2015 TriRock Philadelphia Triathlon Race Report

As I have stated previously, the TriRock Philladelphia Triathlon is one of my all-time favorite races. I like the venue - the roads in and around Fairmont Park and the Schuylkill River - I like the challenge of the bike course, and the organization has always been top notch. The only complaint one could ever have about this race is the possibility the swim could be cancelled due to poor river conditions.

My goal going into the race (as stated here) was very straight forward - set a PR. I felt that my training had been going well, I know this course well (this would be my 8th time racing here), and with no Ironman or half Iornman races on the schedule I could focus on racing this distance for the first time ever. But in order to race a PR I would need to have a full Olympic distance course to race. And that is where my problems began ...

On the ride down Saturday afternoon in a downpour I contemplated the real possibility of a cancelled swim. The Schuylkill River can get muddy and filled with debris due to heavy rains making it impossible for the race promoters to allow anyone in the water. And, really, who would want to try to swim in those conditions?

Pre-Race with the Belgian Beast

My thoughts were confirmed when I got to packet pickup. The swim had been cancelled, but much to my surprise, the race would go off in a time trial start. This took me by surprise as in the past a cancelled swim meant a run-bike run format. Granted, TriRock wasn't the race promoter the last time this happened, but TriRock was the promoter in Asbury Park last year where they cancelled the swim due to a rip tide, and a run replaced the swim.

Bottom line: no PR attempt and a race format I didn't like.

The good news is I met up with Philippe (the Belgian Beast), who was racing with the Johnson & Johnson team and raised more than $8,000 for childhood cancer, and spent a nice but uneventful night in the city. Our hotel room in the University City section was only a few miles from the race site. We didn't venture too far because of the rain, but didn't really have to. Directly across the street from our hotel was a pizza place with everything we needed for a pre-race meal.

Race Morning

Early races mean early wake up times. In this case the alarm went off around 4:45 am mixed with the sound of rain hitting the hotel windows. After a quick stretch, a small meal and a couple of trips to the bathroom we headed over to the race site. The Belgian Beast rode his bike over and I decided to drive the four miles as I planned on heading home straight from the race site. The drive was easy as was parking.

Once down around transition the weather was causing some chaos. I have to give TriRock a lot of credit for their flexibility as they just went with the situation. The rain had not let up and transition was a total mess. There was a long line for body marking as the markers weren't working on wet skin. The race director made the decision to let it slide.

The pro race started at 6:30 am with a big gap of time before the first age groupers would head out to the start line. Seems crazy unless you know the course. With two bike loops that are both hilly and technical it made sense to let the pros have the bike course to themselves. Not the best thing for me, but understandable.

What the gap in time did allow for was a chance to catch the pro field coming through T2. You know they are fast, but it becomes much more real as they fly through transition so fast and efficiently.

Race Winner Cameron Dye exiting T2

The Bike: 23.6 miles 1:03:18 

Strava File

The time trial start at a triathlon is not my friend. Even a hard swim gives the body a chance to get warmed up to the point where I'm comfortable from the start of the bike. After standing around for 2 1/2 hours I was nothing close to loose. I had the same issue at Ironman Florida this past November when the swim there didn't happen due to a rip tide. I'm old and tighten up when I stand around in transition. It is even more of a challenge here as the first climb of the day comes about one mile into the ride, giving you very little time to settled into a rhythm.

Somewhere around 8:35 am I finally was released to start my race.

Going into the ride my concern was that the time trial start would cause more crowding than normal. As one of the last people to start racing I assumed there would be a big jam up. My experience, fortunately, was just the opposite. Which worked out great.

If you thought that I might take it easy you would be wrong. While I did sorta ease into the first mile, once I hit the base of the first hill it was game on. With the wet roads my game plan was to work the uphills, ride conservatively on the technical downhills and open it up on the flat stretches working through the field the best I could. And that is exactly how it played out. For the first 7 or 8 miles I had another AG45-49 guy around me, but I dropped him for good the first time up Lemon Hill.

From there I just continued to move forward as fast as I could with no drama.

T2: 1:31

Not my fastest time. Ended up having some trouble with the mud.

The Run - 6.2 miles 48:28 

Strava File

After a good run at Jerseyman in May I really had some high expectations for my run. I will never be the fastest guy out there, but I a 6:40-6:45 would have been respectable, and well within my current fitness. Or so I thought.

Source: Craig Sheckler

Heading out onto the run course my legs were still not loosened up. I assumed that they would come around somewhere in the first mile.

Never make assumptions ...

About 3/4 of a mile in the guy I passed on the bike on Lemon Hill came by me. He got a gap and then he slowed back down to my pace. Sounds good, except "my pace" was somewhere around a 7:10 mile, not a 6:40. Just after mile two I was passed by two more AG45-49 men who I should have been able to hang with.

But not today. On this day it just wasn't happening. Just after mile 3 I got a little light headed and took a brief walk break, taking in some Gatorade, hoping to turn things around. A few minutes later I rethought the situation. With no chance for a PR, my legs not responding, and being out of the top three in my age group, I could think of no reason to push myself. So as the Strava file shows, I didn't rush things.

Overall -1:53:16 86th out of 896; AG45-49 6/77

Not what I wanted for sure. The goal coming in was a PR at the Olympic Distance. No swim = no PR, which came as a big mental letdown.

How Could I Have Raced Better

I could have kept my head in the game. Once the race got changed I mentally checked out, which is never a good way to race and something I need to work on for the future.

I could have also taken better care of myself during the extended wait to begin racing. A better protocol than stand around and talk. I ended up peeing like 8 times while standing around and took in a few calories and some liquids, but surely not enough. In the future I need to be better prepared for the unexpected.

Overall Impression of the Race

This is one of my favorite races every season and I highly recommend it to everyone. "Flat and fast" is fine every now and then, but most of the time I enjoy the challenge of a technical bike course. The venue is nice while TriRock has done a great job of keeping this race great.

Full race results can be found here.

Up next: On July 4th The Queen and I ran the Firecracker 4 Miler in Palmer Township. On July 19th I'll be racing the N.J. State State Triathlon (Olympic Distance) in West Windsor, NJ. 

Thanks for reading.

Train hard. Stay focused.
Jon

Thoughts on the Upcoming TriRock Philly Triathlon

"The best pace is a suicide pace and today seems like a good day to die" - Steve Prefontaine

On Sunday June 28 I will be among 2000 or so people who are looking to complete the TriRock Philadelphia Olympic distance triathlon. Everyone is there for a reason. My reason for racing is simple - I want a big PR.

Since 1998 my big goal races have been long distance affairs. They have been either a marathon or a race with the word Ironman in the race's name (both the 70.3 or full distance). Most years there were multiple races of these distance on my schedule.

This race season is a very different one for me. In 2015 the longest events I will participate in are Olympic Distance Triathlons and half marathons. This change in focus has given me the chance to do some different things, making my experiment of N = 1 a totally new, interesting experience.

In year's past I have raced shorter distances, but never as the focus of what I was trying to accomplish as a racer. Most all of these would be considered "B" or "C" training races. I cannot remember doing anything close to a taper that lasted more than three days. All things considered, I haven't done all that bad on the short stuff.

Philly Tri with the Mighty Belgian in 2013

In 2009 at the ripe old age of 40 I set my Olympic distance triathlon PR of 2:12:54 at the Philadelphia Triathlon. I remember swimming well, riding as expected before hanging on for the last few miles of the run. Two weeks prior I had raced Eagleman 70.3.

Last year at Steelman I came close to a new PR, missing the old mark by just 4 seconds. This was during my build for Ironman Florida, so no taper. And then there was that whole knee surgery thing I was still recovering from. Needless to say (but I will anyway), the fast time came as a surprise.

It also got me thinking: What if I actually trained for the OLY distance? How fast could I conceivably go?

So here I am, less than two weeks out from the Philly Tri looking to score a big PR. How big? Weeellll ... I think I can go 2:10:xx.

No. seriously, I think I can go 2:10:xx. And not only do I think I can do it, I'm going to go for it on June 28. There are no secondary goals or "if this happens" kind of scenarios. None of that for Jon. Come race day I'm racing for a 2:10 or better. Period.

I've never been the  keep one foot in the door, race safe kind of guy. In my mind, unless I'm racing "for fun" I am out there to see what I have on that given day. Race safe and you get mediocre results. Which is fine, I guess. To each his or her own. But racing safe means never fully investing yourself in what you are doing. Yes, you won't likely be disappointed. OK. But does racing safe really produce success?

In order to produce personal greatness one needs to take the risk of racing on the edge. When you race on the edge you risk blowing up and having what looks like pretty crappy results. Could this be considered "failure?" More to the point, if I go, say, 2:22:xx would I consider my race a failure? It depends.

If I go out, race smart but on the edge, pushing my personal limits and leaving it all out on the race course then yes, a 2:22 would be a success. After years of racing making a stupid mistake with my pacing or nutrition would be a failure. Not pushing the limit and putting up a good time would be failure as well. Blowing up while shooting for that stretch goal? I'm so good with that.

There will be no "I could have gone 2:10 if I really wanted" come June 28. I want to know what I'm capable of. And without a legit effort it is impossible to know my personal limits. Whatever happens, when I enter the finishers shoot I will know exactly what I had on that day. I'll give it my all, risking failure in the process.

I have more than enough experience to be confident that when I jump in the Schuylkill River I won't screw things up. What I do fear is that my two week taper period could cause me to not perform my best. This is a new experience for me and, quite frankly, what I'm doing to be prepared is a best guess kinda thing. I know what I have done for longer races, and I know what the standard protocols are for short course racing are, but I do not know how this all relates to me specifically. Hopefully it works out as I expect.

Thanks for reading.

Train hard. Stay focused.
Jon

TriRock Philadelphia Triathlon Race Report

The TriRock Philadelphia Triathlon took place on June 23, 2013 and was my sixth time racing on this course. Over the years this has gone from a relatively local race run by local people, to becoming a part of the TriRock series this year. Over the years the race course has changed little, something I can appreciate. It is nice to race in different places on different courses, for sure, but having a familiar race on the schedule is nice.

In talking to others I have found that there are many people who are not big fans, who won't race here any more. I get that. Living 60 miles north of Philadelphia, the race is a long drive on race morning if you don't plan on staying in Philly. The swim is in the Schuylkill River, which is clean, but has a bad reputation; The bike course can be technical and crowded; The run is a little goofy and can get hot. Me ... I really like this race.

Saturday Pre-Race Packet Pickup

Late Saturday morning I hopped into the Prius and headed down the Northeast Extension to the race expo to pickup my race packet and hopefully meet up with Philippe. As anyone who has ever driven in Philadelphia would expect, the Schuylkill Expressway was bumper-to-bumper. Fortunately, I have raced in Philly enough to know how to get around without the main highways, and lost little time due to traffic. On Belmont Ave. I passed pro triathlete, and second place finisher, Andy Potts, who was riding his bike over to the expo.

The lines were short and I got my packet in a timely manner, but they made it a bit more complicated than it needs to be. The expo was mostly the same vendors as year's past with one exception. I read about this product called Swim Spray that says it will take away that chlorine smell that comes with pool swimming. Got a free sample and plan on trying it our shortly. You can get more information at www.swimspray.com. Philippe hit too much traffic and we didn't meet up.

Pre-Race

Due to the layout of the course all athletes need to be out of the transition area by 6:15 am and onto a bus to the St. Joe Boathouse by 6:20 am. The Pro waves go off at 6:30 am and the first age groupers hit the water at 7 am. I get why they do it. By sending the pros off as early as they do, they have a clear course to race without the congestion of age groupers on their second bike loop. While I get it, I am not a fan of the 4 am wake up (I don't stay in the city) or the 90 minutes of sitting around for my 8 am wave to get started.

The good news is I saw Philippe before the race and he looked calm and ready to race (even though I know he was jittery on the inside). I met some of his J&J co-workers who were also competing, and had more than enough time to loosen up and use the port-o-john. Much to my delight, there was plenty of toilet paper, a big issue last year.

Swim: 1500M 21:14

Because you are swimming a straight course with the current the swim is always fast. This year things were a bit different as TriRock ditched the traditional wave start for a controlled rolling start, with 10 people taking off every 20 seconds. Sounded good in theory, but I was skeptical as to how this would in practice. And now I must admit that the rolling start worked really, really well. The staff were good about keeping things moving and efficient.

Once I sat on the dock and took off I found clean water and had none of the usual issues in a wave start. At almost every race the swim start is a bit of a cluster$@ck that takes a few hundred meters of jockeying around to settle in. Once things get comfortable you start to catch the back end of earlier waves, almost always clustered together. Here, it was clear water all the way as people were spread out. I stayed a little to the left and exited the water in a PR time of 21:14.


T1: 3:12

Nothing exciting here, other than a bit of trouble with one leg of my wetsuit costing me a few seconds. Slow times are normal here with the long run through transition and to the bike mount line.

Bike: 40K 1:04:26

This is the #1 reason why I like this race. Two loops around the river with 4 technical climbs each loop. According to my Garmin there was approx. 1200 ft. of vertical, which isn't all that bad, but it is a tricky 1200 ft. Part of racing here is dealing with the bike traffic on these hills, which wasn't as bad this year as in years past. Maybe because of the swim start, maybe because I wasn't in the last wave. The flats, which ride fast and fun, were all that and more.

Overall I rode well and within myself, producing a 30 second bike split PR.

T2: 1:35

Was about as efficient as I could have been. When I got to the bike rack I could see I was second in my age group, but not sure how far back and how I would hold up with little running in the last six week. Changed shoes, grabbed my race number, hat and gel and headed out for the run.

Run: 10k 49:24

Coming out of T2 I had no idea what to expect. The plan was to run what felt like a comfortable pace and adjust based on how I was feeling. Mile one felt ok but not great. After seeing I was holding a 7:16/mile pace I decided to just hold there and see what happens. About a 1/2 mile down the road I passed Philippe whose wave started 30 minutes before mine. He looked good and had a smile on his face .. a good sign for sure.

Long story short, I held pace through about 3 1/2 miles before the legs decided they had enough. The last few miles were a struggle, with some walking breaks. The legs simply decided they were done a little too early.

Overall: 2:19:52  8th in AG40-44, 108/1333

All things considered I am happy with my performance. Coming off a calf injury I knew my run would be a crap shoot. While I swam and rode faster than I ever have at the Olympic distance, I don't think that was the cause of my run problems. It also got a bit warm ... but again, not an issue. Run fitness - or lack there of - was the issue on the day. And fortunately, that can be rectified.

Philippe finished in 2:58:xx.

Like I said earlier, I really enjoy this race. TriRock has some work to do as it wasn't 100% as smooth as it should/could be. There were two rookie mistakes, both dealing with water, that I cannot give them a pass on. At the St.Joe Boathouse there was no water available when my bus arrived. It did eventually show up and wasn't an issue for me, but should have never been an issue. The other issue of note was the water on the race course was lukewarm at best, and way too warm at its worst. I would expect this to be rectified for the 2014 race.

Up next: a little vacation time and my two week, mid-season break.

Train hard, stay focused.
Jon

Run Update, Thoughts on Philly Tri

On Monday morning I was back out there running this week after 6 weeks of dealing with a calf injury.Only went 3 miles, slowly, but I was running. Wednesday I went a bit further. Friday I did 5+on the road with some small hills and 10 miles this morning on the towpath. Not ready to say I'm back 100%, but racing Philly (now called TriRock Philly Tri) next weekend is a definite. I said race, not complete.

Yes, we really will be swimming in the Schuylkill River.

The big question now is, how do I go about this. Without 6 weeks away from running it would be simple - go all out. The variable I need to consider is how much work on the swim and bike is enough to run and not blow up. Or not blow up too much. I know I can run a 10k off the bike ... right now I'm not sure how much of a beating I can put on my legs and still run a descent 10k.

My default is to just go balls out on the swim and the bike, hoping for the best on the run. It's only 10k and blowing up would only give me 20-30 minutes of real suck at the end.Racing conservatively would have me hold back at least on the bike a bit to give me the best chance of a running and not blowing. There is always the middle ground. Maybe go into the run with the idea of getting progressively faster until I'm where I can go.

Hummmm............

As for the early morning runs,it was nice to be back out there again this week.

Train hard. Stay focused.
Jon