Folsom Lake Race Recap (i.e. We're happy with the time so far)

Posted by Matt

I haven't been posting much lately, but a race recap is the perfect time to get back into it. So here goes...

On Saturday,  Katie and I competed in the Folsom lake international triathlon and aqua bike. I can't say enough good things about the race - it was fantastic. The race was relatively small,  (146 for the Olympic distance and maybe 200 people total), really low key, and yet very professionally done. As Katie detailed in her post, we showed up at 7 for an 8 am start, and had time to register for the race (yes, register day of), use the restrooms (and there was only 1 person in line for real bathrooms!), set up our transition,  and get down to the water (and  given California's drought, it was a long way down to the reservoir). At each of these checkpoints, our phrase was, "we're happy with the time so far," which really meant - "hey, we're going to make it to this race after all." Luckily, the happiness with times continued as the race went on. 

The Swim

Once we got to the beach, the water was clean and clear,  a very nice 63 degrees for a wet suit swim. The weather was equally perfect, 55 degrees at the start, warming to the mid 60s for the finish. I didn't have time for a warm up,  but managed to splash some water over me and get back on the beach for the wave 1 start. My goal for the swim was to be sub 30 minutes (a nice round number and a good goal considering my only other Olympic swim involved me swimming to an in water start as the gun went off and taking a wrong turn part way through - luckily a kind kayaker pointed me in the right direction - for 35 minutes). The swim felt like it took a long time. I'm not liking the implications for 2.4 mile swim when 0.9 feels long, but I'm not really a swimmer, so most swims feel long, really no matter the distance.  And overall I felt good, coming out of the water at 29:45 and hitting my goal! Next came the 0.3 mile run from the water to what should be the edge of the water if the lake was full and to t1.  Once I was ready to bike, it was 5:45 total for T1 with the run from waters edge.

Maybe the course felt long, because I can't swim in a straight line?
Or my Garmin 310 can't track in the water very well. Either way.

The Bike

The bike course was great as it had very minimal traffic on quality rural roads. It had rolling hills, climbing gently from mile 6 to 17 or so and then descending back to T2 for 1000 feet of total elevation gain. Despite it being a small race,  every turn had course marshals directing you the right way.  Throughout the course I lept frogged with 6 or 7 other guys,  generally catching up or passing them on the uphill and then getting smoked on the downs. Turns out,  I like uphill - in glad IM Canada will have a couple of those. I again had a round number in mind, hoping to beat 20 mph on the bike. With fellow triathletes around me to motivate, I beat that with some room to spare,  coming in to transition at 20.6 mph. And that included a short, but lovely section of dirt road at the very end to get back to transition.  Side note: I love taking my road bike on dirt roads so I actually enjoyed it (Katie, however, agrees to disagree about the the dirt road being fun).

Top - an excellent elevation profile for a fast bike.
Bottom - For the run - Yeah, I couldn't read the course website's text either before the race. 

The Run

My goal for the run portion of the race was to be able to finish strong. I wasn't sure how it would go, considering this was my first brick workout this year. Also, in all my previous triathlons, I have slowed significantly as the run went on for reasons including going too hard on the bike, not being in good run shape, serious heat, or starting the run off too fast. I had read that the run course was on single track trails,  but my previous experience with trails around Folsom lake (on the other side of the lake) was that it was relatively flat. These trails were beautiful, but decidedly not flat. My watch only registered 475 feet of gain,  but there were several short and steep climbs. The descents were equally steep, not allowing me to really regain time on the downs.  But, this is the exactly the type of terrain and trails I have been training on. So despite my pace being a bit slower than I had anticipated, I was in my wheelhouse. I started conservatively, but picked up my effort and continued strong through the finish. After the race, another racer told me,  "I thought I was running pretty fast, but you past me like I was standing still". The other racers were equally supportive on the course, I exchanged "great job" or other encouragements with everyone on the run course.  I finished with a respectable 7:04 pace for a final time of 2:33:20, an 11 minute PR over my previous Olympic distance race. 

Feeling good at the end of the run. 

Recap

We had a few goals for the race

1) Get a check of our fitness so far:

For me this race showed me that I'm right where I want to be. For swimming, it looks like I should get used to swimming longer, so I'll try to add some more open water swims and long sets into my training going forward. My biking has been feeling relatively good over the course of the training, so I'm going to keep doing more of the same there - biking to and from work once each week with tempo and sprint sessions thrown in now and again and riding long on the weekend. The run went well, but I think I could have actually pushed a bit harder. I haven't done many tempo runs recently, so I think I'll try to add some of those in to get used to running hard when tired. Also a brick or two probably won't hurt. 

2) Figure out if we're missing anything (particularly in regards to transitions) and get more open water race experience: 

Despite deciding to do the race the day before, we managed to show up with everything we needed, so huge win there. The open water swim went well for both Katie and I, so another success there. 

3) Inject some enthusiasm into our training - which has been suffering a bit the past 2 weeks with the step back week and then tough weeks at work for both Katie and I.

 In all regards, it was a huge success. Both Katie and I are really excited about the training going forward. We even pulled off our biggest swim yet (4400 yards) the day after the race and added a shake out run as well. Can't wait for the next challenge - which looks like Diablo next weekend! 

Bonus of a small race with awards 5 deep - podiums for both Katie (3rd overall in Aquabike) and I (4th in my age group)!