The Great Adventure - closed and ready to go. (Page 10)

triat45 - 2009-06-22 9:35 AM

Scott,
This is sunny (and sweltering hot) Florida.  No wet suits allowed! For all the races during the late-spring and summer, the water is normally warm enough where USAT prohibits wet suit use. It got to 100 yesterday, which is another reason I started at 7AM. I do like your idea of layering it and having it underneath, but unfortunately that's not applicable here. I guess I'll practice doing it more -my wife suggested rolling the jersey up from the bottom(while setting up transition) and then putting it on and simply unrolling it, but that sounded way too easy so I'll have to try it.  

stiga00 - 2009-06-29 7:14 AM

http://beginnertriathlete.com/discussion/forums/thread-view.asp?tid=166774

Well I had my first race this weekend!!! it went very well all things considered.  the race report is listed above.  I am happy with my performance I accomplished both of my goals.  I finished with a smile and never walked during the run course which was a really tough hilly run.  I was really pleased with my bike time at 39:39 for 12 miles.  O and scott great idea on the socks just wipped them off after the swim and clean feet! great suggestion.  Hard to believe six months ago I was only able to walk for 20 minutes.  I love going back and looking at my training log in january and feburary and seeing all the growth. 

triat45 - 2009-07-08 9:47 AM

Scott & everyone,
Wow- everyone seems to be doing pretty well. Doug- excellent job on your Tri! I've got my first race this Saturday, and I'm psyched. Although I looked at the forecast, and it doesnt look too good. Anyone know what they do when the weather is bad? I've heard people talking about cancelling parts of the race, mostly the bike or swim, for weather related reasons, but I was curious as to what anyone else has heard.
As far as the shirt dilemma, I took Scotts advice on the 'practice as you're going to race' and rolled up my cycling jersey and it made it easier to get on even when I was wet from the swim. So I've been doing that and it's worked out well.

-Evan

BobJ123 - 2009-07-08 9:47 PM

It's been a while since I've posted. I've been busy. Fortunately, a lot of that has been running, biking, swimming. Two weeks ago I rode in the MS 150. That gave me about ten hours in the saddle over two days. My butt had had it by the time I was done! I was a bit under trained, having never ridden more than 53 miles (and that had just been the previous Saturday), but the ride was extremely well supported and fortunately mostly flat.

Then this past weekend I decided I hadn't been running enough, so I signed up for a July 4th four mile run. I had never run four miles, I think the furthest I had gone was about 3.5. My goal going in was to run 10:30s, so 42:00 minutes. I banged it out in 40:54.  10:30ish for the first mile, 10:30ish for the second, 10:00ish for the 3rd and 9:50ish for the final mile.  Yay for negative splits.

And for this weekend's fun, I've signed up for "Tri the Creek" sprint tri, 800m swim, 12 mile bike, 5k run.  Hopefully, the wetsuit I ordered gets to me.  I sent it to work, but didn't put my company's name on the shipping info and the mailroom told me the UPS guy won't even bring it in.  Oh well, not sure I want to swim in a wetsuit for the first time in a race.  The water temp of the lake is supposedly 70-75.  Oh, I haven't gotten around to an open water swim yet either.  So much for nothing new on race day.  lol.

- Bob

triat45 - 2009-07-09 5:58 AM

All,
Any suggestions for a good 'night before the race' meal idea? I've read that one shouldn't eat a meal high in fiber the night before the race, but beyond that I wasn't sure what was common or a good idea/bad idea. Part of me is thinking just have a protein shake and be sure to take in some extra extra fluids. Any ideas? My race is saturday morning, 7/11. I've got my race morning planned out (up at 4am to some cereal and skim milk, followed by some gatorade) and then have a gel about 15 mins prior to my wave starting. Starting to get that nervous/excited feeling. I think it'll hit me tomorrow after work when I pick up my race packet.

BobJ123 - 2009-07-10 1:18 PM

Some stupid questions before tomorrow's tri.
- Do you wet your hair before putting on a swim cap or do it dry?
- Any advice on getting out of a wetsuit quickly?
- Where do you put the wetsuit in the transition area?
- I rode the bike course last night, well, most of it, I made a wrong turn along the way.  There are some nasty cracks running across the road throughout the course.  What's the best way to handle this?  Try to bunny hop them?  Grit my teeth and ride through them?

I hope to at least get to the pool tonight to try out the wetsuit.  Depending on how that goes, I may go suitless.  How much time do you generally drop by wearing a wetsuit?  The race has an 800m swim that I anticipate will take me 18-20 minutes, but that is kind of a WAG.  I generally swim about 2:00-2:10 per 100 yds in a 25 yd pool.

BobJ123 - 2009-07-10 7:28 PM

Test drove the wetsuit at Y's pool.  Wow.  I feel zoomy.  I flew threw about 250 yds, my biggest issue was not crashing into the wall at the end.  Well, maybe not, but I definitely felt faster and it was pretty comfortable so I will be wearing it tomorrow.  It was also super easy to get out of (getting in was a different story, but that's not timed.).  It's an Xterra Vortex 3, btw.

holt1997 - 2009-07-10 9:03 PM Very good! Well I am anxious to hear how you do. Scott

BobJ123 - 2009-07-12 10:16 AM



Quick summary: it was awesome. I did much better than I thought I would, really hammering the bike and doing better on the run than I thought I would.  I felt like I biked and ran about as fast as I possibly could and left it all on the course.  I was on the verge of going into the red zone pretty much the whole time, feeling like if I pushed any harder I would end up puking.  My transitions could have been a little better, particularly T1, but they were still a lot smoother than my first tri a month ago, even with the wetsuit.  I beat at least two guys in my age group, since we had our bikes racked by age group so I could see I was ahead at the transitions and then I saw one of them during the run after I had turned around.  They told me afterward that they finished pretty close to each other. 

I'm not sure of my swim time because they aren't going to have the full rankings and split times posted until tomorrow, I have no idea why, since they had the time totals and the winners half an hour after the last racer finished.  So, all I know for sure is my total time was 1:28:52, and actually I'm not positive it was exactly :52 since my name was in the middle of the page I could have been looking at the time above or below mine.  But, it's in that neighborhood.  I have my own splits from the bike (38:57 for 12.53 miles) and run (26:08 for 2.6 miles).  So that leaves 24 minutes for the swim and transitions.  Given that they couldn't measure the bike or run courses accurately at all, I'm not sure how close to 800 yds the swim really was.  It felt longer, but not having done open water swims before I don't know.  Seriously though, how do you miss a 5k distance by .5 miles?  The first mile marker was exactly 1.0 on my GPS, the second mile marker was at 1.6.  Basically, it was an out & back course and the turnaround was a quarter of a mile too soon.  But, I'm not complaining, I was cooked by the end anyway.

The wetsuit worked great, I think the swim would have completely freaked me out without it.  It was so nice to be able to just float for a couple seconds periodically.  I got in the lake a few minutes early to see what it was going to be like.  I'm glad I did, since the near zero visibility took some getting used to.  I definitely have room for improvement in open water swimming, I was weaving a bunch and wasted a lot of time spotting the buoys.  But, I got through it and as i said was ahead of a chunk of my age group. 

Basically, I finished ahead of some people in the swim, passed a bunch on the bike, and got passed a bunch on the run.  But 10 minute miles were way above expectation for me.  Now I'm thinking I might make 30 minutes my goal for the 5k run in the Rattlesnake Tri next month.

I feel so-so today, my legs are pretty sore.  I am just going to go to the pool for a few laps and probably not get on the bike or do any running today.  Tomorrow is an off day and then it's back at it on Tuesday.

Update: Times are posted.  I finished 18/24 in my age group and 177/302 overall, which was a nice surprise.  I actually did best in the swim compared to my fellow competitors, 16/24.  Here are my splits:
Swim: 20:26.1 (16/24)
T1: 2:30.3
Bike 39:17.7 (17/24)
T2: 57.5
Run: 25:40.5 (21/24)
Total: 1:28:52 (18/24)

For comparison, the winner in my class had 1:05:26.  The fastest swim was 13:25, fastest bike 30:49, fastest run 15:24.

holt1997 - 2009-07-15 9:06 AM Nice work. Sounds like you had a good time and did well. Was the race what you expected? So what was the best part and what would you call a learning experience.