Characters.....

OK, so there are a couple of characters who are starting to appear pretty regularly on this blog who have not yet been anointed with an official nickname and it's time for that to change....

For those of you who might not read this nonsense regularly (and who could blame you!) the regular characters all have nicknames.  These are allocated by me (although I take suggestions) and are not meant to be insulting, but are also certainly not meant to be exactly kind either!   They often arise from some stupid activity, an idiosyncracy (did I spell that correctly?) or character quirk.    By way of example, Coach Stacey is "The Puppeteer"; my lovely wife is "She Who Must Be Obeyed" (or SWMBO) and we have numerous others such as Compass, Snitch, The Dominatirx, The Rabbit, The Beast etc....

So  now it's time to announce names for Brian and Beth....

First up in Brian.  Man this was a hard one.  How do you come up with a nickname for Mr. Wonderful? :-)   (actually, maybe it should have been "Mr. Wonderful"!).   He's a great guy; a speedy fast triathlete (and getting faster by the day); he's a good looking single dude (have you ever seen him and Tom Brady in the same room?), my kids love him (he spent hours helping my eldest to surf earlier this year)....     God I hate him!

The nickname suggestions have poured-in for Brian, but somehow I couldn't bring myself to bring-up his personal grooming habits (thanks for the laughs though Compass!) or base his nickname on his Adonis-like chiseled body (thanks to the rest of the swooning ladies), so instead this one is based on his relative youth compared to the rest of us; his single guy lifestyle and the fact that he probaly only changes his underwear once a week (surely he must have some faults?).    Ladies and gentlemen, I give to you...

Fratboy!

Fratboy in his natural element.....

....and slaying the Mahi Mahi!

Now it's on to Beth.    What can you say?   She looks as if butter wouldn't melt in her mouth, but she has a wickedly dry sense of humor and a great "potty mouth" while pounding the pedals for 50 miles.   Part Southern bell, part Texas redneck!   :-)   I probably shouldn't say too much as she's much fitter than me and will probably kick my tail next time we get to train together!

Beth was, for a while, under the grave misapprehension that she could lobby for he own nickname....   "Fashionstar"?...   yeah, like that'sgoing to happen!

So what to call a fast, coffee-loving, salmon burger pounding, funny, potty-mouthed lawyer?

It all became clear the evening before the White Lake International race a few weeks back as everyone was sitting around the grill telling stories.....

....  I felt for sure that we were being invaded by a herd of wild pigs or that, perhaps, White Lake was hosting an international cocaine sniffing convention, but no.....   that weird noise permeating the still lakeside air was Beth laughing, so, ladies and gentlemen, I give you....

Snort!

Snort Esq. in her natural environment.

OBX Sprint Triathlon Race Report

This past weekend saw the Outer Banks triathlon weekend, put on so wonderfully by Outer Banks Sporting Events (http://www.obxmarathon.org/site3.aspx), come around again.   This event is special to me bacause it was my first ever triathlon a couple of years back (http://rogersroadrash.blogspot.com/2010/09/im-triathlete.html) and, of course, because of my love of the area and the local community down there.

While I should probably have signed-up for the Olympic distance race on Saturday as I prepare for Rev.3 Anderson, SC 70.3 in a few weeks, I instead decided to compete in the sprint distance on Sunday as a colleague and friend from the UK, Crawford Brown, was visiting the US on business last week and chose this event as his first ever triathlon.

Crawford taking it all in....

Having spent the week working in Salt Lake City (where we managed to get in a couple of great trail runs right out of the city center - very cool!) Crawford and I headed down to the Outer Banks on Friday afternoon to meet up with Brian Lambert, who would be racing the Half Ironman 70.3 mile event on Saturday.   Needless to say Brian wanted to get to bed early and Crawford and I were still a bit tired from the travel, so after a nice dinner at the Outer Banks Brewing Station we turned-in early.

Early Saturday saw us watching the sun rise over the Atlantic and heading over to the Old Swimming Hole in Manteo to watch the swim legs of the 70.3 and Olympic distance events and to cheer on Brian and lots of "tri buddies" from the OBX Tri Group including Nemo Branch, Rachel Johnson, Terry Donahue, Laura Cortez, Laurie Graham, Jessica Lehman and others too numerous to mention.  This was also an oppotunity to meet another TriStacey athlete, Cindy Bohlin, who I have communicated with via email dozens of times but never actually met face-to-face!

Nemo, Laura and Terry with scenic Porta Potty backdrop!

Rachel "hamming it"

Crawford was soon getting into the thick of things and starting to understand what he had let himself in for!  He was clearly enjoying the "race atmosphere" though and  was soon right at home and chatting away with the locals!

Crawford testing the water temperature and contemplating tomorrow's race.....

Soon it was 07:00 and time for the start of the 70.3 Half Ironman swim.   Brian was in the second wave and soon on his way to a strong 35 minute swim for the 1.2 miles in the choppy sound water.

The second 70.3 swim wave waiting to start.  the thing that looks a bit like a large mosquito hovering over the pilings is a cool multi-rotored remote controlled flying camera platform that was shooting video!

...and they're off!

Next up were the athletes for the Olympic distance and they too were soon underway for their 1500 M swm.

Brian leaving the water as an Olympic start wave waits in the background to start their race

Rachel - wet, but moving quickly!

I tried to get a snap of Cindy leaving the water, but that lady is too damned fast! (she won her age group - congrats Cindy!)

As the athletes headed out from their first transition for their 56 mile or 25 mile bike rides, Crawford and I headed into Manteo for a quick breakfast at Poor Richard's and a quick stroll along the waterfornt before heading back to watch Brian come in on the bike.  He seemed to be in good shape (I had lent him my race wheels and was relieved to see that he hadn't flatted!) and was soon heading out for his half marathon run.

Brian, literally "flying" into T2 with the Slut's Sister

In transition (and proving that I don't only take pictures of female rear ends!).  The Zipp 808s are looking good!

Looking pretty damned happy considering that he still has 13.1 miles to go!

Now it was time to wait and, after picking up race packets for the next day's sprint race, we enjoyed watching the Olympic athletes coming down the finishing chute - happy or hurting, smiling or grimacing, but all pleased to be finished!

Soon the winner of the 70.3 mile Half Ironman came home in an impressive time of around 04:37.   Not so very long after Brian came home to take third in his age group in 05:24, including a rocking swim of just 34.5 minutes for the 1.2 miles (and in choppy conditions!).   Congrats buddy!  Hopefully this was a great warm-up for Brian's full 140.6 Ironman in Florida in a few weeks.

Brian still looking strong as he approaches the finish line after 70.3 miles.

After a well deserved dinner that evening at Old Nags Head Cafe, we all started to fall a sleep in the chair watching college football like a bunch of pensioners!   I guess that even watching a triathlon is exhausting!   Before finally turning-in I checked the weather forecast for the race the next morning and (surprise, surprise) it had changed.....    still forecast to be sunny, but instead of 6-9 mph winds it was now calling for 17-20 mph sustained winds out of the N or NE.   When the wind is from the N the water in the Old Swimming Hole tends to be less choppy but have longer swells (could be good or bad), but more importantly, it would almost certainly play havoc with the bike leg when crossing the Umstead Bridge over the sound!   I made the decision to wait to put my race wheels on the bike until I saw what conditions were like next morning...

Sunday morning saw the alarm go off at 05:00 and we were soon tucking into breakfast of coffee, English muffins, bannanas and Ensure.   The bikes were already loaded, so we were soon on our way over to Roanoke Island, with Brian coming along to support us and Crawford, understandably, showing his first signs of apprehension!

After going to body marking to have our race numbers and advanced ages tattooed all over our bodies we picked-up our timing chips (with neoprene straps - nice touch!) and went back to prepare our transition areas and head out for a short warm-up.   It felt pretty humid, and pretty soon the wind was very obviously starting to pick-up.

Start time for the first wave was 07:30 am.  We were in the fourth wave (orange caps) and so had time for a swim warm-up.  The water temp. was somewhere around 73 F, so wetsuits were legal, but not really needed.  I decided to wear mine as practice for my upcoming 70.3 race in October.

Dr. Brown and Dr. Lias discussing swim tactics after their warm-up!  

Before we knew it we were on the beach waiting to be called-up for our start.....

We're in there somewhere....

OK, so before I go on to my personal race report, I need to give a big shout out to Crawford, who finished his first triathlon with a huge smile on his face in a creditable 01:47:25 in difficult conditions and riding an unfamiliar bike (my Cannondale CAAD9-5 roadie).   I obviously couldn't see him leave the water, but Brian said that he was by far the happiest racer!  Judging by his post-race comments and general enthusiasm for the whole weekend, I think he has caught the bug!    We discussed doing a race somewhere in Europe next year to coincide with one of my frequent trans-Atlantic work trips - I hope we can make that happen!


Crawford "bringing it home" in front of his legions of adoring fans!

.....and crossing the line.  He can fly!

I also need to give a shout out to Angie Wilson, wife of my friend Mark, who also completed her first triathlon last Sunday and was all smiles afterwards - well done Angie!

Angie's a triathlete!

OK, so now on to my race report:

Swim (750M):   00:15:27.   Hmmm....   This short swim in the sound has to go down as one of the strangest I have ever done and, frankly, I was surprised to see that I had finished in 15 minutes!   The first leg of the triangular course is very shallow, so it is possible to stand-up all the way to the first turn buoy.   Much to my surprise, many people did and essentially walked/ran all the way to the turn!   I had positioned myself to the right of the relatively large wave start based on the fact that there was a clear southerly drift in the earlier waves.   It was a relatively chaotic start (which I don't particularly enjoy - see White Lake Sprint report from 2011) but what really threw me was swimming and being able to see people walking right next to me when I breathed both to my left and to my right - weird!   Somehow it just threw me off my stroke and rhythm.   The first turn was chaotic (again with people standing up!) but thankfully things got deeper right after the turn and people were forced to actually swim!   At this point, to add insult to injury, I had my goggles kicked off my face and took a nice mouthful of sound water - it wasn't a huge deal and I was soon underway again, but for a while I felt that now familiar "constricted feeling" in my wetsuit and side stroked for a while as the waves were directly in our faces on the second leg until I got things back under control.   Thankfully the waves were somewhat behind us on the third leg and I managed a half-decent freestyle to the beach.    Overall not particularly pleased with this one.   I need more open water wet suit practice before Rev.3 SC 70.3!

Leaving the water and not feeling too happy!

My best Hulk impression

Transition 1:    00:02:33.   This race features a relatively long run to the transition area, which I like as it gives the opportunity to start peeling off the wetsuit and to get the legs going ready for the bike leg.  No issues here.  Wetsuit off easily.  Had a good rack position close to the bike exit.  Shoes on pedals and a clean exit.

Bike:   The official results list my bike time as twenty one hours and one minute and I'm pretty sure that I wasn't that slow!    :-)   My Garmin shows around 45 minutes.  Overall I was happy with the bike.   The out and back course goes over the long Umstead Bridge connecting the north end of Roanoke Island to Manns Harbor on the main land.  I have experienced strong winds on this bridge many times (see my "Wrestling with theSlut" post) and knew that today would not be easy on the return leg.  I had wisely decided no to use race wheels which can act as a sail!  After hitting a pot hole and almost biting the dust as I turned onto Rt. 64 from Airport Road, sure enough I flew over the bridge with a strong tail wind on the way out.   Of course this equates to a strong head wind on the way back and, sure enough, after the turn at Mashoes Road, things got much tougher.    Nothing to do but to keep it in aero and use the gears effectively.  At times I was struggling to hold 13 mph but I was still managing to overtake a large number of folks from earlier waves and enjoyed the ride.   As always a few speed demons flew past me too, but overall I was satisfied.  Annoyingly one of these guys was blatantly drafting me for about 5 minutes coming back over the bridge and I couldn't shake him until he exploded past me once we reached the cover of the trees back on the island.  Where's a referree when you need one?   At least he wasn't in my age group!

Transition 2:   00:00:49  Completely uneventful.  Took a quick drink; put on my race belt exiting and was on my way.

Run:   5K   00:26:49   Windy through the part trail and part paved run.   I actually felt pretty good.  Not super fast, but I'm OK with this at the back end of a race.

Done!

Overall:    01:30:34    7th in age group (and, as usual, there were some fast guys - one guy finished top ten overall in 01:17:48) and 56th of 304 overall age group finishers.   Not a fast time, but the conditions were clearly not conducive to fast times.  [I think this makes my official bike time 00:45:04]

Overall I was happy and I certainly very much enjoyed the weekend!  Highlights for me of course were seeing Crawford (and Angie) complete their first races with big smiles on their faces and seeing Brian rock a comfortably sub 05:30 Half Ironman.  And I also finally met the very famous Cindy Bohlin!  :-)

Time for a beer!

 Finally a big shout out to Jim Snyder and the guys at Outer Banks Sporting Events and all of the volunteers.   This is a really well organized event and is fast becoming a "must race" on the NC race calendar.   Thanks guys!

White Lake International Race Report

Last weekend saw me racing White Lake International, which is an Olympic distance event put on by Set-Up Events.  For the uninitiated, Olympic distance races are 1,500 M swim;   45 km bike (~28 miles) and 10 km run (~6.2 miles).   This would be my first official Olympic distance race.

The race was (surprise, surprise) held in White Lake, NC, which is about 110 miles from home, so given the early start time on Saturday I decided to join other TriStacey athletes Jenn Mayfield and Beth Grimes (plus The Puppeteer herself) and stay at Langston's Motel on Friday night. 

I was able to cut out a little early and enjoyed cranking tunes with the car window open on the ride south.  I had pre-paid for my room and was soon checked-in at the Langston's reception, where the nice lady directed me up the road a little to "unit 16"...  

I was quite surprised to find that "unit 16" was actually a little self-contained cabin (hut?) with bed, small kitchen area and bathroom.   Even a small screened porch!   It was atually quite clean and comfortable.....

Living the Dream!   The stylish brick base is actually plastic!

Soon texts were flying as everyone started to arrive and we convened for a swim warm-up in the lake with The Puppeteer.   Beth "conveniently" got lost on the way and was too late to join us!

Before getting-in I had the chance to meet Jenn's husband Grant for the first time - nice guy! - and we spent some time chatting about bikes.   He would be riding the bike in a relay team the following morning.

The warm-up swim was, well....   not good!   The water was too warm and "soupy" and I just didn't feel as if I "had it".  I got the impression that The Puppeteer and Jenn felt the same way, so we just swam a few hundred yards before heading back.   After a quick shower I went back to the beach to join everyone for a cookout and a few beers.  Jenn, The Puppeteer and their other halves were staying over on Saturday night and clearly intended to party after the race based on the copious quantities of beer, wine and liquor in their motel "suite".......

Grant working the grill

Jenn being a goof ball.  Not sure what the guy is thinking!



Beth trying to look Glam, which isn't easy to do after you've slammed 17 Trader Joe's salmon burgers!



After watching the sun set, we chatted for a while and discussed race strategy [Question:  who wears chamois butter in their tri shorts before the swim and leaves an oil slick as she passes?  Answers on a postcard please.....] before everyone turned in for an early night.

 

At this point I'll take a break as I seem to have added two new faces to the cast of characters that appear on this blog, and it only seems fair that Jenn and Beth are annointed with nicknames by which they will be known from this point forward....

I already had a name in mind for Jenn, as shes' fond of drinking these things and posting the recipes on line....

Actual picture from Jenn's facebook page......



.......and the ingredients!



Ladies and Gentlemen....   this one is easy....   I give you "The Rabbit"!

"The Rabbit" sporting essential triathlon equipment in her right hand.

Beth is not so easy and I'm not sure that I'm ready to make a decision yet. She seems to be under the sad misapprehension that she gets to choose her own nickname, but I can assure her that "Fashionstar" is not it!   She's a coffee hound, but "La Barista" is also way too kind...      How about "Oil Slick"?    Oh damn, I gave it away!   :-)    I'm pretty sure that she will do something stupid soon and that this will be the basis of a good name, but until then I'll have to be content with "Beth".  Watch this space!

OK, back to the race report......

My alarm went off at 05:15 am and I was soon attacking my now standard race day breakfast of Breuger's bagel (garlic, with honey walnut cream cheese!); bananna; bottle of Ensure and a couple oflarge coffees with cream and sugar.   Nutrition was going to be important today as the temperatures were forecast to be high and the humidity to be 100% at race time!   I stuck with my usual scoop and a half of Accelerade in each of my three water bottles, but added the contents of a Lava Salt capsule to each and also took one capsule with breakfast. http://www.squeezy.com/salts.htm  Important to get lots of electrolytes on a hot and humid day!

I like to get to races early and I had no problem getting a primo parking spot and was soon setting-up my transition area and getting ready to warm-up.   I collected my race chip and went to body marking to have someone write my race number and age all over me in large black letters and everything was going well untl....  CRAP!  I realised that I had left my beautifully prepared nutrition bottles in the fridge in Unit 16!   Damn, damn, damn!   At this point it would have been difficult to go back for them, so there was nothing to do but to put Plab B into operation.   Inside Out Sports were set-up in the race registration area, so I dashed over there and purchased a couple of water bottles and some EFS Energy Drink (the only brand they were carrying).   As it happens, I had been meaning to try this stuff for a long time.  Not good to try something new on race day, but you have to do what you have to do!   I soon had bottles made up and added a capsule of Lava Salts to each.  [Note:  this worked absolutely fine during the race and it is sooo much nicer to drink than the Accelerade I have been using!].

Panic over - now it was time to warm-up.   A few miles on the bike made it very obvious that it was extremely humid out (actually 100% humidity according to weather.com) and a short run confirmed this!   This was not going to be a comfortable race once the sun came up and started beating down!

I found The Rabbit, Grant and Beth in transition and also ran into Kari Obermeyer, Darlene Noyce and a few others that I know.



The usual chaos of transition...

Race time was approaching at this point, so I grabbed my goggles and cap (royal blue for this race) and headed down to the lake for a swim warm-up.   Finally 8 am rolled around and the first waves started.  One thing that I really don't like about Set-Up events is that they always seem to start the ...ahem...."older" age groups last.   This absolutely sucks for two reasons:  firstly you have to stand and watch wave after wave of athletes going off before you at five minute intervals, building nervousness and messing with your adrenalin levels; but perhaps worse is knowing that you are going to be among the later finishers and that it is going to be much hotter on the run than it is for those who started earlier.   I need to write a letter!  :-)

I watched The Rabbit start 10 mins before me and Beth in the wave directly ahead of me and finally it was 8:40 am and my turn!

Swim:  1500 M clockwise triangular course.  Water pretty flat - just a slight wind.  Waist deep start.

Because the sighting buoys appeared to be a little to the left relative to the first turn buoy I elected to start outside and to the right.  This seemed fine and I soon found open water and, other that a few of the usual bumps and nudges, I didn't get into any "physical combat" at the start!   It seemed to take me about 150 M to start to find my rhythm, but I was soon feeling pretty comfortable and concentrating on The Puppeteer's mantra of keeping it loooong in the water. 

I think that I sighted pretty well to the first turn buoy, but I could see a couple of guys from my start wave who had swum waaay too far to the right.  Much to my astonishment, rather than correcting to their left to round the turn buoy, they simply kept swimming futher right and completely cut the corner!!!  I would estimate that the worst offended cut about 100 yards!   I freakin' hate cheats!   You can't tell who it is when all you can see is royal blue caps (and if they were swimming back with me they presumably weren't in contention for a podium spot!), but I hope they can live with themselves!

Anyway, back to my swim...    it was basically pretty uneventful from there on in.  I did pick it up pretty well for the last 200 M, which makes me wonder whether I should have gone harder earlier.  Perhaps by concentrating so much on "long and smooth" I let my stroke rate slow too much?   Lots to work on.  Anyway, given that this was my first competitive open water race at this distance, I was reasonably happy.

41:18 (includes the run down the pier towards transition).   Certainly not fast, but given that this time last year I was strugglng to complete this distance, I'll take it!

T1:   Yet again I showed that (unfortunately) transition is my best discipline!   01:45 and uneventful.

Bike  45 km:  A largely flat triangular course.  A bit breezy in places.

I was pretty pleased with my bike leg.  I had left my Garmin at home and so was going on feel.  Felt pretty strong throughout and stayed in the aero position except to drink.  I think that I was only passed by three guys and two of them from relay teams starting in the wave behind me.  I certainly enjoyed chasing down and passing plenty of people!   I tried to "keep the pedal down" without going too crazy as The Puppeteer and I had discussed what I might be capable of on the run over coffee earlier in the week.  I was determined to put in a good run split and so saved a little on the bike.  Turns out that I shouldn't have bothered!!  :-)  (see below). 

01:29:25.  Roughly 19 mph average. 

T2:   Again uneventful.  01:27

Run  10k:    Flat out and back course.

This is where things started to get ugly (and not just for me!).   The NC sun was now high in the sky and there is absolutely no shade on this course.  Humidity was forecast to have dropped to "only" 90% by this time of day.  I don't know what the temperature was as I was running, but I do know that it was 91 F not long after I had finished.   I felt pretty good for the first mile or so and concentrated on high turnover, but things got ugly pretty quickly and, like many, many others, I was soon down to slogging it out and just trying to get to the finish.   I saw several people just sitting on the side of the course, which I haven't seen before. 

I basically just ran from aid station to aid station (1 mile apart) and kept looking forward to the ice cold wet towels that they were handing out!  I did manage to run the whole thing apart from two of the aid stations where I deliberately stopped to walk to make sure that I could get sufficient fluids inside me.   Not much more to say - it was basically an ugly slog!   I know that everyone felt the same way and I'm not going to beat myself up over it, as most people seemed to be complaining of being 10 mins or so outside their target time,  Brutal!

01:02:02

Overall:  03:15:55     Significantly slower than my target time, but then again, so was everyone else!

So - my first Olympic race in the books and, despite the run conditions, I really enjoyed it.  A nice stepping stone towards my first 70.3 mile race in October...



Dreaming of Rev.3 Anderson SC



The Sound of Speed

I spent part of yesterday evening cleaning and lubricating The Slut ready to race at White Lake this weekend.  Cleaned the chain and cassette.  Once that was completed it was time to put on the Zipp 808 race wheels....    I LOVE those things!

Ready to race

It was pouring rain yesterday evening, so I waited until this morning to adjust the brakes and take her for a test ride to make sure that everything is ready to go.  Smoothest gear changes ever!   :-)

I love the way that the race wheels look fast, but best of all is the way they sound!  Firstly, they "ratchet" when free-wheeling, which my training wheels don't.  Even better than that though is the "whoosh" sound they make when you get up to speed - awesome!

I'm ready.  White Lake here I come!

The Slut Has a Sister

We were down on the Outer Banks of North Carolina for the Labor Day Holiday weekend.  Fellow TriStacey triathlete Brian Lambert joined us for an offshore fishing trip planned for the Sunday, so we decided to put in a long ride on Saturday morning.

Because of typically heavy "changeover day" traffic on Saturdays and the narrowness of the shoulder on the Oregon Inlet Bridge, we got up early and drove our bikes to the parking lot on the south side of Oregon Inlet to start our ride.  

This was the first time for me to see Brian's new bike - a Cannondale Slice very similar to "The Slut" - she has a sister!   I like to think that we got some admiring looks as we headed south on Route 12 - "look! those guys must be team mates of Peter Sagan and Ivan Basso".....    OK, maybe not, but I do sometimes find my mind "playing in the self amusement park" when I ride.

We made the 75 mile round trip down to Hatteras Lighthouse and back.   Slight headwind on the way south, but it could have been a lot worse.   As usual, it was a relentless slog along the flat and largely dead straight road.

Brian showing us his aero position

Here are The Slut and her sister plus a few photos to prove that we got there....

The Slut (left) and Brian;s new Slice

Brian looking "too cool for school" as usual....

.......and me rying to keep up and failing miserably!

It was a great ride, but I was ultimately very happy to be finished - the last few miles seemed to take an eternity.  Of course, compared to Brian who bombed the return leg at north of 22 mph, they did!  :-)

All-in-all a nice morning.  Now all that remains is to come up with a suitable blog nickname for Brian - all suggestions will be considered.   "The Kid", "Frat Boy" and "Headband" are the current suggestions!

There will also be a caption contest for this one.....