| Blue Lake Olympic 6/6/10 | Hagg Lake Olympic 7/10/10 | Amica Mid-Summer Olympic 8/1/10 |
PLACE (OVERALL): | 178 / 406 | 64 / 203 | 54 / 186 |
NAME: | H, JENSEN | H, JENSEN | H, Jensen |
AGE: | 33 | 33 | 33 |
SEX: | M | M | M |
TIME: | 2:35:03 | 2:42:17 | 2:25:58 |
BRACKET PLACE: | 25 / 41 | 13 / 25 | 11 / 21 |
SWIM TIME: | 0:32:13 | 0:30:53 | 0:28:35 |
SWIM 100 YD: | 1:58 | 1:53 | 1:45 |
PLACE AFTER SWIM: | 318 | 126 | 84 |
TRASITION 1: | 3:58 | 3:27 | 3:24 |
BIKE TIME: | 1:09:22 | 1:15:25 | 1:06:48 |
AVE MPH: | 21.11 MPH | 19.77 MPH | 21.42 MPH |
BIKE RANK: | 162 | 52 | 54 |
PLACE AFTER BIKE | 224 | 77 | 61 |
TRASITION 2: | 2:57 | 2:40 | 2:02 |
RUN TIME: | 0:46:33 | 49.52 | 0:45:09 |
AVE MILE SPLIT: | 7:29 | 8:02 | 7:16 |
RUN RANK | 125 | 60 | 49 |
PLACE AFTER RUN: | 178 | 64 | 54 |
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Waiting for my wave while the sprinters were getting
warmed up. |
There are a few times in ones career when everything seems to fall into place, to come together into a perfect day, perfect presentation, perfect work of art or perfect race. These days are not just for the rich, the artisans or athletic pros - they are for all of us and while they don't happen very often, rest assured they do happen. August 1st, 2010 was one of those days for me.
Waking at 5:15 the alarm was just loud enough to not waking up the wife and kids. My steps were soft enough as I got ready as to continue this trend and leave everyone in the house smiling in their sleep - rather than grumpy with Dad for waking them. Everything was just as I had left it the night before and with a perfect cup of coffee in my hands, I rolled out of the drive way. Getting to Blue Lake at about 6:30 gave me plenty of time to realize my first and only mistake of the day... (my complete lack of bug spray). In true spirit of the triathlon community, it only took me about 45 seconds before I found someone totally willing to lend me theirs.
The comradely of the event, of which you only have to be a present to experience didn't stop at the bug spray. I have really only been doing this for about 6 months but in that time, I have made good friends and make new friends at every race. Amica was not exception. Within minutes of finding my place on the rack in the transition area a conversation had begun between a couple and I. Both were down from Seattle and I must admit, I was a bit startled when the husband began pulling not just running shoes and bike shoes out of the duffel bag but a true carbon running leg, biking leg and swimming leg! A leg for each event. I truly was inspired, especially after I learned that he will be participating in the Lake Steven's Half Iron man.
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With my wave just about to start, I was trying not to focus on
burning sensation on the inside of my left bicep... oh, and the
3" teeth about to tear into my lower abdomen. |
My wave was set to start at 8:37 AM. A few fellows and I sauntered down to the waters edge as we started on what now has become a pre-race ritual of pulling on our wet-suit tops and helping each other with finding the "perfect" zipper pull placement. As I pulled the suit up I felt a sharp burning sensation on the inside of my left bicep, as I jerked the suit down again to look at what had impaled me - I was not to happy to find a bee stinger handing out of me, pumping away. While this was an annoyance, I decided to take the Lance Armstrong approach and just let it piss me off so I would be motivated to go faster.
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Jeremy Wade (of River Monsters) holds
his prise Tiger Fish on the shores of the
Congo River in Africa. |
Aside from bee sting anger, I picked up yet a new source of motivation. A few nights ago, while on the floor stretching as I watched Animal Planet. I was lucky enough to find myself engrossed in a new episode of "River Monsters". In this episode our fearless fisherman (note the use of fearless and also the fact that he generally remains safely on the shore) was hunting the "Demon Fish" or better know as the Tiger fish. Well, while it hadn't occurred to me that this "fish" may have made its way out of the Congo to the shores of Blue Lake Oregon, as I watched the show - it did occur to me that it was a near certainty - as I stood waist deep putting on my swim-cap and goggles. I decided that the slowest swimmers were most certainly the prime target of such a carnivore and I scared my way into a new 28:35 PR!
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Turning Right onto Marine Dr (Approximately 1/2 mile from
Transition Area) |
With the exception of a slight debachle in the Swim to Bike Transition area (where I literally fell over my bike) - the ride was smooth. I felt powerful through the entire ride where as in June, I felt a fade in the last 6 miles. There were a few instances where I had to break my aerodynamic position to stretch my butt and lower back but overall I I was able to hold a fairly constant 21 to 22 mph. Recently I have been working on "explosive power" - the ability to reach the foot of a short hill or in process of climbing, explode with a burst of power. In theory, this will allow me to both maintain my speed when I encounter a short hill or pull away from drafting competitors (or simply make a strong pass where I firmly plant in my competitors brain... "I can't keep up that pace" and allow me to pass unchallenged). I felt successful on both accounts. There are two short, shallow hills on Blue Lake Bike course which tend to slow the pace of the riders. On both hills I passed 6 to 8 competitors and while I brought my HR up to the 190s was able to get it back down once I settled a comfortable 30 yards past them. I was very happy about this performance and will continue this additive into my endurance program.
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| 8 Miles in to the 40K TT. |
The transition from Bike to Run was smooth and fast. Again, I felt the need to pee upon exiting the transition area and had to burn up 30 seconds in the bushes. I am not sure how to avoid this. I can only imagine that being dehydrated and not peeing would result in a substantial drop in performance (much more than my 30 sec pee). That said, I still kept my first mile under an 8 min/mile pace and continued to average 7:16 s through the rest of the run.
One of my absolute mental pet peeves is that guy who settles in behind you and uses your pace to pull him along. Not that there is anything morally or ethically wrong with the practice - just hearing the constant footfalls behind me and the breathing, increases my anxiety and prevents me from racing with a clear head. While this is probably something I need to "shift" my thoughts around, I wasn't in the right frame of mind on this run to do it. I do believe that I mastered my thoughts and was successful at developing a plan to use this annoyance to my advantage. As we neared the overpass on mile 4 I planned my last and potentially fatal burst on the uphill side of the overpass and then a stride out on the way down - trying to put some distance between me and my two pace leaches. It was successful to a point. For Mile 4 I posted a 6:26 split, a 50 second increase in pace. I maintained it until mile 5.5 (about 3/4 mile to go) at which point I couldn't hold it and my paced slowed significantly to 7:45 for the last mile or so. Due to the slackened pace my two friends caught me and passed me (grrrr). Hind sight being 20/20, I should have waited 1 mile to surge and maintain the surge through the finish. 2 1/2 miles at 6:30 was simply too much.
While the racing was great, the outstanding energy of the event was fantastic - what meant the most to me on this day was the fact that my wife and two boys had come out to support me. The night before as I put my son down, he gave me a red, white and blue silicone wristband that he got for being the "Star Student" at his school, so that I would remember him during the race. This was so touching that no less than a dozen times, I looked down at my wrist and felt a surge of energy to increase my pace. It really, really meant something to me and then to have that reinforced as I came out of the transition and have him give me a "high-five" made me feel so blessed.
My wife told me a little story after the race... As they were waiting for me to arrive on the bike, she said something to the effect of "Is that Daddy?", upon further investigation - it wasn't me but Aidan then piped up with "No, it is probably Lance Armstrong".
