Greenwood Olympic Triathlon
Jumped in Greenwood Olympic yesterday as a B race just to get some racing in. I've had 2 stormed out this year and only done a couple duathlons otherwise. So, close to the parents house, mom gets to see the grand daughter and I get to race. Sounds like a win for everyone
Pre-race: Got a REALLY good nights sleep Friday night which is more important to me than the saturday night. Saturday night didn't sleep as well. Wasn't nervous or anything, just not a good nights sleep, woke up way too much which stunk but ended up getting up at 4 and got moving. Had an hour drive to the race start so breakfast (bagel, honey and applesauce) and then got out around 5:15 to make my way to the race start. Arrived, dropped off my shoes, hat and race belt at T2 then toodled over to T1. Mile warmup run in flip flops (shoes @ T2 remember) and then jumped in the water to swim for 5-10 minutes before race start. Really relaxed, just out to have fun
Swim: Was outside right for the swim start, pretty big wave but the swim never really worries me, I'm a very comfortable swimmer and had just planned to swim comfortable pace. I have barely averaged 2x a week this year getting to the pool so far so no expectations, just swim comfortably and get out of the water feeling fresh. Swim was rough from the get go, probably as rough as I've been involved in, for a while I couldn't get away from one person who kept bashing into me. At one point I just stopped for 2 seconds to let him move ahead but the minute I did he slowed down and we were back together again so I dropped the hammer for 100m or so and separated. I then found some feet and latched on, perfect. I haven't open water swim any this year and one thing I noticed was i wasn't swimming as straight as I normally do and swimming directly into the sun made it very hard to see the bouys. One other humorous part of the swim was I was humming along on my "tow rope" and all of a sudden I got hammered by another swimmer, guess who, same guy as before, just knocked me off the feet I was on. Only about 400m to go at that point so I just laughed and finished up. out of the swim there was a LONG run to transition up the boat ramp and road so the times show slower. Also I think the swim was long and so did a bunch of other folks
Final Tally: 33:54 (31:xx on my watch leaving the water). 11/33 in AG
T1: Having a dual transition race I had to get my things together in a bag before heading out on the bike, that slowed me down a bit but no worries here, nice and smooth and on the bike
Final Tally: 1:30
Bike: Here is the bike course. My plan was to start out easy and catch my breath and then hold 220 watts as I wanted to run well. Historically I'm sucking wind the first couple miles on the bike and have to settle in. Today I got on the bike and felt perfectly normal, very calm so I just went. Pushed the power to "red line" (where I"m starting to breathe hard) and then backed it off to comfortable. Rolled through the first 5 miles @ 240W and thought I might be pushing too hard but still felt great so I sort of went with it. I wasn't monitoring the Garmin, just went by feel. Rode through the bike course passing TONS of folks and was really flying. Felt great but the back of my mind kept saying might be too hard. Kept at it, I knew the bike course and the last 3 miles were the rolling hilliest so I made sure to back off a touch and just keep comfortable. Rolled into T2 feeling pretty good although the weather was getting really hot and humid at this point. Final numbers are not far off what I had in mind
Final Tally: 1:06:09, 22.5 mph - 1st in AG and 16th OA
NP: 233
VI: 1.03
T2: 0:37 Bike racked, shoes on and go, nothing to see here.
Run: Typically my nemesis. Same idea as the bike though, run until I'm uncomfortably breathing hard and then back it off a touch. I know mile 1 always hurts and hoping I'll settle in and get comfy. We're running on an old railroad bed path and it's pretty shaded and flat so makes it easy to pace. Goal was to run good and run under 50 minutes. Mile 1 ticket off at 7:45 and I though "this will be manageable". Mile 2, 3 and 4 all ticked off at 7:40 to 7:50. The only nutrition on the run course was HEED which I HATE and won't drink so I was sipping water and dumping it over my head to stay coo. Mile 5 started to hurt. Stomach was getting finicky with me and cramping hard and head started to get dizzy. I don't do well with heat and humidity. I walked the last aid station, dumped 2 cups of water over me and sipped some more and started running again figuring just slow it down a little, it will still be ok. Just then 2 guys in my AG passed me and I tried to keep pace but wasn't happening, started not to see straight. Let em go and jogged it in to the finish. Did muster enough the final 300 yards to hold of 2 or 3 more people
Final Tally: 49:02 - 8:10/mile pace - 9/23 in AG. Happy but wish I had the juice for the last mile and a half
Overall, good day, gives me confidence for my "A" race olympic in July where it will be hot and humid. Might need to take it a little easier on the bike to save a little more for the run. Also might need to revisit nutrition. I drank a bottle of perform on the bike but don't know why my stomach got finicky at the end of the run
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