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 :-)

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

wondergirl 5k

This race was on my schedule more for the little one than for me. She has been asking me constantly if she could race with me all year and finally her chance arrived. She woke up early and got ready, then we got in the car for the one hour drive to the race site. She didn't want breakfast, but I brought along a granola bar for her because I knew she would get hungry. When we got to the race site, everyone kept saying how cute she was and she was just soaking it all up. I didn't expect her to run that much since the last few times she would ride for a long time, then run a little before getting back in to ride again. We were in the last group which was supposed to start 3 minutes after the group before ours so we were cheering on all the Girls on the Run girls from the front, then we went to get in line for our start, but there was no one there, I guess then just let all the rec runners just go when ever. So we got to the start and she was ready to run, she got out and ran across the start line, which brought a huge applause from all the people watching, her friend was there as well and all the people were screaming how cute they were and saying run girls run! This overwhelmed them a little and they ran to their parents, but did not get in the joggers. After about 100 yards she was ready to ride, but after 10 seconds she wanted to get out and run again. This time she ran for a really long time before saying she was thirsty. She got back in, had a couple sips of her vitamin water then was ready to run again. This went on for the next two miles. I was really amazed how long she ran, and all the volunteers were so great encouraging her at all the turns, she was loving all the attention. After about 2.5 miles I could tell she was getting tired as her breaks were getting longer and her runs where getting shorter. But still she persisted in getting out to run, I think I had one downhill with her in the jogger that I could stretch out my legs but the rest was slow jogs or fast walks to keep up with her pace. Then we came to the final stretch and she got out with about .1 to go and ran the rest of the way to all the cheers and applause from the crowd and hit the finish. I think she ran about 2.5 miles of the 5k but was still ready to bounce in the castle they had setup.
The next morning her feet were sore and told her mom she couldn't walk because she was too tired.

FSSeries Sprint Tri Race Report

This race was more of practice then a race, but still I wanted to do well. My primary goals were to go hard in all three, remember how to transition, and have fun. The morning started off cold and I really didn't want to get in the water to warm up before the swim, so I only warmed up the run, my knees were bugging me in the cold until I started to warmup but still I didn't feel like I was ready to race, but without a taper it was probably to be expected.
Total time 1:22:36 ( I think )
Swim - 13:58 - should have warmed up first it wasn't as cold as I was expecting and after jumping in and redlining right away, I finally relaxed and tried to get into a rhythm and remember to sight as I was all over the place the first 200 yards or so but eventually got going.
T1 - 3:49 - There was a really steep long hill just after the swim exit from the water and then a short jog to the transition area, then I had a small problem with my wetsuit so 3:49 is pretty good.
Bike - 34:27 - 18.6 mph - Bike went fairly well, still need some work on it though. Started off great with a nice down hill, but then it was up for like 2 miles to tryon this part was really hard, but then it was fairly flat for a while so I got to recover a little before the rolling section, and then a wonderful downhill finish except for the .3 miles back up to transition that I will have to do again on the run. I think I could have done better on this, but I backed off a couple times on the downhills so I could recover a little.
T2 - 1:30 - This was smooth and easy, found my spot, off with the helmet and shoes, then on go the running shoes and grab the number and I was off.
Run - 28:46 - Mile 1 was 8:30, coach said I should save some for the end so I backed off the second mile, and because it was mostly uphill :-), and did 9:07, then I thought I was going really fast on mile 3 as it was all downhill until that final uphill to the finish. I heard it might have been a little over a 5k, but either way I think it was a decent time for the hilly course it was.
All and all it was a good race, don't know my official results yet since I didn't want to hang out another hour to find out but I might update this post later with them if they are good ;-)
********************************************************************
Update I got 3rd out of 19 in the clydesdale division, woo hoo
ends up the run course was 3.3 miles, so I averaged an 8:45 / mile pace. Now I feel better, I knew I wasn't going that slow
Official splits
sw T1 Bike T2 Run Total
William Reid 15:29 2:14 34:56 1:14 28:55 1:22:46.1

Training at Altitude

The altitude today was sea level :-).
On the schedule for today was a 30 minute ocean swim followed by a 3 mile run on the beach.
We arrived in Daytona at 11pm last night and I must have been really tired since I slept in until about 7:30. Ate breakfast and woke the family so we could all goto the beach. Got to the beach around 9 and I put on my wetsuit and got ready to swim. The water temp was 72 degrees, the waves were 2 to 4 feet and my Dad tells me there was a shark attack two days ago about 10 miles south of here. Sound like fun? So I head out into the water and the waves look a lot bigger when they are crashing down on you. It takes me 6 minutes to get past the breakers and the surfers, somehow my goggles stayed on, but the left side was filled with water. Drained the goggles and started to swim into the current. I swam about .25 miles ( measured it later while running) in 16 minutes, dodging pelicans and surfers and waves that kept crashing on my head, then turned around and swam back. The current was very strong as it only took me about 6 minutes to get back, once again I had to dodge the surfers that kept looking at me funny. Then I got to body surf back into shore. When I got out I was tired, my legs were tired, my arms were tired and my lower back was tired. It is much harder swimming in the ocean with all the different forces pulling you this way and that. Luckily I avoided all the sharks, but I have to say there were a couple times while I was out there that I thought about it...
After changing out to the wetsuit and into my running shoes, I headed south into the wind. I was supposed to run 3 miles at 9:30 pace, but into the wind the best I could manage was 9:45 after a mile I turned around as I didn't want to make the family wait too long for me and I was ready. Running back with the wind was much better, I was doing a consistent 8:45 pace and feeling much better. It is much harder running on the beach and my hamstrings were telling me all about it. Finally I saw the end. Then I did a couple of sprint races with the kid, to the life guard, she won, then back to grand pa, she won again.
It was a tough workout, but I really enjoyed it.

Inside Out Sports 10k race report

Personally I think they should call this the Inside Out Sports 10k from hell, but that's just me ;-). I've run this course as part of the 1/2 marathon so I knew what I was getting myself into and really I did it on purpose to force myself into getting better running hills and thus get stronger. Mission accomplished :-). My 10k pr was in 2004 at the Old Reliable 10k in downtown Raleigh. That course is much flatter/easier than this one so I wasn't expecting to get a pr today. I think when I did that race my time was 55:51 or 8:59 per mile pace. My plan today was to start off around 9:15 pace and see how it goes. This race features many hills and new this year to go with the uphill finish was a nice uphill start. First the numbers...
according to my watch

totals:
Distance 6.27 total time 56:30 Ave pace 9:00 / mi, ave hr 161, max hr 171
If this was really 10k, my pace was 9:05 / mi
I did my splits on the signs on the road so
mile 1 - Distance 1.02 miles, total time 9:20, pace 9:10 / mile, ave hr 157
This was mostly uphill from IO sports to just past CVS, felt good on the hill, tried to keep my speed under control to not burn my legs out too early.
mile 2 - Distance 1.00 miles, total time 9:03, ave hr 153
this was all downhill and felt good, I was still keeping my speed under control and people were passing me, but I didn't mind as I knew what lay ahead...
mile 3 - Distance 1.01 miles, total time 9:11, pace 9:01 / mile, ave hr 160
Now the fun starts, this mile included the first big climb of the race and my first peak at zone 5 at the top of that hill. I passed a whole bunch of people on this one still feeling good. my ave hr was 160 up 7 from the last mile.
mile 4 - Distance 1.01 miles, total time 9:11, pace 9:03, ave hr 164
this mile included two climbs up to Norwell, first on the way out, then after going down the other side, you turn around and get to go back up again, what fun, passed more people, and had some more zone 5 fun
mile 5 - Distance 1.00 miles, total time 8:53, ave hr 161
Yes, the best mile of the day, down hill to evans, then flat for awhile and then only a slight incline towards sheldon. Was pacing off one guy who was very animated and entertaining, so it went by quickly with my ave hr dropping and my speed going up I was feeling good.
mile 6 - Distance 1.01 miles, total time 9:07, pace 9:03, ave hr 169
This was obviously the hardest part of the course with my ave hr way up and two thirds of this mile was in zone 5, but the end was near and I was careful to not push too hard and blow up
final .2 - Distance .22 miles, total time 1:47, pace 8:15, ave hr 170
that was all I had left, legs were now on fire, but with less than a 400 to go I knew I could increase my pace up the last little bit to CVS.

It felt great to finish. I waited a short time to see Marian finish, but that was I could wait for as I started to get real cold, so I did my 1 mile cool down back to my car, changed out of my sweaty shirt, went to starbucks for my triple Mocha and cranked the heater in the car.

Very happy with the results as I felt really strong on the hills and was happy to be once again passing people at the end of the race :-)

Bike Friendly?

I haven't been writing much about my workouts but something happened Sunday during my bike that I felt I should.

Earlier in the week I had riding in self proclaimed bike friendly Cary, NC. I went out Monday before lunch for a 20 mile bike, it usual takes me about 1 hour 8 minutes of total time including stop lights, but this time it took me 1 hour and 17 minutes. I got stuck in two left turn lanes with no cars in the lane to tell the light that it needed to give me a left turn signals. Then I got stuck at a light where I was going straight, and there was a car in the left turn lane, so the light gave the car a left turn signal, but never turned green for straight. This being the third time I got screwed, I was not happy. Fast forward to Sunday, I had a 28 mile ride mapped out, with about 8 traffic lights, compare that to my 20 mile Monday ride with about 20 lights. I rode the first 18 miles before actually getting stopped at a light. It was a left turn light at hwy 50 and hwy 210 in Johnston county. I was in the left turn lane and thought I was going to have to run it, since there were no cars to trigger the light in my lane, but image my surprise when I got a left turn signal. Here I am in Johnston county and they have their sensors setup to know when a bike is waiting. Wake up Wake county, you are supposed to be pushing for less pollution and bike lanes, adjust your lights already. When I went to college in Gainesville, Fl my junior year the changed the lights to be more sensitive for bikers, and here we are 20 years later and we can't do that here? Anyway it was a pleasant surprise and made the cold ride feel much better :-)