Riding Mountain Triathlon Race Report
Finish time: 2:32:27 (2/4AG - 29/90 overall)
Pre-Race:
Well after a night of sleeping in a tent, I woke up ready for racing. I don't often get the butterflies in my stomach prior to a race, but this morning it was crazy. I did my usual pre-race eating, cereal, bagel and Gatoraid to keep hydrated. Chris and I drove to the race start; again this year a GREAT parking spot, just in front of transition and got our gear ready. I got my Zipp wheels ready (they would see their first race on my bike) and moved towards transition.
Chris and I decided to share a rack and Sandra was just a few bikes away. Last year I lost my bike in transition so I decided that this year I would take the same spot. Less chances that I come out of the water and forget where my bike was again.
Went for a little warm up, a few hill repeats and made sure my bike and my zipps were all in working order. I then went for a little run and ran the "trail" part of the run just to get an idea of what to expect.
Returning to transition, I meet with an old friend with whom I used to run with. He was going to be attempting his first triathlon and he chooses the Olympic distance for his first race. Quite impressed with that, he's a machine and I new he would finish. We chatted a bit, and then I went back to my bag to get my wetsuit on and eat a cliff bar.
Got ready for the swim, went for a little swim, but the water was so cold that it was more of a standing and waiting for the gun to go off.
Swim: 0:26:57 (2/4AG - 24/90 overall)
Oh dear, it was cold water. I'm a cold water swimmer, I perform best when I'm cold, but 17C was too cold. I never got into my "swimming place" I didn't get to draft as much as I hoped and when I did, I kept loosing the feet. The swim course was also a weird shape, and overall I just didn't feel good swimming. Now again, the water was so cold I was just trying to keep warm, and on the second lap I was doing better, I was concentrating on my stroke and manage to leap frog a few people. Overall, my swim didn't feel good, but my time was better than I expected. I didn't feel fast, but I guess all that swimming paid off because I manage to swim a sub 1:50/100m.
Bike: 1:14:45 (2/4AG - 15/90 overall) - Includes transition times
Before I go onto the bike, I have to explain my transition. I decided that since it was cold outside, that I would wear arm warmers. Great idea, keep warm, go fast... well it took me so long to get my arm warmers on that I lost any edge. But the motivating factor was that as I was getting my bike off the rack, I hear on the PA system "Trevor is out on the bike course...", I was impressed that I was just behind him. Since I don't race with a watch, I figured that I was in the middle pack for the swim and Trevor had about 3-4 minutes on me, but he actually just had 30 secs. I was pretty impressed with that, so got my bike off the rack, and attempted to catch him.
The bike part was very fast, the lead guys were pushing the pace and I wanted to stay with the boyz so I had to hammer. Rich and I kept on passing each other on the bike, he would get 15/30sec ahead, and then I would catch him, and then vis-versa. It was my first time, that I attacked the entire ride. Most often, I attack once keep a strong pace and then no one will pass me, or only one or two. Well this race there was no pacing, it was hard the entire time. I guess all those 84%MHR training rides helped. And not having my bike computer working, made the trip that much more interesting.
Got to the turn around point and was less than 60 seconds behind Trevor. That means that he only put about 30 seconds on me in 20k, I was pretty impressed with my performance, because Trevor is a strong cyclist. The road back was harder, since my legs were already starting to feel the pain. But no worries, I new that I could spin coming back into transition so I decided to just hammer the next 15-17k. At one point, I lost Rich, and found this new guy to work with. At one point I told him we should work together and stay legal but to push the pace. We just kept on yelling the color of the bike ahead of us and we would attack. It was great fun, and made the last 10k go by fast.
Got into transition, and my feet were frozen. When I got my feet into my shoes, they wouldn't fit, and I had to take a few extra seconds to force them in. It was pretty funny!
Run: 50:44(2/4AG - 50/90 overall)
Well coming off the bike, I felt surprisingly good for having hammered the bike so hard. I decided to just do 1k's at a time, and see how I felt. The first k marker, 4:34, I felt pretty good with that time, then the second one, 4:56, I was actually felling pretty good, I was thinking there was something to this rest stuff. Then just before the 3 k mark, there's an aid station, I didn't take anything since it was cold and I didn't feel I needed anything. Well I should have taken something because about 500m after, I had the stitch of my life. I pretty much walked the remaining 1k, until the turn around aid station. Got some water and felt like a million bucks. (Afterwards I realized I only had 400ml of water on the bike). Then I got to the sprint turn around and knew that I was about 2.5k away from the finish, time to hammer. Past Sandra who told me that Chris was just ahead and then about 10 seconds later I saw him. I ran by him, a few jokes and then onto the finish line. Felt pretty strong so I increased the cadence and speed and just finished strong. Felt pretty good afterwards. Got some food, got some warm clothing and talked with the boyz afterwards.
Overall:
Well this race was not really part of my race calendar, I knew I wanted to do it, but didn't really give it any priority. I was satisfied with my time, I knew I could have gone faster on the run but due to the stitch I had to slow down the pace. I never really felt in the zone in this race. I think it was the cold weather that made things difficult. I didn't feel good coming out of the water and I think that added to my mental state. But a 2:32 was pretty good on this course. The competition was strong and I'm happy to say that I stayed with most of them.
The good news is that I felt really fit for this race. I think all this ironman training has given me the confidence for these shorter races to hammer a tad harder and stay with the leader-ish pack. I know that this race gave me the confidence for ironman.
posted by Colin at 5:07 AM
1 comments
