I don't have much to say in this race report.
This was a very disappointing race for me. Things just didn't come together the way I had hoped they would. I'm not sure why, really - whether I ate something that didn't sit right, or or drank too much lake water, but my stomach was off during the run and really slowed me down. And I felt good on the bike but it turns out I was much slower than I thought I'd be. And my swim was just a mess.
But the good news is I finally got my transition act together, and managed to recover some time, especially in T2. Too bad my overall rank didn't match my transition ranks!
Showing posts with label race reports. Show all posts
Showing posts with label race reports. Show all posts
Sunday, September 02, 2007
Sunday, August 05, 2007
Not All Races Are Good Ones - Brig Tri
Yesterday was the Brigantine Triathlon. I went in with big goals; I wanted to match or beat my paces from NJ State, and in doing so I was hoping to place in my age group. Unfortunately, neither of those things happened.
The Swim: This was a bay swim, and the current was moving along pretty good. The water was a little choppy, and one particular person kept running into me (or me into her), but the real problem came when we turned around the buoy and into the current. I misjudged how fast the water was moving, and instead of heading back on the diagonal into the beach, I ended up going out too far and had to make a 90-degree turn back into the beach, and in doing so I lost a decent amount of time.
T1: I tried to rush through transition, and tried to put my helmet on forgetting that my sunglasses were in it. The sunglasses went flying, and one of the lenses popped out, so I had to fix that before I could get on my way. After having problems in T1 two races in a row, I think I need to be more methodical (but not slow) in T1 and make sure I am doing things step by step.
The Bike: For an 11-mile bike, this was surprisingly hard, due to bumpy roads, lots of turns, and a fairly decent wind blowing. I averaged 19.8, which I was pretty disappointed about. I had been hoping to be above 20, and at or above 21 mph, so ending up under 20 was a bummer. In fact, I averaged around 19.x in one of the tris I did last year, before I started working with a coach, so to not see any improvements for this race was very frustrating. But, on the up side, I got some good racing experience going back and forth with someone in my age group. She passed me when I was getting my feet into my shoes in the first mile (I remembered to put them on my bike this time!), then I passed her at about 3 miles in, she passed me again about a mile later, and I kept her in my sights and passed her with about 2 miles to go.
T2: Went fine. Got my bike in the rack, shoes on, race belt and visor in hand, and off I went.
The Run: Sucked. The course is a 4-mile out-and-back, on very canted roads with little to no shade. Given that I ran 7:20s at NJ, I was hoping for 7:30s or so. Nope. I ran 8:21 miles. And it was hot. But, like the bike, I got some racing in, running down someone who had passed me at about the halfway mark.
Overall: This was a very disappointing race for me. Looking at the results from the day, if I had hit my goal paces I would have placed in my age group, but instead I ended up 6th, coming in 6 minutes behind someone that I should only be about 2 minutes behind. I know that not every race can be a good one, but I've been racing well this season and it was a big let-down to have a crappy race. But, Speedy had a great race - he won his age group by quite a margin, taking on and beating some good competition in doing so.
The Swim: This was a bay swim, and the current was moving along pretty good. The water was a little choppy, and one particular person kept running into me (or me into her), but the real problem came when we turned around the buoy and into the current. I misjudged how fast the water was moving, and instead of heading back on the diagonal into the beach, I ended up going out too far and had to make a 90-degree turn back into the beach, and in doing so I lost a decent amount of time.
T1: I tried to rush through transition, and tried to put my helmet on forgetting that my sunglasses were in it. The sunglasses went flying, and one of the lenses popped out, so I had to fix that before I could get on my way. After having problems in T1 two races in a row, I think I need to be more methodical (but not slow) in T1 and make sure I am doing things step by step.
The Bike: For an 11-mile bike, this was surprisingly hard, due to bumpy roads, lots of turns, and a fairly decent wind blowing. I averaged 19.8, which I was pretty disappointed about. I had been hoping to be above 20, and at or above 21 mph, so ending up under 20 was a bummer. In fact, I averaged around 19.x in one of the tris I did last year, before I started working with a coach, so to not see any improvements for this race was very frustrating. But, on the up side, I got some good racing experience going back and forth with someone in my age group. She passed me when I was getting my feet into my shoes in the first mile (I remembered to put them on my bike this time!), then I passed her at about 3 miles in, she passed me again about a mile later, and I kept her in my sights and passed her with about 2 miles to go.
T2: Went fine. Got my bike in the rack, shoes on, race belt and visor in hand, and off I went.
The Run: Sucked. The course is a 4-mile out-and-back, on very canted roads with little to no shade. Given that I ran 7:20s at NJ, I was hoping for 7:30s or so. Nope. I ran 8:21 miles. And it was hot. But, like the bike, I got some racing in, running down someone who had passed me at about the halfway mark.
Overall: This was a very disappointing race for me. Looking at the results from the day, if I had hit my goal paces I would have placed in my age group, but instead I ended up 6th, coming in 6 minutes behind someone that I should only be about 2 minutes behind. I know that not every race can be a good one, but I've been racing well this season and it was a big let-down to have a crappy race. But, Speedy had a great race - he won his age group by quite a margin, taking on and beating some good competition in doing so.
Wednesday, August 01, 2007
Race Report - NJ Sprint
I went back and forth in the weeks before this race, not sure whether I should race or not, because it was the weekend before the bar. I finally decided that I wouldn't be missing out on that much study time at that point, and the race would be a good distraction. Given all else I had going on, I didn't have any great expectations, but was hoping to place in my age group, since I thought a lot of the really strong competition I usually face would be doing to Olympic race.
Pre-Race: When Speedy and I went to packet pick-up the day before the race, we also checked out the transition and bike mount and dismount lines. When we saw that transition was long and paved, and there was a good bit of running required, we decided that I should do a flying mount and dismount, rather than trying to run that distance in my bike shoes. Only problem: I don't know how to do flying mounts and dismounts. So we got home and took the bikes out to the street in front of our house, where we ran back and forth practicing. It went pretty well, but the tongue of my shoes kept getting stuck, so we also cut out the tongue of the shoes. That makes me 3 for 3 this year with making drastic last-minute changes to some essential piece of gear the night before a race. Yeah, that adage about "don't make any last-minute changes!" seems to have gone in one ear and out the other.
Morning Of: We woke up early for the drive to the race, and got out of the house without any major catastrophes. Once we were all set up in transition, I headed down for a warm-up swim, but as it turns out warm-up swimming was only being allowed 1/4 mile away, at the swim start. After wasting about 5 minutes debating to myself whether I should walk down there or not, I finally realized that I should get my butt down there and go swim. So I hoofed it down there and got my swim warm-up done, and also determined that I had left my transition area in fine shape and I didn't have to go back before the race started. The swim start had lots of nervous energy. A minor gripe: the music playing at the swim start was Evanescence. It's not exactly the best get-up-and-go music, you know?
The Swim: There was a lot of space between the starting buoys, so I seeded myself in the front row. This wasn't an awful decision, but I definitely need to work on sprinting out of the gate a little more, especially in sprint races. I was moving along fine, had a few people run into me and I almost ran over someone from the wave before mine who was doing sidestroke. I felt bad about that; if he's doing sidestroke he's probably not super-comfortable, and having me nearly run into him couldn't have helped. I was sighting every 2-3 strokes at this point, though, because I was nearing the swim exit, and I swear this guy came out of nowhere.
T1: I tried to get that flying mount down. Which makes it really unfortunate that I forgot to put my shoes on my bike before I went down to the swim start. Rookie mistake, I know. So I shoved my feet into the shoes, rushing too much and getting the sides of the shoe all bunched up under my foot. Then, when I got to the bike mount line, I was that girl who kept shoving her foot onto the clip and I just could not get in. It was bad enough that when I finally clipped in, the volunteer standing there said something like, "There, you've got it. Now just relax and have a good race." Sigh. Not my best T1 ever.
The Bike: Fortunately, I made up for many T1 sins here. I felt strong. I didn't know how fast I was going, because I've found that when I can see my speed it gets in my head too much, so I race with my computer on cadence and distance, and focus on keeping my cadence around 90-95. I felt good, though, and was passing a lot of people, and only got passed by a couple of guys who appeared to be studs. The course was well-marked and overall not bad at all.
T2: This went much better than T1. I started to take my feet out of the shoes almost a mile out from T2, which was good because the course ended up being a little short by my computer, so I had plenty of time. The flying dismount went pretty well, except that I kicked my flat kit out of my rear bottle mount. Oops. I was a little worried that I would get a time penalty for that, but I got lucky and didn't, and went back to get it after the race. Bike shoved in the rack, and shoes on, visor and race belt in hand, and I was on my way.
Run: I went harder on the bike than usual and my legs had the standard jelly feeling for the first half-mile or so, but I was happy to notice that it didn't take them too long to feel pretty good again. I didn't get passed by any women, and only a couple guys. I felt good. The path was narrow, though, and there was one guy who wouldn't let me pass him! When I tried to accelerate around him, he'd speed up too, so I was running directly off his shoulder for a bit, but I was finally able to make my way around him and continue on. When all was said and done, I looked at my time and realized I was running 7:20 miles! That's the fastest I've ever run in any race, and to do that off the bike was awesome.
I had no idea what the finish line announcer was saying, but it must have been good because there were lots of people cheering. This is the second race that I have completely zoned out on what the finsh line announcer is saying, apparently at my last race he identified me by name and I still didn't hear him. As it turns out, I was the third woman across the line.
Overall: As I said in my brief post-race check-in, the unofficial results had me listed as third female overall, which was awesome. As it turns out, though, the unofficial results didn't accurately reflect the wave timing, and I was actually 5th, so no cool overall award. But! I won my age group! That was awesome. And Speedy had a great race as well, coming in 2nd in his age group in the Olympic. Overall, it was a great race.
Next up: Brigantine Triathlon, this Saturday.
Pre-Race: When Speedy and I went to packet pick-up the day before the race, we also checked out the transition and bike mount and dismount lines. When we saw that transition was long and paved, and there was a good bit of running required, we decided that I should do a flying mount and dismount, rather than trying to run that distance in my bike shoes. Only problem: I don't know how to do flying mounts and dismounts. So we got home and took the bikes out to the street in front of our house, where we ran back and forth practicing. It went pretty well, but the tongue of my shoes kept getting stuck, so we also cut out the tongue of the shoes. That makes me 3 for 3 this year with making drastic last-minute changes to some essential piece of gear the night before a race. Yeah, that adage about "don't make any last-minute changes!" seems to have gone in one ear and out the other.
Morning Of: We woke up early for the drive to the race, and got out of the house without any major catastrophes. Once we were all set up in transition, I headed down for a warm-up swim, but as it turns out warm-up swimming was only being allowed 1/4 mile away, at the swim start. After wasting about 5 minutes debating to myself whether I should walk down there or not, I finally realized that I should get my butt down there and go swim. So I hoofed it down there and got my swim warm-up done, and also determined that I had left my transition area in fine shape and I didn't have to go back before the race started. The swim start had lots of nervous energy. A minor gripe: the music playing at the swim start was Evanescence. It's not exactly the best get-up-and-go music, you know?
The Swim: There was a lot of space between the starting buoys, so I seeded myself in the front row. This wasn't an awful decision, but I definitely need to work on sprinting out of the gate a little more, especially in sprint races. I was moving along fine, had a few people run into me and I almost ran over someone from the wave before mine who was doing sidestroke. I felt bad about that; if he's doing sidestroke he's probably not super-comfortable, and having me nearly run into him couldn't have helped. I was sighting every 2-3 strokes at this point, though, because I was nearing the swim exit, and I swear this guy came out of nowhere.
T1: I tried to get that flying mount down. Which makes it really unfortunate that I forgot to put my shoes on my bike before I went down to the swim start. Rookie mistake, I know. So I shoved my feet into the shoes, rushing too much and getting the sides of the shoe all bunched up under my foot. Then, when I got to the bike mount line, I was that girl who kept shoving her foot onto the clip and I just could not get in. It was bad enough that when I finally clipped in, the volunteer standing there said something like, "There, you've got it. Now just relax and have a good race." Sigh. Not my best T1 ever.
The Bike: Fortunately, I made up for many T1 sins here. I felt strong. I didn't know how fast I was going, because I've found that when I can see my speed it gets in my head too much, so I race with my computer on cadence and distance, and focus on keeping my cadence around 90-95. I felt good, though, and was passing a lot of people, and only got passed by a couple of guys who appeared to be studs. The course was well-marked and overall not bad at all.
T2: This went much better than T1. I started to take my feet out of the shoes almost a mile out from T2, which was good because the course ended up being a little short by my computer, so I had plenty of time. The flying dismount went pretty well, except that I kicked my flat kit out of my rear bottle mount. Oops. I was a little worried that I would get a time penalty for that, but I got lucky and didn't, and went back to get it after the race. Bike shoved in the rack, and shoes on, visor and race belt in hand, and I was on my way.
Run: I went harder on the bike than usual and my legs had the standard jelly feeling for the first half-mile or so, but I was happy to notice that it didn't take them too long to feel pretty good again. I didn't get passed by any women, and only a couple guys. I felt good. The path was narrow, though, and there was one guy who wouldn't let me pass him! When I tried to accelerate around him, he'd speed up too, so I was running directly off his shoulder for a bit, but I was finally able to make my way around him and continue on. When all was said and done, I looked at my time and realized I was running 7:20 miles! That's the fastest I've ever run in any race, and to do that off the bike was awesome.
I had no idea what the finish line announcer was saying, but it must have been good because there were lots of people cheering. This is the second race that I have completely zoned out on what the finsh line announcer is saying, apparently at my last race he identified me by name and I still didn't hear him. As it turns out, I was the third woman across the line.
Overall: As I said in my brief post-race check-in, the unofficial results had me listed as third female overall, which was awesome. As it turns out, though, the unofficial results didn't accurately reflect the wave timing, and I was actually 5th, so no cool overall award. But! I won my age group! That was awesome. And Speedy had a great race as well, coming in 2nd in his age group in the Olympic. Overall, it was a great race.
Next up: Brigantine Triathlon, this Saturday.
Tuesday, June 26, 2007
Race Report, Part II
The bike was hard. There were eight hills in all. Most were pretty void of spectators, except for Lemon Hill, where there were a few people cheering, and a climb off of West River, where there was a guy all done up in red body paint and holding a triton, like our very own El Diablo. It was really cool, and while I said something to him on the first time up the hill, the second time I was too busy sucking wind to get anything out.
Just after the second-to-last hill on the bike I started to feel fatigued. Not like "Wow this is really hard" fatigue, but more of the deep in the bones, 'I'm gonna curl up on the side of the road and fall asleep right here' fatigue. I've got to say, that's not such a great feeling when you've still got one more climb and a 10K to go in a race. I all but trudged through the end of the bike, getting passed left and right. I had been watching ages as people went by, and it wasn't until this point that I really started getting passed by people in my age group; before this, it had mostly been men in the 30-44 range.
The transitition area was situated at the bottom of a descent, but far enough out that you could still bomb down if you wanted to. I ended up behind someone on the descent who was taking it just carefully enough that I decided that trying to pass her would be a bad idea, especially considering we'd be rolling right into T2.
T2 was okay. I ended up at my rack at the exact same time as the girl right next to me, which made for some interesting times as we both tried to shove our bikes onto the rack and get out of there. Again, because the transition area was so long, we had to run a fair distance with the bike to get back to the rack.
The first part of the run was on grass, as the course fed behind the transition area onto the road. The volunteers were great with directing us and warning us about curbs. The start of the run was ridiculously painful, and it didn't get any better. I felt like I was just slogging along, and was really surprised to see after the first mile that my pace was around 8:30. I was really happy with that, considering how I felt. Although my legs seemed to feel less tired for a little while, the combination of general fatigue, running on grass in Mile 2 and the very canted road surface took its toll, and all in all my legs were not happy.
As with my last race, the run was mostly a mental game. I looked at the faces of people heading in the other direction, and told myself that they were all hurting as well and that it was supposed to hurt, and if I wasn't hurting, I wasn't going hard enough. This got me through past Mile 4, but when I didn't see the Mile 5 marker I started to get into my head again. I knew it couldn't be too much farther, but I wasn't seeing any hints as to where I was on the course. At the last water station, I asked the volunteer how much further it was, and she told me it was just about a mile. That right there nearly kicked my ass, as I checked my watch and couldn't believe I had slowed down so much. But, lo and behold, about 100 yards past the station was the 6 Mile marker, and soon after I could hear the finish line announcer. Whew! I'm not sure what's worse: being told by cheering spectators "You're almost there!!" at Mile 2, or being told there's still a mile left when you're at Mile 5.9.
I had a little left for a kick, but not much. I was passed in the chute by a guy who went flying by me at an all-out sprint, and there was no way my legs were going to do that.
Speedy had caught up to me near the end of the run. While I was a little disappointed by this, as I had been hoping to finish before him (his wave started well after mine), I was happy for him as he was looking fast and strong, and it was nice to see him right at the finish line.
We both realized that we needed Band-Aids; Speedy for blisters and me for a cut on my leg, probably from my chain ring when I nearly fell. We stopped by the med tent to get some bandages, and the staff was top-notch. Instead of just handing us Band-Aids and sending us on our way, they patched Speedy's blisters with Second Skin, and cleaned and bandaged me up, and only laughed a little when I told them I thought I cut myself on my own chain ring (note that the cut is on the outside of my right leg. Yes, the outside.).
Some things I learned:
- I need to do more race-pace training. This pains me to say because I love my aerobic base-building workouts, but the workouts that will make me faster are not the relaxed and conversational ones. I need to get my ass in gear.
- Racing while stressed and sleep-deprived is not the greatest idea ever. That said, I'm sure that's a lesson I'll learn many times over in the future.
- I should get tri shoes; transitions would be much easier.
All in all, the race itself was great, and I was sort of pleased with my result. It'll go down in my books with an asterisk, as in *this race completed while in full-swing bar-study mode. As I told Speedy, I think I raced well with what I had available to me. I didn't leave anything out there, but although I did empty my tank, I didn't start with a full tank.
When I saw Speedy at the finish line, we both gasped about how we were NEVER going to do another one of those, it was so painful, and so on. You won't be surprised to hear we're both already planning for our next.
Just after the second-to-last hill on the bike I started to feel fatigued. Not like "Wow this is really hard" fatigue, but more of the deep in the bones, 'I'm gonna curl up on the side of the road and fall asleep right here' fatigue. I've got to say, that's not such a great feeling when you've still got one more climb and a 10K to go in a race. I all but trudged through the end of the bike, getting passed left and right. I had been watching ages as people went by, and it wasn't until this point that I really started getting passed by people in my age group; before this, it had mostly been men in the 30-44 range.
The transitition area was situated at the bottom of a descent, but far enough out that you could still bomb down if you wanted to. I ended up behind someone on the descent who was taking it just carefully enough that I decided that trying to pass her would be a bad idea, especially considering we'd be rolling right into T2.
T2 was okay. I ended up at my rack at the exact same time as the girl right next to me, which made for some interesting times as we both tried to shove our bikes onto the rack and get out of there. Again, because the transition area was so long, we had to run a fair distance with the bike to get back to the rack.
The first part of the run was on grass, as the course fed behind the transition area onto the road. The volunteers were great with directing us and warning us about curbs. The start of the run was ridiculously painful, and it didn't get any better. I felt like I was just slogging along, and was really surprised to see after the first mile that my pace was around 8:30. I was really happy with that, considering how I felt. Although my legs seemed to feel less tired for a little while, the combination of general fatigue, running on grass in Mile 2 and the very canted road surface took its toll, and all in all my legs were not happy.
As with my last race, the run was mostly a mental game. I looked at the faces of people heading in the other direction, and told myself that they were all hurting as well and that it was supposed to hurt, and if I wasn't hurting, I wasn't going hard enough. This got me through past Mile 4, but when I didn't see the Mile 5 marker I started to get into my head again. I knew it couldn't be too much farther, but I wasn't seeing any hints as to where I was on the course. At the last water station, I asked the volunteer how much further it was, and she told me it was just about a mile. That right there nearly kicked my ass, as I checked my watch and couldn't believe I had slowed down so much. But, lo and behold, about 100 yards past the station was the 6 Mile marker, and soon after I could hear the finish line announcer. Whew! I'm not sure what's worse: being told by cheering spectators "You're almost there!!" at Mile 2, or being told there's still a mile left when you're at Mile 5.9.
I had a little left for a kick, but not much. I was passed in the chute by a guy who went flying by me at an all-out sprint, and there was no way my legs were going to do that.
Speedy had caught up to me near the end of the run. While I was a little disappointed by this, as I had been hoping to finish before him (his wave started well after mine), I was happy for him as he was looking fast and strong, and it was nice to see him right at the finish line.
We both realized that we needed Band-Aids; Speedy for blisters and me for a cut on my leg, probably from my chain ring when I nearly fell. We stopped by the med tent to get some bandages, and the staff was top-notch. Instead of just handing us Band-Aids and sending us on our way, they patched Speedy's blisters with Second Skin, and cleaned and bandaged me up, and only laughed a little when I told them I thought I cut myself on my own chain ring (note that the cut is on the outside of my right leg. Yes, the outside.).
Some things I learned:
- I need to do more race-pace training. This pains me to say because I love my aerobic base-building workouts, but the workouts that will make me faster are not the relaxed and conversational ones. I need to get my ass in gear.
- Racing while stressed and sleep-deprived is not the greatest idea ever. That said, I'm sure that's a lesson I'll learn many times over in the future.
- I should get tri shoes; transitions would be much easier.
All in all, the race itself was great, and I was sort of pleased with my result. It'll go down in my books with an asterisk, as in *this race completed while in full-swing bar-study mode. As I told Speedy, I think I raced well with what I had available to me. I didn't leave anything out there, but although I did empty my tank, I didn't start with a full tank.
When I saw Speedy at the finish line, we both gasped about how we were NEVER going to do another one of those, it was so painful, and so on. You won't be surprised to hear we're both already planning for our next.
Monday, June 25, 2007
Race Report, Part I
(This is taking longer to write than expected; here's the first part.)
First, the nitty-gritty: 2:45 overall.
Second, that was really freaking hard. It's twice as long as a sprint but four times as hard. The hilly course was tough, tougher than I'd expected it would be, even having gone over the course in a few training rides already. Racing it was much more difficult.
I was pretty nervous going in, given that this was my first non-sprint tri, but felt mostly confident in my training. What I didn't account for was how much my general fatigue and stress level affected my race, even with a good taper last week. Speedy, on the other hand, rocked the course and did very well, especially considering this was also his first race at this distance.
Preface: I have been having lots of problems with my wetsuit. The legs are slightly too short and end right at the belly of my calf, and each time I've worn it in training swims this year my calves have cramped up. I also spend too much time trying to get it off, which I think cuts into any time savings gained from wearing it. I explained all this to Speedy the night before the race, and put the suit on around my legs so he could see what I was talking about. In his infinite wetsuit wisdom garnered from years of surfing, he suggested I cut the legs just a little so they weren't so tight. After notching about one inch into each leg, the suit felt must better. Okay, onto the good stuff:
The Swim:
The water temperature was 76, making a wetsuit allowable, but really probably not necessary. I decided to wear it and give it a shot with the new cuts in the leg and hope for the best. Most people in my wave were grouped around one bouy to start, and I started near the other bouy to try to get some clean water and avoid the crowds. My plan worked pretty well for about 500 meters, until I convinced myself that they probably knew something I didn't and I should really get my butt over there. Yeah - lesson learned. I knew where I was going, I was on course and had clean water, and I should have just stayed my course instead of voluntarily entering the washing machine.
For the first 1100 meters or so, the target was a bridge, which made sighting pretty easy. I looked up every 3-6 strokes, which looking back was probably too often. I could have eaasily gotten by sighting half as much, especially on a course that I know as well as I know this one. After the bridge, and leading into T1, there was a lot of congestion as the course narrowed, and I was bumping into people and getting hit pretty often. I'm happy to say I was able to handle it all pretty well, and not get freaked out by the amount of contact with others.
Overall, I think I could have gone faster, had I stuck with my original line and stayed out of my head, instead of joining the crowd and getting distracted a few times and then finding myself not going as hard as I should be. I have a tendency to zone out when swimming, which works really well for getting through long training sets but clearly doesn't work so well for racing.
T1: Pretty smooth, the wetsuit came off with relatively few problems. I spilled some Nuun out of my bottle trying to make thre turn around the rack, but overall it was fine. A minor gripe: the transition area was really long, and the bike in and out were at the same end, which meant that those closer had to do less running with their bikes and those further had to do lots. Although the racks were numbered by age, this still created some inherent unfairness for those in later waves, racked towards the back, who may have been going for overall ranking.
The Bike: As soon as I got on my bike, I realized my computer had somehow come off in transistion. Shit! It was literally hanging from my handlebar by the wire. While I wasn't planning to use it for speed, I was planning to track the distance and monitor my cadence. Instead, it hung limply. About the course: Whew. I've seen these hills in training, and they were still freaking hard. Those who didn't scout the course, or who just assumed that the course would be flat because it's in the city, were in for a surprise. The first hill on the two-loop course is also the steepest, and I wasn't quite ready for it after my swim, especially considering on training rides it's usually the second hill we do, not the first.
After the crest, I realized my bike was making a funny noise, and since my bike computer was already off, I was expecting the worst, and I slowed down to check for a flat. I pulled over to the side of the road, and unclipped my right foot. Unfortunately, the road at the point canted steeply, and I started to tip over to my left. With an 'OH FUCK' so loud I'm lucky there were no marshals around, I started to fall over. Fortunately, I have pretty good reflexes, and was able to get my arms out and catch myself on the (rusty, metal) barrier protecting the side of the road from the hill we had just come up not too long ago. I am certainly lucky, since if I hadn't caught myself I'm pretty sure my head would have made contact with that same barrier, probably ending my race. I righted myself, and checked my tires, which were (of course) still properly and fully inflated, making my stop, lost time, and near-fall wholly unnecessary. But after restarting, my bike was still making a funny noise, and in looking it over I saw something that looked like paper stuck in the front brake. I have no idea what it actually was, because I reached down to remove it and it went flying. But the problem was solved; no more funny noises from my bike, and on my way I went.
First, the nitty-gritty: 2:45 overall.
Second, that was really freaking hard. It's twice as long as a sprint but four times as hard. The hilly course was tough, tougher than I'd expected it would be, even having gone over the course in a few training rides already. Racing it was much more difficult.
I was pretty nervous going in, given that this was my first non-sprint tri, but felt mostly confident in my training. What I didn't account for was how much my general fatigue and stress level affected my race, even with a good taper last week. Speedy, on the other hand, rocked the course and did very well, especially considering this was also his first race at this distance.
Preface: I have been having lots of problems with my wetsuit. The legs are slightly too short and end right at the belly of my calf, and each time I've worn it in training swims this year my calves have cramped up. I also spend too much time trying to get it off, which I think cuts into any time savings gained from wearing it. I explained all this to Speedy the night before the race, and put the suit on around my legs so he could see what I was talking about. In his infinite wetsuit wisdom garnered from years of surfing, he suggested I cut the legs just a little so they weren't so tight. After notching about one inch into each leg, the suit felt must better. Okay, onto the good stuff:
The Swim:
The water temperature was 76, making a wetsuit allowable, but really probably not necessary. I decided to wear it and give it a shot with the new cuts in the leg and hope for the best. Most people in my wave were grouped around one bouy to start, and I started near the other bouy to try to get some clean water and avoid the crowds. My plan worked pretty well for about 500 meters, until I convinced myself that they probably knew something I didn't and I should really get my butt over there. Yeah - lesson learned. I knew where I was going, I was on course and had clean water, and I should have just stayed my course instead of voluntarily entering the washing machine.
For the first 1100 meters or so, the target was a bridge, which made sighting pretty easy. I looked up every 3-6 strokes, which looking back was probably too often. I could have eaasily gotten by sighting half as much, especially on a course that I know as well as I know this one. After the bridge, and leading into T1, there was a lot of congestion as the course narrowed, and I was bumping into people and getting hit pretty often. I'm happy to say I was able to handle it all pretty well, and not get freaked out by the amount of contact with others.
Overall, I think I could have gone faster, had I stuck with my original line and stayed out of my head, instead of joining the crowd and getting distracted a few times and then finding myself not going as hard as I should be. I have a tendency to zone out when swimming, which works really well for getting through long training sets but clearly doesn't work so well for racing.
T1: Pretty smooth, the wetsuit came off with relatively few problems. I spilled some Nuun out of my bottle trying to make thre turn around the rack, but overall it was fine. A minor gripe: the transition area was really long, and the bike in and out were at the same end, which meant that those closer had to do less running with their bikes and those further had to do lots. Although the racks were numbered by age, this still created some inherent unfairness for those in later waves, racked towards the back, who may have been going for overall ranking.
The Bike: As soon as I got on my bike, I realized my computer had somehow come off in transistion. Shit! It was literally hanging from my handlebar by the wire. While I wasn't planning to use it for speed, I was planning to track the distance and monitor my cadence. Instead, it hung limply. About the course: Whew. I've seen these hills in training, and they were still freaking hard. Those who didn't scout the course, or who just assumed that the course would be flat because it's in the city, were in for a surprise. The first hill on the two-loop course is also the steepest, and I wasn't quite ready for it after my swim, especially considering on training rides it's usually the second hill we do, not the first.
After the crest, I realized my bike was making a funny noise, and since my bike computer was already off, I was expecting the worst, and I slowed down to check for a flat. I pulled over to the side of the road, and unclipped my right foot. Unfortunately, the road at the point canted steeply, and I started to tip over to my left. With an 'OH FUCK' so loud I'm lucky there were no marshals around, I started to fall over. Fortunately, I have pretty good reflexes, and was able to get my arms out and catch myself on the (rusty, metal) barrier protecting the side of the road from the hill we had just come up not too long ago. I am certainly lucky, since if I hadn't caught myself I'm pretty sure my head would have made contact with that same barrier, probably ending my race. I righted myself, and checked my tires, which were (of course) still properly and fully inflated, making my stop, lost time, and near-fall wholly unnecessary. But after restarting, my bike was still making a funny noise, and in looking it over I saw something that looked like paper stuck in the front brake. I have no idea what it actually was, because I reached down to remove it and it went flying. But the problem was solved; no more funny noises from my bike, and on my way I went.
Monday, May 28, 2007
The (Really) Long Version
The Night Before:
While getting my things together, I found I wasn't able to fit quite everything into my bag.
Fortunately, the dog decided that he didn't want to race, after all.
That Morning:
We left early enough to get to the race just when packet pick-up started, and found that there was (of course) already a decent line. When we finally got to the front of the line, we found that my number and chip had been given away to someone else. So I got everything else and Speedy and I headed out for a bike warmup. It felt good to get my legs going, and when we got back to transition I went back to the registration table. There was no sign of my number or chip, so I had to stand in the day-of registration line to get a new number. This was pretty annoying, because by this time the start time was getting pretty close and I still had to put on my wetsuit and do my swim warmup. When I finally got my new number, I ran back to the transition area, gave the number and race belt to Speedy to put it together, and put my wetsuit on in record time. We headed down to the lake for a quick warm-up, and as soon as I got in the water I heard the announcement for the pre-race meeting. Crap! But all was well and I got in a quick swim warm-up anyway, and was feeling pretty good by the time the race started.
The Swim:
My swim training this winter and spring has made me a lot stronger in the water, and I'm not so worried anymore about being kicked/hit/generally beat up in the water. I started front and center, and while a couple people got out faster than I did and I got knocked around a little, it wasn't long before I found some clean water and was able to pick people off. The swim was a straight out-and-back, and I think I swam more of a teardrop shape around the buoys but still got out of the water somewhere around 10th or 12th place, which was fine with me, even though I think I could have gone faster.
T1 took me longer than planned, because it took me too long to get out of my wetsuit. I've been wondering for a while if it's worth the extra time to wear the wetsuit for these shorter races, because I think I lose more time taking the darn thing off than I save wearing it for the swim. Time: 1:50.
The Bike:
Went really well. I had set myself a goal of 20mph average, and most times I looked at my computer I was somewhere around 21-22. I passed quite a few people, and got passed by a couple hotshots with disc wheels and aero helmets. I drank Nuun and had gels with me but didn't take any. Towards the end, I got passed by a girl who stayed just out of reach until we reached a short climb at an overpass, and I passed her on the hill and was able to stay in front until T2, which went pretty smoothly. My official average was 19.3, but my bike computer recorded the course as being a little long and had my average as 20 even. I'll take it.
The Run:
I came out of T2 neck-and-neck with bike girl, and complimented her on her strong bike and she said she was having fun racing me. That was pretty cool. She and I went back and forth for the first mile or so, but she pulled away and I wasn't able to hang with her. The run was really painful; I definitely went harder on this bike than I usually do during bricks, and my legs were not happy. It became a mental game for me, and I kept reminding myself that it was painful for everyone and that if I wasn't hurting by then I wasn't going hard enough. My goal pace for the run was 8:00/mile. My official average is 7:52, but the run time includes T2, so my pace was more likely something around 7:32, assuming T2 took about a minute.
Overall, I was really happy with my race. I wasn't tapered for the race, and in fact did some pretty hard bike workouts last week, and I still ended up at my bike goal, and beat my run goal. I ended up 6th female (I think) and 3rd in my age group. My age group turned out to be pretty strong this year, and much stronger than it was last year. My time from this year was faster than my time from last year by over 12 minutes and would have won my age group last year by over 5 minutes, and this year places 3-7 overall for the women all came out of my age group. And I still placed in my AG, for the first time. Not bad. And Speedy knocked 3 minutes off his time from last year and got 2nd in his age group!
Me and Speedy, post-race:
I wanted to use this race to measure my speed against where I was last year and see what I need to work on, and it turns out I got a lot faster. I know I need to work on running hard off the bike, and now have some triple bricks in my future (future, of course, meaning tomorrow - ouch!). So all in all, definitely a good race. Whew.
Next up: Philadelphia Olympic!
While getting my things together, I found I wasn't able to fit quite everything into my bag.
Fortunately, the dog decided that he didn't want to race, after all.
That Morning:
We left early enough to get to the race just when packet pick-up started, and found that there was (of course) already a decent line. When we finally got to the front of the line, we found that my number and chip had been given away to someone else. So I got everything else and Speedy and I headed out for a bike warmup. It felt good to get my legs going, and when we got back to transition I went back to the registration table. There was no sign of my number or chip, so I had to stand in the day-of registration line to get a new number. This was pretty annoying, because by this time the start time was getting pretty close and I still had to put on my wetsuit and do my swim warmup. When I finally got my new number, I ran back to the transition area, gave the number and race belt to Speedy to put it together, and put my wetsuit on in record time. We headed down to the lake for a quick warm-up, and as soon as I got in the water I heard the announcement for the pre-race meeting. Crap! But all was well and I got in a quick swim warm-up anyway, and was feeling pretty good by the time the race started.
The Swim:
My swim training this winter and spring has made me a lot stronger in the water, and I'm not so worried anymore about being kicked/hit/generally beat up in the water. I started front and center, and while a couple people got out faster than I did and I got knocked around a little, it wasn't long before I found some clean water and was able to pick people off. The swim was a straight out-and-back, and I think I swam more of a teardrop shape around the buoys but still got out of the water somewhere around 10th or 12th place, which was fine with me, even though I think I could have gone faster.
T1 took me longer than planned, because it took me too long to get out of my wetsuit. I've been wondering for a while if it's worth the extra time to wear the wetsuit for these shorter races, because I think I lose more time taking the darn thing off than I save wearing it for the swim. Time: 1:50.
The Bike:
Went really well. I had set myself a goal of 20mph average, and most times I looked at my computer I was somewhere around 21-22. I passed quite a few people, and got passed by a couple hotshots with disc wheels and aero helmets. I drank Nuun and had gels with me but didn't take any. Towards the end, I got passed by a girl who stayed just out of reach until we reached a short climb at an overpass, and I passed her on the hill and was able to stay in front until T2, which went pretty smoothly. My official average was 19.3, but my bike computer recorded the course as being a little long and had my average as 20 even. I'll take it.
The Run:
I came out of T2 neck-and-neck with bike girl, and complimented her on her strong bike and she said she was having fun racing me. That was pretty cool. She and I went back and forth for the first mile or so, but she pulled away and I wasn't able to hang with her. The run was really painful; I definitely went harder on this bike than I usually do during bricks, and my legs were not happy. It became a mental game for me, and I kept reminding myself that it was painful for everyone and that if I wasn't hurting by then I wasn't going hard enough. My goal pace for the run was 8:00/mile. My official average is 7:52, but the run time includes T2, so my pace was more likely something around 7:32, assuming T2 took about a minute.
Overall, I was really happy with my race. I wasn't tapered for the race, and in fact did some pretty hard bike workouts last week, and I still ended up at my bike goal, and beat my run goal. I ended up 6th female (I think) and 3rd in my age group. My age group turned out to be pretty strong this year, and much stronger than it was last year. My time from this year was faster than my time from last year by over 12 minutes and would have won my age group last year by over 5 minutes, and this year places 3-7 overall for the women all came out of my age group. And I still placed in my AG, for the first time. Not bad. And Speedy knocked 3 minutes off his time from last year and got 2nd in his age group!
Me and Speedy, post-race:
I wanted to use this race to measure my speed against where I was last year and see what I need to work on, and it turns out I got a lot faster. I know I need to work on running hard off the bike, and now have some triple bricks in my future (future, of course, meaning tomorrow - ouch!). So all in all, definitely a good race. Whew.
Next up: Philadelphia Olympic!
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