Capital of Texas Triathlon 2008

Yesterday, I competed in the Capital of Texas Triathlon in the olympic distance race. This is a race Steve did with Team in Training back in 2003 or 2004, I believe. In 2006, I did the sprint distance race at CapTex and was going to do it again last year, but the race was canceled because of torrential rainstorms. This year, the race went off without a hitch. The only problems were the horrendous heat and humidity.

It's been like August here this week. Ever since Monday, the temps have been running in the mid to upper 90's and the humidity has been like Houston. Still, unless there's a downpour like last year, the event organizers are going to have the race. So . . . we raced! Unfortunately, it was a very disappointing race for me. Unlike the Silverlake last weekend, this one really WAS a disappointment. Here's the skinny:

The Short Story:

1500 meter swim, 40 kilometer bike, 10 kilometer run

Swim: 30 min. 33 sec. (2:02 per 100 meter)
T-1: 2 min. 55 sec.
Bike: 1 hour 4 min, 53 sec. (22.9 mph)
T-2: 1 min. 55 sec.
Run: 1 hour 6 sec.
Total: 2 hours 40 min. 25 sec.

This was my worst Olympic Distance time ever. I knew it wouldn't be good, but I thought I'd be closer to 2:30 than over 2:40. The run was pretty brutal. Aside from the oppressive heat and humidity, I had to contend with a sore back and the fact that my legs just felt heavy all day. As I keep noting, I haven't swum or run much. The swim wasn't too bad, though. It was long, but not unexpectedly so. The run, however, should have been much better. By contrast, at the Toyota U.S. Open last October, I ran the same distance about 12 minutes faster. I was really expecting to run close to 8:30 per mile rather than 9:40. I just didn't have it. Maybe it would have been better if I just would put in the run training. I plan to do that, but I just haven't been consistent, and with the recent bike racing, I've been neglecting it too much.

The Specifics:

I got up at 4:30 AM to get ready. Lisa and I had decided that she would come with me early so that we wouldn't have to have 2 cars stuck down there. Plus, I wasn't sure she'd be able to get parking if she came later. So, I let her sleep until about 5:15 before I woke her. During that time, I got dressed for the race, made sure I had all my stuff, and made breakfast. I had two cups of coffee, a bowl of oatmeal, and a banana.

Lisa and I left the house at about 5:30 AM. Unfortunately, I forgot that the transition area was going to close at 6:30 AM, so that meant we only had one hour to get downtown from Leander, park, walk over to the transition area, and have me get all my stuff set up. Lisa was a real trooper. She was sleepy, but bounced up quickly and got the camera ready right from the beginning. She got lots of great shots of the race.

Here's one she snapped of me as we were walking over to the transition area. Sorry it's a little blurry.

We parked in a parking garage next to Threadgills and walked on over to Transition, which was, as always, set up in the Auditorium Shores area next to to the First Street Bridge. Lisa got a great shot of the bike racks in Transition:


It always amazes me how many bikes they pack into that area. The cluster on the right side is mostly the pros', elites', and other "invitational" competitors' bikes. They do have a few of the first few age group waves' bikes in there, too, though. On the left is where most of the bikes are for the Olympic distance race.

It turns out that the race was running a bit behind schedule, although we didn't know that when we got there, and they didn't act like it with how quickly they were pushing us to get out of the Transition zone. Once I actually got to my bike, it was 6:15 and I only had 15 minutes to get all my stuff together. I wasn't sure I was going to wear my wetsuit because the water temp was 75 degrees. I kept it with me and was going to leave it with Lisa if I decided not to wear it. My wave wasn't set to go until approximately 7:48 AM, so I had some time to kill with Lisa at the swim start. So, we sat by the water and waited.

Here's a shot of the swim course that Lisa got from the First Street Bridge.





As the time wound on, it became clear that the race was running way behind schedule. The pros went off at 7:20, about 20 minutes late. As it turned out, my wave went off almost an hour late, at 8:30 AM.

While we waited, I ran into several Texas Iron folks and we chatted. Everyone seemed to be really concerned about the heat.

I also found my friend, Shelley from work, who was in the Womens' 35-39 age group. Shelley got a complimentary entry into the triathlon because she represented the Governor's protective detail (a branch of the DPS) in a lawsuit recently. Since the Gov was doing the race, he and his protective detail guys got comp'ed entries and had some pull with the organizers. Shelley is so lucky sometimes! Anyhoo, Lisa got a few shots of Shelley as she was lined up waiting for the swim start.


Here's Shelley about 10 minutes before her wave went off. I didn't see her again for the rest of the day. I know that Lisa got a couple of shots of her on the bike at the bike start, but that's it.

So, at about 8:30 AM, it was finally our time to go. Here are a few shots that Lisa got of me waiting for the start:

Here's me, on the way down to the dock to jump in the water. I'm the one in the wetsuit with the green on the shoulders.


Here's me bobbing in the water just before the gun goes off. I'm the top guy on the left.



The Swim:

So, the swim was pretty uneventful. Unlike the Silverlake the week before, I decided to go easy instead of pushing hard at the beginning. This worked out great. I never felt tired or spent, and although that meant a lot of guys got finished well ahead of me, I was determined to race my race. The course took us west in Town Lake (now known as "Lady Bird Lake") under the railroad bridge and half-way between the pedestrian bridge and the Lamar Street Bridge. Then, we turned right, swam about 50-100 meters, and turned again back east toward the First Street Bridge again. The swim exit was at Auditorium Shores, just before the First Street Bridge. After hitting the last turn buoy, it was smoothe sailing until the exit.

Total swim time: 30 minutes, 33 seconds.

T-1:

The CapTex Triathlon has some of the longest transition runs I've ever seen (except for maybe that T-1 at Ironman Wisconsin). After getting out of the water, we had to run up a few steps and then run west along the lake front about 50-75 yards. Well . . . I stumbled going up the stairs and fell. I gashed my foot a little, but it wasn't bad. Just embarassing more than anything. I managed to get my wetsuit off pretty well and got to my bike pretty quickly. Unfortunately, my bike was very close to the swim exit and very FAR from the bike out. I got out of the wetsuit quickly and got my helmet and sunglasses on quickly. I got the bike off the rack and headed out for the bike exit. There's not much I could do to make it faster.

Total T-1 time: 2 minutes, 55 seconds.

The Bike:

The bike course was fairly flat and could have been really fast. The biggest problem was that by the time I got to it, it was VERY crowded. Additionally, there are lots of turns that make it necessary to slow down. There's not much to say about it other than that I was disappointed with my time. I never felt great on the bike, but I didn't feel bad on it, either. I just never felt I got into a real rhythm.

The really good thing about the bike is that in the Olympic distance race, we do four laps, so it's very spectator-friendly. Lisa was able to get lots of good pictures. Here are a few of those shots.

Here's me getting on the bike. The guy who had been in front of me stopped to get on, so I had to stop. Usually, I get on while moving . . . a flying mount. No such dice here.


Here, I'm just going out on my first loop. You can see that my feet aren't in the shoes yet, but I got them in pretty quickly out on the course.

Here's me on my way out on my second loop of the bike. This part is slightly uphill and I'm working on getting up some speed as I've only recently passed the turnaround and had to slow down for it.

This is me coming in on the second loop. Check out the new skyscraper that's gone up in Austin behind me. There's also another going up in the left part of the picture. We're supposed to have 9 new skyscrapers by 2012.


Here I am coming in to the final turn on my last loop. I love this picture because Lisa managed to capture my shark wheel in a really cool position.

Finally, here's the last bike shot Lisa got of me. This is me coming into Transition after the fourth bike loop. I'm reaching down to pull my feet out from the shoes so I can do a flying dismount.

I was a little disappointed with the whole bike leg. Because of the congestion, I found it difficult to maintain a decent speed. Also, since I'd been having back trouble all week, my back started revolting at being in the aero position after about the middle of the third loop. It was hard to keep myself in the aerobars, and I started worrying about how painful the run would be with a bad back. I just never felt comfortable again after that.

My total bike time was 1 hour 4 minutes, 53 seconds for an average speed of 22.9 mph. I expected to be much faster than that.

T-2:

Again, T-2 wasn't too bad, but was just long. I had a long run from the "Bike In" area to my bike rack. Once I got there, I was fast. I was already out of my shoes, so all I had to do was jump in my running shoes, remove my helmet, and grab my cap. Didn't take long, and I was on the road quickly.

Total T-2 time was 1 minute 55 seconds.

The Run:

Well, it always comes down to the run, and I still always melt down there. Most folks would say I go too hard on the bike, but I've played with this a little bit and have found that I often have bad runs regardless of how hard I bike. One thing I could have done better was to be careful on those few "hills" we had on the bike. I think I let them take too much out of me. Still, I don't think that would have changed the run much.

It was just too darn hot and humid. I had to take in a lot of water and for that, I had to slow down at the aid stations. Also, my back was hurting a bit and my quads were spent, so I even walked a bit between aid stations. I hated to do that on just a 10k, but I didn't have much choice.

Lisa did get a few good pics of me on the run. Here are two of them:

Here I am coming by the finish line (it's on the left side by the guy in yellow) after finishing my first lap of the run. I don't look to bad, but I was hurting here a lot.


And, finally, here I am about a mile into my last lap going back by the finish line heading east. The worst part of the run came a few minutes later when I just had to walk.

The long and short of it is that I just have to run more. I was good about that in January and February, but I've fallen off way too much since starting up the bike racing.

Final run time was a dismal 1 hour 6 seconds, which was over 9 minutes 30 seconds per mile.

Total race time: 2 hours, 40 minutes, 25 seconds.

The Silverlake Sprint Triathlon

Yesterday, I competed in my second triathlon of the season, the 3rd annual Silverlake Sprint Triathlon in Pearland, Texas. I did this race last year and had a very good race. This year, I did pretty well, too, but not quite as well as last year. I chalk that up to being a little out of shape and more focused on biking than swimming and running, although, if you compare my times from each individual leg of the race, you'll notice that my running didn't suffer as much as I thought it would. Here's the skinny on the race:

The Short Scoop:

400 meter swim, 10-mile bike, 3-mile run

Swim: 7 min. 37 sec.
T-1: 56 sec.
Bike: 25 min. 12 sec.
T-2: 44 sec.
Run: 20 min. 37 sec.
Total Time: 55 min. 4 sec.

The Long Story:

Lisa and I drove down to Houston on Friday after work. I had ridden my tri bike into work that day so that we wouldn't have to leave a car downtown. It just so happened that Friday was "Bike to Work Day" in Austin, so I had another reason to ride the bike that day, too. Anyway, on the way down, I got a flat tire about 3 miles from the office. The previous two days there had been some VERY severe weather in the Austin area. Lots of trees were down and the bike paths were littered with debris. I apparently hit a thorn and punctured my rear tire. I had an extra tube, but no CO2 canister. Another cyclist stopped and gave me canister, though, so I managed to get to work on time. Thanks for that!

So, after work, Lisa picked me up down at the office and we headed over to Pearland. We had a wonderful visit with Becca and Grant and little Connor that weekend. It was very nice. Friday, we didn't do a whole lot, but just got caught up on happenings since our last visit. My goodness, how Connor has grown so much since we last saw him! Most of the weekend, we just hung around and relaxed, but I had to race on Sunday morning, so I got to bed early Saturday night.

Pre-Race:

I woke up around 4:45 AM and just lounged a bit since I didn't have to get up for a few more minutes. I did get up at 5:00 and started getting things together. After dressing for the race, I made a bowl of oatmeal and drank some water. I didn't feel bad, but something just didn't feel quite right about the morning. I just felt a little sluggish and tired. I forgot to make my coffee and I think that might have been part of the reason I felt a little sluggish all morning.

Becca and Grant live really close to the race start, so at about 5:30 AM, I hopped on my tri bike and rode up to the event. After setting up transition and getting my chip, I did a very short jog up the first few hundred meters of the run course and then came back to stretch before the swim.

The Swim:

The swim was 400 meters long. It consisted of a point-to-point "angle." Basically, we started at one point on the shore, swam out to a buoy, made a right turn, and swam back to another point on the shore closer to the bike racks. The Male 35-39 group (my group) was the first wave to go off. I like that because it meant that there wouldn't be many people on the bike course before I got to it. This was important because there was a "no-passing" zone half-way through and I didn't want to get stuck behind somebody slow. Going first meant that was unlikely to happen.

After the National Anthem and a few pre-race announcements, we M35-39 guys got in the water and got ready to go. The horn sounded and we were off. I knew I was in trouble on the swim when I noticed early on that I was in second place about 100 meters into it. The guy in first (who eventually won our AG) was gone pretty fast, but I went out WAAAAY too hard trying to stay on his toes. By the time we hit the turn around buoy, I had dropped to 3rd and was rapidly losing ground to everyone else. I never felt very good on this swim, but I was happy that it didn't last long. I came out of the water in 11th or 12th place, which I thought was pretty good considering we had 41 guys in our wave.

My final time in the swim was 7 min., 37 sec., which was about 1 minute, 44 seconds per 100 yards. That was about 30 seconds slower than I did last year, but still pretty respectable.

T-1:

There's not much I can say about my first transition. It was pretty fast at 56 seconds. I always start with my bike shoes already clipped in, so all I have to do is run to my bike, but on my helmet and sunglasses and get going.

I'm actually kind of surprised that T-1 took me as long as it did. I must've been running slowly from the swim-out to my bike. I didn't wear a wetsuit, so there were no issues with that. All I had to do was put on the sunglasses, put on the helmet, grab the bike, and go . . . which I did. I think I passed six or seven guys in transition, because when I got on the bike, there were only a couple of guys ahead of me.

T-1 time: 56 seconds.

The Bike:

The bike leg is always my best, and this one was no exception. It's really too bad that the bike leg in Silverlake was only 10 miles. It doesn't give guys like me, with good bike times, a chance to put much time on our good-running and good-swimming competition.

For me, I got into my bike shoes pretty well, but during that times was passed by a couple of guys whom I had passed in transition. It didn't matter because I passed those guys back pretty quickly. The course was very technical, meaning there were lots of sharp turns. This makes getting lots of speed a difficult task. I still managed to get a good turnover going, though, and I began reeling in the competition. By the time I hit the No Passing Zone, I was in third place and the second place guy was only about 50 meters ahead of me. After we got through the zone, I started gaining ground on him and by the time we hit the transition to run, I was about 10 feet behind him. Other than this, the bike was pretty uneventful.

Final bike time: 25 min., 12 sec. which equates to 23.8 mph. Not bad, but I'd have thought it would be better, given my recent focus on bike racing.

T-2:

My second transistion was one of my fastest ever. I was out of my bike shoes on the bike and off the bike pretty fast with a rolling dismount. I crossed the line right behind the second place guy in our division and ran right to my space on the rack. I managed to get in my shoes very quickly, took off my helmet, grabbed my race belt and hat and I was off. I managed to pass the guy who was just ahead of me in transition and headed out on the run in second place.

The Run:

I'm mystified by my run split. I thought for certain that I'd average well over 7 minutes per mile, especially since I hadn't been running much. That was not the case. Although I was close to 7 mins., a 6:52/mile is a good deal better than I expected.

What really surprised me was that I got close to half-way through the run before I got passed. The first guy to pass me was not the guy I passed in transition. It was another guy who was clearly a very good runner.

Here's a pic of me that Lisa snapped just after the first guy passed me:

The next guy passed me at Mile 2 and it was also not the guy I passed in Transition. That guy passed me at about 2.5 miles. After that, I managed to hold off everyon else in my division. I came into the finishing "chute" feeling pretty good, but knowing I had raced a bit slower than last year. I managed to finish in 5th place in my division. Last year, I finished in 4th, but was passed twice only a couple hundred meters from the finish. At least this time, all the passing occurred before I got within sight of the finishing line. All in all, I guess it was a good run, even though I didn't feel great during the whole race.

My final run time was 20 min., 37 sec., which works out to 6 min., 52 sec. per mile. My time was only 3 seconds slower than last year, which surprised me since I was not in as good a running shape as last year. So, that at least was pleasing.

The Wrap-Up:

So, my final finish was 5th place out of 41 men in M35-39 and 18th overall. That is down a bit from last year when I finished 4th in the M35-39 age group and 13th overall. So, although I was disappointed that I didn't finish as well as last year, I was pleased with a good run and a competitive swim. Still, I need to focus more on those two disciplines.

Coldspring Road Race

Yesterday was my second foray into bicycle road racing at the Coldspring road race up near Lake Livingston. This was my third mass start race after the two road races at the Fort Davis Hammerfest, and was my most ambitious one to date.

Hao convinced me to sign up for the race for men ages 35+, who are also in either Cat 4 or Cat 5. His logic was reasonable: the Cat 5 (any age) race was only 30 miles long and would have a bunch of younger guys in it, while the 35+ 4/5 race would be 46 miles and have guys in it around our age. The thought was that we could be a bit more competitive with guys our own age. Of course, the down side was that we'd be racing against guys with a bit more experience, who were in Cat 4 (and therefore, probably better than us). Also, there were several other members of Hao's racing team (M7 Racing) who were going to be doing that race, so he wanted to race with his team. Sounded fine to me; I just wanted to get out there. Quite frankly, I figured I'd get dropped pretty quickly.

So, on Friday, I drove to Houston for a hearing and then went over to vist Hao at the Houston Metro in the afternoon. We got in a post-lunch bike ride through downtown (which was nice since I hadn't ridden all week due to work issues). After work, we picked up his boys at their school and went for some Vietnamese food. Then, we headed back to his house to chill and get rested up for the race the next day. I was pretty beat from some long hours at work this week and fell asleep on the couch at 8:30 PM.

We got up at 4:30 AM on Saturday because we had to eat breakfast and then pick up Hao's team mate, Bryan, on the way up to Coldspring. We got Bryan at about 5:20 AM and then made the 70-mile trek up I-45 to Willis, and then over on Highway 150 to Coldspring. We got there about an hour and a half before our race was set to start (8:30 AM). After getting registered and getting our numbers pinned on, we met up with the rest of Hao's team and did a warm-up ride. At 8:25, we lined up with the rest of the field and got ready to ride.

The race was interesting. I'm still a complete novice, but it's not hard to see how different road racing is from triathlon. The group dynamic is omnipresent in road racing. In triathlon, being around other riders is more of a hinderance, but in road racing, it's a necessity. The course we rode was a roughly 15-mile loop. We did that loop 3 times, with the finish at the top of a long, but gentle hill.

The first loop was fast, but not tough. A couple of guys rode off the front a few meters, but there weren't any big break aways. The group stayed together with about 10 guys really doing most of the work at the front. It was a great learning experience because I really found out what pack riding is all about. Those guys are cut-throat! They don't like being in the wind because it drains their energy, so the pack was constantly shifting as we changed directions. I kept finding myself either on the outside edge or the inside edge of the pack and always stuck in the windy parts. I just don't have the experience to know when I'm being shunted into those disadvantageous positions until it's too late. Plus, I don't have the experience to force my way back into the pack when that happens. I'm a bit skittish about the closeness of the pack, but that will change with experience, I'm sure.

Anyway, for two laps, the race was pretty uneventful. Near the end of the second lap, two guys from Team Hotel San Jose (in Austin) went off the front by about 40 meters. I had found myself up close to them when they were at the very front of the pack, so when they took off, so did I. The three of us were up ahead for a mile or so, but I didn't work with them. I made them pull me along and that ultimately slowed them down so that the pack caught us pretty quickly. I didn't feel too bad about that because those guys had been blocking other riders through the whole race.

Shortly thereafter, we hit the finish line hill on our second loop. All of a sudden, Hao went zooming past me and broke out of the front. The guys at the front stomped on their pedals and stayed with him. Hao told me later he wasn't trying to break away, but that he was stuck in a bad position in the pack and knew if he didn't get out and get some speed going, he'd falter on the hill and was afraid he'd get dropped. Made sense to me, but in the end, it didn't matter.

About 2 miles after we passed through the finish line hill and started our third lap, one of the two Team Hotel San Jose guys I had been following suddenly slowed up right in the middle of a short steep hill. I was about 2 bike lengths behind at the time, but I was closing the gap quickly. I braked a bit and swerved off to the right (toward the shoulder, not the center line) a little, but the damage appeared to have been done. A few guys behind me and to my left were still accelerating into the hill and had to swerve off to avoid hitting me and this San Jose guy. One of them cut wildly across to his left and plowed into another guy causing a wreck and a resulting pile-up. Neither Hao nor I were caught in it, but we had to slow to avoid some of the people on the hill and as a result, about 20 guys who were ahead of us accelerated away. I took off after them, but Hao didn't have the legs to do it, so he and a teammate just kept riding. I didn't see them again until the finish.

For the next 2 miles, I had these guys in my sight and eventually caught them. But, just as I did, they came to another hill and I was beat from chasing them down. They accelerated away from me again. So, for the next 8 miles, I was trailing, pretty much alone, behind the break away pack anywhere from 50 to 120 meters behind. I just couldn't seem to catch them. Eventually, though, on the backside of the loop, they slowed considerably. I had to work hard, but I eventually caught them about 2-3 miles from the finish. But, the damage was done for me. I was exhausted, and although I had some time to sit in and try to recover, I knew I wasn't going to have much for the sprint finish.

I was right.

About 1000 meters from the finish, at the bottom of the hill, the group surged and some of the guys took off. A couple of them faltered, though, and fell back. The top guys, though, put it into overdrive and just accelerated away from us. Hao's teammate, Bryan, and I finished right next to each other. Another of Hao's teammates ended up winning the race and a fourth one finished in fourth place. I wound up in 16th place, just ahead of Bryan. Both of us were less than 13 seconds behind the winner. Hao finished in 27th place, about 2 1/2 minutes behind me. All in all, it was a good, fun race. I learned a lot and can't wait for my next one!

Here are the official results. Look for the "35+ 4/5" numbers. I'm in there!

Hope to have a picture or two to post shortly.