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I placed 1st in my Age Group & 4th overall on Monday (out of 238), May 25th, at Heart of the Valley Sprint Triathlon. 750 Meters in a 50 Meter pool & a very hilly and challenging bike leg.
No major complaints on the swim except that I am still a slow swimmer. I could have pushed a little harder here too (lost track of laps and that didn't help either).
A good early season race to remind me of the things I have to learn and improve on! Onwards and upwards. Looking forward to Blue Lake as my next major race. I am also doing a 2000 yard open water race on the 31st (Hagg Lake).
Overall it was an "OK only" race despite the good placement. I had a very poor 1st transition and lost my shoe off the pedal which slowed me down. I got up to the start line and had to run back get my shoe and then put it on my foot, then run back up to the "mount line" and try to get on the bike as best as I could. Not pretty. I finished the swim right behind Steve Murcott -- but after my terrible transition he gained about 300 yards on me (after we got on the bike). I had to push a bit to catch back up to him.
On the bike I was rather "un-smooth" (power wise) and did not push hard enough on the sections that I needed to surge on. Partially it was because I was trying to be strategic and stay behind Steve, however after some time I realized that Steve was going too easy on the uphills due to having too many Starbucks Frappuchino's over the past few months. . Had it been a flat course things would have been different. I was also "spinning out" on the several very hilly down-hill portions. I was somewhat "saving my legs" to push hard on the downhill portion of each hill. Only 1 or 2 (major) down hills allowed me to add significant power due to "lack of proper gearing". Crap! Triathlon is a technical sport! :)
On the run I suffered from stomach cramps again despite a very small breakfast (half a pop tart) and a cup of coffee followed by liquid nutrition over the next 2 hours. I think the larger problem was a EXTREMELY large dinner the night before with 3 pieces of cheesecake as dessert. We had guests over last night and Kacy prepared an amazing Salmon dinner with delicious mashed potatoes, etc (I could keep going on this topic as I love GOOD food). Anyway, lesson learned. I felt like I was going to throw up several times on the run again and was "burping my way along" the run. oh well.
Happy training
~Sam
1 comment:
Starbucks tells me those frappuccinos are just 600 calories a piece. Not even equivalent to a pint of ice-cream. Give me a break!
But seriously, nice race! Way better than "OK". This was your strongest race so far.
That was a stand-out swim, considering your times in training. And you crushed the bike. An extra gear would not have made much difference when you were already descending at 40+ mph, since the power needed increases with the cube of the airspeed. Better to get aero and save energy, as you did.
4th overall is damn good. 200+ people behind you would be very happy with that placing! A couple less pieces of cheesecake and you might even win!
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