Rhode Warrior Half Ironman

Westerly, RI
Sunday, August 24, 2014

After much preparation, but never enough, the day was here that FiveK and I
looked forward to - a half iron in our own town.

Final finishing time:  5:17:50.  13th overall, 1st in age group.  Full results here.

You have to be an early-bird to be a triathlete (right, Crutch?)
Setting up my bike and transition area at 5:15am in the dark.

The swim:  35:49.  1.2 miles.  (I had 1.4 on my Garmin - does this mean the course was long, or I didn't swim in a straight line?  Probably the latter.)  Really wish they had rankings on these results.  While my swim time is certainly in the back half of the pack, I was happy overall with the swim.  I got into a routine and was pretty comfortable.  The houses all looked the same from out in the ocean swimming, but when I identified Westerly Old Town Beach pavilion, I was oh so happy as I knew I was getting close to the finish.

Thanks Jana for your support.  (Photo courtesy Shara)

Think we can get this sucker to do it next year?

... and we're off!  What a nice calm ocean for swimming today.

Sighting the beach on my final strokes in.

Yes!  I made it. (photos by Jana)

The bike:  3:02:55.  56 miles.  Best guess would be top third of overall men.
Passed many riders in the first few miles especially, and got passed only by 4, at least for the first half of course.  Even out of those 4, 3 of them had an "R" on their leg meaning they didn't do the swim and were on fresh legs for their relay portion.  One of them had thighs as wide as my waist, so probably a lot of power going into each pedal.  The last 15 miles or so the legs were starting to hurt, as the hills were just relentless.

Heading out of transition to start the bike
(Photo courtesy Mike B)

Passing thru No Sto
(Photo Mike Crutchley)

The run:  1:33:41.  I think just three runners faster than me during the run portion, including Tommy 5K.
Jeff Duda was at T2 warning me to take the first few miles easy.  Do I listen?  Well, I did for about 2 miles and then found myself running a 6:35 pace for one of the miles.  This is in the direct sun after the day's long workout already.  Backed the pace off to high 6s and then about 7:10 to finish out the two-loop course.  At one point, I passed Nicole who asked if I could use a rope to pull her along!  Finishing the run and race I was so weak I thought I would fall over.  Drank 3 bottles of water and about 8 cups of water (couldn't have been dehydrated, could I have?) and some oranges that tasted heavenly as they revived me.  Great day out there and very happy with my Half Iron PR by 8 minutes!  Congrats to Tommy and to Nicole for finishing their first ever Half Iron.

So where's the guy Kathy called up for 1st place
in my age group?  Turns out he's still out on the
run course and ended up finishing 2+ hours after me.
Oops!  She said she'll fix the error and adjust my
prize to be the higher 1st place amount.

Yes, we  both made it and both won our age groups
at that.  Just don't lean on me or I'll probably fall over!

Patiently awaiting awards and secretly wondering
how we'll ever stand up again

Hung up until next year,
as I move the focus next to Surftown
and Hartford Marathon

Weekly Log 18-Aug to 24-Aug-2014

Monday: 0
Rest day after another monster weekend.

Tuesday:
5 miles.  Morning easy run.
Battle of Stonington.  8 miles, including warm-up and cool-down.  Legs still too tired to run well.  Came through Mile in 5:40 huffing and puffing, knowing I couldn't hold the pace.  Backed way off.  Not my day today.  Finished in 18:28, still good for 1st in age group and a bottle of wine.  Stayed late on the docks socializing; depressing that the series is over.

Wednesday:
Westerly Fun Run.  Final week of the season with a 1-mile version only.  5:21, just one second ahead of Matthew, who already beat me earlier in the season at Bottone Mile.  The 39th season comes to an end.

Thursday: 0
Another rest day before the weekend half iron.

Friday:
0.5 mile open ocean swim with Steve.
2 mile easy beach jog with Steve.

Saturday:
5 mile shake-out with Tom.  The calm before the storm.

Sunday:
1.2 mile swim (Rhode Warrior Half Iron:  write-up to follow very shortly)
56 miles
13 miles

Weekly Tally:
33 miles
56 miles
2 miles

Weekly Log 11-Aug to 17-Aug-2014

Monday:
5 miles.  Chariho Fun Run.  Final fun run of season.  Small crowd.  Ran the 1-mile course in 5:13.  Followed that up with a more casual pace together with Matthew on the 3-mile course.

Tuesday:
5 miles.  Final Stonington Fun Run.

Wednesday:
8 miles.  After a storm earlier in the day, ran 4+ miles to scout the Fun Run course for flooding.  Game on!  Came back in the evening for the final 5K on this course for the year.  Ran a hard pace of 5:37, 5:53, 5:42 per mile, respectively.  Jonny E trailed just on my tail the whole time (in fact, a tad annoying for me, but glad for him that I helped pull him to his fastest Fun Run), and then sprinted past me on the final turn.  Not a race; didn't chase him, probably couldn't have re-caught him anyway.

Thursday:
6 miles.  10K evening run with Matthew.

Friday:
9 mile solo run through Watch Hill.
5 miles on our final Groton Fun Run.  (Next Friday evening I'm working the Salt Pond Challenge for the Town.)

Saturday:
17 mile group run with B, FiveK, and Garcia.  My goal between now and Hartford taper is to run 20-mile runs on alternating weekends and 15-17 on the "off" weekend.  Reality will probably be different due to races and life in general, but hopefully I don't deviate too much.  Secondary goal is to add increasing segments of MP into each, because if I don't train at target MP, it will be tough to run MP come marathon day.

I had a goal of running about 6:30 pace for miles 7-10 of Surftown course.  FiveK took the bait and we ran the first two at 6:20 and 6:15.  It was clear in the 3rd mile that he wasn't going to let me run at 6:30, and since we only had one more fast mile left, we ran it in 6:02.  Regrouped in Watch Hill for a nice beach run back.

Sunday:
50 miles.  Demanding CT hill ride with Chris and FiveK.  Mike B was with us for the first 10 miles or so, before he decided he'd leave the hill "fun" to the three of us.  Cossaduck Hill was the most brutal climb of the day, with the first part having an average incline of 9%.  As usual, Chris finished the ascent way ahead of us and was pulled over on the side of the road just finishing up a picnic lunch by the time FiveK and I finally made it.  Followed 201 through beautiful CT countryside up as far as Voluntown, then 49 back with a quick stop to visit with Crutch, before return to Westerly.  Cruised into Junque 'n Java on fumes for a refueling stop; this makes me re-assess my fueling plans for the Rhode Warrior next weekend.

Along Route 201 in Griswold, CT
(l-r:  Chris, Tom)

Chris and I had vastly different Strava reported elevations.  Really good article on some of the reason for the elevation differences here.

10 miles.  Finished out the day with a 10-miler with Matthew.  He really wanted to get in a 10-mile run in prep for his upcoming Surftown.  In the first couple of miles, my legs complained to me so much that I really wasn't sure if I could finish 10 miles, but I plodded on.  As with Saturday, having company helped the miles pass.


Weekly Tally:
65 miles
50 miles
0 miles

Final race free week before the Rhode Warrior.  Got in a nice mix of serious long efforts, plus mixed in with end-of-summer Fun Runs.  Definitely feel did not train enough for Rhode Warrior, especially on bike and swim, but let's hope my current level of fitness carries me through the day.

The Blessing folks wrote back to my constructive criticism e-mail
(wish all RDs would) to advise they won't repeat this year's orange decal
and next year will be looking at some sort of "heat press" process
that supposedly doesn't cause the friction/abrasion.

Weekly Log 4-Aug to 10-Aug-2014

Two weeks with no races!  Yes!  Time to get back to some good old fashioned training, especially for Hartford Marathon.  Gotta get the miles in, or as I think Greg puts it, at minimum "time on feet".  Our Hartford Marathon WTAC contingent is growing.  FiveK got us on the bandwagon a month or two ago, and now Mike B is signed up, the Galoobs are on board, newest WTAC member Faith McDonald is running it and Jeff V is planning this as his next marathon.  Any others?  Matthew keeps saying he wants to run it, but he's a year plus away from Hartford's minimum age (16), not to mention his soon-to-be high school XC coach would probably kill him.  Still enjoying the summer season, but fall marathon season is almost upon us.

Monday:  0

Tuesday:
8 miles.  Morning trip around the pond, and then the luxury of a low-tide beach run.  So cathartic.  If only for a moment, any worries and pressures melt away and I'm in a happy place.

Wednesday:
3 miles.  Westerly Fun Run week #9.  Started out with a fast 1st mile pace (5:27), but couldn't keep it up with the humidity (that's my excuse of the day) and finished with a 6-flat and 5:57.  It was payback time for me taking two weeks off as the majority of WTAC volunteers had the night off with vacation and other commitments.

Thursday:
6 miles.  Morning 4:30AM hospital loop.  So refreshing to run in 59-degree weather!  Believe it or not, I ran into 3 separate runners.  Didn't recognize the first two.  Came up on the 3rd runner running down the middle of East Ave and recognized him as Jeff Vuono.  Ran with him for a short stretch.  He's planning Hartford as his next marathon - nice!

Friday:
21 miles.  Up to Bradford, back through Charlestown.  Finished out in Misquamicut.  Was pushing a good pace on a Strava segment through Misquamicut, when cars were stopped ahead of me.  I pulled a "Juniper Drive" stunt and passed all the cars on their left (i.e., on the wrong side of the road).  As I got past the last car, I saw why they were all stopped:  a Westerly police officer in the middle of the road stopping traffic.  Oops!  Came to a hard stop, as the officer read me the riot act that cyclists need to follow traffic rules also.  He was correct, of course.  I assume at this point a remark like, "But, officer, I'm on a Strava segment" wouldn't have helped or may have just drawn an odd stare, so I just tried to smooth the situation by saying I was out training and didn't mean to cause any issues.
6 miles.  Groton Fun Runs.  Matthew and neighbor/friend Jonny Eckel came along as well.  Kudos to Jana for running the 3.5 mile trail run.  Finished up with dinner at Paul's Pasta.

Saturday:
19 miles.  Torn between a cycling offer from FiveK and a long run offer from B, I decided to give precedence to my run training for Hartford over my cycling training for Rhode Warrior.  From the Y south to Watch Hill, Misquamicut, and back.  Was happy to see Mike get his longest run ever.  Original plan was to run 18, and Mike seemed to be getting tired as we approached the Y and 18 miles, so I encouraged him to run 1 more mile to get used to running uncomfortable.

Sunday:
40 miles.  All right; time for some saddle time now on the Rhode Warrior course.  Lost my opportunity to ride with friends, so this was all solo.  Rhode Warrior as far as Hopkinton City, then cut Route 3 down to Hope Valley to pick up the return portion of course past Chariho and into Hammett territory.  I had intended the Route 3 section only as a connector, but it was really good training as there were a lot of steep and long hills.  On one such, I was going downhill at 36mph in 27th gear and just couldn't push the pedals enough to do anything but spin.  The Tomaquag and Woodville Road sections are awful for bikes; I'm hoping Muddy can use his Hopkinton influence to get the roads improved; maybe he can wink more at the holier-than-thou dames at Town Hall or something.
3 miles.  Easy jog from Old Town Beach down to Seaside back with Jonny E and my two boys to catch up on the day's running exploits of the two CT Mikes.  The younger boys pushed it on the way back, thus I got to spend some quality time with my older boy (Mark) having an unusually mature conversation on academics, college, and careers.  He even stayed with me back at the beach to continue the conversation between waves.  It was a nice change, as I'm usually persona non grata in places where people could recognize him.
1/4 mile.  Easy swim along the beach with Matthew and Jonny E.

Weekly Tally:
45 miles
59 miles
0.25 miles