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Yesterday I completed  the Lobsterman, my first Olympic length triathlon (1500 meter swim, 40k bike, 10k run). This race was the culmination of a long summer of training with various ups and downs. The short summary is that it was a gorgeous day, although a bit windy and very hilly. I completed the race in 2:48:38 with splits of swim 31:38, bike 1:21:03, and run 51:47. Complete race report follows. If you’re interested in reading about my first triathlon here are links to part 1 and part 2.

After the Powow Triathlon in July I decided I wanted to start racing longer distances. The sprint length was a bit short and I never really got into any of the three events. Just when I was hitting my pace on the bike, it was time to run and just when my legs were warm running, the race was over. The next distance up from a sprint is an olympic/international distance so I targeted the Lobsterman in mid September as the end of season race as my training goal.

Now that I had a race plan I decided to invest some money in better equipment. I went out and bought a wetsuit since a lot of swims in New England are in the cold ocean. The crown jewel of my purchases was a brand new Cervelo P1 triathlon bike with a Powertap. The thoughts were that the triathlon frame and position would increase my speed over my 12 year old road bike by keeping me in an aero position. The Powertap is a device to measure how much power my legs are delivering and is a very useful training device to see how much real work the body is doing.

Training was progressing very well through July and August. I ran the Yankee Homecoming 10 mile race and was learning and loving my new bike and training tools. Unfortunately my whole summer was changed on August 25. As I was finishing a training ride a Lincoln Town Car pulled out from a side street trying to cross the main road I was on and t-boned me.

I haven’t blogged about the accident because it really has evoked too many emotions to be described in a blog post. The summary is that I feel very lucky that I escaped as well as I did. I ended up flipping off of my bike onto his hood, sliding up the hood and cracking his windshield, before being thrown to the ground 6 feet in front of his car. My bike ended up another 10 feet or so in front of the car. I got taken to the hospital for x-rays and to make sure I wasn’t bleeding internally,etc. My bike, however, was totaled. Check out this neat shot of the front fork sheered off by the impact.

I guess I rolled pretty well because I took most of the force rolling across my shoulder and arm on the right side of my body. In the end the right side of my body was bruised up in addition to my knee, thigh, and knuckles on my left hand. After all of that, nothing was broken. It’s now almost 4 weeks after the accident and I still have a barely visible bruise on my right quad and the muscles deep in my right shoulder and quad are still sore. I’m still significantly more tired, thirsty, and hungry than I was before the accident. I guess healing bodies require food, water, and sleep in large quantities.

I first suspected I would have to skip the race based upon how bruised and sore I was for the first week after the accident. I did a follow up appointment with my primary care physician who took some more knee x-rays. When those were cleared the following week, I decided to go test out my sore body and see if there was any hope of still racing. That 2nd week I did a short 500m pool swim, a 5k run, and a short 12 or 15 mile bike on my old road bike.

After that quick test I gave my body another full week of rest before deciding what to do for my final two weeks of training. I was feeling pretty depressed because the two weeks I had to take off were supposed to be my two peak weeks for the season. Instead of working out for 12-14 hours each week I had to settle for about an hour of get out and see if my body still works time. It’s hard to describe how unsettling that was for my body and mind. At this point I decided I would still try to race but that I should have very realistic expectations for my performance.

The week before the race I got a new bike, although it’s still not completely built. I have the basic frame and components so I could get used to the bike the week before the race. However, my wheels and Powertap are still being replaced so Marty at Fitwerx2 arranged for me to borrow a Powertap for the race. I can’t say enough good things about my experience with Fitwerx2.

The night before the race, Dan Dunn came up to Newburyport to relax with me and take my mind off of the big day. Also, we had to leave for the race site at 5:30 in the morning so he just spent the night in the guest room. After a nice pasta dinner I managed to get about 4.5 hours of decent quality sleep before the alarm went off at 4:30. I had some breakfast, mixed up my nutrition drinks for the day, and loaded the car up. We saw a gorgeous sunrise as we drove the 1.5 north to Freeport, ME for the race.

At the site I checked in, set up my transition area, and had a half hour to spend with Dan, Susan, and Emily Kubec who drove over from New Hampshire to cheer me on. I really appreciated having Dan and Emily there to cheer for me and keep Su company while I was out on the course. About 8:45 I put on my wet suit and went down to the cold ocean to get my body used to the water temperature. When I got out of the water it was time for the walk down the beach to the start area for instructions and the nervous wait until my wave (wave 4) was launched.

The tide was coming in during the race setting up some interesting current patterns in the bay. The first leg was pretty easy and I spent it going slowly because 1500 meters in the ocean was substantially longer and harder than the 750 meters I did in the calm lake last triathlon. The back straight was the longest leg of the race and sighting the next buoy became an issue. I spent a significant amount of time and energy making sure I was still on a good line. The final leg back into shore turned out to be the hardest. There was a significant current that was pushing everyone way off course. What I was hoping would have been the easiest leg due to the incoming tide was actually very tiring fighting to hold the proper line.  I came out of the water in 31:38. I expected to come out between 30 and 35 so I was right on my target. I think I did a good job holding back physically so I wouldn’t exhaust myself for the bike and run legs, but there was a lot of mental energy put into the ocean swim.

The transition area was up a rocky hill and down a rocky path. Fortunately my feet were too cold from the ocean to feel anything. I was quite dizzy from coming out of the water which was something I expected from the last race, but the effect from the longer swim made it a more powerful disorienting feeling. I had no problems getting out of my wet suit but almost fell over trying to put my bike shoes on. After a decent 2:30 transition I mounted my bike and started down the sandy exit road from the park.

The sand/stones on the exit road seemed a bit dangerous to me. There were other athletes moving very fast out of transition on their bikes while I was just trying to get my legs moving and not hit a sandy patch. Fortunately that section was only a few hundred meters long and we were onto the open road. I took the first 1.5 miles or so to get warmed up and to try to get my heart rate and breathing under control from the swim. During this time I got passed by a bunch of people, many of whom I would catch later when I was properly warm.

I had looked at the course elevation profile before the race, but it really did not do justice to the number of hills on the course. I estimate there was less than 1 mile of truly flat terrain on the entire 25 mile bike. This, combined with some very rough road conditions from frost heaves, and gusty 10-20 mph winds made for slower bike leg than I would have liked. I ended up finishing in just over 1:21:00 with an average of 18.3 mph. The good news is that my legs felt fairly fresh as I had used the power meter on my bike to limit my exertion. At one point I dropped my chain trying to shift on a steep uphill, but that only cost me 20 seconds or so to hop off and slip it back on.

Apparently I did a good job holding back sufficiently because I cheesed for a photo on the run out. I remember giving the thumbs up, but I don’t remember looking quite so happy.

The 10k was the same course as the first 3 miles of the bike course so I knew to expect the hills. Despite the terrain I managed to run 8:10/mile for the run. About mile 3 or 4 I felt warmed up and had a good final 3 miles into the finish. The last half a mile was made happier by a spectator’s german shepherd who she had singing/howling at the runners as the owner whooped to cheer us on.

After crossing the finish line in 2:48:38 I did all the usual post race activities including cramming myself with food and water before wandering off to find my support crew. I was very happy to finish within the goal time I had set for myself. I figured I would come in somewhere between 2:45 and 3:00 and given that 4 weeks ago I didn’t know if I’d race at all I felt a bit emotional.

Afterwards we all headed off to Gritty McDuff’s for a post race burger and beer before heading home for a well earned nap. It’s now 24 hours post race and my body is still tired and sore, but it’s a good tired and sore. My shoulder and quad that were most injured in the accident are definitely feeling the exertion more than the rest of my body, but given the circumstances I’m feeling confident.

Over the next two weeks or so I’ll sort out what my race plans are for next year and start an off season maintenance routine. Overall, I pronounce my first triathlon season a success and I’m looking forward to figuring out what’s next!