2014 Summer Open Triathlon Race Report

For starters, this was my first race in three years with the last being the 2011 Summer Open Triathlon (turned Duathlon due to water contamination) soon after which I found out I had torn the medial meniscus in both knees.  Two surgeries, some PT rehab, and several false starts later I started training in earnest beginning December 2013.

My swim and bike training leading up to the race was pretty stellar.  My speed in the pool improved and new coaching from Billy Edwards gave my bike training structure and guidance.  He added the use of power to ensure I was getting the most out of my cycling.  To say it made a difference is a gross understatement.

My run was a big question mark given the surgeries and the slow but steady volume increases I was making.  I had been getting decent volume up to around 3-4 weeks before the race but then dropped off as life got in the way.  As has been typical with all my triathlon training over the years, when time crunches and life hit, it's always been my run that suffers first.  I'm nervous about putting too much volume on my knees so I've been incorporating elliptical or elliptical-like workouts - but have no idea how to equate them to a run, if that's even possible (whereas with cycling, a ride on the trainer is like 1.5x an equivalent ride on the road).

I got to the venue early and got a great racking spot right next to the bike out/bike in - so the distance I would have to run with my bike was minimal.  I set up my stuff and went back to the car to relax before warm-up time.

For my warm-up, I did a 10-minute run.  In retrospect, this was probably unnecessary given that the water temperature was 57-degrees so any warmth gained by running would be quickly negated.  Additionally, the sweat created from running in sweatpants and a sweatshirt only made it that much harder to get on my wetsuit.  I should have just done a longer swim warm-up.

As mentioned, the water was 57-degrees, which if you've never had the pleasure, let me assure you:  IT'S.FUCKING.COLD.  Like, take-your-breath-away cold - especially when it hits your face.  I'd doubled my swim cap and am damn glad I did.  A few hundred meters and I'd numbed up enough to where the cold didn't bother me.  Boy, let me tell you, those first few minutes were really hard.  It took some extra special motivation to not say "screw this" and bail out.  But realizing that EVERYONE had to deal with the same conditions (save for the few crazies wearing sleeveless suits) and if they could do it, so could I.

Mine was the first wave off and in true triathlon start fashion, the washing machine was in full force.  Normally I go really hard to get out in front but I don't know if it was the cold, or if it was because it was my first race, or what, I held back slightly to avoid getting kicked or punched in the face and let some swimmers go in front of me and followed them immediately.  I didn't bother trying to find some fast feet, rather my goal was to just get the damn swim over with as quickly as possible.  I thought I was a lot slower than it turns out I was.  I must have been flying in my new Blue Seventy Helix wetsuit because my swim time was 21st fastest overall and I heard someone say as I ran by into T1 that I was only a minute down.

I don't know if it was the Helix or the cold water, but it took far longer to get my arms out than it should have.  Normally, I want to get to my bike with cap and goggles off and arms out with the wetsuit top pulled down to my waist.  I'd only barely managed the latter by the time I got to my rack.  The rest of T1 went pretty smoothly.  I had gloves out for the ride because I knew I'd be cold coming out of the water and the air temp was still pretty chilly, but my hands were too wet and I couldn't get a glove on, so I gave up on that after only a few seconds.

The bike course was straight out and back with only a turn into and out of the reservoir and a U-turn about six miles out.  Unfortunately, it was all uphill and into a tail wind except for the last few hundred meters before the turn around.  Thankfully, I'd been doing many of my intervals in just such conditions so while I probably overcooked the ride out, I knew I'd be recovering on the way back.  My only regret is not putting an 11 on in the back for my small chainring instead of a 12 and as a result, I was spinning out with the tailwind and downhill on the return leg.

My dismount was mostly textbook, though I probably slowed too much too soon and took my feet out of my shoes a bit early.  My feet were still a little wet so getting my socks on took a little longer than I was expecting.  In years past, I'd been used to running without socks, but hadn't done any such training and so didn't want to risk it just for the sake of speed.

Heading out on to the run, I could feel the lack of quality run training and to make matters worse, I couldn't feel my feet.  I was running on stumps for the first 1.5 miles.  The run was on the dirt road next to the reservoir and headed East.  It was in really bad shape with 2-4" deep holes everywhere.  Finding a smooth, straight track was challenging.  A little over a 1/2 mile before the finish, I noticed I was having trouble seeing the road clearly due to my glasses being dirty but instead of taking them off, I just kept running and wound up rolling my ankle within that half-mile and it easily took 20-seconds to get back into a rhythm, but it was not nearly at the same pace as before.  As a result, I lost two places in my age group with the second one being literally in the finishing chute.  I was so pissed.

Overall, it was a damn good race and I should be proud to come back so strong after a three-year hiatus.  But, as we athletes are wont to do, we focus on the one or two negatives and that, for me, would be the damn ankle roll that cost me two places.  Thankfully, other races are yet to come, the road is in much better shape, and I'll be that much more motivated.

Thanks to Foxtrot Wheel & Edge, my teammates, my sponsor GU Energy, and my wife for the support.

Race Results:

42nd overall, 37th male
7th out of 38 in age group, 10 and 2 seconds behind 5th and 6th place respectively.
Swim (1/2 mi):  8:18, 21st fastest time
T1: 1:33
Bike (12.25 mi): 35:30, 40th fastest time
T2: 1:04
Run (3.1 mi):  23:15, 111th fastest time

Total:  1:09:42

Installing mud flaps on a Land Rover LR4

This post is an attempt to convey, in writing and via pictures, how to install the rear mud flaps on a 2010 Land Rover LR4 (while I suspect other years are similar, I do not know for sure).

I consider this project to be moderately difficult, but only because there's a tight space in which you need to navigate an anchoring bracket and screw it in place.  If you are impatient or have large hands, this project will most likely frustrate you something awful.  That said, if you want to save what I've seen on the web as over $300 dealers are charging to install these things, read on...

As far as time goes, the first one took a while (I want to say maybe an hour) because there's no instructions online and the paper ones only adequate at best.  Like IKEA, they contain only pictures, but unlike IKEA, there's no head-scratching stick figure with a question mark above his head and a toll-free phone number to call.  The second only took around 15 minutes.

Before starting, check to make sure you have all the parts:  you should have two mud flaps and two anchoring brackets (all four labeled L or R), four screws, and four plastic anchoring tab things (mine were blue).

If you are able to remove the tires, do so, it will make this a lot easier.  If not, raise the air suspension to the highest setting (Off-Road Mode).  It's not great, but it does give you a little more room.

Lying on your back slide under the rear of your car behind one of your rear wheels.  This is from the right side of my vehicle:

Figure 1: The bottom of the right rear corner panel - note the
square, fixed anchor bracket in the middle of the picture.

Unscrew that bottom screw and set it aside.  In the middle of the picture you can see an anchor bracket that's attached to the rear corner panel - the anchor bracket that is included in the kit will attach here.  I believe that aluminum grid thing on the right is a heat shield for the exhaust (oh, and on that note, let the exhaust cool before doing this.  Getting a 3rd degree burn while installing mud flaps should not be considered a "battle scar.").

Press one of the plastic anchor tab things into the square hole of the fixed anchor bracket shown in Figure 1:

Figure 2:  Insert one of the plastic anchor tabs into the
fixed ancor bracket attached to the corner panel.

Remove the screw shown in this picture (this is in rear part of the wheel well) and set it aside (don't mix it up with the screw you removed above in Figure 1, you can tell them apart because the screw from the bottom is longer):

Figure 3:  The second mounting screw that needs to be removed.

This is a zoomed out picture of Figure 3 above - note the little dimple in the middle of the picture:

Figure 4:  A zoomed out view of the rear portion of the wheel well.

This dimple is where one of the two screws that came in the kit will go.  Recall that the anchor brackets that came with the kit are labeled L and R for the appropriate side of your car.  Note that the bracket has a round hole and a square hole.  Following the paper instructions insert one of the plastic anchor tabs into the square hole as indicated and set it aside (I apologize that I never took a picture of this).

The instructions say to screw this anchor bracket from the kit into the fixed anchor bracket shown in Figure 1 and then when mounting the mud flap screw the middle anchor screw through the wheel well and into the plastic anchor tab on the kit anchor bracket but I found that doing so made it impossible thread the middle screw into the plastic anchor tab.  I suspect if I had taken the wheel off, it might have been significantly easier.

I used a pocket knife to poke a hole through the dimple shown above in Figure 4 above and ensured that I could hand thread one of the kit screws through this hole.  Then I held up the mud flap in its mounting position and threaded the screw through the hole so that it could hang in place without me holding it (tip: if you thread the screw through so that it actually pokes through it makes attaching to the kit anchor bracket easier):

Figure 5:  Loosely thread a kit screw through the mud flap and dimple hole.

Now take the lose anchor bracket and thread the plastic anchor tab onto the screw.  This part sucks because the heat shield is not forgiving, it has sharp edges, and there's not a lot of room for your hands and fingers to maneuver.  There were several ways I attempted to do this.  The way that worked was to actually hold the screw in place with my left hand and rotate the kit anchor bracket around the screw so as to at least get it partially threaded such that it would not come apart if the bracket was moved or bumped:

Figure 6:  Thread the kit bracket on to the middle
anchor screw that goes through the mud flap.

Don't tighten the screw all the way.  You will need some play to align the round hole in the kit anchor bracket (shown above in Figure 6) with the plastic anchor tab (also shown above in Figure 6).  Thread a kit screw through the round hole of the kit anchor bracket and into the plastic anchor tab:

Figure 7:  Take a kit screw and attach the kit anchor
bracket to the fixed bracket on the corner panel.

Go ahead and tighten this screw and then tighten the screw going through the middle mud flap.  Tightening the screw that goes through the middle of the mud flap was a major pain in the ass with the tire mounted.  Even my shortest Phillips screw driver (probably 3") was still too long to fit in the gap between the tire and the head of the screw.  I wound up having to take a Phillips bit meant for a drill, clamp it with a Vise Grips, and use quarter turns and applicable back pressure to keep the bit in the screw to be able to tighten it completely (it would have taken mere seconds with the tire removed):

Figure 8:  Tighten the fixed anchor bracket screw first
and then the screw that goes through the mud flap.

If you made it this far, congratulations!  You're almost finished.  The last two screws go in very easily and should only take a minute.

Re-attach the top screw (the shorter one) through the mud flap and tighten:

Figure 9:  Re-attach the top screw through the mud flap and tighten.

Finally, re-attach the bottom screw (the longer one) through the mud flap and ensure you go through the original hole in the bottom of the wheel well lining and into the existing metal tab attached to the rear corner panel:

Figure 10:  Re-attach the bottom screw to complete the installation.

That's it!  Repeat the steps for the other side of the car and you just saved yourself over $300.

Please let me know if you discover any errors in my installation and I'll update.  Thanks.

Running Again

Two months out of surgery on my right knee and I'm up to 3/4 mile. Granted, it's at a 12:00 pace, but who cares? I'm running again and it's pain free.

After surgery on my right knee last October and before I started running again, I had an MRI done on my left knee to make sure I wouldn't make things worse by ramping up my running again. As it turned out, I had the exact same tear in my medial meniscus in my left knee that I had in my right. It wasn't as bad and the flap that had torn did not fold over on itself - which is why I never had any left knee pain - but there was some VERY minor damage in my lateral meniscus. So, when they went in for surgery they fixed both.

I was originally going to wait until this fall to have surgery on my left knee, but there really was no reason to wait any longer and it was keeping me from running so I went ahead and had it done.