Tuesday, September 25, 2012

Camp Humphreys Sprint Tri

15 September 2012-

I was really looking forward to this race as I have done it 4 times previously.  I convinced my coach to let me race and he made sure I paid for it in terms of making sure that I didn't rest for the race and then stacked up some good workouts with the race as well.  I wanted to see where I had improved since last year so figured this race was a good place to do it at.  Same course the past 3 times gives a good gauge of my fitness.  I hadn't raced any other of the same courses as years past this year, actually this was only my 3rd tri of the season.

I showed up a little late and wasn't able to get my typical 1-2 mile warmup run and short swim.  I got in the water for a few mins just to get use to the water and made sure I knew where the mark was for a good flip turn.  The weather was about as good as it gets in terms of temps, but the winds are always a little weird at Humphreys.  Luckily I had my HED JET6 on the front so wasn't too worried about the wind, but my buddy Dan had a Zipp 1080 up front and he was a little worried, after the race he was talking about getting blown around quite a bit.

Swim- 400LCM (50m pool)

I had a good swim and felt good coming out of the water.  I had really been putting in some solid time in the pool and really felt good coming into the race.  I was happy to confirm my swim fitness with a mid 5min swim, not great but good for me.  No one took my split but by estimation of my other times and total time I estimated a 5:20 to 5:30 swim time.

Bike- 20K (2 10K loops)

I came out of the water in the lead, as I was in the first of 5 waves.  I wanted to hammer the bike really hard and see how my legs felt running off a all out effort.  For some reason my legs didn't come around right away and I was quite disappointed with my power output for the ride.  I still set a bike PR on the course and was happy with my time, but it just took a while for the legs to come around.  I opened up the gap to Dan, who ended up 2nd, and I knew he would be one of the guys to watch for.  With the race being wave start it is really hard to gauge where everyone is, but we try to get all the "fast" guys in the first wave so we can race heads up.  It worked out well and we got most of us in the first wave and second wave.

Run- 5K (Out and Back)

With the limited running in the early season my run has been the one thing I have been worried about..  It has slowly been coming around, but wasn't sure where my short course speed stood.  I had a decent run at Armed Forces but hadn't ran a hard 5K in a while.  I ended up running a few seconds slower than last year but felt very good with my run.  I didn't see Dan for quite a while, I had already hit the turn around and was about 800m back down the road.  I still pushed hard on the way back and wanted to see how my time compared to last year.

Overall Time- 53:11
Swim- 5:30
Bike- 29:15 Strava Link: http://app.strava.com/activities/21222094
Run- 17:58 Strava Link: http://app.strava.com/activities/21223614

Sept 2011 -56:01
Swim-5:50
Bike- 31:18
Run- 17:42

Overall I was really happy with how the race went.  I lost a little on the run but smashed the bike compared to last year.  I think my other place of improvement was my transitions.  The other thing that I was really happy about was the amount of people that came down from Osan and how great of a showing we had.  It is always fun to go down to the Army base and have a bunch of AF people take the top spots.  I am sad that this will be my last race in Korea for quite some time, but I am sure I will find myself out there sooner than later to race again.

Here are some pics from the race:

 Outrunning the storm, that never showed up
 Finishing the run

 1st Place for Male 20's and Overall
 The Osan Crew

Monday, September 3, 2012

Hoengseong Half IM- 1st Long Course OA WIN!

26 Aug-

It had been 4 weeks since my last race and I was ready to race again.  The last race was the Cascade Cycling Classic in Bend, Oregon.  I was a little worn out by that point as I had been racing for quite a few weeks in a row and I had been back in the states for 4 weeks by that time.  It was also my first race as a CAT2, and needless to say I got a taste of what racing with the fast guys was all about.  I came back to Korea and got right back after it.  I started my training focus for Kona and picked back up with my tri coach Scott.  We had 10 weeks to work with and came up with a solid idea of where things needed to be fine tuned and we got right to work.

I had been lacking the run mileage with the heavy cycling focus over the last month so we were a little worried about that.  Over the 4 weeks leading into this race though the miles started adding up and the legs came around quite quickly.  I was feeling good with the 4 week block and was excited to see where I was at in terms of Long Course shape.

The race was a first year race, so it was quite a small race.  They had 111 people finish and I would estimate about 150 on the start line.  One of my teammates from my Korean cycling team is also a triathlete and didn't show up as he was aiming for a full IM in a few weeks, I was bummed as it would of been a great race between the two of us.

Swim- 1.9K- 30:29

My swim has been coming around so I was looking forward to see how I would perform in the race.  I had a good starting position and went out hard for the first 200m.  I opened up a nice gap and just continued to build on it throughout the swim.  It was a 2 lap swim, but you didn't exit the water and just swam around the buoy.  Luckily I didn't have to deal with lapping anyone, but I stayed out front the whole swim.  I came out of the water with about a minute lead, yes very rare for me to be leading out of the water.  Second time this year that has happened out here in Korea ;)

Bike- 91K- 2:40:36

I had seen the bike course profile and wasn't really worried about it.  I knew it was going to be hilly and was thankful for that.  With the bike being one of the stronger points of my race it is nice to have a tough course which helps keep the others from drafting, which is common out here in Korea.  What I didn't know is how brutal the bike course would be.  I brought an 11-28 for the rear and was still struggling for the last 1K of a 5K climb, it ended up being a CAT2 climb according to Strava.  Later on I had heard that there were a lot of people walking up that section.  The plan going into the race was to hammer the bike and just see what happened from there.  I felt good on the bike and held on to the lead throughout the whole bike, I actually never saw anyone.  Looking at the results I out rode the 2nd fastest bike split by 17 minutes, so that would explain that.

Run- 21K- 1:35:57

Prior to the race I had talked to my coach and we had a conversation about the race.  He told me to cruise the run, but also said if I was in a position to win I had the green light to go for it.  Well I didn't know how big my lead was getting off the bike so I came off the bike and ran hard.  The problem was it was super hot and humid out, heat index of 97*F.  I came of the bike running well holding 6:30-6:40 pace for the first 3 miles.  Then I decided to back off into "cruise" mode and stopped at all the aid stations and shoved ice down my suit and took in some calories.  It was a 2 loop run course and I turned around at 5.5K and ended up not seeing anyone for another 8 minutes, and it was a relay runner.  At that point I knew I had a huge lead but still wanted to get a solid workout in.  I just ran between each aid station at a comfortable pace and got in a solid workout.

Total Time- 4:49:43

Swim- 30:29-1st
Bike- 2:40:36-1st  Link to Strava: http://app.strava.com/rides/19765308
Run- 1:35:57-1st  Link to Strava:http://app.strava.com/runs/19766179
Total- 4:49:43

Overall I was really happy with how the race played out and I was just happy to walk away with the overall win.  Even though it was a small field it was still nice to have a great race and execute the plan we laid out prior to the race.  It was by far the toughest course I have done for a half, not the toughest race as 70.3 China and 70.3 Germany were really tough days for me, but overall it was a tough day.

Thanks again to everyone for all of the support.  Special Thanks to: Honey Stinger, FRS Healthy Performance, HED Cycling and all of my family and friends!

If you would like information on my nutrition plan for this race please email me at: airforcebadbrad@yahoo.com

A few pictures from the race:
 O how I am going to miss Korea and the friends that I have made!
 Coming in from the bike.
 Out on the run just having fun.
 The bike setup, P5???? Phhhhh Going Old School and taking the fastest bike split with a P3!
 The "Bull" Trophy and an ice chest of BEEF!  Ahhh the things you win in Korea!
The Overall Podium!