Chattanooga Waterfront Tri, OLY...don't evict me from da Haus
gonna ramble on this RR. Bear with me.
been training consistently since Oct but I have some confessions first. I have no confidence in my testing at this point, both bike and run. Not sure I trust any of my baseline numbers. Also, my swim workouts have been shorter than prescribed due to logistics, been working on drills (positioning) and shorter/harder stuff. With a HIM coming in the Fall, I'm committed to doing the prescribed workouts from here on. Biking, I think I may be overshooting my abilities at this point, big ego thing. Also, been adding to the weekend bikes on my own to get the buddy time in with the locals. Running, some days I can hold pace and some days I can't...I don't see any build, its more like a crap shoot, but I admit that I 'try' to hit the target paces on the run focus days and not so much on the brick and shorter run days.
Weight, never lost those 5lbs. sitting around 169-170. Now, after this oly, I'm motivated to get down to the 163-165 range. (5'11')
Last week heading into the race was a family beach vacay. Stayed active with beach cruisers/beach runs/ocean swims/ SUP. Thought it would be enough for a taper week. maybe not so much.
Travelled 6 hrs from beach to home on Thursday, spent most of the night getting ready for the race, then did a 24 hr shift (slept 6hrs) at work, got off Saturday at 7and headed home, tidied up the house and yard for the fam who was getting home that afternoon from the beach. Then left for Chattanooga, 3 hrs with road construction stuff here in Atlanta.
In Chattanooga in time to get packets and some pasta. Immediately noticed how hot & humid it was here. Did like how we got out Number tats to apply at the hotel, and the timing chip, too. that saved some time in the morning. In bed by 11.
Woke up to almost 80degrees at 5am. Ate waffles/Peanut Butter/banana/Agave nectar. 2 cups of coffee. Gatorade up to race start.
I had planned on going with one cytomax bottle but the heat impressed me and I added a second bottle (just nuun/H20) on the seat tube. Glad I did that part.
After transition was set up, headed down to the swim start at about 6:45. TT start and didn't get in the water til about 8:00.
Swim was decent. No wetsuit. about a 70% effort and decent line. Had to zig zag a little, between some other swimmers and it was a narrow course down the river, not much current though. Goggles completely fogged up about halfway. could still make out the other swimmers but was afraid that I would miss the 'turn left to get out of the water' bouy. so I stopped, treaded, and cleaned the goggles. No problem. Finished in 29' with some fatigue but not bad.
T1 was 2:48. slower than usual but I dropped my GU and PitStop and had to dodge some incomers to pick them up.
Bike....goal was .9IF (wanted to stay in the 215-220w range) Here's where I started failing on execution. learning curve. I thought I was nailing the execution, cuz I wasn't getting tired. There were a few climbs that were longer(ish) and I felt like I had good control. watts in the 270 to 315 range on some of the climbs. And that was backing off from my usual bike tactics, so I thought I saving plenty in the tank. Obviously, doing the math, those are pretty good spikes, but, HEY, its just an olympic distance, right? Shouldn't be problem. Well, clearly, it was 
I was passing everyone. Only got passed by one dude. Yippee (see run notes). There were a few, but not too many, that had faster bike splits. Yippee (see run notes). Cruised into T2 confident that I had held back. was 3 (?) min slower than 2 years ago when I last did this race on a cooler, drizzly day in 2009. time was 1:14. [Now, just dl'd into WKO and saw that I burnt matches all over the place, for me at least. Pnorm was fine, 200, and IF came in actually lower, .81, than planned but that must be because of several sections that allowed us to tuck and rest, which I did on anything faster than 32 mph. This analysis really nailed home what y'all teach, cuz now I can see what it did to my run]
T2 was 1:48, really getting hot now, but ready to rock my new minimalist running attack with the Minimus, whom I've only known for 3 weeks. But, hey, if i can handle them in warmups and cooldowns in training, then surely I can PR a 10k right now......
Run....only 2 big hills on the course, very early and very late (out and back). 9 min pace heading out at that hill (goal was a 50' run). Got to the top of that hill and had to spend 30'' hammering on my thighs to get the knotted cramps out. All done, and off for the flatter parts of the run. And actually made up some time. Right at 8:15-8:20 miles for most of the flatter stuff, OK,not as fast as I planned, but that's kind of what I was expecting at this point. But RPE was like I was doing 6' miles. Then the last mile forced me to walk up that hill, knew I was going to do this cuz I had the thighs and hammy's threatening to revolt since I started the run. Got to the top of the hill and was able to cruise pretty steady for the last half mile, wasn't gonna be any big kick to the finish today. time was 58', a full 8' off my goal time. I know I can do better than that, done it before, and will do it again.
finished in 2:45, 10' off of 2009. Well aware that ALL of the times were way slower, and I know several supa-fast dudes who struggled, too.
Notes....I'm not 'fast' at any tri distances, but I WILL get faster, at all tri distances! Over the last few years, I've started gravitating to the longer stuff cuz I think that I can hold steady/strong over a long time much better than I can hold redline/threshold stuff over the shorter races. So, even tho this oly didn't leave me smiling, I'm not too bummed. I want to focus on the longer stuff over thenext several years. The oly's are fun and definitely and tough workout, but I think I can do better at the half's and full's. Break 10, probably not. But, for me, my goal is to break 11 at a full (or 5 at a half). My goal race for the year is coming up in October, Rev3 half. I'm all in. Gonna work my ass off for the next 14 weeks.
Hit me. Feedback, please...
Comments
I just found your report here since this is my next race and I was looking.
I hope it's not so hot this time.
Are you still doing it this year?
Don