FRIDAY, JUNE 13, 2008

1. How much faster, if at all, does a wet suit make your swim?

Faster for sure, because without one my legs are too low in the water. When I wore my wetsuit briefly in the pool at Masters a week ago before my half IM last weekend we had just finished some hard 50 yard intervals, which I swam 54-56. With the wetsuit I swam 44 with same effort...

2. What do you do to avoid/get rid of cramps (swim, bike or run)?

I have battled cramps my entire running and tri career. I have concluded that because I am usually undertrained, going out at the max effort that I think I ought to be able to do for whatever distance inevitably leads to cramps. Duh! Also, I sweat a lot so I tend to get dehydrated and need salt. In Rockman Half IM on Sunday I cramped 1800 meters into the swim (undertraining, especially with my legs in the position they were in in my wetsuit as opposed to sans wetsuit kicking in the pool, as well as no salt tablets before swimming), I did not on the bike (more on that leg below), and I cramped twice after the 9 mile point in the run (still no salt and after effects of riding a beyond my training). When I cramp on the swim I stop kicking but still swim and use Tara's technique of trying to (ouch!!) ignore it. On the bike when I cramp I soft pedal and knead my leg. On the run I walk if possible and shake it out and stretch and then run on my heels for awhile to change how the muscles are stressed. Above all, I load up with salt tablets if possible and it usually works given a little time. I took 5 tablets when I cramped on the run Sunday (I should have taken them sooner but wind and rain had me distracted) and after 5 minutes or so I was back running, albeit slower than my previous 8:30 - 9 minute pace.

3. What is the most epic bike ride you have ever done?

I have done a number of rides that for me were epic. The most recent was in my half IM tri on Sunday when the entire ride was in high winds (a friend doing the race said he had the wind training for Kona in thanks to the race) and then a huge thunderstorm came at us 2 hours in. By then, being the slow swimmer I am, I had passed 61 people (1/4 of the field) on the bike and had only been passed by 4 studs. But the rain and wind were so hard that I had to really slow down for fear of not seeing the road and riding off it or not being able to slow down for turns. Meanwhile, thunder and lightning were around us. Stop? Well, I thought about it, but where? - just cornfields around and not much else visible that looked like good shelter. The lightning soon went away but the downpour and wind continued for most of the rest of the ride. I was passed by a few folks when I backed off but I passed them all back before T2 (where the downpour started yet again)!

4. What do you say to a competitor you know when you fly by him or her in a race?

Oh, I so wanted to be evil and taunt said Kona lottery winner when I passed him at mile 2 on the run on Sunday! After all, he became clearly upset a couple of years ago when were on a training ride together for the first time and he thought at an athletic 6' 2" (to my just under 5' 8") and with some IMs and many fast marathons under his belt he could ride away from me. I was leading and had missed the turn to the road up the hill and then he was 1/4 mile ahead of me by the hill base - and I still smartly climbed by him halfway up. I had really hurt his ego. (IM Canada 8x at that point - the climb we were on in Wisconsin was nuthin'...). Anyway, said lottery winner has to others as well as me not been able to contain himself in touting his prowess, but then most often "something happens" that gets in the way of a good triathlon result. You get the picture. So did I taunt him? Of course not. I am a professional. ;-) "Good job, Brian, keep it up," in a sincere voice. But he could not see the grin on my face. I did wait 26 minutes after I finished and ran him in as he was fighting a cramp.

5. How many more years do you plan on competing in tris?

As long as I can, though maybe sometime I will back off of IMs. We'll see!

Thanks for listening to my disguised race report! I defended last year's title and won my age group again. 6:07 versus 5:58 last year. I was 2 minutes slower on the swim (cramps slowed me a bit), 7 minutes slower on the bike only due to weather, and about the same time on the run (ran faster but had 4 minutes not running dealing with the quad cramp).