There was a chance of rain off and on all day today!! Good news, both kids are now riding their bikes without training wheels!! I had the opportunity for a longer ride and was going rain or shine so I was happy to get it done without any rain!
Some wind on the way out which meant that heading East I had a nice tailwind. I took Wirth Parkway to Cedar Lake Trail and then East on the Midtown Greenway. A man and woman were on my tail and passed me around the Bde Maka Ska and so when they went around me I decided to tuck in with them. We were hitting 20+ mph and I was trying to stay out of their spray but still stay close enough to benefit from their slipstream. I stayed with them from the lakes up and over the Sabo Bridge. Then they slowed down so I went around them and hit the River Road all the way back to Plymouth. Going through downtown was a little crowded with all the Final Four tourists. I hit a couple of PR’s on River Road one of which was coming up the hill from the Flats to downtown. That is a tough hill but not one of the steeper ones.
The ride was almost 25 miles in about 1:40. It felt good!
The timing was a little tight from the Winter Triathlon to needing to start a training plan for my Spring 12.5k and Adventure Triathlon. I obviously have a good cardio base to start from, but I need to get more running in for the Superior race as its going to have a lot of hills and I won’t be successful just getting by.
I didn’t want to just use the same CrossFit Endurance training plan as last year, though I ended up going with a Power Speed Endurance Pro (PSE PRO) plan which is essentially the same thing! But it is actually more programmed than what I did last year so we’ll see what happens. Each workout is programmed with notes, warm-up, strength, conditioning, and recovery. Plus a fuel section.
Today is the beginning of the T-Cycle. It will work pretty well until the end when I need to taper down a week before the cycle ends. The weekly cycle includes Strength & Conditioning x 2 (CrossFit), Short Interval Session, Long Interval Session, Sport Specific Strength & Conditioning, Stamina and Active Recovery.
The notes and videos will help along the way and there is a strong emphasis on breath work which is a big component of the PSE model. Each workout begins and ends with breathing.
So today was Deadlifts. 5-4-3-3 (135, 185, 205, 215)
Followed by a 12 minute AMRAP of
20 Kettlebell Swings 53#
10 SeeSaw Dumbells 15#
5 Hang Power Cleans 45#
I finished 7 rounds and 10 swings.
The program lists a range of weights and scaling so I probably should have done more weight on the dumbbells and cleans, but it was also the first programmed workout I’ve tried in the basement and my basement gym lacks some things! I had to do the SeeSaw dumbbells on my knees so I didn’t punch a hole through the ceiling!
I couldn’t decide what to do, so I did about 30 minutes on the bike trainer in the basement! Exciting stuff right? I did finally replace the batteries in the computer and sensor so I got about 10 miles in.
Rode to work today. Tuesday will be my bike class day. Hopefully I can ride on those days. We’ll see how the schedule works. So about 11 miles commuting. It was in the 30s in the am and almost 50 in the PM. Son and I did almost 1.5 around the neighborhood in the evening.
I got there early so that I could get all checked in and setup. I was expecting that they would close transition at some point, but it didn’t happen. So I got there early and got a good spot and had plenty of time to relax until the race briefing!
Ready to Go!
I had really struggled with making decisions about what to wear/bring and how to plan for nutrition etc. I also felt pretty nervous about the whole thing as I hadn’t trained as much as I wanted/needed to and just lacked confidence in my skiing abilities! I hadn’t actually biked that far yet either this year. The weather was pretty much perfect. It was in mid to high 20’s at the start of the race and the course was in pretty decent shape considering all the rain and melt we’ve experienced this week. I ended up making two last minute changes for my biking gear and that was a good decision! I was never really cold, but I would have been if I’d worn my running shoes and the gloves I wore for skiing.
I wore 3/4 length tights over a pair of tri shorts and Cirq knee length socks. Up top I wore a light Icebreakerz long sleeve under a Twin Six thermal bike jersey with the Loppet bib over top! I switched out my gloves and hat for each discipline so that I wouldn’t get too cold. For skiing I wore a pair of SealSkinz mid-weight gloves and my Loopet Loppet buff. For the bike I wore a nice pair of Dakine mittens and a ear band from the Twin Cities Marathon. For the run I just wore my Saucony Utili-mitt gloves – no hat!
This was not only my first winter triathlon, but also my first ski race ever! Fortunately we were able to self-seed, so I pretty much started in the back. We had to double pole for the first 100m or so and by the time I got there the pack was getting spread out pretty quickly. I know the trails fairly well so I knew where I would struggle and what was coming! The Meadow loop went pretty much as I expected. The nice corduroy trail was pretty much gone by the time I went by, but the sugary snow wasn’t too bad for most of it. I fell three different times which was annoying as they were all places I haven’t fallen before! Two of them were in turns and the third was downhill. The first time was on the way down the Northern Finger. I just had trouble shifting weight and making the turn at the speed I was going and got too far off into the edge and I think a ski just caught. I didn’t realize it but my watch got paused, so I missed about 10 minutes of the ski. I felt pretty good going back up the Finger hill and flew down and around the LaSquandra loop. The uphill back to the Upper Stadium wasn’t too bad today! The second time I fell was on the big downhill right before Coach’s Corner and I haven’t fall there since early in the year. I think that I had trouble with the speed and the looser snow and my ski got caught in a little bit of a rut and caught an edge. That was pretty bad, I think I rolled! I checked and re-started my watch this time! A few more hills and I was moving! I fell right in from of my family! Same thing, taking a turn a little tight going a little too fast and I lost my balance. Ugh. Checked the watch and off I went into the transition area! The results said my ski was 29:46 which is definitely the fastest I’ve ever skied the full loop!
Transitioned to the bike. As I was leaving transition the leader came flying by after finishing his first bike loop. The bike was three loops of the bike course. Lots of hills. I think I had a good setting for PSI in the tires about 5-6lbs. I’m still trying to figure that out, but I flew by a guy who was running a lot lower PSI and he was struggling. That really makes a big difference. I didn’t fall at all! I decided based on the weather to switch my tires for studded tires. I probably didn’t need them after all but it was at least one less thing to be nervous about! The trail was almost all loose snow by that point on the main part of the trail. I didn’t need to walk up any of the hills for the first two laps and only one hill on the third lap. I was a little worried about burning out my quads early, but that didn’t seem to matter too much. The looser snow made it a little bit harder in a few places. Since the bike was 3 loops it was hard to know what lap the people passing you were on, but I just kept pedaling away! There wasn’t a lot of people on the course, but there were a few volunteers and medical team members cheering us on as we went through. The one hill I ended up walking up was on the last lap on the Twin Lakes Trail and it was a quick downhill into an uphill. I couldn’t shift gears down fast enough and there was someone behind me so I couldn’t zigzag at all in the loose snow. Oh well. I’ve not ridden this far yet this season on the snow with my new bike so I was quite happy with it and it was almost twice as fast as when I’d been riding. Official bike time was 1:16:24 averaging 8.8mph.
Finish Chute
I had hoped to not get passed again by the leader, as he was in transition when I started on a bike loop. Evidently that didn’t happen! I didn’t see him go by so it must have been while I was enjoying the two loops that were cut off the run loop! I high-fived the family as I set out on the run. I had one thick beard-cicle that kind of flopped around while I ran! This was the only time that it felt lonely out on the course. There were two guys in front of me and one behind me but after seeing them in the Meadow I never really saw them again until the finger. The course was deceiving because it would look like you were catching people while you were going downhill, but they’d be gone when you started on the uphill and slowed way down! After passing the run cutoff 4x’s it felt great to finally get to take it! And to cut out the hardest hill and a couple of short steep ones! I didn’t fall on the run at all!! The pictures definitely show me heel striking something I’ve been trying to work on. Honestly, though I haven’t been running much. I knew that the run would be ok though. My quads burned and climbing the hills wasn’t easy, but the hardest part was finding firm snow to run on. So much of it was loose that sometimes it felt more like running on sand! I saw someone on Jim’s hill that I might have been able to catch, but it wasn’t going to happen so I just finished my race! The run split was 27:35 8:55 pace.
See the extra thick long icicle?
My overall time was 2:18:22 which was good for 42/53 overall, 34/39 in the males and 5/5 in the 35-39 age group. The winner of course was in my age group! My ski and bike were both good enough for 41 overall, but my run was 33rd!! Obviously my strength!
My watch showed that I skied 2.58 miles in 22:25 (plus 10 minutes for and about a 1 mile when it was accidentally off, this also included transition). Biked 11.12 miles in 1:18 and ran 2.85 miles in 28 minutes.
This was a fun race!! I think as I continue to improve in my skiing it would get easier! The winner skied the loop in almost half my time!
