Pumpkin Race Report, Status Update

A little late with this report. I raced Pumpkinman 70.3 on Sept 13, 2009 on a beautiful, hot and humid day in South Berwick ME with a few friends and family present. Before I get into all of the technical stuff, I want to point out how great of an event Pumpkinman is. The race is directed by Kat Donatello and is into its second year. This family is amazing and both Kat and Jeff are also impressive athletes. You really get a feel that the race is run through the eyes of an athlete vs. a corporation or profit seeker. There is a great family feel and it recruits some of the best talent in the area. The track has everything great about New England with the terrain, the lake, rollers and sights. You will observe the race director and her husband running all over the course supporting a legion of volunteers and taking pictures and cheering up athletes for support. This is a race that I know will sell-out fast every year going forward. It will be on my calendar going forward too and prep for Hawaii next year. I certainly “call-out” my "Flat-Lander" friends, Allina, Angle, Shanna, Nonya to step out of the parking garage hill repeats and race a course that is challenging!! I’ll assist on housing if you ladies want to bring it up a notch!!!

Race Report:
The approach for this race was to race it knowing I have not fully recovered from Lake Placid. I have not had any time off from Placid and we (Coach Jesse) want to use up gains on fitness to build onto the next phase (Kona push). The legs were not popping and I did not complete one minute of Z2 (high intensity) training leading up to this race. All of my weekly prep was done at a fairly controlled effort. I started swimming about two weeks prior to this race as my fractured ribs prevented me from raising my arm over my head. Also, once again while in taper I got a flu type thing. Never fails, all of the outside rushing around prior to race week caught up with me again!!

The philosophy for race day is to always approach a race in a best effort mind-set. Can’t toe the line telling yourself that this is just a “practice run”, or “I’m not in the best shape” or that “it’s not my “A” race”. That’s how you set yourself up for a crappy day or even get hurt. It’s always best effort with an emphasis on any and all areas of improvement. However, in the back of my mind, like the whole year I did wonder what the work product would look like.

This was the first race I was offered to race in the Elite/Pro field. It was funny race morning showing up at bike check-in seeing some of the faces double take at the old guy (me). I felt like I had to explain why I was there, lol…

Walk down to the start with Jesse and Jay. Jay must have told 5 of the funniest jokes inside a 100 yard walk that even made Jesse laugh. I was not nervous and entered the water with the Elites. I knew that this was going to be the last time I saw them for the day!! Honest, but I knew I’d be going faster and learning how to stay at the front. Can’t race a plane as a passenger, need to be in the pilots chair!!

Gun goes off and we run into the water. Few strokes and I’m tired!!! No kidding.. Lungs flair up and I find a good groove around the first buoy. No contact and I can still see people’s feet. Good sign!! Came out of the water and ran through the beach and back into the water for the second loop. No issues and felt as if I went fast. Swim done, and out of the water in 29:00 which was good for me. Goals 32-33:00

We then ran up this monster hill which is a race within a race and is hard. I decided to walk/run up it. (lead picture)

Onto the bike, goal: 200 Watts and a cadence of 88-90. 2:29-2:32. Actual 2:29:05.Bike has and is my strength this year. Crushed the bike really without incident. The lack of tabatasa and Z2 training showed up here. I really had to work harder than I thought I would. Perceived effort was increasing. Beautiful course and I rode it all alone the whole day. I was stuck in the middle in about 10th place. I took two wrong turns because I came up onto corners too fast. The p4 also has no brakes on it with a disc, so unless there is a bailout somewhere, I’m doing my version of a Fred Flintstone stop.
Finally tally, 22.5 Avg Speed, Cadence of 92, 199 Watts, 2:29:05 and a B+ rating from the coach. Not bad with again getting lost twice!!

Onto the run: Goal, 6:50 pace.. Hold that for as long as I can. 1:23-1:25 Half Marathon. Off the bike I came with a guy that I was dueling me on the bike. I had passed him for a long time with our consistent wattage pacing. However, he caught up to me on my lost turn and now out of T2 at the same time. Onto the course, boom, 6:35 pace for too long. I reel it back to 6:48 and I felt pretty good. I’ve been running a ton with my simultaneous run preparation for the DC Marathon. I get into mile 5 and I’m not feeling so confident. This pace was fast for me and the heat was getting to me. I was tired and missed a nutrition round. The wheels were falling off. I said to myself, are you kidding me? You only have to run another 8 miles from here. You ran a full marathon completely screwed up with broken ribs. Suck it up! At that point, Jesse ran by me and told me to pick my eyes up. The leader ran by and someone blurted out that I was in the top 15 overall (the pro's). That got me cranking a bit, but to be candid, I could only hang on which was not good. I was not peeing and I knew I was getting close to system no go. I decided to shed my top and to push the pace all the way. I got lost on the run on the first loop too. I was pissed at myself, but the concentration was fading. From mile 9-13.1 I brought it home with nothing left. The goal 1:23-1:25 and actual 1:41. I did run 13:89 miles tho, lol!! Goals for the race were 4:23-4:32 actual 4:45:02 and 10th place in the division.

The final analysis. Very pleased. It was a pr and I had a good swim, another good bike and a crappy run. The venue and people were amazing. I’m so happy to conclude the Tri season and to get back into marathon preparation for DC where I’ll try to break the 3 hour mark. I’ll have three complete weeks off after 10/25 where I’ll have time to chill and reflect fully on the year. I need it for sure!! I know that I’ll have tons on work to do to take it to the very top level I expect of myself. Going deeper!

Below are the bullet points for my last brick of the season:Block 14
Add back intensity and overload for marathon preparation
Maintain body composition of 142-146, drop weight before race to 142
Complete PR for marathon
Take Three weeks off, begin 50 week push and expect Kona.
Be aware that motivation will be tough right now
Continue core strength and restoration of fatigued areas.