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 Swim
Comments: My best swim in a while. Still very slow, but I met my goal of focusing on high hands, hands entering in front of the head, exhaling (did pretty well) and trying to stay smooth and in control. I'm cautiously pleased here because the things I'm focusing on based on recent swim instruction seemed to help me swim slightly better...I'm cautious I wonder if it's just because the course was measured short (it looked shorter than Parvin, which I've always felt is longer than advertised). I'll never know, so I'll just say I'm pleased with the swim. I kept up with and actually surpassed 70yo Mr. Flynn, who I always seem to be racing against, and actually passed two others, which was a first. What would you do differently?: Not much, since I accomplished what I was hoping to with this swim.  Transition 1
Comments: I keep having to reach down and pull the wetsuit off my heels, which isn't that difficult but I wish I could just step my way out of it. What took extra time here, though, was putting on the Garmin, probably would've been under two minutes without that. But last time, when I wore it in the swim, it never picked up a signal until a ways into the bike. I wanted it for the bike so I turned it on and left it in the helmet. What would you do differently?: Figure out a better way to deal with the Garmin. Other than that this was fine.  Bike
Comments: A little disappointed. Really felt like I pushed it here and had a good ride. And for a good chunk of it I was over 20mph. Didn't think I'd get to 20 but I'd really hoped to crack 19mph. I took a glance at the Garmin at six miles and my time was around 18:20, so I thought I had a chance. At eight miles (they had markers every two miles) I'd lost some, not sure how, so I pushed up the effort. Ran into a little pack in the last half mile, couldn't get around anybody...spent most of it coasting and braking. Got my feet out of the shoes pretty easily. Overall ride went like Parvin did, except I started in small ring and pushed there for over five miles before kicking up to big ring. (Maybe I should've kept it in small?). I was playing catch-up from the beginning, though, which I've noticed never leads to as good a ride as I have when I can pace off somebody. I wasn't really by myself, but spent most of the race just passing people, never found a good "pace pack" What would you do differently?: Just get better on the bike, I guess. Seems my age is always going to have me in the last wave of swimmers...being slow there means by the time I hit the bike I'm behind most of the field. So I just need to get faster, is the simple answer. Transition 2
Comments: Toughest part here was run from dismount to transition, which was set up in a parking lot made of thumb-sized white gravel rocks. Pretty tough on the feet and toes, so I was kind of "ouch-ouch-ouching" it through into transition (which was carpeted). They had the transition "flow" set up nicely to keep things efficient, but it made for a slightly longer change from bike to run. What would you do differently?: Nothing.  Run
Comments: Something screwy with run distance. Results show 3.2 miles, but show my pace at 10:01, which implies it was a little bit longer than 3.2. I felt pretty decent for most of the run and I'm generally pleased with the result, particularly since I pushed it up the last half mile or so and ran under 9/mm pace. What surprised me is my overall pace didn't end up under 10 minutes...every time I glanced at the Garmin I was well under 10/mm pace. I took a couple of 15-20 second walk breaks (for water)...guess that's what cost me in the end. But I'm definitely seeing better run performance overall. Didn't wear the HR monitor because I didn't want to let it effect how I ran (or biked), but I did a pulse check at one point in the run and it was around 170, so I was pushing at or close to LT. What would you do differently?: Maybe a slow job through water stops instead of a walk. Post race
Warm down: I was pretty cooked at the end. Grabbed a banana, drank some sort of liquid (tea maybe?) and half a bagel. Then went back into the lake to cool off. What limited your ability to perform faster: Tough to gauge. Felt like I really pushed it to max on this event. Only possible exception was the bike, and that's because I wanted something left for the run, but I still pushed it hard there. Overall, a fairly decent race. Event comments: I didn't expect much here because the sign-up and website experience doesn't compare to other races, it's kind of loosey-goosey. Got an e-mail the week of the race that linked me to a website that hadn't been updated since last year. Nothing had changed, but that's what I mean by "loose". So I expected it to be similar when I got there...kind of a mess. Not even close...these guys had it down...from several packet pick-up lines based on last names to a very well-organized and directed transition area; lots of guards on the swim...police boats, kayaks, even people in the water! Good looking t-shirt too, color-wise; not that crazy about the creature from the Black Lagoon logo. Definitely will do again. Last updated: 2009-05-01 12:00 AM
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United States
PR Racing
68F / 20C
Sunny
Overall Rank = 217/283
Age Group = M 50-54
Age Group Rank = 14/20
This seemed to work last time, so did it again...got up at 4:15am so I could eat and let it settle, hopefully go to the bathroom. Had a banana and two slices of whole grain toast with PB. Wanted to get out by 5:15, we didn't get out until a little after 5:30. Spooked me a little - we're 85 miles away - but we made up some good time. And things were organized nicely at the site, although from where we parked to set-up was over a mile...I actually rode the bike over there, which did give me a chance to get it in the right gear.
Got in the water, did some swimming around to get used to things, acclimate myself. That and the easy ride from parking to transition would be it for warming up. Did have an interesting "moment" just before the race, when everybody was walking over to the beach. This one lady, looked about my age, made a comment to several of us in wetsuits that she didn't know why we were wearing them, that the water was fine. Some guy behind me said, very light-heartedly, that we weren't wearing them because of the water temp, and I added, with a friendly smile, that "you float"! This lady then promptly informed us she didn't need to float, we'd probably overheat, and it would cost us more time to get them off than any advantage we'd get from wearing them. At that point I wanted to just tell her it was our own business how we each handled our race and the last thing any of us needed, minutes before the start, were unsolicited opinions on what we might (or might not) be doing wrong. TSW said she was probably just nervous.