Shorter stuff, lots of wind. And that is a surprise HOW?

“We should be taught not to wait for inspiration to start a thing. Action always generates inspiration. Inspiration seldom generates action.”  - Frank Tibolt

Having completed the Ironman Kansas 70.3 (and getting that monkey off my back) it was nice to be able to come home and do the sprint-distance Pflugerville Tri... or so I thought. This race is on Father's Day every year, and this was probably the windiest Father's Day I can remember. From the start of the day, the winds were blowing. I was hesitant to get my stuff out of my bag in transition after racking the bike, thinking stuff would blow across the parking lot we were in. I managed to get things laid out pretty well, weighing down anything light with something else heavier. Met a number of friends there, and then wandered down to the swim start. But as we stood around waiting for about 40 minutes, we could feel and see the wind picking up. I knew the swim wasn't going to be any fun, and I was a little concerned about the bike course and all the inexperienced participants being out there.

My swim was definitely slower than last year, with the wind and the shoulder injury from Galveston. I felt like I drank half the lake and couldn't get my stroke in concert with the waves. But I made it through the swim, and didn't fall over getting out of the water. Transition was decent, and once out on the bike, I made up a bit of time... until I turned on the back stretch that went headfirst into the wind. This was the one part of the ride where I really felt the winds. I knew coming in that this was going to be just another training day, so I hadn't even bothered with putting race wheels on the bike. I still managed to pass a few more riders, telling the women who had passed me on the swim "Good swim!" as I passed them on the bike, knowing many of them would pass me again on the run. The turn north on the tollway was awesome - tailwinds, and I managed to kick it up to a 32mph run for a few seconds. They had put cones up at the sharp right turn off the tollway which I felt was causing more trouble than help, so I moved outside of the cones to make more of a sweeping turn through the cones into the turn without slowing down as much. A little more headwind, and then it was into the last stretch down a hill and back up into transition. I cranked up the pedals for that and pushed it hard into the finish. Off the bike and in to change shoes, one of the guys I passed after the last turn went by saying "Great run down the hill!" -- felt pretty good hearing that. 

I will say I felt better coming off the bike into the run this time compared to last year. I managed to run almost the entire 3-mile loop, only walking through the aid stations long enough to grab a cup of water and dump it on my head. It wasn't fast, but it was decent. Given the wind, the ugly swim, and the slower bike, the overall time was about 10 minutes slower than last year. But the positives were what I was looking for - even though it was a lot shorter, I think this swim was a good practice for IMFL; decent bike given wind situation; and I felt better throughout the run... as a side note, I did the bike and run again on Wednesday evening, and with almost no wind, the ride was 1.5mph faster (without pushing at race tempo) and the run was a whole lot better at 9:53 per-mile-average.

I was able to ride with Alli Koch from Temple to Austin, as one leg of her journey from the Canadian border to the Mexican border, supporting the American Heart Association. The largest part of the ride was all going south down 95 from Little River Academy to Coupland, and it was ALL headwind. One of my fellow football officials volunteered to drive SAG for us, so Alli's dad Dave would be able to ride on the bike as well. Most of the trip he drives the car either in front of Alli or behind her. It was a difficult 60 miles of the 72 mile ride, but riding with an 18-year-old who has the wide-angle perspective of her world was such an inspiration! 

Next up is the decision about whether I am going to participate in the Olympic-distance triathlon in Waco in July, and then the Tri from The Heart in Brady August 7.

IM Kansas 70.3 -- Stick A Fork In It (or fly a kite in it!)

“Anyone can give up, it's the easiest thing in the world to do. But to hold it together when everyone else would understand if you fell apart, that's true strength.”

Ironman Kansas 70.3 – a pretty awesome experience, all things considered. I left Thursday night after packing up the truck with the tri bike and the road bike, as well as all the necessities for camping in the park for the duration of my stay. I had decided to stay in the camp itself rather than a hotel, to get the feel of the entire experience. There were a number of racers on the BT forum that had said that camping was the way to go for this race. Stopped in Plano to have dinner with Amanda and Matt before hitting the road again.  Uneventful drive, other than a brief cloudburst up in Kansas – not really enough rain to get anything in the back of the truck too wet. I arrived at Lake Clinton Park about 6am Friday morning, and since there was nobody at the entrance booth, I drove on in to find my campsite.

When I was leaving home, I had called Amanda and asked her to run up to the hardware store and pick up a couple of tarps for me, because the tarp to go under the tent was worn out. Good thing, because as soon as I pulled into the campsite it started raining. But it was one of those rains that came straight down, with no wind. I managed to get one of the tarps over the bikes and pretty much covered the whole bed of the truck, and climbed back in the truck to wait out this rain.

Once it quit raining, I got my tent and canopy set up, the bikes off the truck and covered with the 2^nd tarp and locked up. Our race was on Sunday, but they had scheduled for the first time an IronKids event on Saturday, and I had volunteered as a cyclist to ride alongside the kids, partly to just keep my legs loose for Sunday. I had decided to bring the road bike for this so as to not risk any kiddo running into the tri bike and messing up my race.

The rest of Friday was packet pickup, driving into Lawrence for groceries, and hitting the expo for a bit. After the Galveston disaster, I was a bit hesitant about buying anything, but I looked at the IMKS cycling jerseys, and once I figured out there was only one on the rack that was my size, decided to go ahead and splurge for the kit then rather than waiting until Sunday after the race. Chilling out the rest of the evening, grilled chicken for fajitas (I am firmly convinced Kansas grocery stores don’t have a clue about fajitas).

The weather forecast for the entire weekend was projected to be thunderstorms off and on. The rain managed to hold off until Friday night, but the winds picked up earlier in the afternoon, and hung around until about the time I packed up the tent on Sunday. The storm that rolled in Friday managed to fold the frame of my canopy, so I had to deal with that the rest of the weekend. Oh well.

The IronKids event was a blast! They do 3 age groups, 12-15, 9-11 and lastly the 6-8 year-olds in decreasing distances. I ended up riding sweep for all 3 age groups, which was fine… I am not sure I could have kept up with the speedy teens in the first group. But it was so much fun riding along behind the kiddos, trying to keep them moving and motivated. The little guys were hilarious – I had one boy and one girl at the slow end of the group. The girl first had issues trying to climb the hill and got sick at the top of the hill, I think because of the emotional stress. But once we got going she managed to relax. The little boy spent the entire ride looking around at all the spectators, and weaving back and forth across the course, just having a great time. It was a lot of fun to watch them.

After that, it was time for lunch and then bike check-in. Early pasta dinner and watching a few logs burn into the evening, finish packing up the transition bags, and make sure everything was tied down before crawling into the tent.

Sunday morning started early – 4am! And climbing out of the tent, the first thing I see is lightning to the south, and of course, the wind is still blowing… Oh, great, we get to race in a storm. Fortunately, the worst of it stayed to the south of us. But the wind was with us all day, starting with the swim. It was an in-water start, and treading water, it felt fairly calm. But once the horn went off and we started moving, you could feel how bad the choppy waves were. The wind was blowing across the course, which was an elongated U, so there wasn’t any help on either leg of the swim. There were times when my swim stroke would never clear the water because of the height of the wave… and then I would get thrown down to the bottom of the wave trough. Not a fun swim.

Because it was such an effort in the swim, I didn’t feel like I recovered very well early in the bike. It is a long run with the bike out of T1 to the mount, and a brief space long enough to get into the saddle, and then immediately to a hill going up away from the water. The winds continued, and most of the ride is hilly rollers, so I knew early on there was not going to be a PR this day. Since our wave was the first age group after the pros, there were a lot of 20- and 30-year-olds blowing past me, so I just stayed to the right and out of the way as much as possible. Somebody pointed out that the marshals were pretty lenient about the drafting rules because of the climbs and drops, and come to think of it, I remember seeing only one ride marshal on a motorcycle.

Transition from bike-to-run is at the top of the hill from the swim. I rolled into the bike finish and climbed off. Because of the number of people finishing the bike at the same time, traffic in transition was a bit thick, and not contemplating a PR, I decided it was best to get my stuff done and get out of there. I plodded out to the run start, and made my way through the first mile which is also a turnaround. I decided at the turn I needed to stop at the porta potty so I grabbed a water and headed that way. No waiting line so it wasn’t too many minutes before I was back on the course. The run course is a 2-loop deal and you have to go down and back up that hill at the bike start…twice. I knew I would be walking some, so I decided I was walking that hill. A lot of people had that same thought apparently, and it was pretty crowded. I managed a decent first 8 miles or so and about then the heat kicked in. I came up behind a woman wearing a CapTex Tri jersey, and it turned out she was an Internal Medicine doc from Arlington, so we walked/ran together for the next 4 miles or so. Overall, the run was actually an improvement over Galveston and RedMan, even with the hills, so I was pretty satisfied with that.

All things considered, this was a pretty nice trip. I could have done without the wind (which is probably ALWAYS there), but it is a great venue, the IronKids thing was fun and makes this a weekend for the whole family, and I finished the race vertically. AND Ironman rock star Chrissie Wellington was at the finish line to hang my medal around my neck! Camping in the park is definitely the way to go, because it gets you fully into the spirit of the event.

I definitely plan on doing this race again sometime in the future.

Half-Iron 70.3 - Take Two!

Heart in champions has to do with the depth of your motivation and how well your mind and body react to pressure. -- Bill Russell

This past week was pretty full... 45 minute - 1 hour bike rides and runs, swim at the lake or at the pool, Friday night run, Saturday morning we rode the Atlas Ride, and Sunday another run.

The Atlas Ride is Leg #1 of the Texas 4000, as that group starts their trek to Alaska. With IMKS next week, I chose to do just the 50-miler rather than the 70, which is actually 53 and some change. Fortunately, the weather this time was a lot better than last year. Not a tremendous amount of wind or heat, but we DID encounter a live snake in the road. A number of friends also rode the 50-mile route, so it was good to be at the finish (the Texas Legato winery, which is right next door to the winery we finished at last year) to see them come in.

Sunday, I was a kayak volunteer for the Danskin Tri, a women-only event out at Decker Lake. This was the 2nd time I have volunteered on the kayak, and it was nice out on the water in the early hours of the morning. Climbing into the kayak to watch the sunrise, and the water being as smooth as glass... pretty awesome experience. My position on the swim course was at the top of the triangle to make sure the swimmers made the turn around the last buoy and head for the beach, rather than swimming off course. Only had to chase down one errant swimmer after she drifted off a bit, but otherwise was mostly cheerleading from the water. 

I know I said it last year, but I feel like it is the right thing to do when you have the opportunity to give back to the sport. Too many times, some of us as participants tend to overlook the effort made by the volunteers. I thank by best friend for this bit of insight, and I know I will try to remember to thank every volunteer I come across in Florida.

Well, Toto - in a few days I will be off to Kansas, for the Ironman Kansas 70.3. The event will take place at Clinton Park, outside Lawrence. I am looking forward to it... well, maybe to everything but the long drive. But it should be a fun trip... the plan is to stop and have dinner with Amanda, then drive on up. Once I get checked into the park, I will then check in for the race, drive the bike course, and chill out the rest of Friday. Speaking of volunteering, Saturday there is an Iron Kids event in the park, and they have cyclists ride alongside the kids, so I think doing this as a volunteer will help to keep the legs loose...and it should be fun to watch the little guys. A couple of hours of that and then I am ready for a chair in the shade for the rest of the day. A lot of the participants will be camping in the park itself, so it should be fairly entertaining.

The race itself is on Sunday. Looking at the elevation for the bike, it is definitely NOT a redux of Galveston! There are quite a few rollers on this ride. And the run has an up-and-down at the dam, as far as I can tell. Given these little factors, I doubt I will be getting any PR for the Half. But I will be really happy to just finish in time.

Then it is back home for the Pflugerville Tri on the 19th... no, don't expect any speedy times - I expect it will be a good recovery effort, but that's about it!