This is E. Don't know about you, but I'm still interested in what A has to say about her experience at the Quad. Sure we talked a fair amount about it on the drive back, but there are somethings that you forget about until you start writing.
Unfortunately as soon as we got back, A started working long hours at work (>12 hours a day long). Currently, I'm waiting for her to get back from going back into work to turn off the cooling to something or maybe it was turn off the cooling to something. Once she gets back, we get to have fresh baked brownie. Hmm, brownie.
My legs have recovered pretty well from the race, but my mind might need a bit more break before the training picks up again. Not due to the race as much as the stress from trying to get everything ready for the race while working crazy hours. Well, this post isn't going anywhere interesting...
Good night,
-E
Wednesday, February 18, 2009
Sunday, February 15, 2009
E's Quad Report
What a bittersweet race.
Pre-pre-race
The prep for the race went very well, but didn't go into it feeling all that fresh. Stayed injury free and mostly healthy, but had to spend a serious chuck of time at work two weeks before the race (85 hours in 7 days). I also scrambled it assemble our Javelin Amarones in time for the race. I got them ready in time for one test ride for each of us before the race. Fortunately, I did a good job getting them ready and they were ready to race.
Pre-race
Travel to Grants went well. We turned in our stuff, went to the pasta dinner and got to bed early. Race morning went smoothly as we didn't have to make any emergency trips back to the motel (it's happened twice before).
As I've had extremely high heartrates at the start before, I wanted to get a good warm up in to avoid that. A and I headed out with Erin for a bit on the bike course to show her the way the route goes through town. Although they had swept the road, the bike lane still had some glass in it that we rode through. We wiped our tires and didn't think much of it. We headed back to town and A and I got a little bit of a run in. Once we got back to the bikes, I got ready and headed to the start line
Bike Up, well not quite
As I'm lined up for the start with a few minutes to go when I hear A yell out to me that her front wheel is flat. I get out of the pack in a hurry and go with her to the bike mechanic that is there to support the race. He freaks out a bit when we tell him we have tubulars, but he gets it together and starts to get the tire off. I give my front wheel to A and tell her to it. It wasn't completely altruistic since she has been in the money the last two years and it could be pretty costly for her to miss the start. The mechanic gets my spare (only spare) onto the wheel and pumps it up quick. A had gone back to the start and had them wait for me.
Bike Up, part 2
Even with that fun, the race start went pretty smooth. The front group started fast, but I just tucked in behind and was able to get a pretty good draft. Drafting is allowed on the bike up, but not the bike down. There was some movement back and forth and at one point A went by, but I still felt pretty good. The 13 mile bike climbs an overall 1800 ft with only one minor decent at mile 8. Coming into that I tucked in behind Erin, but got dropped by her going down the hill. I thought that was bit odd as I probably weigh 40 lbs more than her.
Well folks, sometimes you get lemons and sometimes you get lemonade. This time I got lemons. I realized that I was losing ground due to my rear tire going flat (the front was the issue at the start). I had two CO2 cartridges, but didn't have another spare tire. The options I had were 1) call it a day and head back to town 2) ) use a CO2 cartridge on the way up and risk having only one on the way down 3) ride the rest of the way up on the flat and hope that I could get A's spare or at least have only a slow leak and keep my tire somewhat filled with the two CO2 cartridges. My immediate choice was #1 and I sprinted up to Erin to have her tell A that I flatted out if/when she saw her.
Well folks, I decided to at least try to make lemonade from my lemons and decided to keep going. I rode the last 4 miles standing up to keep as much weight on the front end. I lost some serious ground over those miles, but I made it to the top. I actually ended up finishing the bike with a guy that was riding a 30 year old Schwinn. It will be a good dichotomy to see the one week old bike versus the 30 year old bike beside each other when the pictures come out.
The first transition went pretty quickly as I switched shoes and grabbed some drink for the run. Time for bike and T1 was 55:36. By the time I left transition, I was 2:20 behind Amber.
Run Up
The run up went pretty well. Its 5 miles with 1200 ft of elevation gain. The start isn't very steep and has some short downhills. Most of the elevation gain comes in the last 1.5 miles.
I tried to ease into the run as my legs were felt all of the standing up on the bike. After a bit, I was able pick up my tempo, start taking down some calories and catch some people.
My second transition went a bit slow as getting ski boots on is never that quick and I took a gel. My run time and T2 was 50:56, which was nearly 4 minutes faster than my previous best. Amber was a minute even better than that and was out of the transition before i even got there.
Ski Up
The ski up is always brutal. It may be only 2 miles long, but you get to climb 1200 ft with a really steep section know as Heartbreak Hill. As an added bonus, my quads always cramp up during it and almost always at the same spot on the course. This year was no exception and on cue they locked up. Fortunately, I'm sort of used to the pain by now and kept going. On Heartbreak Hill, a guy going up to the snowshoe start from a team (teams start an hour later than soloists) told me that if I caught a few more people that I could get into the top ten. He enjoyed my response that I was just trying to catch my wife.
The ski section gets timed by itself and it took me 37:33, which left me another 15 seconds behind Amber. That was a little slower than last year, but the snow was much softer this year, so I'm happy with it. Now I just need new quads.
Snowshoe Up
One mile and 600 ft of elevation to the top. During the Superbowl, I finally got our shoes mounted directly to our snowshoes. It might not be a huge difference, but they at least felt a lot lighter on the way up. The first half is pretty mild, but the second half is very steep and very exposed. My guess is that the winds on that section were at 30 mph, but that might be conservative. Fortunately I brought a windbreaker along and that helped a lot. I had just passed one guy without a jacket or hat who looked half frozen, but was at least still moving up the hill. After the race, he said he had been considering hiding behind a tree, but realized he would have frozen. I did see Amber up in the distance at one point but she was minutes ahead. The uphill snowshoe and T3 (ski to snowshoe) took me 22:26, which was my best by 3 minutes. A had an even faster 21:35. The whole uphill took me 2:46:15, which was exactly 4 minutes behind A. My time was 18 minutes better than my previous best, while A dropped 5 minutes from her previous best.
Snowshoe Down
The snowshoe down went a different route this year for the steep section, which I didn't push too hard as I didn't know what to expect. The downhill snowshoe took me 8:41 which was a whole 8 seconds faster than A, but she had already left for the ski. T4 seemed to take forever as I had to take off my skins and pack up those and the snowshoes.
Ski Down
The conditions for the ski down this year were really good. There were some tricky sections but for the most part I was able to just point my skis down the hill and hope for the best. T4 and the ski down took me 16:58. A did it even faster in 15:46, but some of that time was due to the fact that she had taken her skins off a the end of the ski up. Which of course means that her snowshoe up was even faster than mine.
Run Down
T5 was slow as I took another gel, drank some water from the tiny Dixie cups, and got my shoes on. The run felt pretty good for most of it. I really pushed first half hoping to get within shouting distance of A, so I could get her spare tire, but never saw her as she was 5 minutes or so up on me. The last part of the run is pretty brutal as it is part uphill and your legs are used to running down. T5 and the run took me 40:52, another leg PR by a minute. A just kept getting farther ahead and ran a 39:39.
Bike Down
As I got to my bike, I confirmed that A's bike was already gone as it had been racked opposite of mine. I got out my first CO2 cartridge and filled up my tire to see if it would hold. Fortunately it did and I got my shoes changed and helmet on. I took the first part of the bike really slow as it is steep and twisty. I was worried about both the back wheel holding air and whether the front tire's glue was set. A few minutes down, I stopped and checked the back tire and it was still holding up pretty well. On the straighter sections I was able to get my speed up a bit with more confidence. At the top of the one uphill, I stopped and used my second CO2 cartridge to refill the back as it had gotten really low again. That lasted me until I got back into town when it was getting low again. As I couldn't see anyone behind me (two guys had passed me already), I took it easy through town to the finish line. A had started back on the course to find me and I slowed down to find out how she did. My T6 and bike down took 48:51, but I was more relieved than anything else to have gotten down the hill.
Overall, the 2009 Mt Taylor Quadrathlon took me 4:41:36, an 11 minute PR. I want to guess what kind of PR I would have had without the bike issue, but that won't do me any good. 6 of the 8 legs were also PR's. Ironically the bike up was one of them, but we had a nice tailwind for that and our new Javelins are awesome light and stiff. I ended up in second place in my age group and picked up a nice chuck of nambe. This year's lesson is to be prepared for flats (multiple ones).
Amber was a rock star with a 13 minute PR, a sub 4:30 finish (4:29:26), PR's on 6 legs, 2nd place for the women, and 10th overall. She was actually worried before the race that her fitness was suffering from her work schedule and since she wasn't keeping up with me during runs and bikes. I'll let her fill in her race details, but I'm so proud of her effort.
I'm off to find some new quads.
-E
Pre-pre-race
The prep for the race went very well, but didn't go into it feeling all that fresh. Stayed injury free and mostly healthy, but had to spend a serious chuck of time at work two weeks before the race (85 hours in 7 days). I also scrambled it assemble our Javelin Amarones in time for the race. I got them ready in time for one test ride for each of us before the race. Fortunately, I did a good job getting them ready and they were ready to race.
Pre-race
Travel to Grants went well. We turned in our stuff, went to the pasta dinner and got to bed early. Race morning went smoothly as we didn't have to make any emergency trips back to the motel (it's happened twice before).
As I've had extremely high heartrates at the start before, I wanted to get a good warm up in to avoid that. A and I headed out with Erin for a bit on the bike course to show her the way the route goes through town. Although they had swept the road, the bike lane still had some glass in it that we rode through. We wiped our tires and didn't think much of it. We headed back to town and A and I got a little bit of a run in. Once we got back to the bikes, I got ready and headed to the start line
Bike Up, well not quite
As I'm lined up for the start with a few minutes to go when I hear A yell out to me that her front wheel is flat. I get out of the pack in a hurry and go with her to the bike mechanic that is there to support the race. He freaks out a bit when we tell him we have tubulars, but he gets it together and starts to get the tire off. I give my front wheel to A and tell her to it. It wasn't completely altruistic since she has been in the money the last two years and it could be pretty costly for her to miss the start. The mechanic gets my spare (only spare) onto the wheel and pumps it up quick. A had gone back to the start and had them wait for me.
Bike Up, part 2
Even with that fun, the race start went pretty smooth. The front group started fast, but I just tucked in behind and was able to get a pretty good draft. Drafting is allowed on the bike up, but not the bike down. There was some movement back and forth and at one point A went by, but I still felt pretty good. The 13 mile bike climbs an overall 1800 ft with only one minor decent at mile 8. Coming into that I tucked in behind Erin, but got dropped by her going down the hill. I thought that was bit odd as I probably weigh 40 lbs more than her.
Well folks, sometimes you get lemons and sometimes you get lemonade. This time I got lemons. I realized that I was losing ground due to my rear tire going flat (the front was the issue at the start). I had two CO2 cartridges, but didn't have another spare tire. The options I had were 1) call it a day and head back to town 2) ) use a CO2 cartridge on the way up and risk having only one on the way down 3) ride the rest of the way up on the flat and hope that I could get A's spare or at least have only a slow leak and keep my tire somewhat filled with the two CO2 cartridges. My immediate choice was #1 and I sprinted up to Erin to have her tell A that I flatted out if/when she saw her.
Well folks, I decided to at least try to make lemonade from my lemons and decided to keep going. I rode the last 4 miles standing up to keep as much weight on the front end. I lost some serious ground over those miles, but I made it to the top. I actually ended up finishing the bike with a guy that was riding a 30 year old Schwinn. It will be a good dichotomy to see the one week old bike versus the 30 year old bike beside each other when the pictures come out.
The first transition went pretty quickly as I switched shoes and grabbed some drink for the run. Time for bike and T1 was 55:36. By the time I left transition, I was 2:20 behind Amber.
Run Up
The run up went pretty well. Its 5 miles with 1200 ft of elevation gain. The start isn't very steep and has some short downhills. Most of the elevation gain comes in the last 1.5 miles.
I tried to ease into the run as my legs were felt all of the standing up on the bike. After a bit, I was able pick up my tempo, start taking down some calories and catch some people.
My second transition went a bit slow as getting ski boots on is never that quick and I took a gel. My run time and T2 was 50:56, which was nearly 4 minutes faster than my previous best. Amber was a minute even better than that and was out of the transition before i even got there.
Ski Up
The ski up is always brutal. It may be only 2 miles long, but you get to climb 1200 ft with a really steep section know as Heartbreak Hill. As an added bonus, my quads always cramp up during it and almost always at the same spot on the course. This year was no exception and on cue they locked up. Fortunately, I'm sort of used to the pain by now and kept going. On Heartbreak Hill, a guy going up to the snowshoe start from a team (teams start an hour later than soloists) told me that if I caught a few more people that I could get into the top ten. He enjoyed my response that I was just trying to catch my wife.
The ski section gets timed by itself and it took me 37:33, which left me another 15 seconds behind Amber. That was a little slower than last year, but the snow was much softer this year, so I'm happy with it. Now I just need new quads.
Snowshoe Up
One mile and 600 ft of elevation to the top. During the Superbowl, I finally got our shoes mounted directly to our snowshoes. It might not be a huge difference, but they at least felt a lot lighter on the way up. The first half is pretty mild, but the second half is very steep and very exposed. My guess is that the winds on that section were at 30 mph, but that might be conservative. Fortunately I brought a windbreaker along and that helped a lot. I had just passed one guy without a jacket or hat who looked half frozen, but was at least still moving up the hill. After the race, he said he had been considering hiding behind a tree, but realized he would have frozen. I did see Amber up in the distance at one point but she was minutes ahead. The uphill snowshoe and T3 (ski to snowshoe) took me 22:26, which was my best by 3 minutes. A had an even faster 21:35. The whole uphill took me 2:46:15, which was exactly 4 minutes behind A. My time was 18 minutes better than my previous best, while A dropped 5 minutes from her previous best.
Snowshoe Down
The snowshoe down went a different route this year for the steep section, which I didn't push too hard as I didn't know what to expect. The downhill snowshoe took me 8:41 which was a whole 8 seconds faster than A, but she had already left for the ski. T4 seemed to take forever as I had to take off my skins and pack up those and the snowshoes.
Ski Down
The conditions for the ski down this year were really good. There were some tricky sections but for the most part I was able to just point my skis down the hill and hope for the best. T4 and the ski down took me 16:58. A did it even faster in 15:46, but some of that time was due to the fact that she had taken her skins off a the end of the ski up. Which of course means that her snowshoe up was even faster than mine.
Run Down
T5 was slow as I took another gel, drank some water from the tiny Dixie cups, and got my shoes on. The run felt pretty good for most of it. I really pushed first half hoping to get within shouting distance of A, so I could get her spare tire, but never saw her as she was 5 minutes or so up on me. The last part of the run is pretty brutal as it is part uphill and your legs are used to running down. T5 and the run took me 40:52, another leg PR by a minute. A just kept getting farther ahead and ran a 39:39.
Bike Down
As I got to my bike, I confirmed that A's bike was already gone as it had been racked opposite of mine. I got out my first CO2 cartridge and filled up my tire to see if it would hold. Fortunately it did and I got my shoes changed and helmet on. I took the first part of the bike really slow as it is steep and twisty. I was worried about both the back wheel holding air and whether the front tire's glue was set. A few minutes down, I stopped and checked the back tire and it was still holding up pretty well. On the straighter sections I was able to get my speed up a bit with more confidence. At the top of the one uphill, I stopped and used my second CO2 cartridge to refill the back as it had gotten really low again. That lasted me until I got back into town when it was getting low again. As I couldn't see anyone behind me (two guys had passed me already), I took it easy through town to the finish line. A had started back on the course to find me and I slowed down to find out how she did. My T6 and bike down took 48:51, but I was more relieved than anything else to have gotten down the hill.
Overall, the 2009 Mt Taylor Quadrathlon took me 4:41:36, an 11 minute PR. I want to guess what kind of PR I would have had without the bike issue, but that won't do me any good. 6 of the 8 legs were also PR's. Ironically the bike up was one of them, but we had a nice tailwind for that and our new Javelins are awesome light and stiff. I ended up in second place in my age group and picked up a nice chuck of nambe. This year's lesson is to be prepared for flats (multiple ones).
Amber was a rock star with a 13 minute PR, a sub 4:30 finish (4:29:26), PR's on 6 legs, 2nd place for the women, and 10th overall. She was actually worried before the race that her fitness was suffering from her work schedule and since she wasn't keeping up with me during runs and bikes. I'll let her fill in her race details, but I'm so proud of her effort.
I'm off to find some new quads.
-E
Saturday, January 31, 2009
A Bit of Mt. Taylor Prep
A and I got the pleasure of riding and running with our coach (Jared) today for a little Mt. Taylor Quad prep. To some up the day in three words: He destroyed us.
Fortunately, I think we will recover pretty quickly as today's workout was more bike focused than run focused like the race will be.
The ride started easily enough as we met up on the flat roads between our houses. It soon turned a bit more difficult as the winds picked up and Jared picked up the pace.
Once we hit Lefthand Canyon, Jared gave A an assignment and wanted me to stay on his wheel. Trying to stay with him was the hardest workout I've done in a while. I lost him for good with about 2 miles to Jamestown.
After re-grouping at Jamestown, we headed to Heil Ranch for a bit of running. That went pretty well except for my Superman style fall on the way back. My knee landed on a rock, but I don't think it caused anything more than temporary pain.
On the ride home, Jared had to get home and dropped us like a bad habit. A and I made our way back and made ourselves a tasty strawberry, mango, banana, frozen yogurt, and honey smoothie. It was so thick that we put it in bowls (Rush style) and added granola on top.
Later, we went to dinner at Rincon del Sol in Boulder and A and I both felt like we were down at El Cafecito in Grants, New Mexico for our traditional post Quad lunch as we had whole body fatigue.
Peace Out,
E
Fortunately, I think we will recover pretty quickly as today's workout was more bike focused than run focused like the race will be.
The ride started easily enough as we met up on the flat roads between our houses. It soon turned a bit more difficult as the winds picked up and Jared picked up the pace.
Once we hit Lefthand Canyon, Jared gave A an assignment and wanted me to stay on his wheel. Trying to stay with him was the hardest workout I've done in a while. I lost him for good with about 2 miles to Jamestown.
After re-grouping at Jamestown, we headed to Heil Ranch for a bit of running. That went pretty well except for my Superman style fall on the way back. My knee landed on a rock, but I don't think it caused anything more than temporary pain.
On the ride home, Jared had to get home and dropped us like a bad habit. A and I made our way back and made ourselves a tasty strawberry, mango, banana, frozen yogurt, and honey smoothie. It was so thick that we put it in bowls (Rush style) and added granola on top.
Later, we went to dinner at Rincon del Sol in Boulder and A and I both felt like we were down at El Cafecito in Grants, New Mexico for our traditional post Quad lunch as we had whole body fatigue.
Peace Out,
E
Monday, January 26, 2009
So Its Been Awhile...
Well world or well the few people that bother to check this blog anymore,
A and I are still here, still trying to get our workouts in, still working a lot, still not being successful at staying healthy, still wishing for more snow in town.
Right now, A is describing how someone on 24 is being stabbed multiple times. Otherwise, she came down with something today that made her pretty miserable at work. Supposedly a co-worker found her trying to nap underneath her desk. In the last few weeks, I've been the healthy one in the household as she had to deal with the stitches from the ski collision and then a sinus infection. She just informed me that someone is getting framed for the previously mentioned stabbing.
One of the most exciting things recently (and this might give you an idea of how exciting it has been around here) was the making of paella, which happened to correspond with the first use of our new paella pan. The paella pan was on sale at Williams Sonoma, so I convinced A that we had to get it. She wasn't convinced that I would ever use it, but on MLK day, I broke it out. It large enough to cover two of the burners on the stove and needed to be seasoned, so it was a bit of an intensive process. The actual meal turned out really well and fed us most of last week. Combined with the lasagna (with homemade noodles) we had made a few days before, we ate very well last week going through our leftovers. This week is going to have a lot less cooking, but we have some homemade tamales in the freezer. Actually they are more like neighbor-made, friend-made and/or Amber-made as they came from a tamale making gathering at our friends down the street.
Training has been going decently, but we're not sure is 0, 1 or 2 of us is/are going to be able to get to Grants, NM in a few weeks to race the Mt. Taylor Quad. It's stressful enough not knowing that I'm leaning to just skipping it this year.
A just informed me that the only company that is doing well right now according to the news is McDonalds. My guess is that it isn't cause of their paella.
-E
A and I are still here, still trying to get our workouts in, still working a lot, still not being successful at staying healthy, still wishing for more snow in town.
Right now, A is describing how someone on 24 is being stabbed multiple times. Otherwise, she came down with something today that made her pretty miserable at work. Supposedly a co-worker found her trying to nap underneath her desk. In the last few weeks, I've been the healthy one in the household as she had to deal with the stitches from the ski collision and then a sinus infection. She just informed me that someone is getting framed for the previously mentioned stabbing.
One of the most exciting things recently (and this might give you an idea of how exciting it has been around here) was the making of paella, which happened to correspond with the first use of our new paella pan. The paella pan was on sale at Williams Sonoma, so I convinced A that we had to get it. She wasn't convinced that I would ever use it, but on MLK day, I broke it out. It large enough to cover two of the burners on the stove and needed to be seasoned, so it was a bit of an intensive process. The actual meal turned out really well and fed us most of last week. Combined with the lasagna (with homemade noodles) we had made a few days before, we ate very well last week going through our leftovers. This week is going to have a lot less cooking, but we have some homemade tamales in the freezer. Actually they are more like neighbor-made, friend-made and/or Amber-made as they came from a tamale making gathering at our friends down the street.
Training has been going decently, but we're not sure is 0, 1 or 2 of us is/are going to be able to get to Grants, NM in a few weeks to race the Mt. Taylor Quad. It's stressful enough not knowing that I'm leaning to just skipping it this year.
A just informed me that the only company that is doing well right now according to the news is McDonalds. My guess is that it isn't cause of their paella.
-E
Thursday, January 15, 2009
Winter Tri Part 2
Just a quick follow up:
Winter tri nationals this past weekend was down 6 more finishers than last year to 47. Amber could have won her age group by showing up. Results here. The splits look pretty well distributed between the bike and ski portions, but Bend is a long ways to travel to in the winter with a bike and skis for an hour long race.
-E
Winter tri nationals this past weekend was down 6 more finishers than last year to 47. Amber could have won her age group by showing up. Results here. The splits look pretty well distributed between the bike and ski portions, but Bend is a long ways to travel to in the winter with a bike and skis for an hour long race.
-E
Saturday, January 10, 2009
Is winter triathlon bound for failure?
Soapbox time.
Number of ski races we have done: 200, 300, whatever its a lot
Number of triathlons we have done: 100+ (including 2 xterras, 5 ironmans)
Number of winter triathlons we have done: 21 or so
Our interest in doing winter triathlons this year: 0
I (E) was skimming through the USAT magazine a while ago and was saddened to find a little blurb from the Northeast region that was title like "Largest Winter Triathlon in the Country Held ..." and started with "with nearly 60 competitors, the ...". OMG, the largest winter triathlon in the country for 2008 had less than sixty people. A quick check using "the google" found that 53 people did nationals in Oregon and a whopping 19 people did the Durango race. In 2007, 103 people started and 90 finished the US nationals that was held in Winter Park, CO.
So, the sport shrank last year. Why? My belief is that it is just like real estate: location, location, location. There are other reasons like course selection, lack of race consistency, timing, etc., but location is the one that causes winter triathlon to represent less than 1% of the particiation that Ironmans in the US get.
For some background, Amber and I both were cross country skiers before we were triathletes. Winter triathlon (run, bike and Nordic ski) is a natural extenstion from what we do in the winter and what we do in the summer. We jumped at the chance to race in the winter tri's that Barry Siff (5430 race director) had starting in 2003 or so. He had 2 or 3 a year for a couple of years but never got that much participation and stopped doing them. The courses at Snow Mountain Ranch ranches were difficult but not too bad unless the bike course (normally a ski trail) was soft and a majority of the riders were forced to walk/run a bunch.
One year without them and then Danelle Ballengee held two race in 2006. The first race sucked for me as the bike was either up on roads or down on a snowshoe trail and I almost lost my bike shoes multiple times. The second race was great as the run, bike and ski trails were all firm.
In 2007, Barry again held two races with one of them being the national championships. The bike course got so soft and slow that i spent the time afterwards to compare the proportions that every competitor spent in the three disciplines. The first five guys spent between 39.5 and 42% of their time on the bike (30% or so on the run and ski). The slower people were, the longer proportionally they would spend on the bike to an average later of 46% of their time. These people also tended to spend longer on the ski than the run, suggesting that the bike tired them out more than the first finishers, not surprising since some spent over an hour trying to ride their bike through cottage cheese. I spent 48% of my time on the bike and Amber spent 50.5% of her time on the bike. So, after the race we said "screw this, let's just ski race next year", so this past year we didn't even consider traveling to Durango or up to Bend.
So, how would I fix winter triathlons? I go through 5w's (why, who, what, where, and when).
Why?
A fun, winter racing option. Not designed to surplant summer races for triathletes or ski races for skiers. As such the course shouldn't be that difficult. Fitness and skill for the ski will always be critical, but the course itself shouldn't be the limiter for doing well. There are other options (Mt. Taylor Quad for instance) where you are racing the course as much as you are racing others. Cyclocross is booming for cycling as a nice fall alternative as they are short races that are hard but don't take a whole lot of training for most folks to get ready for.
Who?
This is a complicated one. I think the courses that have been used recently highly favor those with the best mountain biking skills, altitude training and the means to travel (see Mike Kloser), while leaving others behind. The problem with that is that is means an elite team that isn't necessarily the best to do well at worlds and other athletes don't want to do the races (see Amber and Eric Rydholm). I believe that the main priorities currently should be to get as much participation from young skiers as possible and to get summer triathletes try the sport. The future elites will likely come from ski ranks (see Rebecca Dussault) and the future age groupers will come from summer triathletes who learn how to ski. Two ways I see for this are high school races and relays. There are thousands of high school skiers in Minnesota, Alaska, Colorado, Wisconsin, Vermont, New Hampshire, Oregon, Utah, Michigan, New York, and Maine (I probably forgot a state or two). Get these kids interested and involved.
What?
Short races. Easy races. Not races that leave skiers wishing that they had stayed with skiing.
Where?
The midwest where skiers are used to driving to races such as the Birkie and the Vasaloppet. Near the front range of Colorado, where front rangers are used to going for races (Durango is not near the front range). Alaska with a crazy population. No Bend which is a cluster to get to in the winter.
When?
Before or after bigger races at the same location (Monday after the Birkie?, a few days before Sr. Nationals, a week after state for high schoolers or even the same weekend as state for those that couldn't qualify).
Number of ski races we have done: 200, 300, whatever its a lot
Number of triathlons we have done: 100+ (including 2 xterras, 5 ironmans)
Number of winter triathlons we have done: 21 or so
Our interest in doing winter triathlons this year: 0
I (E) was skimming through the USAT magazine a while ago and was saddened to find a little blurb from the Northeast region that was title like "Largest Winter Triathlon in the Country Held ..." and started with "with nearly 60 competitors, the ...". OMG, the largest winter triathlon in the country for 2008 had less than sixty people. A quick check using "the google" found that 53 people did nationals in Oregon and a whopping 19 people did the Durango race. In 2007, 103 people started and 90 finished the US nationals that was held in Winter Park, CO.
So, the sport shrank last year. Why? My belief is that it is just like real estate: location, location, location. There are other reasons like course selection, lack of race consistency, timing, etc., but location is the one that causes winter triathlon to represent less than 1% of the particiation that Ironmans in the US get.
For some background, Amber and I both were cross country skiers before we were triathletes. Winter triathlon (run, bike and Nordic ski) is a natural extenstion from what we do in the winter and what we do in the summer. We jumped at the chance to race in the winter tri's that Barry Siff (5430 race director) had starting in 2003 or so. He had 2 or 3 a year for a couple of years but never got that much participation and stopped doing them. The courses at Snow Mountain Ranch ranches were difficult but not too bad unless the bike course (normally a ski trail) was soft and a majority of the riders were forced to walk/run a bunch.
One year without them and then Danelle Ballengee held two race in 2006. The first race sucked for me as the bike was either up on roads or down on a snowshoe trail and I almost lost my bike shoes multiple times. The second race was great as the run, bike and ski trails were all firm.
In 2007, Barry again held two races with one of them being the national championships. The bike course got so soft and slow that i spent the time afterwards to compare the proportions that every competitor spent in the three disciplines. The first five guys spent between 39.5 and 42% of their time on the bike (30% or so on the run and ski). The slower people were, the longer proportionally they would spend on the bike to an average later of 46% of their time. These people also tended to spend longer on the ski than the run, suggesting that the bike tired them out more than the first finishers, not surprising since some spent over an hour trying to ride their bike through cottage cheese. I spent 48% of my time on the bike and Amber spent 50.5% of her time on the bike. So, after the race we said "screw this, let's just ski race next year", so this past year we didn't even consider traveling to Durango or up to Bend.
So, how would I fix winter triathlons? I go through 5w's (why, who, what, where, and when).
Why?
A fun, winter racing option. Not designed to surplant summer races for triathletes or ski races for skiers. As such the course shouldn't be that difficult. Fitness and skill for the ski will always be critical, but the course itself shouldn't be the limiter for doing well. There are other options (Mt. Taylor Quad for instance) where you are racing the course as much as you are racing others. Cyclocross is booming for cycling as a nice fall alternative as they are short races that are hard but don't take a whole lot of training for most folks to get ready for.
Who?
This is a complicated one. I think the courses that have been used recently highly favor those with the best mountain biking skills, altitude training and the means to travel (see Mike Kloser), while leaving others behind. The problem with that is that is means an elite team that isn't necessarily the best to do well at worlds and other athletes don't want to do the races (see Amber and Eric Rydholm). I believe that the main priorities currently should be to get as much participation from young skiers as possible and to get summer triathletes try the sport. The future elites will likely come from ski ranks (see Rebecca Dussault) and the future age groupers will come from summer triathletes who learn how to ski. Two ways I see for this are high school races and relays. There are thousands of high school skiers in Minnesota, Alaska, Colorado, Wisconsin, Vermont, New Hampshire, Oregon, Utah, Michigan, New York, and Maine (I probably forgot a state or two). Get these kids interested and involved.
What?
Short races. Easy races. Not races that leave skiers wishing that they had stayed with skiing.
Where?
The midwest where skiers are used to driving to races such as the Birkie and the Vasaloppet. Near the front range of Colorado, where front rangers are used to going for races (Durango is not near the front range). Alaska with a crazy population. No Bend which is a cluster to get to in the winter.
When?
Before or after bigger races at the same location (Monday after the Birkie?, a few days before Sr. Nationals, a week after state for high schoolers or even the same weekend as state for those that couldn't qualify).
Wednesday, January 7, 2009
Getting ready for the Quad
Our first major race (the Mt. Taylor Quadrathlon) of '09 is coming up in a little over a month. The race is a road bike, run, ski (with skins), snowshoe to the top of Mt Taylor, snowshoe down from the top of Mt Taylor, ski, run, and bike back to town. Four thousand feet of climbing followed by a four thousand feet of decent.
It is an interesting race to prepare for since you have to run uphill a lot and technically should be able to rest at times during the decent. The bike up is all about keeping yourself to your pace which is difficult with everyone else around you. The runs, ski up, and snowshoe sections all rely on good running strength. The ski down can be a lot of snow plowing depending on conditions, which can trash your legs for the following run. The run down starts with a steep grade and ends with rollers. The bike down should be easy, but there will most likely be a headwind to some degree.
The logistics of the race are also interesting as you have to send equipment up the hill the day before not knowing what kind of weather you might run (literally) into and there isn't really much on course support (although I did get gummy bears on the run down last year). A sent a camelback up last year with her ski (and snowshoes) stuff only to find it empty when she tried to drink out of it.
The shortest and IMHO easiest leg is the snowshoe down as you nearly fly down from the top. The toughest section for me has varied from the ski up the year we thought we could do it without skins, to the run down a couple of years, and to the bike down the year I bonked hard during the run and hit massive headwinds on the bike.
A's PR is still from her first year back in '03 although she would have beaten that time in '05 except for the massive headwinds on the bike down (that section took 15 minutes longer than normal) and last year except for the broken spoke that I wrote about in a year in review. My best time came two years ago which I was surprised about as I though last year would have been faster even with the broken spoke, but looking back at last year's training log reminded me that I was sick for the week before the race.
This year, I've had the back issue from roller skiing and gotten one cold, but otherwise have had gotten in pretty steady training. Staying in B-town over the holidays helped that. A's crash on Saturday kept her from running on Sunday, but Izzy-dog was up for a fast run, so we ran a half marathon with a negative split. Fortunately, A was able to get back to normal training (except for swimming) after that.
I'm somewhat concerned about my mental health as I was disappointed that our planned rollerski this morning got postponed due to the winds. After college, I was sure I'd never rollerski again, so to be disappointed with a postponement is a bit troubling. At least it is outside which is much better than a treadmill or bike trainer. Oh well, I don't even hate swimming that much anymore.
-E
It is an interesting race to prepare for since you have to run uphill a lot and technically should be able to rest at times during the decent. The bike up is all about keeping yourself to your pace which is difficult with everyone else around you. The runs, ski up, and snowshoe sections all rely on good running strength. The ski down can be a lot of snow plowing depending on conditions, which can trash your legs for the following run. The run down starts with a steep grade and ends with rollers. The bike down should be easy, but there will most likely be a headwind to some degree.
The logistics of the race are also interesting as you have to send equipment up the hill the day before not knowing what kind of weather you might run (literally) into and there isn't really much on course support (although I did get gummy bears on the run down last year). A sent a camelback up last year with her ski (and snowshoes) stuff only to find it empty when she tried to drink out of it.
The shortest and IMHO easiest leg is the snowshoe down as you nearly fly down from the top. The toughest section for me has varied from the ski up the year we thought we could do it without skins, to the run down a couple of years, and to the bike down the year I bonked hard during the run and hit massive headwinds on the bike.
A's PR is still from her first year back in '03 although she would have beaten that time in '05 except for the massive headwinds on the bike down (that section took 15 minutes longer than normal) and last year except for the broken spoke that I wrote about in a year in review. My best time came two years ago which I was surprised about as I though last year would have been faster even with the broken spoke, but looking back at last year's training log reminded me that I was sick for the week before the race.
This year, I've had the back issue from roller skiing and gotten one cold, but otherwise have had gotten in pretty steady training. Staying in B-town over the holidays helped that. A's crash on Saturday kept her from running on Sunday, but Izzy-dog was up for a fast run, so we ran a half marathon with a negative split. Fortunately, A was able to get back to normal training (except for swimming) after that.
I'm somewhat concerned about my mental health as I was disappointed that our planned rollerski this morning got postponed due to the winds. After college, I was sure I'd never rollerski again, so to be disappointed with a postponement is a bit troubling. At least it is outside which is much better than a treadmill or bike trainer. Oh well, I don't even hate swimming that much anymore.
-E
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