The last time I fully tapered for a race was over 8 months ago for IRONMAN Florida. All season long, my body’s muscles have constantly been broken down and rebuilt during training rides, long runs, swim workouts – pretty much anything that causes training stress. Now it is finally time to give my body the chance to rebuild completely, while holding onto the performance that I have compounded over the past eight months. If done properly, the end result will be increased muscle strength from rest, and the ability to peak performance.
There’s about 2 weeks left until race day…
And you know it’s Ironman taper time when you hit a nice roadblock! (like the Long Island Rail Road)
What’s left to do is to optimize and speed up the recovery period. For me, I rebuilt with low fat chocolate milk. Why chocolate milk you ask? It’s loaded with carbs and proteins necessary for recovery; a 3 to 1 ratio, which is the sweet spot to rebuild.
First off, I would not have known about this race if it wasn’t for Tim Russell – a Saratoga Springs based elite triathlete, who convinced me to do a training race while we were in Lake Placid for Ironman recon. Whether you are new to triathlon, or looking to improve your performance, check him out at Thoroughbred Triathlon!
Once again, a big THANK YOU to my sponsors and supporters:
I drove up to Saratoga Springs on Friday, met up with Tim, packed my bike and gear into his SUV, and carpooled towards the Adirondacks. Breaking up the drive from NYC to Saratoga Springs to Lake Placid definitely made it a more pleasant and time-passing experience. We checked into the Pines Inn, then made our way to Tupper Lake’s Wild Center where we picked up our race packet. We followed up registration with a quick swim at Racquette Pond, where we will be swimming the 1.2 mile leg of the race.
Race Day
Since we stayed in Lake Placid, we still had to wake up pretty early for the 8:10am start time of our race. By 6am, we had loaded up the SUV and were on our way to Tupper Lake. Tim’s music of choice during the drive over pumped me up but I wasn’t fully awake until I downed the large coffee from McDonald’s. Caffeine loaded, bikes checked in, and we were on our way!
Without much structured swim training leading up to this race, I knew that my swim time wouldn’t be anything spectacular. Nonetheless, after finding a good number of feet to draft off of, I was able to manage a personal best 38:33 swim split. Transition #1 took me 62 seconds.
The 56 mile bike course was spectacular! It was a 28 mile out and back with some rolling hills and a few steady climbs. It definitely simulated IRONMAN Lake Placid in some aspects. Knowing that Tim would be blazing fast out of the water and on the bike, I knew that he would have gained a good 10-15 minute lead. I saw him about 2 miles away from the turn around – right on target – he was in 2nd!
As far as my legs felt, they were heavy for the first hour into the ride; the result of my previous workouts during the week. I was able to open up the legs before the turnaround and then really tucked on the way back to transition. Right after the turnaround, I passed a really strong looking female and alter found out that it was Donna Kay-Ness – an Ironman legend! Pretty cool to chat with her and her husband Erik after the race. Anyways, I was very happy to be able to find my legs because it resulted in a personal best ride of 2:26:48.
T2 took just 58 seconds and I bolted onto the run, hoping to find my stride early on. Like Tim said in his post, ” Treat every race like it matters, even if it’s “just a training race!” – and that’s exactly what my mindset was on the run. I knew that going into T2, I was in 15th or 16th place overall. My goal – run steady on feel and chase down anyone in front of me. Luckily, I found my stride early in the run, catapulting me towards a personal best run split of 1:27:57. It’s important to note that the entire run was done as a negative split, which allowed me to find an extra gear towards the 2nd half of the run, chasing down 5 or 6 guys to finish in 4:35:14,9th Overall & 1st in Age Group M20-24.
Headsweats – super comfortable visors & hats, discount code: CHANTHONY25 ISM Seat – comfortable & innovative saddles Mineola Bicycle & Mower – the best bicycle store in Long Island!
Rev3 events have been growing across the US. The Rev3 Quassy Half on June 1 ’14 was the 6th edition of the race, which takes place in Quassy Amusement Park. Going into this race, I knew that I would not be properly tapering for it because of my focus towards IRONMAN Lake Placid on July 27th. Nevertheless, the Quassy Half course provided a significant amount of elevation gain, undulating hills and punchy climbs that I would help simulate those up in Lake Placid/Wilmington/Whiteface.
I made the drive up from NYC to Quassy on Saturday afternoon and snuck in a quick practice swim. The water reminded me of the Patriot Half up in East Freetown, MA; clear lake water, cool & calm. Later on, I met up with my some Whippet triathletes, checked in our bikes and of course, got some pre race snapshots!
swim exitCannondale Slice featuring John Neugent wheels!bikes checked in, we’re ready!
Race Day – June 1, 2014
I started in the second swim wave, which went out at 6:55am. My field had a large contention of strong swimmers, and knowing that my rib was still a bit fragile from last week’s crash, the only thing to do was to swim conservatively and away from swimmers that could potentially kick me in the rib (by accident of course). The swim took me just over 40 minutes – nothing special to report home to.
Knowing that this was a ‘training’ race, I did not study any course maps or elevation charts. Sometimes it’s more fun to not know what’s coming up ahead (right?). And in this case, the climbs during the bike course seemed to be never ending – the compact crankset did wonders for this course. I think Rev3 did an excellent job with the course marshals and aid stations. There were a few technical descents, but they were not a problem since the course was well marked. Road conditions were excellent as well – it’s rare to find a Northeast course that doesn’t have a least a few large potholes.
blurry professional photo 🙂
I was happy to ride within my wattage range, saving precious leg power for the run. Rumors were going around about how hilly the run was…T2 in less than 90 seconds, where I slipped on some cushiony socks, my Newton Elite’s, race belt, sunglasses and Headsweats Visor.
Running out of T2, photo curtesy of Maggie
The run was a memorable one, especially the dirt road section where the climb was separated into three portions – just when you think you’ve gotten to the top, you make a turn and another hill smacks you in the face. My legs did not like the steep uphills, nor did they like the steep descents. According to the Garmin file, there was a net gain of 900 feet over the 13.1 miles, not to mention a climb right after Mile 12. Besides Mile 1 and 2, were there even long flats during this run? nope! Run split was a 1:33 – and it was a huge positive split.
Here’s the breakdown of my result:
Also, the guys at the Rev3 Quassy Half kept their tradition of free finisher photos. Here’s one of me shuffling towards the finish:
thanks Rev3 for the free finish photo!
After we all finished, it was all smiles:
M20-24, from left: 2nd, 1st, 3rd.Tim Russell & me collecting our awards
And of course, my bike & run results would not have been possible without the clear direction from Jim. Shoutout to Maggie & Keri for cheering and taking awesome race photos! And congrats to anyone who finished the Quassy Half.
