Blue Lake Oly 6/5
The race went well - I finished in 3:05:52:
The weather wasn't so good: chilly (mid 50's), overcast, light rain here and there. Not horrible, but it made for a cold bike ride. I had a long sleeve jersey, jacket, full-fingered gloves, and was OK. I'd see others with finger tip gloves, short sleeves... and think holy crap I'd get pneumonia.
The swim was tough due to winds and churn. M30-39 started together, and I had to hang back, move to the side, and it still took me a few minutes to find a nice bubble to swim in. The winds caused short waves which made breathing hard - I sucked in more than a few mouthfuls of water - and it took a while to calm down and find my rhythm. I got out of the water around 32 minutes, but the official time is higher because the timing mat was 50 yards away, on the other side of a small hill.
Speaking of the transition zone, it had really long chutes to/from the bike start/finish. I made the tactical decision that since this wasn't my A race, the grass was wet and uneven, I would just walk it. So both T1 and T2 are a bit slower than normal.
The bike was windy and wet. I settled into the 39x17 or 39x19 and spun along. The race wheels make a cool whirring noise! I feel lucky I didn't have a bike issue given I was messing with my wheels and shifting the night before. Plus, before the event started, I topped off my front wheel with a little CO2.
I started the run feeling pretty good considering I've only done two bricks in all my training - both with JHS doing one of her crazy coached workouts. I felt a side stitch come on so I eased up to let my heart rate fall to about 75% max heart rate and ran the first 3 miles like that. On the way back I pushed a little harder, but not too much.
When I finished, I had the usual contradictory thoughts: I could have done better; I don't really train to do better because I'm generally unwilling to suffer. I just about only train and race at a moderate/easy pace, so I can hardly expect that my volume alone will make my moderate/easy pace noticeably faster! JHS called during the drive back and we chatted about this very topic, and how we are similar in this respect. As an aside, we both find the volume required for IM to be high enough that next year, we might actually consider suffering via speedwork (for shorter events), in order to have variety from our suffering through volume. ;)
Still, it was a good outing - no bike mechanical problems, no cramps, left foot feels good, decent times considering the effort I was racing at.
From my heart rate data, you can see the swim was uneven, as I fought the chop and churn before settling down. When the elevation data suddenly kicks in is where the swim stopped. Then, my HR spiked as I ran up a hill to the transition zone. At this point, I decided to proceed slowly and calmly through transition, and my HR drifts down.
On the bike, the general trend is that I took it easier as time wore on. I don't remember doing this consciously, perhaps I just stuck with a particular gear ratio, stayed with it, and since it was an "easy" effort, my heart rate could drift down.
T2 is also obvious, and the sudden dip following it is... when I had to visit a porta-potty. Just as a note, I'd much rather have bathroom trips count towards transition time, but alas, they were outside the transition zone. ;) Anyway, in a slight reverse of my bike effort, I increased my effort slightly over the duration of the run.
On the whole, I feel like I paced this pretty well - I didn't "hammer" and burn myself out before my main event.
As for the results, I generally improved as the race unfolded. I had the 318th fastest swim, 312th fastest bike, and 282nd fastest run. Comparatively, the run is my "strength"! ;) I finished 47th in my division out of 53, which is a nice improvement - I'm nearly always last or second to last at an olympic triathlon.
- Swim - 34:10
- T1 - 6:12
- Bike - 1:24:52
- T2 - 4:23
- Run - 56:15
- Total - 3:05:52
The weather wasn't so good: chilly (mid 50's), overcast, light rain here and there. Not horrible, but it made for a cold bike ride. I had a long sleeve jersey, jacket, full-fingered gloves, and was OK. I'd see others with finger tip gloves, short sleeves... and think holy crap I'd get pneumonia.
The swim was tough due to winds and churn. M30-39 started together, and I had to hang back, move to the side, and it still took me a few minutes to find a nice bubble to swim in. The winds caused short waves which made breathing hard - I sucked in more than a few mouthfuls of water - and it took a while to calm down and find my rhythm. I got out of the water around 32 minutes, but the official time is higher because the timing mat was 50 yards away, on the other side of a small hill.
Speaking of the transition zone, it had really long chutes to/from the bike start/finish. I made the tactical decision that since this wasn't my A race, the grass was wet and uneven, I would just walk it. So both T1 and T2 are a bit slower than normal.
The bike was windy and wet. I settled into the 39x17 or 39x19 and spun along. The race wheels make a cool whirring noise! I feel lucky I didn't have a bike issue given I was messing with my wheels and shifting the night before. Plus, before the event started, I topped off my front wheel with a little CO2.
I started the run feeling pretty good considering I've only done two bricks in all my training - both with JHS doing one of her crazy coached workouts. I felt a side stitch come on so I eased up to let my heart rate fall to about 75% max heart rate and ran the first 3 miles like that. On the way back I pushed a little harder, but not too much.
When I finished, I had the usual contradictory thoughts: I could have done better; I don't really train to do better because I'm generally unwilling to suffer. I just about only train and race at a moderate/easy pace, so I can hardly expect that my volume alone will make my moderate/easy pace noticeably faster! JHS called during the drive back and we chatted about this very topic, and how we are similar in this respect. As an aside, we both find the volume required for IM to be high enough that next year, we might actually consider suffering via speedwork (for shorter events), in order to have variety from our suffering through volume. ;)
Still, it was a good outing - no bike mechanical problems, no cramps, left foot feels good, decent times considering the effort I was racing at.
From my heart rate data, you can see the swim was uneven, as I fought the chop and churn before settling down. When the elevation data suddenly kicks in is where the swim stopped. Then, my HR spiked as I ran up a hill to the transition zone. At this point, I decided to proceed slowly and calmly through transition, and my HR drifts down.
On the bike, the general trend is that I took it easier as time wore on. I don't remember doing this consciously, perhaps I just stuck with a particular gear ratio, stayed with it, and since it was an "easy" effort, my heart rate could drift down.
T2 is also obvious, and the sudden dip following it is... when I had to visit a porta-potty. Just as a note, I'd much rather have bathroom trips count towards transition time, but alas, they were outside the transition zone. ;) Anyway, in a slight reverse of my bike effort, I increased my effort slightly over the duration of the run.
On the whole, I feel like I paced this pretty well - I didn't "hammer" and burn myself out before my main event.
As for the results, I generally improved as the race unfolded. I had the 318th fastest swim, 312th fastest bike, and 282nd fastest run. Comparatively, the run is my "strength"! ;) I finished 47th in my division out of 53, which is a nice improvement - I'm nearly always last or second to last at an olympic triathlon.
posted by klbarrus at
7:30 PM
2 Comments:
I'm so glad you came down! Even with the horrible rain it was a good time :-)
By
Anonymous, at 12:08 AM
We had a good laugh over T2 comments! It's so funny...! [How to pee on the bike and on the run...? Does wearing a diaper helps...?]
By
Anonymous, at 10:50 PM
Post a Comment
<< Home