Bruce Thompson's 2013 American Triple T Race Report
The American Triple T is a series of 4 races over the weekend on May 17-19. It is held in the Shawnee State Forest in southern Ohio in an area called the “Little Smokies” (yep…it’s really hilly). It is a cult-like race and is for the seasoned triathlete. The format is as follows: Super sprint (250m swim, 4 mile bike, 1 mile run) @5 pm on Friday night, Olympic (1500m swim, 25 mile bike, 6.55 mile run) @ 7:30 am Sat, another Olympic with a different order (25 mile bike with time trial start, 1500 m swim, 6.55 m run) @ 3 pm Sat, and HIM on Sunday @ 7 am. Awards are based on your total time for all 4 races. This is one hard event due to the fatigue of the 4 races, the hilly courses (both bike and run) and the seemingly relentless logistics of have to pack, set up transition, re-pack etc. 4 times. But for anyone who wants a “Big Tri Weekend” this is a race not to be missed. Part of the uniqueness of the TTT is that all racers get and must wear a TTT race singlet – pretty cool to see almost 500 people in the same top.
Pre-race – My traveling and racing companion for this event was WSM Matt Aaronson. It was great to have someone to share the experience with, and we had a fun time. We left Chicago Thursday May 16 about 11 am, and Matt drove all the way to Portsmouth OH, with a stop in Cincinnati for dinner, before checking into a Holiday Inn Express about 20 minutes from the race site. Friday morning we had a big breakfast, got our gear ready and then both of us spent several hours doing conference calls for work. We headed over to the race about 2 pm to get a good parking spot (parking was tight all weekend but we just got there early for each race and snagged a good spot), checked in, got the lay of the land, set up transition, and got ready to race. As far as training goes, I did the Jan OS for 12 weeks then did the last 8 weeks of the HIM plan leading up to the TTT. My goals for this event were: 1) get no injuries, 2) break 12:30 total time, & 3) run a solid (2:00 to 2:05) half marathon as the last leg of the weekend. My strategy was to think about this as a big volume weekend and race each segment slower, at least one zone lower, than I’d race a standalone race (i.e., race the Olys at HIM pace, race the HIM at IM pace).
Super Sprint - The swim for all races was in a lake resulting from damned up Turkey Creek. The water was very murky, so visibility was maybe 1 foot in front of your hand, but the temperature was about 70-71*F (it had warmed up a lot in past week). The swim start to races #1, 2, & 4 was a time trial where they’d sent off 3 races every :10 or so. People were started based on race number (lowest first) as everyone was seeded based on a HIM time you had finished in the past year. I was #230 so just about the middle of the pack as the race is capped @ 480 participants. It took about 15 minutes for me to actually start after the first guys went off, but this time trial start really reduced the chaos of a typical triathlon mass swim start. This swim (just 250 m over a small rectangle course) was over in a blink of an eye, and it was on to transition (you get lots of transition practice at this event as you do 8 of them in 36 hours). The bike is only 4 miles but nearly 2 miles is an 8* climb, and then you come screaming back down the same hill to transition. My plan was to avg 230 watts and complete it in 12:00. Well, I went much too easy as I only avged 207 watts, my bike split was 13:42, and I got passed by numerous people, especially on the climb (I figured they’d pay for it on the Sunday half marathon run). On the run, everybody was flying so I did too. I was planning on running 8:00 pace but I ran an 6:55 mile and it felt easy. Total time for the Super sprint was 29:42. Since Matt had a lower race number (thus starting before me) and is faster than I, he was waiting at the finish to cheer me in. He’d be there at the end waiting for me in all four races which was really nice to have my own cheering section.
After a quick drink and a few cookies, we packed up quickly (yes, you had to set up and exit transition with all your gear for each race…couldn’t leave anything between races) and headed back to Portsmouth for a real dinner (neither of us were real wild about the post-race fun). By chance, we drove right by a nice Italian place 3 blocks from the hotel. The food and service was great and we agreed we’d come here Sat night as well. Back to the hotel by about 8:30 and back up gear for 2 races on Saturday.
Oly #1 – Transition opened @ 6:30 so we left the hotel about 5:45. I had my usual pre-race breakfast of 2 bananas, 2 bagel2, 1 coffee. We packed a cooler full of water bottles, Gatorade, Ensure (post-race), many energy bars, bagels, etc., and had 2 folding chairs to set up between races. We got to the race early and snagged a premier parking spot in the closest lot to transition. On the way to transition, I noticed that my rear wheel was slightly rubbing on the brake pad. I have Trek SC bike, which I love, but it has recessed rear brakes, which makes it very difficult to adjust for this type of problem. After some minor adjustments to the rear skewer, things look fine, but this would be a problem for the entire weekend.
The swim again was a time trial start, so Matt was in front of me (he had number 69). But this time many people with higher numbers (300-400) were crowding to the front and not lining up according to number. Net I had some slower folks in front of me when I started, the swim was a little more congested than the Sprint and I had to swim thru them. Got kicked in the face once, but it was basically a simple 2 loop swim. You had to exit the water, go over a timing mat, and re-enter. I just tried to get in a good grove, hold good form ,and not burn too much energy on the swim (I figured they’d have segment splits but they never posted any and I didn’t wear my watch during the swims so I have no idea what any of my swim splits were).
The bike on the Oly #1 is where the TTT begins to earn its reputation as a hard event. There are many climbs & descents thru forests on fire roads (basically one lane roads with large trees on the edge of the road). Total ascent is 1870 feet over 25 miles but the tricky part is that most of the descents are switchbacks, have many blind curves or even 180* turns at the bottom of hills. You just have to be very careful or you could have a really bad day. Net, your descent speeds are lower than you might expect, especially since we had never ridden any of the bike courses before. I also started to experience trouble again with my rear wheel rubbing on my brake. Three times I had to stop, loosen the rear skewer, re-align the wheel and re-tighten the skewer. Overall, my ride was 1:25, with 193 average watts (200 was target) @ 89 avg cadence, & 132 avg HR (that’s high zone 1 for me). I drank 24 oz of water & 24 oz of Infinit (270 calories). The time was well off my best Oly bike split, but I still had 81 miles to race on the bike in the next day so I ok with it. T2 was uneventful… slip feet out of shoes in last ¼ mile, unstrap helmet while running to the rack, helmet off, socks & shoes on, grab headband & hat and put them on while running.
By now it was beginning to warm up, about 75*F, the sun was coming out, and it was getting humid. I stopped to pee in a porta potty just past the run out and my pee was clear… a good sign as I didn’t want to be dehydrated so early in the weekend. The run course at the TTT for both Olys and the HIM is out and back on Lamp Black Trail. The first 1/3 mile out of transition is a paved road slightly uphill, then you reach the trail head. The trail is combination of gravel, dirt, mud, rocks, roots, weeds, is very hilly, and is wide enough for an ATV to get thru. In several places you had to duck under tree branches. The first 1.5 miles is all uphill, you take a dip for .25 mile, and climb again. The last .5 mile to the turnaround at 3.275 miles is downhill. Then turnaround & go back the way you came for 3.275 miles to the finish. Over the course of the weekend, we’d run 4 loops on this course (this is the hardest course I’ve ever raced on except for the American Zofingen run course). There were 3 aid stations on the course and I took a cup of water and a cup of Infinit at each. It was great to have Infinit on the course as that is what I normally use and I didn’t have to carry it on my fuel belt. My run split was 55:05 (8:23 pace), and I was able to keep my HR under 140 (zone 1 for me). I ran the entire way except walking thru each aid station like an IM. Pace didn’t mean much on this course due to the ups & downs, but I was able to cruise on in the last mile or so at 7:15 pace. I finished Oly #1 in 2:47:44, well off my PR but still faster than the first Oly I ever did 3 years ago on a pancake flat course.
Between the Olys – we had about 4 hours between the races. Matt & I got some water, ate some post-race food (bananas, pretzels, etc). I immediately took my bike to the on-site bike shop to have them look at the wheel before the line got too long. The mechanic did some adjustments and things were better. Then Matt & I went back to the car and decided to stay there between the races to keep our good parking spot. We set up the folding chairs under a shade tree, put the cooler between the chairs, put our feet to up on the cooler and drank our Ensures. We simply hung out for a few hours like this, drinking & eating. I did walk back to the race venue to get the 15 minute massage that pre-paid when I signed up. That was nice. I also check the results & they had me in Clydesdale, not 50-59AG, so I spoke to someone & they said they’d change it, but never did (still trying to get it fixed).
Oly #2 – This race is when the TTT starts throwing curve balls at you. The race starts on the bike with a time trial start. Again, it was supposed to be lowest to highest numbers but people were all mixed up. You really don’t get any warm up since you have to start at the bike out from transition. The 25 mile course is an out and back on Rt 125, which is the only major road that the TTT races on. It has serious climbs and descents as well, again with some twisting curves on the downhills. I tied to ride EN style and keep my watts even. My target for this race was 190 watts & I rode at 186 avg watts, 87 avg cadence, 128 avg HR (high zone 1). My time was 1:26 which I was ok with considering it was late afternoon, the temp 83, and the sun was out for most of the ride. However, on the major climb after the turnaround we got caught in a brief but hard thunderstorm & rain. Huge drops at first then it came down in buckets for about 10 minutes. This cooled things off but made the road slick as hell. More reason to slow down & ride defensively. Fortunately, it was a local cloud burst since it didn’t rain at transition or on the run course. I drank 24 oz of water & 24 oz of Infinit during the ride.
The next leg is a 2 loop, 1500 m swim. It is the funniest thing to see a bunch of sweaty folks trying to put on wetsuits in a hurry. I used the old “put your foot in a plastic bag then put foot into wetsuit trick” and even that was hard. Thank goodness they had volunteers to help get your arms thru and zip you up. You then had about 200m run from transition to the lake in a full wetsuit all zipped up…yes getting really hot. So the water actually felt very refreshing. Swim was basically uneventful, just probably slower than the morning’s effort. I did get kicked in the face once that dislodged my goggles so I stopped to adjust them, doing some breast stroke kicks. That’s when I got a cramp in my left hamstring. So I rolled over, stretched it and worked on it with my hand. After a 30 seconds or so, it was better and I started swimming again freestyle. The cramp was gone and I think it was the result of quickly switching to a few really strong breast stroke kicks.
The run is another loop on Lamp Black Trail. It was still hot even though it was after 5 pm. My hamstring was ok and I settled into a steady pace, taking water and Infinit at each aid station. By now I knew the course so I knew where I could push harder and where to stay steady, especially when the footing was extra bad. I keep my HR under 140 the entire race, & ran the entire way except for aidstations. I pushed harder from mile 4 to the finish just like in the morning. My split was 57:44 (8:49 pace) so slightly slower than the morning run but it was an even split. I know I had a good run because I passed many people (lots who were walking) from the turnaround to the finish and none passed me. My overall time for Oly #2 was 2:58:36. That was 11 minutes slower than Oly #1 but I know I was much slower in T1 (getting on wetsuit) and the swim. Anyway, I survived Day 2 in reasonably good shape with no injuries or blisters. After a quick soak in Turkey Creek (another TTT tradition…yes many racers actually sit in the creek to cool off), we packed up, headed to our Italian restaurant for dinner and back to the hotel.
HIM – My HIM got off to a rocky start. During the night I got up to take a pee & stubbed my left index toe on a chair in the hotel room. OUCH!! I went back to sleep and the toe was turning ugly shades of black & blue when I woke for the race. I wasn’t sure if I’d be able to run but I figured time would tell. We got packed up & I had my usual pre-race breakfast: 2 bananas & 2 bagels + coffee. I also finished off a 24 oz bottle of Gatorade while in transition. On the way to transition from the car I noticed that my rear wheel was rubbing again…damn. So more fiddling with the rear skewer and I got it spinning freely again. But now I’m really worried about riding 56 miles on a hilly course.
The swim start was the usual time trial start. It was delayed a few minutes while the fog on the lake burned off (I guess the RD figured we needed to be able to actually see the buoys). As people were getting ready, Matt & I heard several people ask “Are we really going to do HIM today?” Yep!!! So into the water all 480 of us eventually went. Nothing eventful happened to me on the swim. I just focused on my form, sighted every 10 strokes, drafted a little and did my 2 loops. Slowly I’m sure.
The bike course for the HIM was a 2 loop deal thru the forest, with much of it on different fire roads that we hadn’t ridden before. Lots of climbs and twisting descents coming at you for the first time. My garmin recorded 4410 feet of ascent over the 56 miles. On the first loop my plan was to ride at 180 watts and then see what I had for loop 2. I rode IMWI last year at 179 watts so I figured 180 was a good target given I was already feeling beat up by the TTT. I had a 3 hour bottle of Infinit & 24 oz of water onboard. I was feeling pretty good on loop 1 until I felt that now familiar dragging sensation on my rear wheel. Stop #1 to adjust it again. I completed loop 1 in 91 minutes so I felt that I was on track for a 3 hour HIM ride.
At the start of the 2nd loop, you can pick up a bottle marked with your race # if YOU left it on a special table before the race (there were no bottles handed out by the race). You could also stop to refill your own bottle (yes it was self-serve). So I picked up a full water bottle that I had left on the table, and topped off my Infinit bottle (I had drunk ½ of it) with water so that I had 48oz of liquid onboard for loop 2. Also took a pee in the porta potty, and my pee was clear so no signs of dehydration yet. Altogether, I probably stopped for 2 minutes.
Then back on the course. I was feeling pretty good and was able to maintain 175 -180 watts for the first hour. Then I hit a rough patch. My right hamstring started getting really tight so tired to stretch it while riding, climbing a couple of hills out of the saddle to change position. My energy level and watts were dropping, so I finished off my Infinit. This helped for a few minutes then I dropped a chain going up a short, steep hill. Rats!! Ok, ok. Stop #2. The chain was jammed pretty good so it took a minute or so to fix it, and figure I might as well check the rear wheel while I’m off the bike. Yep, rubbing again and it was way out of alignment now. So more adjusting to the skewer to get the wheel spinning freely. Once I finally got going (I figure I was stopped at least 4 minutes and people who I had passed way back were going by me as I was stopped), I decided to just set myself up for a good run and not try to make up lost time. I was able to get back to the 180 watt target for the last 10 miles, and get to T2 with no more mechanicals.
I had a good T2, and stopped to pee at the start of the run of 2 loops on Lamp Black Trail. I took an S-cap to supplement sodium as I knew I’d be taking lots of water on the course. In the first mile of the run, I felt like crap. In fact, I felt worse starting this run than I did either of my 2 IM runs. It was now about 83* with the sun out. I decided to focus on my form, & started counting my strides to make sure I was hitting 180 footfalls per minute. This occupied my mind until my body got its run mojo going. My goal for the run was to keep my HR under 140 and run a 2 hour half marathon.
After about 2 miles I was feeling much better & my legs felt lighter. I walked at each aid station, taking a cup of water & a cup of Infinit, then I started running again. I saw Matt coming back in while I was heading out to the turnaround. He looked good & I gave him a high 5. Seeing him doing so well gave me some mental juice, and I was able to continue running strong and I started passing lots of people. By now the trail was quite familiar, so I knew where I could push and where I had to conserve energy. I finished loop 1 just as my garmin clicked over to 1 hour so I knew I was on target for my 2 hour goal. I just kept plugging away, keeping my HR under 140, walking only at the aid stations while drinking, and letting the hills on the course dictate my actual speed. When I reached the turnaround on lap 2, my garmin had me @ 92 minutes so I knew I’d have to pick it up some to hit 2 hours. I stayed steady on the uphills and pushed hard on the downhills, and I was passing lots of people. Another cool thing about the TTT is that every time I passed somebody in the last 3 miles, they were really encouraging. It was “good job, man” or “go for it” or “finish strong”. And I did. I ran the last mile @ 7:29 pace (ok it was slightly downhill) to cross the line in 2:00:28 for the run. My HIM split was 6:06:19, nearly 50 minutes off my PR, but everyone said before the race that people are usually 45-60 slower in the TTT HIM than their PR in standalone HIM.
Overall, my total time for 12:22:24, 8th in the +50 AG. I’m satisfied with that, especially considering the stops I made on the bike for mechanical.
Post Script – After another quick soak in Turkey Creek, Matt & I packed up and hit the road back to Chicago. We caravanned back with Kristy Juno who I’ve trained with a few times. She is superfast & finished 2nd in the female 20-35 AG. We got back to Chicago about 9 pm after a 7 hour drive. All in all, it was great weekend of triathlon, and Matt was a fantastic companion to travel & race with.
I was really tired on Monday and slept 12 hours Monday night. Don’t remember the last time I did that.
I took my bike into the Trek shop on Wednesday to check out why the rear wheel kept rubbing. They discovered that I had a bent rear derailleur hanger and the screws were getting striped. They said I was lucky since it could have broken at any moment & I would have gone down in a flash. Yikes!!
The American TTT is the real deal, a true test of triathlon skill and strength. It’s reputation as a cult-like race is well deserved. The field is fit, fast, & friendly. I will proudly wear my TTT singlet for training.
Comments
You're working on a Lifetime Achievement award, there, Bruce. Respect for simply attempting, awesome that you performed so well with a well-executed pacing plan.
When you say "fire roads", are they paved for the bike? Where I come from, fire roads are gravel double track.
Thanks all
@ Al - the fire roads were paved. They basically were very narrow paved roads wide-enough to get pick up thru, maybe two picks passing if they both put the right-side wheels on the shoulder.
@ Tim and Robin - thanks for appreciation of the event. It is a big, badass mother. Yes, a few people did the 2nd OLY without wetsuits, but not many. About half the field did the opening super sprint without wetsuits.
@ Matt - We were both lower down in the final standings than either of us are accustomed too. As you say, it just goes to show how fast the field was. I knew it was a fast group when my 5:15, 2nd in my AG @ Racine 70.3, seeded me MOP at the TTT.
@ Bruce, nice try on haf the field wearing wetsuits for the sprint...you were in the small minority for sure!!!! That said, the top 3 guys all wore suits for the sprint...badass!!
And yeah, that field was super competitive. The guys who went 1-2 in the race regularly win my AG in 70.3 races. And, like you, my 4:39 at Racine put me a lot deeper in the TTT seeding than my result put me in the 70.3 standings!!