Gulf Coast Triathlon (Page 2)
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Gulf Coast Triathlon - Triathlon1/2 Ironman
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Swim
Comments: Slower than last year by almost 2 minutes and 4 minutes off my target time. Given the conditions I will take it. That was by far the roughest swim I have ever done at GCT and this was my 5th time doing the race. I thought that it would be better once we got out past the breakers, but it was just one swell after another and constant up and down. Swam almost the entire time with J22 so that was one less person to reel in during the bike. What would you do differently?: Nothing really, I don't feel like this swim is an accurate reflection of how hard I have trained in the pool this year. It is more a function of the conditions. Transition 1
Comments: In and out, this includes the run up from the beach. What would you do differently?: Nothing. AG Rank: 29/169 Bike
Comments: 2 minutes slower than last year and 5 minutes slower than my target time. Again I think that this was more a function of the conditions than a reflection of my bike fitness. Comparing training data from last year and this year it shows quantifiable improvement, so I don't think that I was under or improperly trained. I also had the added incentive of chasing all of my fellow NAMCers that started before me. Caught Heather right before the turn around, Kraig right after the turn, caught Greg next and he hung with me for awhile which was cool. My bike computer died at mile 5 so I did some mental calculations and figured that I had to hit each 5 mile marker every 13 minutes to stay on pace.This worked out fine until the turn around at mile 30 where I dropped a minute between miles 30 and 35, and then 2 more minutes between 35 and 40. After that I HTFU and only dropped 2 minutes over the next 16 miles. What would you do differently?: Get a new battery for my computer before the race. It had been flickering so it is my own fault that it died. Transition 2
Comments: Perfect transition. AG rank:12/169 What would you do differently?: Nothing. Run
Comments: 7 minute improvement from last year but still 13 minutes slower than my target time. I came off the bike feeling great as you can see from the first few miles. After hitting mile 1 in sub-7 I thought that it was going to be a banner day and sub 5 was going to happen. I finally caught Courtney at Mile 2, she looked strong and I could tell she was having a great race. Had the cloud cover stayed for 10 more minutes I would be writing this as a sub 5 finisher. Unfortunately the clouds moved out and the run course became an incinerator. I couldn't cool off as much as I tried. Since I was taking my splits at each mile I didn't have my total time up on the watch, I finally clicked over at Mile 11 to see where I was and knew that I really had to pick it up over the last 2.1 to go sub 5. At that point I pushed as hard as I had left, but it just wasn't enough. Mile 1: 6:41 Avg HR 165/Max HR 170 Mile 2: 7:25 Avg HR 166/Max HR 169 Mile 3: 7:27 Avg HR 167/Max HR 169 Mile 4: 7:51 Avg HR 167/Max HR 172 Mile 5: 8:19 Avg HR 164/Max HR 170 Mile 6: 7:51 Avg HR 167/Max HR 171 Mile 7: 9:28 Avg HR 161/Max HR 169 Mile 8: 8:29 Avg HR 166/Max HR 171 Mile 9: 8:36 Avg HR 166/Max HR 171 Mile 10: 7:59 Avg HR 168/Max HR 171 Mile 11: 8:58 Avg HR 166/Max HR 170 Mile 12: 9:23 Avg HR 164/Max HR 173 Mile 13.1: 12:32 Avg HR 170/Max HR 174 What would you do differently?: Maybe not back off at the beginning as much as I did. After running the first mile sub-7 I made a conscious decision to back off and slow down a little, had I known when the sun would come out and how hot it would eventually get I would have gone faster in the beginning. This is one of the few races where positive splitting the run isn't such a bad strategy. Since it gets hotter as the day goes on the faster you can go at the beginning of the run lets you "bank" some time for the inevitable slow down during the second half. Again I don't feel like this is an accurate reflection of my run fitness. I have been running my @ss off this year so I was a bit disappointed in this run. Post race
Warm down: I felt like I was going to bite it after crossing the finish line, I had a volunteer walk with me for a minute until I felt steady again. Walked back down to the NAMC tent to watch everyone finish. What limited your ability to perform faster: Honestly it was the conditions. The rough seas, windy bike, and heat on the run were the factors today. I felt like I was perfectly trained and tapered for this race and performed to the best of my ablilities. We have had atypical weather the past 3 years at this race with calm seas, virtually no wind on the bike, and a hot run, but not crazy hot. This year was payback for all of that and then some. I fell short of my target of 5 hours but I am pleased with the effort and I am not going to beat myself up over 1:33. Looking back I can find that time easily, but hindsight is 20/20. Big thanks to Jonathan22 and his 2 Mini-Me's for a great trip and congrats to Jonathan22, CourtneyM, KraigM, cornelius300, hblackmon, steamy, on a great race. Thank you to jlcornelius, ADollar79, and Marvarnett for their jockstrapping and moral support. Event comments: I love this race. It is the one that I do every year because of the fantastic job that they do putting the race on. That being said I think next year we are going to do White Lake for something a little different. Thoughts and prayers go out to the family of our fellow athlete that passed during the swim on Saturday. Last updated: 2008-01-22 12:00 AM
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United States
Gulf Coast Triathlon
85F / 29C
Sunny
Overall Rank = 137/1800
Age Group = M35-39
Age Group Rank = 29/169
Drove down with Jonathan22 and his girls on Thursday night. Tough trip after a long day at work, but we were glad to be there on Friday morning for an OWS and not feeling rushed all day. Waves were pretty big on Friday and so I wasn't expecting alot out of the swim Saturday morning. Checked in our bikes and had dinner with the NAMC crew then off to bed. Woke up at 3:45 to a coffee maker that wouldn't work (bad juju!) so we had to swing through Ronald's on the way to transition. My rack mate decided to have a yard sale with his Transition area so I politely asked him to move his stuff over under his rear wheel. Walked down to the beach and saw the first waves go off, met Sister Madonna Buder before the race started. She is a very sweet woman! Jumped into the water and warmed up a little prior to our wave starting out.
Swam for a few minutes with Kraig and then got out an waited for the horn to go off.