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 Swim
Comments: I was in the 6th wave and the waves were about 40 people per wave. I was a little nervous about swimming without a wetsuit. It was the first race of any distance that I've done without a wetsuit. I thought I got off to a pretty good start. I didn't get bumped very much and I made it around the first bouy in good shape. I noticed that I was falling behind the main group and was drifting to the left. Usually I curve right, so that was unusual. For the whole race, I did my normal zig-zag. I felt pretty good during the race but looking at the results, I was 5 minutes slower than my best time for this distance. I don't know if I didn't push hard enough or what. What would you do differently?: Looking back at my training records, I hadn't done any long (3000+ yard) swims since May. Need to ensure that I mix in long swims. Turned out to be my worst swim in any race I've done.  Transition 1
Comments: It was a long run from the beach to the transition area. I ended up walking part of it because I didn't want a high HR for the start of the bike. I moved quickly once I got to my bike but obviously was slow as I was next to last in T1 time for my age group What would you do differently?: I don't think anything  Bike
Comments: This was one hard bike course. It was either up hill or down hill, hardly any flats. It was a little bigger than rolling hills. On only a couple of hills could you get up enough speed to carry you to the top. Usually it was a grind to the top. As usual, I sucked on the down hills. I only weigh 145 and don't carry much speed down the hill. There were 4 or 5 people, I would pass going up the hill and they would pass me on the downhill. I felt like I was climbing pretty well. This was the most disappointing part of the race. I had rode over 400 miles in the previous month and expected to do better. I still ended up next to last in my age group. I couldn't really tell during the race because I came out of the water behind everyone. Also, during the race, I thought I was doing well because I was passing people on the hills but thinking back on it, it was mostly women from the wave in front of me in the swim. I felt I was pushing the pace and climbed great but obviously I suck on the bike. Looking at the results, there were obviously a lot of fast people at this race but I saw some crazy riding during the bike. No drafting, but a lot of people riding on the left, stopping to pick up stuff, passing on the right, etc. What would you do differently?: I don't know but what I've been doing, isn't working. Maybe put 25lb weights at the top of all the hills before the race. Use them to help with the downhills Transition 2
Comments: A pretty smooth transition. The first thing I did right during the race. 9 out of 14 for age group What would you do differently?: Nothing  Run
Comments: This was one tough run. It was hard to get in a rhythm at the beginning. Coming off the bike and then having to keep changing your stride to avoid obstacles, made for a hard run. It was also hard to pass people, as the trail was narrow. This was a very slow pace for me. I'm not sure what happened besides the difficulty of the course. I was dying going up the steep hill near the end of the first loop. I wasn't sure what was going to happen on the second loop. I chugged past the loop line and saw my family. Both my kids looked at me like, "Would you hurry up. It's hot and I'm bored." I did feel better on the second loop and picked up the pace. I passed quite a few people but by then it was mostly people walking. The run was my best event of the day but 6 minutes slower than my last Oly run and the run was only 6 miles, not 6.2. What would you do differently?: I don't know Post race
Warm down: I finished, looked for my family and drank a bunch of water. This is a small race and they didn't have much for after race activities. Ate some cookies and drank more water. It was starting to get hot and one of my Gu's had leaked in my shirt, so I jumped under one of the outdoor showers by the beach. What limited your ability to perform faster: I've been thinking about this all week. I think it was a combination of things. I spent the whole spring training for a 1/2 IM, concentrating on staying in zone 2. I've done little speed or zone 4 training, so when I needed it for a shorter race, it wasn't there. I also had put in 3 hard weeks before the race and should have tapered more. Of course, I could just suck at this distance. Who knows. Also, this was one fast group of athletes. For my age group, 7 of the 14 finished in under 2:45 on a tough course on a hot day. The top two finished in the top 10 overall and under 2:30. That's fast for the 45-49 age group. I need to reevaluate my race strategy. I have to learn to push into and hold zone 4. I've spent too much time conserving energy and keeping my HR down. I think I was a little burned out for this race and raced at training pace. Time to get fired up, push hard and not be afraid to flame out. Send my kids to jock strap school. They need to learn how to cheer and pretend to be excited. Event comments: This is a small local race with very few frills. They had just enough volunteers but they did their job and the race went fine. The swag was limited but they did have a bottle exchange on the ride. First time I've seen that on an Oly course. The course was hard and I hadn't trained correctly for the bike or run. As this is one of the few Olys close to my house in July, I might do this race again. An OK race but nothing special Last updated: 2006-08-04 12:00 AM
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United States
Set-Up Inc.
85F / 29C
Sunny
Overall Rank = 100/153
Age Group = 45-49
Age Group Rank = 11/14
This was the first race that my family went to the race with me. We drove down to Charlottesville Saturday morning. After picking up my race packet, we spent the afternoon at Monticello, Thomas Jefferson's house. For the non-Americans, TJ wrote the Declaration of Independance, was the 3rd President of the United States and stole most of the current US from France with the Louisana Purchase. His house is pretty cool because he was a cutting edge user of technology. This let us see what was "in" during the early 1800s. It was good for a one time visit but not worth the cost and time for mulitple visits. After the tour, we stopped for some Italian food and then off to the hotel. Took the kids to the pool and then off to bed. My wife took me to the race and then went back to the hotel. They came back to watch the end of the race.
I got to the race site and set up for the race. This is a small local race put on by the local tri club. It was semi-organized and they were still setting up until about 10 minutes before the race. The racks weren't numbered and it was a total free-for-all. I think this was the way races were back when they first started tris. Looking around, I was surprised at how few beginners were at the race. It was mostly hard core tri club people. I didn't see any mountain bikes. They announced no wetsuits, as the water was almost 90 degrees. So, I got in and swam a couple hundred yards. It was like bath water. I got out and waited for my wave, which was next to last.