It's finally Spring! Time to think about some goals....

It's been ages since I posted anything.  The start of the year has been hectic with work and family life but I've kept running and riding (and even swimming a bit).  The spring half marathons have been my focus for the past three years, and this year is no different - although in past years I've been aiming to set a PR, I'm in some doubt that will be achievable in 2015.  Compared to 2014 I have run and ridden more in the first 3 months of the year mostly aided by the weather which was not as terrible as the "polar vortex" we enjoyed 12 months ago.

For 2015 I've been lucky enough to sign up as an ambassador for UGo Bars - a locally owned & operated sports nutrition business making wholesome energy bars from real, fresh ingredients.  They're based in Bloomington, I'm hoping to convince some shops in Columbus to stock the bars!  In the meantime check them out online at http://ugobars.com/

For the Quaff ON! running team, I'm competing in the Hoosier half marathon (April 11) and the Kentucky Derby Mini Marathon (April 25).  The first of these is a hilly workout, definitely not a PR course, but a great race around Bloomington and Quaff ON! is the beer sponsor for the event - we'll have a big after party at Quaff ON Bloomington with all the team members, friends and family to celebrate.  The Kentucky race is flat and fast, I set my PR (1:17:45) there last year, winning the 40-44 age group.  This year, despite having run more, I feel less prepared.  I haven't put in the hard work at the track to build speed, so these races will be a bit of an adventure!

The one key workout that I have managed to repeat is my 3 x 5k run at the start of March.  In 2014, I used the Pink Power 5k race to do this, running the course twice before the actual race.  This year, I couldn't attend the race but managed to convince Quaff ON! team mate, Danny Fisher, to join me on the people train one Thursday evening for the same workout.  We had a strong head wind as we ran towards town making the first half of the 5k harder, while that hurt, the tail wind on the return was very welcome each time we made the turn!  It's a truly punishing workout, we ran an average of 5:54.9 per mile for the 9.3 miles, I was pretty broken by the end of it, the slow jog back to town as a cool down run was uncomfortable as my calves tightened and quads ached.  As the saying goes, no pain, no gain....

2015 3 x 5k workout with Danny - Strava Data via Garmin 910XT

There's 4 weeks until the Louisville race - I plan to get back into our Track Tuesday workouts and build upon what I've got.  I doubt I'll run a PR but I hope that I can repeat my AG win, which means something sub 1:19:00.

Cross is Coming.... Tri 32 Indy Race Report

It's the night before the first Cross race in the OVCX championship and I know I've not prepared the way I had planned.  A sinus infection, antibiotics and a hectic work & social schedule combined to limit the time I have spent on the bike ahead of the first race.

However, not deterred by this and in a vain attempt to over compensate, I had a two race Sunday last weekend.  In the morning, I joined Quaff ON! team mates Jane Moisica and Danny Fisher at Tri32 Indy, an Olympic distance triathlon, where we had been challenged by two teams representing Tatum's Bags of Fun.  In the afternoon I took part in Lionheart CX, a non-OVCX cross race organized as a fundraiser for the Lionheart youth development program in Cincinnati.

Tri32 Indy - Bike section 40km 1:03:33 (2nd fastest time) - Strava Data

It was a perfect morning for racing, after a hot week the forecast was for highs in the mid 70's and as Danny and I arrived at Eagle Creek Reservoir it was a cool 52.  Team Triathlons are, strangely, lonely affairs, after we checked-in, Jane got ready for her swim, Danny went on a warm up run and I set up my bike trainer to warm up each of us doing our own thing in preparation for our part in the race.

My race started when Jane ran up the hill from the lake - she'd done a great job setting 9th fastest time overall for the swim, 3rd of the relay teams to hand over. The bike course looked quite complicated on the maps with two pivot points and lots of turns, however, because the relay team start had been staggered by 3 mins, there were other bikes out ahead of me which I could follow - this was especially useful as the course marking wasn't great in places and we were racing into a rising sun at times making visibility a challenge.  After a drop down to the Eagle Creek Reservoir dam and a climb back up the other side, the course was very flat and fast.  I quickly settled into my rhythm and started passing people, chasing down the first of the two team competitors within the first 5 miles.  I caught the remaining team just before the first pivot at 11 miles into the 25 mile course - so now we were in the lead.  With Danny's running yet to come I knew there was no need to build a huge buffer, but racing is racing and so far it was feeling good!  I do enjoy courses with turn around points because you can see exactly where you are relative to the leaders - I was 5th bike at this point and everyone ahead of me had started the race 3 minutes before Jane's swim.

By the time we reached the 2nd pivot, I was 4th and close to the 3rd placed rider.  With a small increase in effort I passed him then settled back down to my pace - after a couple of miles he passed me back.  It was clear we were evenly matched and in a non drafting race, it's really hard to ride so close to another competitor.  I was also aware that we had a big lead in the team race and racing with other people in the solo event was going to impact the results - a bit of drafting and a rabbit to chase makes a huge difference.  Since I had another race in the afternoon, this seemed like a good time to back off & consolidate the team lead instead of racing hard and interfering with the solo race - it's clear from the Strava data at about 18 miles I dropped the effort level with a corresponding drop in heart rate.

I rolled into transition 4th on the road and handed over to Danny - the overall leader in the solo race was several minutes ahead of us and I wondered if Danny would catch him in the 10km run.  In the end the gap was just too big, Danny ran a superb 31:49 and we finished 2nd overall despite the 3 minute offset at the start - our overall time of 2:01:23 was the fastest race time of the day.

After a short cool down jog with Danny, we had to pack up and head back to Columbus so that I could gather my Cyclocross gear, and my family, for the trip to Cincinatti and race number 2 for the day.  This meant we couldn't stick around for the results and awards, but Jane was there to pick up the hardware!

This was a fun event - doing only 1 leg of a triathlon always makes me feel a but inadequate when others are doing the whole thing, but we played to our strengths as Team Quaff ON! and the friendly rivalry with the Tatum's Bags of Fun teams made the event even more fun.  Hopefully we can grow the number of teams for next year....

Columbus Challenge Duathlon Race Report

This was an epic race for me, a challenge which made me dig deeper than I knew I could.  I experienced the lows and highs of racing - emotions swinging from "all is lost", "I'm not going to be able to finish this" to "I can do this!", "I can win this!" on a minute by minute basis throughout the event.  Whilst it was an incredibly close race (only 7 secs separated Danny Fisher and me at the end of it), it was mostly a psychological battle with myself.  Danny and I started at the same time, and finished within sight of each other but through the whole of the race we only caught glimpses, could only imagine how hard the other was pushing and re-run endless scenarios in our minds about what the outcome would be.  Despite this, it was so much more than a solitary experience, there were lots of friends shouting out support around the course and the spectators close to the transition area really engaged with our battle, it was so much fun to hear their excitement as we raced and at the finish.  In the end though, there's a special sense of pride & satisfaction that I take away from this event, knowing that I tried as hard as I could, that I emptied myself completely.

Race report:

1st place overall - 1:13:45.4

Strava data - Leg 1 (Run 5k) - Leg 2 (Bike 15 miles) - Leg 3 (Run 5k)

Only 6 days after the Tri-Indy duathlon race, our local race, our local multi-sport race took place in Columbus, Indiana.  This is a big event for the local community, raising money for Foundation For Youth and their programs promoting all sorts of activities for the young people of the town.  This would be the 19th running of the event which started as a sprint distance triathlon, a couple of years ago an Olympic distance triathlon was added and this year, for the first time, a duathlon (run, bike run).

Whilst the Quaff ON! Racing team is mostly about running, we love to support this event and over the past couple of years various individual and relay teams have competed.  See this year's team race report from Matt Flaherty here.  With the addition of the duathlon, the traditional excuse of "can't swim" was no longer valid and after the fun Firetower 15.3 race earlier in the year, Danny Fisher and I thought it would be fun to have a re-match.

The race format was to be a 5k run (just like the Firetower race), 17 mile bike (7 miles more than the Firetower) and a repeat of the initial 5k run (1.1 miles more than the Firetower).  On paper, it looked like a pretty even match again, with Danny's far superior pace in the run but my speed on the bike.  The lessons of the earlier race hadn't been lost on Danny either - I had taken 40 secs advantage in transition which was a big proportion of my win margin, so he'd been practicing!

Last minute change!

Just a week or so before the race, one of the country roads used on the bike course was resurfaced with "chip & seal" making it dangerous so the organizers had to make a route change which resulted in a course 2 miles shorter than originally planned, at 15 miles.  Now it was going to be close - I started to believe that the balance had tipped in Danny's favor.

Ready for the start

Leg 1 - 17:48 (5:45 / mile)

Danny and I started the race side by side on the line under the finish banner, right from the start he pulled away from me quickly opening a gap, after 1 mile he was out of sight leaving me to a solo effort trying to minimize the deficit.  Danny had run a 5k PR at a local race the night before - I thought his legs would be tired, but he was on great form.  By the time I saw him at the turn around he'd built a lead of 1:40 in just over 2 miles, he was easily going to have more than 2 minutes on me after the first leg.  This was bad news, I thought I could close 3 to 3.5 minutes on the bike, but 4 mins seemed unrealistic and with exactly the same run course to complete at the end of the race, it was looking like Danny would pass me with ease before the finish.  These thoughts haunted me for the rest of the run, I tried to stick to my race plan, not go too fast now & run out of legs before the end of the race, just stick to the plan.  I saw Danny heading out on the bike as the bike & run course overlapped close to the finish area - I was pleased that he wasn't already out of sight, but I knew I had a lot of work to do in the next phase of the race

Leg 2 - 36:59 (24.3 miles/hour)

In transition I quickly got off my shoes & took the time to set them up for T2, with the tongues pulled forwards, ready to go.  I went to grab my bike & realized that I didn't have my helmet on - it's the first time I've missed that part of the transition routine, I think it indicates how much pressure I was feeling to get on the bike & get going.  Quickly fastening my helmet, I ran to the bike out, made a cyclocross re-mount (running & jumping onto the bike) and started to pedal.  Dan Smith, another Quaff ON team mate, yelled "2 minutes" at me - this really meant that the race was on, I had to go as hard as I could and hope I could hold on to the lead in the final run.

Mentally I'd rehearsed this part of the race, I had imagined catching & passing Danny at various points on the course & what it would mean in terms of margin at the end.  But the start was all about getting past the numb feeling in my legs and settling into my rhythm.  The new course had a couple of short, sharp climbs and I figured I had to attack these as hard as possible to maximize my gains - raising the effort level for each of these hurt and took time to recover on the other side of the hills.  Approaching grand view lake, I was starting to give up hope of making the catch early enough, but just as we started on the rolling southern loop of the course I caught sight of a shirtless rider and willed it to be Danny, I finally caught & passed him about half way round the course.  In my imaginary scenarios this was about as late in the ride as I thought it possible to still have a chance at winning - so the race was still on, but still needed to give it everything!

At around 10 miles, I started to get cramps in my calf muscles, it was a very peculiar sensation like the bottom half of my leg had gone numb and wouldn't respond to what I was asking it to do, my ankles stopped articulating and pedaling became much more "lumpy".  This was definitely bad - running on cramped legs was going to be very slow, slowing down on the bike to get rid of the cramps was going to cost me precious time.  I grabbed my energy gel but it stuck to the roof of my mouth, I took a drink but managed to spray it all over my face & helmet and then I started to get an acid reflux from the gel.  I really struggled for a couple of minutes, mentally it was tough to deal with, these things have not happened before, why were they happening now?  One benefit was all this had taken my mind off the cramps, and I'd lost focus on my effort - my heart rate had dropped and the brief moment of recovery seemed to be helping my legs.

After picking up the pace again I felt good coming into transition to start the final run.  The transition area always surprises me at the Tipton event, it's actually a steep down hill and I only just managed to skid to a halt in my socks to rack the bike and pull on my shoes.

Entering T2 at the end of the bike section

Leg 3 - 17:43 (5:43 / mile)

Despite thinking I felt good coming off the bike, my first mile was terrible.  My legs felt wooden and I was struggling to find anything like a comfortable pace.  My watch beeped at 1 mile and said 6:07... nearly 30 secs slower than my target pace and no way fast enough to hold off a fast charging Danny Fisher.  Shortly after this, the course passed the start / finish area and Dan Smith told me the gap to Danny at the end of the bike was 1:30 - and I'd probably lost nearly a full minute of that with my slow first mile.  I had to pick it up.  MacKenzie Caldwell (North HS's Cross Country MVP and 2nd in the State Champs) was running with a relay team and came past me in the first mile.  I convinced myself to hold on to her pace, to hold the gap and use her pace as motivation to elevate my own effort.  This worked and I actually passed her back around the half way mark as her initial pace started to fade, then I just had to keep going!  After the 2 mile mark, the course doubles back with a short loop around a driveway, as I came out of this to head for home, I caught sight of Danny entering the turnaround - he could only be about 20 secs behind me and we still had a mile to go.  I figured that it was "do or die" at this point - the rest of the race was going to take about 5 minutes and you can bear just about anything for 5 minutes.  The final coals got thrown on the fire and I did feel my pace increase just a bit.  After the 3 mile mark, it is all down hill to the finish line but Danny was so close I could hear him yell at me - I started to sprint not really believing I could hold him off but at this point I really didn't care, I knew that I had tried my hardest.

The final yards seemed to stretch out forever but the finish line did come eventually, and Danny hadn't come by me.  I didn't have breath or energy to turn around to see how close it was.

The Finish - 7 secs separation!

Danny vs Tim

Leg 1 - Run 5k - Danny beat Tim by 2:01

T1 - Run to Bike - Tim beat Danny by 9.6 sec

Leg 2 - Bike 15 miles - Tim beat Danny by 3:25

T2 - Bike to Run - Tim beat Danny by 6.7 sec

Leg 3 - Run 5k - Danny beat Tim by 1:33

Tri-Indy Duathlon Race Report

1st place overall - 1:01:27.4

Strava Data - Leg 1 Run 2 miles - Leg 2 Bike 20km - Leg 3 Run 5km

My son, Angus has been competing in the Kids Tri for Kids series of kid friendly triathlons based in & around Indianapolis.  So far this year he has entered 5 of the races which all feature a mass swim start for a 100m swim, a 2-2.5 mile bike and a 0.5-0.7 mile run.  It's been a lot of fun and a great Father-Son bonding opportunity as many of the races we just go as the two of us with an early morning start, leaving the rest of the family sleeping soundly.  The latest round of the series was organized in conjunction with the "grown ups" race at Tri-Indy and included the kids swimming in the downtown canal, just like the adult race!  The timing of the kids race meant that the whole family would come and join in the fun, having a picnic in the park and cheering him on and this opened up the possibility of me competing in the adult race earlier in the morning.

There was a duathlon race as part of Tri-Indy (run, bike, run) which fit really well with my training being only 1 week ahead of the Columbus Challenge Triathlon & Duathlon where my Quaff ON Racing team mate Danny Fisher and I were going to have a repeat showdown after the Firetower 15.3 race earlier in the year.  There's no way to truly replicate the race intensity in training so I was excited to go out & push myself, get comfortable with the transitions under race pressure and to be part of what is always as well organized and fun event in downtown Indy.

One great aspect to racing the duathlon is the mass start - most non-Ironman tri's are now time-trial starts for the swim with racers starting at 3 sec intervals seeded by expected swim performance.  Because I'm such a terrible swimmer, I'm always way back from the front of the race and never know how I'm doing or who I'm racing - with the duathlon starting with a run, we all toe the line, just like any regular 5k race, then the gun goes off and you can see the whole race unfolding around you.  I enjoy this a lot more, it's motivating to be amongst all the other competitors and there's even the opportunity to think a bit strategically about how you race (maybe I should just get better at swimming...).

Leg 1- Run 2 miles

We lined up outside the NCAA headquarters and went on the gun at 7:45am.  There were a lot of people setting out really hot and I settled in to an uncomfortably fast pace keeping the front of the race in sight.  Through the first mile, much of the early enthusiasm had faded and there were 5 people ahead of me and a pretty good gap behind me.  I made a conscious effort to slow down a bit & recover my heart rate through the second mile.  The two really fast runners looked like high schoolers and I doubted they would have my speed on the bike.  Judging the time gap against land marks, it was about 30 secs to the front which I thought was fine to control & overcome once we got out of transition.  Despite slowing up myself I passed 3 more people in the 2nd mile of the leg, finally entering transition in 3rd place overall, about 40 secs down on the lead.

Leg 2 - Bike 20km (12.1 miles)

In transition there seemed to be some confusion - the first two runners hadn't found their bikes and I wasn't certain where we'd entered the transition area - luckily I had made a mental note of the bright orange backpack at the end of the rack where I'd left my bike and I found it easily, and was quickly heading towards the exit.

On the bike, I'm still getting used to the feeling in my legs after the run - it's completely different to the sensation of starting to ride after swimming.  I settled into a pace and allowed my heart rate to come down after the somewhat technical start to the bike course.  Not long into the bike, Paul Smith passed me and this was a bit of a wake-up call.  I dropped out of the draft zone to avoid a penalty and assessed how fast we were going & how hard I was trying then made the decision to push harder and take back the lead.  I did this as we hit the first of two rail road crossings on the course - they're a little unnerving and break the rhythm, so I sprinted briefly after this to create a gap then settled back down and concentrated on maintaining my effort.

With about 2 miles to go, Paul passed me again, clearly my increased effort hadn't been enough to shake him off completely but now I was committed to reducing my effort a bit in order to prepare for the run.  It took a lot of self control to drop back & let the gap grow slowly as we approached the end of the course.  I guess there was about 30 secs between us as we turned off the road into the park and negotiated the pathways to get back to the transition area, maybe by luck or stupidity, I closed a lot of the gap by carrying more speed through a couple of turns and we hit the dismount line with me still in 2nd place, but only a few seconds apart.

Leg 3 - Run 5km (3.1 miles)

With almost identical times in transition, we headed into the run together and I had no idea how fast Paul was capable of going over the last 5k.  I took the lead as we ran over the bridge toward the Indy Zoo, as we turned along the river, my legs started to feel OK and I increased the pace to what I thought was sustainable for the rest of the race - worried that if we stayed together to the end that I'd have nothing left to sprint with.  The breathing & footsteps stayed right behind me for about another minute but then started to fade as I sustained the pace.  By the time we turned onto the bridge to cross back over the river at about 1.6 miles I was able to look back down the course & see a big gap had opened up - I was pretty certain at that point I had the win.  Thinking ahead to the next weekend and the race with Danny, I knew I would need to run as fast as I could through the final miles, so I set about maintaining & even increasing my effort through the final section of the race even though I could have relaxed and maintained the gap I already had - no training like racing, and I put an image in my mind of Danny running me down over the final mile to spur me on!  I crossed the finish line with close to 2 minutes gap, Paul finishing a strong 2nd.

It was a fun race with lots of other friends competing in the Sprint and Olympic distance triathlon races.  The kids race got underway a couple of hours later and Angus had a blast racing on many parts of the same course.

Things to do differently next time (only a week to make it happen!):

• Always rehearse the entry to transition from the run and bike, knowing where to find your rack is critical
• Transition is part of the race, time lost here has to be made up on the race course where it's much harder
• Probably go a bit harder on the bike, I think I was being conservative, but I was very pleased with the final leg run pace

Firetower 15.3 Race Report

1st place overall; 59:45.6

Strava data for [Run] (17:46.0); [Bike] (25:01.7); [Run] (15:59.1)

The Brown County YMCA organizes the Firetower 15.3 duathlon in beautiful Brown County State Park, this was the second running of the race.  Last year I came second to Greg Fraze who was using the event as a build up to his Duathlon Worlds competition (he got silver in his 35-39 age group), this year I had talked Quaff ON! team-mate Danny Fisher into competing and Greg made a return trip to defend his title.  It was sure to be a hard race!

The race with Danny was going to be interesting since he's a significantly better runner than me and we both figured it would be close, all hinging on how much Danny could limit his losses to me on the bike section with very little training.  He seemed to think there was no hope, I however, was worried - training or not, great athletes like Danny have so much inherent fitness and mental discipline to work through the pain it was no-way a "done deal" in my head.

We made a family weekend of it, camping in the state park on Friday night (even though it's only 15 miles from home!), this made the early start easy for me.  After a Skratchlabs recipe baked egg bite (see below) I simply rolled down the road on my TT bike to complete registration and get my transition area set up.  The race isn't a huge affair which is nice in one way - no lines for sign-on, plenty of transition area space with no fighting for places on the racks, but it's also something I hope will change as the organizers persist with it as an annual event and work on promotion to attract more people.  The 5k pavement run, 10 mile pavement bike and 2.2 mile trail run course is challenging for people wanting a hard race, but safe and manageable (with no swimming!) for first time multi-sport participants.  The final trail run is a really fun twist to the traditional duathlon format and takes advantage of the amazing trail network and challenging terrain in the park.

The first part of the race unfolded pretty much as I had expected.  Fisher was gone off the front in the 5k, and after the first mile or so it was just me & Greg Fraze running about 5 secs apart (Greg ahead of me) all the way to the turn.  I felt pretty good with the pace (about 5:45/mile) and in the second half of the 5k closed the gap on Greg to enter transition only 0.6 secs behind him - Danny of course was long gone, having run a 16:29 5k, he was about 1:20 ahead of us.  Closing the gap on Greg gave me some confidence as last year he was pulling away from me.

Making the turn in the 5k run

The bike section is quite technical, downhill with sweeping bends to a pivot turn, then climbing all the way back to the start / finish area which you ride past to re-trace the 5k run course making ~9.9 miles in total.  Greg has killer transition skills and opened up a gap as we set off to chase Danny Fisher down.  Just as we got going, Greg missed the first turn but quickly rejoined, still ahead of me after a trip over the grass!  I passed Greg with a surge of effort on one of the short uphill sections but I knew it would be tough to open any significant gap on him.  It wasn't until the turn that we finally got sight of Danny, who was, by that time about 20 secs in front of us.  I finally made the catch as we climbed back towards Hesitation Point, to be honest I was getting worried about how much effort and how much distance it had taken to recover the time loss from the run.  It meant that I had about 4.5 miles to build a big enough cushion to avoid being caught in the second run.  Having completed the climbing, the road flattened out and started to feel more like a traditional time trial, I found the legs to turn a bigger gear and pushed on towards the turn, and finally the transition area for the second time.  I only had 10 secs advantage over Greg and his superior transition skills meant that once again, I was following him out onto the final trail run.

Coming off the hard bike effort, my calves cramped as soon as we started to run and the first mile of the trail is almost entirely downhill over rough terrain giving no respite to settle into a stride & shake out the cramps.  Having Greg clearly in sight the whole time was pretty much the only thing which kept me going at this point!  After about half a mile the cramps eased and I started to feel a more normal running gait come back to me whenever the path leveled momentarily.  The second mile of the trail is, you guessed it, almost entirely up hill with some brutally steep sections.  Each time we attacked one of the steep pitches, I felt I was taking some of the gap back to Greg and by about 2/3rds of the way up the hill I'd closed to only a couple of seconds - this was fortunate as I saw him go off course again and was able to call out to him the mistake (although I was so short of breath, I was worried that my feeble "yell" hadn't been heard).  He quickly rejoined just behind me and I didn't know what to do - I hadn't earned the lead on merit and I didn't really want the race decided by a simple mistake.  I eased up just a bit but on the next steep section, the sound of Greg's breathing dropped away and with a quick glance over my shoulder I saw a clear trail behind me, I had maybe 3 secs gap.  The final section of the trail climb is ridiculously steep, simply maintaining forward motion is a challenge let alone anything that might be considered running!  I knew this was coming and had saved something for the final effort (as the Strava data shows my heart rate peaked at 176 bpm) I stayed on my toes and tried to spring with each step as I climbed, finally breaking out onto the level trail with 0.2 miles to the finish and the win.  Greg finished 2nd and Danny came in 3rd, a minute behind me having run the trail 40 secs faster than me.  Quaff ON! team-mate, Erin Webb also had a great race, coming in 5th overall and first female.

Tim, Danny & Erin - Quaff ON!

It was great to win the race, having such a close battle with Greg made it more fun, but also made me try harder in every part of the event - it was a shame that he went off course, I'll always have a question in the back of my mind if I would really have caught & passed him on the final steep pitch of the trail but there's no way to know that - all I know is I put it all on the line, gave my best and had a great time being tested by both my peers and the terrain.

The race with Danny, which we'd debated over several pints of Busted Knuckle in the preceding weeks shook out like this:

5k run - Danny beat Tim by 1:17

T1 - Tim beat Danny by 0:17

10 mile bike - Tim beat Danny by 2:19

T2 - Tim beat Danny by 0:32

2.2 mile trail run - Danny beat Tim by 0:40

Equipment:

Shoes - Saucony Kinvara with elastic laces

Bike - Mercian TT bike (all steel frame, 26" front wheel) - retro still works!

Nutrition - Skratchlabs Lemon & Lime hydration mix; Baked Egg bite for breakfast (Skratchlabs Feedzone Portables recipe here)

Dances with Dirt Race Report

Dances with Dirt - 10th May 2014

Team placed 2nd overall

Strava data for my legs: Leg 1; Leg 7; Leg 10

Dances with Dirt (DWD), Gnawbone is arguably the biggest race of the year for the Quaff ON! Race team.  It's a trail race festival hosted in our "backyard" of beautiful Brown County - there are 10k, half marathon, full marathon, 50k and 50 mile solo races as well as the 100k team relay race - all these events are off road and cover some pretty extreme hilly trails as well as some bush whacking.

I've participated in the team relay race regularly since 2009 when one of my neighbors put a team together - we were much more in it for the experience and atmosphere of the event than the racing at that time, with fancy dress and fun being top of the agenda.  Last year was the first time I ran for Quaff ON! being part of the second team and this year we were able to enter 3 teams, each named after one of the signature beers - Busted Knuckle, Hare Trigger and new for 2014, the Six Foot Blondes, our all female team.

The Quaff ON! Crew

The relay event involves teams of 5 each running 3 legs spread throughout the day.  The nature of the legs varies between long & fast mostly on trails to short, technical & nasty bush whacking, the challenge is to try to match up the strengths of the team members to the different demands of each section.  The two male teams were, on paper, pretty evenly matched in terms of running strength but the Busted Knuckle team had a distinct advantage of consistency, 4 of the 5 members had run (and won) the race for the last 3 years.  Familiarity with the course and the same people running the same legs year after year really makes a difference - knowing which way to go as well as when to push hard.  I was on the other team, Hare Trigger and we had a collection of great runners most of whom had done something in previous DWD events but none of us had run together as a team before and experience on specific legs of the race was practically zero.

Team Hare Trigger (from L to R): Pat Thomas; Jeff Yoder; Scott Breeden; Logan Worley and Tim Proctor

The race started well, after leading the whole first leg, I made the first hand over with something like 15 secs over Busted Knuckle.  The next team to exchange was the Six Foot Blondes, some 3 minutes back - Quaff ON! racing held 1-2-3 and it looked like that is how the race would continue.  However, after leg 2, Busted Knuckle had taken a 2 minute lead and never looked back, stealing a little more advantage on just about every leg.

My second run of the day was on Leg 7 and pitched me against Danny Fisher over 5 miles - I knew that I would lose time but was determined to minimize the loss.  The leg was about 3 miles of fast singletrack trail and then 2 miles of bush whacking, including about 3/4 mile directly along a creek and climbs so steep I needed hands and feet to scramble up.  The briers took their toll and I ended the run with bloodied and torn legs.  I was pleased to finish only 2 mins slower than Danny's time but this was just another add to our growing deficit in the race for the lead.

Briar'd & Bloodied

My final stage, Leg 10, was a relatively easy 2.8 mile run all on trails, unfortunately the other team now had such a lead that I shared the first mile with Cole Smith who was their runner starting the leg ahead of mine!  This did give me something to chase down and I was able to close a ~15 sec gap over the first mile before our paths separated.

With the lead team being a complete leg ahead of us, the rest of the race was pretty much a solitary affair.  We saw them briefly at the remaining exchange points and we were by this time so far ahead of the 3rd and 4th placed teams we didn't see them either.  It turned out that the Quaff ON! girls were having an epic battle for 3rd place finally stretching this to just over 15 mins after over 8 hours of running.

At the finish, we cheered home our anchorman, Logan, and took the obligatory trash talk from the winners whilst the after-party started.

The race was sponsored by Quaff ON! and our trusty beer truck, Smokey, was already serving beer to the thirsty runners who had already completed the 10k, half and full marathon distances.  The girls brought home 3rd place to complete the Quaff ON! domination of the event.  Not long after they got home, we were able to cheer in Joe Bell, Quaff ON! team mate who had chosen to run the 50 mile race (yes, 50 miles all on his own!).  He finished in 9 hours 33 mins and took 7th place overall, a truly awe inspiring result.

DWD is a great event - it can be a serious race (and we love that), but equally it's a wonderful way to spend a day with 4 companions enjoying the beautiful countryside and natural resources we're so fortunate to have so close to hand.  I know that I'll be back for more and I hope that we can keep the Hare Trigger team together to capitalize on some course knowledge and close the gap on Busted Knuckle!

Getting older... getting faster - Seymour Half Marathon Race Report

Seymour Half Marathon (5/3) - P1 overall - race time 1:16:42 (13.1 mile time 1:17:26)
Strava data from this race

On May 1st I turned 44 - not a momentous age milestone, not even a change in age group, and I didn't really pay it much attention.  The age group fact isn't strictly true because of a strange quirk in season start / end definition I actually have a Cyclocross racing age of 45 now!  I only started running seriously in 2010 and I've enjoyed a continuous improvement in both my 5k and half marathon times.  With my recent PR at Louisville, I was wondering if this would be a turning point.  It's hard to imagine running faster, the training intensity and race effort were quite daunting - I was starting to think that things would be downhill from here, certainly for the half marathon - I still have aspirations to break 17 mins for a 5k race this year!

The Seymour half marathon is a small race promoted by the Crossroads of Indiana race series, it's the same weekend as the Indianapolis Mini-Marathon but has only 200-300 people vs 30,000 in Indy - far more relaxed and easy to access.  I'd signed up ages ago with no real agenda, two weeks after Louisville and two weeks before the Dances With Dirt team relay race, it was always going to be "just another run".  I had a plan to make it a training race - run 4 miles hard, take a mile easy, run 3 miles hard, take a mile easy, run hard to the finish.  My race preparation was very different to Louisville - instead of careful diet, focusing on good things to help my body perform, I had my birthday meal out, drank more than I would normally in a week and ate a lot of birthday cake.  The night before the race, Clare and I went to Bloomington on a date night and consumed hot dogs, pulled pork nachos and dips at Quaff ON! Bloomington as well as couple of beers and a late night!

I set out fast at the start of the race per the "training plan" however, when I got to 4 miles (on schedule @ 5:50 min/mile) I still felt good, the next couple of miles were both sub 6:00 and then I started to think that I could perhaps break my PR, a year older than I just set it!  After a pleasant run out into the country north of Seymour we made a turn-around and I face a block head wind for about 1.5 miles back into town, despite this, my pace stayed good, all below 6:00 min/mile which meant with a push in the last 5k I should be able to go under my Louisville time.  I was conscious that the race course mile markers were coming early relative to my GPS watch markers, coming into the finish I knew that the official distance would be short of 13.1 miles but with a PR in mind, I resolved to run on after the finish to get to 13.1 miles by my GPS - which in fact is probably still short of an official USATF course distance despite my efforts to run the shortest course.  I'm sure I looked ridiculous continuing through the finish shoot at race pace and running off down the road, but I wanted to know what a real half time would have been.  My GPS watch measured the race at 12.98 miles with a race time of 1:16:42.  I ran on to a GPS distance of 13.11 miles in a time of 1:17:26 which I feel is a legitimate PR, some 19 secs faster than my Louisville effort.

All this goes to show that preparation isn't everything - sometimes it all just comes together when you're not really expecting it.  I certainly put less pressure on myself for this race compared to Louisville, maybe that is a factor.  I also went out harder than I would normally, I am a conservative pacer and paranoid about "blowing up", going out hard and holding on to a pace at the finish is something I'm rarely brave enough to do and I think that was a bigger factor in this race than anything else.

My team mate Joe Bell came home 3rd overall and Sara Martin took first place female with a PR, cheered home by her parents.  Joe and I were also able to cheer on Chasity Smith (although not wearing a Quaff ON! jersey, she's the brains behind our race kit design and logos).

Joe Bell; Tim Proctor; Sara Martin
Quaff ON!

Carmel Sprint Triathlon - Race Report

Carmel Sprint Tri (4/27) - P3 Overall - race time 51:34.6
Strava data from this race : Swim (no data) ; Bike; Run

I raced the Carmel Sprint Triathlon at short notice.  It had been a long time since I'd been in the pool but managed to get two swims in during the week preceding the event which gave me confidence I wasn't going to drown!  My Quaff ON! team mate, Erin Webb was competing in her first ever triathlon, I was there for moral support and to help with things like transition set up as much as to race myself.  In the end I came 3rd overall after a comically slow swim (124th out of 300 starters) - my bike and run redeemed me!  I often wonder what it would be like if I could swim - everyone assumes that my bike & run speed would mean domination but I doubt that I could retain that level of performance with the amount of time in the pool that would be necessary to get good at swimming.  And besides, I hate treadmills for running, and the pool is just a treadmill with greater sensory deprivation - I can't see me finding the motivation to make the leap to competent swimmer!  Erin had a great race, taking her age group and 6th overall female - I was able to run the final 1/2 mile with her yelling motivation as she finished strong.  As with most first time triathlon racers, the intensity of the race vs typical workouts or single discipline races surprised her, but she's hungry for more!

Kentucky Derby Mini Marathon Race Report

This was it, my "A" race for the first part of the year.  The hard training, the losing weight, the taper tensions all added up to this race, my goal to go under 1:18:00 for the 13.1 miles.

I rode my bike Friday and had a great time, didn't try too hard and felt great.  On Friday evening I headed down to Louisville, there's no race morning packet pick-up, so the day before race trip was necessary.  Instead of facing the drive home again and the 4am wake-up to drive back down to Louisville, I stayed at a hotel out of town near the Cyclocross track at Eva Bandman park.

Louisville looked pretty good in the spring evening sunset

I ate pasta with my family before leaving Columbus, later in the evening I had a baked egg

Protein & Carbs

from the Skratch Labs Feedzone Portables book as well as a U-Go bar, this "last supper" was washed down with some Hare Trigger beer and a large glass of Beetroot juice - not exactly an inspiring culinary experience but quality fuel for the task ahead of me.

Waking up at 6am was far better than the 4am alternative even if the price paid was not sleeping in my own bed and a hotel air conditioning unit which sounded like a small aircraft trying to take off in my room!

A short drive had me parked about a mile from the start location, it was a cool morning, but not cold.  I started a short warm up run, after about half a mile I picked up the pace to what felt like a comfortable race effort.  Looking at my GPS, I was at 5:45 min/mile - faster than my target pace, and my legs felt good.  Sometimes in these brief warm up efforts, you just get the feeling that it's going to be a good day - today was one of those days.

After 2.5 miles of warm up I arrived at the start.  I hadn't appreciated how big this race was going to be.  With the mini-marathon and full marathon combined, there were over 16,000 participants - that's a lot of people trying to use a porta-potty within 30 mins of the start!

I was seeded in coral A based on my projected finish time - this was great - only the second time in my life I've been brave enough to stand right at the front of a big race & watch as the elite athletes (who don't get a coral) finished their warm ups and lined up just ahead of us.  My Quaff ON! Racing team mate, Danny Fisher was running the full marathon and as a previous champion was seeded #6.  It was great to see a friendly face and shake hands before the start, even though I knew I wouldn't see him again until he finished his race!

There were two things I noticed about my peers in the race - this is a group of people who've all trained and are strong enough to run a half marathon at around 6 min/mile pace, so they're all experienced runners
First - within the first 5 miles, 2 people stopped to tie shoe laces, one of them ran past me again, then stopped again to tie the other shoe lace!
Second - the number of people not running the shortest course.  USATF certifies the course over the shortest distance, the roads are closed which means you run corner to corner.  I passed people running the left hand gutter like it was a training run expecting oncoming traffic.
So my takeaways from this, even for experienced runners is (1) always double tie your shoes, really, it takes no additional effort, just do it! (2) run the shortest course - turn off the training mentality and look for the line corner to corner.
Sounds basic, it is basic, but there are plenty of people running semi-elite times that aren't paying attention to these basics.

My race quickly settled into a rhythm with my pace at or just below my target of 5:58 min/mile.  It quickly got thinned out and by 10k there were really only 3 or 4 people around me. The course goes through the Churchhill Downs race course, as we dipped back under the tunnel to start the dead straight 4 miles to the finish, Paul Althoff, caught up with me and we exchanged a few panted words about our objectives - both wanting to break 78 mins - we came through 10 miles in 59:33, I knew it would be a close call to hit my goal time - we remained in sight of each other to the finish briefly exchanging positions as one started to fade, or the other felt strong it was good motivation to stay on pace and definitely helped me when the going got tough.  We were running into a head wind which at first was hardly noticeable but the closer we got to the down town, the taller the buildings got and channeled the wind directly at us.  The final mile of this was truly miserable, culminating in running under the long bridge of the conference center which was like a full-on wind tunnel.  I kept telling myself that once we turned out of the wind onto Main Street for the final 0.6 miles, I'd find some speed but when we finally made the turn, there was nothing left to accelerate, just maintaining pace was taking my full effort.  Finally I made the last turn to the down hill finish and found something to pick up the pace.  I could see the clock already past 1:17:00, with a weak surge I crossed the line with an official race time of 1:17:45.

Finishers medal 1:17:45 - new PR!

I had beaten my goal time, I came 23rd overall (out of 11,800 starters!) and won my age group.  A result I'm really proud of - the preparation in training paid off.

After a short cool down run back to the car, I was able to cheer on Danny Fisher who finished 4th overall in the marathon with a PR time of 2:30:18 - he'd just run two half marathons back to back faster than my personal best - a humbling thought!  Also running the full marathon (his second in 7 days) was team mate Joe Bell, who come in at 2:58 - sub 3 hour marathons are becoming the norm for Joe who's endurance and persistence are inspiring.

Tim Proctor, Danny Fisher, Joe Bell
Quaff ON!

Link to my Strava activity for this race

Hoosier Half Marathon - Race Report

I planned to run the Hoosier Half as a training event building up to my PR goal race in Louisville 2 weeks later.  It was also one of the focus races for the Quaff ON! Race team as we celebrate the soon to open tap house, Quaff ON! Bloomington, QOB (on Grant St just north of Kirkwood) so we wanted as much representation as possible.  The promise of a party afterwards at the new QOB location was the icing on the cake!

This was my first time running the Hoosier Half Marathon in Bloomington.  I'd heard tell of the hilly course and most of my team mates at Quaff ON! ran the course in training whilst I was enjoying the warmer weather in Alabama over Spring Break.  This left me unprepared for the variations in pace over the course but since this was a training event for me, I decided to roll with team mate, Danny Webb, who had a master plan which went something like this:

• 6:15 average for the first 3 miles (18:45)...19:30 5k
• 6:05 average for the next 3 miles (18:15)...19:00 5k 38:30 10k
• 6:10 average for next 3 miles (18:30)...19:15 5k 1:01:40 @ the 10 mile split
• 6:05 average for the next 3 miles (18:15)....19:00 5k
• Finish with whatever is left in the tank

There was a great atmosphere at the start, the event was hosting the NIRCA national championships so lots of teams representing their clubs, everyone got pretty pumped up. The start of the Half Marathon was simultaneous with the 5k race start and it was downhill so we fully anticipated a lightning fast getaway from the gun. In an attempt to stick to Danny's pacing plan, about 5 of us had deliberately hung back from toeing the line and then had to cut through 30-40 slower runners in the first quarter mile.

The reality of the challenge in this race really came home in the 4th mile - just as we were supposed to be picking up the pace to 6:05 there was a serious hill climb which had me gasping for breath and legs hurting from the effort - I think Danny must have forgotten about that one when he put the plan together! We regrouped and made time back up on the downhill hitting our target time at the 10k mark.

I always feel some relief at the 10k mark in half marathons, it's not really half way, but psychologically it always seems to be OK to think "I've just got to do that over again and I'll be in the final mile..."

This course however had no respect for the false hope instilled by getting to halfway, miles 8 and 9 were really hilly forcing big variations in pace and effort which are much more tiring than just running steady on the flat. As we hit the biggest of the hills in this section of the course (leading up to mile 9) Danny started to fade and I was feeling pretty good so pushed on, opening up a gap as we climbed.

I passed the 10 mile mark at 1:01:35 - the 10 mile mark is another huge psychological moment for me in half's - it means there's "just" 5k left to go. I knew from our short warm up run that the final mile was pretty much all uphill. My original training plan had been to cruise the last 3 miles but the excitement of the race got the better of me and I pushed on. The course was still hilly but the fluctuations were much less, more steady grades, and I found I was able to settle into a pretty good rhythm, right up to the final hill around 12.5 miles. It felt like I was crawling up it - some spectators gave much needed encouragement and I was passing other people, but it didn't feel like I had any forward momentum.

My race time was 1:20:10, I won the 40-49 age group and was 43rd place overall. It was a really challenging race and this result gave me great confidence in my training & preparation for Louisville.

 After the race, we regrouped at QOB, with pulled pork from Big Woods in Nashville and Quaff ON! beer to enjoy on the deck. I got the chance to meet up with new Quaff ON! team mate Matt Flaherty who's the "real deal" - a professional runner, owning the US 50 mile road race championship course record and numerous Ultra Marathon running victories. He'd run the 5k race (winning in 14:59) with team mate Danny Fisher, who came home 2nd (15:27) - It's an honor to call great athletes like them my team mates.