Saturday, May 24, 2008

Woodlake Sprint Tri

So I had to go back into the archives to see how I did last time I did this race way back in 2005. I knew the final result was 1:36:28 and I finished 18 out of 33 in the 35 to 39 age group. This was a last minute addition to my race schedule and I told my coach not to build in any taper and I was just going to take the 35 mile bike that was originally on my schedule and instead do this race as a brick training session. This meant no taper and best of all no pressure. I didn't want to add pressure by looking up my splits since they don't do splits at this race I have to do them manually on my watch. So now that it's over, the splits from 2005 were
Swim: 10:24
Bike: 55:33 19.4 mph ave
Run: 27:38
total: 1:36:28
I didn't write down my transitions, but total they must have been
2:53 total

This year the run was different then 05, but the swim and bike were the same, but the splits were
Swim: 9:11
T1: 1:52
Bike: 53:32 19.6 mph ave
T2: 1:28
Run: 25:12
Total 1:31:19 - unofficial

I'd say that was a big improvement :-)

I'm a little tired, so I won't get too wordy today as everything went fairly well.

Swim: Started way to the left and tried to stay in front to avoid the churn. No problems swam fast to start, then eased into a 1:30 pace.

Bike: It was raining so I had to take corners easy. I started in the last wave, so I got to pass a lot of people. That was fun and I didn't get passed by too many so I didn't get a lot of spray in my face. This is a long bike for a sprint at 17.5 miles so I was trying to hold back at the beginning. It was a rolling course with a couple tough hills, but some nice descents to fly on. One thing I wanted to remember was a saw one guy on the bike who had on flip flops. I at first thought it was someone just out biking on the course, but then I say the number on his leg and the race bib.

Run: The run was weird. When I started I had a new feeling in my legs, not the usual heavy I just rode 17 miles feeling, but a let's do a quick turnover feeling. So I kept the stride short and just kept going. At one point I was starting to ease into a rhythm and my breathing and pain started to go away so I said to myself, "maybe I shouldn't ease into anything and if doesn't hurt I'm not going fast enough". This was about mile 1, so the next two miles I kept up an uncomfortable, but doable pace. Luckily there were no hills on the run course and most of it was on trails. I was ready for it to be over so I guess I gauged my effort fairly well :-)

Sunday, May 18, 2008

Surf and Turf Results

Results are in...
for the master Clydesdales
Swim rank/time - 1 13:44
Bike 1 rank/time - 3 13:27
Run 1 rank/time - 4 16:46
Bike 2 rank/time - 2 11:51
Run 2 rank/time - 4 9:33
total rank/time - 3 1:05:19

Once again, couldn't stay for the awards, although this time I actually had a valid reason other than I was cold or didn't want to stay...

I was putting my bike on my car when I over heard someone ask "So how was your race?", then I heard a young boy answer, "I did the best I could, so I'm happy with it." I turned around to see how old he was since he sounded really young, but that answer showed a maturity well past that age, and I saw he was wearing the #1 bib. That means it was Mason Boyles, Don't know that name? Well I suspect he will be making waves in the triathlon world in the future. He is 15 years old and two weeks ago he won the white lake sprint. This week he came in third 35 seconds behind the winner.

I was packing up my transition area and getting ready to go when Stacey Richardson, the winner of the women's race and winner of the st croix half ironman amateur division a few weeks ago was walking through, but still found the time to encourage all the athletes that were still on the course and working hard. She several times had to ask other age group athletes to get out of the way. Note to age group athletes, take some lessons from the elites, it's not just about YOU and respect the other competitors.

Coming in third feels great, but the other two experiences helped to restore some of my faith in the human race and means much more...

Saturday, May 17, 2008

Surf and Turf Race Report

Alarm went off at 3:45, snooze, 3:54, ok I'm up...
Hit the road at 4:55, arrived in Surf City at 6:55 after one pit stop. Got a good escape parking spot and unloaded the car. Went to check in, got marked and my chip then headed to transition. By the time everything was setup it was 7:30 so I didn't have time to do a bike warmup since I really wanted to do a short run so I could stretch out my legs after being in the car for 2 hours. After the 1/2 mile run, got my wetsuit on and started the long walk to the swim start. I figured I might as well do my swim warmup on the way and got in and swam against the current for a while, it really wasn't bad at all so I rode some waves in and headed to the start. The weather was perfect, mid 60's, hardly any wind and the ocean was flatter than anything I can remember.

The Swim: As mentioned above the ocean was mostly flat with a few waves rolling in every now and then. The first wave went out and although the announcer kept telling people to look how they were being pushed by the current, I knew better so I lined up close to the bouy so I could get a straight line to it. When the horn sounded, headed straight for the bouy and had no issues with current, made the left turn at and headed north. At the first bouy, my goggles fogged up and I no longer could see the next bouy, I tried to site off the people around me, but I couldn't shake the feeling I was going the wrong way so I let some ocean water into my goggles to clear the fog and I was right, I was off course, luckily, not much, now I had salt water in my goggles, but at least I was swimming straight again. Finally hit the last bouy and headed into shore, hit the beach and went over the mat around 13:40.

T1: transition area was a little crowded and I had to jump over a few boneheads who wanted to sit in the MIDDLE of the row taking off their wetsuit. No problems in transition, got my wetsuit off and helmet and glasses and started out for the bike, once again having to dodge people in the way.

Bike 1: The bike was about 3.7 miles and as soon as my legs started responding, it was time to get off and run. If you ever do this race I highly recommend the bike warmup as I never got into a groove on the bike since both were so short.

T2: Not much going on here, off the bike, rack the bike, helmet off, go run...

Run1: This was an out and back run, about .5 miles on pavement to the beach, then .5 or more miles out on the beach, then turn around and run back on the beach to the entry point. When we got to the beach I was starting to get my running legs, but then the sand arrived. the tide was in, so running in the soft sand was not fun, and after the turn around, my lower back started hurting and running back my right ankle was buggin me because of the slope of the beach. Finally after the beach ended my legs and back started feeling good again, but then the run was over. About .25 before the end of run one, the first guy in my category, Master Clydesdales, MC, passed me. I stayed with him until transition.

T3: Once again, not much going on, helmet on, get bike, head out. Passed the MC going out of transition woo hoo.

Bike 2: About 1 mile into the bike the MC guy blew by me, I was going to chase him, but since he flew by me, I decided to keep my pace and not chase. 1 mile more and I was catching him again. He later told me it was a mind game, but I guess that back fired on him. At the turn around for the bike I had caught him so after the U turn, I hit the accelerator and left him in the dust, but that's when I saw the other MC right on my tail, so the 2 miles back really hurt, but I wanted to pad some time for the run.

T4: After the bike dismount, the MC I saw at the turn around was right behind me, so no time to dawdle, but he ended up passing me as we left transition.

Run 2: This was only 1 mile, so it took me about 1/2 mile to get my legs back after the push on the bike, but at least this one was all pavement. I never saw the first MC again and the second MC passed me right at the turn around and finished probably 30 seconds ahead of me.

Finished in 1:05:2? I'll post the final results with whatever splits they post when the come out. Don't know how I did yet as I had to leave early to get back for my crazy girl's ballet recital, which was definitly worth the rush :-)

Monday, May 5, 2008

White Lake Sprint - results and random thoughts

The results are in...
for master Clydesdale's
place name swim T1 Bike T2 Run total
8. WILLIAM REID 4 16:09 2:10 6 39:53 1:43 14 27:31 1:27:24
Numbers above are out of 23, except the bike which for some reason a whole bunch of people didn't get a bike split so that is out of 14. I think they went over the wrong mat on the way out of transition...
Overall I was 145 out of 375, 97 for the swim, 96 on the bike, and 255 on the run.

in 2006 I was 232 out of 374, 130 for the swim, 226 on the bike, and 312 on the run.

Random thoughts.
1) at first glance it looks awesome for the bike, but I have to remember the there were about 60 people that didn't get ranked on the bike. Even still, the bike improvement was really good.
2) My concerns about the swim were unfounded as I did improve on the swim.
3) I still need to work on my run. It's getting better but I can't get complacent.
4) After comparing the years, I feel even better about the race.
5) I am really sore this morning :-)

I spend some time near the finish line while the novice women were finishing and if you really want some inspiration, that's a great place to be. One woman came across the line and proclaimed as loud as she could. "YES, I DID IT!" the look on her face was priceless. One mom came across and her two kids both around 10ish came running up to hug and congratulate her. The boy high fives her and gives her a big hug, then her daughter starts to give her a hug, but then draws back and starts trying to rub all the sweat off, it was really funny, you could see both kids were amazed and impressed that their mom could actually finish this race. I heard so many responses to "how was your race? that were like, it could have been better, I would have like to go faster. I think I'm guilty of the same thing. We have to remember that just finishing is an accomplishment in itself. With all the things that could go wrong, making it across that line is a great accomplishment.

Things to remember for next time.
1) Don't park on site is you want to leave early.
2) Line up to the left on the swim. This really worked out great.
3) Shammy buttr...
4) Get more water in me on the run and less on me :-)

Sunday, May 4, 2008

White Lake Sprint Triathlon

I did this race in 2006, my times were
Swim T1 Bike T2 Run Total
00:14:52 00:02:37 00:42:52 00:01:43 00:28:55 01:30:55
this year according to my watch which is not quite accurate
16:08 2:32 39:24 1:46 27:33 01:27:26

that's 3:29 faster woohoo! Not sure what happened with the swim, but after some research, it appears the swim in 2006 was a little short as the times from 2007 of some of the people who did it in 2006 were slower even though their overall time was faster. anyway on to the race report.

Set my alarm for 3:45 AM, woke up at 3:40 AM 5 minutes before the alarm went off. Ate some cereal, feed the cats, finished packing the car up then took at nice warm shower. Left the house at 4:48, arrived at the race site at 6:20. Should have parked on the road so I could have left early, but I needed to use the bathroom and having the car right there was too appealing to turn down. Nothing exciting happened during setup, got everything setup and ate some more then walked around waiting for 7 am so I could start my warmup. Warmup felt really good first ran for about 1/2 mile, then took the bike out for a short spin. I don't usually ride, but my chain feel off this morning so I wanted to make sure everything was working and get it in a good gear and make sure it would not de chain itself again, especially since last time I did this race, my chain fell off. Finished the bike warmup and reset my transition and then grabbed the wetsuit and headed to the lake. It was about 72 degrees and really clear today. I Think they added some sand as the water was only waist deep at the start and I remember it being close to head high in previous years.
On to the race.
The swim. Lined up to the left and tried to stay out of the mess and keep a good line to the first buoy. Felt really good on the swim. I sighted often and finally kept a straight line. Only got bumped once or twice by someone swimming off line. I didn't want to go too fast while trying to keep my effort high. Got out of the water and my watch said 15 something, a little depressing as I was comparing to last time, but the swim is the easiest thing for them to mess up so I put that out of my mind and started to concentrate on transition and the bike coming up.
T1: I had my wetsuit halfway off by the time I got to my bike and kept focus while getting ready for the bike
Bike: This time on the bike I really wanted to push the whole way and see how my legs would do on the run, so the first lap I tried to keep my speed over 21 as best as possible and except for the one really bumpy part I was able to do that. First lap was 19:50 and my goal was under 40 so I was right on track, the second lap I wanted to push a little more so kept the speed over 22 and finished with an average speed of 21.7 and my bike computer said 40:10, but watch said 39:24 so I suspect it's somewhere in the middle but I did break 40 ( I hope ) like I wanted.
T2: 1:46 nothing exciting to report here.
Run: The beginning was really tough, my legs were spent from the hard bike, but I knew if I just kept going I knew they would come back. The course was not marked correctly, as at mile 1 my watch said 7:15, when I got to the turn around I was at 14:11, then I got to mile 2 marker and my watch said 20:14, but the mile 2 marker was right at the mile 1 marker so I knew I only had about 7 minutes to go. the last half mile was really tough to keep the speed up, but somehow I managed until the very end when I turned to go over the bridge my right hamstring started to cramp, but it went away, then I made the left turn for the finish and wanted to sprint, but the hamstring started up again and I didn't want to have to limp across the line so I just kept my pace consistent and only had to hop a couple times. Hopefully my pictures show some of that. It had started to get hot and I was sweating up a storm on the bike and on the run.
All in all a good effort and the nice cool lake after was awesome.

Next up Surf and Turf on 5/17