Subaru US Women's Triathlon Series - Naperville - TriathlonSprint


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Naperville, Illinois
United States
US Women's Triathlon Series
80F / 27C
Sunny
Total Time = 1h 28m 8s
Overall Rank = 164/1913
Age Group = F35-39
Age Group Rank = 39/408
Pre-race routine:

Got up around 3:45 to take a shower and get last minute stuff ready. By 4:30, Kim and I were ready to go and Ellen had already showed up. We stood around in my kitchen for a bit while I ate toast for breakfast and headed out around 4:45 to meet up with Jen and Jon at the library parking lot.
Event warmup:

Decided that even though I knew I'd be FREEZING afterwards, I would do a swim warmup. And I'm glad I did -- made me realize that they laid out the swim a little bit differently, and there was a choke point about 75m from the start line where I'd need to be ahead of at least SOME of the wave. Swam out to the first buoy and back -- maybe around 200m -- and felt good and smooth in the water. It was then that I KNEW I could rock this swim. That this year I was READY.

So - after the warm-up, I was absolutely FREEZING. Shivering uncontrollably freezing. And then, just as the elites were to start racing, the skies opened up and poured down and then the thunder and lightning came ... delayed the start by exactly an hour. Which was bad for me - I had eaten breakfast early, and even by the time I was starting the swim, my stomach was rumbling, I was so hungry.
Swim
  • 14m 11s
  • 750 meters
  • 01m 53s / 100 meters
Comments:

My best swim ever. By a huge margin, actually! Started outside towards the front and while I never had clear water, I just kept swimming. I sighted well (though not too much sighting is required here) and didn't let all the body contact bother me -- in my head, the fact that there were so many people around me just meant that I was still with my own wave! Which was very exciting for me. :)

As a former (!!) bad swimmer, this great swim buoyed me (heh) for the rest of the race (which didn't go nearly as well). One of my racing goals had been to hit a faster than 2:00/100m pace, and I cleared that by quite a bit. 1.5 minutes faster than my fastest time here, almost 2 minutes faster than last year.

Coming out of the water, I looked at my watch and was completely stoked to see SUCH a low time. I went in knowing I could do it, but with low expectations: no panic, strong stroke, under-control breathing. Hit on all these and came out of the water in good fashion.

Oh - and one of the other BEST things about this swim? When I came out of the water, there were my parents cheering for me!! While they support all my craziness, they have little to no interest in actually WATCHING me indulge in all this, so it meant a lot that they got up early to come out and see me race.
What would you do differently?:

At this race? Not a damn thing.
Transition 1
  • 03m 8s
Comments:

There is a long-ass run from the swim to the transition area (about 300m, so I hear) and then I was at the very far end of the transition area (by bike in and out, but as far away as possible from the swim in and run out). I don't think I could have done this transition a whole lot faster than I did, without substantially changing how I do things.
What would you do differently?:

At some point, I have to take the jump and race sockless -- that'll cut some time off this transition. I also need to master the flying mount, because I lose time running slowly with my bike shoes on.
Bike
  • 43m 35s
  • 14.2 miles
  • 19.55 mile/hr
Comments:

The bike was disappointing. I had really hoped to go sub-40 (though when I was thinking that, I didn't realize the course was longer this year) -- or at least average over 20mph. I hit the first loop exactly how I wanted to and didn't feel like I was pushing too hard. Got my gel in first thing, and was drinking every 5 minutes, but it didn't take too long before it felt like the gatorade was in my throat, practically, so I switched to just water. The second lap, I saw Ellen starting her first lap, chatted with her for a few seconds and then took off. And then sometime after that, I totally lost focus and slowed down -- just tired, and it got windy and not so good. Then - Ellen caught up with me again, kind of snapped me out of the mental demons I was battling, and got me going again. But - the damage was done by that time.
What would you do differently?:

Not sure. I'm sure the delayed start impacted me here -- not enough calories to be racing that hard (I know you're supposed to be able to do a sprint on essentially no nutrition, but I'm not one of those people). But in the end, I just lost focus. Let my fatigue get in the way of pushing hard. Lesson learned.
Transition 2
  • 01m 34s
Comments:

Again - not too much I would do differently here. When I racked my bike, my back tire was resting on one of my running shoes, but that cost me maybe 5 seconds. Did better at putting on my running shoes, and just grabbing the hat and race belt and putting them on while moving.
What would you do differently?:

Nada.
Run
  • 25m 41s
  • 3.11 miles
  • 08m 16s  min/mile
Comments:

This run absolutely sucked. I had no legs under me from the very beginning -- had a hard time pushing through. My first mile was really slow -- 8:50 -- and even though I felt like I had really picked up the pace, my second mile was only marginally better at 8:37. Took a gel first thing, and that was good, but I didn't have nearly enough to drink on the course, I don't think. From the outset, I was struggling -- my shoulder hurt (I don't know - when I run hard and am tired, I get a really bad pain in my shoulder/neck... probably too tense, even though I was very aware of relaxing and keeping my shoulders down) and I'm sure my HR was z4/z5. The third mile was fast -- 7:22 -- which makes me believe that it HAS to be short, because there's just no way I was going that fast. Didn't even have much of a kick for the last .1, which means that at least I left it all out on the course.
What would you do differently?:

Again, not sure. Was it nutrition? The heat? Pushing too hard on the bike? This run has always been good to me, so I just really don't know what happened.
Post race
Warm down:

Saw my parents on the final stretch, and then located them at the finish area. Because I went out first, I was able to wait and see everyone else finish. YAY! First Jen came in, and then Ellen... we stood around talking to Jon and my parents and then made our way to find some lunch.

What limited your ability to perform faster:

Race delay. Not sure what else. Perhaps it just wasn't my day out there... but, overall, my swim and transitions were spot on.

Event comments:

I LOVE this race. Great first race of the season since it's local and all women and FLAT. It's a GREAT race for first-timers, too. About my only complaint (and the only reason I won't give it a "5") is that there's always a huge line to get back into transition to get bikes. Seems that they should be able to make that better. But - we still have to consider that they're letting us back in and there are still people racing! so - I guess they're trying not to flood the transition area with people who might get in the way.




Last updated: 2008-03-24 12:00 AM
Swimming
00:14:11 | 750 meters | 01m 53s / 100meters
Age Group: 0/408
Overall: 0/1913
Performance: Good
Suit: one-piece Javelin tri suit
Course: Like an "M" with an extra hump. Deep on the far ends, 3.5' on the shallow ends and most women will walk here.
Start type: Wade Plus: Waves
Water temp: 77F / 25C Current:
200M Perf. Good Remainder: Good
Breathing: Good Drafting: Below average
Waves: Navigation: Good
Rounding: Average
T1
Time: 03:08
Performance: Good
Cap removal: Good Helmet on/
Suit off:
Wetsuit stuck? Run with bike: Yes
Jump on bike: No
Getting up to speed: Bad
Biking
00:43:35 | 14.2 miles | 19.55 mile/hr
Age Group: 0/408
Overall: 0/1913
Performance: Average
Wind: Some
Course: Essentially two loops around Naperville. Roads were in decent condition, though showing a little wear after the rough winter we had. There's a stretch on 75th where they have just one lane cordoned off for us (and traffic in the other lane) and that can be challenging with newbie riders hanging too far left, especially since there's a downhill that you really want to be gathering speed on. Also - they lengthened the course -- 14.2 rather than 13.8 miles. Not a huge difference, but I wish I would have known to realize that my final bike time -- slower than last year by 2 minutes -- wasn't completely comparable to last year. Oh - and with the new course, they had a timing mat to ensure that people did two loops -- at that timing mat, they had bikers down to single file. Not smart - pretty dangerous area.
Road: Smooth Wet Cadence:
Turns: Good Cornering: Average
Gear changes: Average Hills:
Race pace: Hard Drinks: Not enough
T2
Time: 01:34
Overall: Good
Riding w/ feet on shoes Good
Jumping off bike Good
Running with bike Good
Racking bike Average
Shoe and helmet removal Good
Running
00:25:41 | 03.11 miles | 08m 16s  min/mile
Age Group: 0/408
Overall: 0/1913
Performance: Below average
Course: A big rectangle around Naperville. Some shade in the beginning part, but not too much overall. Some rolling hills, but mostly flat.
Keeping cool Average Drinking Not enough
Post race
Weight change: %
Overall: Good
Mental exertion [1-5] 3
Physical exertion [1-5] 4
Good race? Ok
Evaluation
Course challenge Just right
Organized? Yes
Events on-time? Yes
Lots of volunteers? Yes
Plenty of drinks? Yes
Post race activities:
Race evaluation [1-5] 4