Pittsburgh Oly - New PR
As my hometown race, I really wanted to do well at the Pittsburgh Olympic race, but coming four weeks after IMCDA, I didn't do any specific preparation.
Overall, I'm happy with the day and with my 9 minute PR. My frustration comes with knowing that I could have done a lot better.
Swim: 30:09.
I really think I can swim 2-4min faster, but I simply couldn't hold a straight line and had a lot of trouble siting the small bouys they set up.
I made a rookie mistake and didn't bring my wetsuit, thinking that there was no way it would be wetsuit legal, especially since the water hasn't been at 78 degrees since mid-June. however, with the rain and the opening of some of the flood dams up-river the temp dropped right at 78 race morning.
T1: 1:43
Was smooth here, considering transition was basically a mud puddle after days of rain. It is a long run from the water, so even the top-seeds are around 1min.
I elected to swim without a top and put on my tri-jersey in T1. This went fairly smoothly but cost a few seconds. This was my first race where I had my shoes mounted on the pedals, and that worked out fine. It probably saved me a lot of time since running through the muddy transition area in bike shoes might have been a disaster.
Bike: 1:13:05, 2:25 faster than last year
I feel great about this bike ride. I dropped my water bottle on a climb and since it was really early, I stopped, went back down the hill a bit, and grabbed the bottle. This cost a few seconds but was better than going without water. It took a few miles for me to lossen up my legs, but in the end the ride went well and I felt great heading into T2.
T2: 1:38 - WAAY too long
I forgot to put speed laces on my shoes, but beyond that, I'm not sure how I spent so much time in T2. Something to work on.
Run: 48:59
I was really trying to run the 10k at HMP pace (7:20) but in the end, I blew up at mile 4 and had to fight hard to keep any reasonable pace in the last 5k. I knew it was going to be tough to hold the pace, but I really wanted to push myself, and I guess I just went a little to hard.
Total: 2:35:27 - big PR
I'm definitely stronger than I was last year, even though my focus has been training for IMCDA, so I haven't done any real speed work for most of the last 2 months
Comments
#work works#, so I have heard around here.