2013 American Triple T - Race Report

The American Triple T lived up to the hype, again! It honestly is one of my favorite events due to the unique event layout, challenging course and camaraderie that is built throughout the weekend! I am truly grateful to my main sponsor 1st Endurance. Throughout a whole weekend of "talking nutrition" and handing out lots and lots of EFS and Ultragen single serve samples, I met a ton of new people and was finally able to put faces to names!

Race Highlights





Race 1
I bumped into an old childhood swim buddy and Team Timex member Cindi Bannink. Cindi is as friendly and full of energy as I remember her when she was 10 and not surprisingly this run-in set the tone for everyone I met all weekend!  Just an incredible group of people out there! The swim was delayed about 15 minutes for "safety" concerns, whatever that meant but for me, it meant: pee in wetsuit one more time. The swim was a short one, only 250 meters, everyone was flying. On the bike, I spun up the hill to the lodge capping effort between 325-350W. After the turnaround I came screaming down the hill at 44mph in an aero tuck, hands near the brakes. I couldn't get my run shoes on my wet feet in T2, I never tried sockless running before. Never try anything new during a race right? I'm a dumb ass and probably doubled my T2 time because of it. I ran watchless in Race #1 and HPF Racing completely screwed up the timing for the entire weekend, so I have no run stats for race 1. That said, I definitely ran a sub-5 min mile ;)

TTT Tradition - The post-race soak

Bike Time: 0:09:47. AvgPower: 233. NormPower: 276.  Here's my garmin file for the bike.

Overall Place after Race 1 - 30th.

Race 2
I was feeling good Saturday morning but was very intimidated by all of the "muscle flexing" going on in transition pre-race. I'm not sure what it is but at big races like this, everyone has a "sick" looking bike and they're all lean and mean, looking super fast. I never feel like I fit in but likely people are thinking the same thing about me. The swim went well again, with a 32th seed, I passed a bunch of people on lap 1 and even more on lap 2. I flew out of T1 with Scott Iott. Dude is a machine and I was lucky to keep him in sight for the first 5ish miles. A few of Cujo's buddies chased us out in the country before Scott powered down the road. I set a power target for each of my 3 mile auto splits at 225W. For every 300W+ climb, there was a 150W leg spinning descent. I got lucky-ish and nailed my target, while doing my best to minimize spikes.

POWER SPIKE!

Bike Time: 1:11 AvgPower: 230. NormPower: 245 Here's my garmin file.

The run also went well, I tired to limit HR on this one to 160bpm, I was not concerned about running pace at all throughout the weekend. The terrain wouldn't allow for any realistic pacing so I used HR and perceived effort. A few guys blew by me mid-run, but generally I held my position and limited giving back too much time.
Run time: 0:41 Pace: 6:39 HR: 160 Garmin

Overall place after Race 2 - 16th

Race 3
After a light lunch and a quick power nap, we were loading the bikes up again for the third race. Starting at 3pm with a Bike/Swim/Run, energy was down a bit in the crowd. I slammed a Coke while we all waited under the sun in the parking lot for the Time Trial start. Starting around 30th again allowed me to stay steady on the pedals and pass quite a few people relatively quickly on the bike. I love the afternoon bike course. A few long grinding climbs, some great high speed descents and a lot of open road to 'aero out' and really get into a rhythm. I had a power target for this race of 220.
Bike Time: 1:09 AvgPower: 223. NormPower: 234. Max speed: 49.5!! Garmin

Survival of the fittest!

The swim following the bike ride is always crazy. I love jumping in a cool lake after a tough ride but I hate the quad cramps that ensue. Despite not having any swim splits for the entire weekend (way to go HPF Racing), I am happy to report each swim during the weekend felt easy and short. I attribute that to my increased emphasis on swimming more this season. Without any solid time metrics to compare against (myself or other competitors), all I can say is that I felt long and strong and I was passing a bunch of people. As you can imagine, I was really hoping for some metrics more substantial than "it was an easy swim and it felt short".

On to the run, I was feeling a bit fatigued and went into survival mode. The quad cramps could easily have put me out for the weekend and I was really concerned about saving something for Sunday. With Desoto calf sleeves donned, I plugged away and did my best to keep the effort mildly uncomfortable and made it to the finished and immediately starting working on hydration/recovery to deal with the cramps and get the legs ready for Sunday! I took in lots of fluids (EFS) to deal with my cramping, carbs (brown rice) for the long Sunday ahead and a bunch of s'mores after dinner because what's camping without s'mores!
Run time: 0:46 Pace: 7:14 HR: 149 Garmin.

Overall place after Race 3 - 8th

Race 4
Sunday morning came really quickly and doubts about performance were high. I set a pre-race goal of Top 10 but now sitting in 8th, I had to either fend off challengers or attack those ahead of me to jump into the top 5. The swim, again, was surprisingly easy and passed quickly. I love getting into T1 and only seeing a handful of wetsuits laying around. Off onto the bike, I passes a few guys but was very careful to stick to my power plan (210W avg power). Feeling good on lap 1 could easily have been forgotten as the day stretched on. Sure enough, riders were going "backwards" on lap 2 and I continued to move my way toward the front.
Bike Time: 2:50 AvgPower: 207 NormPower: 219 Garmin

Off again onto the run. Racing is so much fun and I get so into the zone, it's hard to summarize what goes through my mind after a long weekend racing and another 13 miles. I'll try though, here's a sample of my Mind Spill: OMG that was only 1 mile. 1, 2, 3, 1, 2, 3. "COKE! INFINITE! ICE?" 8:30 pace, must have been uphill. "Good job man, looking good." sweet shoes! WATER! 1, 2, 3, 1, 2, 3. "Great job Cindi!" This is cool no bugs! Wow, that guy is hurtin'! Whoa, 7min/min, must have been down hill! "Keep it up Andrew!" Sweet, 1/2 way done. Cool, lapping guys. "on your left". "COKE, COKE, COKE!". Last turn around, bet I can catch that guy!

So I'm 9 miles in and make the last turn. I catch "Greg" (Kopecky) and see a 3 on his leg. He's running strong and he knows he's chasing 3rd place. I know he started at least a minute before me, so now I know that I'm actually running in at least 3rd place! He finds out that I'm on my second lap so he tries to put on a little pressure. Pressure by way of a 7min/mile. I hang on as he surges and rests. We break out of the woods and back onto the park road, we lay down one last mile at 6:30, I refuse to go away and cross the tape right in his shadow. My wife and kids were probably hoping for a sprint finish and as far as I'm concerned, it was. He sprinted for 2 miles to minimize time lost to me and I held on and got him on chip time by 1min!
Run time: 1:38 Pace: 7:39 HR: 148.  One more Garmin file

A few hand shakes, fist bumps, cups of water and another Ultragen Recovery shake and we call it a weekend. I was super stoked to go under 5hrs after a long weekend on a ridiculous course (4:58)!

Overall place after Race 4 - 5th

It's my best overall finish down at the TTT against some solid competition. I'm thrilled with my performance and fitness for this time of the year. I missed my sub 10 overall time goal (10:05) but I out performed my Top 10 goal!

Near term, I'll be backing off a little bit on the training. School is almost out for summer and I have a ton of fun things planned with the boys! I have a few smaller races coming up (1/2s and Oly) that I'll use to keep things interesting as the summer progresses, but all in all, I think things are shaping up nicely for a long build to Kona!

Having fun is not an option!

Stay tuned for more.
Train Safe, Race Smart