Happy training for the week of 5/14.

Races: CTC members competed in three different triathlons this past weekend.  Eric Ayars, Laura Van dervoort, Kristi Ayars, and Stefan Ayars all competed at the Tri-Shasta Sprint Triathlon on Saturday.  You can read Eric’s race report here.  Greg Watkins, Shawn Hughes, Jason Berry, and Tammie Watkins competed in the Folsom Lake International Triathlon on Saturday.  You can read Greg’s race report here.  Isa Wilburn competed in the Mother’s Day Triathlon on Sunday.  Results for the TBF races have been posted to the results page of the website.  Results for Tri-Shasta will be posted to the website when available from the race organizers.  Finally, I accidently omitted Amy and Michael Griffin from last week’s update.  They both raced the Wildflower Olympic and their results have been posted to the website.

Next General Club Meeting: The next CTC General Meeting will take place on Saturday May 26^th at 3:00 PM at the home of Forough and Sean Molina, 715 Parkwood Dr.  We will cover the details of the practice triathlon at Black Butte Lake scheduled for Sunday June 3^rd.  We’ll also have a presentation from Miranda of Studio M Pilates and Fitness.  Please plan to join us for a fun and informative get together.

Practice Triathlon at Black Butte Lake: To help get you ready for our first club triathlon of the year, CTC is holding a practice triathlon at Black Butte Lake on Sunday June 3rd, the weekend before the Black Butte Triathlons.  We will cover the basics of setting up a transition, will have a kayak-assisted open water swim, will do a group ride of the sprint bike course (road or mountain), and will do a portion of the run course.  Bring everything you plan to come with on race day and let the CTC veterans guide you through a practice event that will have you ready to race a week later.  We'll hit the water at 10:00 AM, so plan to arrive by 9:00 AM or so.

Black Butte Discount:  Brandon Drew, race director of the Black Butte Triathlons has offered a discount to CTC members.  Enter the code “big15d” during online registration to receive the discount.

CTC Gear at North Rim:  We have CTC branded clothing (shirts, tanks, hoodies, …) as well as extra tri and cycling kit pieces available for purchase at North Rim.  Stop by and check it out.

Greg Watkins

President, Chico Triathlon Club

TBF Racing added this USAT sanctioned international distance (1.5k – 40k – 10k) triathlon to its early season schedule, providing a nice warm-up race four weeks out from Black Butte.  The race is held at the same venue as Granite Bay, but the bike course leaves the park while the run course uses the same challenging system of trails.

Tammie and I drove down race morning and met up with Shawn, Joanne, and Jason who had driven down the night before.  The weather was perfect for racing, mid 60s to start with no noticeable wind.  The water temp was in the upper 60s, also just about perfect for a wetsuit swim.

I started in the third wave with all the other grey beards (45+ men), five minutes back of Shawn and Jason and ten minutes back of the youngsters (34 and under).  I sprinted in from the land start and was quickly in the first two or three positions.  One guy (a 51 year old MDot vet I would see again and again) hammered the first bit of the swim like it was a 50 free, but I quickly brought him back, found his feet, and debated about staying there for a while.  It was just the two of us at the front of the wave, but I wasn’t happy with his pace or navigation skills, so I gradually moved around and past him.  He of course grabbed my feet and stayed there for most of the rest of the swim.  Once in the clear, I relaxed and focused on long, smooth, gliding strokes, breathing four times to each side with a quick sighting during the crossover.  Fortunately, the swimmers from the previous waves spread themselves all over the course, so I had little trouble navigating through them.  I caught a peek at Jason as I went by the second turn buoy, but never did see Shawn, who I also passed sometime during the swim.  I hit the beach in 22:33, best in my AG and 5^th best in the field.

After a smooth T1, I was quickly out on the bike for an entertaining second leg of the race.  Unlike Granite Bay, the bike course leaves the park for the surrounding roads.  The course is a diverse mix of busy and quiet roads, great and marginal pavement, rollers, short choppy climbs, technical descents, and even a short stretch of gravel.  I moved through a handful of riders from the previous waves, was feeling good, and was really enjoying the diversity of the course.  Right before a climb, I was passed by MDot man.  He was a big, strong rider and was slightly better than me on the flats, but he was carrying at least 25 pounds more than me.  I upped the tempo a bit and immediately caught and passed him before the end of the climb.  He immediately caught and passed me on the descent.  I stayed within about five bike lengths until re-passing him on the next hill, only to be re-passed on the descent.  I decided to sit in for a while, matched his pace from four to five bike lengths back, and waited for a significant climb where I might shake him for good.

At about 18 miles, I was sweeping fast through a left hander and heard some bad news from my drivetrain.  I wasn’t shifting, but for some unknown reason, the chain jumped off the big ring to the drive side.  This is normally no big deal, so I just soft pedaled, moved the front derailleur to the left, and tried to re-mount the chain without stopping, something I’ve done countless times in the past.  It lifted over the big ring, and the small ring, and this time fell to the inside.  I still had a little forward momentum and tried once more, but this time the chain jammed in the rear derailleur as I tried to pull it over the big ring.  I was really close to mounting, so I gave just a little push on the pedal to encourage it, which turned out to be a big mistake.  It refused to mount, so I finally stopped, got off the bike and reset it by hand.  MDot man was long gone, but I just relaxed and calmly re-mounted with thoughts of catching him on the run, thoughts that were quickly interrupted by the unmistakable sound a bent, mis-adjusted rear derailleur.

Fortunately, when I recabled the bike just a month ago, I installed an in-line barrel adjuster in the rear derailleur cable housing just under my aerobars.  This allows you to adjust the rear derailleur without dismounting, something that can come in handy during a race.  I turned the barrel and mostly quieted the derailleur, then got back to racing, only to have more noise and skips when I shifted to the other end of the rear cluster.  After a good bit of experimenting with skips and noise, I was able to make reasonable use of seven cogs in the back, avoiding the two largest and one smallest.  This meant powering climbs in a much lower cadence than I wanted, and losing some speed on the descents.  I also had to move to the small ring on some gentle rollers that I could have otherwise taken in the big ring.  I fully expected Shawn and Jason to come by during all of this, but I wasn’t passed the rest of the way, easily handled the short gravel section and was relieved to finally roll into T2.  I was also happy to see only a handful of bikes already racked.  My bike split (plus both transitions) was 1:11:25, best in my AG and 4^th best in the field.  I ended up averaging 21.4 mph, which I was pretty happy with considering the hills and mechanical issues.

Out on the run, a volunteer told me I was 8^th, which considering I started in the third wave, I was happy with.  I didn’t feel great, and my legs were pretty beat from the bike course, but I was running low 7 minute pace the first couple of miles and wasn’t taxing myself too much.  The course at Granite Bay is 95% trail and mostly rollers, but it has some seriously steep pitches on it, especially the one that’s about 1.5 miles from the finish.  It was getting hot so I made sure to drink at all the aid stations and kept an eye on my heart rate, which can be an indicator of dehydration if it’s higher than it should be for your RPE (rated perceived exertion).  The course was mostly empty, and I cruised along until I caught a glimpse of MDot man in the distance.  I was a bit invigorated by that, and caught and passed him easily.  I reeled in a few more runners from the earlier waves, privately hoping they were dismayed by the 49 on my calf as I went by.  I felt strong the entire way, was able to run the full ascent of the big hill without walking or putting my hand down (that one needs a name, by the way), and rolled to the finish with what I thought to be a slow run split for a 10k of 45:09 (7:17 pace).  Turns out my run split was best in my AG and 2^nd best in the entire field, a really encouraging result considering the run is typically the first thing to go with advancing age.

I was fourth across the line and ended up placing third overall, a fair distance behind the thirty-somethings that finished 1^st and 2^nd, but at least I out split them both on the run.  I won my AG, which turned out to be the fastest in the entire field based on the time of the fifth place finisher, a measure of the difficulty of getting on the podium.  Old Guys Rock!

The five of us finished off the race with a great lunch at a Brewpub in Roseville. The only other snags for the day were Tammie’s flat on the bike and the fact that CTC was split between this race and the Tri Shasta sprint held on the same day, and the TBF Mother’s day race the next day.  I don’t know what next year’s schedule may hold, but this is a great tune-up for Black Butte on a very similar course, a race I would highly recommend.

Tri-Shasta is just one hour and 15 minutes away. That's the key here: we need to support this race next year with everything we've got! The Redding people were also thrilled to have another option available that does not involve three hours of driving. It was mostly Redding folk there, other than my family, Laura V, Liam and his family, and a couple others I'm forgetting.

Oh, and Tammie Watkins' bike was there; it did quite well considering the new owner had never done a triathlon before.

Now for the race part... Water temperature was high 60's low 70's or so, quite doable without wetsuits. They started Women and Children first, 10 minutes before the men. Liam — remember I mentioned Liam was there? He's 11 — Liam was the first one out of the water! Awesome job! I started my swim too hot, trying to hold on to a couple of refugees from this year's St. George Ironman, tired quickly and ended coming out of the water 4th, 5th, and 6th.

Yes, 4th, 5th, and 6th... I should probably explain that. The start was on one side of the community center at a sandy beach. The swim finish was on the other side, on an extraordinarily slick boat ramp. I got to thigh-deep water, put my feet down, slipped back. I swam in again to knee-deep water but could not stand at all. I tried crawling up the ramp: no good either! It was just too slick. I eventually did a sort of penguin belly-slide breaststroke up the ramp until the water was six inches deep, then dragged myself out with my hands when they reached dry ramp. But apparently only the CENTER of the ramp was this slick: people were passing me on foot on both sides!

Once I got out, I blasted through T1 and started the bike in 5th. The bike is about 12 miles of "mixed" terrain, mostly good pavement other than about 2 miles of chipseal in the middle; but mile 2 is a brutal hill. Really brutal: I was pedaling squares at under 5 mph when I caught the 4th-place rider. Coming back down that hill at the end was sketchy: I was riding both brakes hard just to keep it to 45 mph. Finished the bike in 3rd.

The run (4 miles) starts flat, then has a vicious hill at mile 2 just like the bike. Totally different route, but there you go... It's about like Lone Pine trail in terms of grade, but double-track. I caught the 2nd-place runner there. The rest of the run is pretty flat and fast, other than a sharp downhill just before the last mile.

I kept asking "How far ahead is he?" as I passed aid stations on the run, and they'd just laugh. That's a bad sign... I came in 2nd, by about 6 minutes.

I should have come in 3rd. The other St. George Ironman refugee I mentioned was in second and closing on the bike leg when a course volunteer stepped directly in front of him on a corner. He was ok, but she was unconscious; so he kept her breathing until the medics arrived. And yeah, he would unquestionably have beaten me: he was so far ahead when the accident occurred that the firetruck got there before I did! Once they took over he gave a police report and then took off after me again; and he nearly caught me still! Last I heard she's ok, but they flew her to the hospital to get more carefully checked out.

Laura finished 3rd of the women with Kristi in hot pursuit. Liam finished very well, way ahead of anyone else in his wave. Stefan had a sharp lesson on the importance of fueling during a race, and finished DFL. He finished, though. They offered him a ride home on the last half of the run, which I am proud to say he refused.

So... Next year, let's show up for this one in force! Small race, but fun and friendly; we should really support it.

-ea