I never thought I'd go ride Skyline, until my carpool buddy said that we were.
I have to agree with what other experienced people on my tri team said -- the climbs were much more accessible than what I'd had in my head.
Part of what made the ride enjoyable for me was my ability to stop and
start on climbs. On the few points when I wasn't able to get my
heart rate to stay down, I was able to pull over and take a short break.
And I knew that I'd be able to start again because I am very confident
in my ability to clip in and get going.
I certainly took my time, enjoying 4 heart rate/informational sign breaks
in my 1 hr 20 minute outbound trip. Then, I had a nice PowerbarPicnic
(thanks Rev3!) and enjoyed some nature at an overlook before heading
back. The return trip was a glorious 35 minutes of zooming downhill.
Next time, I'm looking forward to seeing what the view looks like at an overlook up the next hill!
Monday, May 6, 2013
Tuesday, September 11, 2012
Cedar Point - first half-iron race report
On Sunday, I
finished my first half-ironman. The day started well and got better,
until I finished with a kind of exuberant high that I had never
anticipated.
This race report, or novel, has three parts. I haven't written a race report for a while and apparently have a lot to say :)
First some history, then some reflections on training this year, and finally actual excited babble about Sunday.
1. History
This has been a long time coming. After swimming for years, I started trying this jogging thing in 2005, but it took many tries of Couch-to-5K to make it off the couch all the way to a 5k.
2007: First 5k race
2008: First sprint tri
2009: Joined Team Z, first 4 mile run, first 10K, first 40 mile ride
2010: First half-marathon, first Ironman spectating (Moo!)
2011: Half-marathon PR, first running injury
2012: First 60 mile bike ride, first 20 hr training week, first half-ironman
So that's some history. Over the last three years, I've watched many people ramp up their distances and abilities much faster, and if this were a children's story, now I would say "Slow and steady wins the race," but this isn't a story, and having watched teammates *actually* win, I can guarantee, that they are not doing it by being slow. :) However, "Slow and steady" *is* helping me win against me of 1, 3 or 5 years ago, and that's the race I am competing in at every workout and timed event.
2. Training
Speaking of workouts, apparently, if you go to them consistently, it is possible to get stronger. I'd heard rumors to this effect, and decided to try it out.
When I joined in 2009, Ed told us that there are 11 scheduled workouts per week (when we actually have Sunday swim) but until this year, I'd never actually had an "11" week. This year, I aimed for that, and while I didn't often achieve it, I went to oodles of bootcamp (thanks Kerri, Julie, Jodi, and Iwan!), track (thanks Denis and Tony!), Thursday bikes (thanks Nelson and Kate, indoors and out!), swim practice (with Sherri, part of the few, the proud, the discontinued, GW Rec swimmers!), long runs (thanks Obo!) and long bikes (thanks Leanne, Keri, and Dennis for hanging back with me on the hardest days). I don't have everything in my electronic logs, but what I do have tells me that I've worked out for almost *300* hours this year, and have covered more than 1500 miles.
3. Race Day
Even with all that training, I was nervous about the cutoffs for race day. Since my half was overlapping a full race, I wasn't worried about them taking my chip, but I wanted to actually make the time cutoff that was written down. I expected to have a comfortable swim faster than 45 minutes, I hoped for a bike that would let me meet the 2:30pm cutoff and then I wanted to finish the run.
The race day started perfectly, with a calm lake and plenty of time to warm up since I was in the last wave. Coming out of the water, I was a little sad to not have met my dream goal of a sub-40 min swim, but was happy with my time since I'd taken more than two weeks off from swimming after a terrible ear infection.
I had a slow T1, putting on my socks carefully, but it was worth it not to have a sore foot from a misplaced seam for the last 20 miles of the bike. Two years ago, at Musselman, I didn't finish the bike leg of the half aquavelo. This year, with more training and a better approach to nutrition (ie, take some!), I finished the Musselman bike in a little less than 4.5 hrs. Since this course was flatter, I was hoping to both be faster, and to feel better at the end of the ride. At the end of the Musselman bike, I was very hobble-y and feeble and feeling like that for 13.1 miles would have been a kind of torture. For Cedar Point, I was able to finish the bike in less than 4.25 hrs, which was wonderful. It wasn't a negative split, but apparently there was wind?
I try not to base my success on other people's performance, but it was still super exciting to pass 2 people in the last 4 miles of the bike. (Passing people changing a tire doesn't count, Marie, these were actual biking people that I had to accelerate past!). It was also great to see both of those women make it out onto the run.
My bike to run transition was slow. I had some of the same post-biking pain as I had had from Musselman, so I gave myself permission to walk for a few minutes to get myself together. By mile marker 1, I felt that even if I walked the next 12.1 miles, I would have had an amazing day. Getting to root for the fast full-iron people who were passing me, and the faster half people who were heading back in started a ridiculous positive feedback loop. I would be excited for someone and cheer, they would cheer or smile, and I would feel more excited!
Since I was feeling so happy, I tried to switch to full time running, or 4/1 run/walk, but that wasn't as awesome, so by mile 4, I found myself walking most of the time again, but now feeling some failure everytime I didn't make it to 4 minutes of running.
9 miles of failure didn't sound like fun, so I made a much smaller goal, and made my watch beep every 30 seconds (sorry to everyone who had to listen to that). That meant that every 30 seconds I could choose to continue running, or take a little break. Running for 30 seconds was the goal. If I happened to run for a second 30 second interval, it was bonus greatness and 3 intervals in a row made me feel like a rock star. This approach helped my attitude spiral back up and also helped me negative split the run. By running a little less than 75% of the time, I felt amazing, and was able to shout exuberantly at Linda that I was having the best day ever and mean it when I was about 68 miles into my day. The excitement made me want to high five Cliff every time I saw him, whether he wanted it or not!
I'd made goals to do with time, but I hadn't made a goal for my attitude. If I had, that run would have blown it out of the water.
I ended up running my half-marathon in 3:19, which was pretty awesome. Based on my long runs, I thought a 3:16 was feasible but unlikely, so being so close and feeling that great was amazing. It also was almost as fast as my first stand alone half-marathon in 2010 which at the time represented a kind of exertion that left me feeling ill for hours.
One of the best things I've learned this year is the wonder of clean clothes after the race. After changing and a little free ART, I was ready to cheer for the next 7 or so hours, as long as it didn't involve stepping over anything (poor, sore hip flexors) or standing up/sitting down (poor, sore quads & glutes).
Watching so many other people have amazing days kept me awake and excited through Patti's epic finish, which was amazing to be there for. I also loved watching first-time ironman-cheerers experience how amazingly emotional that epic day can be even from the sidelines. I'm running out of adjectives to describe this, so imagine some more sentences with variations on epic, amazing, giddy, and exuberant.
In conclusion, I am not going to be rushing off to sign up for a full-iron distance race after this, but I can imagine signing up for another half-iron, which I wasn't expecting. I'll need some new goals, since I met all of mine for this race, but I'm sure there are some out there :)
I'm looking forward to cheering for Waterman's "A" racers and expect that I'll be able to jump around again by then :)
Congratulations to everyone else who raced last weekend and thanks for helping feed my unprecedented positive energy feedback loop. Best wishes for people whose "A" races are upcoming and I wish that every one of you could experience a day as awesome as mine (though possibly a little shorter, which just means more awesomeness per minute)
This race report, or novel, has three parts. I haven't written a race report for a while and apparently have a lot to say :)
First some history, then some reflections on training this year, and finally actual excited babble about Sunday.
1. History
This has been a long time coming. After swimming for years, I started trying this jogging thing in 2005, but it took many tries of Couch-to-5K to make it off the couch all the way to a 5k.
2007: First 5k race
2008: First sprint tri
2009: Joined Team Z, first 4 mile run, first 10K, first 40 mile ride
2010: First half-marathon, first Ironman spectating (Moo!)
2011: Half-marathon PR, first running injury
2012: First 60 mile bike ride, first 20 hr training week, first half-ironman
So that's some history. Over the last three years, I've watched many people ramp up their distances and abilities much faster, and if this were a children's story, now I would say "Slow and steady wins the race," but this isn't a story, and having watched teammates *actually* win, I can guarantee, that they are not doing it by being slow. :) However, "Slow and steady" *is* helping me win against me of 1, 3 or 5 years ago, and that's the race I am competing in at every workout and timed event.
2. Training
Speaking of workouts, apparently, if you go to them consistently, it is possible to get stronger. I'd heard rumors to this effect, and decided to try it out.
When I joined in 2009, Ed told us that there are 11 scheduled workouts per week (when we actually have Sunday swim) but until this year, I'd never actually had an "11" week. This year, I aimed for that, and while I didn't often achieve it, I went to oodles of bootcamp (thanks Kerri, Julie, Jodi, and Iwan!), track (thanks Denis and Tony!), Thursday bikes (thanks Nelson and Kate, indoors and out!), swim practice (with Sherri, part of the few, the proud, the discontinued, GW Rec swimmers!), long runs (thanks Obo!) and long bikes (thanks Leanne, Keri, and Dennis for hanging back with me on the hardest days). I don't have everything in my electronic logs, but what I do have tells me that I've worked out for almost *300* hours this year, and have covered more than 1500 miles.
3. Race Day
Even with all that training, I was nervous about the cutoffs for race day. Since my half was overlapping a full race, I wasn't worried about them taking my chip, but I wanted to actually make the time cutoff that was written down. I expected to have a comfortable swim faster than 45 minutes, I hoped for a bike that would let me meet the 2:30pm cutoff and then I wanted to finish the run.
The race day started perfectly, with a calm lake and plenty of time to warm up since I was in the last wave. Coming out of the water, I was a little sad to not have met my dream goal of a sub-40 min swim, but was happy with my time since I'd taken more than two weeks off from swimming after a terrible ear infection.
I had a slow T1, putting on my socks carefully, but it was worth it not to have a sore foot from a misplaced seam for the last 20 miles of the bike. Two years ago, at Musselman, I didn't finish the bike leg of the half aquavelo. This year, with more training and a better approach to nutrition (ie, take some!), I finished the Musselman bike in a little less than 4.5 hrs. Since this course was flatter, I was hoping to both be faster, and to feel better at the end of the ride. At the end of the Musselman bike, I was very hobble-y and feeble and feeling like that for 13.1 miles would have been a kind of torture. For Cedar Point, I was able to finish the bike in less than 4.25 hrs, which was wonderful. It wasn't a negative split, but apparently there was wind?
I try not to base my success on other people's performance, but it was still super exciting to pass 2 people in the last 4 miles of the bike. (Passing people changing a tire doesn't count, Marie, these were actual biking people that I had to accelerate past!). It was also great to see both of those women make it out onto the run.
My bike to run transition was slow. I had some of the same post-biking pain as I had had from Musselman, so I gave myself permission to walk for a few minutes to get myself together. By mile marker 1, I felt that even if I walked the next 12.1 miles, I would have had an amazing day. Getting to root for the fast full-iron people who were passing me, and the faster half people who were heading back in started a ridiculous positive feedback loop. I would be excited for someone and cheer, they would cheer or smile, and I would feel more excited!
Since I was feeling so happy, I tried to switch to full time running, or 4/1 run/walk, but that wasn't as awesome, so by mile 4, I found myself walking most of the time again, but now feeling some failure everytime I didn't make it to 4 minutes of running.
9 miles of failure didn't sound like fun, so I made a much smaller goal, and made my watch beep every 30 seconds (sorry to everyone who had to listen to that). That meant that every 30 seconds I could choose to continue running, or take a little break. Running for 30 seconds was the goal. If I happened to run for a second 30 second interval, it was bonus greatness and 3 intervals in a row made me feel like a rock star. This approach helped my attitude spiral back up and also helped me negative split the run. By running a little less than 75% of the time, I felt amazing, and was able to shout exuberantly at Linda that I was having the best day ever and mean it when I was about 68 miles into my day. The excitement made me want to high five Cliff every time I saw him, whether he wanted it or not!
I'd made goals to do with time, but I hadn't made a goal for my attitude. If I had, that run would have blown it out of the water.
I ended up running my half-marathon in 3:19, which was pretty awesome. Based on my long runs, I thought a 3:16 was feasible but unlikely, so being so close and feeling that great was amazing. It also was almost as fast as my first stand alone half-marathon in 2010 which at the time represented a kind of exertion that left me feeling ill for hours.
One of the best things I've learned this year is the wonder of clean clothes after the race. After changing and a little free ART, I was ready to cheer for the next 7 or so hours, as long as it didn't involve stepping over anything (poor, sore hip flexors) or standing up/sitting down (poor, sore quads & glutes).
Watching so many other people have amazing days kept me awake and excited through Patti's epic finish, which was amazing to be there for. I also loved watching first-time ironman-cheerers experience how amazingly emotional that epic day can be even from the sidelines. I'm running out of adjectives to describe this, so imagine some more sentences with variations on epic, amazing, giddy, and exuberant.
In conclusion, I am not going to be rushing off to sign up for a full-iron distance race after this, but I can imagine signing up for another half-iron, which I wasn't expecting. I'll need some new goals, since I met all of mine for this race, but I'm sure there are some out there :)
I'm looking forward to cheering for Waterman's "A" racers and expect that I'll be able to jump around again by then :)
Congratulations to everyone else who raced last weekend and thanks for helping feed my unprecedented positive energy feedback loop. Best wishes for people whose "A" races are upcoming and I wish that every one of you could experience a day as awesome as mine (though possibly a little shorter, which just means more awesomeness per minute)
Sunday, May 15, 2011
Kinetic Sprint - OK race, Great day
I wasn't expecting yesterday to be a great race, but it certainly was a great day.
I've been having some Achilles pain since February, at various levels of bad. As it turns out, (1) wishing that it would get better, (2) laying on the couch watching Law&Order SVU and (3) ignoring it because it only hurt when I wasn't running are not approved medical guidelines. I finally started working to actually resolve the problem after getting through Shamrock, but I haven't been running in the real world for weeks, so I was more than a little apprehensive about how the race would finish for me.
I was happy about starting in the third wave. I'm strongest in swimming, so this let me get out of the water before a lot of people and meant I got to see loads of strong Z cyclists zipping past me -- everyone passing on the left of course :) It must be hard for fast cyclists, because they don't get "Go Z!" cheers throughout their whole bike ride because there aren't as many people to pass them.
I was happy about my bike performance because some of the muscles I've been working on in PT kicked in which meant that I'm getting power out of more of the full-pedal-circles that we all aspire to. I know that those muscles were helping because I can still feel them today!
I was not happy to get off the bike, because that meant starting the run, and my legs were mad about that. By walking all uphills and jogging downhills and flats conservatively, I got through it. Strangely, I was only a bit slower than at Rumpass last year when I remember actually trying to run in Z4 for large parts of it. I'll be using my upcoming time on the elliptical to practice my turnover and step length.
My performance made the day ok; all the support and cheering made the race great. The corral of Z's cheering me into T1, the top of the hill crowd coming out on the bike, the bottom of the hill cheers coming into T2 (it was still motivational even if the cheerers are there morbidly watching for dismount crashes), the top of the hill run cheerers, the middle-of-nowhere on the run course cheering, and the high-5 corral coming into the finish area. All that yelling and belling makes up most of my mental images from yesterday, and since I (at least mentally) smile when I see you all, it means that I remember smiling for most of the race.
I'm excited for what this says for the year.
* I'm actually working on my technique again in swimming after years of mostly coasting by. Already this has given me a wetsuit-like performance sans wetsuit.
* As part of the physical therapy for my angry achilles and over-worked calves, I'm trying to strengthen some other leg muscles, and that's already helping in the bike.
* With some new heart rate zones (after like 16 months of slavish devotion to my original test results), I demonstrated at Shamrock that I can hold a better running-only pace than last year, and I believe that once my angry achilles will let me run in the real world again, I will improve my triathlon-running-pace.
Now it's back to building endurance for the Minimussel/Musselman aqua-velo weekend and to building healthy legs for the Waterman Half in October.
I've been having some Achilles pain since February, at various levels of bad. As it turns out, (1) wishing that it would get better, (2) laying on the couch watching Law&Order SVU and (3) ignoring it because it only hurt when I wasn't running are not approved medical guidelines. I finally started working to actually resolve the problem after getting through Shamrock, but I haven't been running in the real world for weeks, so I was more than a little apprehensive about how the race would finish for me.
I was happy about starting in the third wave. I'm strongest in swimming, so this let me get out of the water before a lot of people and meant I got to see loads of strong Z cyclists zipping past me -- everyone passing on the left of course :) It must be hard for fast cyclists, because they don't get "Go Z!" cheers throughout their whole bike ride because there aren't as many people to pass them.
I was happy about my bike performance because some of the muscles I've been working on in PT kicked in which meant that I'm getting power out of more of the full-pedal-circles that we all aspire to. I know that those muscles were helping because I can still feel them today!
I was not happy to get off the bike, because that meant starting the run, and my legs were mad about that. By walking all uphills and jogging downhills and flats conservatively, I got through it. Strangely, I was only a bit slower than at Rumpass last year when I remember actually trying to run in Z4 for large parts of it. I'll be using my upcoming time on the elliptical to practice my turnover and step length.
My performance made the day ok; all the support and cheering made the race great. The corral of Z's cheering me into T1, the top of the hill crowd coming out on the bike, the bottom of the hill cheers coming into T2 (it was still motivational even if the cheerers are there morbidly watching for dismount crashes), the top of the hill run cheerers, the middle-of-nowhere on the run course cheering, and the high-5 corral coming into the finish area. All that yelling and belling makes up most of my mental images from yesterday, and since I (at least mentally) smile when I see you all, it means that I remember smiling for most of the race.
I'm excited for what this says for the year.
* I'm actually working on my technique again in swimming after years of mostly coasting by. Already this has given me a wetsuit-like performance sans wetsuit.
* As part of the physical therapy for my angry achilles and over-worked calves, I'm trying to strengthen some other leg muscles, and that's already helping in the bike.
* With some new heart rate zones (after like 16 months of slavish devotion to my original test results), I demonstrated at Shamrock that I can hold a better running-only pace than last year, and I believe that once my angry achilles will let me run in the real world again, I will improve my triathlon-running-pace.
Now it's back to building endurance for the Minimussel/Musselman aqua-velo weekend and to building healthy legs for the Waterman Half in October.
Friday, October 8, 2010
California adventure!
Summer is slowly ending here with some rainy days and cooler mornings.
And the days of riding my bike home from track practice are over with
sunset coming around 7pm.
I've made it through part of the travel outlined in my last post. Cheering for IM in Madison was wonderful. Madison itself was awesome and I loved the GIANT farmer's market that they had on Saturday. Savageman was also wonderful. Fall was coming earlier out there in the mountains. I have no desire to do that race. Just thinking of all the climbing on the bike makes me want to hyperventilate a little.
My last tri of the year was last weekend, at the Giant Acorn race. This was the same course as my first race of the year, so it would've been a nice comparison of my improvement, except for how I've been skipping practices (to play with my sewing machine) like crazy. As it was, it was a reminder that a body with trained muscles performs *and* recovers better. Beautiful weather and camped without my rain-fly the first night to see the stars. The next night was colder, so I put on the rain fly and enjoyed the cocoon of warmer air from my breathing.
This weekend, I'm off to Monterey. While at the hostel in Madison, I saw a flier for other hostels, including some lighthouse hostels near the wedding I'm going to, so I'm looking forward to Monday night in a lighthouse/hostel.
Looks fun, huh?
The hard part is that I have to magically do laundry and pack while attending a reading and then leaving at 6am.
I've made it through part of the travel outlined in my last post. Cheering for IM in Madison was wonderful. Madison itself was awesome and I loved the GIANT farmer's market that they had on Saturday. Savageman was also wonderful. Fall was coming earlier out there in the mountains. I have no desire to do that race. Just thinking of all the climbing on the bike makes me want to hyperventilate a little.
My last tri of the year was last weekend, at the Giant Acorn race. This was the same course as my first race of the year, so it would've been a nice comparison of my improvement, except for how I've been skipping practices (to play with my sewing machine) like crazy. As it was, it was a reminder that a body with trained muscles performs *and* recovers better. Beautiful weather and camped without my rain-fly the first night to see the stars. The next night was colder, so I put on the rain fly and enjoyed the cocoon of warmer air from my breathing.
This weekend, I'm off to Monterey. While at the hostel in Madison, I saw a flier for other hostels, including some lighthouse hostels near the wedding I'm going to, so I'm looking forward to Monday night in a lighthouse/hostel.
The hard part is that I have to magically do laundry and pack while attending a reading and then leaving at 6am.
Friday, September 3, 2010
Busy fall to cap off a busy year
I'm looking ahead right now to a busy fall... Overall, I guess it's been
a busy year, since most of my posts here seem to be enumerating all the
things that will keep me active for a weekend. Right now the plans
include
Also, I got myself a sewing machine, and in addition to trying to make a quilt for a friend's baby, I also have mostly finished making this:
which is by far the most complicated thing I've ever sewed. Mine's not
quite that cute, but I'm pretty happy with it as a first pass. I also
decided to make the legs be like bean bags instead of stuffing them.
- Trip to Madison, WI to spectate and cheer for the Ironman (Sept 10-13)
- Possible trip to western MD to spectate, cheer and camp at Savageman (Sept 24-26)
- Weekend of camping to race Giant Acorn Oly (Oct 1-3)
- Trip to Monterey, CA for a wedding, possibly staying after for some hiking (Oct 8-13)
- Trip to Boston, MA for a wedding, with a possible detour to be a tourist in NY (Oct 22-25)
Also, I got myself a sewing machine, and in addition to trying to make a quilt for a friend's baby, I also have mostly finished making this:
Friday, July 23, 2010
Enjoying the fruits of someone else's labor
I've been keeping up with my farm goodies much better this year and am excited by some of the new recipes I've tried.
Last week's box featured cabbage and cucumbers. I remember the first year with my farm, I just ignored my cabbage while it sat in a back corner of the fridge slowly getting crispier and crispier. This year, I made an Asian sort of coleslaw and this awesome buttered cabbage dish.
I've also been keeping ahead of the decay rate of the peaches and apricots by eating 1-2 peaches a day and at least 4 apricots. It's hard work.
There's a nice farmer's market near where I work on Tuesday nights, so if I figure out what I want to do with my farm veggies early in the week, I can go get the extra veggies from the farmer's market. Like last night I tried making quinoa for the first time as part of a spicy cucumber, tomato quinoa salad, so I bought some tomatoes and a jalepeno pepper from the market. There's certainly room for improvement as my quinoa turned out decidedly gluey, but it was a nice adventure in cooking with a hot pepper. Like, don't dig the seeds out with your fingernail or you might get burning oil between your nail and your skin and experience a burning thumb for the next few hours.
This week I got a 2 zucchini and 3 yellow squash, so I'll be trying out a raw pasta recipe (something like this). There were also 5 ears of corn, so I think I'll try again with the quinoa and make a corn, tomato and quinoa salad.
I've also been enjoying cucumber sandwiches -- a little cream cheese on a mini bagel, three slices of cucumber per half a bagel and some seasoning salt. Yum!
Before diving fully into this cooking adventure, I went up to Geneva, NY to do the Musselman triathlon (actually the mini-Mussel, since I did the sprint distance). I had a great time and had some nice results, but have been having a hard time getting motivated to do the workouts since. Oh well. Next race is in about 3 weeks, so I'd better get some focus back.
Last week's box featured cabbage and cucumbers. I remember the first year with my farm, I just ignored my cabbage while it sat in a back corner of the fridge slowly getting crispier and crispier. This year, I made an Asian sort of coleslaw and this awesome buttered cabbage dish.
I've also been keeping ahead of the decay rate of the peaches and apricots by eating 1-2 peaches a day and at least 4 apricots. It's hard work.
There's a nice farmer's market near where I work on Tuesday nights, so if I figure out what I want to do with my farm veggies early in the week, I can go get the extra veggies from the farmer's market. Like last night I tried making quinoa for the first time as part of a spicy cucumber, tomato quinoa salad, so I bought some tomatoes and a jalepeno pepper from the market. There's certainly room for improvement as my quinoa turned out decidedly gluey, but it was a nice adventure in cooking with a hot pepper. Like, don't dig the seeds out with your fingernail or you might get burning oil between your nail and your skin and experience a burning thumb for the next few hours.
This week I got a 2 zucchini and 3 yellow squash, so I'll be trying out a raw pasta recipe (something like this). There were also 5 ears of corn, so I think I'll try again with the quinoa and make a corn, tomato and quinoa salad.
I've also been enjoying cucumber sandwiches -- a little cream cheese on a mini bagel, three slices of cucumber per half a bagel and some seasoning salt. Yum!
Before diving fully into this cooking adventure, I went up to Geneva, NY to do the Musselman triathlon (actually the mini-Mussel, since I did the sprint distance). I had a great time and had some nice results, but have been having a hard time getting motivated to do the workouts since. Oh well. Next race is in about 3 weeks, so I'd better get some focus back.
Tuesday, July 13, 2010
Musselman Sprint Race Report
What a beautiful, fun weekend and what a great way to earn a raspy voice for two days now.
I did the sprint race on Saturday and was mostly out there to enjoy myself. I had some goals, but spent more of my 2 hours of racing enjoying the scenery than worrying about my pacing. As a nice aside, I did meet my goals (sort of) and managed not to get sunburned.
On Sunday, I had a great time cheering and worked on trombone-ing with one of the Z-horns. I learned that I am still unable to ring a cowbell with my left hand and that if I give away my cowbell, I am likely to try to ring the Z-horn.
Now I'm looking forward to a repeat of this successful feeling at Luray
Race Details:
* Swim - the swim was beautiful. I've never been in open water with that kind of visibility. While it was probably warm enough to get by without a wetsuit, I'm glad I wore one. It's more fun to imagine being a seal if you're all neoprened up. (Goal: < 15 min, met the goal)
* Bike - went out a little hard and sort of felt like dying at the top of the first hill 3 miles in. It got much better from then, and I thought of Iwan who yelled "Use the big gear" frequently on this relatively flat course. Did anyone else see the big metal fish between miles 8 and 9? It would have helped to notice that the race was 16 miles, not 12 - 14 like I thought. The last two miles felt very long considering that I didn't know they were coming. (Goal: < 70 min, met the goal)
* Run - I still have to get better at bringing the resolve that I have at Weds track practice out to a race. I did run/walk intervals and was very disciplined in keeping the walks brief, but I would have loved to have been able to make the run intervals longer. I set my goal for this part thinking it was a 3.1 mile run, when actually it was 3.2, which is more than a minute difference at my running pace. (Goal: < 40 min, did not meet the goal, but did set a new best running pace at a triathlon, which would have been < 40 if it had only been a 5k)
Future Goals:
This year, it will be my third year doing the Luray Sprint (coming up in August) and I'm excited to see my progress on that course.
Swim - < 16 min non-wetsuit or < 14 min with wetsuit
Bike - < 80 min (stretch goal)
Run - < 40 min (stretch goal on those hills)
I did the sprint race on Saturday and was mostly out there to enjoy myself. I had some goals, but spent more of my 2 hours of racing enjoying the scenery than worrying about my pacing. As a nice aside, I did meet my goals (sort of) and managed not to get sunburned.
On Sunday, I had a great time cheering and worked on trombone-ing with one of the Z-horns. I learned that I am still unable to ring a cowbell with my left hand and that if I give away my cowbell, I am likely to try to ring the Z-horn.
Now I'm looking forward to a repeat of this successful feeling at Luray
Race Details:
* Swim - the swim was beautiful. I've never been in open water with that kind of visibility. While it was probably warm enough to get by without a wetsuit, I'm glad I wore one. It's more fun to imagine being a seal if you're all neoprened up. (Goal: < 15 min, met the goal)
* Bike - went out a little hard and sort of felt like dying at the top of the first hill 3 miles in. It got much better from then, and I thought of Iwan who yelled "Use the big gear" frequently on this relatively flat course. Did anyone else see the big metal fish between miles 8 and 9? It would have helped to notice that the race was 16 miles, not 12 - 14 like I thought. The last two miles felt very long considering that I didn't know they were coming. (Goal: < 70 min, met the goal)
* Run - I still have to get better at bringing the resolve that I have at Weds track practice out to a race. I did run/walk intervals and was very disciplined in keeping the walks brief, but I would have loved to have been able to make the run intervals longer. I set my goal for this part thinking it was a 3.1 mile run, when actually it was 3.2, which is more than a minute difference at my running pace. (Goal: < 40 min, did not meet the goal, but did set a new best running pace at a triathlon, which would have been < 40 if it had only been a 5k)
Future Goals:
This year, it will be my third year doing the Luray Sprint (coming up in August) and I'm excited to see my progress on that course.
Swim - < 16 min non-wetsuit or < 14 min with wetsuit
Bike - < 80 min (stretch goal)
Run - < 40 min (stretch goal on those hills)
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)