Sunday, August 22, 2010

Litchfield Hills Olympic Distance Triathlon

Total time:     3:00:22
Swim             27:30 (.9 mile/  100/1:54)
Bike:              1:22:44 (24.8 miles/ 17.99 mph)
Run:               1:02:08 (6.2 miles/ 10.01 mph)

T1:                 6:24 (.2 mile run that requires shoes up to transition)
T2:                 1:39

192/263 OA
10/13 AG F45-49
185 OA Swim
168 OA Bike
223 OA Run

Up at 4:50 a.m. Ate a bowl of oatmeal w/ a couple of walnuts and a tbs. of protein powder, some cottage cheese and some grapes, one cup of coffee and some EFS to sip in the car. Gear and bike ready to go. Loaded the car and off to New Hartford with my sherpa. It began raining as we drove over the CT River. Pretty sure it didn't stop til we got home after the race.

Arrived at the park and it seemed quite crowded. Peed in the woods. In transition, my rack was already pretty filled up. Had to carve out a space for myself. Put my bike and running shoes in a plastic shopping bag to keep them at least a little dry. Peed again in the woods then headed down to the water with wetsuit, old pair of kicks and my sherpa.

Stuffed myself into my wetsuit after finding a spot for my shoes. I wore the long sleeve as it was chilly enough to stand it and hoped I'd be a little faster in it. All females, clydes and first timer guys were in the first of 3 waves. Was able to get a few strokes in the water before the pre-race lecture and then they herded us into the chute. Gun went off and the melee began. You have to sight well on this course because its trapezoidal. Its easy to run wide and add lots of yardage. I feel like I did a good job of sighting from buoy to buoy and this led to my best swim time here. The start was a little chaotic and it took a while to find my gills. I had that icky feeling like you have no oxygen in your blood — took a while for that to diminish. Meantime, I was trying not to lose my teeth :). Was able to stay on some feet for a little drafting action but, per usual—eventually found myself alone mid-course. That is, until the males in the second wave swam over me! Got a bit more congested at buoy where we turned to head back into shore. Here is where I really wanted to be sure I got my eye on the next buoy so as not to swim to far off the line. This is where you can really make the swim long.

Hit the shore and was very happy to see a sub 30 minute time. 5-6 minutes better than last year, but not sure its and apples to apples comparison. The run back up to transition is hard!—especially with a wetsuit half on. Its rocky and uphill.

Hit transition to find that someone had put their transition box practically on my stuff. Really? Come on ladies-you really don't need a box of crap in transition! So I moved that out of my way to reach into my bag and get my bike shoes and race belt. Helmet on and off to the mounting area — which is also a bit of a run. It was raining pretty good at this point so plan was to go hard, but to be cautious too. There's a screaming downhill at the beginning that had potential to be the beginning of the end so took a bit easier than I normally would have here.

This bike course is challenging. You start with a nice downhill and then there's few uphills and then some nice fast stuff until you hit route 202. Here you climb for bit (3-4 miles) and then you get off into the really nasty part. It ends with a real leg breaker. I was doing 4 miles an hour up that last nasty hill and thinking I might not make it up. The road had recently been chipped sealed. It was wet so small stone was stuck to my wheel and jammed between tire and cutout causing the two to rub—the friction making it even harder to turn the pedals. Dave was at the top screaming encouragement — which was awesome because I really, really needed it! I did well on the bike — just a couple of minutes off last year's time

I had 3 GUs, a salt tab capsule and an aero bottle of water on the bike.

Finally to the finish, my legs felt like rubber getting off the bike. Short run over the grass into transition — where I again had to move that danged box to get my wet sneakers out of my bag. Shoes on, helmet off, stuffed a GU in my shorts and off I went for the run.

The course took us through a wooded area with a wood-chipped path. There were lots of tree roots and rocks. It was raining and I had poor visibility through my sun glasses. Turned my ankle good on a tree root. Payed better attention to the ground after that. Again, had to run up that nasty little road from the lake and here I felt the fatigue in my legs. I walked some here but there were quite a few spectators along this park road so felt obligated to run. The first mile was a struggle. The second too. Somewhere in the third, I got annoyed with myself for not performing the way I feel I should be able to. Luckily, there was some downhill here so I was able to get a good run going. I just could not get into a sustainable pace. My legs feel strong but aerobically, I feel off. Walked several times. In the last mile I forced myself to run and keep running. Finally saw Dave at the six mile mark and he yelled at me good as he could see I was giving up. He basically chased me the last .2 miles almost to the finish :).

I took 2 GUs during the run.

So looking at the numbers, I feel like I had a good swim and a good bike, but clearly the run was my limiter today. I'm frustrated that I can't find a pace to sustain and can't find a way to work through the difficult moments and settle into a rhythm to keep going.

However, this was a very solid effort today and I'm looking forward to tomorrow's workout!

2 comments:

  1. Awesome job in such crappy weather! I totally felt that 4mph climb - ugh, I have done too many of those and happy you stuck w/it. Easy to clip out for sure and walk

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  2. Way to keep going during a tough day Pam! How are you feeling today? Glad the injury didn't seem to act up.

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