Summer Recap and Lake Stevens 70.3

Wow, summer went by fast. Hopefully I can say the same thing about this coming school year.

A few months ago my dad and I took a road trip up from Tempe, AZ to Bend, Oregon. I had heard good things about Bend, and it did not disappoint at all. For the first few weeks I was in awe at the awesome riding, trails, and the great pool. But most of that was covered in an earlier blog post.

Thanks for coming out Mom and Dad! 

I had an awesome time this summer interning for PickyBars, and got a ton of hands on experience. It was cool to have so much responsibility and actually have a (minor) impact on the company. Also, I got to see how Amazon works from an sellers perspective, and who doesn’t love amazon? Getting to know all the people who worked there was the cherry on top, and it’s obvious that the people who work at Picky Bars like their jobs a lot. They taught me how important attention to detail is, and that building solid relationships with the right people means a lot more than getting a big contract with Walmart.

My parents signed me up for Lake Stevens 70.3 as a birthday present way back in June, so I had been targeting that race all summer. It was my first time tri-ing the “half “ distance (and first time ever running more than 12 miles in one run). The race was on one of the toughest courses in the US, with over 3500 feet of elevation gain on the bike and another 500 or so on the run. I like this because it (sort of) prevents me from shooting for goal times on each segment and makes me focus on racing smart and saving it for the last 10k, when its going to hurt the most.

My parents rode their bikes from Seattle down to Portland, then picked me up in Bend on Friday and we headed up to Washington. We got caught in traffic jam after traffic jam, and it was brutal. What was supposed to be a 6 hour drive turned into a 10 hour drive, but eventually we made it to our VRBO, about 10 minutes from the race course.

The day before the race I was pretty stressed out. I used some of my tactics from goaltending to calm myself and get ready for the next day. I had trained as much as anyone, and knew I was ready to put out a solid effort for the entire duration of the race if I was smart from start to finish. This race turned into the focus of my summer after a blow up midway through the bike at pac crest. If you want to analyze my training you can check out my strava.

pretty foggy out there on race morning

Race morning I got up around 4 am (wave goes off at 6:49) and ate my go-to breakfast of rice, banana, and eggs. And another banana. And a picky bar. I ate this before literally every single swim this summer (which means at least once per day) so I figured my body was used to it at this point. It made it from point A to B to T relatively quickly, so that was a relief.

Even though they talk about the importance of the swim warmup, Ironman only gave us a 3 minute swim warm up. So I decided to go for a quick run before hopping into my wetsuit and getting in the water with 70 of my best friends.

The swim:

This portion of the race went exceptionally well for me. I had heard about a line on the bottom of the lake that follows the buoys perfectly, but didn’t believe it until the day before the race when I actually swam the course and saw it. That, and all the buoys were on my left, so I could sight super easily and breath to my preferred side at the same time. In training I practiced starting fast then settling into pace, so I was ready to do that in the race. I knew I’d be going fast to begin with because of adrenaline, so instead of trying to force my body to go harder I just went with the effort then settled in to a solid pace.

It was tough to sight sometimes because it got so foggy that you couldn’t see the buoy that was 30 meters in front of you. I had to stop and find the next buoy a few times to make sure I was staying on course. But that’s life, and everyone swims the same course. At the turn around I had a feeling I was at the front, but didn’t want to look back. To my left was Curtiss, following the buoy line, so we swam the entire back half together. Curtiss and I both raced pac crest – and the dude is fast. On this day he topped me, and ended up coming in 3^rd OA and winning 25-29. Going out of the water I wanted to see if I had gotten completely dropped on the swim. My parents hadn’t been expecting me to come out near the front so weren’t ready with the camera, but shouted that I was in 4^th AG coming onto the bike. Strava here.

Onto the bike my heart rate was high (but I messed up my garmin and bike computer so nothing was showing up for time, just heart rate and cadence). I learned at pac crest how important it is to realize how hard your body is working and not forcing anything out of it 30 minutes into a 4.5 hour race. I spent the first few minutes getting under control and building.

Steve had told me that a few people were going to go smash the hills right away, and that by mile 40 they will be toast. He was right. I went up the first hill with my heart rate around 170, which meant my body was working even if it didn’t feel like it. Dudes on road bikes were flying by looking at me like I was a slug on the side of the road. Then on the descent I kept my pace up, but my heart rate dropped to 150. Go time. While they sat up on the descent and let their legs rest I got to work, and set out on a steady pace.

I road with a target heart rate around 160. I knew from training that I could maintain that effort for a few hours and keep the same power output, so I was going to stick to that on the flats, uphills, and downhills. Not that heart rate is perfect, but until the quarq comes in (this week) I’m trusting my body to be consistent. On the uphills I set a few limits for myself not to go over so that I didn’t work too hard. It’s really hard to stay in control when you feel like you can go harder but I trusted my training and my body to go at the correct effort throughout the bike portion. By mile 40 I had moved into 2^nd place, and was making my way up the field. I felt great, but knew there was a lot of pain coming (the back half of the run) so I made sure to keep it under control and not go too crazy.

I spent most of the bike focusing on nailing my nutrition, choosing the appropriate gearing for the hills so I wasn’t blowing out my knees, and thanking volunteers. There was a lot of bike course support and it was well marked. They did an awesome job making sure that nobody went off course despite it being pretty technical. I probably could have biked faster if it had been an “easier” course, but I still really liked the bike course. It kept you honest, and if you hammered for the first three hills you would regret it for the rest of the day.

Two of my favorite things: Biking and eating

For nutrition I had two bottles of powerade (cheaper than skratch), 1 of water (Aid station) 1 pack of gu chomps, and 3 powergels. I would take a chomp and a sip every 7 minutes. Keeping tabs on how I felt and making sure I hydrated even though it was cold. I practiced it a lot during training, and it really paid off. Strava here.

Getting off the bike I couldn’t feel my feet at all. It was cold on the bike and I wasn’t wearing socks. I put on socks for the run, grabbed all my junk, and headed out onto the two lap, hillier than expected course. Since auto multisport had gotten messed up after the swim (probably my fault) I had to turn my watch to start a new segment. I looked down and it was 5:30 pace. That’s way faster than what I can hold for a half marathon, so I tried to force myself to slow down. Running a mile in the 6:30s never felt so easy.

Struggling to put on my belt

I felt great the first lap, and used the downhills to make up some time. The run course was way hillier than I had expected. I took a gel at 3 miles and 10 miles, and water at every aid station. There were a ton of spectators out on the course and they were super encouraging when things got tough after the first lap. I heard that I was 2 minutes down from the lead guy, and at my current pace I would catch him. I kept it steady, but it felt harder and harder (as it should). Within 2 miles I caught the leader. I sat behind him at his pace for a bit to rest and get ready for a surge. I blew by him and put it a hard 30 second effort. The idea was to completely trash him and make him not want to chase me down. It worked, and I heard him fade away and I hung on for dear life until the end. Strava here.

Start of the out and back in lap 2 - lots of pain

Around mile 11 my splits started to drop off into the 6:50s, but I held on and ended up winning my age group by around 2 minutes. It’s crazy how when you start the run going fast feels so easy but after a few miles it can really come back to haunt you. I felt a little dizzy after the race, and tried to take a nap on the pizza table, but it was a lot better than the pac crest and I had made a smart, strong effort. I executed my race plan, stuck to it when it got hard, and I’m pretty psyched about the result. This couldn’t have been possible without the help of my brother, parents, and Picky Bars.

obligatory post race med tent visit

I’m excited to be coached by Frank Sole of Sole SwimSolutions for the coming season! He has a great reputation, and I’m looking forward to learning from him and getting faster. Thanks to our sponsors: QuestSports Wear, Tri Scottsdale, Destination Kona, and Rudy Project. Next race is Lifetime Tempe (in the beautiful waters of Tempe Town Lake) followed by Pumpkinman in Las Vegas in October.

Good luck at IM Louisville Curtiss!