Chicago Triathlon breakdown (no kidding)

So I have had a little bit of time to reflect on my 3rd Chicago Triathlon (actually, my 3rd, 4th, and 5th, if you count 2013 individually.)

I know I was a little bit undertrained. I had slacked off with the Race to Mackinac in the sailing world, and then after I had to pack a bunch of flying in, trying to baby my knee, and then works.

O.k., enough excuses.

The Sprint

The Sprint Tri went off right about as planned. The ChiTri Sprint consists of a 750M swim, and 20K bike, and a 5K run.

The time for the swim includes the 400M run from the end of swim to transition (that run is longer than the swim in the SuperSprint, btw.)

So, my not so glorious times----

Swim - 23:50
Bike - 52:45
Run - 34:54

Swim Note:
I would have liked to have the swim come in around 21 or so, but with the run added to the distance, I am not surprised by the result there. I had a decent swim that was only marred by getting kicked in the face FOUR times; one gave me a good load of water up da nose, so that kind of annoyed me. I was very high adrenaline for the swim, and I could not get my heart rate down. It usually takes me a good 300+ yards to get my heart down when I swim laps. I am working on this, but it really saps your energy in open water.

Bike Note:
52:45 works out to 15.5mph. My goal was 49:00, which would have been about 16.6 mph, but I was only able to pace a 15.8 on the Super Sprint, so I should not have been surprise to be a little bit slower. Still, pretty good. Not bad for a kinda new guy. Plus, the heat was starting to pick up.

Run Note:
34:54 for a 5K. Yikes. I was hoping for about 31:00. My best time in a 5K is around 28:20, and I have run that many many times on the treadmill and on my overnights. I have not done a lot of brick type workouts towards the end of my training, obviously, I need to run after biking quite a bit more. But... 35 minutes... sigh. I suck so bad at running. That 34:54 was almost EXACTLY double my 17:05 from the 2.5K in the SuperSprint the day before. Foreshadowing!!

The Olympic.

Oh, jeez, the humanity!!

The Chi Tri Olympic length is a 1.5K swim, and 40K bike, and a 10K run.

I finished the Sprint at 08:02AM (it was an 0600 start,) and I had the Olympic coming right at me with an 0900 start. I had to get from the finish line to transition, reset my transition area, then hustle on down to the starting line 3/4 mile away to make the 0900 start. I made it with about a minute-thirty to spare. I had no time to rest (which is part of why you do the Triple Challenge... it is a challenge, after all!) and only time to snarf down a chocolate chip bagel and a banana... plus throw a bottle of gatorade onto my bike, and drink 1/2 of another one.

My times (which put my DEAD LAST in my age group... ugh.)

Swim - 52:06
Bike - 1:43:54
Run -  1:37:16

I am not happy with any of that, although I have to admit, turning around after a Sprint tri did kind of wear me down.

The Swim:

I was a little tired after doing the Sprint and not getting to even sit down between races. I barely had time to get my wetsuit back on, let alone relax for more time, so I was a bit put off by the swim start (although getting in the water felt GREAT.) Ironically, the last 500M or so of the swim was by far my best swimming of the entire triathlon. I was passing swimmers left and right. Too little too late, though.) A good chunk of my swim time was a 'trudge to transition.' I walked, not jogged or ran, the distance to transition. My time on this last year was 38:33. Doing that swim after the 20K bike and 5K run really (massive understatement) killed me here. I would have been better off having another mile of swimming than any kind of biking or running. Ah well, That is why it is a challenge!

The Bike:

Last year's time was 1:35:??. I felt really strong, and I had great strength in the first loop around; as I started the second loop north, I realized that I had not refilled my water bottle when I put the gatorade bottle on my bike between races (being rushed makes you forget shit,) and the temps were pushing 90 by now. I needed lots of water, and I did not have it. I had also not dropped any energy gels or grabbed another banana for the ride. I was going to rapidly run out of energy and hydration somewhere soon. I certainly did. I had a great split time coming out the first half of the bike (considering it was my 2nd Tri of the day,) but... I just fell apart. By the time I was southbound on the final 1/4 of the bike, I could feel the dehydration sapping away at my strength. I was trying to marshal my forces for conservation, but in an endurance sport, you really need access to nourishment (the 4th 'leg' of any triathlon is nutrition,) and I had painted myself into a corner by being rushed resetting transition.

I also had a shoulder problem that was getting annoyed. I had purchased a 'bike trainer' so that I could get used to being on the aero-bars, but I had not used it nearly enough. My shoulders were aching, and my left shoulder had a knot in it the size of a baseball. Made it difficult to stay symmetrical. 

Now the race just becomes about 'survival.' Keep going for the finish. Forget times, forget Personal Records, Personal Bests, etc... just drive. This is where having done prior triathlons kicks into play. No giving up, even if I have to crawl over the finish in a dehydrated pulpy mess. No matter how you slice it, I was miles ahead of everyone who had never done a Tri, and here I was, doing three in a weekend (a decent sized case could be made at this point for me being an idiot, but.... who is keeping score?)

The Run:

A funny thing comes into play when you know you will not win, in fact your age group partners have already been finishing for a while, you are totally knackered, and... well... you are dehydrated and annoyed at yourself. That funny thing is reality. Bam.

I basically slept through transition to the run. I lay down, stretched out my back, tried to get the knot out of my shoulder by laying down on some equipment. Not a whole lot of luck, so it was time to press on.

I stopped at the transition tent exit water stand, and basically stood there refilling myself like a camel. Drink.. drink... drink. I had a number of cups of water, and balanced those with about the same of Gatorade. I didn't want to over-drink and get cramps, so I tried to play it safe. There are drink stops about every mile on the run, so I knew I would be able to top off every stop.

By now the heat was getting up to about 94F or so. It was hot. Normally, I like running in the heat, but I was borderline dehydrated, and I had not run enough (even though I had done more distances than the individual races, I had not run this much TOTAL in a 24 hour period.) to really put in a good show.

So mile #1 I basically walked/jogged/hopped. I was trying to get my running feet under me, but I as also trying to stay sane and re-hydrate (an abnormally frustrating process. The more I have read about it, the more I have found it is a losing proposition. Once the dehydration monster starts in on you and gets to a certain point, you are fighting a losing battle... it is nearly impossible to get enough water in without drowning yourself.)

I made myself a deal.. instead of my normal system of running 7 mins or so and walking 2, I was going to reverse it, and run 2 and walk 7. As you can tell by my time, I did a lot more walking than that, even.

Around mile #3, I took a break in a port-o-john, and I heard them pull a racer off the course for dehydration. The paramedic was making sure he was ok, and then the racer started to vomit from massive dehydration. I have no idea how anyone would have been pushing so hard at this point int he race... all that was left on the course were the cruisers and the pros. They got the guy into an ambulance, but it was startling to hear someone crash so hard 'medically.' Numerous people got pulled off of the course, or dropped out when they realized they had lost it. This was where I decided to drop nearly all pretense of being a 'runner,' and just enjoy the walk, jog a bit when I could, nurse my dehydration properly (I doubled my water and gatorade intake after hearing that guy) and enjoy the damn race! I was supposed to be having fun, damnit! So I walked a little fast, broke into a jog now and then, and stopped at every water table and gatorade table and took a big swig or five.

At mile #5, the first pro came blasting past me. Holy cats that was amazing to watch! They started a full TWO HOURS after I started. Yes, I know, they are professionals, and I am a hack... but WOW, they were amazing to see up close, and on the same course!! (and passing the daylights out of my ass!!!!)

The last 100 yards of the run is through a finisher's chute, so I started jogging at a fair clip for the 50 yards prior, and then broke into a good run through the chute. I high-fived a bunch of people along the sides, and then raised my arms in victory at the end as I went through the finish, 7 hours and 31 minutes after I had started the Sprint that morning.

Not nearly my best times, not even somewhere near average. But I did have a good time on the race. A few things that I learned though---

Yeah, baby, that's honest sweat.

There is a GOOD reason why only about 180 people out of 7500 do the Triple Challenge. It is idiotic.

I swam well on the longer distances, I just need to not get kicked in the face, and I need to do the swim BEFORE I do the run and bike, not after a good set of run and bike.

I really want to try a 1/2 IM distance. We'll see what the future holds.

Dehydration sucks, and it takes days to recover. Better planning!!

My knee did not hurt in the least on the longest runs I have done in a single day. I like that!

More to come!

Cheers!

Scott

(yes, I know I took a screenshot of a proof.)