John Savage's Victory at Bass Lake Classic Triathlon

John Savage, who I've been working with since the end of last year, won the Bass Lake Classic Triathlon by 5 minutes on Saturday. Results here and Sierra Star article on the event here.

http://www.sierrastar.com/2013/06/02/62819/more-than-600-race-in-bass-lake.html

John's Race Report:
Got to packet pick up late, they had closed, told me to come back at 5:45 am the next morning. Went to my camp site to find someone had taken my spot. I asked if I could put up a tent in my own spot next to their tent, they agreed. Went for a quick run-pitch black. Been dealing with some knee pain, but it didn't bother me too much on the run. Also, no ill effects from the head cold I had on Wednesday night/Thursday.

Next morning, got to the race site at the anointed time of 5:45am, but there was no one there. I had to wait until 6:30 to get my number and get into transition, which closed at 7:20, so that put some stress on to get my spot set up and warmed up.

Got a quick ride in and a quick jog, then headed down to the water. I spoke with some competitors to see what they knew about the race and was told that I should worry about miles 7-14 on the ride-all up hill. That was accurate.

In the water, it was pretty clear. I went out pretty hard and three people went with me. I slipped in on someone's feet for the first ~300 yards, and then he slowed, but another person went ahead, so again, I fell in a comfortable rhythm on someone's feet. I was feeling the effects of the altitude, so I didn't want to stress myself before a hilly run.

We went through the two laps of the swim course together and I exited the water about 5 seconds behind him. I had a little difficulty unzipping my wetsuit on the run up to transition. The run was pretty much straight up hill, and I passed the lead guy pretty easily. I was able to slip out of my wetsuit, into my helmet and bike shoes, and off I went on the ride.

The ride goes straight up hill out of transition, and the volunteers were yelling at me to "gear down". I stood up and powered up the hill to put a little time between me and the guy I swam with. The course then goes flat, and then steeply down hill. As I was going down the hill, the athletes doing the sprint course were coming back up it. They did not look happy, which told me the hill was long and steep. I pushed the tempo again, hitting 45 mph in aero.

A little after mile 7, the hills started. And then the altitude started to get a hold of me. The hills were rough as they were, but at 3000 feet of elevation, my legs hurt. I took a quick peek back, and with no one in sight, I sat up a little.

And again, as told to me earlier, just after mile 14, the course leveled out a bit. I pushed the tempo the rest of the way, and hit transition to go into the run. Legs hurt, but I was ok.

The course was two loops of rolling hills, and I just tried to stay positive as legs started to hurt a lot. On my way back to the first turnaround, I figured that I had five minutes on the second place athlete. The spectators and sprint athletes noticed that I was in the lead, and cheered me on-it was needed.

One of the perks of the two loop course, is that you get some check ins on your competition. On the way out to the second loop, my lead hadn't changed, and again on the final turn back in, my lead was holding steady. I buried my head, and held pace for the last bit. My rhythm kept on slowing, and I was trying just to hold on.

I was able to finish in 2:14. A lot slower than my olympic pr, but at elevation and a hilly course, I will take it. I found some shade, and waited for the field to finish. I was elated at my first win, but exhausted. This was literally one of the most difficult races I had done.

How To T1

If you're doing any more than this you are wasting time in T1.

Key Points:

• Have your wetsuit to your waist or half way down your thigh before you get to your bike.
• Stomp on it once you've pulled it below your knees and use that time to put your helmet on. 
• Have your bike shoes attached to the bike. It's a skill that saves time but it requires practice at first. Just like everything else in triathlon. Surprised how many just refuse to put that effort in. 
• Also, if you have a choice on racking your bike, go for the closest possible rack to the bike exit. The less time you spend wheeling your bike the faster you'll be in both T1 and T2.

Common mistakes:

• Socks. Buy some baby powder.
• Sitting down. 
• Drying off (you'll notice Matthews barely steps on his towel).
• Putting your race number on. You don't have to wear it on the bike and you can attach it during the run without losing time.
• Putting your aero helmet on backwards (Yes, I've seen this).

My Complete Anthology of Swimming Workouts

Tiring of cyber attacks from Wikileaks, Syrian National Army and the likes I have decided to just publish all my swimming workouts on the information superhighway. They are freestyle heavy and geared to triathletes. Some of them are scabbed or adapted from the internet, some are my own making, some inspired from coaches I had as a swimmer or from coaches I observed as a lifeguard.

They are broken into 4 sections:

• Technique/Recovery/Sprint [2000-3000]
• Fitness [2000-3000]
• Technique/Recovery/Sprint [3000-4500]
• Fitness [3000-4500]

One other particularly good online source the Mountain View Masters website.

Buy this stuff.

Wanna Swim Better? My Swim Stroke Analysis Service

Santa Cruz County Running and Triathlon Calendar

Results Napa HITS triathlon Olympic distance. John Savage 2nd overall.

John Savage. Finished 2nd overall in today's event in Napa. Details to follow.

Core Power and an Ironman Champ vs. this piece of chicken

Cooooore Powerrrrr is packed full of protein. You need protein after a workout to recover properly. That's why Craig "Crowie" Alexander drinks it (when you're looking) and he is a three-time Ironman Triathlon World Champion. The sucky thing is, if you drink Core Power, you don't automatically become Craig Alexander. That's because he does 30+ hours training a week and, well, who has the time and motivation for that?

Anyways, enough about exercise, this is about recovery and you can recover just like Craig Alexander with Core Power. It has 26g of protein. So, as it happens, does 4oz of chicken breast. 4oz of chicken covers about the size of the palm of your hand.

Let's compare:

corepower.com

Chicken has chicken in it (boring) so let's move to the ingredients of Core Power. Core Power is basically milk and sugar and some synthetic compounds. Not sure where the extra protein comes from because I can't see anything in the ingredient list that could contribute to extra protein compared to regular milk. Any ideas readers? Core Power also brags about having Vitamin D which you can get by going outside.

Carrageenan is an interesting one. Researchers have reliably linked dietary carrageenan to harmful inflammation. Read this Rodale article or the full independent report. The body is already inflammed after exercise and I'm thinking the fact "Carrageenan so reliably causes inflammation that scientists actually use it to induce inflammation in biological experiments" would not be so super.

Core Power costs about $3 a bottle and that tiny amount of organic chicken would cost about $1.50.

So I'm going to side with the chicken but facing off against Crowie and the mommy runner blogs is tough.

If you wish to support the fight for chicken to become a sports recovery beverage, please buy this chicken coop...

ElliptiGo. The latest silly cross-training gimmick to distract runners from what they're supposed to be doing.

Before I get started, why do elite runners look so silly with bike helmets on? Check it out...

Olympic marathoner Meb Kelflezighi (running.competitor.com)

Running is boring. Especially if you have a personal online coach, no friends and have to stick ear phones in the whole time to pretend that you're fine with running around by yourself for hours.

It is into this fertile environment of ennui that the ElliptiGo was born. What? I can get better at running without actually doing the horrible, painful exercise? Sweet! Finally some variety! And I get to choose a color? This just gets better and better.

Well, no, actually, it's not going to make you any better. ln fact, it's going to make you worse because when have to make a decision, in your time squeezed life, to go for a run or ride the useless thing in garage that you wasted your money on, you are probably going to try and justify its existence. ElliptiGoing has sweet fig all to do with running. Your feet are totally fixed into position on the pedals unlike running which is full of impact forces.

If you're interested in finding out more about the futility of cross training in general read Gina Kolata's New York Times article. It neatly reviews the science and even summarizes by saying that "using an elliptical cross-trainer may feel as if it is exercising your running muscles, but it is not giving you the same kind of training that running does. Nor does it train the muscles you need for cycling." Ouch. I will agree with ElliptiGo on one thing. It will reduce the chance of a running injury (because you're not running).

Of course that hasn't stopped a few pros nearing the end of their careers and some celebrity coaches enthusiastically recommending it to you. Hey look, there's Dean Karnazes! You do know they're all out on runs together laughing at you behind your back, don't you?



Anyways, get on Ebay before it's too late. Remember rollerblades?

Disclaimer: this review was done without actually ever using the product. I value my marriage (they cost nearly $2K) and I already have a bike if I ever feel like not running.