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 Swim
Comments: So the first thing I did differently in this race was to go out absolutely as hard as I could for as long as I could and then get on what ever feet were still around and just sit on them the rest of the way no matter how fast or slow they seemed to be going. I probably held my wide open pace just a little too long as when I finally eased up and jumped some feet I was in full-on hyperventilation mode. I was literally breathing on both sides, twice per stroke cycle. I eased up a lot, forced myself to get my shit under contra without stopping, and then got on some feet and just stayed on them until were pretty well into the thick of the waves in front of us. With about 100 meters to go I shed the draft and bee-lined for the swim exit, taking it a little easy and really trying to make sure I was getting stretched out from the shoulders. And check out these dance moves coming out of the water:  What would you do differently?: While I thought I would do better than 11 minutes, this was still an ok time relative to the group, and 55 seconds faster than the last time I did this race two years ago. I probably should have either A) eased up a little sooner on the start, or maybe B) done some pickups in the water before hand to get ready for the effort. Regardless, the tactic still seemed to work, and put me in position to get on some fast-ish feet. Just wish I didn't have to ease up so much in the middle - probably burned 10~15 seconds or so on my swim time I am guessing. But then who knows if I would have been able to get a good draft if I had of. Hmmmm......  Transition 1
Comments: This is my favorite transition area of all the local races as it is so compact: you basically stand up out of the swim into the transition area. And then I went and muffed T1. Helmet went on good, but when I went to slip on my shoes I accidentally pulled the velcro strap completely out of the loop. Shit. Jam it back in, grab my bike, say some "let's go get 'em" kind of words to thecaptin as he came into T1, and charged for the bike out. What would you do differently?: Patience and stay focused on the task at hand. I am generally pretty good at this part.  Bike
Comments: Rolled out quickly, but because of the hills on the way out to the main road it took me a while (I kinda forgot, actually) to cinch my shoe straps down tightly for a good long while. Based on how many bikes were still racked around me when I left I knew I had a better swim than it felt, so I just hammered up the road wide-open, basically just racing from wheel to wheel and running folks down as fast as possible. The planned pacing strategy for the bike was to go as absolutely as hard as possible, and not worry about being able to run at all at the end, and then just see where my running legs were. So instead of riding a daily steady power profile like I normally would, instead I was really attacking the hills. By about mile 7 though I was getting kind of pukey, which is not really new to me - I sometimes will begin to barf up some fluids when the efforts get really hard. I have learned just to clear it and then get on with the getting' on. At mile 8 I settled in a little better and the gaps up the road were much bigger and the riders of course faster for the most part. The last 6 miles of the race I picked up two dudes, one was working and the other drafting. The lead guy obviously wanted to work the legal draft together but he didn't seem to really know how to - and add to the fact he had a guy sitting on his wheel when they would come around they would then immediately slow down to much and way too quickly forcing me to have to slow waaaaaay down to get out of the box - it was very annoying. Ultimately I just would up sitting back and way out of the box for a bit until we had about a mile to go and then put in a big effort to jump them. Stupid, I know, but I was suppose to cook my legs on the bike and they were kinda keeping me from it.  What would you do differently?: While not my normal way to ride, it seemed to work out ok - I was 1:50 faster around the course this year. Wish I didn't have to jack around the last few miles with the fellas, but not much you can do about that - I do wonder if instead of backing off I should have just put my head down and pulled them in though. I just din't want to risk getting caught up in some inadvertent but still illegal drafting. Transition 2
Comments: Feet out of the shoes with about 100m to go to the dismount line, good dismount, run in, rack the bike, shoes on and dash out the exit with visor, sunglasses, race belt and garmin in hand. Slipped everything on and situated with plenty of time to grab a cup of water from a volunteer before getting down to business. Can't get much smoother than that. What would you do differently?: Nothing.  Run
Comments: Legs felt a little like jelly on the first uphill out of transition, but I immediately caught several guys going up the hill so that was motivational and got me to buckle down a bit more. Again just ran from racer to racer up the road and just focused on picking guys off one by one, and by the turnaround I was feeling OK. At mile two I got caught by a racer from a lower age group, and when I saw that he was not in my age group I actually let up just a little. "Stupid, stupid, stupid," I said to myself and then put the screws back to it, but it was too late and the damage was done - while he didn't put any more distance on me I could not put a step on him to the finish, but the little bit of anger at myself for letting him get away initially did keep me pushing hard when I really didn't want to, or need to really as there was a fairly large gap to the next guy behind.  What would you do differently?: Race for finish place, not AG place. I hate when I do that. The run was 18 seconds faster than the last time on the course though, so I guess that is OK. Post race
Warm down: Grab water, and jog back out on the course to cheer from friends and team mates that were still coming in. As soon as we could get back in to transition I grabbed my stuff and heeded to pick up JT for the airport. Didn't find out my placement until later in the evening when one of my teammates let me know my time and that I got 2nd in AG - was kinda surprised actually, I think I felt like I had a crumby race simply because I was unfamiliar with the pacing strategy. What limited your ability to perform faster: 5 races in 5 weeks, too much travel, and not enough rest. Happy with the results though, all things considered. Event comments: Tri the parks always puts on a good race, and this course is about as honest as you get. Profile Album Last updated: 2014-04-08 12:00 AM
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United States
Blue Sky Sports
78F / 26C
Sunny
Overall Rank = 20/340
Age Group = 45-49
Age Group Rank = 2/23
This week was fairly hurky-jerky from the get-go with all sorts of long work travel, meetings, and other early morning and late night events. Add to that this was the 5th race for me in as many weeks and I knew going in there was no way this was going to be an "optimum" race performance. The day before the race I was traveling for work and as I would be passing reasonably close to the event site on the way home I thought it would be a great idea to swing by the site and pick up my packet, saving me a little bit of time in the morning. I did that and headed home to get packed up for the race AND to get packed up to travel to DC immediately after the race. The plan was to cross the finish line, dash in to transition to round up my stuff as soon as they would let us, then race of to the airport to catch a plane to the Nation's Capitol.
As I was headed back to the interstate after packet pickup, the "low tire pressure" warning came on for my left rear tire. I pulled over, and sure enough something had punctured a rather large hole in the outer shoulder (obviously unrepairable) of my tire. A real pisser. I did a quick change to the spare, and then did an "around me" search for the closest tire shop (goodyear), which turned out to only be about 5 miles away. I raced there as quick as I could as it was friday after 5pm and I knew they would be closing soon. Turns out they did not have anything that would fit (I have largish rims with low-profile tires) so I raced off to the next place, and no such luck there either. Damn. Caught the dealer just as they were closing and they had the tire in stock, but I was still an hour away from home so that would do me no good tonight. I just gave up and headed to the house, defeated. Looks like I was not going to be able to race in the morning as I would not have a car to drive in the morning - I was not that interested in driving a car 2 hours with no spare, especially when I HAD to get to the airport immediately following the race. I wasn't too bummed about it, as knew I was already a little worn out and this was always scheduled as a "throw-away" race in which I was going to not worry about performance and rather experiment with some different pacing strategies.
When I got home however JT had worked out with a friend to borrow a car that she could use for the stuff she needed to do in the morning, and therefore I could use HER car to drive back down for the race. Sweet! The race is back on!
Got up saturday morning, had a couple of eggs, banana, and some oatmeal, loaded up JT's car and headed south back to the race venue. I got there a bit earlier than I had planned, and got body marked and racked fairly quickly. It turns out that I was racked right next to "thecaptin" from here on BT, so it was nice to say hello and chat a bit before the race. I also met one of my coach's other athletes who was racing his very first triathlon, so it was great to chat with him briefly as well - it is always really cool to talk to the first timers and get a little whiff of that combination of fear and excitement that they give off. Kinda reminds you why we do this silly thing.
Walked and stretched out for about 10 minutes, then did another 10 minutes of easy running out on the course before doing about 5 more minutes of strides and pickups. This was a good thing as I had forgotten just how hilly the run course is. Got back to transition with about 20 minutes to spar, so went out and pretty much slowly swam the whole loop, with a little extra to-ing and fro-ing between buoys. Back on shore, National anthem, then wait for the waves in front of us to go off. We were in the third group to go.