Another points race done and I've got two weeks off from racing so I can get more work done. I've been ~750 TSS for the last two weeks which has kept me fairly fresh for racing but not too light that I'd be losing fitness. Now I'm planning on holding myself near 800 to 850 until I get about ten weeks out from Redman.
This race went pretty well, I've never been to this venue before and didn't really know what to expect. It's funny how much better I can do at a race I've been to before, this one was a little suprising.
The swim was slightly long, not a bad thing since I swim OK, I was 6th out of the water at 29:55. http://connect.garmin.com/activity/192511766 Normally I'm a 22-23 min wetsuit swimmer so this was probably pushing 1800 meters. Since I swam at the front so this was fairly uneventfull. I found a pair of feet to follow early and it was a good fit for me but I lost him on the second loop while swimming through the people starting the Half and appear to have lost about a minute to him. The only incident that I had was after passing someone that was doing the half, that person swam inside of my turn bouy (he had to go out a little further) and I ran him over after making my turn. Not a dunk or anything, I just went over his back, really didn't mean it I just didn't see him as I was breathing to my right at that time.
The bike was a bit hilly and I calculated that it would take me about 1:15 to do it, I was close at 1:18:46. http://connect.garmin.com/activity/192511781 Since I wanted to have a good run I had to have a good bike plan and that was to ride up the hills near 240-250 watts and bomb the downhills. I'm good at bombing downhills and this course made that easy since it was so straight. The plan went really well but there was this lady driving a white Intrepid that passed me then waited behind some slower bikers and wouldn't pass them even when the road was clear to do so. Then she would pass them and wait behind someone else. This happed four times on the second loop, finally after passing her the fourth time I just rode out a little from the shoulder of the road so she wouldn't pass me again. The downhills were fast. I got up over 53mph, I think that's the fastest I've ever gone on a bike. After getting back to transition I was wondering if I should have gone harder.
The run went pretty good for me and I think it was the best pace I've done in quite a while, I came in at 44:56 (6.27 miles). http://connect.garmin.com/activity/192511797 I averaged 7:10's for the run (which was slightly long but that's OK). The last two races I went out really hard and tried to hold it, this time I wanted to start a little easier and keep the pace near goal pace which was 7:05 to 7:10. That seemed to work much better as I wasn't winded at the start like I had been at Deer Creek and Maumee Bay and I never struggled to hold pace either. The Garmin link shows a bit of an elevation change but I really didn't think it went up and down that much, it was a lot like running on Hines drive, very very gently rolling, I suppose it could have though. The double out and back 10K was nice for spectators and the trail was a really nice run. It was probably one of the nicest run venues that I've been to.
So overall a 2:35:23 which was good enough to get me 1st in AG and 9th overall. Swim 6th, bike 10th and run 14th which is a little out of character for me on the bike, that's why I was thinking I should have gone a little harder on the bike.
Tuesday, June 26, 2012
Monday, June 18, 2012
Maumee Bay Olympic distance Triathlon
Raced last weekend again and had a pretty good race.
Race went well 2:10:30 something, fastest I've ever gone in an Olympic Tri
Swim http://connect.garmin.com/activity/190009146
Swim went well, It was a wetsuit swim, I was surprisingly quick from the start, 22:3X. Nobody wanted to line up in front so I did and got to clear water quickly. Something about HFP races is that your time starts when you run over the timing mat so instead of 100 people getting on line and starting next to eachother it's spread out a little. A weaker swimmer that wants to start in back isn't losing time by starting 30 seconds later and staying out of the scrum. I think it makes for a safer swim.
Anywho, the swim was uneventful and was over quickly, mid 22's with a wetsuit seems normal for me so it was not exceptional in any way.
Bike http://connect.garmin.com/activity/190009153
Bike was completely flat and was a PR course, I was really trying to go under an hour but missed it by a little bit 1:00:50, might have tried a little too hard. Power was a little high in the beginning and I had to dial it down a little. There wasn't much wind at all, maybe 5 to 10 mph, so I was ~24 with the wind and 27 with the wind. Flat courses tend to favor me and it appears that this one did.
Run http://connect.garmin.com/activity/190009165
Run was almost a carbon copy from the last race, I could be dissapointed but it was in the high 80's this time so about 15 degrees warmer than Deer Creek. Better/Same kind of hard to tell but I didn't leave anything out on the course. I was kind of winded from the start, sagged a little in the middle then picked it up. 45:11. A race PR on a tough training week I'm happy with.
Finished 9th overall and 2nd in AG about a minute behind first place. Competition was a little weak like Deer Creek but the Elite Masters didn't go much faster.
Race went well 2:10:30 something, fastest I've ever gone in an Olympic Tri
Swim http://connect.garmin.com/activity/190009146
Swim went well, It was a wetsuit swim, I was surprisingly quick from the start, 22:3X. Nobody wanted to line up in front so I did and got to clear water quickly. Something about HFP races is that your time starts when you run over the timing mat so instead of 100 people getting on line and starting next to eachother it's spread out a little. A weaker swimmer that wants to start in back isn't losing time by starting 30 seconds later and staying out of the scrum. I think it makes for a safer swim.
Anywho, the swim was uneventful and was over quickly, mid 22's with a wetsuit seems normal for me so it was not exceptional in any way.
Bike http://connect.garmin.com/activity/190009153
Bike was completely flat and was a PR course, I was really trying to go under an hour but missed it by a little bit 1:00:50, might have tried a little too hard. Power was a little high in the beginning and I had to dial it down a little. There wasn't much wind at all, maybe 5 to 10 mph, so I was ~24 with the wind and 27 with the wind. Flat courses tend to favor me and it appears that this one did.
Run http://connect.garmin.com/activity/190009165
Run was almost a carbon copy from the last race, I could be dissapointed but it was in the high 80's this time so about 15 degrees warmer than Deer Creek. Better/Same kind of hard to tell but I didn't leave anything out on the course. I was kind of winded from the start, sagged a little in the middle then picked it up. 45:11. A race PR on a tough training week I'm happy with.
Finished 9th overall and 2nd in AG about a minute behind first place. Competition was a little weak like Deer Creek but the Elite Masters didn't go much faster.
Saturday, June 09, 2012
Monday, June 04, 2012
I race the Olympic distance triathlon at Deer Creek yesterday and was somewhat pleased with the results. I still don’t feel like I’m back to 100% after racing Triple T and didn’t have high expectations for this race because of that.
This race is the first one of a series of Olympic distance races that HFP puts on. I’ve never done this particular race before but I have done the HIM in September a few times so I am familiar with the course. It’s not a particularly fast course in my opinion but still one that suits me well.
First the swim was very choppy, not 1 foot wave choppy but like 6 or 8 inch choppy that was very irregular. I got bounced around a little bit but I can swim in conditions like that without issue unlike many people there that popped their head up every 5th stroke or so. I really didn’t expect that but I think it made it the swim a stronger event for me. The results are not up yet but according to my watch I was 26:25 into transition, that’s not great but OK considering the conditions.
One mistake I made was that normally I will run out of the water a ways before I take my wetsuit top off (Desoto pullover), I did that this time but while doing so I had to run up some steps and couldn’t do both at the same time. I may have lost 10 second or so because of that.
I was into transition fairly quickly and off on the bike. It was a long transition area and busy so I didn’t click off my watch when I exited, I remembered about a mile down the road. The bike was fairly flat and windy, I think it’s been windy every time I’ve been there for the half and this was no different. Fortunately a windy course suits me very well as I’m very small on the bike. I had a goal of riding just over 200 watts and did just that. I wasn’t holding back but wasn’t really pushing it tremendously hard either. I passed a lot of people out there, some of who would pass me back on the run. There were two hard spots on each loop of the course, one 90 foot climb and one 80 foot climb. They weren’t killer hills or anything but they were big enough to disrupt the rhythm and slow me down maybe 2 minutes or so.
Bike Course http://connect.garmin.com/activity/185313336
I came into the park probably a little too easy but I was trying to get my last gel in and take my feet out of my shoes at the same time. I was also going a little too fast at the dismount line for my liking and almost tripped up, it was kind of funny to me but I don’t think anyone else noticed, it was really a perfect dismount.
I had a fairly quick transition again and off on the run where I started off chasing some young guy but eventually he ran away from me. I was winded from the start but ran through it and kept a steady pace throughout the run. On the turn-around I saw someone I knew and wanted to beat and that motivated me to go as hard as I could, because of that I wound up negative splitting the run by ~20 seconds on what I thought was a so-so run for me. In hindsight, after going through my previous race results I found that it was actually my second fastest Olympic distance run I’ve ever done so I have to be happy with that since I went into the race feeling like I was about 90%.
Run Course http://connect.garmin.com/activity/185313355
So overall I was 2:16.xx and that’s a normal race result for me, good enough for 2nd place in AG for the day and some points in the series. The first guy went 1:57.xx so he was way out front.
This race is the first one of a series of Olympic distance races that HFP puts on. I’ve never done this particular race before but I have done the HIM in September a few times so I am familiar with the course. It’s not a particularly fast course in my opinion but still one that suits me well.
First the swim was very choppy, not 1 foot wave choppy but like 6 or 8 inch choppy that was very irregular. I got bounced around a little bit but I can swim in conditions like that without issue unlike many people there that popped their head up every 5th stroke or so. I really didn’t expect that but I think it made it the swim a stronger event for me. The results are not up yet but according to my watch I was 26:25 into transition, that’s not great but OK considering the conditions.
One mistake I made was that normally I will run out of the water a ways before I take my wetsuit top off (Desoto pullover), I did that this time but while doing so I had to run up some steps and couldn’t do both at the same time. I may have lost 10 second or so because of that.
I was into transition fairly quickly and off on the bike. It was a long transition area and busy so I didn’t click off my watch when I exited, I remembered about a mile down the road. The bike was fairly flat and windy, I think it’s been windy every time I’ve been there for the half and this was no different. Fortunately a windy course suits me very well as I’m very small on the bike. I had a goal of riding just over 200 watts and did just that. I wasn’t holding back but wasn’t really pushing it tremendously hard either. I passed a lot of people out there, some of who would pass me back on the run. There were two hard spots on each loop of the course, one 90 foot climb and one 80 foot climb. They weren’t killer hills or anything but they were big enough to disrupt the rhythm and slow me down maybe 2 minutes or so.
Bike Course http://connect.garmin.com/activity/185313336
I came into the park probably a little too easy but I was trying to get my last gel in and take my feet out of my shoes at the same time. I was also going a little too fast at the dismount line for my liking and almost tripped up, it was kind of funny to me but I don’t think anyone else noticed, it was really a perfect dismount.
I had a fairly quick transition again and off on the run where I started off chasing some young guy but eventually he ran away from me. I was winded from the start but ran through it and kept a steady pace throughout the run. On the turn-around I saw someone I knew and wanted to beat and that motivated me to go as hard as I could, because of that I wound up negative splitting the run by ~20 seconds on what I thought was a so-so run for me. In hindsight, after going through my previous race results I found that it was actually my second fastest Olympic distance run I’ve ever done so I have to be happy with that since I went into the race feeling like I was about 90%.
Run Course http://connect.garmin.com/activity/185313355
So overall I was 2:16.xx and that’s a normal race result for me, good enough for 2nd place in AG for the day and some points in the series. The first guy went 1:57.xx so he was way out front.
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