Double Race Weekend - Race #2 Queen's Day Criterium

Might make sense to read this post first.

So after nearly bombing my season on a trail race, I went out for a very easy spin on the bike. I had hydrated a lot and got some electrolytes in me. That felt good. I also used a foam roller on my legs. Hurt like hell but does wonders. Back to bed early for yet another race.

Queen's Day Criterium

I signed up for this race as part of the 2BContinued triathlon team. This is a "new" team that formed with the goal to raise funds for cancer programs as well has having fun racing and training together. I had very limited goals for this race. First, stay upright (don't crash!). Second, don't get lapped by the leaders. Third, don't come in last. A criterium is a closed loop course, usually with technical turns, where racers ride for 30 minutes.  This course was pretty tough, with 8 turns per lap, crossing cobblestone sidewalks and lots of potholes.

For those of you who haven't seen a criterium in person, let's take a look at two really quick videos:

The first is the actual race, taken by a teammate and his wife.

The second shows how quickly things can turn south!

The race started quickly and despite my efforts, I couldn't keep up with the leaders. If you're good, you can ride in the middle of the pack, out of the wind, and position yourself at the finish to win in a sprint. If you aren't so good, you fall off the back and drag yourself around for 30 minutes like I did. I finally caught some teammates with a lap to go, but they all wanted a free ride. So I kept breaking the wind for them. Fortunately, only one of them beat me in the sprint, for 35th place! Clearly I'm not a cyclist. Despite averaging 21.4 mph for nearly 30 minutes on a steel Bianchi, 35/50 was the best I could muster. Not to be too disappointed, I'm sure if there was a swim and a run as part of the event I would've done just fine!

For you data geeks out there, here's the garmin file on Strava.

Double Race Weekend - Race #1 Hurt The Dirt (and my legs!)

Time to resurrect this space an start blogging again. It's officially race season!

I raced twice this weekend, a trail run and a criterium (or "crit"). It was structured to be a pretty decent weekend, with the trail run and a few extra warm-up and cool-down miles to take place of my longer training run for the week and the crit to be followed by a longer ride to take place of my longer training ride. This of course, was all planned before I came down with a nasty head and chest cold on Monday. After taking 4 days off of training, I still figured I'd be well rested and ready to at least give a 75-80% race level effort and have fun.

Hurt the Dirt Trail Run 10k "Plus"
I signed up for this race through work, as one of our brands, Patagonia Footwear, was the title sponsor. In addition to a reduced entry fee, the marketing team gave us a free pair of trail running shoes to represent the brand. Loving a great deal, I couldn't turn it down. So I picked these shoes. Laced 'em up, and hoped for a nice morning of training followed by a harder bike ride.

The race started 1.3 miles from the parking lot, so I used the distance as my warm-up. I wanted to run 8-10 miles anyway. This was a comfortable pace and helped me loosen up. But after standing around for 30 minutes waiting for our heat to start, I must have tightened up a bit. I lined up near the front as no one seemed to be interested in doing so, took off at the gun, and found myself running comfortably in 5th or 6th position. This is where the competitive side can take over, and it did. The first mile went down easy, then the second. I passed two people and was in 4th place, pacing on the heels of 3rd place. Mile three went by and still cruising. Somewhere between mile 3-4 my legs started to tighten up. I took a PowerBar gel that I was carrying with me and it seemed to ease things up for a bit.

For anyone who hasn't gone mountain biking or trail running in West Michigan, let me give you an idea of how many twist and turns and small rises and downhills there are on the trails we were running. This will preface the remainder of the race. The green highlighted line is the trail we ran on. Aside from perhaps a mile, the course is never flat nor straight. This is much harder on your legs than running on a road or path!


Back to the run. I hit the second to last straight section and had to stop running to stretch my legs out. I injured myself running through this type of issue last summer and really had that in mind as my legs started to cramp up. Top 3 at a small trail race is not the consolation prize I want in exchange for dealing with another injury. I was clearly dehydrated from being sick, so I decided to back of and jog what I could, walk what I couldn't, and stretch out as much as possible. Surprisingly, I was still in the top ten when we made the last half mile, but at list point all I could do was walk. I got a few hundred yards to the finish and jogged in, went straight to the gatorade and bananas, then off to stretch and compose myself.

After I loosened up, I decided I would try to jog back to my car. I felt okay and thought the flat road might be tolerable. Thank goodness I was right. I made it back at a slow pace, but it was comforting that I could still run. When I got hurt last year, I couldn't even walk. I don't know what place I came in, but I'm glad that I pulled myself out of the running before doing any serious damage.

For you data geeks, here's the garmin file on strava.