Race Coverage

Dan's Words...& His Quest For a Tiny Car...

Monday, 30 July 2012 02:10

(Photo - As it turns out, the guy in the photo is NOT Dan Hedgecock, BUT he has a similar mustache.)

Chisago Lakes Half Iron Recap:

By Dan Hedgecock (danhedgecock.blogspot.com)

Monday, July 23

The race yesterday at Chisago was very long, and I got lucky again this year with mild temperatures and cloud cover for most of the race. Gloria West is the race director, and through Midwest Sports Events puts on a full line of triathlons and running races throughout the year. As a poor person I think I really appreciate Gloria's race because it doesn't cost me an arm and a leg. I was looking into doing the Boulder 70.3 race around this time, but just couldn't stomach the almost $300 entry fee. This weekend I got to race a full half with all the support I could need...

for only $100, plus I won a nice chunk of the prize purse and ended the day in the black. Thank god for that, tickets to Vermont for Age Groups were $600, ouch.

The swim start at Chisago was a mosh pit. I started as hard as I could and barely avoided getting beaten in the melee. David Thompson, Alex Hooke and Chicago pro Jared Woodford took off and I caught sight of Matt Payne and female pro Jackie Arendt off to my right. I surged hard to get on Arendt's feet, knowing that she would outswim me but I just couldn't close the gap. After the first turn buoy she slowly pulled away from me, but I worked hard to keep Matt in visual contact.

I'm glad I did because the bike was long and it helped to have somone to ride against. Last year I didn't have the bike strength to race 56 miles and executed poorly on pacing and hydration. This year I still don't quite have the strength to really race the full 56 miles, I had to back off the pace the last 10 miles, but I executed on hydration and was much smarter about pacing. Minnesota's best DUI lawyer Harvey Skees told me a few days before the race the best advice he had ever heard for racing a half was: Your legs should be burning, but your lungs shouldn't. Is this actually the best advice? I don't know, but I turned bigger gears this year, kept my heart rate much lower, and felt much better. Last year when I rode past 30 miles I was seriously questioning whether I would have to coast the last 10 miles of the bike. This year riding past 30 miles I caught site of Alex and Jared Woodford in the distance and felt good enough to put in some hard riding to try and catch them.

I didn't catch them. However, I really enjoyed the ride. The course was different this year and close to 52 of the 56 bike miles were absolutely perfect, freshly paved roads. Here in Minnesota smooth roads are more precious than diamonds, especially riding a tri bike hard. On top of that the roads wound through some really beautiful Minnesota farmland and river valley. On top of that, this year I was riding my Gear West B2 with Di2 shifting. On top of that, Gear West set me up with a new Bell Javelin aero helmet, so I'm sure I cut through the air like a knife. At the end of the day my normalized power for the ride was 254 watts(3.6w/KG). This is a big jump for me. I don't have last year's power numbers from this race, but to put it into perspective at St. Anthony's last year which is a 40k bike, I averaged 250 watts. If you want to see my power profile leave a comment and I'll e-mail it to you.

The run this year was surprisingly similar to last year. I got off the bike in 4th, with Matt right on my heels. David was already passing the first mile marker down the road and was out of reach for me. Alex Hooke was about 45 seconds ahead of me and Jared Woodford was 30 seconds or so ahead of him. I left transition cautiously and didn't push the pace at all for the first 5 miles of the race. Last year I felt great heading into the run at 5:30's and then imploded in spectacular fashion at 8 miles. I more or less walked the last two home. This year I again hadn't run farther than 10 miles before the race, and that was only once last Monday, and it felt like a really long run. Around 8 miles I caught up to Woodford and didn't say anything. I didn't know him and didn't want him to know that I could fall to pieces at any moment. He stuck with me heading back into town, but I could tell from the first half of the race that I was better on the hills and started to put a little bit of space in between us on the gradual climb back into the neighborhood streets the run starts and ends on. I passed 8 miles and still felt decent, which was a relief. I got to 9 and was worried about Woodford still only a few steps behind me, I could hear him breathing, but told myself to be patient and not pick up the pace yet. It was a smart move, I got to 10 and started to feel the day all coming to a head. Getting to 11 was very tough and my form started to get sloppy and shambling by 12. After 12 it was a very slow last mile and I walked down the steep hill heading into transition. I still crossed the line in 2nd, and even had a semblance of a smile on my face. I'm looking forward to building on my bike strength this winter and doing a few more halves next year, it's a grueling race and doesn't have the excitiment of an olympic distance, but it's still fun.

Chisago Half Results: http://itiming.com/searchable/index.php?results=chisago12

Now, it's nothing but solid triaing until Age Group Nationals. Then the taper begins and two weeks later is Hy-vee where I'll be racing once again to try and win a Mini Cooper. I have three weeks after that for full taper and some speed work on the track and then I'm off to Luxembourg, France and Germany to race at Duathlon World's, hopefully win some of their monopoly monies, and then enjoy a season ending beer and schnitzel at Oktoberfest.

Wish me luck!

ED. Read Hedge's totally groovy Life Time Fitness Tri - Minneapolis report yet? If not, link HERE.