CHISAGO SPRINT

Decided on Friday July 26th to see what type triathlon I could do this weekend in lieu of hard training. Looked at the MINNESOTA TRI NEWS calendar and there were 7 races listed for the weekend of July 27-28 within driving distance of my house.  Lots of race options during the summer is typical for Minnesota as most outside sports events are compressed into the short summer season.  Chisago City had a sprint and half Ironman combo race for Sunday morning, was 25 miles from my house, and a race fee of $55.  Hard to pass up.

The sprint was a .25 mile swim, 22+ mile bike (course altered due to bridge construction), and 5K run. The short swim and relatively long bike was to my liking.  I hadn't run since my Racine 70.3 race last Sunday to give my knees adequate recovery time, so I did not know what to expect on the run.  Also, the cold front forecast for last weekend arrived late -- it was 50 degrees this Sunday morning.

The swim was a wave start with the long course athletes starting first, approximately 700 of them.  The sprinters followed and I was in the first sprint wave with about 800 entrants in this event.  Swim felt good; transition was horrible as I struggled with my wetsuit; bike was good except for my going off-course near the end and turning around after a block; run felt OK on my knees.  Averaged 235 watts on the bike for an average speed of 23.2mph.  Odd, as it was a relatively flat course (700 ft vertical) and I usually average 1 to 1.5 mph faster than 10% of my average watts (so I should have averaged 24.5 mph).  For example, last week I pushed 207 ave watts and averaged 22.2 mph.  Same bike, same setup, who knows?

My S/B/R splits were 8:11/58:40/22:47 with corresponding overall placings of 80th/27th/86th out of the approximately 800 entrants (last year placings 139/56/59 showing improved swim/bike).  Total time with transitions 1:32:54, slower than last year but the bike was a bit longer due to the bridge construction and rerouting. The swim was a much better placing than normal, probably due to an increased emphasis on swimming as a substitute for running.  Overall pretty consistent placings. Satisfied as it has only been a week since I raced Racine 70.3.

                         

RACING RACINE 70.3

GREAT VENUE AT RACINE

I raced Racine on July 21 and am I glad that's over.  I was feeling the pressure of having to win a qualifying race to qualify for the 70.3 World Championships in Las Vegas, representing ONE MULTISPORT, while overcoming the effects of yet another injury. The stress did not sit right with either my stomach or mind. But, in my M65-69 age group, it seems that everyone is working through an injury and the least injured leading up to and on the day of the race has a good chance of winning. It would be what it would be.



It appeared that the week old pseudo-gout pain in my left knee was responding to the ice, Advil and rest treatment I was following.  After taking a day completely off from exercise following injury, I resumed biking and swimming but could not jog except as noted in the next paragraph.  Biking was interesting. It was difficult to get started as I was basically a one legged peddler. I could not lift my left leg so I had to rely on my right leg to get up to speed and push the left pedal up so I could push down with my left leg.  Similar to the "cutter" in the classic coming-of-age movie "Breaking Away" with his foot taped to the pedal.  It was painful to bend the left knee, but less so to straighten it out.  I hated the stop signs or missed green lights as I would have to repeat the starting ritual. Swimming was a little better as I kept my left leg straight on the flip turns by flipping at an angle and did an abbreviated one-legged push off.  Almost all swimming was done with a pull buoy.  

I had been closely watching the local weather for Racine from my perch here in Minnesota, as the weather patterns usually flow West to East.  It had been hot and humid with heat advisories being issued for both states due to heat indexes of 100.  The  heat/humidity was forecast to break by the weekend into the 70's.  We'd see about that.  In hindsight, one thing that might have helped me with the heat was that I had been hot tub jogging-in-place for the 7 days leading up to the race as part of my recovery from pseudo-gout, about 15 minutes a day. The waist high water provided enough body weight support to significantly reduce the pain upon impact, and the heat seemed to loosen the joint. But, I hadn't run on terra firma during that time except for 2 miles on Friday which I did to judge the pain level.  It was clear that the best I could hope for was to "run" the 13.1 miles with a jog/walk routine of about 4min/1min splits and hope the knee did not lock up.

My son, Ben III, decided about two weeks previously to make a quick trip from California to join me in the race and lend moral support as well, even though it was only 7 days after his Vineman 70.3 race. He had a stellar 4:25 there (21st amateur) on a tougher course, but with his relatively low volume training knew his recovery would not be complete enough to race well at Racine.  My old adage from my marathoner days was one day recovery for each mile raced. So a half marathon finish to a 70.3 would take about 2 weeks of recovery.

MY RIDE IS 5 YEARS OLD BUT STILL SWEET 

He also brought along his two girls for Nana to enjoy while he and I drove down to Racine to "enjoy" our race.  As it was not a serious race for him, he rode on an old bike of mine (after we tweaked it a bit for his geometry) rather than ship his out. I was raised in Racine and still have relatives there, so my Sister-in-law Yvonne offered to room both of us and arrange for my sisters Gretchen and Sally (and
their families) to gather around after the race. We drove down Saturday morning (7 hours, we were very hydrated) and drove back Monday morning (6 1/2 hours). Since I only have one set of race wheels and Ben III was going to use them, I borrowed a new set from Anne Hed (60 front, 90 back, real sweet, thanks Anne). Also had to pick up a rental car so I would not leave my wife carless with two toddlers. It was a hectic weekend.

BEN 2 AND BEN 3

It's nice to have a racer in the family.  We are able to discuss strategy with each other knowing the others tendencies and strengths to help settle on race approach.  I set a target of 40 minutes for the swim, 2:40 for the bike, and under 2 hrs for the run with a few minutes for the transitions.  Slower targets than I would normally set for the Racine course, but I was trying to properly incorporate the injury layoff and recovery into my racing ability. We also noticed that the swim and run at Racine both appeared to be historically slow compared to other 70.3's. We suspected waves on the swim and heat/humidity on the run and adjusted our goals accordingly.


The swim, a point-to-point longitudinally along the beach, was tough to almost dangerous.  It was wetsuit legal but the chop, swells and waves caused many racers to reach for the kayaks and buoys early on. Sighting was difficult.  Top pro time was 24 minutes, not fast. I just broke 41 minutes and when I saw that I was satisfied for the conditions (I had timed 35 minutes in pool with pull buoy -- to mimic a wetsuit -- for 2100 yds). The transition run up the beach sand was a long one, but they did have strippers once out of the sand.

The bike is out and back with non-repeating loops and only a few stretches where riders are going in both directions.  Us old guys 55+ started the swim just after the pro waves, 7 minutes after the gun.  So, even though some of the women from the following waves passed me on the swim, there were going to be few riders out there in front of me other than the pro's.  It was a new experience for me as the old guys usually start near the last wave, and I kinda liked it.  I could pick a line to avoid the potholes and focus on my power meter to make sure I was on plan. But, at times, no one was in sight and I wondered if I was off-course, riding to Beloit or someplace else. However, the course was well marked and I was able to slowly catch and pass some of those 55+ males and younger females that exited the water ahead of me.  It was a bit windy, but I was able to average 207 watts and 22.2 MPH, slightly ahead of goal but reasonable for such a relatively flat course.  Garmin measured 1200+ feet elevation gain but GPS devices are notorious for overstating elevation gain (pressure devices are more accurate), officially the course had a 577 ft gain so here the overstatement was 100%!  Only long courses that I have raced that are flatter are the Arizona Ironman and Tempe Leadman 125.

The run was the big question for me.  By now it was clear the weather forecasters were not accurate. While the 100 degree heat index was broken, it did not get into the 70's they had predicted but more like 80's and very humid.  My first walk occurred at about the 1/2 mile point going up a hill. This wasn't far off my plan of a 4min/1min split.  I walked again through the aid station just past the 1 mile mark and continued with this approach through 2 miles.  I ran the next 2 miles walking only through aid stations at 3 and 4 miles before dropping back into the two walks per mile approach.  I continued with the two walks per mile approach until the last mile where I knew I could run it in.  In all the chaos of the weekend, I forgot to bring a race watch, so I had to rely on fellow racers to know what my approximate pace was.  I found that I was able to keep pace below 9 min/mile with the run/walk routine so I knew I was on track to break 2 hours for the run.


My final time with transitions was 5:10+.  1st 65-69M by 28 minutes.  Would have been first in 60-64 as well by a margin of 10 minutes.  Ben III knew on the bike in the first 20 miles that he was not recovered from his previous race as he could only comfortably average 230 watts versus the 258 watts he averaged the previous week.  He eased off both the bike and subsequent run to clock a 4:45+. There was no pomp to the awards ceremony as it happened hours after most people finished and few stayed to pick up their awards, hence the stand-alone award photo.  However, we both picked up tickets to the 70.3 World Championships, his on a roll-down.    Viva Las Vegas.

PSEUDO-GOUT STRIKES AGAIN

This posting is all about personal catharsis.  I cancelled out of yet another race due to injury. This time it was the Minneapolis LIFETIME triathlon, held on Saturday July 13th, the largest and most competitive race in Minnesota. Its purpose in my seasonal planning was to give me a benchmark going into the Racine Ironman 70.3 the following week.  I have raced this course previously so whatever I might have done would have given me a good reference point for pacing the 70.3.

Instead my worst pre-race fear happened.  Pseudo-gout appeared with no warning.  Thursday was a solid 2000 yd swim workout followed by a 5 mile run followed by walking 18 holes of golf. Great way to spend a day when retired in Minnesota.  Absolutely no pain anyplace.  Friday was a short swim and short bike as a pre-race taper day.  By supper I had developed a severe pain in my left knee.  This knee pain forced me to climb stairs one step at a time dragging the left leg.  I had a tough time getting to sleep even with the Advil. Woke up at 2 am to the loudest clap of thunder and lightning imaginable, so got up to make sure the house wasn't hit.  Couldn't lift my foot but a few inches off the ground.  I immediately knew that my race was toast, so took the early wake-up off the alarm clock and went back to sleep.

STARS IN THE JOINT

I was diagnosed with pseudo-gout (see picture on right) a few months prior to my 2010 Kona Ironman race.  The orthopedic doctor who had performed the 3 arthroscopic surgeries on my knees to remove torn cartilage took x-rays to help diagnose my severely sore knees -- I assumed I had damaged some cartilage again.  But no, mixed in with the cartilage in my knee joint were all these tiny white specs that made the joint look like the stars in the sky on a particularly clear Arizona night.

Those stars were crystals made up of calcium.  No known cause.  Incidence increases with age. Possibly genetic.  No known cure.  No treatment except NSAID's to ease the pain. And even worse, the bouts of pain come and go at random with random intensity and random duration. My doctors personal experience was that the more surgeries you have, the greater the incidence.  My left knee had 2 surgeries and more stars.  My doctor said I could take up to 12 Advil a day and exercise as the pain permits. I can take a lot of pain, but even at the 2010 Kona Ironman I had to walk the last 16 miles of the marathon.  At 2 am in the morning of July 13, I was not about to suffer through a less meaningful race, so another race bit the dust. Blogging about this worked, I feel better now.  So does my knee.

For the truly interested, below is a link that provides a more clinical description.

PSEUDO-GOUT LINK