Triathlon Recap (Long Post)

Race day stats - Sunday July 24th, 7:00a
* Weather - mid 70's, fairly humid with a fast moving thunder/lightning storm heading through 30 minutes prior to race start (slightly unnerving). Expected to get into the 80's and mostly sunny.

* Water conditions - 70 degrees, no reported jellyfish sightings (although, I get in the water to warm up and there is a jellyfish....), small waves mostly from passing boats (New London sits on long island sound...half sheltered by Long Island, but half open to the ocean)

Now that I've got the weather report out of the way.... :-)

Mindset - Coming into this race I was way more calm than normal, which is weird since I never have done this and did little in terms of transition practice and just started to really swim (in the pool) 25 days prior. Lorraine was able to answer questions and give some tips based on her experience, which definitely helped. I also did a bit of research online about rules and such, so I felt comfortable there. Having a very low expectation and just wanting to experience this also made it more comfortable.

Pre-race - We made the trek down to the shoreline the evening prior for packet pick-up. I picked up a spare inner tube for the bike after packet pick-up thinning I really want to finish this thing and couldn't if I had a blowout. Had dinner with the kids overlooking Niantic bay. Nice, but the kids were antsy as usual so we made it a quick dinner and got home. Collected all my gear when I got home and loaded it in the car for the morning. Lorraine got a tip about using a bucket to bring your stuff as well as having something to sit on during transition, really helped putting on socks and shoes :-). Applied race tats, number on the bike/helmet, ready to roll.

Left the house at 5 since it takes an hour to get there (down near where I work, fun drive...). Plent of time for me to setup my transition area and just walk around for a bit. They kept us ou of transition during the lightning storm, so my shoes got pretty wet...what can ya do as this storm wasn't expected and came out of nowhere. I did bring an extra pair of socks, so I figured I'd just made due.

Swim - made my way down on the beach and into the water for a quick warmup. With 70 degree water though, nothing was warm, lol. Still, I felt okay in the water. I wasn't sure what to expect with the swim, total wildcard, as I haven't done an open water swim in some time, not to mention one with a 100 or so dudes swimming around me! I was in the first wave and decided to move toward the back of the wave as I didn't want to have one of those "I got dunked on the swim" moments. The couple of guys around me in the back made eye contact with me and seemed to share that same sentiment. :-).

So here's the thing, I get into the water and start swimming and just couldn't catch my breath. It felt like a cross between an asthmatic reaction and anxiety rolled into one. I went from freestyle to breast stroke a number of times to try and get a groove going, but just couldn't. So I stayed outside of the groove and did what I could to muddle through the swim. I knew I wasn't going to drown or anything, but was extremely frustrated that my body was ready to go, but my lungs wouldn't let me.... :-(. Again, total wildcard. I finally made it to shore and almost couldn't believe that I finally made it....snapped out of it and ran up the beach to transition.

T1 - they had little pools with water in them for the sandy feet just outside of transition, awesome! I dipped in and didn't have a spec of and on my feet going to transition. I was wearing a swim shirt (will probably get a Tri top for the next one) that I got off quickly and threw on my Team Voice shirt (had some trouble with the shirt since I was wet...). Slipped on my socks/bike shoes and shuffled out. We were on a wet boardwalk so you couldn' really run on it... Made it to the parking lot unscathed and was ready for the bike.

Bike - after being so disappointed with the swim, I wanted to make it up on the bike/run best I could. I did a lot of passing early on and was keeping a good pace. There were several moderat hills and one very large/long hill which brought me to the lowest gear. The 45 year old Tri studs caught me by mid ride. You could hear the wheels on the Tri bikes come up behind you, so you know just to keep right and let them whiz by! I did get tonpass a couple of them back here and there, which was a good feeling, but these guys ride hard and often so it's difficult to even think about keeping their pace.

Ride was pretty uneventful overall. The course was curvy and slick from the rain, so I played it a little conservative, but did go at it as hard as it allowed me too. I took some cliff blocks toward the end for the run and loaded up on water as I didn't want that full feeling on the run. Made it back but was log jammed outside of transition....

T2 - bunch of people at dismount that I had to work around, but was able to okay. Felt a little more comfortable in transition this time as I dropped my helmet, shoes, threw on my run shoes and, well, RAN!

Run - legs felt a little solid/tight (calf mostly), but no pain or anything so I knew I'd be okay for the short run. Took me a minute to regulate the breathing, but it felt constrained like with the swim, just didn't have the capacity today...probably should have took a hit from the inhaler prior to transition...oh well... Mentally I was ready and felt like the run was my turf. Proved to be right given the runners on course as I started passing early and often. I only had one girl in her 20's pass me toward the end, but she must have been running 7's at that point...no hurt feelings on my end! I grabbed water at the two stops just to dump it on my head which felt good, but on the second one I dumped it too much in the front and soaked my shirt....it felt heavy and I started to get that "rubbing effect". I think y'all know what I mean by that! Only had 1 mile left though so I sucked it up and hit the gas. Finished with a sprint down the boardwalk.

Didn't know what my splits were for any part of the race as I didn't wear my watch or set the bike computer. Probably for the best as I like racing by feel. Being the philosopher that I am, I've been thinking about the race and have a growing fondness for the experience. I know I can do tons better on the swim and still improve on the bike/run as well...although, when I saw my run time my immediate reaction was "I smoked that run!" :-).

Great experience with more to come for sure, but my focus is on a PR for Hartford Marathon this October. I really want to have the same feeling about that run as I did for the Tri run and smoke that thing!

First Tri Report...Coming Soon

Lot of fun and good learning opportunity. I'll write up a report and post results once they are available.

Results are in, still need time to write up my recap, but as I figured...the swim killed me, more on that later.

Total Time - 1:42:03
Swim (.5 mi) - 24:36
T1 - 2:29
Bike (16.1 mi) - 50:19
T2 - 1:20
Run (3.1 mi) - 23:22

Something Different

Race day tomorrow, packet pick-up today. I've got pretty low expectations for this race, so there isn't too much pre race jittering going on. Still debating what to do for transition 1. I didnt purchase a Tri top to wear throughout, figured I'll do that if I like it and plan to do more. Anyhow, I think I'm going to wear my swim top and switch to a tech shirt for the bike and run. Figure I can do that pretty quickly. Other than that, I should be good.

Still debating one thing. Should I start with my age group, they have all men 44 and under going first at 7:00a, or wait till 7:12a and go out with the newbie group? If I go with the age group I'm thinking it's going to be a mish-mosh talent levels of which I'm probably somewhere in the middle of... If I go with the newbies, I'd try to get towards the front to try and keep ahead of the crowds....of course there is an assumption that the newbies are not speed demons.... :-).

I'm figuring that I can do the swim in 16-19 minutes, but kind of a wildcard at this point. The bike (16.1 mi), somewhere in the 48-52 range, and the run...ahh the run... Conservatively under 25 minutes, but thinking I could put in a 23-24 or so as this course is the definition of flat. So that puts me in the 1:30'ish range depending on transition times. Again, first one of these, so just going to take it easy and have fun. Maybe one of these days I can be an Ironman like Richard :-)

Mid July Update

Going well in my camp. Up to 74.xx miles running, just under 50 miles on the bike, and 110 minutes swimming. Last night I was able to get a mini Tri in (20min in the pool, 20min on the bike followed up by a 5k on the treadmill..thank god the kids didn't wake up and bother me! lol.).

Hoping to have time for two quality runs this weekend, kid schedule depending. Maybe some more pool time as well since I've only got a week to my Tri on the 24th.

Strong July Start...

I was wondering if I was going to fall into a July slump after 6 strong months of training.  Alas, I think I'm on track for one of my best months yet!  I'm currently at 37.8 total run miles (23 bike miles and 45 minutes of swimming), and ALL of them have been high quality miles.  No doggin' it to get through or anything like that, which is rare as I usually have a few of those (especially at the beginning of a month).  My speed is still improving, my weight is down a couple of lbs (hanging around 190.x, down from 193-195), and I've added in much more biking, and now, swimming.  What's not to like about July thus far?  :-)

With that all said, I've finally registered for my first triathalon.  A sprint tri, this one measuring out to 19.7 miles total.  .5 mi swim, 16 mile bike, and 3.1 run.  Weird as that's only 19.6...but advertised as 19.7...maybe the bike is actually 16.1?  Details, details.. LOL  I'm really excited to see what I can do at this event, just looks like so much fun and I'm sure I'll be hooked after this.

Looks like some DVC properties are finally coming available for the January timeframe through RCI.  Nothing for that weekend yet, but I'm stepping up my search as we'd like to stay on property without having to book 2 hotel rooms for us and the in-laws.  We'll take what we can get though and sort it out come January.  The other option is to stay off-site via timeshare, but I honestly don't want to rent 2 cars as I think we'll need it.  Now that I'm thinking aobut it, it's really not a bad problem to have....stay in DVC if it comes available or a huge 2 BR condo off-site to be in WDW for Marathon Weekend...how stressful... ha!

I haven't talked about goals in a while, but I'm still aiming for a sub 4hr marathon for the Hartford Marathon this October.  The pace that I've been running at lately will get me there easily and might even get me into the 3:40's, but I won't know till I start ramping up the longer runs which I hope to start doing this weekend (if the weather cooperates).  No goal for time in the Tri, just to not drown and have a strong bike/run as I know I can do that.  I'm more comfortable with the swim now that I've gotten a few sessions in and will continue to get at least 3 a week till the tri.

Mini-Tri

So, last Friday (I think..) I was trying to decide what type of workout I was going to get after the kids went to bed.  Maybe a swim...or a short run...maybe both....or perhaps a bike ride....  Or all 3.  Yep, that's what I ended up doing, all 3.  Started out with 20 minutes in the pool, followed by a 5k on the treadmill (Lorraine was still on the bike trainer), and then popped my bike on the trainner for another 20 minutes.  It was an interesting experience as you truely do use all kinds of different muscles in the body.  It was good though, and I felt pretty good about being able to compete in a Tri come July 24.

Of course, I do realize that these events are a bit different in execution than what I did at home, but it's more about mechanics than anything, and mechanically speaking, I'm confident that I can compete and do fairly well.  This is all based on being able to get 3 pool sessions a week in between now and then to build up the swimming muscles.  I'm pretty darnded excited about it, actually. :-)  I set this goal 2 years ago, and I'm going to meet it right on time, nothing better than that.  Now, if I could just get Lorraine to buy into my hairbrained "climbing Everest" dreams! LOL

This month has started off pretty well, got that "mini-Tri" in and surrounded it with some quality running.  27.3 miles thus far in July to complement the minutes in the pool and 13 miles on the bike.

Vacation coming soon, woohoo!  Looking forward to the blazing sun down in Florida and the 80 degree morning runs.  No, seriously, I'm looking forward to it.  :-)

"...I said, but I'm TIRED...I've been walkin' all day!"

"that don't confront me none, as long as I get the rent money by next Friday...." 

yeah, I'm weird....a little Thorogood for y'all.

Feels like I've been running all month though, so yeah, maybe I am a little tired...  Still, nothing like the mileage that Amanda has been doing! WOOT! 

I'm proud of the 126.65 run miles I put in during June (second best monthly total for me), and even adding in 107.22 bike miles (and one 20 minute swim last night ;-)) for a total of 233.87.  Not my highest run total, but I wanted to add in more bike and did that, so it's all good.  The swim last night was good, definitely showed that I haven't swam in a year, but I know that will change as soon as I start getting more reps in over the next month.

Annual total - 732.5 run miles; 265.72 cross-train miles.

I think I found the Tri that I'm going to compete in to meet my goal of at least 1 for 2011...  http://www.hartfordmarathon.com/Events/Amica_19_7_Triathlon_Ocean_Beach.htm  The issue....it's in 24 days.  I know I'm fine with the bike and run part, but want to make sure I don't drown prior to getting to those parts! LOL  Having said that, I'm confident that I'm in good enough shape to quickly ramp up on the swimming to muddle my way through it and then make up some ground on the bike, but more likely on the run.  Still need to talk with Lorraine to make the final decision, but I think I'm doing this one.  Wish I could do the one that my company puts on, but we'll be in the World when they hold this in August.  What can ya do.