Little Smokies Half IM 5-22-11

After spending 1 ½ days watching some teammates and friends complete in the first 3 races of the Triple T, it was my turn to tackle the Little Smokies Half IM distance race. This was to be the first, of two, training races for Lake Placid, and I definitely learned a lot from mistakes I made as you will read on... The day prior to the race, I realized I had forgotten to pack my fuel belt, which I wanted to have for concentrated Infinit on the run. Thanks to the folks at IDUTRI, I was able to buy a new belt for the race. Of course, after purchasing the belt, I learned that the water stops would also be serving Infinit, so I did not need the fuel belt. Oh well, it is a nice belt..

The evening prior to the race, I laid everything out in the tent (yes we were camping for the weekend events) and double checked to make sure I had everything. In the morning, after fighting with the Zipp wheels to get them to accept air, we had everything ready to go. 45 minutes before race time and we jumped on the bikes to ride down to the race start. This was a good warm up ride, as it was just a little over a mile away. The adrenalin was starting to pump, I had heard for a while how hilly the bike and run course were, and I was looking forward to seeing what I could do on this course as it would be a good barometer for my progress towards Placid.

I found the secret decoder sheet that told me where to rack my bike and get transition ready, so I hooked up the bike and got in line for my chip. 25 minutes before race time (10 minutes till Transition Close) and I had my chip and was ready to setup my transition. As I opened my bag, a flash ran through my head, as I recalled taking the transition towel out of the bag to use as a pillow in the tent AND that I had taken out my CEP socks as I was going to wear them overnight (but never did). So, no towel (not a big deal) but no socks (planned to wear the CEP’s for Bike and Run) ohh no. I ran over to the IDUTRI table, but they were not setup yet. I came back and a random guy setting up next to me, seeing my frustration, gave me a “spare” pair of running socks he had. Tri-folks are great people! So, I setup the transition sans towel and with borrowed socks. I put my wetsuit on and headed down to the lake to see the TTT guys and gals start the last of their amazing set of races.

The swim start was grouped by estimated swim finish. I swim slow, so I assumed about a 2 min / 100 yrd pace, and with 2112 yards to swim, I jumped in the 45 minute group. The start was a 2 person time trial start with 5 second send offs. I got in the 60 degree water and started my journey. I was able to find open water most of the way, and I had an easy smooth first lap. Out of the water and onto lap 2. On lap 2, as I rounded the farthest turn buoy, I noticed the sun was coming up over the tall trees around the lake, which was a great sight on each breath. With about 400 yards to go, some guy decided to repeatedly swim into me, after some mid water gyrations, he was gone. I headed for the last turn buoy, and then to the swim finish. Thank God, I was done with the swim and had Zero lung issues. I looked down at my watch and saw 40:41. That put a spring in my step, as I was 4 minutes ahead of my estimate. On to the bike.

I got into transition, quickly remove the wetsuit, found my borrowed socks and headed out for the hilly bike course. I decided not to take the Endurolyte capsules with me, as I had a strong mix of Infinit in the bottles. As I turned off 125, I entered the beginning of the longest and most technical climb of the course. I kept to my plan of climbing as close to 80 cadence as possible and thank goodness I did, because the first hill went on for a long time. Finally cresting the top, and starting the decent, I then had to quickly hit the brakes to make it safely through two tight hairpin downhill turns. After that the course opened up a bit. The course was beautifully laid out in many wooded areas. There were a few medium to hard climbs in the middle and when I got to RT 125, I started the next difficult climb. This time I was rewarded with an awesome downhill stretch of newly paved road, glancing down, I was hitting 41 to 44 MPH, great ride. I pulled into the turn around, to begin lap 2, I was at 1:31:34 and at that point, I realized that I should have pre-filled bottles and left them on the table. The line for the water was 5 minutes (ouch). Got filled up with garden hose flavored water and filled my extra bottle, which was pre-loaded with Infinit powder, and I was off for loop 2. Loop 2 on the bike course was obviously more predictable and the first long hill did not seem as long. Throughout this loop, I kept thinking about the advice from Ed Slovenkay, “push hard but keep to a metered effort”. Looking back at HR data, I keep my max HR under 165 and averaged 143 on a course with over 5400 feet of climbing. I really enjoyed the entire bike course, even the one point when I needed to pass a car on one of the fast down hills. Seeing all the TTT jersey folks out there who amazingly were doing this race after the sprint race on Friday and the 2 OLY’s on Saturday was inspiring to say the least. I finished the bike at 3:10:22 and I was very happy with my time on the bike. On concern I did have was that it was way warmer out than any of the weather in which I had trained, but on to the run I went.

The run course started out fine, but quickly went up hill. As I turned onto the service road, I saw Christian and then Ed coming the other way, finishing their first lap. For me, seeing folks I know is a great burst of energy. The first 4 miles were mostly an uphill climb, and the total run was just north of 1700 feet of climbing (according to Garmin). I took many walk breaks to keep the HR in check and because I was beat down, Nutrition, Nutrition, Nutrition… Luckily, I took my Amphipod hand bottle with me which had a concentrated Infinit mix, because the Infinit on the course was very watered down, but that only lasted so long. Just before Mile 4 I felt like the early signs of leg cramps, so at the next water stop, I grabbed pretzels and endurolyte capsules (probably should have had them on the bike, note to self). The cramps seemed to subside, possibly because I was now jogging downhill. Soon, I saw Christian and Ed again around mile 4, damn those guys run fast. Next, I saw Janet and Tim, during a walk break and Janet promptly reminded me to get moving…  The lack of full strength nutrition combined with the heat of the day cause the cramps to return around mile 10. I pushed through to the next stop, got some more salt and fluids and kept moving. Finished the run in 2:26:30 (that is not a typo, it really took me that long). I was so happy to cross the finish line and see the Muscle Milk Rejuvenation Station. I headed straight over there for some great recovery drink. My total time was 6:24:47, I was happy to have finished ahead of most all the big guys out there, but more importantly, I learned a lot from my first training race this year and I am looking forward to the next races. One last point, a big thanks to Joe Edwards for taking over my role of group fan / photographer, and for the great encouragement on the course.