2013 SEASON, THE GOOD, BAD, UGLY

I have put off this season ending blog in order to collect my thoughts and emotions. Racing triathlons as a baby boomer is often not about winning your age group, but about overcoming age related injuries and challenges while achieving personal goals.  In the 2010 St George Ironman (a race course no longer contested due to the hot, humid, windy, hilly conditions) what kept me going was my desire to finish a race that included my son, and collect that stupid finishers hat that comes with the $650 entrance fee.

In relative terms,  2013 was a successful racing year for me but not without disappointments.  At local triathlon races in Arizona and Minnesota I won my age division with large margins.  The tougher tests are at the National and International races, however.  I placed 2nd at USAT Nationals and 3rd at Ironman 70.3 Worlds.  I also cancelled out of 3 races including the main focus of my 2013 plan, the ITU World Duathlon Championships.

Meanwhile, the World Championship Ironman at Kona had record breaking race conditions this year. My course record for a 65-69 year old American set in 2011 was shattered.  I changed my blog cover photo and caption accordingly.

As Reese Bobby said to Ricky Bobby in Talladega Nights, "if you ain't first you're last".  Memorable, nonsensical, and full of irony.

Following Ironman 70.3 Worlds in early September I went into training hibernation.  I was emotionally burned out from struggling through a variety of aggravating injuries while trying to build international level fitness.  Cracked ribs, pseudo gout, external compartment syndrome and finally the confirming diagnosis of rheumatoid arthritis by the Mayo Clinic following my 70.3 race took the umph out of my emotions and desire to train.

What should I do as I grow older?  How about AquaBikes?  How about USA Cycling?  Both of these could be done without causing me the serious knee pain the goes with pseudo gout and arthritis. Maybe it was time to get more serious about golf?

I decided that I would not apply for "elite" status within my triathlon team, ONE Multisport.  The experience of racing as an "elite" this last year has been rewarding as the team is just a great and encouraging organization for all members regardless of their abilities.  However, I need time to sort out my future motivation and goals without the added self-imposed pressure of living up to an elite status.

My son flew to AZ in November for the purpose of volunteering at Ironman Arizona and registering for next year.  Given that he will be racing at Kona in October, another Ironman so closely bunched sounded absurd to me but he likes to bunch his triathlons.  Ah, youth.  So, like son like father, I also registered not really knowing why.  Maybe to race together again?  Maybe to put a goal out there that will cause me to rethink that golf thing?  Maybe motivation to get serious about resolving my knee pain handicap?

So, goodbye to the 2013 racing season.  Looking forward to what 2014 will bring.

IRONMAN TAHOE -- THE NEW WORLDS TOUGHEST?

A COLD SUNRISE

I lived this event vicariously through my son, Ben Ewers III. He had raced 3 half Ironman (Vineman, Racine, World Championship) culminating with the Tahoe Ironman in an 8 week stretch.   I visited the doc following my half ironman world championship race and haven't moved a swim/bike/run muscle since.  But, through the technology of Ironman Live and cell phones, I kept track of his race as it unfolded.  And, having raced numerous time with him since he started triathlons in high school, I thought I could feel how he was feeling through the technology.  I was exhausted by the time he finished.

It was a beast of a race.  Cold, hilly, altitude, windy and the slowest average finishing time of all official Ironman races. A huge DNF and DNS count.  Only 2 pros beat 9 hrs, and then only by a few minutes. Follow the link below to some interesting stats.

 www.runtri.com/2013/09/ironman-lake-tahoe-2013-results-analysis.html

BE3 lives in the bay area and has been involved in numerous activities in the Tahoe area including downhill skiing, ultra racing on the Tahoe rim trail, and biking the notorious death ride numerous times. He has a huge respect for what the altitude can do to your ability to get oxygen to your muscles.  He adjusted his race targets accordingly.

I saw that BE3 exited the water with a 67:34 minute split and in 308th place, higher than he usually places. And since the top pro time was a slow 51:36 minutes, I was excited that the new wetsuit he was using and some additional swim training was giving him a great start to the race.  Boy, this is cold and people are pummeling me.  I can't seem to get a breath. The wetsuit must be constricting my breathing. I've never felt like this before, I gotta swim to that anchored boat and get outta here.  Am I having a panic attack?  OK, I'll rest holding onto the boat for a while and unzip my wetsuit to make it easier to breath.  Maybe I should quit. The official is calming me down.  I've seen this happen before, especially up here at Lake Tahoe, he states. Take slow breaths he advises, it's the frenetic pace at the start and the low oxygen content at this altitude impacting you.  OK, I'll try to get going again, can you help me re-zip my wetsuit?  Enough break time, those swimming around me are less frenetic and swimming slower.  I can do this. Long slower strokes.  I've found my rhythm and am moving past these slower swimmers. It's just not gonna be my day. I need to readjust my expectations and goals.  Just finishing safely after this scare.

BE3 WITH ALEXA AT START

Ironman live showed him moving into 104th place at the 4.2 mile split on the bike.  What!  How did he pass 200+ fast triathletes in 4 miles of biking?  I started to check the transitions.  BE3 took 5:34, which appeared long to me. Then I checked what others were taking.   Very long transitions, many in excess of 12 minutes.  It occurred to me that complete clothes changeover must be the norm, as the early morning temps were near 30 degrees. I checked the live video feed for transition 1.  Everybody was heavily clothed and carrying their shoes without bikes.  A long transition run also.  So how did he transition so fast?  Did he know what his placing was?  Quick text to his wife Sandra. Found out she had to leave after the swim as Alexa and Bella were freezing. Boy, was that swim a scare.  It's really cold and I'm wet. Dam, there are no chairs open in this crowded transition tent, that swim pause put me among the masses.  I'll plop down on the ground and change.  My hands aren't working, I'll use gloves and just put a base layer under my trisuit for the rest of the race. The trisuit will dry out quickly on the bike and as the day warms up I'll be just fine.  


By 41.1 miles on the bike he was 55th overall and 4th in his age group, the highly competitive 40-44. At age 44 he is at a relative disadvantage, but if he qualified for Kona 2014 he would race in the 45-49 age group, a small relative improvement.  Quick check of his bike pace.  Actually very conservative (slow) and well within his pre-race plan.  And, yet, he was screaming up the leaderboard. Had to be a tough course. Crap, my power meter just froze up and I'm no longer getting reads. Must have gotten soaked by the rain. I'll have to bike purely by feel. I'm cold, bad decision to not take a windbreak. I'm biking harder than I want to, but I have to in order to not freeze.  It's difficult to eat my nutrition as it's frozen hard. Oh well, maybe I can make top 10 in my age group.  

Approaching the finish of the bike leg BE3 had moved into 39th overall (many of them pros) and holding onto 4th in the 40-44 age group.  Two guys in his age group are way out in front of the rest. He has a chance for 3rd if he races smart.  His times are still conservative with the bike, actually slow. There are 10 splits on the bike course.  Many parts of the bike course are repeats, so I started comparing these splits. There did not appear to be much fatigue fade setting in.  Still, the bike times seemed slow overall but his relative placings were great.  I text Sandra.  Does BE3 know where he is?  No, she's going to catch him on the run segments.  I tell her he's doing great.  Go go go.  He brings in a 5:41:33 bike split. Under 20 mph average? Must be very hilly. Another leaderboard check shows that only 3 guys broke 5 hrs.  Where is everybody?  I haven't seen another biker for 12 miles?  At the last turnaround the guy shouted out 40th place?  Must be wrong or 40th amateur at best.  I've done everything wrong.  Must have lost 4 minutes on the swim, under dressed for the weather, power meter froze up, biking too hard, can't get food down, relieved myself frequently on the bike, ugh.  Can't wait for the run. I'll just try to bring it home healthy. 

FUN ON THE RUN

Like the bike course, there are frequent splits on the run, 8 in total, and some of these are repeats also.  Running is BE3's strength as he basically trains for ultra trail runs and tries to squeeze in some swimming and biking as he approaches a triathlon race.  That's why he clumps his triathlons into short time periods.  His run splits look like he planned. Thinking of the line from the Kenny Rogers country western song --"you never count your money when your sittin' at the table"-- I try to not get too excited for him.  At 13.1 miles he moved into 34 overall and 3rd age group.  At 22.6 miles 34th and 2nd age group.  Am I glad to see Sandra and Alexa and Bella. Bella wants a hug and a lift? Great? What, I'm in what place? Wow, everyone must be hurting. Not that many more miles to go, but I'll have to walk some of the aid stations.  I am so cold, even on the run, it doesn't make sense to me as its warmer now? The patches of sun sure feel good.

Yea, he's done!  3:31 run split.   Only 6 pros broke 3 hours. 10:28 final time.  37th overall, 10th amateur, 3rd age group, KONA bound!  I need to go to the med tent.  I am really cold.  What is my core temp?  95 degrees?  I can't eat a thing. 


In an Ironman there can be a whole series of emotional and physical swings.  Unlike shorter triathlons, there is the opportunity for redemption for miscalculating equipment, nutrition, pacing as long as you persevere and keep your wits about you.  It's tough being the parent of an Ironman, even if you are an Ironman.

3RD AT WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP 70.3 -- A BRUTE OF A RACE

A young looking group of Podium finishers

Well, the Ironman World Championship 70.3 (c'mon, it's a Half Ironman), held in the local of Henderson, Nevada, deserves its reputation as one brute of a race venue.  Fortunately, the forecast of 103 degree heat for the September 8th race was interrupted by a late summer monsoon that brought rain that lasted through most of the bike leg.  [A monsoon in the desert southwest sounds like an oxymoron, but for the residents, compared to their normal dry and hot weather, it feels like a monsoon.  Every year in late summer moisture from the south makes its way north and most of the 6 or 7 annual inches of rain fall in that so-called "monsoon" season.] But, once the rain passed, the humidity remained and it warmed up to the mid-80's for the run.

Besides the usual heat, there are the hills.  2800 vertical climbing on the bike and since it is a point-to-point bike with the ending elevation about 800 feet above the starting point, the bike entropy is not zero. You get to climb but you don't get to descend all the way.  And the run has about 200 feet of climb and descent each of the 3 laps.

Entry into the 70.3 Worlds was by qualification at one of the approximately 50 qualifying races held worldwide.  My 65-69 age group typically had one qualifying slot per race.  Due to attrition or passed slots, by the time the bib numbers were assigned, there were 34 entrants in this age-group, 15 of which made their home outside the USA.  Don't think they came here just for the weather.

I had traveled back to Arizona from Minnesota some 10 days prior to the race to attempt to get heat acclimated.  My Internet research had indicated that 10 days of training for a minimum of 90 minutes per day in the heat would get you most of the way there.  I had followed that plan for the Ironman World Championships in 2011 and it proved effective.  It was the hills that were tough for me to get a handle on since my summer training terrain in Minnesota was on relatively flat ground (like 60 mile bikes with 150 foot total climbing!).

My son was going to join me again for this race so we were able to share race strategy and targets. After some consternation I settled on :40/2:50/2:00 for the swim/bike/run segments plus transitions giving 5:35 assuming a good race and the milder weather.  Part of my concern was my arthritic knees which made run training for the past two months difficult and a sprained back that occured 7 days prior to race day. Fortunately, neither was a significant issue on race day.

Early morning Lake Las Vegas during the monsoon

The swim was in Lake Las Vegas, a man-made lake with water from Lake Mead pumped up into it to maintain its water level.  Average water temp this time of year is low 80's, no wetsuits.  There were wave starts and the 60+ males had an early start in wave 4 departing at 6:44.  The swim was uneventful, I held a good line, was not hassled but was surprised by my slow split, 44:25.  I had turned in a 41minute swim at Racine 70.3 in much worse conditions.  Just not a good swim.

The rain was pretty heavy during parts of the bike which I responded to by being very cautious on turns and descents.  At mile point 25 I was not feeling great but only putting out 209 average watts, way below my Racine 70.3 numbers of 220 watts.  I decided to ease up some thinking that the hills were impacting me more than I had imagined.  I finished at an average of 200 watts and with a split of 2:52:47. I only consumed 4 gels and 2 1/2 bottles of fluid on the bike, partly due to the steady rain on the course.  I relieved myself 3 times on the bike, not a good sign, hoping the steady rain would cleanse everything.  [Having to relieve oneself is a sign of over hydration. Water is not getting through the cell membranes into the body so the bladder flushes the excess out in trying to establish a better water-to-salt-minerals balance.  Sometimes ingesting more salt minerals resolves the problem.]  I did manage to take 4 salt capsules with water.

Not in a happy place at this point

I decided in the bike/run transition to go sock less on the run as my socks were soaked (see above) and full of mud from the bike.  I had no spare socks in the run bag (error).  The first mile of the run was horrible as I was not able to get a rhythm, and I realized that I had some small gravel in my shoes which I left there.  I resorted to my planned jog/walk routine that was necessary for me to complete the half marathon, as my longest training run this summer had been 7 miles utilizing a similar jog/walk routine (the only approach my knees tolerated).  At this point I knew there were some of my age-group competitors in front of me but I didn't really care as I was already into "finish" mode.

Finding that happy place

I did notice one competitor gaining ground on me at each turn around.  Not too much I could do about that during the early miles but follow my plan and see what happened.  Besides, I was in "finish" mode and not in contention anymore to win; a podium finish was the new goal. What happened is he passed me with three miles to go starting an uphill section.   I tried to stay with him but he slowly moved away until he graciously walked through an aid station with less than 2 miles to go.  That allowed me to catch up and I remained behind him until there was about 1 mile left with a small uphill remaining followed by a long downhill finish.  I decided to push it and either open enough gap to discourage him or fail in trying.  I did not want another close finish either way.  I didn't look back, he didn't catch me.  My split was 1:59:56. I placed third with an overall time of 5:44:03 including some slow transitions.  My son placed 23rd in the highly competitive 40-44 age group in 4:44:13.

My knees and back survived just fine and I feel healthy.  I've scheduled a September evaluation at Mayo Clinic, Rochester, Minnesota to evaluate my knees.  I have avoided this clinic visit for some time as I am afraid I will not like the analysis and recommendations.  But now its time to rest and recover and discover.

USAT NATIONAL AGE GROUP CHAMPIONSHIPS ----- 2nd by 15 seconds

In looking back at any race effort you usually can find 16 seconds in a 2+ hour race that you could have cut out.  Less fumble in the transitions.  Push the swim/bike/run/you-name-it just a little harder.  At the end of the day, it's all OK, as long as you made the best combination of emotional, physical, and mental effort you could make on that day. I was beaten by 15 seconds in the USAT National Age Group Triathlon Championships held Saturday August 10th in Milwaukee with a time of 2:22:23 on a beautiful day for racing.  I was excited about the result given that I was not where I had planned to be with my run fitness. Optimal fitness, emotional and mental readiness at this level of racing are crucial as finishing places can be separated by narrow margins of just seconds. For example, I've finished second twice (by 24 seconds and now 15 seconds) and won twice (by 12 seconds and 1 minute)  at these National Championships.

FINISHING CHUTE ON RIGHT, I 794 IN BACKGROUND

Just how did I end up in Milwaukee racing at the National Championships? I had originally planned on racing in the ITU World DU Championships representing USA in Ottawa, Canada. It was held on the same weekend as the USAT National Championships, so I could not do both and figured the ITU race was more prestigious.  But, if you have read any of my previous posts, you know I have had my share of running related injuries which limited my run training to weekly averages between zero and 13 miles.  And, those miles were in races.  So, I decided my best chance for a podium finish was not the run oriented DU format of 10Krun/40Kbike/5Krun, but the olympic distance triathlon.

BIKES FOREVER

The venue for the race was pretty awesome.  There were 3,000 entrants in the Olympic distance event on Saturday, and 1,400 in the Sprint distance event held on Sunday.  All were qualifiers, so the level of competition would be the toughest imaginable. The last time I was in Milwaukee was for the half Ironman triathlon I raced in 1987 to qualify for my first Kona Ironman World Championship experience.  I was not sure this race would take place on the same course as I arrived on Friday just in time to register and put my bike in the corral.  No pre-race course preview for me. Normally the day before the race I do a swim/bike/run warmup, not this time.


The swim was in the breakwater protected waters of Lake Michigan, in effect a large lagoon.  I was concerned about the ramp exit as it was very steep, but it was not an issue.  I also was concerned about my decision to use a new wetsuit that arrived on my doorstep Thursday before I drove down on Friday from Minneapolis to Milwaukee.  First time I was going to swim in it was race day.  It was tighter than my no-name antique wetsuit so I wasn't sure how difficult it was going to be to strip it off.  Turned out to not be an issue.  It sure felt faster as I swam a 27:14  split and was only down to 9th place in my age group (out of 50 entrants), a major improvement for my weakest event.

OFF THE DOCK AND INTO THE LAGOON

4,400 TRIATHLETES UP THIS ITTY BITTY RAMP?

The bike definitely was on the same basic course as the 1987 race, as we went over the I794 interstate bridge on the southbound lanes which were closed for the race.  The bike course was flat and the wind mild so the times were fast.  I averaged 23.5 MPH using only 220 watts average.  Split time was 1:03:58, fastest in my age group.

The run was the big question. For the last 5 weeks I have had to choose between trying to run train with my painful knees to maintain run fitness or not run and allow them to recover and lose some of that hard fought run fitness.  Not a set of good choices when you are trying to get ready for the most competitive race of the racing season.  I chose the latter option. In talking with fellow racer Dr. Roger Freeman (a practicing orthopaedic surgeon who finished 3rd) in the bike corral before the start of the race, at any point in time it seems like people in our age group are either exiting from or entering into an injury. The unknown for me on August 10th was how fast can you run without having run for two weeks, and that last run having been the 5K finishing leg of a sprint triathlon? Turn out not as fast as I needed to run!

COOLING OFF IN FOUNTAIN

By the time I was finishing the bike leg I thought I had passed everyone in my age group who exited the swim ahead of me as I had not passed any 65+ person since mile 15.  After all, the bike is my strength, and I had that new fast wetsuit!  I was just as sure that some of these old-guy competitors would come screaming past me on the run due to my injury-reduced run fitness level.  I was wrong on
both counts; there was a competitor ahead of me exiting the bike-to-run transition and nobody passed me from behind on the run.  I found this out in the finishing chute as the announcers congratulated Richard Holloway as the first 65-69 competitor to cross the finish line. My run split was 47:01, second fastest in the age group.

One more big race this year, the World Championship 70.3 in Vegas. Four weeks to get my run mojo back.

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