Stupid Racing

Racing Rev3 Quassy in the Aqua-bike division instead of the full 70.3 distance, gave me a much different look at racing than I am used to. Over the years I have made more than my fair share of racing mistakes. In fact, safe to say if there is something bone-headed you could do ... I have given it a try. On June 2 I saw for myself what is probably the #1 error in racing triathlon - riding the bike too damn hard.

Triathlon is a sport that is a combination of three sports - swim, bike, and run. Every now and then I get asked which sport is the "hardest." For me it had been the swim, simply because I am not a swimmer and had to build swim fitness and technique. In reality, the run is where things tend to get interesting for many of us. Not because of run fitness in many cases, but due to either poor race day nutrition or bad racing.

And by bad racing, what I really mean is racing the bike.

Getting out of the water and onto the bike feels great. All warmed up and ready to push, it is soooo easy to just kill it out there on the bike. Especially at the 70.3 or full Ironman distance pushing the pace doesn't even feel hard ... at least for a while. What's worse is when you start in a later wave and have hundreds or thousands of people out in front of you. Passing people feels awesome!!! Until ...

There comes that point, either on the bike or on the run where you suddenly realize that your legs suddenly just aren't there. Can't figure what happened. Just. Not. There. What happened was you. Or in my case, me! A triathlon is swim-bike-run, not a bike race with a swim warmup and a run cool down. And a great bike and a crappy run is just a race that could have been better. Probably much better.

So in Quassy I was in a swim wave behind all the men except for those under the age of 30. That put a lot of guys in front of me, all of them having to run a 1/2 marathon off the bike. The top guys I would never see because, quite honestly, they were better than me and they started 5 to 20 minutes before I did. And if I did see them, they are strong enough cyclists/runners ... that's why they are the top guys.

All I had to do is ride my bike and grab some lunch. For once, I really was racing the bike. And I rode like it, pushing the pace from the get go. About 3 miles in, however, a funny thing happened - a guy tried to jump on my wheel. Getting past the it's illegal to draft thing, I was a little shocked. This was a challenging course which requires a disciplined approach. Yet here's a guy looking to push the pace three miles in,  just because I passed him. He didn't stay with me very long.

This happened again and again over the next two hours. Even on the 7 mile climb I saw it happen. Later in the day I was out on the run course cheering on friends thinking about the number of people walking/shuffling as they went by and wondering how many of them pushed too hard on the bike.

As I said earlier, I have done this myself. At the Philly Tri one year I did it quite spectacularly and for a really, really dumb reason. I'm riding along feeling good, doing what I need to do. Then, on the back half of the first loop I get passed -- really cut off - by this guy in my age group with this really stupid looking bike and a stupid grin on his face (I swear he did. There is no way he went by and wasn't taunting me with that look. No way!!!). Anyhow, I take off riding with my head down, like I was doing a time trial. I absolutely killed it. Coming into transition I realized that I had only drank 1/2 a bottle of Gatorade. Hummmm. Then my legs weren't quite under me "running" into T2 ...

Ugly would be an understatement for what happened after that. At least it was hot and the sun was glaring down on us, just so I could suffer a little more. Wasn't the first time it happened, wasn't the last.

This is what a bonk looks like - IMCDA June,2008

Which brings us back to the Philly Tri. I ran for the first time in 6 weeks this morning and in less than 2 weeks I will be in the Schuylkill River looking for a time, fully knowing that my run, at best, will be 2-3 minutes slower than I would like it to be. My better judgement tells me to run a smart race. My inner voice tells me to really push the bike. Must. Race. Smart.