Oh, Red Bank. Never a boring day. And 2013 didn't disappoint. For a number of reasons. But before I get into my actual report of the race, I need to preface a bit.
Red Bank has been the start of my tri season for the past two years but this year had me kicking things off in Tempe for a long-er course race. It went alright and is detailed here. But I've been suffering from some serious lack of motivation. Though lack of motivation probably isnt the best description because I've still been getting the work done. Trainings just become such a burden. Exercising for 15 or more hours a week, while working a full time job and trying to maintain some semblance of a social life is never really that enjoyable but I've never lacked that fire to get out and get the work done like I have for the last few months. I guess thats the best way to describe it all - I just lack that fire/desire. But, all my numbers look good. I'm swimming faster than ever, powers up and I've not seen this sort of run speed - ever. So its all sort of weird what I've been going through mentally. And none of that changed heading into Red Bank.
Race morning was wet and cold. And I was having none of it. While it wasnt raining at the start, it had been off and on all night and more rain was right around the corner. I had two buddies also racing and told Mike that if it was raining at the start, I wasnt racing. Looking for any out. And of course, it wasn't raining at the start so I started prepping to race. Red Bank, now in its third year, has grown every year since its debut. There were over 700 people racing (apparently) on the day, despite the crappy conditions. And because of that, transition was crowded, port o potty lines were long and check in was a bit messy. Each year, they've had an "open/elite" wave that you could register for online prior to race day but not this year. They still had it, but you had to enter on race morning. Which I did, along with my other buddy Matt.
SWIM - 22:XX
Transition closed and all of the athletes made their way out to the dock area. Its a deep water start race so you have to lower yourself into the water and then swim out to the start line. But because of the massive amount of people and my lack of urgency, I didnt notice that the elite wave was already in the water preparing for the start. As I'm getting zipped up, I see 15 or so athletes in green caps take off. Even though I had a yellow cap (that messy check in process), I knew that was the elite wave. I started hollering "what wave is that?!" as I'm rushing the person zipping me up. "Thats the elite wave." Great. No gun or megaphone or any other indication of a start. I run down to the race director frantically asking what wave just went off. "The elite wave but you've got a yellow cap, so you're fine." Quickly explaining that I'm in the elite wave, I look down over the edge of the 6 feet tallish pier and ask how deep the water is below and get a stern "DON'T DO THAT" from the race director. So then sprint to the closest ladder into the water, jump in and start sprinting. By this time, the groups passed the first buoy and I pull up thinking its senseless to try to proceed given that I lost last year by seconds, not minutes. I pulled up and considered just jumping in with my age group but then put my head back down and took back off. Much to my surprise, I see another green cap heading out the same time as I and we're both swimming nearly the same pace - like we're trying swim away from Jaws. Turns out it was Matt! He didn't realized it until we got out of the water but we ended up swimming with each other for nearly the entire swim. I was on the gas from the start and swam a little harder than anticipated, obviously, to try to make up some ground. My swim fitness is better than ever (thanks to Red Tide Masters team) and despite giving up over 2 minutes to the group at the start, I had passed all but 4 people by the time I exited. I swam 19:30 in 2012 and officially 21:58 this year. I'd like to think I swam a little faster than the year before so its possible I gave up more than 2:30 at the start. BAH! Nothing like keeping things interesting.
BIKE - 1:03
As I headed out on the bike, Brian from PBN Nutrition yelled out that I was down 5 minutes to the leader. I figured it'd be that much considering the mishap at the start but still sounded like a lot to make up in an olympic. But put my head down and started the chase. My legs were immediately there. My plan was to go out at 280 watts for the first 15ish minutes, evaluate and bump it up, down or hold steady accordingly. But considering how I was feeling, I jumped out at 290-300 and just held steady the rest of the way putting on a tiny surge in the last 10 minutes of the ride. The ride was pretty uneventful. Its a slow course with lots of turns and was wet so not ideal for going fast. I managed to catch two people but still had two more in front of me. But, they were relatively close - I was coming into transition as they were coming out. I do want to call out some numbers which I normally dont do. The following are some numbers from 2012 and 2013 power files.
These clearly show a stronger ride this year but most importantly is the run that came after each.
RUN - 37:07 I knew I had two people in front of me and was confident I'd catch one of them since I knew who it was. But wasn't sure who the other was. And heading out, I couldn't see anyone. Its an out and back course and so knew I'd see them at some point even if it wasnt until the turnaround. Knowing that, much like the bike, I just put my head down and started running. Not paying much attention to my heart rate or pace - just...hunting. Just past the 1 mile mark, you come around a corner and head over a bridge. Its maybe a quarter mile long and then turns into neighborhoods where things wind, head through a bit of trail and then hit a straight section where the turnaround lies. Just as I rounded the corner to get on the bridge, I could see 2nd place just getting ready to make the turn into the neighborhood. And then I got really hungry. The pass was made somewhere before we headed into the trail section of the run. I honestly dont even remember when exactly. Was focused on finding the leader who I knew was close. Once through the wooded trail bit and on the straight section with the turnaround, I could see the leader. Made the final pass right at the turnaround - or what the turnaround ended up being for he and I. We apparently made it out there before anyone else and while there was a sign, the cones were another tenth of a mile up the road along with a police car. The leader ran to those cones/cop car, so I followed. As we approached, the officer yelled out that we should have turned around "back there!". Excellent. So I give up over 2 minutes at the start and now have just added another .2 miles to my run. Making the pass and realizing that I now just gave the chasers back ANOTHER solid minute, I put together two of my fastest miles of the race. Third place was close, but once I hit mile 5 I knew I had it. I've never felt so good running at the pace I was. And thats literally the most exciting piece of this race. I crossed the line with my first overall win at the Olympic distance and was beyond stoked! Despite running 6.37 miles instead of 6.2, my pace on the day equates to nearly a 36 minute flat 10K. Officially, my run split was just over 37. But knowing I have 36 minute flat run speed in my legs (and maybe more!), a relatively big bike and strong swim just makes me feel like I can compete nearly anywhere. And since I'm so proud of my run, heres the numbers:
Despite running an additional .17 miles, I still ran 17 seconds per mile faster than I did in 2012 at the exact same HR. Which is huge!
As the title mentions - I think I've hit a bit of a breakthrough.
Red Bank has been the start of my tri season for the past two years but this year had me kicking things off in Tempe for a long-er course race. It went alright and is detailed here. But I've been suffering from some serious lack of motivation. Though lack of motivation probably isnt the best description because I've still been getting the work done. Trainings just become such a burden. Exercising for 15 or more hours a week, while working a full time job and trying to maintain some semblance of a social life is never really that enjoyable but I've never lacked that fire to get out and get the work done like I have for the last few months. I guess thats the best way to describe it all - I just lack that fire/desire. But, all my numbers look good. I'm swimming faster than ever, powers up and I've not seen this sort of run speed - ever. So its all sort of weird what I've been going through mentally. And none of that changed heading into Red Bank.
Race morning was wet and cold. And I was having none of it. While it wasnt raining at the start, it had been off and on all night and more rain was right around the corner. I had two buddies also racing and told Mike that if it was raining at the start, I wasnt racing. Looking for any out. And of course, it wasn't raining at the start so I started prepping to race. Red Bank, now in its third year, has grown every year since its debut. There were over 700 people racing (apparently) on the day, despite the crappy conditions. And because of that, transition was crowded, port o potty lines were long and check in was a bit messy. Each year, they've had an "open/elite" wave that you could register for online prior to race day but not this year. They still had it, but you had to enter on race morning. Which I did, along with my other buddy Matt.
SWIM - 22:XX
Transition closed and all of the athletes made their way out to the dock area. Its a deep water start race so you have to lower yourself into the water and then swim out to the start line. But because of the massive amount of people and my lack of urgency, I didnt notice that the elite wave was already in the water preparing for the start. As I'm getting zipped up, I see 15 or so athletes in green caps take off. Even though I had a yellow cap (that messy check in process), I knew that was the elite wave. I started hollering "what wave is that?!" as I'm rushing the person zipping me up. "Thats the elite wave." Great. No gun or megaphone or any other indication of a start. I run down to the race director frantically asking what wave just went off. "The elite wave but you've got a yellow cap, so you're fine." Quickly explaining that I'm in the elite wave, I look down over the edge of the 6 feet tallish pier and ask how deep the water is below and get a stern "DON'T DO THAT" from the race director. So then sprint to the closest ladder into the water, jump in and start sprinting. By this time, the groups passed the first buoy and I pull up thinking its senseless to try to proceed given that I lost last year by seconds, not minutes. I pulled up and considered just jumping in with my age group but then put my head back down and took back off. Much to my surprise, I see another green cap heading out the same time as I and we're both swimming nearly the same pace - like we're trying swim away from Jaws. Turns out it was Matt! He didn't realized it until we got out of the water but we ended up swimming with each other for nearly the entire swim. I was on the gas from the start and swam a little harder than anticipated, obviously, to try to make up some ground. My swim fitness is better than ever (thanks to Red Tide Masters team) and despite giving up over 2 minutes to the group at the start, I had passed all but 4 people by the time I exited. I swam 19:30 in 2012 and officially 21:58 this year. I'd like to think I swam a little faster than the year before so its possible I gave up more than 2:30 at the start. BAH! Nothing like keeping things interesting.
BIKE - 1:03
As I headed out on the bike, Brian from PBN Nutrition yelled out that I was down 5 minutes to the leader. I figured it'd be that much considering the mishap at the start but still sounded like a lot to make up in an olympic. But put my head down and started the chase. My legs were immediately there. My plan was to go out at 280 watts for the first 15ish minutes, evaluate and bump it up, down or hold steady accordingly. But considering how I was feeling, I jumped out at 290-300 and just held steady the rest of the way putting on a tiny surge in the last 10 minutes of the ride. The ride was pretty uneventful. Its a slow course with lots of turns and was wet so not ideal for going fast. I managed to catch two people but still had two more in front of me. But, they were relatively close - I was coming into transition as they were coming out. I do want to call out some numbers which I normally dont do. The following are some numbers from 2012 and 2013 power files.
| Metric | 2012 | 2013 |
|---|---|---|
| NP | 280 | 295 |
| AP | 278 | 290 |
| AVG Heart Rate | 162 | 159 |
