Hagg Lake Olympic Race Report

So the traing has been going relatively well, and I decided that I would dip my toe into a local Oly to get back into distance racing. My choice was the Hagg Lake Olympic on July 12th. Not the friendliest course with over a thousand feet of climbing on the 25 mile bike course with numerous insidious hills on the run, but a challenge was what I was seeking.

I raced this event last year, and posted a disappointing 2:37:03…4th in my AG, which included a dismal run split over 50 minutes for the 10k. I wanted to give this race a go to test my fitness after spending a tad bit of time on my back earlier this year.

GOALS FOR THE RACE:
<25 minutes swim
<1 hour 10 minutes bike
<50 minutes run
Significantly speed up my transitions

SWIM:
After nearly missing the start of the race because I was chatting with other Ironheads on the beach, I decided to slide up to the front and just go out hard, create some distance, and see what my body was prepared to do. With my new accessory for 2008, the brain shunt, I tend to get a bit twitchy with lots of swimmers around. The course was a two loop diamond, which set up for lots of turning and potential sighting issues. I much preferred last year’s more rectangular one-loop set up, but I didn’t get a vote. The swim went fine through lap #1, except for my minor mental tantrum and breathing issues due to the anxiety of this being my first race as a cyborg. Lap #2, I lost my sighting on the first turn and couldn’t find the second buoy. Turns out it was behind the water safety boat that was parked directly in front of it. In the spirit of not losing lots of time, I decided to just point myself in its general direction, and was informed by a man in a kayak that I was no fewer than 50 meters inside the buoy. I had to double back, conservatively costing me 90 seconds of sighting and swimming. After righting my ship, I cruised in for a 24:07, but definitely had a 22 minute swim in the tank. My fault for navigational issues!

TI:
Seemed slow, but timed out much faster than last year. Loved the Adidas TriCarbon shoes and how quickly then jumped on my feet. Time was 2:45, a minute faster than last year, but still room to speed it up.

Bike:
I hammered the bike with everything I had. Per Coach Ciav’s recommendation, I stayed focused on the road, slammed the downhills, and stayed aero for as much time as possible. Only came out of the aero position three time (twice on the main hill near the toll booth, and once on the second lap to begin loosening my shoes pre-T2.) Jockeyed with the top two AGer’s in my group for the bulk of the ride, setting up for an interesting run. Felt good to get the bike over 40 MPH on the downhill sections on a few occasions. My wattage average out to be 253, that included the outlier values from either side of the transition. My Pnorm should be maybe 10-15 watts higher, but I don’t have WKO+ yet so I cannot substantiate that claim. I’d like to get my watts over 300 by the end of the season. Glided into T2 with my feet out of the shoes at 1:08:52.

T2:
Felt like the fastest T2 I’ve ever done, and it was. Always room for improvement, but I felt organized and efficient. 1:11, slightly speedier than last year.

Run:
The run at Hagg Lake is a bear, which is not an overstatement. I had put together some great runs into the weeks up to the race, so I had big hopes for a much more respectable split. The quads expressed upset early, so I knew my sub 7 minute pace aspirations were soon replaced by a reality that was more near the 7:30 realm. The grinding uphills took their toll, and my forced time off in the winter sure reared its ugly head. I fought the urge to give into the cramping and quit, and just ran my race knowing that PR was getting closer and closer. Having a few Ironheads on the course was an added bonus, and I hope and trust I get to reciprocate in the near future. Final run time was 48:21, disappointing but a reflection of the reality of my fitness. I need to work harder.

TOTAL: 2:25:17 (PR by approximately 12 minutes)
It was great to be back on the horse and side by side with my Ironhead teammates. Next up is the Mid Summer Oly at Blue Lake (a nice flat alternative to what Hagg Lake dishes out), followed by the Grand Columbian Half Iron, and wrap up the season with Halfmax Natoinal Half Ironman Championship in Vegas.

So what did I learn from this race? Muscle torque (the ability to just power through things) is the hardest thing to gain and the first thing to disappear after an extended layoff. I have to work harder to develop this aspect of my fitness. Listen to your coach (assuming they know their ass from a hole in the wall) and you will get faster. Power training on the bike does make you a more effective race cyclist. Having a fast team will invariably make you a better racer.

Great showing by all of the Ironheads, swooping up numerous overall and AG awards.