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Ann Arbor Triathlon
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Ann Arbor Triathlon - TriathlonSprint
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 Swim
Comments: That elevated HR was killing me...I couldn't regulate my breathing and there was a lot of jockeying for position for the first 5 min's. Drafted off someone until the first bend, but I was really struggling with breathing and keeping the HR in control. About halfway thru, I checked my HR and it said 160! Seriously?? After rounding the 2nd buoy and heading towards shore, it became clear that sighting was going to be an issue. The sun was boring holes into my retinas and someone had lowered the Bikesport blimp so far that it wasn't much help. I tried doing some celestial navigation by keeping the sun at the same place through my goggles when my head was down. Caught up with some guy and drafted for a bit before it became clear that he was weaving all over the place! I was happy just to be outta there... What would you do differently?: More OWS before the race...we only got 1 in prior to this one. Maybe a longer warmup? Get the nerves under control.  Transition 1
Comments: Run up the hill was treacherous! I was gasping badly, but kept up sort of a jog rather than walking. Got the suit off okay and all my bike stuff together. Didn't pre-clip in shoes on this one because the road is pretty rough getting out of the park and it's on a slight incline. I ended up having to run a ways in my bike shoes and I knew I was getting some serious mud in my cleats. It ended up taking me about 2 mins on the bike to get fully clipped in after having to use a finger to swipe out mud. What would you do differently?: I probably could've even ran with my shoes in my hands until I got up to the road...that would've eliminated the clipping in problem. I still don't think I would've pre-clipped...in most cases I'll do it, but not on that road.  Bike
Comments: Right after getting clipped in, the guy in front of me lost one of his aero bar pads. I was getting ready to pass on the left when he turned to his left (in front of me) to retrieve the pad. Close miss! Hankerd is an awful road. So rough and the first hill nearly killed me. I went over it at a blazing 8mph with my HR racing. Roads were still pretty wet and scary with the potholes. Turned onto North Territorial and got some dry smooth road for a bit, breeze wasn't too bad. Right turn on Hadley and some nice pavement, but a little damp still. As soon as you turn there's a big downhill and I took it around 32 mph terrified that the wet pavement would make a casualty of me. I was hoping to avg 17-ish on the course, because I'm still learning to be a better cyclist and hills are the worst for me. I was able to pick up the pace to over 18 on Hadley, making up for my earlier slow start. The road jogs at Unidilla and I took the first corner more aggressively than I should've, and at the second I saw a cop car that was kind of in the way. As soon as I rounded it, I saw a bloodied biker on a stretcher. He was talking, so I hope he ended up okay. The rest of the ride was pretty uneventful, more wet roads, more potholes, more elevated HR... What would you do differently?: Must do more hill training on the bike! But overall, that's not a terrible time for me on that course... Transition 2
Comments: Learned my lesson from T1 running in mud with cleats so I unstrapped and rode with feet on shoes after turning into park. Pretty standard transition. What would you do differently?: Should've put hat on while running out instead of at rack.  Run
Comments: Legs felt pretty good coming out of transition. As soon as we hit the trail, it felt like a rainforest...the heat after all that rain was just gross in the woods. Pretty comfortable with the course after we had done the Trail Half marathon there in April. I already knew about the big hill you hit just after the first mile, but the second biggie surprised me. The one right after the stretch of dirt road...ugh. I wouldn't officially say I walked that one, but the incline pretty much slowed my pace to a walk. Pace felt pretty good for me the whole time. Early season trail runs and a decent amount of bricks was paying off. It definitely wasn't easy by any means, just less hideous than it could have been. The final turn onto Hankerd...wow, I forgot about that hill! It was almost demoralizing...the heat and sun beating on me and that incline... But for a minute, I thought I might actually break 2 hours, so I kept at it. By the time I got to the park entrance, it was painfully obvious that I had blown the 2 hour mark (that's okay, cuz I was really hoping for under 2:05 anyway), but it was a nice long downhill stretch to the finish. What would you do differently?: Do the "official" course ahead of time...it would've been nice to be mentally prepared for the 2nd big hill and the Hankerd hill. Post race
Warm down: Found Eric, hydrated, and got into the lake. Got in line for a massage...which took forever...and it wasn't even that great. By the time we were both done, almost everyone was gone and we were afraid we were going to miss lunch. Got our gear, some chicken sandwiches, and sat in the grass for a while. Headed back to the house for a shower and nap. What limited your ability to perform faster: Bad swim...set a bad tone for the first part of bike too. Muddy cleats. Needing more hill training on the bike. Heat. But actually, I'm pretty happy with my time. We did this race in 2004 right after we got our new bike and were just getting "serious" about tri's. I was terrified of riding aero on the course back then and had a terrible run. I redeemed myself this year by shaving off 18 min from my 2004 time. Eric shaved off 10 min. Nice! Event comments: That bike course is pretty crazy...it's a miracle that I didn't flat out. Last updated: 2008-06-04 12:00 AM
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 2008-06-10 11:42 AM |
Veteran  272   Canton, MI |  Subject: Ann Arbor Triathlon |
| General Discussion-> Race Reports! |
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80F / 27C
Sunny
Overall Rank = 226/417
Age Group = 30-34 F
Age Group Rank = 8/25
Woke up at 5am at in-laws house in Pinckney. Brutal t-storms kept me up most of the night, but luckily we had gotten to sleep in Saturday morning and didn't feel too bad. Still raining pretty hard, but checked out weather.com and saw that the skies were supposed to clear around 6am. Oatmeal with 1/2 banana and a little honey. Eric got our dogs taken care of and we were off. Staying at their house with our gear pre-packed saved us a bunch of time getting to the race site.
Check-in was a little slow...corrals were set up w/o arrows so apparently I got in the wrong line for my race number. Instead of just reaching over to grab my #, the girl just told me I was in the wrong line after I had waited for about 10 min. Great. Eric went ahead and got the bikes off the rack and did one last tire pump. We just changed out our tires the day before and I wasn't entirely sure I didn't puncture the tubes trying to get a tight new tire on. But it looked like they were holding air, so we were good. Made the trek up the hill to rack up - ground was pretty gross from all the rain. Got marked, went for a 1/2 mile run, biked for 10 mins to make sure gears and tires were okay. Eric was in 1st wave, so he got his wetsuit and headed to the water 23 min. before my start to warm up. Got in my wetsuit and did my own warmup...man, did my sleeves/shoulders feel constricted! Found a couple of friends lining up for swim start and had them talk me down from my rising heart rate (120-ish just standing in the water!)