Did Powerman Zof last Sunday -- beautiful weather, perfect racing conditions. Joeri Vandersteelant crushed the course record by almost 10 min in 6:10:35 and it seems like he is carrying on his brother's legacy (and making his own quite rapidly). Seems like a very nice guy and I look forward to doing the run-bike-run-bike-run race in his brother's memory next year.
The race, as you might imagine, is run like a Swiss clock. Size of the race was smaller that I imagined it to be, although my 50-54 year age group was much much larger than last year, with 23 signed up. I signed up for the race almost on a whim, with not a whole lot of run and bike milage in the late summer after a couple of "shorter" tris (Alp d'Huez and 70.3 Germany). And I almost got away with it... except for that pesky 18 mile hilly trail run. That run course was designed by a masochist... and I would HATE to do it in rainy weather (the brief portions of the course that are flat would be slick with mud if wet).
First run (straight up a hill to start, of course) is only 9K long and of course I went out a little too fast like a rookie... 40 min, should have cruised it around 42-43 min and saved some matches. Bike course is on beautiful roads, very little traffic, and the scenary, especially on the south part of the course, is spectacular and includes views of the Swiss Alps on the horizon. Don't know what the front of the pack was doing, but I saw only a couple of drafters (of course, there were only 250 or so guys racing...). Hills on the bike didn't seem too bad on the first 50k loop (legs were nicely warmed up!) but by the third loop, the big hill seemed like a frigging Alp pass. With only a few guys around me, it was a little lonely and took a lot of focus to keep the speed up (I was shooting for a 19 mph average and ended up with 18 mph). Nice thing about the Powerman is that they let you get outside support at a feed zone near the official aid station in town. Mix of tri bikes and road bikes with clip ons; mostly tri-bikes though. the downhills weren't technical and next year I'm taking a tri-bike instead of my Kestral RT700 with aerobars.
Second 18 mile run... ouch ouch ouch. Developed a knee pain, knee cap tendinitis thing, which did not make running downhill any fun at all. Good crowd support near town, but then you enter a forested area and it's you and a few other guys slogging on the fire road (not very nice surface to run on -- very "pebbly" -- note to self, don't use the Newtons next year. Great aid stations; first of two loops the newcomer will think that he is lost though -- it seems like a maze as you go on two concentric circles to a turnaround, with no arrows -- you just have to keep the faith and not get turned around! If you can do the 18 miles without walking any of the many hills, you are a very very good hill runner. I just went into a "zen" state with counting up to ten on my inhale, sticking to a 1-2 breathing pattern, and focusing on a good evolution technique on the ups and downs. Endurolytes and hammer gel kept me from quad cramping and bonking, respectively. Just as painful and grueling as any Ironman run I have ever done, and much much hillier. My Garmin had 1000 ft elevation on the first 9K and 4000 ft on the second 30K. If you like hills, this is the race for you! here is a GPSIES track link
Ended up with about a 9 min pace on the second run, 2:40. Was shooting for 8 min pace but the lack of long run training got me. If I do this race next year (new age group yeah baby), it'll take at least a 19 mph average on the bike and a 2:20 or so on the run to get on the podium. Finished 7th in the age group out of 21 finishers, 141 out of ~ 250 overall. But I very very much liked the fact that the race did not start in rubber getting wet with 2000 people playing water polo for 500 yards. Especially considering that my swimming sucks. :-)
By the way, Erika Csomor took the women's race, I think for the 6th time -- and she looked very nice at the awards ceremony...
The race, as you might imagine, is run like a Swiss clock. Size of the race was smaller that I imagined it to be, although my 50-54 year age group was much much larger than last year, with 23 signed up. I signed up for the race almost on a whim, with not a whole lot of run and bike milage in the late summer after a couple of "shorter" tris (Alp d'Huez and 70.3 Germany). And I almost got away with it... except for that pesky 18 mile hilly trail run. That run course was designed by a masochist... and I would HATE to do it in rainy weather (the brief portions of the course that are flat would be slick with mud if wet).
First run (straight up a hill to start, of course) is only 9K long and of course I went out a little too fast like a rookie... 40 min, should have cruised it around 42-43 min and saved some matches. Bike course is on beautiful roads, very little traffic, and the scenary, especially on the south part of the course, is spectacular and includes views of the Swiss Alps on the horizon. Don't know what the front of the pack was doing, but I saw only a couple of drafters (of course, there were only 250 or so guys racing...). Hills on the bike didn't seem too bad on the first 50k loop (legs were nicely warmed up!) but by the third loop, the big hill seemed like a frigging Alp pass. With only a few guys around me, it was a little lonely and took a lot of focus to keep the speed up (I was shooting for a 19 mph average and ended up with 18 mph). Nice thing about the Powerman is that they let you get outside support at a feed zone near the official aid station in town. Mix of tri bikes and road bikes with clip ons; mostly tri-bikes though. the downhills weren't technical and next year I'm taking a tri-bike instead of my Kestral RT700 with aerobars.
Second 18 mile run... ouch ouch ouch. Developed a knee pain, knee cap tendinitis thing, which did not make running downhill any fun at all. Good crowd support near town, but then you enter a forested area and it's you and a few other guys slogging on the fire road (not very nice surface to run on -- very "pebbly" -- note to self, don't use the Newtons next year. Great aid stations; first of two loops the newcomer will think that he is lost though -- it seems like a maze as you go on two concentric circles to a turnaround, with no arrows -- you just have to keep the faith and not get turned around! If you can do the 18 miles without walking any of the many hills, you are a very very good hill runner. I just went into a "zen" state with counting up to ten on my inhale, sticking to a 1-2 breathing pattern, and focusing on a good evolution technique on the ups and downs. Endurolytes and hammer gel kept me from quad cramping and bonking, respectively. Just as painful and grueling as any Ironman run I have ever done, and much much hillier. My Garmin had 1000 ft elevation on the first 9K and 4000 ft on the second 30K. If you like hills, this is the race for you! here is a GPSIES track link
Ended up with about a 9 min pace on the second run, 2:40. Was shooting for 8 min pace but the lack of long run training got me. If I do this race next year (new age group yeah baby), it'll take at least a 19 mph average on the bike and a 2:20 or so on the run to get on the podium. Finished 7th in the age group out of 21 finishers, 141 out of ~ 250 overall. But I very very much liked the fact that the race did not start in rubber getting wet with 2000 people playing water polo for 500 yards. Especially considering that my swimming sucks. :-)
By the way, Erika Csomor took the women's race, I think for the 6th time -- and she looked very nice at the awards ceremony...