It was educational (I got schooled)

This past Saturday I competed in my first ever bicycling road race.  A buddy of mine signed up for it with a couple of other guys, and I was asked to join.  In theory, the four of us would work together to get one of us to the finish line first.  However only one of us had ever done a road race – the rest of us were used to doing triathlons – and I don’t think any of us really knew what to expect.  As it turns out, the race was the Iowa State Road Race Championships which as you might expect, brought out a lot of serious competitive cyclists.  I was registered in the Cat 5 (category 5) group which is where everyone starts until you race enough to move up.  I’m not sure how big of a difference there is between the different categories, but I do know one of the guys who beat me at the Scheels Dam Duathlon last week was a Cat 1/ Cat 2 cyclist and he was quite a bit faster than me.  

After most of the other group had already taken off, it was time for my group along with the Masters 60+ (men > 60 years old).  As we all grouped together, I overheard a couple of the older men complaining about how they’ve never had to ride with Cat 5 before.  Confused, I asked which was faster.  His reply was something between sarcasm and lecturing, “These types of races take a certain amount of experience that you Cat 5 riders don’t have yet”.  OK, I’ll stay out of his way. 

The race was set up as a single loop of 32 miles.  Everyone started together at a casual speed for the first 1 – 2 miles (until we got out of town) and then it was race on.  With triathlon racing as my only experience, I really didn’t know how this would work.  I’m used to jumping on my bike and going as hard as I can for whatever the distance is.  There is no drafting in triathlon; you don’t work as a team, you don’t ride in a pack, nothing like that.  You just race as hard as you can and go for the fastest time.  But I didn’t think that’s how road racing was.  From what I’ve heard from others and seen on TV, it’s more of a pack ride.  Stronger riders may try to make a break for it and go off ahead, but often time the pack rides them down.  So even though this was a 32 mile race, would we actually be racing for all of the 32 miles?  Or would it just come down to the final couple miles when people started to separate out? 

At about 5 miles into the race, while everyone was still in a pack (~ 40 riders), there was a big crash.  I was riding in the back of the pack and saw someone fall which took down about 20 other riders.  It looked bad.  I was able to swerve around it, but there was a lot of swearing and road rash.  Seeing the crash actually helped my racing – for starters, I just moved up 20 spots!  More importantly though, it thinned the pack and gave everyone [still upright] more space to ride. 

Again coming from a triathlon “background”, I thought the road race was a lot different and quite stressful.  A lead group of riders, about 4, broke away around mile 8.  I was able to chase them down and catch them around mile 13 and another 2 riders (including the buddy who talked me into signing up for the race) joined us by mile 14.  Now riding in the lead pack, I was part of 7 riders.  The group seemed content to ride together now and work as a “team”.  We got into a rotation where we would move clockwise, a rider would take a turn at the front of the group then rotate back and around while everyone else took equal turns.  While this paceline not only made the pedaling easier, it also made the group much faster.  At times, when I looked at my bike computer, I would notice us moving at 25+ mph which is much faster than I’m used to traveling alone on my road bike.  Unfortunately, this group rotation did not allow me to look at my computer much.  I was continually instructed on how to ride in the group; “move left”, “don’t leave so much space in front of you”, “you’re riding to fast”, “you’re riding to slow”.  This was my first time riding in a group and it showed.  Stupid me, I thought all I had to do was ride my bike as fast as I could.  But no, I had to do a lot more.  For about an hour, I basically just stared at the back wheel in front on me, a wheel I was supposed to stay ~ 6 inches behind and was moving 23 – 30 mph.  This was the high anxiety part, especially after already seeing a large crash. 

With about 7 miles to go, the group tried to “drop” me and my buddy (in other words, they tried to leave us behind).  The other 5 riders weren’t a team exactly, but it seemed like they either all knew each other or figured the two of us were going to be easy to pick off.  While they were able to separate themselves a little, it wasn’t enough for them to fully get away.  The group stayed together as we neared the finish. 

As we could start to see the finish, I decided I wasn’t going to sit back and let these guys win.  I felt like I had pretty strong legs at this point and maybe I could surprise them with an early sprint to the finish.  I was at the rear of the group, so I would be able to move past everyone and they wouldn’t notice me until I passed them.  When I saw the 1 km remaining sign, I made my break…it lasted about 15 seconds.  The group immediately caught onto me.  I gave it everything I had, but I still had 500 meters to go!  Within seconds, nearly the entire group passed me.  I limped across the finish in 6th place. 

Did I get greedy and sprint too early, no doubt.  Do I regret it, no!  Had I not tried anything, I still would have finished in the same spot because by the time I realized they started to sprint, I never would have caught up.  If I’m in the situation again, I would do it differently.  But that doesn’t mean I’m upset about blowing up at the end – it was still fun!  While I think the setup for triathlon racing better suites me, I would totally do another race like this. And once I get a little more experienced with it, I actually think it will be even more fun.

Run fast and hope to hold on…

I’ve been competing this summer in the Scheels Duathlon Series, as I’ve written about in two previous post. The series consists of 3 duathlons located in the Iowa City area.  After I finished 3^rd in the first race and 2^nd in the second race, I was thinking it was my turn to finish 1^st in a race… it seems logical, right? Realistically I knew I wouldn’t be able to win – not fairly anyway.  The top guy in the race was a pro triathlete and there is just no way I can match him on the bike.  So here was my plan: build as big of a lead in the first run as possible.  If I could bank enough time in the first run, maybe I could give myself a chance in the final run of the race.  At this point, it was either go for it or settle for 2^nd place at best. However since the run was only ~ 2 miles long, I wasn’t sure if I could really get much of a lead. 

Run 1:  Hills suck, it’s really as simple as that.  The first run of this race opened up right away with a fairly steep hill; I had to walk a fine line between building a lead and blowing up in the first couple minutes of the race.  I made sure I warmed up well before the race started, so I could go out fast on the first run.  Going up the hill I just wanted to be near the front; once we got over the hill that’s when I pushed the pace.  My plan seemed to work - just not as much as I was hoping for.  I ran most of the first run alone in front; it seemed like a pretty good lead, but as it turned out it wasn’t as big of a lead as I had hoped (~ 10 seconds).  Distance = 2.18 miles; Time = 12:03; Avg. pace = 5:31; Run 1 place = 1. 

Bike:  The bike portion of the race had to be shortened from 15 miles down to 10 miles because of gravel on the roads.  While the more serious bikers in the group did not like this last minute change, I thought it was great news!  A shorter bike course meant that the 2 runs would become more important. Since I am a better runner than cyclist this change could only help me. I knew there was no way I could hang with the top cyclists. Going into the race, with the original bike course, I thought best case I would lose 45 seconds on the bike.  But now with it shortened…maybe lose only 30 seconds? I could make that up with two really good runs… I hoped. 

Nope, didn’t happen. Even though I had the fastest first run that day, I ended up losing over a minute on the bike to the overall winner.  The course was extremely hilly and I simply just couldn’t match him (or the other guy who blew past me… where did he come from?)  On the bright side, I was leading the overall race until 3 miles into the bike course. But once I got passed by them both there was no catching them again (if it weren’t for turning around, I may not have even seen them again!).  Below is a picture of the course where you can see that it was nonstop hills. I was able to keep pace with the leaders going up but for some reason I just don’t have the same speed coming down.  So much for my plan of only losing 30 seconds on the bike.  Distance = 9.97 miles; Time = 26:13; Avg. speed = 22.8 mph; Bike place = 4.  

Run 2:  I started the final run firmly in 3^rd place overall.  With the 2nd run again only 2 miles, I didn’t think I had much of a chance of catching either of the athletes ahead of me.  But as I started the run, I got some welcome running company.  Just as he and his brother had done at the start of the bike portion, my oldest son ran along the outside of the course cheering me on.  Come on, how does that not motivate you?!?  I had a huge smile on my face and it forced me to run as hard as I could.  The run course was a loop, so you had a chance to see others on the course and gauge how far ahead/behind they were.  The farther I went without seeing the leaders coming back, the more hopeful I got.  Finally with a little under a mile to go, I saw the overall leader but not the second guy…was he starting to struggle?  I kept pushing and finally saw him.  He looked to be about 45 seconds ahead with only about 0.8 miles left – that’s a pretty big lead with that little distance left to go to the finish line.  I felt good and thought I might have a chance after all, but it turned out to be just too much of a gap to close.  By the time I finished the race, the overall winner had already crossed the line 23 seconds ahead of me.  I was able to cut his lead over me by 48 seconds during this run, but in the end he just had too big of an advantage coming off the bike.  Distance = 2.20 miles; Time = 12:10; Avg. pace = 5:31; Run 2 place = 1.

Overall race summary:  This was my final duathlon for the season.  While I was never able to contend for 1^st place in any of these races, I’m not at all disappointed losing to a pro triathlete (every race).  I’m happy with my 3^rd overall finish and a total time of 52:13 (full results).  In a way it was really nice having such a short race this time (first race that was under an hour) because my family didn’t have to wait as long to see me between transitions.  They stayed by the transition area, played on the playground and got to see me come through 3 – 4 times.  As far as the duathlon series goes, I thought it was great and I really hope Scheels continues with the series again next year.  I’m a little concerned that they won’t continue to sponsor it which would be really disappointing because I had a lot of fun doing it.  And after the race, in what has become a race day tradition, the whole family went out for pizza (buffet no less!).  While everyone enjoyed themselves, my wife was relieved that racing season was over since in her opinion, I’m the only one burning enough calories to warrant our pizza gluttony tradition.

 

Personal cheering section

I consider myself lucky that I have a personal cheering section for every race I compete in.  Regardless of time, distance, etc., my wife and kids come to all of my races.  This really helps me out a lot, not only for the encouragement while I’m out on the course, but the ability to talk with my family right before a race really helps with my pre-race nerves.  However can there be too much of a good thing?  Specifically, what about when travelling to a race location where more “extended” family members live.  Is this a good thing – to have more family members there to cheer you on and celebrate your finish?  Or is it a bad thing – more people there who want to spend time with you and don’t understand what you need to do to get yourself ready for a race?  I bring this up right now because of my experience at the Duathlon National Championships a few weeks ago, which was held in St. Paul, MN where basically all of my in-laws live.  But the situations are not specific to that trip and have occurred several times in the past. 

One thing I certainly do not want to do is make my family mad.  At the same time, one of the main reasons for this blog is to be honest with myself and my readers about situations that arise while training and racing.  I don’t want this blog to become just a race report; I really want it to be useful to everyone who takes the time to read it.  I have found this topic to be a very touchy one for myself and I would assume others as well.   

I’ve been thinking about this subject for a while; the day before the Duathlon National Championships last month, I was in a really pissy mood.  Why?  Because my wife and her family made plans to get together the night before.  Seriously, that was why.  The worst part is I actually did want to spend time with them, but instead I talked my wife/family into staying in our hotel room alone, eating a microwave breakfast sandwich instead.  I really earned that “World’s Best Dad” mug!  My problem, and it is my problem, is that I feel if things leave my control before a race, something will go wrong and my race will be ruined. 

Going back even further, the best race experience I ever had was at the Disneyworld Marathon in 2009.  My mother, younger sister and brother live in Florida, so they came over to Orlando to watch me run the race.  As a surprise, my older sister traveled down from Illinois with my niece to also watch me run the race.  Not to be left out, my dad actually planned a trip to Florida at the same time just so he too could spectate.  Really, how awesome is that?  Even more than you can imagine since the number of times my entire family gets together is along the same timelines as Hailey’s comet coming around.  Anyway, it was great and easily the most enjoyable, memorable races I’ve ever done regardless of how I did (although it did help that I ran my best marathon time too!).  The problem was the day and night before the race though.  I wasn’t able to do my normal pre-race routine.  I was getting pulled in a number of different directions – no one understood what I felt I needed to do to get ready for the next day.  Literally 6 hours before I had to wake up for the race, I was getting calls asking if I wanted any leftover chicken to eat…LEAVE ME ALONE!  But obviously I got through it and the main thing I remember from that race is how my whole family made such an effort to come see me race.  Not to be all sentimental, but it was a very special thing to me. 

So what does this all mean?  It means I will most definitely continue to sign up for races in locations where my family can come cheer me on.  I hope they enjoy doing it, because it’s certainly special for me.  However I think I need to structure things differently.  I need to plan my stays accordingly, so that if I need time to get ready the night before, I really should stay longer after the race to visit.  In fact as I’ve gone through writing this (I’ve started and stopped it several times over the past 2 weeks), the idea of doing more races where my family can see me actually gets me excited.  Let’s just hope I remember this feeling next time when it’s close to midnight on the eve of a race and I’m being asked if I want any leftover chicken!