I’m still not 100% sure of twitterology, but feel free to twitter, tweet, twit, follow, etc. - http://www.twitter.com/ryanbickerstaff The simplicity and brevity of the posts are nice.
Filed under: Uncategorized | No Comments »
Yesterday I rode the Spectrum Ride - a large fast group ride that brings out some of the faster riders in the area. I felt really good and contested most of the sprints and small hill climbs - it made for a really good workout and with the mixture of acclerations and tempo efforts felt a lot like the bike in an ITU race. My peak power levels were 674 watts (30s) and 569 watts (60s). 41 minutes was spent above 400 watts and 239 watts was the overall average for the group ride portion (1:50:00), which includes time spent coasting. My max heart rate was 194 bpm, which may actually be a record for me on the bike! Unfortunately, the bike ride really hurt my shoulder, and it wasn’t feeling so great the rest of the day.
Knowinig that I may not be able to swim or race another triathlon for a while, I really wanted some affirmation of where I’m at running-wise, since I was a little fatigued during the run in my past two triathlons. I had looked for a 5k run near here but was unsuccesful. Luckily, when I went for a bike ride on Friday with a friend, she mentioned a 5k in Menlo Park, which is is basically next door. So, despite some tired legs from the 50 mile bike ride yesterday, I raced at the Oak Knoll Otter Run 5k, which benefits the local school. I wasn’t sure what to expect. I think my training indicates I could run around 15:00 rested, but was hoping to at least run around 16:15.
The race went much better than expected! I still don’t feel like I have a lot of speed or “kick” in my legs, but I definitely have some strength. I don’t believe this race was on a certified course, but all the mile markers seemed pretty accurate. It was just the last tenth of a mile that I think was a little long. I went 15:40, which is just 2 seconds off my official 5k pr from 9.5 years ago. Given that the 2 loop course was probably just a tad long and that on the second lap I was running around all of the fun runners, I’ll take it as a “virtual pr” :). My splits were 4:51, 4:59, 5:03, :47.
Next up for me is a 4 week base training phase after having done more quality work the past few months. I might not be able to swim for awhile, so I’ll try to make some gradual increases in my bike (shoulder permitting) and run volume.
Filed under: Race Recap, Training | No Comments »
This past Monday (Memorial Day), I race at the Pan American Cup in Austin, Texas. I spent the Sunday-Thursday after the Oklahoma City race at home in Alva, OK. I hadn’t been home in the Spring or Summer for 8 years, and it was nice to have great weather and “green” everywhere (normally I’m home at Winter when it is colder, the grass is dead, and the fields are full of dirt). On Friday, my mom and I drove down to Austin - a 560 mile drive that wasn’t the most pleasant towards the end because of a lot of traffic. We finally made it to Austin and had a nice place to stay at the Sheraton in downtown, right near the race site. I got a great deal on Priceline for the room ($75/night vs. $200+ normal).
On Saturday, I rode the bike course and swam at Barton Springs. That was a really nice place to swim - it’s a a natural spring that they dam up and was really clear and just the right temperature for open water swim practice. On Sunday. I did an easy run and swim at the hotel pool before going to the elite pre-race meeting.
Pre-Race
This race didn’t end up starting until around 1:00pm, and by that time it was already above 85 degrees in the shade. By the time we finished it was over 90 degrees and probably well over 100 out in the open. It was definitely hot out there, but I managed to have near perfect nutrition and hydration before the race - much better than Oklahoma City the week before.
Swim
I got a nice swim warmup in of 800-1000m, and that’s about all the warmup I didn’t except for the 8 minute easy ride downhill to the race site. It was so hot, any exercise beforehand would have just fatigued me for the race. Initially, I wasn’t sure if I was even going to be able to do the race since my shoulder was getting progressively worse. Once the race starts and adrenaline is flowing, though, you don’t notice the pain as much. This was an in-water start, and they had a line of rope keeping us from jumping the gun. Unfortunately, when the start gun went off, the rope didn’t go up quick enough, and I got a little tangled up in it. I thought I got a decent start, but was getting tangled up with some people I’m faster than over 1500m but maybe not over 300m. After the first turn around around 500m in the race, I finally broke free of some of the slower swimmers. However, the main pack was about 25m up at that point. I went hard but couldn’t catch them. Over the next 800-1000m I soloed the swim and only lost another 25m. I felt strong the entire way and didn’t feel like I was ever struggling. It’s too bad I missed the main group, but my sprint speed may have been compromised by my bad shoulder.
Bike
I had a good transition and started the bike thinking there was a chance I might be able to make up the 30-40s gap. However, that’s a lot of distance out on the bike course and would have been impossible for me by myself. Two other athletes bridged up to me, and I rode really hard with them the first lap. By the second lap, a group of 5 caught us and we then caught another group of 2, making around pack about 10 total. It was a 5lap course up and down Congress Ave to the state capitol building and back along the river. Once our pack was solidified, I knew any amazing effort on my own wasn’t going to bridge the gap to the main group (more than a minute ahead at that point). I also didn’t want to cramp up and really wanted to have a good run, so I tried the strategy of mainly staying towards the back of the pack, pulling through every once and awhile. Some others had the same idea, so we gradually lost more time, but not too much.
Run
I took it easy at the end of the bike and didn’t rush into T2 like a lot of people do. I wanted to make sure I wasn’t red-lining it at the very beginning of the run and cramp up. Luckily, this run was a huge improvement over Oklahoma City the week before. I was able to keep a pretty good pace and was mainly only hindered by general fatigue. There was the slightest hint of cramps beginning, but I ran strong the whole way. I finished in 21st, passing several people along the way. My run of 33:28 was within a minute of a lot of the faster runners in the US, so I was happy.
Overall
This was a huge improvement over Oklahoma City. I’m really happy about that because I don’t know when I’ll be able to race again given my shoulder injury. I just need a little faster 500m swim speed, and I can make the main pack. If I don’t work much in that group, I’ll be even fresher for the run and be in a position to place top 10 or better. The past two races have been an affirmation that I’m on the right path training-wise and just need to continue working, and I’ll continue to make improvements.
Filed under: Race Recap | No Comments »
I flew into Oklahoma City for the Pan American Championships on Wednesday May 13, my birthday. Being able to race was up in the air until the last minute due to the ITU qualification procedures. Basically, there are 75 starting positions allocated across countries from North, Central, and South America. The problem was that there were 40+ guys from the United States who wanted to race and there were not enough starting positions to go around. I didn’t make the initial cut based on World Ranking but was pretty sure not everyone who entered would show up. As it turned out, there were only around 55 guys that showed up, so there was more than enough room for me, and every other US athlete that missed out probably could have raced as well. Anyway, I was really happy to race since it was the race I had been focusing on for the past 6 months.
Swim
The swim was in the Oklahoma River - drainage ditch turned into a river a few years ago. They have world class rowing events in this body of water, but this was the first swimming event they had held. Considering I got one of the last starting positions available, I felt like I had a pretty good start. I went out strong, but a gap to the leaders opened up after the first set of turns around 300m in. There were two other guys around me at the time (I think Manny Huerta and Victor Plata), so I just dropped backa bit and drafted off of them. The rest of the swim actually felt pretty relaxed, and although I missed the main lead pack, I came out at the front of the main chase pack.
Bike
I had a good transition and got on my bike pretty well. There was a large group of athletes behind me, which turned out to be good because I hadn’t setup my bike shoes right, and it tooka little more effort to get my feet inside. It was a 4 loop course around the state capitol and the first lap or two were pretty hard. There were about 5 guys off the front of the main pack, but our group was gradually chasing down the main pack. With about 5k to go on the bike we caught the main pack, and it was a pretty easy ride after that.
Run
Unfortunately, I worked a bit too hard on the bike despite my best intentions and was cramping up even at the end of the bike. The entire run was basically a concious effort to not cross over the threshold where my hamstrings and quads would just seize up entirely. It felt like a jog, but I just couldn’t go any faster.
Overall
Part of the problem with the race probably related to my nutrition during the day. The race started at 4pm, and it was hard to figure out when and how much to eat and drink. I think I drank too much coffee in the morning and didn’t digest things as fast I thought I would. In the end, I finished 29th place. Place-wise, it wasn’t what I wanted, but I accomplished a lot and was really pleased with a couple things. First, I had a pretty fast swim, finishing ahead of a lot of people and not feeling like the 1500m was too long a distance (great endurance base). The only thing keeping me out of that main group from the beginning was a faster 300-500m swim start. Second, I finished the bike with the main pack. Although I wasn’t able to take advantage, I was finally in a position to be competitive at the start of the run. With a strong run, I could have easily been in the top 10, and that would have been a great result.
Filed under: Race Recap | No Comments »
Around April 21st, my left shoulder started to hurt again. I had just done a short quick set in the pool of some 25, 50, and 100y efforts. It felt a little bit funny and really noticed something was wrong when I went to the gym afterwards to do some strength training. When I tried to do some external rotations for the rotator cuff, whatever muscles are involved just weren’t engaging - I had not strength and it was a little painful. I was hoping that I had just “kinked” it or that it was a nerve or something that would go way.
With just 3.5 weeks until my first major race of the year, I was worried how it would affect my training. I took 3 or 4 days completely off from swimming at the time and to this day still haven’t done any upper body strength training. The rest seemed to help some, and I was at least able to continue doing my key workout sets. So, even though my volume went from around 28km/week down to 15km, I was still fairly confident since I had a huge base behind me and the key workout set times were still comparable to before. Unfortunately, it really has only gradually gotten worse. I made it to the Pan American Championship race in OKC barely feeling like it was ok to race on. After that race, it got a lot worse but eased up just enough that I could race in Austin on Memorial Day at the CapTex Triathlon. It was even worse after that race, so I went to see Dr. Eakin the following day.
Dr. Eakin said I was at a turning point where I may need to have surgery. I went ahead and got an MRI done on Friday and will find out the results next week. Part of the problem is that my shoulders have become imbalanced from so much freestyle swimming, bicycle riding, and typing at a keyboard. I need to work on keeping my shoulders and scapula “set” properly. The best case scenario is that by my doctor’s appointment on Thursday, it feels better and I can go to a physical therapist to make sure I’m doing exercises correctly. Next best scenario is another cortisone injection and then working on the strengthening exercises. That’s probably the last injection I could get, though, so I would really need to make sure I do everything possible to prevent having the problem recur again. The worst case scenario is that there are bone fragments or excessive cartilage destruction that would require surgery. The doctor said it would just be a 6 week recovery time, but I’m a little weary of such an invasive procedure unless absolutely necessary. In any case, I need to work on correct strengthening and shoulder positioning, which probably would have prevented these problems in the first place.
Filed under: Uncategorized | No Comments »
