finish:

Well . . . my finish was great, but I didn't know how great until about 45 minutes later. I crossed the line knowing I'd run well, but I was afraid I'd gotten a penalty on the bike. I was a bit ticked off, but knew that if I'd gotten one, it would have been my fault. But, 45 minutes after I crossed the line, they put up the first preliminary results.

Turns out, I won my age group!! I finished in 50 minutes, 6 seconds. Those lost seconds on the bike and in T-2 cost me a finish in the 40's! But, I couldn't be too upset because of the victory. I stuck around for a while to get my award (which was postponed because of a computer glitch by the company keeping the tally). In the end, my results were really good for me:

Time: 50 minutes, 6 seconds
1st place: M35-39
2nd overall male in age group division
13th overall for all participants

Perhaps the thing I take most pride in is that I finished only a minute and a half behind Desiree Ficker, and even had a faster bike split than she did! (Okay, I'm sure she wasn't going THAT hard, but still . . . I'll take it!!)

Anyway, The Rookie was a big success and helps ease my concern with my fitness. Plus, it gives me hope that I might place even higher next week at the Silverlake Sprint Triathlon in Pearland. I will say I think I have an outside shot (not a great one, but a possibility, depending on who shows up) of actually winning the thing. I won't expect it, but it would be cool if I did!

Well . . . there you have it . . . The Rookie is in the books and I am pleased! More to come next week after the Silverlake!

More pics and getting ready for "The Rookie."

Nothing really new this week. Saturday was the ATC Taco Ride again. It went well, as usual. In fact, anytime I don't end up completely spent, wrecked, or otherwise injured, it's considered a pretty good ride. Saturday's ride saw a 20.8 mph average over the 30-mile loop. This will be my last 30-miler for a while, as I have races the next three weekends. After that, I need to start upping the mileage, so I'll probably be doing the 50-miler when I can.

Also, I got a few pictures on Saturday of my Guru with the new cockpit set-up. These pictures are older than the one added to the last post, so it doesn't have the wheel cover on the back.

Here's a "full body" shot. For some reason, the seat is tilted up a bit. I guess I need to fix that! I took these pictures at John's house after the ATC ride.

Lisa and I went over to see John and Darby and Eli for a bit, before they headed out for Waco. We also ended up taking Boone with us for the evening so they could have a more peaceful, worry-free visit. The dog-sitting wasn't too bad! Boone was on his best behavior, even with the two cats running around the house. We had one early morning incident on Sunday morning when one of the cats ventured out of the bedroom and startled Boone, but other than that, it was a fun visit!

Here's another shot of the new cockpit on my Guru. I think I need to move the bike computer to the inside of the left aerobar. When I'm in the aero position, my left arm covers the computer read out and I can't read it very well. On the inside, it might be more visible.

And, of course, I've got the obligatory side shot of the cockpit. It's much more streamlined than the ski-pole type aerobars I had before, and it gets me lower in front. Not a lot, but enough that I can feel it. When I get my back used to being lower, I think I may take out one more spacer there under the stem. Hopefully, by IMMoo, I'll have a comfortable, powerful, and aerodynamic position for the 112-mile odyssey.

Wow, I love competing!!! (Texas Iron time trial)

Okay, so I usually do a weekly training update on Sundays recapping the previous week's training. However, this week sucked for training because of work and weather issues, so there's not much to report . . . . except the time trial we did tonight at the Thursday bike workout with Texas Iron. It was pretty darn fun, and I did well, I think, so I thought I'd write about it.

The Bike Change.

First of all, I have to set the stage. I'd been thinking for months about changing out the aerobars on my Guru. It came with Profile Design Carbon Stryke bars, which are very nice bars. However, they are shaped kind of like an "L" lying on its side -- the grips and the bar end shifters are sort of "up" and you grip them kind of like a ski pole. Look at my profile image for a visual. Anyhoo, I was thinking that I don't really feel all that comfortable with my arms in the "ski pole" position. Plus, with the way the bars have to be positioned on the base bar, my front end was raised up a bit resulting in a somewhat less aerodynamic position.

So, I decided to replace the Carbon Strykes with some Profile Design T2+ "s-bend" areo bars. These are just like they sound . . . shaped kind of like a long, but flat "S." Next to this paragraph (left) is a manufacturer's picture of the T2+

I wasn't sure how the change would work for me. The "s-bends" have a reputation for being harder on the wrists than the ski-pole types, but they do seem to ride lower (providing a more aerodynamic position), and they provide better grip for bracing while pumping harder on the pedals. Plus, I think they look cooler! The only "down" side to getting them was that I was dumping my carbon bars for a set of aluminum bars, which are supposedly heavier. To the big time racers, that may be pretty important. For me, I just wanted something that looked right and worked right, so the weight issue meant nothing to me. I must say, too, that I'm pretty happy with the change over.

Here's the new set-up, complete with new wheel cover. Nice!

So, I picked up the bike at Jack and Adam's this afternoon at about 5:45 PM. The Texas Iron workout started at 6:00 PM and I had to fight rush hour traffic down to the Veloway, south of Brodie Lane (in WAY south Austin). I was late, but only by about 10 minutes. The group was out warming up, but I ran into our coaches, Andrea and Jamie as I was heading out to MoPac to find the group. They told me just to warm up about 20 minutes and be at the start line at 6:35. So, I rode South MoPac for a bit and rolled up to the group right on time.

The Time Trial.

The course was very simple. We started on the southbound side of MoPac just south of the intersection of LaCrosse Blvd. and MoPac. The route was a simple down and back on MoPac. That section of MoPac is fairly flat, with a couple of very moderate rises. Total distance, I'm told, is right about at 8 miles. Jamie and Andrea "seeded" the riders roughly according to their assessment of our abilities (based on their observations of us at previous bike workouts and any previous time trials we may have done). I believe I was sixth or seventh to last. Then, Jamie started the clock and they started us out on the course one at a time at 15-second intervals.

I had a long wait until my turn, but I must say that when I finally got to go, I rocked it!!! The new position felt awesome. Since it was my first ride on the new bars, it took a bit of time to get used to changing gears with my hands/wrists at a different angle, but I managed. So, anyway, I probably went out too hard because in the first 2-3 miles, I passed several people who started ahead of me. I never really got "blown-up" tired, but I was definitely working my legs pretty hard. All in all, I rode pretty well. Here are my final stats for the 8-mile ride:

Distance: 8 miles
Time: 18 min. 30 sec.
Avg. speed: 25.9 mph
Place: 2nd

I think if I'd had an 11-23 cassette on my wheel and a wheel cover, I could have gone considerably faster. An 11-23 cassette wouldn't be too expensive, so maybe I'll think about getting one for the flatter rides/time trials. The guy that had the fastest time rode it almost a minute faster than me at about 17:40. Of course, he was known to be a VERY strong cyclist, plus, he had his Cervelo set up for a race with the disk wheel. It was pretty sweet.

So, anyway, I was encouraged by the ride. I wasn't too trashed afterwards. It's funny, too, that the night before, I had talked with my friend Hao and he'd told me about a neat bike race he wanted us to do next April in West Texas near Fort Davis. Apparently, it's a 3-part stage race, including a 16-mile time trial. Sounds like it could be a LOT of fun!

More to come later!