Race Report - Sqaure Lake 1\2 ironman
Square lake race report:
Getting up at 4:45 was early. I wanted to stay in bed, tired from the travel, and the weeks of training I have experienced the prior weeks, all I wanted was a little bit more sleep. Anyhow, got up, got my regular breakfast down, orange juice, bagel, banana, and some Gatorade on the way to the race start. When we got there, the transition zone was fairly empty so I was able to get a good place on the rack. Since it was a cold morning, I got body marked early and tried to stay warm. I had forgotten my towel at the hotel, so I knew that I would not my have towel to clean off my feet coming out of the swim. Did a quick warm up, and then went down to the swim start.
Swim:
The swim was a two lap, and the water was warm. We didn’t get much of a warning to start the swim start, pretty much the race director said his thank you and then the gun went off. It was the worst swim I’ve ever had. Since the I was swimming with the elites and my age group the swim was very aggressive. It took me over the first lap just to get some open water. But anyhow, the swim felt strong and I never really pushed the pace.
Bike:
Getting out of the water, I was starting to get cold. Since I didn’t bring a vest I had to ride with arm warmers and gloves. But I was still very cold and was didn’t really get into my groove. At the first major turn I started to have some negative thoughts, in that I didn’t want to get sick, and that I didn’t really want to be racing today. I was thinking of DNF’ing at the turn around point, since I didn’t really want to get cold. Holding any pace was difficult and I was just getting passed by people I should be riding with. At the end of the first lap, I decided to just ride and do an ironman pace day, and just train in a race environment. The sun came out for the second lap and it was more comfortable but since I decided to just do a training day I just kept a low HR all day. Finished the bike, and I was happy to get off J. Didn’t have a good ride, although I had a avg speed over 30km/h I didn’t really feel the speed or anything. Was not happy with my performance, I knew I had a 2:50 bike split in me but it just wasn’t going to happen today.
Run:
Well, got off the bike with very fresh legs. I was holding a 9:10 min/mile for the first 6miles and I had a very low HR. On the way back, I was just getting tired and wanted to stop. My pace slowed to a over 10min/mile and started to walk. Just wanted cross the finish line and put this race behind me. But, in the end I was able to cross the finish line with a smile and a okay time.
Overall:
Overall, this race was my worst performance. I knew that the mental aspect of racing was important, but never really though it was this important. I now know to have a plan A and plan B prior to racing to ensure that I have a positive race regardless of my performance. Going into ironman this is an important lesson.
Getting up at 4:45 was early. I wanted to stay in bed, tired from the travel, and the weeks of training I have experienced the prior weeks, all I wanted was a little bit more sleep. Anyhow, got up, got my regular breakfast down, orange juice, bagel, banana, and some Gatorade on the way to the race start. When we got there, the transition zone was fairly empty so I was able to get a good place on the rack. Since it was a cold morning, I got body marked early and tried to stay warm. I had forgotten my towel at the hotel, so I knew that I would not my have towel to clean off my feet coming out of the swim. Did a quick warm up, and then went down to the swim start.
Swim:
The swim was a two lap, and the water was warm. We didn’t get much of a warning to start the swim start, pretty much the race director said his thank you and then the gun went off. It was the worst swim I’ve ever had. Since the I was swimming with the elites and my age group the swim was very aggressive. It took me over the first lap just to get some open water. But anyhow, the swim felt strong and I never really pushed the pace.
Bike:
Getting out of the water, I was starting to get cold. Since I didn’t bring a vest I had to ride with arm warmers and gloves. But I was still very cold and was didn’t really get into my groove. At the first major turn I started to have some negative thoughts, in that I didn’t want to get sick, and that I didn’t really want to be racing today. I was thinking of DNF’ing at the turn around point, since I didn’t really want to get cold. Holding any pace was difficult and I was just getting passed by people I should be riding with. At the end of the first lap, I decided to just ride and do an ironman pace day, and just train in a race environment. The sun came out for the second lap and it was more comfortable but since I decided to just do a training day I just kept a low HR all day. Finished the bike, and I was happy to get off J. Didn’t have a good ride, although I had a avg speed over 30km/h I didn’t really feel the speed or anything. Was not happy with my performance, I knew I had a 2:50 bike split in me but it just wasn’t going to happen today.
Run:
Well, got off the bike with very fresh legs. I was holding a 9:10 min/mile for the first 6miles and I had a very low HR. On the way back, I was just getting tired and wanted to stop. My pace slowed to a over 10min/mile and started to walk. Just wanted cross the finish line and put this race behind me. But, in the end I was able to cross the finish line with a smile and a okay time.
Overall:
Overall, this race was my worst performance. I knew that the mental aspect of racing was important, but never really though it was this important. I now know to have a plan A and plan B prior to racing to ensure that I have a positive race regardless of my performance. Going into ironman this is an important lesson.
posted by Colin at 8:13 PM
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