login
 Swim
Comments: This was simultaneously one of the most embarrassing and terrifying events of my life. I was pretty confident that I would do at least OK going into the swim. Although I hadn't gotten as much swimming practice as I wanted in the couple weeks leading up to my tri (I had been combining a sprint and a half-marathon training plan, and swimming ended up losing out to running several times), I grew up open-water swimming in lakes and oceans, and my times, while never blisteringly fast, were at least respectable. But the extreme turbidity of the churned-up water, coupled with the presence of 100 of my closest friends, really threw me. The first 100 meters wasn't too bad. I had shaken off my jitters, found my stroke, and settled into an OK rhythm. Then came The Collision, during which someone swam on me as I was inhaling. I inhaled a bunch of water, choked, and went into total panic mode -- all the more disorienting, as I have never been afraid in the water before in my entire life. I couldn't even think to go over to the kayak, and just started treading water for a few seconds until I got my bearings. That was really the end of the swim for me. Every time I put my face in the water, I just freaked out. I ended up backstroking the entire thing, which caused me to go off course rather badly. Oops. At the end of the swim, I remember ripping my cap and goggles off as soon as my feet touched the bottom, running out of the water as fast as I could, and saying something along the lines of "Thank God I'm out of this hellhole!" to the lifeguard. At this point, I was wondering why the hell I ever thought that triathlon was the sort of endeavor that I could actually physically accomplish. What would you do differently?: I definitely need to get more open-water swimming practice in. I think it was the combination of opaque water and being touched by others that undid me in the swim, and I wasn't mentally prepared for it.  Transition 1
Comments: I didn't have a wetsuit, so a lot of that doesn't apply. T1 was pretty slow, just because I was still somewhat in shock from the terror of the open-water swim. I remember moving like a zombie and staring at things. Finally I remembered that I was, in fact, racing. So I put on my gloves and helmet, dithered for a moment about whether or not to put on socks, decided not to, put on my bike shoes, and ran out of there. It was difficult to run with the bike, because I have road pedals and cleats, but I did respectably. I did not even think about trying to leave my shoes clipped onto the bike, because I'm still new to clipless pedals and I knew I would fall over if I tried. I didn't have any problems clipping in and going, though. What would you do differently?: I just need to move faster and practice transitions more. I was especially slow in getting my bike off the rack, and putting my gloves on.  Bike
Comments: I took it fairly easy on the bike. At first, I was still a bit dismayed by my performance in the water and disheartened by the fact that I couldn't even see anyone else to try to catch, so I was just sort of pedaling along with my head not really in the game at all. I started the first climb up Highway 30 still not in a great frame of mind. Then I realized that I had caught the rest of the back of the pack, and I started to actually try harder. I was afraid of pushing too hard on the bike and not having anything left for the run, so I didn't stand on the climbs and as a result, didn't climb as well as I know I can. But I still passed several people on climbs. The descent down Tulls Hill Road really got my mind back on track, though. I did pretty well, although I slowed down more than I needed through one oddly-banked bend. I got passed by one guy on the downhill, but I caught him as soon as we started climbing again. The rest of the course was really beautiful, and I made a pretty good effort. What would you do differently?: I would start aggressively on the bike from the get-go, instead of starting with a poor attitude and low self-confidence, and I would overall bike harder than my effort this time. I know that I should be capable of biking that course in the 16-18 mph range, given those conditions, and the minute it might cost me on the run would be outweighed by the several minutes it would gain me on the bike. Transition 2
Comments: This transition took about as long as I had expected it to. I was a bit wobbly running on my bike shoes into the transition area, and I sort of did everything sequentially and slowly instead of remembering to try to do multiple things at once. But I did a good job of remembering to remove my cycling equipment from my body.  Run
Comments: I was satisfied with this run performance. It's not my 5k PR time or anything like that, and the first mile was pretty rough off the bike, but I loosened up and did a lot better after the first mile. I had done a few bricks, so I knew what to expect, and I was shooting to break 10MM pace for this run -- my first mile off the bike has historically been pretty horrifying, like 11 or 12 minutes/mile, and I am not a fast runner to begin with. I focused on catching and passing every other BOP-er I could, and I passed several other people during the run. The 5k distance is a very short run for me, and I paced it more like I should have paced a 10k run; there was a lot in the tank at the end of that last mile, and although I kicked pretty powerfully at the end, there was still some left over that would have been better spent on the course. What would you do differently?: I would have paced it a bit faster, and I would have done a better job of familiarizing myself with the course. But I am mostly satisfied with this run. Post race
Warm down: Walked around a bunch and did a few stretches, ate some goodies, and packed up and loaded camping gear into the car. What limited your ability to perform faster: Well, first of all, this was my first tri. I wasn't expecting any medals or anything, although I was hoping to be closer to MOP than BOP, and I really wasn't looking to be one of the last ones out of the water. But more practice (not to mention improving my fitness over time) will be the most crucial thing to improving my times. At my current fitness level? Better nutrition would have been a good thing -- my stomach was actually growling with hunger throughout the entire course, which was distracting to me. Although I didn't cramp or get unusually fatigued or anything, I don't like to be very hungry while I'm racing. A bowl of oatmeal and a cup of coffee would have been really good that morning. The swim also kind of sank the rest of my race. If I had not expended so much physical and mental energy literally floundering in the middle of the water, I would probably have started off the bike on the right foot, and had a much better race. But then again, this was my first tri. Although I didn't really perform as well as I wished, I had an awesome time once I was out of the water, and I can't wait to put what I learned into practice for the next race! Event comments: Despite how I feel about my performance in this race, I had a really great time at my first tri. The surroundings were absolutely idyllic. It was really nice to ride my bike through the beautiful rolling countryside, and run through lakeside woods -- I don't usually get to experience such lovely places! The goodie bag was pretty nice -- I have a really nice technical race T-shirt, and a cute little zipper pull. I hope that Piranha puts this event on again, because I had a fabulous time, and I would really like to come back next year. Last updated: 2009-05-06 12:00 AM
|
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
View profile
Add to friends
Go to training log
Go to race log
Send a message
View album
CONNECT WITH FACEBOOK
United States
Piranha Sports
75F / 24C
Overcast
Overall Rank = 69/84
Age Group = F 25-29
Age Group Rank = 5/5
I wouldn't call my pre-race routine 'optimal.' We camped out in the state park where the event was held. The weather was beautiful that evening, until just as I was getting my gear ready for the race, and my husband had gone to the campsite bathroom. At that point, the skies opened up and it poured down rain! I was running around putting plastic bags on various parts of my bike, sealing the tent's rainfly up, and trying to get anything that could be damaged by water into the car, while trying to deal with a terrified dog. We didn't really get a very restful night's sleep, due to the water in our tent, the minor downhill slope of our campsite, and the writhing of the dog, who kept pushing us off the air mattress in his efforts to physically contact both of us all over the entire length of his body.
The next morning, we were running around at 4:30 AM, in the pitch-dark, trying to get all my gear together for the race. I got my timing chip and got body-marked by an exuberant Girl Scout troop, and got my bike into transition about 15 minutes before transition shut down, at 6:30 AM. Foolishly, I only brought 1 pair of running shoes, and my other shoes were still waterlogged from the night before. So I ended up wandering around barefoot until 8 AM, when my wave started.
If you are reading this and wondering about pre-race nutrition, you are very right to wonder. That is because I forgot to eat breakfast. I scarfed down a couple bananas and some water at about 7 AM, and then spent an hour whining about the unavailability of coffee.
This was another problem for me. My bike was locked in transition, as was the only pair of running shoes I had brought. Since the half-iron wave went off an hour before my wave, we could not use the beach area for a swimming warmup. I wandered around barefoot in the grass with my dog, and did some squatting and kicking motions in an effort to get some minimal warmth and circulation into my cold muscles.