Pleasant Prairie International Distance Triathlon - Race Report
Yea, I know it's been nearly two weeks since the Pleasant Prairie Triathlon, but as I find myself saying too often, it's better late then never, right? At least I feel I have a damn good excuse - Sunday after the race I came home to out for my daughter's birthday dinner and then went back to work for a full rotation on Monday night. Not only was it a full rotation of work, but it was the infamous week of Country USA - a 5 day music festival that runs Tuesday through Saturday. Most officers for our Sheriff's Office have to work 11 hour shifts for all 5 days, so needless to say, it's one long week. So, now on to my race report. But first, I realize that I have a habit of rambling on and on, especially with my race reports, so in an effort to cut the fluff, I am changing my race report template, so we'll see how this goes....so here goes nothing....
Why this Race
Each year in the late winter when I start planning my upcoming race schedule, I pull out my work schedule to first see which weekends I can actually race on. Once I figure out the few weekends each year I am free to race, I start looking to see where I want to race. There are definitely races that I want to do each and every year, but most times, I enjoy traveling around the state and Midwest to try new races. So, when I saw that I was able to register for the Pleasant Prairie Triathlon, I was pretty excited. I have heard good things about this race and knew it was a competitive race. Also, knowing that I was racing all shorter duration races this year, I did want to do one Olympic distance race to see exactly how I would fare in that distance. Typically speaking, sprint distance races are generally not as deep of a field competitively. While Olympic distance races are much more competitive in nature. I have only done one "Olympic" distance race in my career, but only early on. I say "Olympic" in quotations, because it was advertised as an Olympic race, but was not a true Olympic distance race. So, in all reality, I never raced a true Olympic distance race and really wanted to lay it on the line to see how I stack up.
Training for this Race
Not often do I find myself racing on back-to-back weekends, but that is exactly what I found myself doing coming off of my race at High Cliff. My training coming off of High Cliff was not much different from the training I had been doing prior to High Cliff. The big difference was my emphasis on recovery. I knew if I wanted to not only have a successful race in Pleasant Prairie, but avoid potential injury, I would need to be fully recovered from racing at High Cliff. My training focused a lot on swimming with 4 swimming workouts, with 3 bike workouts, and 3 running workouts. I opted to take Saturday off completely from training to allow a full day of recovery before the race. I felt like I recovered nicely leading up to this race. I attribute that to my nutrition throughout the week along with diligent use of my foam roller and self massage stick.
Pre Race
My bedroom for the night
Traditionally I wouldn't classify myself as a superstitious guy, but I do like to do a lot of the same things the night before races. So my pre race plan for Pleasant Prairie was completely crazy and really goes to show how dedicated I am to the sport of Triathlon and how far I will go to race. So, Pleasant Prairie is about 2.5 hours south of our home in Kaukauna. The race was scheduled to start at 6:30am on Sunday morning, meaning if I was to leave Sunday morning, I would have to leave around 2:30-3:00am in order to get there early enough to prepare for race day. Instead of driving down that early, I opted to stay closer to Pleasant Prairie the night before. By doing this I was able to take advantage of packet pick up on Saturday and could rack my bike the night before, which makes race day morning just that much easier. Finding a place to crash the night before is where my craziness starts. It was enough to ask Sarah to go away for the night and leave her alone with 3 kids just so I can race, so when I asked to book a hotel for the night and spend an additional $120 it didn't go over so well. So my options were to either camp again at a local state park or book a really cheap motel for $45/night. I opted for booking a campsite over the shady motel. At least this way I knew what I would be getting AND I would save some money. I booked a campsite at Richard Bong Recreation Area, which is about 20-25 minutes west of Pleasant Prairie. The race expo and packet pick up was pretty simple, but the fact that I was able to rack my bike the night before was a nice perk. After the expo, I headed to my campsite. Once there, it started to rain. I packed a small one person tent, but was debating whether or not to use it in order to save time in the morning and to just make my morning easier all together. So, when it started to rain, it made my decision easy, I folded down all the seats in my Ford Flex and made a makeshift bed. I got to my campsite around 4pm. Knowing that, I spent 12 solid hours straight in my car. I ate my dinner of salmon fillets, sweet potato with and apple, and a salad around 6pm, while sitting in my car. I then hung out and tried to keep myself occupied with listening to podcasts and playing games on my iPad until I ultimately went to bed around 8:30pm with a 4am alarm. Surprisingly, I woke up after sleeping relatively well, all things considered. I made it to the race host, The Pleasant Prairie Rec Plex (a municipal recreation building and health club) around 5:00am after stopping for gas and coffee on the way to the race. I was able to get my transition area all set up. As the sun came up, the entire landscape was covered in a dense fog. The race director was confident that the fog would lift quickly after the sun came up and the temperatures began to raise. They announcer said that there were contingency plans for the race in the fact that the fog did not lift as quickly as they had hoped. As it turns out the fog was so thick and it failed to clear out in a timely manner. This forced the race officials to postpone the start of the race for safety reasons on the swim course. The first wave was scheduled to start at 6:30am, but at that time you could not even see the first orange swim buoy that marks the swim course, let alone any other swim buoy. The race did not start until close to 8am, nearly 1.5 hours later. This postponed start forced the international distance bike course to be cut short by about 2-3 miles. This was due to logistical reasons that they could not keep a major highway closed any longer then they had scheduled.
View of the transition area
Nutrition Plan
With an Olympic distance triathlon taking at least about 2 hours, I knew I needed to change my nutrition plan from what I did at the High Cliff Sprint Triathlon. On the way to the race, I ate a 180 calorie nut butter packet and then an hour before the race was scheduled to start (5:30am) I ate a Cashew Coconut Chocolate Chip Hammer Bar, along with my usual servings of Anti-Fatigue Caps (2), Race Caps Supreme (2), and Mito Caps (2). During the race, I drank about 270 calories throughout the bike leg with 2 Anti-Fatigue Caps at half way and then had a watered down Chocolate Hammer Gel in a flask with an Energy Surge mixed in. I had a second Peanut Butter Hammer Gel at the 5k mark of the run.
The venue for the swim was Lake Andrea, which is a spring fed 100 acre lake. The temperatures race morning was 69 degrees. Unfortunately, for safety reasons with the fog, we were unable to swim in the lake before the start of the race. The race started on the shoreline of the lake and once the race started we headed straight out for 10-20 yards before making a right hand turn to head along the shore line. The water was comfortable, temperature wise, and clear. It was a great venue for a triathlon swim. I really wanted to put up a strong swim time to put myself out towards the front at the start of the bike leg. I felt as though I got out front early and just tried to hold on. I caught up to most of the wave that went out ahead of my around the half way point of the swim. As I exited the water I didn't see many black swim caps of the M30-34 age group, which was my entire wave. I felt confident as I entered T1.
40k Bike (54:05)
The race hosted a sprint distance race and a duathlon, in addition to the Olympic distance race. The bike course for the Olympic race consisted of two loops. The first loop went West from the race site and the second loop, East of the race site. The sprint distance only raced on the East loop. As I proceeded to head out on the first loop, I was not passed and passed about 3-5 others. During the second loop, it was tough to determine if you were being passed my sprint course racers or Olympic distance races. Not that it matters, but I like trying to track positions in my head to keep my pushing. The bike course was basic, nothing special, not much for scenery and a few stretches of rougher roads.
10k Run (40:23)
After exiting T2, I felt as though I was in the top 3 in the M30-34 age group, based on my belief of exiting the water in the top 3 of my wave and not being passed on the bike by anyone in my wave/age group. I wanted to find my groove early on in the run, knowing I had to run hard for 6.2 miles, which is twice as long as the run leg in a sprint triathlon. I was passed early on just before mile 1 by another guy in my age group and then yet another guy after mile 2. My mile splits for the first 5k were all in the 6:30/mile ball park. I felt good at that pace and just wanted to hold that pace the best I could. I don't recall passing many people on the run course. I am positive I didn't pass anyone from my wave/age group. For the first time, I felt as though my run was my weak link in my race. I have always felt like a strong runner and generally think I am, at least in an open run (5k road race). Maybe this is because I have changed my strategy in my race to ride as hard as possible during the race. In the past, I have ridden at a higher cadence to save energy for the run. After reaching the 6 mile mark, I really turned up my cadence and ran an average pace of 5:09/mile pace over the last 0.20 miles. The run course was really nice. Half of the course was on a rec trail that circle around Lake Andrea. The sprint and International distance courses split after about a mile and a half and the International course runs an out-and-back stick on a gravel trail, before meeting up with the last half of the sprint course.
Post Race
After the race I hung out to see how I fared. I finished the race in 2:04:39, which was good enough for 14th overall and 5th in my age group. I was not surprised to finish 14th overall, but was surprised to finish 5th in my age group WHILE finishing 14th overall. That means that about a third of the top 14 finishers were in my age group. This includes every other age group AND the Elite competitors. Regardless of my place, I was satisfied with my race. I was disappointed in the end that the bike course was cut short because I really wanted an accurate time in a full Olympic Distance course to compare it with. After I learned that I did not place in my age group, I had my traditional post race beer, which I did open up with my race medal, which was in fact a bottle opener. One nice perk of the race, at least for me and my circumstances, was the ability to utilize the Rec Plex's shower facilities. So, after the race, I was able to drive straight home in fresh, clean clothes.
What's on Tap
As I mentioned in my preface, I had Country USA start right away on Tuesday night following this race. My next race is about a month away. On July 27th, I will be racing the Ripon Medical Center Sprint Triathlon, in Ripon, WI. This will be my last race before the Age Group National Championships in August. This will also be my only actual sprint triathlon with distances of 750m swim, 20k bike, and 5k run, which are the same distances of the National Championships. This will give me one final tune-up race to prepare and test some race strategies. Until then, I will be training my ass off and really focusing on top end speed and power to peak for my race on August 10th. I will also continue to focus on eating a clean, higher fat diet to trim up to help race my best race ever at the USA Triathlon Age Group National Championships.
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