Triple T Race Report

Few events offer an opportunity like the Triple T; lots of racing, a bit of downtime, meeting new people, and a simplistic form with few logistical issues.

The biggest challenge, outside of racing of course, was riding the 1 mile up that huge hill back to the cabin after every race—outside of that the weekend just flows—mainly because the organizers allow it to.

I had one main goal coming into Triple T—get stronger against the field throughout the weekend. The quick report:

Overall results, solo division:
Prolouge, 28th
AM Oly, 31st
PM Oly, 14th
Half, 11th

Combined ranking, 10th in division (Male, 25-39) and 10th OA solo race. Super happy as the field is always strong here, and I told myself going in top 20 would be awesome.

I told MM I’d go easy on myself and consider the race a success, even though I gave up a few spots in the AM race…:)

The long version (Every time I do a RR, I tell myself to keep it short. It never works out that way!)

Triple T is a race where a plan is nice, but be ready to throw that out the window, listen to your body and adapt. What started out as a race to see where I was at personally, turned into a really fun weekend, constantly crossing paths with a couple cabin mates; my training partner and bud Matt C., and ECer Mike C. At the end of the weekend we decided we had the fastest overall cabin, with the 6th, 8th and 10th place finishers....We have no facts to back that up, but it sounded good at the time and we'll run with it...

The Friday night Prologue was quite simple, go as hard as I can, worry not about pace as 25 minutes of hard wouldn’t throw the rest of the weekend for a loop. Due to my young racing carrier, my best half gave me a seed of 87, which still put me up towards the front, but makes it a tough go for the prologue. Mainly, once you climb the big hill towards the cabins, it’s tricky to pass people on the way down. The reward is not worth the risk passing people on the way down while others are climbing up…not a big loss of time here, maybe 15-30 seconds.

Finished in 23:05, 28th OA solo racer.


Sat AM Oly Race

My thought going in was HIM watts, cap HR around 150 and run at 160. I figured people would fly by me, and I was right. I kept telling myself to stay conservative and I would make up time after this race.

This is a hilly race, and the 53/39 with 28/11 cassette was perfect; didn’t need anymore gears at any point. The descents are tricky and one needs to be careful, as there are several turns that will end your weekend very quickly. That said, TT bike is the way to go all weekend long, IMO. When they say "slow down" they mean it. Some deadly turns out there!

I got off the bike feeling fine, and just ran steady, taking it easy on the descents to save the legs.

This is the one race I am disappointed in; just too conservative. I was talking with some friends after the weekend expressing this opinion, and one suggested, “Going too conservative at Triple T is not possible.” That made me feel better, but I should have gone a bit harder here and left about 4-6 minutes out there. A good lesson learned.

I seem to have a tendency to start out too conservative—while this allows me to finish lots of races, it seems I may be protecting a fear of blowing up and failing—something for me to work on.

PM Oly

To be honest, I was a bit disappointed in myself with my AM effort. At the same time, I was feeling good and decided it was time to step up the effort. I started racing at this point, but still kept a look at the numbers.

You bike first in this race, in TT format. It’s an out and back, and the road was freshly paved for the majority of it. This course favored me more than the others as it had some opportunity to go steady and fast. All other races were either up or down, and at 175 lbs I give up a bit.

I started ignoring power caps on the hills and pushing the flats…I just put it in a gear that allowed me to spin hard, if it resulted in 350 watts—whatever. I started caring less about blowing up about half way through this bike. I passed new friends Alaina and Ryan a bit after the turn around, who were building their lead as the co-ed team. They looked strong and were working extremely well together.

Into T2 where the challenge was to get the wet suit on and swim post bike. Plastic bags worked great, got it on and a volunteer came over to help me zip. After a bit of a struggle with that, I was on my way.

No cramps on the swim, until I made the genius move of running out from lap one and high kneeing into the water for lap 2….quad goes into lock up mode, and the brink of cramping, but I get lucky and never goes into full on cramp….note to self, don’t jump on quads heading into a swim after biking 40k.

I finished up the swim, and onto the run, where I immediately sensed the field was slowing down big time. This was a huge boost to my mental state, as I was passing several people.

This is where the event really got fun, as I was chasing Mike C. and being chased by my bud and training partner Matt C…..It would turn out I would never catch Mike, and always get chased down by Matt—but THAT is what the weekend is all about. We would always give each other a quick word of encouragement, and we were racing and having fun.

This is the race where I made a huge jump in the standings, and I went to bed confident with the half iron in the AM. Tired, but excited to go.

I actually felt good Sunday morning, and turned the day into a race, more so than “lets just finish.” Try and chase down Mike, and get as big of a lead as I can on Matt and try and hold him off on the run.

The swim was great, and Matt and I exited loop 1 right next to each other, Matt gives me his trademark grin that says, “You’re gonna have to wait for the bike to get a lead.” I think to myself, “bull $hit and swim hard.” I exit loop two, look left, and there is that grin looking right at me, I smile back, get a chuckle on our dead even swim, throw the plan of 220 watts/300 cap out the window, and get ready to bike hard—F power.

Matt beats me in and out of T1, and I stay steady…I finally catch up to him, and see it took me 15 minutes to do so.

We hit the first climb and start to chat….I quickly realize riding with Matt is not an option, and go. Honestly, I was hoping Matt would come with me, but he didn’t chase. He knew what I knew—he could wait until the run to chase me down. I’m not sure what I averaged on that first climb, but 300 was one of the smaller numbers I saw…not the cap.

After the climb, I am basically riding alone; not sure if this was smart, as riding back 3 lengths has its advantages; I try not to think much about it and keep pushing the hills really hard, taking “zeros” on the descents and hitting 220-240 on the few flats we have. Starting to get hot, and at mile 22 or so I start to wonder if I am going to be able to run. Should I back off?

No—keep pressing.

My nutrition plan was 3 bottles; I quickly realized that was not nearly enough. I make the turn into the race start where you change up bottles…coming in I see Mike leaving, and think I might be able to catch him. Hit the self support table, exchange and refill, grab about 4-5 Oreo’s and shove them into my mouth. 5 minutes after that I start to feel better and realize I’m not eating enough.

Starting lap 2—there he is, Matt and his grin, check my clock and figure I put 1-2 minutes into him….I realize I need about 7 to hold him off on the run, so I keep pushing.

I’m really starting to wonder about the run and if I’ll be able to pull it off….At the same time, there is little to lose—I’m not going to win the race, and my only chance of taking Matt was to put in more time on the bike.

I keep pushing.

At mile 30 or so I drop a full bottle, and make the spilt second decision to stop and get it. I am convinced that saved my race….I nearly kept going and would have been done.

With 15-20 miles to go I really wanted off the bike, and the body is coming in and out of feeling good, and on the edge of feeling bad—it was hot, but I was on the brink of getting chills, but they never came. I just kept eating and pushing.

The last few miles allow you to get in some zeros and prepare to run. I’m really concerned about my ability to run, so take the opportunity to recover while going 30+ mph.

I hit T2, and grab some water and infinit and realize I’m in for a battle. I keep checking for Matt and never see him. I figure I got 3 minutes or so if he kept pace.

After the first mile, I realize I’m going to be able to run. I was able to lift my HR, and was passing the field. Saw some folks walking and turned my focus on finishing strong.

As I was approaching the first turn around, I see Mike who looks really good, we exchange words of encouragement. I make the turn around, and learn I have a decent lead on Matt—about 3 minutes. At this point, I start attacking the descents, not worrying about saving the legs for another race.

Finish lap one, grab some Oreo’s (I didn’t want them, but forced them down as I had missed the infinit table and had nothing else), and my lead on Matt is about the same. I start to push and lift my HR/effort and I am able to do so.

See Mike again, make turn around (Mike is way up, a solid 10 minutes) and see Matt again; with that big grin. Lead is down to 90 seconds and he looks fresh and strong.

I keep running, it's really hot, and with about 2.5 miles to go Matt floats by me. . I let it get to me for a few minutes, than realize I’m having an excellent race—finish strong. I pick up the effort and hit the line just under 5:12—Matt went just over 5:10. Mike crushed it with a 5:02.

Right after crossing the line, we were sharing war stories and really enjoying the moment. That was this weekend was all about—exploring your limits and discovering what you are able to back up every day.

Looking at the results, Matt and I realized we would make a pretty good team. He went 8th OA, I was 10th. We swim the same, he gaps me on the run, and my strength is the bike.

We’ll be back in 2012 as a team—I have no doubt together we have the ability to go much faster than we do alone. I told him he is going to have to push me up the hills on the run—he seemed to be OK with that as long as I bomb the descents on Lamp Black Trail from the get go….

What I learned:
• I’m fit.
• I can recover and back up some solid efforts
• Eat, Eat, Eat. I ate tons of food between races on Saturday—I don’t think you can eat too much, within reason.
• Overall, I do have a good sense of pacing on feel—don’t be so married to the power meter, focus less on average watts and more on using your watts at the right time. Because of my conservative nature, I am unlikely to blow up based on my gut feel.

What I would have done differently:
• Paced the AM sat race slightly harder, probably to the same effort as the PM race.
• Bring vented helmet to all races. All I had was my aero helmet and I was hot—though I don’t think it effected me much as I was able to run. That said, I would have been more comfy in the vented helmet.
• Cooling for the run. Carry water bottle to pour on body. Aid station water was a huge relief, but only lasted 1-2 minutes. Having a bottle and wearing a cooling-tech shirt would have been huge. Run was hot.
• Didn’t go hard enough on PM swim—was afraid of cramping up…should have picked up the effort when I realized I wasn’t going to cramp.


I have to give props to the crew at EC—the wealth of knowledge here is huge—I pulled so much from the experience of all the coaches and athletes here. Thank you to everyone who shared their experience with TTT; the knowledge was priceless. Thank you to Gordo for building the community to allow the knowledge share. Really looking forward to training with the crew in a few weeks in Boulder!

Big thanks to MM—I know I always want to test my fitness and do more. Glad you keep me honest; cannot wait to see what the lead to LP brings.…..good things are ahead!

Thanks for reading!