Tucson Triathlon Race Report

The Tucson Triathlon takes place around the University of Arizona campus and features an 825 yard swim, 12 mile bike ride, and 3 mile run. Last year I did this race a few days out from a nasty crash, and against better judgment, I did it all wrapped with tegaderm and compression sleeves to keep everything in place. This year I was crash-free, but my body was at the end of an intense 14-day lactate threshold block. My goal for the race was to keep it as a sub-threshold workout requiring minimal recovery so I could stay fresh for Leadman this weekend. Despite the threats of fellow local pro Jesse Vondracek and Xterra stud and teammate Bryce Phinney I was able to execute the race to plan, and ended up with my second win in less than 24 hours of racing.

Transition prep where the race is really won

Swim (10:11 / 7th): The swim was the most difficult element of the day and I was clearly in rough shape from the previous days swim which I had taken out way too hard.  I took it out a little easier on this day coming thru the 100 in 1:10 and the 400 in 4:53.  After the 400, I actually started to make up ground on pretty much everyone in visual sight of this pool swim and popped out in 10:11.  I headed towards transition and I saw Jesse V right in front of me and Bryce was just leaving.  I was right where I wanted to be knowing that Jesse couldn't bike with me and Bryce wouldn't be able to run with me

Biking for show

Bike (28:19 / 1st): I headed out on the bike with the main goal of just surviving.  Anyone that has done this race before knows that the course is a little bit like playing Paperboy for the original Nintendo and only gets worse as the roads continue to deteriorate. I actually told Bryce the day before that we should just bring our mountain bikes and have at it.

Anyway, I focused on catching up to Bryce and it took nearly 3.5 miles to do so.  I then took an opportunity to recover a bit and get in some fluids and waited for my opportunity.  That opportunity came about 3 miles later on gradual rise with a nice headwind.  I bumped up the power and encouraged Bryce to come with but it appeared he was done as a gapped opened immediately.  I then laid out some more power for the remaining 5.5 miles and created a big gap that had grown to at least .5 miles.

Running for the dough

Run (17:02 / 2nd): I started out on the run and knew I had a comfortable lead which allowed me to start out at relaxed pace. Trisports was shooting for an upcoming catalog and I really wanted to make sure they got some usable photos so I just focused on the best stride I could manage and a bright smile.

The course is a nice looping course and it gives a few places to check out the competition.  At roughly the half-mile mark I got to see that I was roughly a minute up Jesse Vondracek who was now in 2nd place.  I came thru the two-mile mark at 10:43 and I had actually made up more time on Jesse despite what the Tricats were yelling at me.  At that point I just shut it down and ran it in for the win.

Ironically despite turning it off I did PR on this course by a single second despite a slower bike and swim.  It always amazes me how much easier running is when you don't smash the legs on the bike - or maybe, just maybe all the hamstring stretching I have done in the off-season is actually helping my form ;)

Post race with fellow Trisports.com teammates

Overall (55:33 / 1st): It was great to be able to defend my title at the Tucson triathlon especially with the block of training leading up to the race including the Team Trisports Triathlon the day prior.  Unlike many other professional athletes, I find that it is important to take part in the local triathlons - especially ones that take place early in the year.  They are a great way to practice race specific skills before major races where mistakes can be much more costly.

This weekend I am racing at the Leadman Triathlon and I will need all the help I can get against the stacked field of Ironman winners including 2X Ironman World Champion Tim Deboom, Jordan Rapp (2X Ironman Canada and Ironman Arizona winner), Maik Twelsiak (Ironman Wisconsin and Ironman Lake Placid winner), Chris Legh (Over 70 triathlon wins), and Matt Russell (2x Duathlon National Champion).   The forecast is for winds over 50mph - hopefully the race still takes place.

Professional Triathlete Training Log - Weekly Swim, Bike and Run Miles For Mar 19th - Mar 25th

Miserable Monday Morning In Tucson

March 19th - March 25th:  On Monday I woke up to hail storm that had the twittersphere blowing up with negativity.  I saw it as the perfect opportunity for a hard, long swim.  Unfortunately the 86 degree pool water didn't mesh well with that idea.  I tried to swim hard but eventually had to back it down as the body was badly overheating.   It was too miserable to get on the bike, and despite being at the track on Sunday for mile repeats I decide to return to do a single 3-mile TT run in the winter wonderland.

On Tuesday I got out on the bike to do a single 20 min interval followed by some shorter intervals.  I started out too hot on the 20 and had nothing left in the tank at the end but did manage to bump the wattage up from 341 to 343 watts for this week.

On Wednesday I took an easier day to prepare for what I knew would be a brutal Thrusday, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday.  When I say easier, I went to the pool and knocked out some descending 100s in two sets with half above threshold and half below along with some easy biking.

On Thursday evening I went to track practice with the Tricats but I knew I had substantial fatigue built up from the previous 10 days of training.  When given the choice of doing Ben Kanute's workout or the rest of the team's sadly I chose the easier option.  It was a good choice because after running the first interval I quickly realized that I had a lot of residual fatigue and it ended up being my worst track workout of the season.  Although I felt better by the end of the workout I knew I was riding the rivet of fatigue.

On Friday Team Trisports camp started with the annual Trifest ride up Mt Lemmon.  I ended up doing this ride from the back of the pack so I could actually execute my 90 minutes hard without getting involved in the rest of the testosterone battle.  In the afternoon, we went out to run some technical trails at Starr Pass in the Tucson Mountains.

On Saturday we had the second annual Team Trisports Triathlon.  Last year I won this thing and this year my plan was only to do a few harder intervals on the bike, but when our sponsorship coordinator put some store credit on the line for the winner I decided I had to win the darn thing.  Now win I did,  but to be fair I was the only pro-card carrying athlete in attendance.  TJ Tollakson was pool-side for a bit and I'm sure he would have handsomely handed it to me had he done it.  That doesn't mean it wasn't tough and the Trisports team has a ton of talented athletes including Xterra stud Bryce Phinney who really made me work for the win.

On Sunday some of the Team Trisports members - myself included - did the Tucson Triathlon. Last year I did this race all "tega-dermed up" from a bike crash but I still managed to win the thing.  This year I was crash-free but I was fatigue stricken.  Fortunately the fatigue was enough on this day and I successfully managed to defend my title.

All-in-all it was a pretty good week with lots of hard, but short workouts.  I decided to scrap weekly weigh-ins and the food journal because it was just too crazy of a week with temperature extremes, race-loading, race-bloating, and just the lack of consistency for it to really mean anything.   I'll make it up in a few weeks with a detailed list of exactly what I eat in a typical week.

I race at Leadman in five days.  I'm not sure how I will be feeling and I may have over-cooked it in the last two weeks, but I won't know until the race.  Worst case scenario, I'm not recovered but I got in some solid lactate threshold work as I build towards Ironman St George.

Here are my weekly swim, bike, and run totals:

Total: 252 Miles / 26 hours 14 minutes

Swim: 17,500 yards / ~10 miles / 4 hours 54 minutes
Bike:  216 miles / 13 hours 21 minutes
Run:  26 miles /  3 hours 29 minutes
Core:  3 sessions / 4 hours 30 minutes

Weight: N/A lbs (average over the 7 days)
Body Fat: N/A%

Calories Consumed: N/A / ~ N/A (as of Sunday at 5pm)
Calories Burned: N/A / ~N/A per day

Professional Triathlete Training Log - Weekly Swim, Bike and Run Miles For Mar 12th - Mar 18th

Came upon this little fellow on my way home from the pool

March 12th - March 18th: Wow, where has all the time gone?  I find myself in the middle of March and my first big race of the season is less than two weeks away. My training has been on fire as of late and everything seems to be going a well, a little too well. I'm a fairly superstitious person so I'm going to knock on some wood real quick. Ok, so this week I really got back to my ways and everything was either super easy or rather difficult.

For the bike I got in three key confidence building sessions including a session as 3x10 with equal rest at 345, 361, and 373 watts.  That gets me back to or even a little ahead of this time last year, but on much less volume and I'm a tad lighter too.  I also did 35x (1 min on, 1 min off) in the 320-400 range on my TT bike.  Finally I got in a single 20 minute interval at 343 watts including the last 4 minutes of the interval on a steep descent.

For the run I didn't run much but got in back-to-back smashfest tempo runs after considerable amount of swimming and biking earlier in the day.  Both were on the track and were short little efforts of 1 mile warm-up, 3 miles tempo, 1 mile cool-down but I felt great.  I also did another run on the track consisting of a similar session but I did 6 descending 400s with 400 jog instead of the 3 mile tempo.  My last run was during a rare Tucson blizzard on the track Sunday afternoon and consisted of 5x1600 with 400 recovery at 5K pace.

For the swim I got in some hard swim sessions with some emphasis in doing a little preparation for the Tucson triathlon that takes place in less than a week.  Those specific sessions included mainsets of 2x825 fast with 175 yard recovery.  I don't do flip turns and it costs me anywhere between .5 seconds and 1 second per turn on average but I did them in 11:03, 11:00 and then followed it up the next day at 10:43 an 10:32.  The Tucson triathlon features an 825 yard pool swim and I hope to do it in around 9:45 or faster.  I realize that I am giving up 30 seconds in that race but I am just out there for a good workout and my only real goal is to show improvement in the swim and given the nature of the course it is a highly repeatable way to check my progress.

Here are my weekly swim, bike, and run totals:

Total: 226 Miles / 25 hours 42 minutes

Swim: 26,100 yards / ~15 miles / 7 hours 27 minutes
Bike:  187 miles / 10 hours 31 minutes
Run:  25 miles /  3 hours 14 minutes
Core:  3 sessions / 4 hours 30 minutes

Weight: 157 lbs (average over the 7 days)
Body Fat: 6.5%

Calories Consumed: 38,796 / ~ 5,542 per day (as of Sunday at 5pm)
Calories Burned: 32,722 / ~4,682 per day