login
 Swim
Comments: I had not been in the water before my wave went off. THe water was colder than I expected and it shocked me a little. Took me a bit of time to get my bearings and I stopped and stood up. (about 1/2 of the course you can walk) I swam as much as I could. The last 100 yards lots of people were walking as I was swimming. It is a swim damn it, not a walk, people. What would you do differently?: try to suck just a little bit less. Apparently training may help this. I would not know.  Transition 1
Comments: Took advantage of the wetsuit strippers (ok that sounds kind of wrong) who were kind of tired after 22 waves ( nothing worse than a tired stripper...ok I'll stop now) Had trouble getting on wet socks. Should have skipped those. What would you do differently?: no socks  Bike
Comments: Well I figured it was a sprint I would just go hard. The first big hill was hard, but not fast. My mile average was 11.5. Ok that won't cut it. So I pushed harder. At about mile three, I thought it might be a good time to set a goal. I have never broke 20 mph average in a race, so that was my goal. I was behind from the beginning, but I just pushed. I mean what is the distance for this leg? 15 miles right. About mile 10 I realized that the distance was probably not 15, I remembered that the race director likes long bike rides. So it is probably 20. At mile 20, I realized it was not a 20 mile course. Didn't really matter because I still felt good. At mile twenty it was a little over an hour and knew that I had still not hit my goal and probably wouldn't, but I kept the hammer down. After the race, I would find that I didn't hit my goal, but I had somehow hit a new PR pace for the bike. How did that happen? I'm not really sure. What would you do differently?: not sure. PR is a good thing Transition 2
Comments: not bad. not too much goofing off  Run
Comments: Well this is my strong suit so I should really kill it. Wrong. I figured that to get a half way decent pace I would have to run up the big hill. My pace when I got up to the top was about 8:20. Only one problem, I was breathing so heavy that I got a bad stitch at top of the hill and had to stop to slow down my breathing. So my first mile pace was about 9:15. Then I picked it up. I wanted to pick up more, but the trail slowed me down a bit. Then I got to go down the hill and kicked up my pace more. Then I noticed my HR was at about 180 (max rate for a race is usually about 175) Last tenth of a mile pace was down to 6:30 and as a bonus my heart kept working. What would you do differently?: get the lead out Post race
Warm down: Had some pasta at 9:30 What limited your ability to perform faster: no speed work for months Event comments: While I was bummed that I didn't do the HIM, I think it turned out to be the right decision. Overall the race was a positive experience and I have gotten a bit of a fire burning to race again. That is a good thing! Last updated: 2011-06-20 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
Midwest Sports Events
72F / 22C
Sunny
Overall Rank = 176/450
Age Group = M45-49
Age Group Rank = 19/31
Well this story takes us back to the end of last season. After completing six seasons, I think I was starting to suffer from a little triathlon burnout. Usually after a few months I start getting the itch to get back, but this off season it never really came. I was improving in my running and just enjoying that. All off season it was a struggle to put time on the bike and in the pool. So my plan was to just do a few sprints this season. Then I found out that I earned a free registration fee from Midwest sports. So my cheap side got the best of me. If I did the High Cliff HIM, that would be the most expensive race so my free entry would be a really good deal. Plus I figured my desire to go long would come back eventually. Fast forward to mid May. I was wrong, the desire had not come back. My swim and bike training were seriously behind schedule. I considered shifting down to the sprint. Instead I crammed my training. In the span of three weeks I crammed in two 50 mile rides and a 40 miler. I crammed in a couple of nearly-race distance OWS. Then Race week, I went on vacation to Florida. I walked a lot in the blazing hot. I arrived home at midnight two days before race day. I was completely beat. The next day I was too tired to drive the two hour ride to Appleton, so I got the bright Idea to get up at 3am and drive up race morning. I was going back and forth on whether I would do the HIM or sprint. I knew deep down I was not prepared for the longer distance. I woke up at 3 on race morning and finally got out the door about 3:45. I was really exhausted. After two hours of driving I was really, really exhausted and I felt just plain crappy. As I pulled in to park I made the decision that doing the 1/2 would be a stupid idea on this day and would result in lots of suffering. To salvage my interest in Tris, I needed to have a positive experience.
Well after messing around to switch races and setting up transition I didn't have much time for anything before transition got closed. Didn't even get a chance to wish Tammy and Patrick good luck.
Then I waited...a...long...time. Because I switched I got put in wave 22, the last wave.