I haven’t gotten into the habit of updating much between races, just don’t seem to have any extra time in a day to do it. At least I can take the time to summarize the reason why I train so much, the races themselves..

I signed up for the Black Bear Triathlon (Olympic distance), at Beltzville State Park, just 3 weeks ago after completing the NJ Devilman the week before. I felt that I needed another practice race before IMRI 70.3 in July, which i’m kind of glad I did. This gave me the chance to go without the wetsuit in the water, and actually test my cycling skills on rolling hills (unlike what the Devilman was).

Well, here goes:

Day Before

The local tri club offered a free open water swim clinic on Saturday, and even though I didn’t really need the clinic, I took advantage of the lifeguards and got out for a .75 mile swim in the water. I wasn’t sure what to expect with the water temperature, so I decided to go out in the wetsuit. I found that it was right at that point for me that I was warm, but a little too warm, so my race day strategy would be, NO WETSUIT (more to come on that).

After the swim, I picked up my packet, checked out the course maps and transition area layouts and headed back home.

Pre-Race

The best part about local races is that I can sleep in my own bed, which I enjoy. There is always so much drama around staying in a hotel, and with Beltzville only being a 40 minute ride, I got up at 4:30, did my normal pre-race routine and headed for the race site around 5:15 with the intention of getting there around 6. Thankfully I had everything packed except the bike prior to Sunday, so it was easy to make it there and park. They had one lone port-a-potty in the parking area which i’m thankful was there because whatever I ate on Saturday decided to come back and see me.

After getting myself to the transition area and starting to setup, I started the debate with myself about the wetsuit. I figured it was not too late to change my mind about getting the wetsuit from the car. I was looking around at everyone else to see who else didn’t have one, and it didn’t look there were too many others who had them, but I turned out that I was wrong.

So after finalizing my transition area and getting body marked, it was 7am and time to head over to the beach for a practice swim. This was the last chance to get the wetsuit prior to the transition areas closing, and I made the call. NO WETSUIT.

I made my way to the beach area and decided to test the water so I went out for a quick swim. I got in, and honestly, it wasn’t bad .. a little shocking, but I was told it was 68 degrees (note the air temperature was still just 55). Ok, I turned out to be one of the crazies in the end. It was worse when I decided to get OUT of the water, because I had no towel, was wet, and there was a slight breeze. I stood there basically shivering saying, “I think I made a mistake”, but it was too late now. I felt things weren’t going great right now because I had not realized that I had my pre-swim Accel-gel in my back pocket when i went out, so I donated it to the bottom of Beltzville Lake… so on top of the no wetsuit, I had no pre-race fuel, great…

I hit the mens room again and thought to myself whether or not I actually locked the car, because if I forgot, I could get the wetsuit and not need to get into the transition area (which was closed now). I quickly did a run up to the parking lot in one last attempt to get the wetsuit, got to the car, hit the trunk … and it was locked, UGH! It was time to face the facts, you’re doing it without a wetsuit.

Around 7:30, the sprint waves started, there were 4 followed by the olympic waves, which I was in the second olympic wave .. I took notice that EVERYBODY had wetsuits on, except for about 10 other people like me who decided against it. At least I wasn’t alone.

As I stood on the beach, others zipping up their wetsuits, I almost let my mind defeat me by saying I was going to get hypothermia by the time I was done swimming. But I didn’t. Even the comments from the announcer stating “Seems we have some Canadians out there who like it cold .. no wetsuits”, I didn’t let it bother me.

Finally it was time to get in the water, 4 minutes until my wave starts … I was smart and headed out towards the end to limit the time I had in the water just being stationary. With 2 minutes to go I was knee deep and then immediately swam out to the start and with just 40 seconds to go, I started treading water waiting for the start. It wasn’t really that cold, I worried for nothing (but we really did need to get going). After adjusting my goggles since I was getting water in them, BANG!, the race started… off I went.

Swim (1500m, .8 miles) – 27:10 (here is the Garmin data)

After I got over the “not having a wetsuit” issue, I really had a good swim. I was hugging the inner side of the buoys so I didn’t swim too much extra. I felt strong, using the techniques i’ve been working on in the pool, basically turnover. I find that I have too much relax in my stroke which actually slows me down. Not today though, things were going well even though I didn’t have my pre-race fuel.

The start waves had only a small number of people so I actually didn’t get beaten up at all by other swimmers once we started, there was only one instance where I ran up on someone who was swimming slower around one of the turns. Before I knew it, I was passing people in the previous wave just before coming out of the water. I easily got used of the water though, and wasn’t actually cold at all, i’m actually glad that I didn’t use the wetsuit, turned out to be a good decision.

Transition 1:

Although i don’t yet have the times as I post this yet, I think I did okay with the transition. Without the wetsuit, I was able to get right into my bike gear and on my way with the slowest part being . It was a long run up to the mount line through wet grass and sand.. but I got there. Mounted pretty easily, got in the clips and into the aero position and got on my way.

Bike (24 miles) – 1:29:20 (here is the Garmin data)

I knew heading out on the bike that it was going to be a hilly ride, but I felt I was prepared for it. The first priority I had was to get some fuel in me since I missed it pre-race, so I worked hard to find a spot to pull out the gel, take it, get a drink and be done. It was strange doing that right at the start of the bike (as others probably thought to), but it needed to be done.

The rolling hills started right out of the start, but I felt I was hitting them pretty good. I struggled to not down-shift if I didn’t need to knowing that they are rolling hills. I’m still too scared to go aero down hills, which I think slows me down, but I really need to work on some other cycling things before I start doing that. My first struggle was around mile 5 when a steep hill came up that I wasn’t ready for.. I knew there was a 5% graded hill at around mile 7.25, but not one this early and it caught me in a bad gear… then my bike decided not to get down to the small chainring, which caused me to have to actually STOP and dismount. This sucked. I have to find out what i’m doing wrong that causes me not to be able to downshift, but it might be one of two things (or both)… first, I may be pedaling too hard, second, I may be in too high of a “back” gear. I’ll have to figure this out.

So after I got to a spot where I could mount the bike again and got the bike onto the lower chainring, I headed on my way, but now I was nervous to get off of the lower chainring thinking I wouldn’t be able to get back on it for the big hills… it was all mental at this point. I decided to ride the lower for awhile, at least until the big hill passed, which turned out to be a pretty good idea. I did lose some speed since I had almost no tension on some of the rolling hills, and at the time it was a problem, but in the end turned out okay.

The first big hill sucked bad … but I got up it, passing many people as I went. As we headed down the hill, I finally switched back to the upper chainring knowing the next big hill wasn’t until mile 16 or so. I do dislike the speeds that some of these guys go at in these races .. I mean, i’m not a speed demon, but these guys cruising at 40MPH down hills on aero bars (meaning no brakes) is just suicidal. Ok, off my soap box.

I did pretty good averaging 18MPH for awhile on the rolling hills and crappy roads. The roads didn’t have potholes or anything, but it wasn’t smooth and felt bumpy which left me uneasy going real fast. At one point I started going downhill and it felt like we were going downhill forever … but eventually it ended and I found myself doing well even into the next big hill on mile 16. Others were dying going up it, but I managed to pass out many of them in a pretty good pace .. got to the top and back down. At this point I was comfortable that my gears would work properly… until..

An unsuspected hill popped up around mile 20-21, and it was unsuspected because the course went downhill and then there was a very short uphill and a right turn up this mammoth mountain. I could not get myself into the right gear due to the speed I was at and the steepness of the hill (not to mention having to turn sharp). This was probably the worst part of the course… I had to DISMOUNT again and walk up the hill .. but I didn’t feel bad because everyone else was doing the same thing. It sucked, again.

After I got to the top of this hill, it was all fairly flat from here and time to make up some time that I lost. I made the last turn on to the main road and started flying .. felt real good, then turned into the park and there was the transition area. My back actually wasn’t sore, which was great because I was able to run to the transition area (down the wet grass and sand).

It was a real rough bike ride, I wish I would’ve been better prepared (gear-wise) so I didn’t have to walk it, but we got through it.

Transition 2

Again, I think I did better and felt more focused on the transition. The bike went up good, helmet off and getting the shoes and running belt on. The only slow point was getting off my cycling gloves and stopping to get a quick drink. I really don’t drink enough when I cycle, we’ll have to figure out a plan to address that.

Run (6.2miles) – 50:00 (here is the Garmin data)

It really pays to be a runner, and in the last 4 weeks i’ve kicked it up a notch doing the interval work. It took me about a mile to get warmed up, then I just hit it. I ended up keeping an 8 minute mile in the end .. I just felt good. The course was all trails through the woods, which I didn’t know before this. There really were no hills or anything to speak of and it was 2 loops of the same course, so it really was easy. My goal was to run about an 8:15/mile, which I did for awhile, but then kicked it up on the second loop.

This is where I make up the lost time in the bike … I found that in the second loop I was passing people all over the place. I took specific notice to those that were in my age group, I really wanted to place well in my age group, I hope that I did…

Except for kicking butt on the run, there weren’t too many other highlights until I came through to the finish, where people started cheering. I finished strong, passing other runners as we approached the finish, I love it. Did I say that it pays to be a runner?

Post-Race

So it turned out to be a decent day, I think I had a good swim and an excellent run. The bike wasn’t terrible, but definitely challenging and something to work on. I don’t have any other races prior to IMRI 70.3, so this is it. I think I learned enough about what I need to work on to be successful, with one thing being for sure, I can’t do an 8:00/mile on the run for a half-marathon (especially after riding 56 miles on the bike).

Overall it was a well managed race, lots of volunteers, police, etc. Post-race food was okay (pizza, bread, cookies, bananas… ). CGI does put on a good race (and I got a new water bottle, which is always cool).

Thankfully tomorrow is a rest day, we’ll recover and hit the hardest 3 weeks of training yet this year. I’m not sure how I’ll make it, with work being so busy right now, but we’ll do it one way or another….to keep my sanity at least.