There's nothing worse than underestimating the suck factor of something I've gotten myself into. I knew the Gunstock Winter Triathlon was going to be hard, that's why I signed up for it. From the perspective of pure effort I expected it to be harder than a cross race because I knew I'd be at my limit for over an hour, maybe an hour twenty. I also had a weird expectation that I'd be able to ride my bike during the bike riding part of the tri, but then things don't always work out like you'd expect.
So about a month ago I signed up for the Gunstock Winter Tri. 4k run, 7k MTB, 6k skate ski, all on the snow. Somebody asked me, "which event do you excel at?".. Hmm, good question.. I run for two reasons. First, because there are uphill sprints carrying my bike in cyclocross so I need some ability to run when my heart is beating out of my chest, second, because when I'm strapped for time I can get a quick, effective workout in by throwing on a pair of sneakers and cranking out a 30-45 minute intense trail run (I refuse to run on the road). Is running a strength of mine? Hell no. In fact, I hate running. It's slow and it puts an unnecessary beating on my joints. Biking in the snow? A strength? Ummm, no. I don't do it enough. Of the 350 or so hours I had on a bike in 2009 I think 6 of them were on the snow. Skate skiing? This is becoming a strength of mine. I've been out about 10 times so far this year and have skied probably more than 150km. So my technique and strength is getting pretty good, but I'm still an average skier at best. Here's the way I looked at it when I signed up. Considering I wouldn't be one of the strongest guys in any discipline I hoped to lose no more than 3-4 minutes in any discipline for a total of 9-12 minutes behind the fast guys, like Kurt or Colin.. What I failed to factor in was the fact that I had never done a snow run race, a snow bike race, or a ski race, never mind all 3 in one event.
Kurt gave me some guidance about how to setup my transition area and warmup. Perfect. I was very organized. I warmed up a little too hard, but I didn't have much of a choice. You can't take it easy running or biking in the snow, and the ski course had a couple vicious climbs in it that I couldn't have taken it easy on if I had taken my skis off and walked up.. But that was fine, warming up a little too hard would be better than not enough. The biggest mistake I made, the one that would cost me several minutes, was my tire selection and not knowing enough to run crazy low tire pressure in the snow. Before the race I had a set of studded snow tires with big honking knobs on my mtb. Great on ice and snow, but they're really heavy. I knew the course wouldn't be icy and wouldn't require studs, so I figured I'd put my regular tires back on for weight savings. Think about that for a second, I figured I'd swap out a great set of snow tires to save about 3 pounds on my bike in a race on the snow where the bike leg shouldn't take more than about 20-25 minutes. I am such a fucking retard sometimes, but this is how I learn my lessons. The real killer is that being somebody who races cyclocross I know how important tire selection is for different conditions. My other set of tires are 2.0's with a low profile knob that are great for hard pack trails, not so much for soft, deep snow fields. In fact, at 20psi they were useless. During the warmup, the trails were freshly groomed and fairly hard pack. I adjusted the pressure in the back tire until I was able to ride the whole course without getting off the bike to push it, except for one steep section where the tires couldn't hook up at all. Figured I'd be good for the race. And, to be fair, this is pretty much what my expectation of what the course would be like during the race when I initially opted for the tires I had on the bike.
The race started with the run. 4k with several climbs that had me convinced there was way more up than there was down. Got my heart rate up to the ice crush setting where it would remain for the next 90 minutes. Because I do all my runs on similar terrain I was able to maintain a decent pace through the hills. I stopped getting passed about 3 minutes into the run, passed lots of people on the climbs, probably came in somewhere around top 20 to the first transition and only lost about 3 minutes to the fast guys. So far, so good. Then it was time for the bike. I was looking forward to this part because I fully expected to make up time on a bunch of runners who couldn't manage their bikes. Remember, my bike was going to be light and fast because of my brilliant move to take the snow tires off.... in a race on the snow... i haven't stopped kicking myself in the ass for this yet. Came out of the transition area, bombed into the bike course, and what was a nice rideable groomed trail in warmups was now a chopped up mess, much more similar to a snow beach because it had served as part of the 4k snow run.. Didn't see this coming. To say I struggled would be a gross understatement. If I was smart, I would have stopped the bike and let the air out to about 5psi. It certainly would have been an improvement over what I had. I ended up pushing the bike in places that I definitely would have been able to ride with my Nokians. I was too frustrated to think straight and just wanted to keep moving. The highlight of my bike leg was a spectacular endo in front of one of the two spectator areas of the entire bike path. I refused to brake coming down a downhill section with a bunch of riders in front of me. As I made a laughable attempt to maneuver my bike around them I ended up in the soft outskirts of the trail where my front wheel sunk to the fork, halting the bike, shooting me head first over the bars with the bike tumbling after me. It's fun and very forgiving crashing in snow though, so I quickly got up and took off.
It was somewhere in the second lap that IT happened. My inability to manage my bike in these conditions had me struggling mightily through a section that was chopped up badly but relatively flat. I was getting so frustrated I was ready to shoulder the bike like in a cross race and just run the final 2k back to the transition area. I was putting everything I had into the pedals and I was spinning and sliding and mushing forward at about 3mph. And then she passed me.. Like I was standing still. I got girl'd. I felt like George Costanza in the "Shrinkage" episode when he got caught with his pants down after swimming in cold water. So inadequate. I yelled out "wrong tires!!!!.........too much pressure!!!!!...........please!!!!!". Well, not really.. I didn't yell out anything. I just kept forging ahead at 3mph swearing at myself convinced that this was the stupidest thing I've ever done, remembering immediately that climbing Mt Washington on my bike was still stupider. When I finally got through the bike leg I had lost about 10 minutes to the guys that I should have been no more than a few minutes behind. I got the skis on and headed out..... On legs that weighed 25,000 pounds...... Holy.. Shit! I did not see this coming either. And I knew from warmups that there was an absolutely vicious climb about .5km into the lap, which I was going to have to do twice since we were doing two laps. Luckily, by the time I hit the climb my legs had loosened up quite a bit and I was able to maintain a pretty good pace. Unluckily, there was a novice classic skier, that wasn't even in the race, that had fallen and was sprawled across the narrow climb that made it next to impossible for me to get by. I managed to s..l..o..w..l..y grumble my way past her and continue on. During the 6k ski I only got passed by 2 guys and they could flat out ski so I had no dissapointment there. Looking at the splits I lost about 5 minutes to the fastest guys which is about what I expected. So breaking it down I did about what I expected to in the run and ski, but screwed myself on the bike due to inexperience and stupidity, and the bike should have been my strength. I ended up 14th overall, which isn't really bad for a first timer, I guess. And I gained valuable experience, which at the time I didn't think would mean much because I was so frustrated that I decided there'd never be a next time. But like most things I try that are hard and have a real high suck factor, it took me about an hour before I decided I needed to do more. I need to get good at it. I need to be competitive. If we get some snow in the next week or so me and my snow tires might be lining up in Weston on Feb 6th for the Mass Winter Tri.. C'mon snow, I need redemption!
This is me crashing my bike in the snow except for two things.
1-It's not me, and 2-It's not in the snow.
It was somewhere in the second lap that IT happened. My inability to manage my bike in these conditions had me struggling mightily through a section that was chopped up badly but relatively flat. I was getting so frustrated I was ready to shoulder the bike like in a cross race and just run the final 2k back to the transition area. I was putting everything I had into the pedals and I was spinning and sliding and mushing forward at about 3mph. And then she passed me.. Like I was standing still. I got girl'd. I felt like George Costanza in the "Shrinkage" episode when he got caught with his pants down after swimming in cold water. So inadequate. I yelled out "wrong tires!!!!.........too much pressure!!!!!...........please!!!!!". Well, not really.. I didn't yell out anything. I just kept forging ahead at 3mph swearing at myself convinced that this was the stupidest thing I've ever done, remembering immediately that climbing Mt Washington on my bike was still stupider. When I finally got through the bike leg I had lost about 10 minutes to the guys that I should have been no more than a few minutes behind. I got the skis on and headed out..... On legs that weighed 25,000 pounds...... Holy.. Shit! I did not see this coming either. And I knew from warmups that there was an absolutely vicious climb about .5km into the lap, which I was going to have to do twice since we were doing two laps. Luckily, by the time I hit the climb my legs had loosened up quite a bit and I was able to maintain a pretty good pace. Unluckily, there was a novice classic skier, that wasn't even in the race, that had fallen and was sprawled across the narrow climb that made it next to impossible for me to get by. I managed to s..l..o..w..l..y grumble my way past her and continue on. During the 6k ski I only got passed by 2 guys and they could flat out ski so I had no dissapointment there. Looking at the splits I lost about 5 minutes to the fastest guys which is about what I expected. So breaking it down I did about what I expected to in the run and ski, but screwed myself on the bike due to inexperience and stupidity, and the bike should have been my strength. I ended up 14th overall, which isn't really bad for a first timer, I guess. And I gained valuable experience, which at the time I didn't think would mean much because I was so frustrated that I decided there'd never be a next time. But like most things I try that are hard and have a real high suck factor, it took me about an hour before I decided I needed to do more. I need to get good at it. I need to be competitive. If we get some snow in the next week or so me and my snow tires might be lining up in Weston on Feb 6th for the Mass Winter Tri.. C'mon snow, I need redemption!
