Hi all,
We had a pretty small event down in Florida (40 peeps racing) but figured that I'd give a shout out to Billy who I crewed for.
His pre-race blog:
http://billythekidtriathlete.com/...-about-to-roll-here/
He's been a bit busy with racing and recovering (+kids) to put up much of one since then but you can also find some pics from twitter here: https://twitter.com/billythekidtri/media
On the crew there in the Orlando area I was joined by Joanna Zeiger (JZ) and Derek Russell (Doctor D). Both Wednesday and Thursday had their share of duties for getting things in order for Friday's gun. Not to mention the background research and homework that we had undertaken in the weeks leading into this. Wednesday there was bike check and race check in and on Thursday morning we had the pre race meeting. <tangent> Super, awesome, stupendous side note... we had Steve King announcing. Anyone familiar with Ironman Canada (as opposed to IM whistler) will know who Steve is. There is no better race announcer, period. Did feel a bit bad for him as there was really no one to announce too :-\ </tangent> There is certainly a different feel to this event as opposed to your local tri races or a WTC event or an xterra. I found that it resembled the Ultra Running community more than anything. Warm and very supportive. Perhaps a lot like Ironman was in the early days. Overcoming the course and the distance being more the concern then outperforming any fellow athlete.
The start on Friday morning was delayed by 2 hours as Florida was in the midst of experiencing it's full 4 days of winter for the year. The overnight lows were in the 30s and the highs in the low 50s (coming from more northern latitudes it didn't feel as bad as the sun was much more intense (having been in seattle 36 hours prior). Way smart move as the shallow lake was in the low 60s (maybe high 50s) and with the reduced effort from such a long swim it was going to be quite the cold affair. Dr. D was Billy's escort throughout the 10k swim and after 3:20 "the captain" was out of the water. Getting his frozen butt through T1 was quite the ordeal. Dude had non-functioning fingers and feet. Some athletes had opted for a much more sprint/half like transition with simply leaving the water, getting on the bike and jetting off but we had planned to have Billy swap out clothes and get warm. Once out on the bike course he started flying through those who had come out of the water ahead of him. Quick note on the bike course you have to obey red lights and stop signs. Like any good spastic triathlete leaving T1 his watts were far too high, especially on the tail wind sections. While we had shown him the Best Bike Split guidelines for the day we hadn't been explicit in the instructions to him about it. As it's a long day(s) JZ had Billy's nutrition dialed in to a T for both Swim and Bike. Logistically Day 1 was the toughest as it was the only one with a transition. That and feeding someone during the swim made for some nifty food play. For the rest of the day Billy made his way from 11th up to 2nd. All the while Doctor D was hopping out of the car giving him food, water, and salt. Afterwards we headed home for some burgers and fries and some analysis of the day and prep for Day 2. Nice thing in having a chiropractor on your team (Dr. D) was adjustments that Billy could get at the end of the day. After a long swim and then 4 hours in aero there was a fair bit of body work that needed to be done.
BBS side note: Estimation to reality was off by only ~2 minutes today. That said, wattage execution was imprecise (but NP and AP ended up about expected) so not sure how that would affect the model.
Day 2 seemed, at the start, a bit of an easier day to chew on. Famous last words, both for athlete and for crew. We headed out at 5:30a for Lone Cabbage Fish Camp (not sure what cabbage is doing in the Florida swamp!) for the day's start. The previous day's steady and strong northerly winds were in the process of swinging around to the south. Case in point, while it was in the upper 30s at lone cabbage it was in the mid to high 60s only about 20 miles to the southeast! At the outset most chose to ride quite easy (I don't blame them!). We waited around for about 15minutes before beginning our chase after "the kid." The group had mostly stayed together but Billy was nowhere to be found! Eventually we caught up with him about a mile ahead of the rest! The first 100 or so miles of this 172 mile day were very flat. With zero wind at the start, cool temps, and open, smooth roads Billy was FLYING (probably not a word most associate with UM!). He was humming along at 23-26 mph. Throughout the first 5 hours of the day it was pretty routine. Watch him fly, get ahead, hop out, do a 1-2 second chat, hand up nutrition, etc., hop back in the car, repeat. Whereas JZ had driving duties the day before and Doctor D was in the position of handus uperus, roles reversed for day 2. I played navigator and utility man (luckily on neither day was bike mechanic ever needed). When we finally arrived in the famous hills of the Clermont area he was still pumping out a good pace. For us mountain folks (Billy, JZ and myself) it was really nice to see some topography! When we got to the only out and back of the day we clocked billy in at a 27 minute lead. WOOT! From here things just got progressively more difficult. Much like the run on an Ironman. While he has a record of doing multiple 100s of mile rides in the past and an impressive top 50 finish at Paris-Brest-Paris, "the kid" hadn't had a whole bunch of super long riding in quite awhile (ya know, cute kids and all). The leap frogging got a lot shorter and the yelling got a lot louder. The grades on some of the hills here are no joke. While not big vertically and not super long horizontally when tossed in at mile 150 of a monster ride like this they are deadly! Not to mention the previous day's activities! The kid made it to the line and if ever there was a bike ride to take an ice bath after this was it! Another night of pounding calories and cleaning up from the day and prepping for the next. Earliest morning of the tour awaited us next.
BBS side note: prediction and reality way off here but mostly due to winds that did not materialize as we thought they would (helpful ones) and fatigue that no model could have predicted! That said he was 10-15w below target for the first few hours and that still couldn't keep the fatigue demons at bay in the final miles of the course.
Day 3. With fear and fatigue open full bore Billy went into today with a conservative mindset. Double marathon, with lots of hills is really a beast! (personal note: i don't think the first two days of the race are all that bad, a long swim and bike, cool! then a really long ride that's doable, but day 3...... nooooooo thank you. Especially on those tired of legs) While he had told us prior to day 1 that he was going to have trouble keeping it above 6:30/mile pace for the first two miles ("it's all down hill!." he would protest) the first two days of racing helped wisen him up and he played it a lot cooler. Making his way thru the first half mary in just over an hour forty. From then on it was fuel, jog, maybe occasionally, walk and just power this distance down. JZ helped pace for 27 of the miles and Dr D threw in 10 more (huge effort man!). There were plenty of antics and shenanigans all in keeping the captain engaged and plowing towards the finish line.
In the end it was a test to explore the distance. During his time racing full time and after Billy has played with the idea of longer and more distance insane biking events. Many the randonee, PBP, Furnace Creek, Grand Loop, just to name a few. This was just a natural extension of those efforts. After this he's looking at tackling Hawai'i UM in the future. Maybe not for '15 but good chance you'll see him out there in '16.
If you want to ask questions I'll be sure to direct him over to this thread to answer them for you.
Laters.
36 kona qualifiers 2006-'23 - 3 Kona Podiums - 4 OA IM AG wins - 5 IM AG wins - 18 70.3 AG wins
I ka nana no a 'ike -- by observing, one learns | Kulia i ka nu'u -- strive for excellence
Garmin Glycogen Use App | Garmin Fat Use App
We had a pretty small event down in Florida (40 peeps racing) but figured that I'd give a shout out to Billy who I crewed for.
His pre-race blog:
http://billythekidtriathlete.com/...-about-to-roll-here/
He's been a bit busy with racing and recovering (+kids) to put up much of one since then but you can also find some pics from twitter here: https://twitter.com/billythekidtri/media
On the crew there in the Orlando area I was joined by Joanna Zeiger (JZ) and Derek Russell (Doctor D). Both Wednesday and Thursday had their share of duties for getting things in order for Friday's gun. Not to mention the background research and homework that we had undertaken in the weeks leading into this. Wednesday there was bike check and race check in and on Thursday morning we had the pre race meeting. <tangent> Super, awesome, stupendous side note... we had Steve King announcing. Anyone familiar with Ironman Canada (as opposed to IM whistler) will know who Steve is. There is no better race announcer, period. Did feel a bit bad for him as there was really no one to announce too :-\ </tangent> There is certainly a different feel to this event as opposed to your local tri races or a WTC event or an xterra. I found that it resembled the Ultra Running community more than anything. Warm and very supportive. Perhaps a lot like Ironman was in the early days. Overcoming the course and the distance being more the concern then outperforming any fellow athlete.
The start on Friday morning was delayed by 2 hours as Florida was in the midst of experiencing it's full 4 days of winter for the year. The overnight lows were in the 30s and the highs in the low 50s (coming from more northern latitudes it didn't feel as bad as the sun was much more intense (having been in seattle 36 hours prior). Way smart move as the shallow lake was in the low 60s (maybe high 50s) and with the reduced effort from such a long swim it was going to be quite the cold affair. Dr. D was Billy's escort throughout the 10k swim and after 3:20 "the captain" was out of the water. Getting his frozen butt through T1 was quite the ordeal. Dude had non-functioning fingers and feet. Some athletes had opted for a much more sprint/half like transition with simply leaving the water, getting on the bike and jetting off but we had planned to have Billy swap out clothes and get warm. Once out on the bike course he started flying through those who had come out of the water ahead of him. Quick note on the bike course you have to obey red lights and stop signs. Like any good spastic triathlete leaving T1 his watts were far too high, especially on the tail wind sections. While we had shown him the Best Bike Split guidelines for the day we hadn't been explicit in the instructions to him about it. As it's a long day(s) JZ had Billy's nutrition dialed in to a T for both Swim and Bike. Logistically Day 1 was the toughest as it was the only one with a transition. That and feeding someone during the swim made for some nifty food play. For the rest of the day Billy made his way from 11th up to 2nd. All the while Doctor D was hopping out of the car giving him food, water, and salt. Afterwards we headed home for some burgers and fries and some analysis of the day and prep for Day 2. Nice thing in having a chiropractor on your team (Dr. D) was adjustments that Billy could get at the end of the day. After a long swim and then 4 hours in aero there was a fair bit of body work that needed to be done.
BBS side note: Estimation to reality was off by only ~2 minutes today. That said, wattage execution was imprecise (but NP and AP ended up about expected) so not sure how that would affect the model.
Day 2 seemed, at the start, a bit of an easier day to chew on. Famous last words, both for athlete and for crew. We headed out at 5:30a for Lone Cabbage Fish Camp (not sure what cabbage is doing in the Florida swamp!) for the day's start. The previous day's steady and strong northerly winds were in the process of swinging around to the south. Case in point, while it was in the upper 30s at lone cabbage it was in the mid to high 60s only about 20 miles to the southeast! At the outset most chose to ride quite easy (I don't blame them!). We waited around for about 15minutes before beginning our chase after "the kid." The group had mostly stayed together but Billy was nowhere to be found! Eventually we caught up with him about a mile ahead of the rest! The first 100 or so miles of this 172 mile day were very flat. With zero wind at the start, cool temps, and open, smooth roads Billy was FLYING (probably not a word most associate with UM!). He was humming along at 23-26 mph. Throughout the first 5 hours of the day it was pretty routine. Watch him fly, get ahead, hop out, do a 1-2 second chat, hand up nutrition, etc., hop back in the car, repeat. Whereas JZ had driving duties the day before and Doctor D was in the position of handus uperus, roles reversed for day 2. I played navigator and utility man (luckily on neither day was bike mechanic ever needed). When we finally arrived in the famous hills of the Clermont area he was still pumping out a good pace. For us mountain folks (Billy, JZ and myself) it was really nice to see some topography! When we got to the only out and back of the day we clocked billy in at a 27 minute lead. WOOT! From here things just got progressively more difficult. Much like the run on an Ironman. While he has a record of doing multiple 100s of mile rides in the past and an impressive top 50 finish at Paris-Brest-Paris, "the kid" hadn't had a whole bunch of super long riding in quite awhile (ya know, cute kids and all). The leap frogging got a lot shorter and the yelling got a lot louder. The grades on some of the hills here are no joke. While not big vertically and not super long horizontally when tossed in at mile 150 of a monster ride like this they are deadly! Not to mention the previous day's activities! The kid made it to the line and if ever there was a bike ride to take an ice bath after this was it! Another night of pounding calories and cleaning up from the day and prepping for the next. Earliest morning of the tour awaited us next.
BBS side note: prediction and reality way off here but mostly due to winds that did not materialize as we thought they would (helpful ones) and fatigue that no model could have predicted! That said he was 10-15w below target for the first few hours and that still couldn't keep the fatigue demons at bay in the final miles of the course.
Day 3. With fear and fatigue open full bore Billy went into today with a conservative mindset. Double marathon, with lots of hills is really a beast! (personal note: i don't think the first two days of the race are all that bad, a long swim and bike, cool! then a really long ride that's doable, but day 3...... nooooooo thank you. Especially on those tired of legs) While he had told us prior to day 1 that he was going to have trouble keeping it above 6:30/mile pace for the first two miles ("it's all down hill!." he would protest) the first two days of racing helped wisen him up and he played it a lot cooler. Making his way thru the first half mary in just over an hour forty. From then on it was fuel, jog, maybe occasionally, walk and just power this distance down. JZ helped pace for 27 of the miles and Dr D threw in 10 more (huge effort man!). There were plenty of antics and shenanigans all in keeping the captain engaged and plowing towards the finish line.
In the end it was a test to explore the distance. During his time racing full time and after Billy has played with the idea of longer and more distance insane biking events. Many the randonee, PBP, Furnace Creek, Grand Loop, just to name a few. This was just a natural extension of those efforts. After this he's looking at tackling Hawai'i UM in the future. Maybe not for '15 but good chance you'll see him out there in '16.
If you want to ask questions I'll be sure to direct him over to this thread to answer them for you.
Laters.
36 kona qualifiers 2006-'23 - 3 Kona Podiums - 4 OA IM AG wins - 5 IM AG wins - 18 70.3 AG wins
I ka nana no a 'ike -- by observing, one learns | Kulia i ka nu'u -- strive for excellence
Garmin Glycogen Use App | Garmin Fat Use App
