Sunfish Race Report

Sunfish Race Report (a.k.a., owned, a.k.a., got taken to the Woodshed, a.k.a., who am I kidding, a.k.a. having a triathlon garage sale everything must go!)

16 146 Dave Aurich 30 5 10:50 0:44 17 54:18 18.6 0:58 21 34:35 11:27 1:41:24 Tuscaloosa AL



Awful by many standards, acceptable by few...



So over the last few weeks, I've had some GREAT workouts.... I mean GRREEAATT workouts... swims have been tiring, but great--this past week I swam my first 1400 set without stopping (29:12), which means I'm almost up to a mile (1600m)... almost there! Swimming has gotten much more enjoyable because I'm getting better at it (Pretty sure I've said this over and over again, but it's true)... I don't dread swim workouts anymore (except ones where I'm doing intervals or timed stuff) and truly look forward to gettin in the water MWF.



The bike has been a challenge here lately... I say challenge, but it's weird... I want to get faster on the bike, because I know it's the only way I'll have decent times during races... I'm not a strong runner, never have been, probably never will be, so the bike is what I consider to be my savior as far as time goes... So I want to get faster, but I seem to have hit a plateau... I've tried to ride what Kendrick sends me and try to work hard, but it seems like I'm not getting anywhere... Last Saturday, I did a 3.5/30 brick and smoked the run off the bike (well, at least until the final mile) so I felt like I had finally made some progress... until Sunfish...

Running has gotten a tad better... Yeah, the heat has been an issue, but like I just said, I've had some great workouts here lately, especially bricks... I've run REALLY well off the bike the last three bricks I've done (we're talkin avg 9:00'ish after the 3.5 ride, and a bit quicker 3 days later after an easy hour ride)... So I've been all jacked up about running off the bike and all this "progress" I've made.... Until Sunfish...

Ok, onto Sunfish...

Head down to Meridian on Friday to meet up with my fraternity brother Will Mattern... Will has been racing a little longer than I have and we've gotten back in touch over the past year through Triathlon.... We decided to split a hotel room instead of driving in the morning of, and it's a good thing we did... With the way I raced on Saturday, driving 90 miles that morning would have made it worse...

Prior to the race, I emailed Matt Cassell to ask about the course for the race... His response consisted mainly of "it's pretty hilly, there's a hill right out of T1, but the swim is really calm and the run is pancake flat... you'll do great.".... So Will and I hit the race site Friday afternoon to check things out: the lake, transition, the park, etc... and yeah, sure enough, there's a hill right out of T1, which was challenging enough... What we didn't expect were the absolute leg drainers on the rest of the 17 mile course...

Race Day:

Will is #78, I'm #92...

Swim:

Will had been working on his swim pretty hard over the past months and his T times had dropped drastically... I figured since he was starting 14 people in front of me, I'd never see him and he'd post up another W in the (playful) ongoing Mattern/Aurich race saga (to go ahead and tell you, he smoked me this race)

The lake was super calm, time trial start... I wasn't as nervous before this race like the others, I guess because I have been working on my swim a lot and felt a little more confident... This was only the 2nd time I had done an open water swim, the first was back in October at my first race... So needless to say, I had some jitters about it...

I get into the water and swim well... Stroke felt good, but like any triathlete, I felt as if it could have been stronger... Had to kinda wing it when it came to sighting/spotting, but figured I was doing ok... I passed some people, which was encouraging and wasn't totally out of breath or exhausted from the 1/3 mile swim... Exit the water into T1

T1:

Will and I had practiced T1 the evening before in the parking lot of the bank next to our hotel, so I felt pretty confident going into T1... as weenie as it sounds, my feet felt pretty gnarled from the evening before, practicing on the hot rough concrete, so coming out of the water onto the rough concrete was a bit of a challenge... Probably should have practiced the swim exit to bike rack route before the actual exit, cause I probably could have saved a few seconds there...

Sure enough, there was a hill right out of T1... I managed my flying mount and immediately had to stand up to climb the hill, which took some gas out of my legs... I get onto the dam and am onto the bike...

Bike:

*note to reader: this is where my race starts to unravel :(

I climb the hill onto the damn and start to get my feet into my shoes... Fail #1: one of my velcro straps comes out of the eyelet on the shoe--not stopping to fix it, so I'm one strap down on the left shoe... Fail #2: Will passes me while we're on the dam... figured I'd never catch him... Fail #3: Matt Cassell's description of the course being "pretty hilly" was spot on... except I thought it would have been "rolling hills", not ".25 mile steady climbs+no recovery time" hills... So I just tried to fight as best I could...

The bike absolutely drained me... I was getting super frustrated because I couldn't find a balance between "racing" and "conserving"... I knew that these hills were destroying my legs and I'd have nothing left for the run if I didn't calm down, but with the way the hills were, riding "easy" wasn't an option for me... I tried like hell to ride well, but knew that A) it wasn't going well, and B) I'd be hell on wheels during the run...

T2:

Come into T2 and I'm dragging... totally could have called it a day after the bike... I figured it was only a 5k and that I could make that! I'd been running so well off the bike during bricks I thought it wouldn't be a problem, just pace yourself and keep your splits below 10:00 minutes...

Run:

Totally should have called it a day... The tank was empty... I walked some (probably most) of the run... I was cooked... and frustrated... at one point (I think the first time I stopped to walk), I was so pissed I just grunted and said, "Shhiitt!!"... Felt kinda bad because there was a lady with her 3 young kids just up on the right watching the race... oh well...

The run was a demonstration in suffering... I hated it... I'd run for awhile, feel ok, then have to stop because I was tired... I couldn't get into a rhythm... I was focusing too much on pace and not enough on just running comfortably (if that was even possible)... I walked a lot, had a lot of people encourage me along the way, and tried to convince myself it was ok for me to walk, cause I had done the best I could.... In the back of my mind though, I was really upset...

I finished in 1:41:24.... Just 4 minutes short of my first race of the same distance, so I guess that's a win... I tried to play off how upset I was by making jokes to Will about Sunfish being my last Triathlon and me selling off all my stuff and "retiring"... Will was solid though, told me I did well and that he was proud of me for finishing... I had to hold back how upset I was...

My splits were the only thing that made me feel like this race wasn't a total wash:

Swim: (10:50) I was pretty pleased with this... A) I was 5th out of the water in the Clydesdales division B) I swam the whole thing
T1: (0:44) Under a minute is always good for me
Bike: (54:18-avg. 18.6) Lookig back, I guess this is ok... Having ridden the Lake Lurleen loop a month earlier (loop is about 16.5 miles, avg'd 16.oish) I'd have to say this is a win... Clearly not what I wanted, but it tells me I have to ride more hills!
T2: (0:58) Barely under a minute, but I'll take it... I think it could have been a bit faster, but the front wheel of Will's bike was blocking my transition mat, so I had to take the time to move it... I was one of three Clydes that had both T-times under 1:00, so I'm happy with that
Run: (34:35-avg. 11:27) Clearly not my best... I need to do harder bricks (including hills), then run hills off the bike until I puke...

All in all, I'm about 60-70% happy with this race... It's a finish, so that's good... But it was a little frustrating to go into a race feeling confident because of the training you've been doing, only to have your ass absolutely handed to you... So basically, Sunfish took me to the Woodshed! Kendrick did his coach duties and was encouraging and told me that not every race was gonna be a good one, and that he was proud of me for doing what I did... I guess I'm proud too...

Next up is Heart O' Dixie, which after this race, seems like an impossible task... .5 mi swim/27.5 mi bike/7 mi run (of "heat and hills" as described on the race site)... Guess I've got about two weeks to do what I can to train on hills, both on the bike and on the run...

Looks like I'll be spending a lot of time out at Lake Lurleen.... Hello puke sessions!

I'll live to race another day!