CapTex Olympic Tri - Memorial Day 5/31/10
Some of you might have seen the other post about my high-level race results. Well, here are the details. Perhaps some of you can help me figure out various things that went wrong...
I was in the second-to-last wave, starting at 8:25am. We were kicked out of transition at 7:15am. I was left sitting around in the heat and humidity, trying to stay hydrated, waiting for my swim start.
SWIM: 45:15 for 1500m (3:01/100m). Lost my ear plugs in the 70mins between transition and swim start. I heard several people saying the swim course was long by about 300m. I didn't think it was 45mins long. I stopped a few times along the way (I've never been a great swimmer), but honestly, I had no idea my swim would be THIS bad. I've swam HIMs in less time. When I was going, I felt great even though I haven't been swimming a whole lot lately.
T1: 4:21. Walked out of the water to my bike, then ran out after getting my bike gear on. Kinda a long way to the mount line.
BIKE: 1:07:59 (21.9mph avg) for ~25miles. This four loop course, takes you slightly net-uphill for roughly the first half of the loop (with some sharp pitches up), then net-downhill for the second half. I wasn't able to stay in aero position for anything longer than a few minutes (the downhills), or my lower back and upper butt would be screaming at me - just felt tight the entire time. I added an additional stem spacer the day before, to raise my position, knowiing that I wasn't as flexible as I usually am (and that's not saying a lot), maybe I should have added another. I have my FTP set at 320 (WKO+ 28 days method), and was only able to muster a .69 IF, Pnorm of 221 and VI of 1.08. Even with a relatively 'fast' time and avg speed, I just never got my legs. Probably still leftover fatigue from ToC - I hope.
T2: 4:27. Nothing stood out, except obviously (looking back), that I took a lot of time.
RUN: 1:13:53 (11:54/mile). This is where it got REALLY miserable. Every time I tried to run on this 2-loop course, my lungs just felt like they were on fire. I couldn't maintain any sort of pace unless I was right on someone's heels. I didn't see a lot of people lasting too long in the 90+ heat and humidity. I know I haven't ran a lot, but the times that I have ran all the extra bike mileage I've been doing had been (I thought) transferring quite well to my run. Guess it didn't help me yesterday. If you saw my other post, you'll also read that I need to start wearing socks in my bike shoes, to prevent hot spots from forming - because the bottoms of my feet were BURNING. I walked a good majority of the 10k unfortunately, and have some nice red spots on my neck and shoulders from the searing sun.
OVERALL: 3:15:56.
I had a new Olympic PR last year at this same event at 2:49:XX, and to go backwards almost 25 minutes was quite a disappointment. I knew going in that I wouldn't be at my peak swim and run form, with some post-ToC fatigue still present in my legs. Even knowing all of this, it still beats me down mentally to see the times written out.
I'm definitely taking a few days off, hopefully to rid myself of any leftover ToC-induced fatigue. I've got Vineman 70.3 in mid-July, a little over 1.5 months from now.
What can I do between now and then, besides swim and run more?!?
Comments
Hey Scott,
Don't be so hard on yourself. I was cooked all last week. Trying to do well in a Race 1 week out from such an epic week of riding it tough.
Besides swim and run more, I'd rest and recover more. It'll be interesting to see how you recover since my A race is the end of July, so we're kind of on the same schedule post ToC. It would be interesting to see how others are recovering post ToC. I'll start a separate thread.
Dave
I had a rough day at CapTex too. I heard the swim was at least 300 long and the run was over 6.5. Don't know...just saying. I also think the heat and humidity cooked us all. Last year, the temp and humidity were a LOT lower. My race last year was 20 minutes faster too.
That said, it was good to meet you at the expo.
Don't be too hard on yourself. I'd frankly say the only mistake you made was entering the race in the first place knowing it was so close after TOC :-)
Patrick