Buffman & Squeaky post race report

Buffman & Squeaky post race report

I competed in the Buffman & Squeaky Olympic distance triathlon on Sunday It was the 4th time I've completed the Buffman, & my 6th Olympic distance triathlon altogether. I PR'd this distance last year with a 2 hr 52 minute performance. Because I've lost 40 pounds since last year & my Coach The Mad Scientist Pete Alfino has been getting freakish results from my body this year, I set a lofty goal. I wanted to get a 2 hr 40 minute time or better. That would be a 12 minute PR. Normally that would be an outlandish goal. But I have faith in my fitness level & body this year.

Like I wrote on my blog in an earlier post I really struggled with this taper. I binge ate from Thursday until Saturday night. Everyday I woke up telling myself it won't happen again today. It did, & each day was worse. In the 4 days of struggling I gained 5 pounds. I'm up to 193.8. Up from 188.6. The bad news is I've been averaging 1 pound a week of weight loss so this backslide will take me at least a month to recover from. The great news was as soon as the race was over I didn't have any cravings at all. I haven't had any since then either. It's always my greatest fear that I won't get back on the band wagon after one of these rough periods. That has been the story of my life with this current weight loss streak being the only exeption so far.

I showed up at the race sight at my normal 6 am arrival time. I got my favorite spot for this race. I've got that spot every year for the past 4 years. I set up my transition area & commenced mingling until race start time It was unusually cold that morning. I was hoping it would stay cooler than normal the entire race. The Buffman & Squeaky has a tendency to be hot on
the tail end of the bike & very very hot on the run. Add the killer hills on this course & it can make for a rough race. The temps did end up staying unusually cool the entire race which is especially good news for me, since I'm a bigger triathlete I have allot of difficulty dispersing heat.

The water at the Buffman & Squeaky triathlon is spring fed so it's always a bit of a shock every year to see how cold the water is. It was a mass swim start. I usually wait until most everyone is in the water & on their way before I start my swim. This year I hopped right in the mix, mid pack. You see, even though I fought him tooth & nail my coach has demanded I swim more. The
difference this year has been amazing. An open water mass swim start is a contact event to say the least. About 500 meters into the swim I hear a heavily accented voice yell "this is fun!" It was a guy I met named Marcos. He's a really great guy I met pre-race who is from Germany & was competing in his first real triathlon. I say "real" because he's done some of the White Sands Missile Range triathlons. But those are not open water swims, there are not usually many racers at those, & their not mass start swims. So it was his first mass start but apparently it didn't bother him at all because he finished a couple minutes ahead of me despite my best swim ever. I finished the swim in 32 minutes & got out of the water at the same time as fellow Outlaw Carl Armstrong. That was a first. Carl is normally a vastly superior swimmer compared to me.

As I ran out of the water & into transition I was very dizzy. That's common after a long open water swim, but this time was much much worse than normal. When I got to my transition area I was so dizzy I had to sit down to put on my socks & shoes. Not something I normally do & not something I'd suggest if your looking for a fast transition.

On the bike, immediately out of transition there is a huge hill about 8 percent grade and probably around 150 yards long. All the other years this hill saps my strength for the rest of the race. I never really recover from that climb. Not to mention that all 6 or 7 of these very steep & long hills on this course used to have the same effect on me. Not this year! I tore those hills up like I've never dreamed I could do. I usually get passed by dozens of people on each climb. I would hold my own on the flats, but the hills was the place I lost all my time. Again, not this year. I only got passed a few times by people who were obviously bike dominant triathletes. Most of those I caught back up to & passed on the run.

I pushed myself as hard as I possibly could the entire bike. At the turn around I thought I had made a pacing mistake because my legs were hurting really bad. I though if I kept up this pace I'd have nothing left for the run. To late now I thought. I might as well go for broke. By the time I reached the transition to the run my legs were on fire, they even felt slightly swollen & pumped up from the effort I was using to push the pace on the bike.

I thought to myself as soon as I started the run that I was in trouble. My legs were hurting & I felt much more exhausted than I ever had before starting a run on an Olympic distance. Well, I thought for the 2nd time that day, might as well go for broke. I figured it was pretty much certain I was going to fall apart on the run. My legs really were trashed. I figured I might as well run as hard as I could for as long as I could in hopes that I could put enough time between me & my competition so that once I had to start the tedious run/walk process I'd be far enough ahead that not to many would catch up. I was wrong in my theory. But wrong in a good way. I continued pushing myself harder than I thought I could sustain, but I never had to slow down. I kept pushing my legs harder & further into what I felt was the point beyond what I could handle. I never slowed down! Apparently my training for IMAZ is going well because I have what
seems to be a limitless well of energy/endurance in my legs. I finished my race in 2hrs 40 minutes 55 seconds. I made my goal of finishing in 2hrs 40 minutes or under. I broke my PR by 12 minutes!!! Its not like I had only done 1 or 2 Olympic races to have a PR of 2;52. I'd done 6 Olympic races & crushed the previous best by a kickin 12 minutes!!!

As I've said before, my coach told me I'm on tack for a 13 hr Ironman in Nov. That seemed way to good to be true. But now, I do believe. From an Ironman DNF in Nov 07 to a possible 13 hr Ironman in 08. Oh Goodness, God is very kind to me indeed. The splits of the Buffman & Squeaky aren't posted yet. As soon as they are I'll update my blog. Thanks for tuning in, & God bless you all.