Heart O' Dixie Triathlon

This weekend was the 28th Annual Heart O' Dixie Triathlon in Philadelphia, Miss. It's one of the oldest Tri's in America and may be the oldest race without any changes to the course. It's unique in that it's a point to point race starting in Louisville, Miss and ending at the Neshoba County Fairgrounds in Philadelphia, Miss. It's an Intermediate distance race set at .5 mile swim, 27.5 mile ride, and a 7 mile run.

This was the first triathlon that I competed in, but it's also the first race that I ever came really close to quitting. This is the fourth year that I've competed in this race so as I mentioned before, this has a bit of a homecoming feeling for me.


Race preparation started with proper nutrition as early as Monday of this past week. I wanted to be fueled properly and well hydrated. It's never a fun week, but it's worth it.

At 3:30 am on Saturday, I was up and eating my pre-race meal. On this morning it was oatmeal and a powerbar. I worked on a gatorade on the drive up to Louisville and cleared my head. We arrived just after 5. It'd rained the night before and lingering clouds kept the morning dark until just before 6. I scored a great rack spot for my bike and began my pre-race warm-up. Our bike to run transition bag was boxed up and shipped down the road 27.5 miles in Philly to await our arrival. I minimized my transition area down to bike, shoes, and a helmet. I didn't want any distractions.


The swim - at 6:30 the gun went off. I was #38 in line for the 5 second interval start. This type of start makes it so much easier to get into a rhythm without having to fight for position too much. From the start, I focused on not doing all the things I'd done wrong in my last open water swim. The biggest key to this swim for me was taking three strokes before I took a breath. When I get tired I tend to breathe on one side every other stroke. I end up going off course and wearing myself out. Prior to the race I went through a series of breathing drills to help expand my lungs. I'm a believer in this warm up routine, and it seems to help. As for this swim, everything went really well. I spotted well and stayed calm. Both are struggles for me. I made it out of the water in 14:37.


T1 - As I mentioned. I had a great bike rack, and I kept it simple. Fastest T time ever - 36 seconds.


The bike - here's what I'd been waiting on. The course consisted of rolling hills with a net loss of about 50 feet over the course. The hills on the course are loaded on the front half of the course when you are your strongest. I never pushed myself too hard, but kept my speed up just enough to hurt. I made sure to power down the hills, but I also forced myself to make up distance on whoever was in front of me on the climbs. It worked beautifully. I caught more than came near me throughout the ride. In the end, I surprised myself with a 23 mph average and a time of just under 1 hour and 12 minutes.

T2 - Probably the worst thing I did all day. I decided coming into transition that I would wear socks for the run. I just didn't know how my feet for the 7 mile run without them. I do it all the time, so I don't know why it was important to me at that moment to have them. This cost me 30 seconds. As I was making my move to leave, I knocked over my bike, twice. This cost me another 30 seconds. Luckily, a volunteer helped secure my bike for me, and I was off. A poor 1:27 transition time.


The Run - This run has always been a death march for me. I've notoriously lost it on this run. Walking has become a habit. It's hot and it's hilly. Last year I cramped up pretty bad and nearly pulled out, but went on to post a 1:13:04 time which is a 10:30 pace. This year I felt incredible. So I went with it. I started mowing the miles down. I couldn't believe they were going by so quickly. Could they be mismarked? I watched my splits and was shocked at the pace. At the end of the 7 miles, I had a big grin on my face and posted a 47:51 time. A 6:51 pace.

The last half mile of the run consists of a lap around the horse track at the Fairgrounds. After the rain the night before, the Southern red clay had become Southern red mud which caked my shoes until they felt like bricks. As I viewed the finish line, I could have been pulling the mule cart for all that I cared. I was ecstatic. I clapped my hands and fist pumped the air a few times in the final yards. Mission complete.

My total time was 2:16:30. A PR for this course by nearly 25 minutes. I finished 30th overall and 3rd in my A/G. A rare podium finish.
David Gottlieb, who rocked the course in his first time in the H.O.D., asked me the other night what my favorite race had been so far this year. I told him I didn't really have one. I can look back at a few races and see that I did well in some areas, but overall hadn't put a good race together until this one. Months of training and planning all came together at the Heart O' Dixie. I can honestly say that I enjoyed the entire race from start to finish. The race is run like a well oiled machine, and you can't beat the atmosphere the Neshoba County Fair brings. If you're in the area, put this one on your calendar for 08.


Also, a big congrats to those who made the trip from Birmingham. The top two males, the first and third female winners were all from Birmingham. At the end of the awards ceremony, thirteen athletes from Birmingham would finish on the podium. Look out Boulder, CO!

Buster Britton Sprint - Race Report

This morning was Birmingham's own Buster Britton Sprint Triathlon. It takes place during the weekend of the Southeast Regional Xterra Championship at Oak Mtn. St. Park. The Park will see a thousand triathletes come through the gates this weekend so it's an exciting time.

As usual, at 4:30 this morning the alarm goes off. Oatmeal and coffee are the meal of choice. This is just a meal that I'm comfortable with and that brings results. No real stresses this morning. I'm well familiar with this course and won't need a lot of equipment to complete the sprint distance.

I rocked out to U2's "Where the Streets Have No Name" on the short drive to the park. People were pointing and starring as I played the air drums going doing the highway. I'm oblivious to all.

The organizers made a few changes to the course, so after setting up my transition area, I made myself familiar with the changes. The biggest change was the location of the transition area. Just like last week's race, there would be a long run from the swim to my bike. What's up with that?

The second change was the run portion would be a bit different than before. No biggee right? Wrong. More on that later.

Alright let's go. Here are the distances: S 400yd, B 13 mi, R 3 mi.

Swim: I hit hard from the start. I wasn't going to be intimidated by other swimmers this time. This time I was the one swimming over people, bumping, and grabbing. I felt great throughout. Spotting was good. Form was great. Out of the water in 6:08. My goal was 6:10.

T1: Man I was breathing hard. The hard swim had pushed me to the limit. I needed every bit of the long run to my bike to catch my breath. No shirt and no socks doesn't gain me entrance to Denny's but it gets me on my bike and on the road. Time 2:34

Bike: I was still breathing hard once I made it on to the bike, but I managed to find my groove and start hitting it hard. I started knocking off the fast swimmers one by one. The hills at Oak Mtn are always ways challenging, but I had experience on my side. I knew when to push it and when to recover, but still the hills were keeping my speed down below my goal. I was avg'ing 20 and I needed 21. I hit the turn around and knew that profile back lost elevation and I would have my chance to make up time. I did just that. I came into T2 with an average of 21.3. Bike time 36:43.

T2 - I took my shoes off on the bike so I ran barefooted to my rack. Helmet off, shoes on. Let's go. Time: 56 seconds. booyah!

Run - Oh snap, this wasn't going to be as easy as I thought. Where were my legs? Where was the energy? The oomph? I ran nonetheless. There was no one in front of me at all. Crazy. I started seeing the pros coming in from their run about a half mile into mine. They were flying! Now for this all important change to the course. This year they included a little used side road back in the woods that had a steep incline before the turn around. What? Oh this sucked. It was killing me. With about a half mile to go, I kicked it in. I wish that I had started the push a little sooner as I think that I may have been able to sustain it, but you live and you learn. Only 3 guys passed me on the run so that was an improvement. I passed one, so I was negative two for the run portion. Run time 22:24 (I think?)

Into the race shoot for a total time of 1:09:03. I finished 46/400 or so overall. No idea about my age group.

Big Picture: Good training race. I was glad to get the monkey off my back after last week's performance. I need to work on speed on the bike if I'm going be able to play with the big boys. I'm back in the saddle again tomorrow for more work. Thanks for reading.

Rock 'N Rollman Half Iron Triathlon Report

"Ouch. Oh. My. God." - Lance Armstrong on finishing the 2006 NY Marathon.

This weekend, Lauren and I went to Macon, Ga for the Rock & Roll Half Ironman. This would be my first race at this distance and my 2nd official race of the year.
The morning started at 4:30 am. Oatmeal and a powerbar for breakfast, then a quick hop back in bed where I literally drank a cup of hotel coffee with my eyes closed.
The short drive to the race sight was in the dark and done so through a light rain. This is the 4th year of the race and the organizers have done an amazing job of putting this race together and making it flow. There were ample volunteers ready to help and point us in the right direction. Kudos to the organizers.
Given that this was my first Half, I expected to be nervous and anxious, but that just didn’t happen for some reason. It didn’t ever become this surreal moment that I thought it would. I was calm and relaxed.
The Swim started in several waves with my wave “34 years and younger” being of course the largest. Great. As you can imagine there was kicking, grabbing, all the good stuff. I stroked along a bit until I got a clear lane. I found it difficult to get into a rhythm, and I started breathing only on my left side. Bad idea. You see, when you do so your right side becomes your strong side, therefore pushing you off to the left. I kept finding myself swimming way off course and having to fight to get back into the group. If I was thinking rationally, I would have realized what I was doing, but I was so afraid of getting off track that it never occurred to me that I was being counter productive. It wasn’t until about ½ way into the swim that I realized this and made the switch. It took a while to get my breath, but after I did it was like I was back in the pool and I started swimming fairly straight and passing people. It was too late to undo the damage. I was at 41:40 coming out of the water. 5 minutes slower than projected, but no worries. I was just glad to be out of the water. Swim rank 194/311 - poor
T1 – From the water, the transition area was about a ¼ mile run up a hill. It was impossibly far. It wasn’t the best situation, but you deal with it. After the run up the hill, I was actually in and out of the transition area fairly quickly although the time doesn’t show it. 3:41. Thanks to the run.
Bike – here’s what I was waiting on. While I don’t claim to be the best swimmer, I’ve actually become quite the cyclist. I was ruthless in the way I started picking people off. Nice $7000 bike, now get out of my way. Oh, those look like the new 808 rims! See ya!
I wish I’d counted everyone that I passed on the bike. I did count the # that pasted me. Two. I felt good about that. Two people over 56 miles is pretty good. The course itself was hillier than expected. I’d studied the profile, but it didn’t do it justice. I was glad that I had been training in Birmingham rather than a flat area. I averaged just less than 21 mph for the course. I think it was 20.86 or something. Total time for 56.67 miles – 2:43. That’s right, I don’t know where the .67 miles came from, but it’s accurate. Bike rank 59/311
T2 – Nothing crazy here, just a quick and out. If the transition area wasn’t so big, it would have been quicker. 1:17.
Run – I could feel the effects of my ride in my calves, but nothing too bad. The first ¼ miles felt ok. I needed to get used to running again. Then it hit. A sharp stick in my side. I tried to run it off, but I couldn’t expand my chest to breathe. Oh it hurt. It hurt bad. Many times while running, I’ve had a similar stitch, but I’ve always been able to just let it pass. Not this time. This had my full attention. I tried to run, but had to stop because I had to clench my abs so hard to keep my chest from moving. I kept moving as I actually contemplated calling it a day. There was no way I could withstand this pain for 12 more miles. I decided I would just start walking briskly until it went away. There was nothing to do but keep moving. I began wondering if I had ingested too much water, but my stomach felt fine. My legs felt strong. I had good energy, but just couldn’t breathe. I was furious as I saw my time adding up and only ending in a disappointing time. Finally at mile 4, yes mile 4, my side felt good enough that I could jog a little, but the stitch was still there.
At this time, I really believe I had been defeated mentally and that translated to my body and energy level. It was odd as I still felt the motivation to finish, but couldn’t muster the will nor the energy to finish strong. The heat started becoming oppressive. Runners started falling out left and right. For the rest of the run, the sound of the heavy breathing and the shuffling feet would be drowned out by ambulances and fire trucks flying by.
Embarrassingly enough, it was all that I could do to keep my miles close to a 10-11 min per mile pace. My PR for a ½ Marathon by itself is a 7:19 pace, so as you can imagine I was beating myself up pretty bad for sucking it up so bad. I knew I was better than this, but I couldn’t answer the call. I finished the race with a 1/2 marathon time of 2:18 (rank 160/311) and total time of 5:49:35 (rank 115/311). Not where I wanted to be. Not where I had trained to be.

The majority of this post was written on the ride home from Macon. Since then, I’ve had some more time to think about the race and my feelings about it. Sunday, I was thinking that I never wanted to do another ½ again. I was miserable during the swim and the run. Was I even cut out for it? Now, just 24 hours later, I know that I’m going to do another ½. I’m going to try to find another one this year. I can’t let this race define my season or leave a black mark on my attitude about distance races.
What do I need to do differently? For starters, I don’t think I took in enough calories to get me through the run. By the time, I realized that I needed something in the gut, it was too late. I couldn’t stomach anything other than fluids on the run. Knowing the amount of calories that I need will just take some time and experience. Secondly, I need to practice more open water swims. Staying focused and on course was a struggle on Sunday. Lastly, I think that I would do some more workouts lasting longer than 4 hours. To date, my longest workout has taken @ 3 hours and 45 minutes. I’d like to add longer bricks. This would give me a chance to work on nutrition and fluid in take.
So where’s my head now? Right now, I’m focusing on a sprint distance race this Saturday. Luckily, I’m not too sore from yesterday. It’s amazing how a 13.1 mile stroll will ease the effects of a 56 mile ride. I’m ready to prove myself again this Saturday.
Thanks for reading.

Mercedes Half Marathon

Well, today was the big day. My first 1/2 Marathon. My first race of the 2007 season which I've decided will be my breakout year. The morning started off with a 4:00 am wake up call for breakfast. Two packets of Oatmeal and a Snickers (Half) Marathon bar. Because of careful planning the night before, I was able to jump back in bed and sleep for another hour. My stuff was all ready to go so why stay awake?

Lauren and I arrived at the race site about 45 minutes prior to the start. It was 28 degrees out. For all the northerners out there, that's pretty cold to us Southerners. So don't start. I wore shorts, a long sleeve shirt, a visor, and my biking skull cap (which I lost along the course!). There were approximately 3000 racers of which 800 were slated for the full marathon. The Mercedes is known for it's hills. Here's an elevation chart so you can see what I was facing:

As the race started, I couldn't get over the joy I had of running with a pack of people. They were my kind of people. I felt at home. Maybe it's because I've been running alone for most of my training, but it was a really odd (but enjoyable) feeling.

To find my pace, I started looking for the first mile marker around 7 minutes. Didn't see it. 8 minutes. No where in sight. What the hell? So I sped up. I couldn't start off this slow. At about 9:30 I figured out why I didn't see it. I was running too fast and ran past it without noticing. After 2 miles I clocked in at a total time of 13:10. Wow, too fast. I was planning on staying around a 7:30-7:40 pace so I was a little taken back. I slowed the pace a little, but I kept seeing times well below my expectation. Mile 3 - 7:07, mile 4 - 7:14, mile 5 - 7:15. Still feeling really good. I kept telling myself to not over do it. Don't peak too soon. Ahead was the dreaded Greensprings Ave. It's mile 5-6 on the elevation chart. Over a mile it gains over 200 feet in elevation. It's like the hill that never ends. It got my attention, and I put in a slower 7:45 for mile 6. Mile 7 - 7:24, followed by another two miles of elevation changes where I put in two 7:45 miles. It was down hill (elevation-wise anyway) from there. I hammered down a bit and put in miles of 7:35, 7:34, 7:21, and 7:20. This left one mile to go. Still feeling good and my times were still dropping so I hit the gas. The course didn't mark mile thirteen so I didn't catch my last split, but I crossed the finish line at 1 hour and 36 minutes. Unofficially though. I was really pleased with my time. It turned out to be around a 7:19 pace and for me, that was well above my expectations.

Overall, it was a great experience and a great start to the year. I really needed this race to get started off on the right foot. There's a lot of vindication in doing well after working hard. So needless to say, I'm really looking forward to this year's season.

And I have to say thank you thank you thank you to my lovely wife who stuck it out in the cold and waited for me. If you knew how much she hates the cold, you'd know how big that is.