Trinona And Rochester

David popping victory champagne at Trinona courtesy of Yndecam.

If you've been racing in Minnesota this spring you probably have a little more hair on your chest now because the weather has been TOUGH. Lots of rain, clouds, cold and wind. Last weekend Claire and I drove down to La Crosse, WI and stayed with Claire's sister Sarah before racing at Trinona. We had a fun road trip even though we were both shivering cold by the time awards was over. Dave Schutz puts on the race and really delivers on the experience. Winona is his hometown so he's personally invested in the race and it shows. There are even podium girls to give out the awards. I was second to Thompson, which I was happy with and managed to barely win the King of the Mountain bluff climb again.

Trinona Results

Yesterday at the Rochesterfest Tri put on by Final Stretch the race was delayed 30 minutes due to a threatening line of thunderstorms that slowly crept across Minnesota all morning. We were fortunate and had no lightning so the swim wasn't canceled. It's a two loop swim with a short beach run in between, which I think is a blast. All of the spectators line up and cheer. I swam behind Thad and came out of the water a minute and a half back.

After the swim the fun was over. Even though there was no lightning the wind was very strong and somewhat gusty, getting up to the 20-30mph range. The bike course is an out and bike on country roads that run in a grid and the wind happened to be blowing at either a direct head/tailwind or a 90 degree crosswind. So the ride out alternated between white knuckle riding leaning into the crosswind praying that I didn't get knocked over by a big gust and cruising at 35mph not even pedaling because of the strong tailwind. After the turnaround the crosswind was the same back into town but the portions of the bike riding into the wind was a slow grind straight into the headwind. I was riding my Gear West 808 Zipp front and Zipp disc. It was the most nerve-wrecking riding that I've ever done. The entire time I was counting down the miles until I was off the bike and safely on two feet for the run.

Kevin actually got off the bike a couple seconds ahead of me and when I caught up to him I asked if he wanted to run together. We had a very big gap back to second place and I haven't run a race with a teammate since college. He was all for it so we pushed through the 10k and tied for first at the finish. I thought about asking him if he wanted to hold hands crossing the line, but Kevin is too classy for that.

Rochester Results

All in all it was a fun race. It was certainly a memorable race. I complain a lot about the weather up here in Minnesota, but that's mostly because I'm only tough in the heat and crumble in the cold. And even though I whine about it being cold, you just can't beat the races up here. In just 5 weeks I've raced at two duathlons and two triathlons that were really great races. And if I had wanted to I could have raced the Liberty Half the weekend I took off and made it a consecutive five. I've been racing for a long time and still, after getting the car packed up and driving home after each one I've said to myself, 'that was really fun'. There's not many other states where you can do that.

Trying to get my running legs back at
Trinona. Another great shot by Yndecam.

Other than getting in some great early season racing and some good training I haven't done much else. I've been putting in 25-35 hours a week at GW to replenish my woefully small bank account and that has kept me busy. Thank god it's a fun place to work and I get to talk bikes all day or I would probably have gone into depression. Claire and I are renting a room down in Bloomington now and the location is great. I haven't done much riding outside, I usually just get on the trainer and crank for an hour to squeeze more work into a shorter time frame, but the running down here has gotten me really excited. The Mississippi river bottom trails are only a mile away and Hyland Park is only a mile and half. Maybe this summer I'll find my running legs out on the trails somewhere.

I'll be driving down to St. Louis on Friday to race at the 5150 Innsbrook on Saturday. There is a professional field and I'm looking forward to my second 'pro' race.

Train Safe

Pig Sprint Recap

Two B2s, 4 Zipp Wheels, 2 Race Bags and 2 Racers. Claire and I packed the Mini to the maximum for the drive down.

I traveled down to Cedar Rapids IA this weekend for the Pig Sprint Tri with Claire, who is the best road trip partner there is. We both love this race because the elite men and women compete in an equalizer format for a $750 bonus to whoever crosses the line first. Last year the women's head start was 9 minutes over the men and Claire ran away with the race and set a new women's course record. This year, the elites all agreed to try and make the race a little closer by cutting down the head start to the difference between the men's and women's course records, 7:43.

Race morning was cold and windy. I forgot to pack a jacket and walked around all morning with a blanket from my car to keep warm until it was close enough to race start to put on my wetsuit and go jump in the water. Even though the water temp was only 64, it felt great after the cold wind and I had enough time to get in a good 10 min swim warm up.

Kevin hooked me up with a new Blue Seventy Helix wetsuit this winter.
I had to model it in the living room for Claire this spring because the lakes were still frozen.

Tami Ritchie led the women out of the water in 6:17 as the men lined up on the beach. By the time we started, most of them have already started the bike course. I made a solid step toward redeeming myself after my St. A's swim debacle with a respectable 6:23 for a 500m swim. David was out of the water 9 seconds ahead of me and although he had an uncharacteristically off day, I was excited to be able to actually see him since he's normally on the bike and gone by the time I finish the swim.

I very quickly made up that 9 second difference in transition when David realized he had left his helmet in the Gear West van. He had to run through the parking lot, grab his helmet and then run back to transition. Daniel Bretscher, Thompson and myself all started the bike together and put in some time leading. The wind was so strong that I was getting blown all over the road and was white knuckle gripping my bars on the long straight descent out of the park at 40mph without any tree coverage to break the wind. Because the three of us rode together there was a very advantageous draft even though we maintained 3 bike length separation. At that distance there is a slight draft even without a headwind like we had on some sections. The women were much more split up and also got pushed around more by the wind because they are lighter.

Riding into transition we were pretty much on top of the lead two girls, Claire and a fellow Mizzou track and field alum Sunny Gilbert. I once again got an advantage coming into transition when Bretscher and Thompson drifted into each other during dismounting and both went down. Neither was hurt, but I ran past the two of them and racked my bike next to Claire as she was putting on her shoes.

Pig Sprint is hands down one of the best
races in the Midwest, but it fills in January
so you have to register early to get in.

Claire gave me a slap on the butt and told me to go catch Sunny. I got my legs under me running through the uphill transition and started the first mile running as hard as I could. I know from personal experience that in a run as short as 5k, if someone has a decent lead at the turnaround it's mentally really hard not to just let them go. The run was slow because of the wind, but I felt good and was really happy to cross the line first.

Race Results: http://www.pigmantri.com/pigman-sprint/results/pig113b.pdf

After the race David and I didn't want to do a cool down run with Kevin, so we all went for a walk with Claire and I was right back to freezing cold. We spent the rest of the morning huddled in the van trying to warm back up except for Kevin, who apparently doesn't feel cold even though he was wearing shorts, he spent the entire morning catching up with Iowans he knows and helping people with mechanical problems.

Now it's time for another big work week with good consistent aerobic mileage. Claire and I are driving to Winona MN next weekend for Trinona, “The world's biggest little triathlon”.

Train safely and wish me luck.