BigSkiesMentorGroup - COMPLETE! (Page 31)

Canon - Good luck with your race - have fun above all.

Denise

Steve,

I'm trying to come up with a realistic run pace for Racine.

Recent paces:

9:34 - 3 miles (This was part of a brick following a 16 mile bike)

9:55 - 6.2 miles (Buffalo Olympic - hot and one BIG hil)

10:30 - 13.1 miles (Felt like I could run longer - flat course - not hot)

Based on these, I was thinking of trying 10:30 pace, ending up with 11:00 pace overall (hills or walks thru aid stations).  However, when I look at Racine results from last year, an 11:00 pace ranked 1037/1657.  No way would I rank that high.  However, from reading the race reports from last year, the temp was brutally high.  When I look at the 2009 results (Spirit of Racine), an 11:00 pace ranked 1025/1180.  That seems like a reasonable rank for me.

So, what do you think?

Denise

It sounds like everyone is doing lots of racing and having lots of fun.  I just got back from my sprint race in St. George, UT.  It was a really pretty course, and a great little tri.  It was my first open water swim.  It went pretty well, the water was pretty warm, 64 degrees, and much to my delight I did not come out of the water dizzy and staggering to my bike.  The bike course was generally downhill with only a few climbs, LOVED it!  I felt like a rock star on the bike, was 10th overall for women after T2, then I did my typical slug run.  I still improved my run time by almost 4 minutes (that just tells you how slow I run the third leg).  However it was still disappointing because four women in my age group passed me the last half of the run.  My husband, who was unable to participate in the race due to recent knee surgery, in now on a mission to improve my run time.  He is a pretty good 5k runner and is now planning my run training.  Yikes, I'm a little scared... but it's nice to know he cares!   He thinks I should be running at least 4 times a week with one day being distance, one sprint day (i.e. 400's) and two middle-ish distance days (1/2 miles).  I am open to any suggestions that you all might have to improve 5k times.  This season I am not doing anything longer than sprints, my goal is to get faster and be competitive at that distance before I go longer. 

Good luck to everyone,

Jessica

Thanks for the encouragement and the runners world website, I will definately check that out! 

Jessica

Thanks Steve-

It was certainly good to go to Placid, that place is like Wonderland - everyone is active it seems!

What do you think about placement at the start of the swim?  I have two thoughts:

1) stay at the back, wait like, 1 min for the yahoos to get ahead of me, then go.  Really, what is 1 minute in 15 hours of racing?

2) go far right and angle in to the buoys.  Try to be on the outside of the fray.  

The run is going to be brutal, I know that for sure.  You did Placid 2x right?

Speaking of brutal, that 2nd loop of the bike isn't going to be a picnic - especially near whiteface!

29 days.

FREAKING OUT! 

Hey Jessica,

Congrat's on your recent race (you were a "rockstar")!!

Regarding advise about improving run times..... I'm not a great runner by any means so take what I say with a grain of salt but here are simple concepts that helped me improve my running endurance and pace.  They have nothing to do with intervals, fartleks, tempo runs, running plans, etc...  Simple concepts but hard to do.

1) The 1st suggestion is not specific for you but for most AGer's it's important to get the weight off.  For me this was the "biggest" issue (pardon the pun).  I still struggle with getting that last 10 pounds off but it made a huge difference in my run performance when I dropped weight.

2) Run more often.  Might sound silly but it really works for me.  During the XMAS holidays we were out of town for an extended period of time and all I could do was run.  So that is what I did.  Run.  Everyday.  Not fast, not hard, not particularily long everyday.  Just good aerobic runs.  My run fitness and pace improved a great deal.  Swim and bike suffered a bit but run got better.  In fact, I'm struggling now to get my run fitness back to the level it was at the beginning of the year.  Some people do challenges like 30 runs in 30 days.

3) Patience.  It takes a long time to develop your run potential.  I've been told that it will take 10 years for me to develop my run (probably not what you wanted to hear).  Perhaps Steve could chime in here.....  But, our leader is an exceptional runner.  He is out there on the "pointy edge"  (ie... the really fast guys).  I could be wrong Steve but I think you have be doing tri's for a good 10 years and prior to starting triathlons I believe you mentioned that you had a running background.  It takes time so don't get frustrated and stick with it.

Belated response to your post but thanks Denise.  I took Steve's advise and had my kids get me a race entry for Father Day.  Great gift idea (much better than a new shirt)!!!

Wow Veronica.  That is nuts but looks like so much fun.

Enjoy your vacation Lisa.

Hey Mandy.  Make sure you let us know you bib number for IMLP.  Love to see you run across the finish line on Ironman live.

Veronica,

I bet you got a run down Mt. Marathon lined up for Lisa!!! 

No, but I was working on it.  Thank goodness we were there for only 3 days.

Golden Gate Triathlon 2011 Sprint Distance Race Report.

Swim        20:26          Rank 3

T1            5:43            Rank 12

Ride         1:04:55       Rank 10

Run         31:57           Rank 7

Overall (M35 and over)  14/31

Division M35-39  7/11

Swim – Felt good.  I was a little tired coming out of the water, but not much.  I actually could have been faster.  I had sighting issues and ended up making two legs of the swim longer than they should have.  I’m sure I lost about 3+ minutes there.  I think my tiredness came from pushing to correct for my sighting issues.

T1 – I have no idea what the heck happened there.  I do, but it didn’t feel like 5 minutes.  Quite honestly, this is down right embarrassing.  I think I knew the bike was going to be a beast and wanted to be prepared for it and in doing so, took to much time (Gel, clean socked feet, etc).  Even still – I gotta cut 2 min of that time next time.  Lesson:  test time the transition and getting out of the wet suit and cut out everything that is not necessary (duh – can you tell I’m not happy about this).

Ride – It was what I knew it was going to be.  3 laps about 500 feet of elevation change twice per lap going up and over a hill.  Having a 25+ year old bike really hurt.  I have the old 126 mm rear end and not enough gears to make climbing easy or efficient.  I also may not have been hydrated enough as I started to cramp on lap 2 and worried about that the rest of the ride.  Lesson: I just have to ride more to get faster because a new bike is not in my immediate future.

 Note: there were two transition areas, one for T1 and another for T2.  Strangely, there is no time for T2…

 Run – It took me about 1 – 1.5 miles to be able to run with any pace.  The beginning of the run is all up hill – with even a set of stairs.  My back was killing me and I had to walk for a bit of it.  I think this was a core and hydration issue.  Once that passed, I was running at decent clip.  Running on the Golden Gate Bride was nice.  Once I hit the turn around (half way) I was moving pretty good.  One guy passed me and then I managed to pass him back and keep him behind me the rest of the way.  He ended up 4 sec behind me.  Lesson: work on core strength and stay more hydrated before the race.

Overall, this was a well run race on the part of trifreaks.  If anyone is looking for a good (and hard) triathlon in the bay area – consider this one.  Just be sure to study the elevation changes and prepare for them.  I think they are getting better at putting this on every year and this year didn’t seem to have the problems that prior years had (getting the ebb and flow in the bay wrong, having only 1 transition area so you had to run ¾ of a mile to T1, etc.)  Personally, I have mixed emotions about my performance.  I’m glad I finished, and it went pretty much as I expected (minus the T1, cramping and slow performance at the start of the run).  I knew the bike was going to be a beast and it was.  I knew I would be near the front of the pack coming out of the water and there was little I could do to keep that position on the ride.  Honestly, I was hoping to be at or under 1 hour for the ride and just at or under 2 hours for the total pace.  The most annoying thing is that I know where I left it on the track and I own all of that.  The up side is new bike or not, I’ll be back next year and when I look at the times of the people who will be in my division next year – I’m aiming for (and believe I can reach) the top of the chart!

Lastly, I'm really glad my family was there to support me.  It was cool seeing my wife and kids before the swim, on the bike and looking for them at the end of the run.  Getting up at o'dark thirty wasn't fun for them but they did it for me and I'm glad they did.

Now, on to my next sprint in September (where I can prepare a really efficient T1) in Pleasanton, Ca (and where there should be a lot less hills than SF).

Canon

Just a quick check in on the public computer in the lobby. We are having a great time in the Yukon. Rented bikes yesterday and one in our party through a chain and ended up with 10 stitches. Luckily, someone gave him a ride back into town and to the hospital. Perfect weather. I'll have to check up on the posts and races later.

LISA (in Whitehorse enroute today to Beaver Creek through Haines)