HELLLOOOO Bloggers!
You can guess by the title of this blog entry that yes, Aksoy beat me in the first triathlon of the season. He beat me by approximately 11 minutes. Congratulations Aksoy – job well done.
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| I still kicked your ass on the swim!! |
So let’s talk about the race shall we? Overall this was a VERY GOOD race for me. I am quite proud of my planning and execution of the plan. The morning started at 4:15 am with the first leg of my race – pre-race fueling. I think finally I nailed this. I ate a bagel with peanut butter at the house and sipped my HEED electrolyte drink with it. Prior to leaving, I had my first gel of the day. As I drove down to the race, this time, I had coffee. I figured in the time it took me to get to the race, the coffee would kick in and force other digestive processes to kick in and they did. As I set up my bike and stuff in transition, I continued to drink my HEED.
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| My Race Mantra: Run a Complete Race |
The swim
The swim was a ‘wave start’, meaning that me and a bunch of other women 40 and over would start together. Each wave started 5 minutes after the other. We were the last wave to go. Before the swim start, I downed another gel packet. I realized after the masses left that the entry was a timing matt, meaning that once I stepped on it, my timing chip would start, so I quickly made the decision not to join the mad dash into the water. Instead I waited until most got in and walked into the water – no energy lost. I stayed on the left of my pack and what I saw next was awesome. Slow and steady I set out. I could see as I took breaths that I was passing my pack quite easily. By the 3rd bouy I had caught up to the racers in the group before us. I exited the water in 10:04 which was pretty much on target to my plan. Yeah!!!
Ay yay yah…the transition from swim exit to the bikes had to be .5 to .6 of a mile on gravelly road – can you say OUCH!?!?
The Bike
The bike leg was well executed. With my computer displaying my HR, I set a goal of maintaining 152 BPM. There was about a 10 mph wind, so when I got hit with it, instead of wasting energy, I dropped a gear – knowing I’d make it up on the return trip. All through the bike I would read the message I wrote on my arm and on my hand. My arm said, “Run complete race” and my hand said “Breathe”. This helped me mentally stay focused on energy conservation and fuel consumption. Bike leg according to my garmin: 31:23
The Run
God did this suck! The course was a series of left and right turns that were not marked well. Quite frustrating. The first mile my legs were dead. I started to get a groove on the 2nd mile. The 3rd mile I was looking at my arm quite a bit. I had the joy of having my friends daughter cheering me on and telling me to “Read your arm!”. She doesn’t realize how much that helped! I was very pleased with my run overall as I managed to actually run the whole course. My previous 2 races I walked more than I ran. My splits were acceptable for me: 10:14, 10:22, 10:24.
My takeaways
I’m very proud of my race. It legitimized my efforts that I can do this if I train and prepare. I’m proud I did it without a coach (go team ME!). I need to do more distance after the high intensity bike rides to get my legs in better shape. At least I need to do this for the short triathlons. It’ll be different when I train for the ½ ironman in the fall.
The reward
My friend and I have a tradition, do well in a race or do something of merit: Red Velvet Cupcake!!
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| YUM!! |
Let's all raise a cupcake to whatever we are proud of! Next race: I'll tell you next post, but I'm registering tomorrow!
