Team Magic has put on some great races this year. I have been fortunate enough to race all of their triathlons these season. Yesterday was Cedars of Lebanon. I wasn't going to race Cedars because I am racing HyVee next weekend and didn't want to sacrifice another training weekend....So, I volunteered to be the designated last place finisher (a Team Magic staple to ensure none of the paying racers finish last).
I must say this was a unique place to find myself. The swim was slow. The guy in front of me needed a walker to get to the swim start and had real bad arthritis. He sort of bounced his way along the bottom of the pool until he got to the deep end and then it became very concerning to me. I was very worried that he would drown. I stayed right behind him and watched to make sure he didn't need any assistance (quietly so as to not embarrass him) and would back off when he hit the wall. I think the 300 yard swim took a full 25 minutes.
Got out on the bike and tried to just soft pedal the whole way. Caught up with a girl at mile 3 who was on a heavy mountain bike. I could tell she was having a hard time working her gears. Again, I tried to stay back to keep her from feeling pressured. Not sure how long the bike took but it sure seemed like a while. This was a tough bike because it was very hilly....everytime we would hit a hill her speed would drop. Very hard to climb hills at such a speed.
We got to T2 and she just smiled and asked if I had drawn the short stick. I told her not to worry about me and to just enjoy her day. She said thank you. We took off on the run and she started talking with me over her shoulder. I moved up and we (her and her fiance) walked almost the whole 5k. They had good spirits even though they were hurting. This was their first triathlon and they were already talking about their next. That was great to see.
They crossed the line ahead of me (I wanted to make sure they got a good finishing picture) and I stopped the clock right around 2:50...long day for a sprint but I am glad I did it...taught me a lot about the people that race near the back. They sure do work hard...they may not be winning but they probably are putting out just as much effort as the front of the pack racers....all in all, that is number 11 in the books for 2011. Next week is HyVee.
Sunday, August 28, 2011
Monday, August 15, 2011
Mountain Lakes and a 21:29 5k
This past weekend I raced in yet another sprint race. (also, I'm a bit behind in that I didn't post on my race at Music City Triathlon - another great race, reached the top of the podium with a solid, if unspectacular race). Got a few weeks rest after Music City and got roped into Mountain Lakes by my coach (come on, it's flat and fast). We headed down to Guntersville, Alabama for the race and stayed at the family lake house. The house was about 40 miles from race start so I set the phone for an early wake up call to allow for plenty of time to get there and warmed up.
I awoke when the sun started lighting the room. I knew I was in trouble. Rolled over and my cell phone was dead (dead means no alarm). Shot out of bed and grabbed the first clock I could find....6:05. Damn. I was 45 minutes away and the race stared at 7:30. I quickly threw on my tri suit, my fiancee threw together something for me to eat, grabbed the bike, transition bag and was in the car by 6:15. Packet pickup was schedule to close at 6:45....I rolled in the lot at 6:50. They graciously allowed me to get my race numbers...headed to transition (which was scheduled to close at 7:00) at about 6:55. Found my spot, laid everything out, got my gearing right on the bike and headed out of transition.
I don't like starting sprints without some sort of warm up...oddly my race number was 311...usually I am seated higher in the swim starts but I was thankful this morning because it gave me time to jog about on the nicely manicured grass around the swim start.
As we hit the water things felt good...but very crowded. Team Magic usually does a great job with their time trial starts but the lady sending everyone off was a bit overzealous. She was sending everyone in 1 to 1 & 1/2 second intervals. This normally wouldn't be a problem except that I was seated in a high group and you could walk out to the first buoy.....this meant a lot of congestion at the swim start. Oddly this congestion never really broke up during the swim. For the first time ever I experienced a type A jack*** during a race. Coming back in on the 600 yard swim with about 150 to go I once again found myself bottled up with slower swimmers. All of the sudden I felt someone grasp my lower leg, pull me backwards and as my head came out to see what was going on I heard "get the hell out of the way". I spun around looking for the guilty party only to see nothing. This was a good thing because I didn't want to get in a fight 150 yards off shore...I got back to swimming. Got out of the water and felt pretty good.
Headed up, got on the bike and trotted out of transition behind the crowds (getting the drift?). Out on the bike course the swim course congestion was more dangerous. I got into a good rhythm and was passing a good deal of cyclist on the course. The congestion led to pretty obvious drafting, but I have to admit that I don't know how anyone could have avoided it and still raced. I played leap frog with three strong cyclist for about 12 of the 16 miles. I backed off on the final 3 miles because I wanted a strong run. Got off the bike averaging over 23+ MPH on the course so I felt great about that, especially in light of pulling back a bit.
Got to T2 on threw on the running shoes and headed out on the run course. I felt great....I mean like a real runner right away. This doesn't happen for big boys like me often. I found myself running through the crowds and felt like I was really pushing the tempo...I was without my watch (see above re: dead phone race morning craziness) but I knew it was going to be a good time. I came across the line in front of my coach and family and they were all excited about how "fast" I had gone.
Well, this race put me on the top of the clydesdale podium in front of some real solid racers. I got home later that night and pulled up my splits...7:50 on the 600 swim (could have gone faster but had some issues), 41:58 on the 16.2 mile bike and 21:29 for the 5k (that's right, that's a 6:55/mile pace - I was shocked....all the hard work paying off). This led to a total race time of 1:15:31 and gave me the top podium by a 2:00+ plus margin. Great race, great course and coach was right...flat and fast.
Now, I have to see if I can take the successes I have had over the meat of this summer at Hy-Vee....to translate my sprint effort into a controlled effort for this olympic will be the biggest test....but this race certainly fueled the only confidence tank.
I awoke when the sun started lighting the room. I knew I was in trouble. Rolled over and my cell phone was dead (dead means no alarm). Shot out of bed and grabbed the first clock I could find....6:05. Damn. I was 45 minutes away and the race stared at 7:30. I quickly threw on my tri suit, my fiancee threw together something for me to eat, grabbed the bike, transition bag and was in the car by 6:15. Packet pickup was schedule to close at 6:45....I rolled in the lot at 6:50. They graciously allowed me to get my race numbers...headed to transition (which was scheduled to close at 7:00) at about 6:55. Found my spot, laid everything out, got my gearing right on the bike and headed out of transition.
I don't like starting sprints without some sort of warm up...oddly my race number was 311...usually I am seated higher in the swim starts but I was thankful this morning because it gave me time to jog about on the nicely manicured grass around the swim start.
As we hit the water things felt good...but very crowded. Team Magic usually does a great job with their time trial starts but the lady sending everyone off was a bit overzealous. She was sending everyone in 1 to 1 & 1/2 second intervals. This normally wouldn't be a problem except that I was seated in a high group and you could walk out to the first buoy.....this meant a lot of congestion at the swim start. Oddly this congestion never really broke up during the swim. For the first time ever I experienced a type A jack*** during a race. Coming back in on the 600 yard swim with about 150 to go I once again found myself bottled up with slower swimmers. All of the sudden I felt someone grasp my lower leg, pull me backwards and as my head came out to see what was going on I heard "get the hell out of the way". I spun around looking for the guilty party only to see nothing. This was a good thing because I didn't want to get in a fight 150 yards off shore...I got back to swimming. Got out of the water and felt pretty good.
Headed up, got on the bike and trotted out of transition behind the crowds (getting the drift?). Out on the bike course the swim course congestion was more dangerous. I got into a good rhythm and was passing a good deal of cyclist on the course. The congestion led to pretty obvious drafting, but I have to admit that I don't know how anyone could have avoided it and still raced. I played leap frog with three strong cyclist for about 12 of the 16 miles. I backed off on the final 3 miles because I wanted a strong run. Got off the bike averaging over 23+ MPH on the course so I felt great about that, especially in light of pulling back a bit.
Got to T2 on threw on the running shoes and headed out on the run course. I felt great....I mean like a real runner right away. This doesn't happen for big boys like me often. I found myself running through the crowds and felt like I was really pushing the tempo...I was without my watch (see above re: dead phone race morning craziness) but I knew it was going to be a good time. I came across the line in front of my coach and family and they were all excited about how "fast" I had gone.
Well, this race put me on the top of the clydesdale podium in front of some real solid racers. I got home later that night and pulled up my splits...7:50 on the 600 swim (could have gone faster but had some issues), 41:58 on the 16.2 mile bike and 21:29 for the 5k (that's right, that's a 6:55/mile pace - I was shocked....all the hard work paying off). This led to a total race time of 1:15:31 and gave me the top podium by a 2:00+ plus margin. Great race, great course and coach was right...flat and fast.
Now, I have to see if I can take the successes I have had over the meat of this summer at Hy-Vee....to translate my sprint effort into a controlled effort for this olympic will be the biggest test....but this race certainly fueled the only confidence tank.
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