The Grain Lesson – 3/28/19

“But if we are wise, we know that there’s always tomorrow.” – Bill Withers

Growing up, I attended Camp Saugatuck several times. It was a Presbyterian Church camp on Lake Michigan, and it was located near Saugatuck, MI. It’s been gone for several years — the Presbytery of Chicago sold the land and a developer has put / is putting mega houses where it once was.

During the summer camp about 30 years ago, none of us were allowed into the dining hall as normal. Instead, they divided us up into 3 groups and let us in for the ‘grain lesson’. One group was given 7 grains, one group was given 3 and the last was given none. You had to trade your grain for food items, and IIRC the lesson was about showing compassion and help for those that were in need (from the group that had more than enough (7) to the other two).

I ended up in the group that got zero grain. I remember being temporarily worried about how I was going to eat, as I had nothing to trade for my food. But within short order, others gave and helped me, and I was able to get dinner.

If you’ve read through all of that, you may be wondering — what’s the point? What does this have to do with Triathlon? Keep reading — I’ll explain.

During the first two full years, I relied extremely heavily on others since I simply didn’t have the resources. I had lost hours and benefits shortly before the 2016 season started, and would have been in a bad spot without that help. As I start my 2019 season, I’m now faced with having to find a new job.

If I hadn’t had that lesson 30 years ago, and the support throughout the challenges of the first 3 full seasons, I would have been MUCH more upset about all these changes and their potential effects. But since I have, I’m able to find ways to make sure I’m ‘salvaging’ workouts during the chaos and trying to stay on the path. I have a tremendously long list of goals, races and camps for 2019. So taking more than a day or two to be upset/feel sorry for myself isn’t going to do anyone any good…

The bottom line, and moral of the story is that you’re NEVER alone. No matter how hard the journey may look or may be, there are always others to help you along it. And there’s always tomorrow…

Shufflin’ (2019 Shamrock Shuffle) – 3/24/19

“He’s a rebel and a runner. He’s a signal turning green.” – RUSH

While I haven’t done it in the past 2 years, the Shamrock Shuffle is a special race for me. This is the race where everything Triathlon-related started for me. And while I know that last sentence sounds odd, it will all make sense in a moment. Keri Serota, who is the Executive Director of Dare2Tri, is also the AWD coordinator for the Shamrock Shuffle. The short version of the story goes I told her I was going to do my first Tri in Aug 2015, she told me about Dare2Tri and invited me to the PT camp; the rest is history.

After Columbus, I felt really good going into Shamrock Shuffle. Instead of 3 loops of hills, I knew I’d only have one major (Roosevelt) hill and that I’d only have to do it once. So going in, I had two real goals: (1) To make it out of the tunnels before the elites caught up to us and (2) to not walk outside of aid station and at most 1/3 of the Roosevelt hill. Having burnt out in mile 1 in 2016, I knew that my pacing had to be better. Lisa kept an eye on this throughout the entire run, and that helped immensely.

Goal #1 was achieved during the 1st mile (I believe they caught us at about .65 or .7). From that point through the first aid station (about 1.6), the pace was fairly consistent and I had two guides with me. Then at close to 2, I unintentially dropped a guide. We tried to keep them in sight as they caught their breath and regrouped, but it just didn’t work for them to re-join. And while it wasn’t intentional, yes, I did still feel bad about it happening. All of the guides I run with give up their time and race to run with and look after me. I try my hardest to return that. Keri (Achilles) joined us about a half mile later so that I had two guides again.

Shortly after the 5K spilt, I started to look for the aid station. Given where the first one had been and the race distance, I expected it at about 3.25. However, it didn’t appear until almost 3.7. I’ve stopped running with a bottle on 5k/8K/10K races, so I was struggling a bit between where I thought it would be and where it was. Mostly in terms of trying to get enough lubrication so I could swallow.

After you make the turn at about 3.9 or 4, it’s a straight shot to the turn at Roosevelt, hill and finish. Having run that stretch several times, I remember it being clear sailing. So I didn’t expect or see the divot that caused me to trip and fall. Luckily I caught myself and really only hit the pad of my palm hard. After taking about a minute to regroup and about a minute to walk, we started off again towards Mt. Roosevelt.

While I didn’t succeed in running it completely, I did succeed with goal #2. In 2015 and 2016, I had to stop after about 100 feet and walk it. This year, I made it about 1/2 way up before I had to stop and walk for 30-45 seconds. Once I got my breath back, we kept running and finished strong (1:03:25).

I look forward to running it again in 2020. Thank you to Achilles for their support and to Lisa, Keri and Jen for guiding for me! Also thank to you Dare2Tri for facilitation the AWD support!

#shamrockshuffle #shamrockshuffle2019 #achilles #achilleschicago #dare2tri #awd #8K #GoAchilles

Take 1 (Arnold Indoor Tri) – 3/2/19

“And the magic music makes your morning mood.” – RUSH

Last year as I was planning out my Nationals qualifying races, I stumbled across an Indoor Tri in Columbus. Having family there, I decided to give it a try. And while the run was a bitch, what sticks in my mind from last year was crushing the bike when good music came on. Even though I can’t remember if it was Welcome to the Jungle or Paradise City, I do remember hitting 28 or 29 on the bike when GNR came on.

So going into this year’s race, I was really hoping for several solid songs together. I knew that that was the only way for me to make it off the bike in 20 minutes and ultimately to having a chance at 1:18. I also knew that facing the hill in practice would make it a little ‘less worse’ on Saturday. We got in a full lap along with some swim and ‘bike fit’ before calling it a night.

Based on how practice went Friday night, I was confident that I could qualify Saturday IF T2 was less of a maze. And as we got into the pool, I was confident that I could come close to a 16/2/20/2/38 split to achieve the 1:18 I needed.

While I felt good on the swim, it did not go as I wanted or needed it to. Results show that my 100s averaged about 45s slower than they should have been. And Robin mentioned that there were a lot of straight arm strokes. Definitely something that needs to be addressed before the next race…

When we made it to the bike, I had no idea that I was 5 minutes off my mark. I honestly believed that I was at worst in a 2 minute hole. In any event, I was ready to try and keep a 30mph pace during the bike. To that end, I had 2 full bottles of Skratch and a Clif bar to eat towards the end. I figured by doing so, I’d keep the mph and have a little more for hill hell.

While that was a great plan, it didn’t fully come to fruition. Even though I was able to spike to 29-30, I wasn’t able to sustain it for more than a minute. There were a couple of really good songs that helped the average. But during a couple, I could definitely feel the mojo draining.

Knowing that I was at about 54 minutes headed out to the run, it became purely about pride. I know I can’t run 7 minute miles on the best days. So there surely wasn’t any way I could run 7 minute miles in hill hell.

I can and will continue to call the run hill hell because of the river -> Premier part. When you come out of T2, you’re in the middle of two hills. The one to the right, where you start up, isn’t that bad. Let’s call it a 1/4 mile gentle uphill. However, the one to the left is a PITA. Let’s call it a 1/4 mile that starts with a ~25 degree uphill for 150-200 feet, followed by a steeper gradual uphill for the rest of it. And to add injury to insult, you have to slow/stop your legs at the bottom of the downhill to turn. Not fun trying to restart your engine AND go up a steep grade.

Lap 1 was okay; lap 2 was meh; lap 3 was a struggle. After 2 laps of struggling with the steep hill, I had little left for the uphills in lap 3. So it turned into staggered run/walk to just get through it. Even though I had to walk in parts, I was able to nail the 5K pace that I wanted.

And while I just spent two paragraphs saying how frustrating the hills are, YES I will be back in 2020 to race it again.

Thanks to Robin for guiding for me again this year! And to #EagleCheerleader and family/friends for coming out to cheer us on!