Quassy Race report. AKA it was hot and hilly. Did I mention it was hot. And hilly...

So it was hot and hilly.  I hope you got that.  If I had a month of hot weather training, it would have been hilly and I like, wait no I love hills.  But coming off a cold spring, the 90+ temps and bright sunshine were a little bit more than this body was looking forward to.  But hey it was race day- doesn't get much better than that.

My original race was going to be the Ironman Raleigh 70.3, but I decided to switch to Rev3 Quassy based on the good feedback that the race is a great tune-up for IMLP.  And Everything this year is all about IMLP for me.  And I was excited to finally race a Rev3 race (I was supposed to do the Oly at Quassy last year but my schedule fell apart).

The couple of weeks prior to Quassy were a bit crazy with a lot of traveling for work and some decent long workouts- especially on the bike.  And the Monday before I did a hard and fast 10K, so no Taper.  But that was the plan- Quassy was a 100% effort training race.  Meaning stress the body the same way I will at LP, but without the benefit of Taper to get a good gauge of where I am and what I need to work on over the next 6 weeks before Taper starts for real.

On Saturday morning, I packed the car and took the nice drive up to Middlebury CT.  I took the Merritt Parkway which can be a nice drive, passed one of my company offices and eventually drove through some hills to arrive at Quassy Amusement Park in Middleburry.  I parked and made my way to packet pickup and the expo.  Rev3 has a rep for being super athlete friendly and awesome.  And while everyone was nice finding the expo and getting my packet was a bit confusing- lack of signs and once I found the expo, it wasn't clear were to go.  I ended up waiting in a couple of lines before I found the right spot.  But hey- you gotta roll with it sometimes and relatively quickly I got everything I needed. 

The swag was okay- a visor and some cool race numbers (love when your name is on the bib).  The expo was pretty good.  A nice mix of high end race kit, t-shirts, other visors (all headsweats) and a bunch of good race gear- bottle, hydration stuff and fuel belt products.  I love fuelbelt.  Just sayin.  I ended up spending about $50 on another visor (quassy specific), a t shirt, a rev3 magnet and a new fuel belt aero bag for Thumper.  Once I my gear, I got my bike out of the car, put the bike number on Thumper (and the new aero bag) and rolled the race steed to transition.  Rev3 uses a ground mounted rack- and everyone has their own spot.  A bit easier to pull from compared to a seat rack which is always good.  After racking the bike it was time for the Pro meeting and athlete meeting.

My only real complaint besides the heat was the athlete meeting and pro session was held outside, with no cover and no water provided by the race.  I did buy a couple of waters from the park and loaded them with Nuun Tablets, but it would have been cooler to have some tents for everyone to sit under and be out of the hot sun.  During the pro session, I ended up hanging in the Normatec tent getting an air massage- kinda cool- even sorta hurt a bit, but they are on the to get list (eventually & after the disc wheel). So that was at least out of the sun.  For the athlete meeting I ended up getting a spot under the finish tent so still crazy hot, but out of the sun.  The athlete meeting was pretty fast, but nicely detailed.  The pro session was very cool- especially since the pros then hung out for autographs and generally just being uber cool.  Got to meet Bevan Docherty, HJ and Rinny.  Sweet!

Now during the meeting while checking FB, one of my Spinervals teammates, Chrissy Brooks posted that her car had blown a tire on rte 84- I was ready to get in my car to get her, but luckily she got some help and made it in time.  It is awesome to be part of the Spinervals team- best group of folks.  And this was my 3rd this year with teammates- a total of 4 us toed the line.

After the meetings and racking and all that stuff, I decided to drive the bike course.  During the meeting there were a couple of caution areas so I wanted to get some eyeballs on the course.  The first 15 miles reminded me of riding at home- crappy roads and hills- short steep punchy hills with short nasty downhills.  But hey- that is what I train on so I felt pretty good about what to expect.  The drive was kinda cool- there must have been 15 or so of us driving at 20-25 miles an hour with cue sheets.  But worth it since I bookmarked key areas- both to hammer and to sit up.

After driving the course, I got to my hotel, checked in, ate my usual beer, burger sweet potato dinner and settled in to watch the clock.  Yeah I don't sleep much the night before a big race.  And as usual I woke up before the alarm went off. After an easy hour in my room, it was time to drive back to quassy. The morning was warm.  Not IM NYC warm, but hot enough to say this was gonna be a hot day.

One of the things I like about dropping my bike off the night before is how much easier race morning is.  And since I use tubeless tires there is not much risk of tire deflation or explosion due to the heat- lower Tire Pressure is a good thing. Once my bottle were loaded, shoes on the bike and run gear laid out, it was time to slowly sip on a bottle and chat with the folks around me. I also got to see Chrissy, but missed Mark and Bernard.  And I got watch the pro's prep.  I left them alone since their day was a work day, but they do things the same way we do.  And before long the transition area was closed and it was time to head to the beach.  Hey its almost time for the race to start!

Rev3 changed their swim policy and allowed people to be in the water up until their wave start- which is a good thing.  You can warm up without having to wait around for your start time.  What I did was do a quick swim and then take my wetsuit down to my waist since my start wasn't until 35 minutes after the pro men.  And I got right next to the start line to watch the pro men and women go off.  Very cool to see people like joe gambles, richie cunnigham, bevan docherty, rinny, heather jackson and meredith kessler start right in front of you.  These are some of the Triathlon rockstars and I am racing with them- very very cool.

Before long it was time for my wave to start.  We got to the start line and did the clap.  If you have raced a triathlon you know what the clap is.  About 30 seconds before we go, a quick good luck guys followed by some clapping.  It means a good day (hot and hilly good day).  The horn sounded and I was in the water fast. The lake Quassapoug is clear so finding friendly feet was easy and while there was some early bumping, I found smooth water fast.  My first set of feet however were a bit off course so after doing some quick sighting I found a good pair and followed for a while.  The course was a triangle with right turns.  The first third was fast and easy.  However the 2nd third was right into the sun.  By that time I had passed my initial draft and it took a while to get a sense of where we were going.  I ended up swimming next to a guy for while which helped find the final 3rd turn buoy.  The last third was also a bit crazy since we had to swim through the slower portion of some waves.  I am a firm believer in wave starts, but I think we should be seeded via time and not age.  This would allow for less swimming through/ or getting swum over and an all around smoother swim.  In any case before long my knuckles hit sand and it was time to stand.  My goal for the swim was sub 35.  I came out of the water in 33 and change and hit the mat in a mid 34.  Long run to the transition area (long but not crazy long and carpeted the whole way).

Official time was 34:12.  My T1 was just okay- still having some issues getting the wetsuit off my feet.  Actually sat to pull them.  Will be doing some OWS/ T1 practice soon to correct this.  T1 time was 2:04. 

I did my usual flying mount for the bike and was quickly out on course.  The scouting of the day earlier helped me set the right pace over the first 10 miles.  Basically go up, go down, rinse and repeat.  The only issues were I screwed up with my Garmin 310- paused for T1 instead of lap.  And my 500 couldn't find the satellites.  I spent the first 10 miles jiggering/ resetting until it finally found the GPS signal.  Frustrating since I rely on the data to tell me how fast, far, steep and power.    But I got it fixed and had an okay idea of where I was- glad for the recon on Saturday.  The first 25 miles went by fast, especially after I got the 500 working.  And I was passing people without burning matches.  In fact the only guys who passed me was a relay guy wearing aero shoe covers and 3 20 something guys in a tight draft (cheating a holes).  While the course was very hilly, there was one long climb-about 4 miles long.  Gotta say I loved it!  I train every day on hills so the quassy hills were pretty normal.  The only pain was the last 5 miles- climbing back to T2.  The hills were short, but steep and really sucked.  The heat was definitely peaking.  However before too long I was pulling my feet out of my shoes and getting ready for the run. 

My time was 2:43- slower than I would have liked, but 3,900K of climbing will make you go a bit slower sometimes.  T2 was 57 seconds.  Pretty much nailed that one.  And it was time for the run.

The run start was two miles in the sun- flat, but hot sun.  I ran okay, but really felt like the temps were climbing fast.  My only real complaint on the run was no sponges, only ice.  Ice is great, but does not stay in place like an iced sponge.  Sponges rock.  But I tried to make due.  I also pulled off my arm coolers- they felt hot and so I decided a sunburn was better than hot arms on the run.  The first 4 miles of the run were okay and then we made a right turn and started climbing- for what felt like the rest of the race.  The first mile was on dirt and shaded.  However the next 2 were on pavement- rolling but almost no shade.  At mile 8 I started to walk the aid stations and went to coke.  The coke was flat and they had ice, except for mile 10- no coke.  That sucked.  But I ran, albeit slow, but on purpose.  I decided that I would suffer, but not crush my body- this week is not a real recovery week so a bit easier effort was in the cards.  I did my best to stay cool (didn't work) and ran relatively slow until the finish.  Crossing the line was nice- basically because it meant I was done and could go lay in the lake- which I did.  The finish line was pretty cool- iced towel, awesome finisher shirt and big medal.  Time across the line- 5:19.  Not my slowest, not my fastest.  But a great prep for IMLP.  Nutrition worked well. I need to figure out how to keep my run nutrition cold.

Overall I am happy- the swim and bike were very much in line with my goals.  The run was just okay, well crappy, but an early season hot race day with hills can do that.