2010 Night at the Races

PPTC member Carol Lyndell competed in the the CTS Night at the Races computrainer series and had this to say about "going nowhere fast."

Wintertime and it’s time to go nowhere fast on that confounded indoor trainer – ugh!

Over four Friday evenings in November and December I broke out of my indoor rut and joined other cyclists at Carmichael Training Systems for their night at the races. Each week the theme of the races changed, from time trial to criterium to road race. The last week was a bit of all three. I missed the first week, but I was there every other Friday evening.

With bike tightly clamped into the brackets of the computrainer, I set out to tackle some challenging rides. These rides tested my training. The races were short, usually three to five miles (as measured by the computer program we were riding). But short doesn’t mean easy. I tackled the criterium course that Colorado College used this past summer. It was a short loop repeated about 12 times. I came to hate that hill with its 13% grade. I was hurting as I “rode” up it that final time. Riders who had already finished cheered on the slower riders, and as in a real race, those cheers propelled me onward.

Progress was charted on the overhead screen. I was that little blue bike inching its way across the monitor. I received feedback on my mph, watts, miles covered, race position, and time. Sometimes there would be a battle as riders passed and repassed each other as shown by those little bikes moving on the screen. If there was any more to give, the passee would up his/her speed and try to pull out of harm’s way. Those bikes were our alter egos and it was a great way to get a good workout in with friends

Tuesday Night Tri Series!

Looking for that fun and exciting workout to help you keep your edge during the cold winter months? Look no further then Indoor Tuesday Night Tri Series, every other Tuesday night starting in January! Join local athletes for this innovative, motivating race series at the Colorado Springs Recreation Center. The Tuesday Night Tri Series is designed to provide fun, affordable, training “races” for local triathletes to help maintain or improve your overall fitness levels during the first winter.

Athletes will have the option of the order of the three events and will utilize the Rec Center's pool, treadmill and spin bikes for the event. The event will take place entirely inside the Rec Center. There will be no timed transitions but athletes are encouraged to move from event to event in a timely manner.

Dates: Jan 4 & 18, Feb 1 & 15

Time: All races start at 6:00pm

Distances:
Adult Race: Swim - 300, Bike 8 miles, Run 2 miles
Youth Race: Swim 100, Bike 4 miles, Run 1 mile

Location: Colorado Springs Recreation Center

Cost: Free to Rec Center Members!
Adults $8 per race ($28 to reg for all races)
Youth $6 per race ($20 to reg for all races)

Age Groups: Youth 6-8, 9-12 & 13-16
Adult Male and Female, 17-19, 20-29, 30-39, 40-49, 50-59, 60+

Awards: Awards will be given to the first place male and female with the lowest combined time from all races, in each age category. Athletes must compete all four races to be eligible for Awards

Registration: You can register via our online form, mail in your form to the address below, or drop off your registration at the Colorado Springs Recreation Center. There will be race day registration at the front desk of the rec center but early registration is encouraged.

Tues Night Tri Series
Colorado Springs Recreation Center
280 S. Union Blvd.
Colorado Springs, CO 80910

Questions? Contact Kevin Dessart @ kdessart@csswimschool or 719-385-5984

Progressive training at Bicycle Village

Bicycle Village will again be offering the 12 week progressive training program.It is based on the program we offered the last few years with great success.This 12 week focused program is cadenced-based and designed to leave you with a foundation that will enable you to make the most of your 2011 season. Emphasis on pedal technique and leg speed during the first four weeks will set up the following months providing increased fitness and speed. The cost of the class is $150 and will include power threshold testing.

This class will run January 3rd – March 23 in the Spin Room at Bicycle
Village.

• Classes will meet every Monday and Wednesday from 6 to 7pm.
• Power threshold testing will be done twice during the class by
  appointment.
• Please bring: bike, towel, water bottle and cycling cloths.
• Recommended but not mandatory: cadence computer and heart rate monitor.
• Class is limited to the first 16 (sign up at Bicycle Village).

Itinerary sample:

January Pedal Technique and Leg Speed

During these workouts the emphasis will be on pedal technique and leg speed. Classes will start with cadence spin ups ranging from 60rpms to 140 rpms and move to one legged drills. The focus during these classes will be increasing leg speed and smoothing out ones pedal stroke at varying cadences to increase sustainable power at a given heart rate.

February CP Sprints – Maximum Cadence Efforts

During this workout the concentration is on achieving and maintaining maximum RPM’s while remaining smooth at the top end acceleration. The focus during recovery is relaxing the body to aid in lowering the heart rate (HR) through bio-feedback. Developing the Adenosine Triphosphste-Creatine Phosphate (ATP-CP) energy system will help open up your VO2 max capacity. While CP Sprints are not maximum HR efforts they do tax the ATP_CP energy system making it more efficient. Inserting CP Sprints 3 to 5 weeks prior to the beginning of intense anaerobic threshold training will help increase your ability to work at a higher percentage of your maximum HR while remaining aerobic.

March Anaerobic Interval Training – Super Maximum Sustainable Power Efforts
These workouts will help increase your maximum sustainable power output and work at a non-sustainable work rate. These intervals are hard to endure, however they are the most important workouts in a race training program because they improve lactate tolerance by increasing capillary density, blood volume and red blood cells.

Note: If interested please prepay and sign up at the front counter at Bicycle Village, we are allowing only 16 participants

2010 Club Challenge

Once again we will be participating in the USAT Club Challenge. We need all PPTC members to join in and help us defend our title from last year! December is the swim focus month, January is the ride focus month and February is the run focus month. All miles count and it's a great way to keep motivated through winter. Email Nicole at nicole_e_drummer@yahoo.com
to learn more and to sign up. We need to have the roster set by December 1st, because that's when we start counting miles!

IM Hawaii viewing party

The Colorado Springs Swim School would like to invite you all to our IM viewing event on Dec. 18th at the CS Recreation Center between 2-5pm. This will be a unique active event as everyone attending will be encouraged to ride, run, etc on our spin bikes (Look and SPD compatible pedals), treadmills, ellipticals or with their own bikes on our trainers. Following the airing we will have a panel discussion with three local AG triathletes who have all raced multiple Ironman races, including Hawaii. They will be available to discuss their successes and failures and how they are able to prepare for an Ironman with multiple other responsibilities in their lives. This will be an ideal time for aspiring IM athletes, and those who have done an IM, to gain knowledge from others who can share insight on what it takes and what they did to become Ironman athletes.

Admission is free to Rec Center members, and non-members admission will be either a food item to share during the panel discussion or $6 which will go directly to the CS Swim School scholarship fund which provides free and reduced-cost lessons to those who can not afford them.

The panel will include:

Eric Peterson - Full time employee for CSU, multiple IM finisher and AG winner. Numerous IM Hawaii finishes

Chrissy Steigerwald - Mother of three and multiple IM finisher who has been on the podium in Hawaii

Neal Oseland - Full time job, father of two with multiple IM finishes including two IM Hawaii

We encourage all of you to take advantage of this opportunity to gather some motivation, gain some knowledge and have some fun!

Please RSVP to kdessart@csswimschool.com if you plan on attending so we can plan accordingly.

Steve V's IM Arizona Race Report

Saturday morning checked in bike and transition gear bags. Since the weather was questionable in the bike bag I packed my helmet, bike shoes, arm warmers,
gloves, socks, bike shorts, a sleeved jersey and a tri jersey. In my run bag I packed running shorts, running shirt, compression socks, and running shoes. I don’t use the special needs bags. Realized Friday night that I had forgot my swim suit and had to fight the crowds at the Ironman store. I bought some CEP tri shorts to wear as a suit. Woke up 4AM ate an apple and bagel with almond butter and honey. Drove down to the course at 4:30 got my nutrition stuff on the bike and chilled out in the car for an hour.

The water temp was 61 degrees the coldest I have ever raced in. I wore the tri short but no top because of the cool weather. I thought a dry top would be better for the bike. Fortunately I brought a neoprene cap to wear under the race cap. I wanted to get in the water early to get towards the front so I hopped in and holy crap it was freezing! By the time I got to the start line I was shivering. So I headed to the wall on the right side and sat up on the wall to try and warm up. I sat there shivering and looking at all the floating trash until the start. When the gun went off it was a washing machine as usual which lasted about 5 minutes. At that point I found some open water and focused on getting into a rhythm and avoid drinking the water. Staying on the right side is a longer swim but allowed me to sight on the wall for about ¼ mile before moving to the center of the lake. The overcast made it easy to sight the buoys. The swim is an out and back with an exit on steps. Fortunately there was a hand rail and volunteers to keep me from falling over from the head rush. My swim time 1:04.23 (1:31/100yds) 3rd out of 84 in my age group. I was pleased with the swim since I hadn’t had much swimming in in the last month due to my 2 cracked ribs.

The wetsuit stripper was great and I was off to T1. During the swim the clouds broke so I decided to go with the tri top and stay with the tri shorts to save time in transition. I decided against the gloves and arm warmers. T1 time 6:00.

The air was cool but not cold heading out of town. Once out of town the winds picked up to about 20 mph. It was a diagonal cross wind that seemed to be from the front so I figured it would be better on the way back. Wrong! It was worse coming back. The first loop was bad the second loop was worse. The third loop the wind seemed to let up some but not much, probably a change in direction. For nutrition I took a GU Roctane every 45 minutes, one Salt Stick tab and one Sport Legs tab every hour. For hydration I stuck with the Power Bar Perform drink supplied on the course. I also ate an almond butter and honey sandwich on white bread at 3 and 5 hours. I felt good on the bike for the whole 112 miles. My bike time was 6:04.55 (18.4mph) 21st out of 84 in my age group. The time was much slower than I wanted but I am satisfied considering the winds.

I decided to keep my tri top and shorts on for the run to save some time in T2. The only problem was I struggled to get my compression socks on so T2 was 5:23.

On to the run. The first 3 miles were on pace with 8:00/mi. Then the hammer fell
and I was running from an 8:30 to 8:45 to mile 16. The last 10 miles were between 9:11 and 9:59. I managed an 8:20 for the last mile. For nutrition I took a GU Roctane, one Salt Stick tab and one Sport Legs tab every hour. For hydration I stuck with the Power Bar Perform drink supplied on the course. My run time was 3:53.18 (8:55/mi) 1st out of 84 in my age group. I guess I wasn’t the only one hurting out there.

My finish time was 11:13:57 5th out of 84 in my age group. 359th overall out of
about 2360 finishers. Overall I am quite pleased. I missed Kona by 2 slots but that means I will need to work harder next time. I wish someone would have told me that 1 week between Clearwater and Arizona wasn’t enough time to recover. Oh, that’s right everyone told me that.

Ironman World Championship 2010

What a fun day! I had a goal of racing sub 10 hours regardless of conditions. I was so close last year finishing in 10:03+ so I thought this was quite doable with the experience I gained from 2009. Read below to see how the day went.

                       Pre-Race

I woke up my usual 3 hrs early to get some food in the system. I took a shower. I know it seems strange that I'd take one knowing I'm going to sweat all day but it refreshes me and helps me get going. Not being a coffee drinker, this gets me going. I went down to the race area and got marked. I went into the hotels internet cafe and just relaxed in there for a while. I was trying to stay off my feet as much as possible. Around 6:30, I went down to the transition area and sat there until 6:50 before heading to the beach. I went in, looked around to truly appreciate the crowds and competitors and then swam out to the race start.

             The Swim

This years rules changed so that we couldn't wear a speedsuit. I had no idea how this would affect me but guessed it should be the same for everyone. I just wore my tri-shorts with no top and was ready to roll! Unlike last year, I started well to the left of the pier. I had been bruised and battered during the early part of the swim in 2009 and was looking to avoid that this time around. The gun went off and I was surprised by how much clean water I had in front of me. I was drafting others and not getting beat up. I was feeling great! About 10 minutes into the swim, a huge group all got together. We beat the heck out of each other for about 20 minutes plus. It was slow going but I stayed focused and just took the beating while moving forward. At the turnaround, things started to spread out. I tried my best to draft but wasn't doing so well with it. I swam solo most the way back and unfortunately, there was a current we were swimming directly into. While it's the same for everyone, it's still hard. Unlike last year, I came out of the water feeling GREAT and I was about 2 minutes faster than last year in 1:13:12. I was in 1017th place after the swim. I am a TERRIBLE swimmer!!

                               T1

I had practiced this a little because I knew I'd have to put a dry jersey on a wet body. I'd never done this before because I've always worn my full triathlon kit under my wetsuit or speedsuit. Everything went as planned and I got out of transition in 3:07.

                            The Bike

I jumped on the bike and felt pretty good right away. Rather than hammer away right out of the gate, I went into an easy ring. I did this for the first few minutes to make sure I was settled before the short climb up Kuakini Hwy. Once on Kuakini, I put it in a gear that was not giving away any speed but not beating my legs. After the turnaround on Kuakini, I was flying. I was also incredibly relaxed. I was more relaxed for this race than I have been at any of the 6 previous Ironman distance races I've been in. It felt kind of weird not being all worked up. There was a slight tailwind with the downhill from Kuakini.. Everyone was motoring so my concern was to not get caught up in someones poor bike handling skills that could take me out early. The bike was really uneventful for the first 30 miles. I was taking in my nutrition at regular intervals with no issues. About that time, I was coming up on a small group of riders. There were 6-8 of them riding legally and I figured I would pass them over the course of the next mile. Right as I came up on the guy in the back, a group of 10-15 guys who were not riding very legal boxed me in. At this point, I was full on drafting the three guys riding three abreast at the front of the group so I immediately hit the brakes. Doing so had all those other guys spring past me. I was trying to stay legal and doing a good job of it but was now going pretty slow. The group ahead were jockeying back and forth, out of the saddle....just hammering. I knew I needed to get past them but these guys weren't the type to let someone pass easily. I saw an opening that was created when the original group of 6-8 guys got passed by the group of 10-15. I hammered past them and tucked in to a legal position between the two groups. I gave myself a couple of minutes to get my heart rate where it needed to be then hit the gas to get past them. I got past all but 3 of them. Those last 3 were not going to let me go. 2 of those 3 guys got penalties over the next 3 miles. I have to say, one of them was a tough call because he was trying to pass someone then got blocked. The guy blocking got no penalty but the guy who didn't (couldn't) pass got nailed. I was now past this big group and only focused on passing individual riders and small groups ahead. As I made the turn to climb to Hawi around mile 41, I was feeling good. There was no wind and no whitecaps on the water so I was thinking this could be an easy climb. I made sure I was up on nutrition after riding harder than I wanted to get past that earlier group. Everything changed 2 miles later. There weren't whitecaps in the water. It was more like waves. I had my bike completely leaning toward the water to stay upright. The wind was relentless. I was in the small ring on the front and needing all of my gears on the back to keep moving forward. There wasn't a whole lot of passing now. I was just trying to keep my HR at a reasonable level until the turnaround. About 2 miles before the turnaround at Hawi, the wind eased. It did pick right back up on the descent but I did much better with it than on the trip up. I ended up getting past a lot of people who were upright and nervous. Once at the bottom of the climb, I was feeling really fresh. I didn't go hard but went at a pace to keep my speed up but not pushing hard enough to damage the legs for the run. There was a head wind the final 30 miles but nothing too bad. Living in Colorado has made that type of wind the norm so I just focused on getting calories in for the upcoming run. There were no issues the rest of the ride and I made it back to T2 with a bike time of 5:12:39. The ride was pretty drama free except for that short section where I was trying to avoid drafting. My time was slightly faster than last year and I passed 437 people during those 112 miles. I was now in 580th place..

                    T2

I came into transition and just let my bike fly off to a volunteer as I was trying to save every second possible.  I had a little issue with the tongue of my shoe but got through that and headed out to the run feeling AMAZING. My T2 time was 2:49.

                  The Run

The run was where I hoped to pull back the majority of those 3+ minutes from last year to break 10 hours. I had never felt so good starting an Ironman run as I did on this day. While not 100% fresh, my legs were completely underneath me. No Ironman shuffle or anything like that. I was able to immediately start running like I would on any other day. I was running most of my miles in the low 7 minute range (don't pay attention to those run splits or Ironmanlive...they were quite inaccurate). I was really focused on a solid first 10 miles. This is by far the fastest section of the run. It is completely flat and there is a good breeze off the ocean before you head out to the Queen K Highway. It really helps keep the core temperature down.  I hit the 10 mile mark feeling pretty good. I was determined to run out of town better than I did in 2009. This happens just after the 10 mile mark. I took me over 11 minutes for that particular mile last year. Not only did I run it that slow, I was beat down and it took a couple of miles to get back into a good rhythm. Not this year. I ran up the hills well focusing on my cadence. While climbing Palani was tough, I managed to run that same tough mile in 8:24 this time. It was way slower than any mile I had run so far, but a lot faster than 2009 and I still felt pretty good. This was very encouraging. I continued to keep checking my internal systems to make sure I wasn't losing cadence and keeping fueled. I would count my cadence at least once per mile for a minute and I was holding the same turnover. The conditions were pretty good. While still hot, there was this cloud cover that would come and go throughout the run. I tend to do well in the heat so when we'd have longer stretches of direct sun, I'd end up passing a lot of people. When the clouds would come out, I'd just kind of hold my position. I started to feel the effects of the day around the 13 mile mark. Nothing drastic. Just some fatigue in my hamstrings. It was a reminder that this was not easy! My cadence was still the same but the push off wasn't quite as strong. I had no issues for the remaining miles into the Natural Energy Lab. It was pretty hot down there and I passed a lot of people even though I was slowing down. After the climb out of there, I was feeling good but ready to be done. The legs were achy and wanting to stop but I never did. I'm proud to say I never stopped the entire marathon...not even to walk an aid station. I was taking in all the volunteers energy and hopefully giving back some of my own with high fives and hang loose signs. They were fantastic the entire day. I hit mile 24 and all of a sudden, things weren't feeling so good. The left hamstring was really tight. This went on for the next 15 minutes or so but eased up to the point where I was loose and running well. That was the only excitement of the entire run. Here are my run splits. Miles 1 and 2 are combined because I forgot to hit the lap button out of transition.
1.14:40          8.   7:13         15.  7:50       22.  7:59         
2.                   9.   7:22         16.  6:35       23.  7:53

3. 7:11          10.  7:28         17.  7:43       24.  8:39

4. 6:59          11.  8:24         18.  7:32       25.  8:38

5. 7:00          12.  6:51         19.  7:48       26.  6:59

6. 7:11          13.  7:20         20.  7:59       .2    1.22

7. 7:11          14.  7:39         21.  7:45

Signaling to my family watching me back home

I ended up running the marathon in 3:17:55 passing another 256 people in the process. This had me finish in 9:49:42, 13:44 faster than 2009! Overall, I had a good but not great day. I do consider my run to be great for my standards. This was a run PR in an Ironman by almost 8 minutes. I'm feeling pretty good about it.

               Wrap Up

I look at this race as real boring as far as things happening out of the ordinary during the race. There was no spot where I was in a real bad place that I had to pull myself from. That doesn't mean it wasn't very hard. It was and I had to dig deep at various parts of the race. That's expected and had been planned for so it was very normal in that sense. I enjoyed race day much more than last year. Having done it before, I knew a lot of what to expect. I was able to enjoy the crazy groups of spectators, the energetic volunteers, men hammering so a woman wouldn't pass them, and most importantly the amazing group of athletes that I feel privileged to have had the opportunity to race against. This is a race I would love to be able to do every year. I had to go without my family so I had an empty feeling the entire week as well as post race. They are such a big part of this journey and to not have them there took a lot away from it. For that reason, I am done racing Ironman as far as I can tell. Unless we come into a bunch of money to bring the entire family over, I'm going to go for some different things here in Colorado. It's been a great ride. I raced my first Ironman at Ironman Coeur d'Alene in 2005 in 11:52+. Since then, I've been able to take over 2 hours off that time at the World Championship. With the help of a great group of friends and an incredibly supportive family, I've been able to race in the pinnacle event of our sport in Hawaii twice. Hopefully I'll be back some day but if not, I have no regrets.