Wakeup at 3AM
Eat my standard Eggs and Toast breakfast.
Rolling out of Somerville at 4-4:15
Arrive at Race location 5:30
About 49-50 degrees, Water Temp 63. Very cloudy and just a sprinkling of rain.
Transition area is a beach. Very sandy. When you leave the Transition area you go across the timing mat. The bike start is still say, 3oo yards away through deep loose sand. That isn't going to be very fun with bike shoes on.
Setup transition. The big question we all have is what to wear on the bike. My options are a cotton long sleeve crew, or my fleece windbreak jacket. I leave both of them out and available.
Bike option, socks or no socks. I decide to have a pair of socks in both my bike and run shoes because there is so much sand. I might want to swap.
My wetsuit came in 2 big plastic bags which I had with me. They were useful to use in the setup to keep my shoes & socks dry if it should start to rain harder.
2 Gels taped to my bike. Taped in such a way that it will tear open and leave the top on the bike.
Forgot to put the body glide on at first. I need to add that to my race site checklist.
We all got into the water to "warm up". Being in the water actually wasn't too bad. Getting back out and standing around waiting to start got chilly.
Swim:
I'm going to be in the 2nd wave of the swim start. I try hard not to think of the total distance of the swim and how far it appears. This one had many buoys so I just thought about swimming to the first one which looks very easy to do.
I started very much in the center of the lineup. I won't do that again. I felt that I was constantly being taken out of my stroke by running into people. It got somewhat better as we got further into the swim because of the spacing. I was sighting for open lanes as much as I was sighting for my direction. I'm unsure of my swim split at this time. I have a feeling I'm going to be disappointed I certainly never got into a really good groove.
T1: Wetsuit removal, very simple. Toughest part, keeping balance and not falling over. I decide to go without socks for the bike. Feet are going to be sandy anyhow, even if they are clean going into the shoes, because of the long sandy trek to the bike mount area. I did decide to put on my bike gloves, that takes too long. I need to work on a better plan for my gloves or get so I don't want them. I'm looking at my shirt and jacket. At the moment I'm not cold, I've been in T1 too long already!! Go without! Get going!
Bike: I have my polar watch mounted to the bike for the Power Meter info. My HR is high from the swim. I try to pick a pace which feels right and should allow me to get back into my zone. I'll look at the graph to see how that all went down.
I remember that I need to lightly apply my brakes to get the sand cleared from them so they will work when I need them.
I'm guessing I'm 5 or so miles in and I've already seen at least 3 people working on changing tires. Then I get to a grated deck draw bridge (Think old 5th street bridge in Warren). As I hit the decking, I start that old Left/Right shift. I make sure not to pedal at all. It's probably all of 25-30 yards. Midspan, there is a guy laying off to the side with someone over them telling him he's going to be alright. (I didn't know it at the time, He crashed hard and we think he had a gash down to the muscle) Man! There are a ton of people having problems! Another mile along a guy carrying his bike on his back walking towards us, a local is offering him a ride back to the start. Sheesh!!
The ride is very flat, I feel like I'm moving along well. Once we get to the "hills" a couple people had just passed me. I kind of hang behind and pace off of them. Eventually I realize I should be going back by these people. Dumb!
Around mile 15-17 Maija catches up with me and says hello as she and two others from her wave cruise by me. (I believe she started 6 minutes after me, Wave 4 .) As far as I know there is only one other woman ahead of me. I think she passed me in the first few miles of the bike. So Maija and the other 2 are (2,3,4) as of right now. Awesome!
(Edit: Maija was wave 5 and started 9 minutes behind me. Again, Awesome!)
As I get back within 5 miles of the finish, I start digging in a bit more. I move further back onto the saddle and start pushing harder. I start to pass some people again. I'll have to look at the graph to see exactly when this really happens. I finished the bike thinking I should have started my dig earlier. Now I have to run back across the Sahara to the transition area.
T2: I was really leaning on my bike to keep me steady running with my bike shoes. Legs are feeling plenty funky. Now to get some sand off my feet and get some socks on for the run. Again, I feel like I'm in transition forever. I'm thinking of having multiple towels for future races. It would have been nice to have one to clean my feet today another to stand or kneel on to get socks on.
I get the socks on, there is a ton of sand in between my toes. This could get ugly.
Run: Back across the sand dunes. I didn't really get where I was supposed to go for the run. Follow the cones... at the end of the cones they are pointing the way. Thank you.
I check my watch for HR and pace. I am running way too fast, low 7 min pace. I seem to always do this. I slow myself down and keep chugging. Guy behind me says "The first half mile of the run is awful". No kidding, it feels so wrong. Eventually I get the feel for running back. I'm trying to keep under 8 min/mile pace. HR is 175-179. I know I should be able to run 4 miles in this zone. My watch beeps at me. "Memory full". I'm such an idiot. I didn't erase the old workouts before starting today. Add that to the checklist. Fortunately, the watch continues to work, it just doesn't record. I eventually get behind a guy from my age group and we are running 7:30-7:45 pace. I keep checking my HR. It's looking good. I'm close behind him. He can definitely hear me breathing. I'm thinking to myself if we get close to the finish in this position, we are going to have a fun footrace at the end. I should have enough in me for a sprint to the finish. He drops pace after the section of "sandy trail" running. So much for the meaningless sprint to the finish. Once I get an idea of how far I have left, I gun it anyhow (as much as someone like me can gun it.) I finish feeling good, I think I probably beat my Florida pace. If I didn't it's because of the fact the run started as soon as you left transition, which meant the sand dunes were part of the run time.
Results
I finished 114th overall. Time 2:28:09
The rest of team F.A.S.T:
Maija finished 26th overall, First in her age group, 2nd overall female. 2:08:15
Todd finished 100th Place 2:24:41
Esther finished 120th 2:28:48
Armando finished 162nd 2:37:14
This was Esther and Armando's first Triathlon, impressive!
Thanks to Genine, we got some fun photos from today.
Oh, one more tip. Things you don't think about until you have to think about it. What do you do with the empty gu wrappers? Well here I am trying to stuff them into the tiny pockets of my tri top. I mention this to Todd on the way home. He says. "just stuff them under the cuff of your bike shorts". Now he tells me. Ha!
12 comments:
I stick the empty Gu wrappers in my the side of my tri shorts since I have no pockets normally.
Good job out there and good race report. I was actully in the 5th wave. Ugh! So unfair. I spelled Genine's name wrong in my race report--Sorry!
Those are nice pics. Thanks for the detailed race report. Helpful hints galore. I'm glad to see you had good signage to follow this time and it looks like you did pretty well. Glad to hear the wetsuit removal went off without a hitch. You're looking pretty good underneath that. The muscles are coming out! Congratulations on a great "warm-up" race for the season. Can't wait for the big'n.
Good Show! My man. Hope you are not experiencing any residual issues from back stuff. Bike is coming on, and your swim split was very nice (probably good you experienced the open water before the Mooseman, too many bodies). Sounds like you would like to have a better run, but this is just the warm up race and your run was very solid.
I did a brick in honor of you Saturday, thinking I would be suffering with you, but realized when I went to look up the results you hadn't done the race yet. Oops. I was thinking about ya.
When I first got out of the car at the race, my back zapped me a couple times. Sitting in a car is about the worst thing I can do for it I guess. I spent much of my day Saturday not sitting, just because I knew I needed to keep everything stretched out.
I'm going to the chiropractor tonight. I'll have him adjust my knees and ankles as well. Get everything lined up for the next one.
Enough about my back, hopefully we don't have to go through that again anytime soon. It was a non issue for the race. Wahoo!
Now that I see the splits. I'm quite surprised by them. I can't complain about that swim pace. I'm encouraged at the thought that I felt I could do better.
The bike, I have no point of reference for this distance. The cool part here is I know I have a ton of room to improve. I need to join a bike club.
The run, now I've gotta get the charts from my watch. I must have spent more time above 8 min miles than I thought at the beginning. That and the trek across the sand.
I'm now even more disappointed that I can't post a full graph of my run for you guys. I felt I was above my training pace most of my run.
I keep thinking of other things I didn't mention. Like taking an electrolyte capsule shortly after getting to the race site. GU sometime before the swim... 2 GU and I downed one bottle of gatorade on the bike. No water during the run.
Thanked all the police on the course. I felt they showed obvious control of the situation, which makes it easy to have confidence going into those intersections.
I'm surprised nobody commented that we all look kind of tired. Even pre-race. It was an early morning.
I was a slacker again this AM. I decided I needed more sleep than my coached workout. I'll probably swim tonight.
As for how I feel the day after. Left arm feeling it. I didn't do much if any breathing to my left on the swim.
All the small muscles in my hips are tired. Everything else seems cool.
Today is the day I feel great because the body is cranking out all the repair goods right? So tomorrow is the reality check right?
Thanks for the support!
I'm going to edit my post to fix Maija's info regarding 5th wave. I now understand why she would love to have been in the first wave swimming.
Glad the back wasn't an issue. Now get it fixed and keep it that way!
Funny pictures of the dogs near the pictures where you guys are eating. They look like "Where's my sandwich?". Also, it appears Esther took over your perpetual smile. She looks like it was fun for her. The rest of you are really serious looking and tired (happy now).
Esther is going to do the swim for team Bloomingdales at the Mooseman. Not sure if I mentioned that before.
Great job!! Impressive.
As for the wrappers topic, I usually throw them towards a garbage at a water stop. That way I don't have to carry them or get residual gu on me. On a good day, they might actually land in the can.
Are you still doing a 1/2 mar this weekend??
Yes, Brooklyn Half Marathon on Saturday.
I'm very interested to see how I respond physically. If it doesn't go well, it might help slow my desire to schedule more races.
I'm really quite surprised at how much I enjoy race days. I definitely prefer racing with friends than alone but race days have always been enjoyable.
I meant to mention how bike heavy this race was. I noticed you finished overall 114th. You were 106 out of the water, 137 on the bike, and 101 on the run. So, even though I feel your bike was a good ride, it is obvious where you lost some overall places (I understand you may not be comparing yourself as of yet).
But, too compare it gives you where you need to put your efforts which you may already know.
So, I got your results from Morgantown, similar number of total competitors, you were 128 overall, 79 swim, 111 bike, 164 run. So, it appears to me you have improved your run considerably which you already know, the competition on the swim was probably greater at the Bassman so it is hard to compare. You had the same average speed on the bike (almost three times the distance, so this is an improvement).
I can only see you doing better in the Mooseman because of the more emphasis on the swim and run. Where I on the other hand would rather do a race like the Bassman, because I like the bike.
If I lost you, don't worry about it. It is really the babbling's of a jealous friend who would have liked to be with you yesterday.
This was definitely your style of race. Very bike heavy. How do you feel about riding a very flat course? Do you feel you would do better with hills?
The mooseman is flat for about 3 miles, the rest of it feels up hill to me. :-)
You are right about the bike being the weak link. There is another tho'. TRANSITIONS. I've gotta step it up. This was a bad one to use as an example (too much sand) but I gave up a couple minutes for sure.
You've signed up for the Mountaineer, right? I haven't looked for those course maps yet.
Looking forward to racing with you guys.
Flat, much better. I still weigh too much even though I work on the hills. I do have a a couple ?'s about the Mooseman, it appears to not be flat, but the bike times seem fast. A lot of 20+ MPH bike times. I think it would compare to the normal rides around the house, so I guess if I get to a normal 20+, I should be in good shape (I hope that is not too hopeful).
I have not sent the money for the Mountaineer (now named "Spirit of Morgantown", Mountaineer sounds to tough), so the answer is no, but I will be there. They won't sell out. Neighbor guy helps with the planning and he said not a problem. They want as many as they can handle because next year they are going sanctioned (they hope) as a qualifier, for what I don't know, I think Kona, but I am not sure.
you guys are getting me addicted to blogs!
if you stick gu wrappers in your shorts, don't forget to take them out..
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