Kansas 70.3-Dueling Crowie

Swim: 6th fastest split
The times on the results are screwed up, I don't know it.  This was a good, not great, swim for me.  I didn't swim awful like I have most races so far this year, and I hung on the back of the lead group until the turnaround which was good.  It wasn't great because I got dropped at the turnaround.  Still I came out just a minute down on the lead 5 guys, I'll take that.  With a challenging bike course ahead I knew I was in good position.

Bike:  2:09:54  25.6mph  Fastest split!
Got on the bike and my HR was over 170 following the swim.  I knew I had to chill and let that come down to something sustainable and was forced to ride easier than planned first 10min.  Finally after 10min or so the HR got down and with that I found my legs and was off.  Solo TT for 40min when I made up the minute from the swim and caught the group.  As I caught them I realized Crowie was already off the front.  It took a pretty good effort the first 40min and I wasn't confident I had the fitness to sustain that so I hung in the back of the group for the next 38 minutes or so and conserved.  Crowie was putting time into all of us but I wasn't even thinking about racing him, just waiting to make a move on the group in a bid for second place.  Finally around 35 miles I made the move up the biggest hill on the course and had no trouble separating, then it was off after Crowie 3 minutes up the road.  All out solo time trial those last 20 miles and in that span I rode over 3 minutes into the chase pack and brought Crowie's lead from 3 minutes down to 45 seconds by the time we hit T2.  I knew I was riding hard enough those last 20 miles I was hurting my run, but I thought it was worth it to get as big a gap as possible on 3rd place starting the run.  If you can beat them mentally you don't have to beat them physically.  Grabbed fastest bike split on the day by 14 seconds over Crowie.

Run: 1:16:38  4th fastest split
Hit the run just 45s down on Crowie and truth be told I didn't think I had any shot, I ran entirely trying to fend off 3rd not even taking splits to Crowie.  First 10k of the run my lead on third only grew and finally midway through the run I knew there was nobody running me down from behind and I turned my sights ahead where surprisingly Crowie's lead was only about a minute.  Tried to dig deep, but just didn't have it.  Still a very good run for me and truth be told I think Crowie probably had plenty more fight in him than he showed.

Overall: 3:52:54  2nd place.
Great result for me, had over 6 minutes on third place and just 1.5 back from the win.  Got WAY more attention from this result than from winning Steelhead last year, guess that's what happens when a 5x world champ is in the race.  Really excited for this season, will not allow myself to be satisfied.  A great race does not make a great season.  Onto the next.

Pigman Sprint aka Iowa World Championships

Pigman Sprint Triathlon   500/25k/5k

Swim: 6:26  8th fastest split
Bike: 37:01  25.8mph  313 average watts  2nd fastest split
Power file: http://connect.garmin.com/activity/322085522
Run: 16:45 4th fastest split
Overall: 1:02:51  2nd

The swim wasn't good, but it was much better than my first two races this year and showed promise.  But with it being just a 6 minute swim I'm not going to pass too much judgement, anyone with any type of fitness can fake a 6 minute swim.  Came out right in the middle of the action, first 6 guys all out of T1 within about 15 seconds.  Pace was all out start of the bike and good thing I got going cause top 3 guys separated from next 3 within the first 5 minutes, then the whole bike it was myself, David Thompson, and Dan Hedgecock together.  I'm pretty confident I was the strongest on the bike, I lead a lot of the way but am not strong enough to overcome the 3 bike length draft zone of an age group race in order to drop the other two.  In hindsight maybe I should have sat in the back more, conserved, and then launched a big attack.  Leading into the headwind wasn't the smartest, I just allowed the other two to rest.  Dan ran a 14:09 5k on the track in college so I knew it was a tall task trying to win starting the run with him.  Managed to split just 20 seconds slower than him on the run, was able to drop DKT at 2 miles to bring home second.  I wanted to win, but this race was definitely a step forward and my best performance of the year.  Excited to see what happens next weekend, I think the fitness is there for a good race.  The competitive side of me can't help but wonder if I had raced different could I have gotten away on the bike and been able to win today, a little disappointed I admit.  My Iowa win streak is over, since 2007 I've raced 10 triathlons in Iowa, I won the first 9, today I didn't.  Just have to start a new streak.

Memphis in May-Second Again

Memphis in May

Swim: 21:13  5th fastest split
Bike: 55:28  26.5mph, 299 watts  2nd fastest split
Power file: https://connect.garmin.com/activity/315845105
Run: 35:57 2nd fastest split
Overall: 1:54:08  Second place

Swim was awful for the second race in a row and continues to be a mystery to me.  The way I'm training and feeling heading into a race seems to have zero correlation to how I will actually swim.  I can have a pretty good sense for how a bike and run will go beforehand, the swim I have no idea.  It's very possible that I threw away a professional win with the way I swam today.
I struggled on the bike and never felt good or like I had strong legs.  Just battled the entire way.  Stiff headwind on the way out, first 14 miles @ 23.9mph and 308 watts.  Last 10 miles @ 31.2mph and 283 watts.  Good news is that despite feeling bad and not producing the power I was expecting I still rode pretty fast and passed a lot of people.  I came into this race off my biggest bike training week of the year and a 9 hour drive the day before.  Not a huge surprise or mystery that my legs were not sharp.
The run was the bright spot.  With the 10:30am start we hit the run at noon under the strong southern sun, with humidity and the heat index in the upper 80s.  Despite coming from Iowa the heat never bothered me.  It slowed things no doubt, but not as much for me as for most others.
Overall I was disappointed with my swim, pleased with my run, and most happy that despite not feeling 'on' in this race I stayed mentally engaged in the race the entire way which is something I haven't always done in the past.  I credit staying mentally in the race through the rough times with getting me the second place finish.  Also the very weak pro field in the race didn't hurt my cause either.  In a normal pro field I wouldn't have placed with this performance after the way I swam and biked.  Good race choice for early in the season to get a good result and some confidence moving forward.  My fourth time to race MIM and my fourth second place at MIM.  Looking forward to Kansas 70.3 in 3 weeks which will be my first focus race of the year.

New Orleans 70.3-Early Start

New Orleans 70.3

Swim: 26:16  14th fastest split
Swim was one of those deals where you feel good and think you're swimming well during the race, but then looking at the results after you realize it wasn't as good as you thought.  A little surprised how much time I lost here.

Bike: 2:14:05  14th fastest split
Power file: http://connect.garmin.com/activity/311306000
Dead flat entire way with a decent headwind first half/tailwind second half.  Started the bike with a group of 4 and pushed harder than I wanted the first half because I knew I didn't want to get separated with the headwind.  Hit the turnaround and felt my strongest all day from 30-45 miles, was able to drop 2 of the guys with the tailwind.  First time racing with a powermeter, ended up not really paying attention to it and just collected the data after.

Run: 1:17:55  13th fastest split
Pretty ideal run conditions, ran almost the entire way by myself.  Happy I didn't feel too terrible off the bike since I really haven't done any bricks this year.  Overall a better run than I thought coming in, had great speed last half mile to makeup two positions at the very end.

Overall: 4:01:16  12th place
Overall I feel my race was a pretty accurate reflection of my current fitness, I just haven't done the volume of work to be competitive yet.  Swim was a little worse than I guessed, bike about what I thought, run a little better than I guessed.  I knew going in to the race there was a very slim chance of being competitive, but thanks to Ron it was logistically a pretty simple and fun trip.  And ultimately a bad result is no worse than not racing at all.  Plus now I have data from my power meter to utilize going forward.  This is the earliest I've ever done my first big race of the year and did so coming off the longest winter I've ever had to train through.
Here are bike stats off my Garmin
Time: 2:13:xx
25.2mph
Normalized power: 281w
Average power: 277w
Average heart rate: 159
Average cadence: 88
Normalized power first half (headwind): 285
Normalized power second half (tailwind): 277

2012 Year End Training Volumes

Below are my training totals for the 2012 calendar year

Swim:  1,050,000 yards

Bike:  9780 miles

Run:  2171 miles


See you on the circuit in 2013!

Ironman Florida-Disappointing End to a Great Season

I finished off my 2012 race season this past weekend with my 5th Ironman, Ironman Florida in Panama City Beach.  Although this race itself was a little disappointing, I am very proud of my season as a whole.  Here is how my day went.

Swim: 54:01  12th fastest split
Thankfully the swim was pretty uneventful for me.  Despite there being no wind whatsoever the surf was pretty substantial.  Once navigating through the breakers the water wasn't calm as I expected, there were still large swells the entire duration.  I ended up swimming a little easier than I planned on account of the surf which I think was the right move since it limited the amount of ocean water I choked on and I knew that drafting would be pretty much negated by the rough sea.  I excited the water in pretty good position, 12th place and right in the middle of the action.

Bike: 4:20:49  25.8mph  11th fastest split
I went into this race mentally prepared for anything on the bike.  I hoped for a spread out bike, yet I was also very aware of what 41 pro men on a flat course could mean.  I ended up getting a mix of everything.  Things were pretty spread out initially and my legs were very strong right from the start.  I steadily worked my way through the field the first two hours.  I would ride hard until I caught the first person in sight, relax for a bit, decide the pace was too easy, work hard to drop the rider, and then bridge up to the next rider in sight.  After a very fast first 55 miles I made it into a large pack when we came to the out and back.  I was pumped when I saw that our group was in second place overall but that excitement was short lived when we made the turnaround as I saw we were about to be caught by another even larger group from behind.  I rode at the front in second place overall from about 60-65 miles and then steadily slipped back through the pack, making note that many of the riders I had worked to drop had gotten picked up from the group behind and were now in the same pack.  I counted 17 guys in our group.  Thankfully we also had four officials with us pretty much the entire way back to T2 so guys were not tempted to push the boundaries of the draft zone.  People tend to think that riding in such a group is easy work but when everyone is spaced legally it is anything but.  The pace and effort were extremely inconsistent and punchy, as guys made moves at the front it'd be 2-3 minutes of near all out effort followed by a few minutes of easy riding.  I'm sure this makes for a great workout, but when your goal is to run a marathon as fast as possible after it's not such a good thing.  After surging like that for two hours under a strong sun and temperatures rising into the 80s I was really feeling fried towards the end of the bike as were many others.  I stayed with the pack until 5k to go when I knew I was in no shape the start the marathon and sat up to try to get my body temperature down, relieve myself, hose myself down with water, and recover some semblance of running legs.

Run: 3:14:00  14th fastest split
Starting the run I was a complete mess.  I saw 5:20 on the clock as I crossed the marathon start timing mat and knew that I was a 2:59 marathon away from breaking 8:20, my ultimate time goal for the day.  The only problem is for the first few miles of the run I was cooked from the bike, I was just out for an easy recovery jog, couldn't even maintain 3 hour pace for the first few miles.  I wasn't alone though, I could tell the guys around me were wilted as well and I was gaining positions running 7 minute pace.  Through a steady diet of coke and ice the first 10k I was actually able to bring my body temperature down, started to find my stride and got moving the second 10k.  I picked up Tom Gerlach for several miles and we both agreed that a strong last 13.1 would bring home the money on this day.  I got faster the second 10k, felt much better, hit 13.1 in 1:30 in 8th place and just over 2 minutes out of 6th.  Then, out of nowhere, not even a quarter mile into the second lap, I strained my right calf pretty substantially.  I didn't step funny or anything and thought it was a cramp initially.  I couldn't push off at all with my right foot and hoped it would work itself out but after a few miles of borrowing salt tablets from fellow age groupers I knew it either wasn't a cramp or wasn't going to alleviate itself.  At this point if this had been any race other than my last of the season I would have bagged it and walked the last 10 miles.  But with it being the last race of the season I wasn't quite as apprehensive about continuing on a bad calf since I didn't feel I was making the strain any worse.  It was a hard pill to swallow that I wouldn't be racing for money or chasing a massive PR in the low 8:20s, but I had to quickly change my mental approach and realize that I still had something to race for, I could still PR and break 8:30 so that was what I set out for.  I limped as fast as I could, but not being able to push off of my right foot I was limited to a max speed around 8:20 pace.  I hit 10k to go, did the math, and realized breaking 8:30 for the race wasn't going to happen.  But there was still my PR, 8:35.  I was running exactly the pace that would put me at my PR.  Quick decision, keep chasing or just bag it and walk home, I decide to keep chasing.  Every mile mark I'm doing the math and am staying exactly on pace.  Then with 5k to go I have the vision of putting myself through all this discomfort and missing my PR by a few seconds and decide no way.  I push the pace really hard down below 8min pace the last 5k and in the end it's about a 90 second overall PR which comes off of my slowest marathon ever.

 

Overall:  8:34:00  12th place
Initially I was pretty disappointed with how things went for me but having had a few days I feel better about it and there's a lot of positive to take away.  A PR is a PR and you can't ever shrug at such a result.  12th place is far from what I envisioned for the day, but we did have 41 male pros on the start line, the largest pro field I've ever raced for a full 140.6.  Even putting the calf issue aside I don't think this would have been a stellar result as it was shaping up.  Riding a hard solo effort the first 2 hours on the bike followed by responding to all of the surges and changes in pace of the pack the last two hours left me in no shape to run a strong marathon.  Thinking back over my history of 140.6 racing this was the first time I've ever not done a solo effort the entire way on the bike and it makes for a much different challenge than the constant steady state effort I'm accustomed to.  In hindsight I don't feel my disappointing performance was an indication of any lacking fitness or poor race execution on my part, I feel it is an indication of Ironman Florida simply being a race that doesn't suite me well or play to my strengths.  I thrive off of long, steady state efforts.  Thinking back over my history of pack racing in 70.3s I don't think I've ever had a good race result in that type of racing.  I need at least some hills and a more spread out race than I'm going to find at Ironman Florida.  As always it's a learning experience and I'll take this experience forward into future races.

Although Ironman Florida didn't go how I wanted I'm still very happy that I did this race and there's a lot that will benefit me going forward into 2013 and beyond.  For one, I'm in Ironman shape in November, I've never been this fit so late into the year.  Last year I was currently five weeks into my offseason at this point.  To me that's five fewer weeks to get out of shape heading into 2013.  Another big takeaway is that I learned a lot about myself, and how my body recovers in the 8 weeks between Rev 3 Cedar Point and Ironman Florida.  What I learned is that I don't recover particularly fast compared to others.  It took me a full month before I felt 100% and could resume full training following Cedar Point.  That left just two quality weeks where I was able to push the limits in training and make significant gains in fitness.  Looking back I think I was probably only able to replicate my fitness from Cedar Point into Florida, I wasn't able to further it by any appreciable margin.  In the future I think I'm going to try to schedule multiple Ironmans with a minimum of 10 weeks separation, more ideally 12 or more weeks.

2012 was a great year for me overall that I am very proud of.  There were many highlights and at the top of the list is my dominating win at the Steelhead 70.3.  Winning a 70.3 is a major goal for pros in this sport and something that I am aware most will not get to experience.  I know that whatever I do or don't accomplish the rest of my racing career winning the 2012 Steelhead 70.3 is something I'll be able to look back on and really appreciate long after my racing days have finished.  I'm very excited for what journey this path with take me on in 2013.  There are big changes coming as I'll be getting married and moving to Iowa in the next two months.  Catch you on the flip side, here's to a great 2013!

Rev 3 Cedar Point-Knocking on the Door

This past weekend was my third consecutive year racing the Rev 3 Cedar Point full iron distance triathlon and my fourth go at the Ironman distance.  Coming off the win at the Steelhead 70.3 I had high hopes of being in the hunt for another win.  I am very happy to come away with a runner-up finish, new PR, first sub-3 marathon, and overall my best Ironman execution and performance to date.

Swim: 59:51  12th fastest split
All of my swims in 2012 have either been really good in the front pack, or terrible.  Unfortunately this was a terrible swim for me, by far my worst Ironman swim of my four races at the distance.  Race morning we had a water temp of 73 degrees and air temps in the 50s.  For the pros we were about a degree over the wetsuit cutoff, no wetsuits.  I've had a history of struggles in colder swims and the frustrating thing about this one is that 73 degree water isn't that cold.  I started fine but 10 minutes in I started getting cold chills throughout my body and pretty soon I couldn't even hold the feet of guys who I ordinarily beat out of the water.   One of the things I'm most proud of with this race is how I was able to hold my composure during the swim.  It didn't take long before I knew the swim was going to be really bad, and I recognized I would exit the water several minutes down on guys I anticipated starting the bike with.  But it really never bothered me that I was having such a bad swim.  I never tried to force a harder pace than I planned, I never really entertained any thought of starting the bike harder than I planned to make up the lost time.  I basically just decided that I would execute the bike and run exactly as I had planned going into the race, and I accepted the fact that my finish time would be a couple minutes slower as a result of the swim.  In the end I was around 3 minutes slower than I would anticipate based on where others I have raced exited the water.  3 minutes in itself is not a huge deal, the thing that hurts more is that the stronger cyclists in the race were all out of reach and I ended up riding 111 out of 112 miles of the bike solo.

Bike: 4:35:22  24.4mph  3rd fastest split
I started the bike in 12th position, a full 7 minutes back of the lead, I knew I was in for a long lonely ride.  I basically just spent the entire ride executing my plan for the day.  I went in to the bike with the notion that 75 miles was halfway.  I knew that the entire final 35 miles would be a headwind and that it would be critical to be strong through those miles.  I steadily rode my way up through the field and was up to 6th place by 75 miles.  The headwind was tough as expected but this was the best I've ever paced 112 miles and I stayed strong and in control the entire way.  If there is one benefit to being alone the entire bike it is that I was never tempted to push someone else's pace, and never had to put in surges of any kind.  With less than a mile to go I caught Viktor Zyemstev which was a nice confidence boost since I knew there was no better person to start the marathon with.  This was also the most fresh and most ready to run a marathon I've ever felt at the end of the bike, I hit T2 looking forward and excited for the opportunity to finally push a sub-3 marathon.

Run: 2:57:20  3rd fastest split
I'd never raced Viktor head to head before but am very aware of his ability to run 2:45 Ironman marathons like clockwork.  We made some small talk the first mile, he told me the wind on the bike crushed him, and I told him I wouldn't be a threat to him at the end of the run, but I was going to try to use him to carry me up into the top-3 before he dropped me.  I let him set the pace and we hit each of the first 3 miles in almost exactly 6:10s and it felt comfortable.  The only issue I had running with him was we had to spread out going through aid stations so we could both grab what we needed.  It was the gap after the 3rd aid station that I never closed but still kept him reasonably close for a while.  5 miles in I moved into 4th and at 10 miles I moved into 3rd splitting the first 10 miles in 64 minutes.  Through 13.1 in 1:25 and it was the best I've ever felt through halfway.  At that point I told myself I would destroy 3 hours and really thought I had sub-2:55 in me.  16 miles in the fun stopped and I finally started having to work.  18 miles in a surge of adrenaline as I got word that Eric was cracking in the lead after racing gutsy leading the race for 7.5 hours.  Through 20 miles in 2:12 and shortly after I pass Eric to move in 2nd.  22 miles in I was 3 minutes down on Viktor in the lead, and had a 4 minute cushion on third.  This was where Ironman became Ironman and it got really, really hard.  Soreness flooded my quads, calves, and hamstrings.  I started feeling twinges of shooting pain and felt like I was one misstep away from a full body cramp.  I probably cut my stride length in half and there was no thought of trying to race for the win, it was just grit your teeth and finish.  Finally I was able to make it without any last mile drama.

Daniel Bretscher 2nd place - Cedar Point 2012 from REVOLUTION3 Triathlon on Vimeo.

Overall: 8:35:32  2nd Place, first American
This race was a huge breakthrough for me and validates the results from the training sessions I've been seeing this summer.  The bike split was a PR, the marathon was a PR, and overall a 13 minute PR.  Second place is my highest finish ever at the 140.6 distance, my previous three races were 9th, 5th, and 5th.  In addition I ended up less than 4 minutes out of the win whereas in my three previous races I'd never been within 20 minutes of the win.  And Viktor is no slouch either, this was his 11th Ironman win.  With all of that said I can definitely see some major flaws in my game, the biggest lesson being do not ever surrender a race to a competitor without making them earn it.  Mentally I gave the race away to Viktor in the very first mile of the run based on what he had accomplished in the past, not making him earn it on the day.  In reality he didn't have the run I think everyone expected him to, he was vulnerable on the day.  Looking back I don't believe I could have matched his pace, but in the future I will not mentally surrender to a competitor until they prove they have what it takes on the day.  I also still feel I'm under performing in my marathons.  I was happy to finally break 3 in the marathon, but I'm not very impressed with my splits 1:25/1:32.  I feel I should be capable of 4-5 minutes faster the last 13 miles.  Whether it's a nutrition issue, bike pacing issue, lack of experience issue or just needing to learn to suffer more issue, I'm not sure.  But when there's world class pros running 2:40s in harsh conditions, my 2:57 in near perfect conditions isn't in the same ballgame.  As always it's a work in progress and so long as I continue to chip away I'll eventually get where I want to be.
I'm taking this week mostly entirely off for recovery and a mental break.  I'll get back into training next week and will play the remainder of my race schedule this year by ear.  Most likely my next race will be on September 30, either the Pocono or Augusta 70.3.  I have no clue what the fields for those races look like, but I hope to compete for my third consecutive podium!  Finally thanks to the Rev 3 event organization and staff, there's a reason 3 out of my 4 Ironmans have been with Rev 3.  Hope to be at some more series races this season.

Race nutrition:
Bike: 13 powergels, 66oz Perform.  Total: 2000 cal, 434 cal/hr
Run: cup of coke, cup of water every mile, 7 powergels throughout.


2012 REV3 Cedar Point - PRO Race Recap from REVOLUTION3 Triathlon on Vimeo.