login
 Swim
Comments: This swim start is pretty visually intimidating, 1/2 mile straight out is a long way! I've come a long way with my swimming, because unlike last year, I wasn't really even nervous for this. Now I haven't been doing a ton of swimming lately so I wasn't quite sure what to expect. First 200 yards or so I swam to the outside like I usually do and just took it easy, then I pretty much put it in cruise control the rest of the way. I thought navigation might be challenging as there were only 2 buoys in addition to the turn-around. But someone had the awesome idea of wrapping the buoy line in colorful foam noodles. I'm a bilateral swimmer, so every time I turned left to breathe on the way out and right on the way back, I just used the noodles to sight. I don't think I lifted my head the entire swim. It was really a pretty uneventful swim, I probably could have gone a little harder but oh well. I did forget to kick hard to get blood flowing back into my legs toward the end of the swim, so running up the boat ramp was pretty tough. What would you do differently?: Push the pace a bit harder early on, kick toward the end so my legs didn't feel like jello coming out of the water.  Transition 1
Comments: I'm always slow in T1, so this was really no exception. I got the suit off pretty easily, and didn't really have any issues, I was just slow. This will be an area of focus for me for next season, I just lose too much time here. I can't stand riding without socks, so that definitely costs me some time. What would you do differently?: Get faster...  Bike
Comments: I kind of had the home-course advantage here, as I used these roads pretty oftem to prepare for the Pigman HIM. The first 7 miles or so were pretty fast with the tailwind. The area around the out-and-back is not protected at all from the wind, so it tends to be pretty windy there. I knew coming back would suck a little because of this, but it really wasn't too bad. After the turn on to Dunkerton Road, the pavement is pretty rough asphalt, so that didn't feel great on the old undercarriage. The two largest "hills" on the course are in this area, and I pounded up them aero. The rest of the ride was pretty uneventful, other than the small patch of torn up road near mile 18. I stayed to the left, where the pavement wasn't in too bad of shape. I got back into the park and really hammered in back into transition. What would you do differently?: Not much...my bike endurance and speed is not quite where it was for Pigman due to the lack of training time caused by the days getting shorter. So I was ok with this effort. Transition 2
Comments: Got off the bike and ran to my rack. My friend has the exact same wetsuit I do, and they were draped over the bike rack right next to each other, so I was confused for a second where to rack my bike. Some one decided to throw their crap all over my transition area, so it took a few seconds to kick their crap out of the way and get my stuff. Pretty quick transition for me though. What would you do differently?: Learn the flying dismount of the bike, not get crap thrown all over my transition.  Run
Comments: I made the decision early on to go out as if this were a sprint race and see if I could sustain that pace, given I knew the course was not too tough. First few miles were low-to-mid 6 min/mi. I felt pretty good and kept pushing to the turnaround, passing a few people on the way. Turned around and kept the pace up for the most part until the uphill grade near mile 5. I slowed a bit at that point, but picked it back up to finish strong. What would you do differently?: Nothing, this is pretty much as fast as I can run a 10k. Post race
Warm down: Drank some water, stretched, had a banana, saw my friend finish, checked the results and realized I would not be getting AG hardware today. Man this was a strong field...I had a sandwich and some chips, packed up, and headed out. What limited your ability to perform faster: Lack of training on the bike, genetics, lack of trust in my swimming ability. Event comments: Thanks to the great volunteers as always! They really are the ones that make these events possible. Last updated: 2009-09-28 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
USA Triathlon/Perigrine Charities
68F / 20C
Sunny
Overall Rank = 25/107
Age Group = M25-29
Age Group Rank = 4/10
Last race of the season for me. It's been a good year, so I wanted to finish it off with a good effort. This is my hometown race, so it was nice to not have to travel for once. I picked up the race packet Saturday afternoon...no free meal this year, bummer! I'm originally from Pennsylvania, so the Penn State vs. Iowa game was pretty appealing to me Saturday night. Luckily, or unluckily, Penn State decided to stink it up in the second half, so I was able to get to bed a little earlier than I had planned. I got a good and very restful 7 hours of sleep the night before. I love how pre-race nerves are no longer a factor in my sleeping now. Got up around 5:30, ate some oatmeal, drank some powerade, and made the 10 min. drive to the race site. I set up transition next to my friend Ryan, talked for a bit, and attempted to not freeze my a$$ off. I'm not usually one to complain about being cold, but something about this morning, probably the breeze, had me feeling really cold. Visited the portajohns and got my wetsuit on and got ready to race.
Nothing at all, couldn't bring myself to get in the water then back into the chilly air. The first 200 yards or so of the swim would have to be my warmup...