Mideast Regional Championships
Race is done. Didn't set a new PR, but that was due to things outside of my control, so I'm not worried. I did improve my run slightly, and I'm happy about that.
Water temp on race day was 79 degrees. 78 is the cutoff for wetsuits. If it's warmer than 78, you can't wear a wetsuit as they worry that people will overheat. Swimming with a wetsuit gains me about 1-2 minutes, thanks to the increased buoancy it provides. The swim course also seems to have been a bit long. Normally at an olympic distance ( especially the regional champships! ) will see top swimmers coming out in the 16-18 minute range. At this race, only 3 people finished under 20 minutes, and only by a few seconds at that. So the suspicion is that they didn't measure the course right, and we all swam a bit extra. Since everybody did the same swim, it doesn't matter in the overall race standings, only means that you can't really compare it to other races.
There was an early morning fog that settled on the lake, so thick that you couldn't see the first buoy from shore. That delayed the start by almost an hour, which was annoying, as it threw off my warmup schedule.
We finally got underway about 8:30'ish. The swim went well, I picked out one of the fastest guys and drafted him for about 2/3rds of the course. Really happy about that. In turn, I got drafted, as I felt several hands touch my feet throughout the entire swim. In a way, I'm happy about that, as it means that I was going fast enough that someone else wanted to draft off me. An offhanded compliment in a way.
Swim time: 25:04
Got out onto the bike pretty fast. Slight uphill out of transition, so I pedaled with my feet on top of my bike shoes up the hill, then put my feet in coasting down the otherside. This was a fast bike course, but I didn't push hard enough at the start. I didn't really kick in the bike until about mile 8. Kept speed over 22 for just about all of the rest of the bike except for a couple bigger rollers at the end. Pretty uneventful, just a nice bike course. Not many turns, so lots of time on the aerobars cranking away the miles.
Bike time: 1:12:11
Got in off the bike pretty fast and out onto the run. Because of the later start, it was warmer than I'd hoped on the run. I kept up a good cadence on the run. Didn't take any gel, took in gatorade twice from the aid stations, otherwise just water, most of which I dumped over my head. Kicked it at mile 5 like I planned. Finished the last 1.2 miles in just under 8 minutes, so I was really cruising the end. My average pace came in a 7:57/mile so I broke the 8:00/mile barrier finally!
I didn't hurt as badly as I thought when I kicked, so I probably could have pushed it harder on the run. My coach agrees. I don't really know where my limit is, in terms of how much I can make myself hurt on the run before I detonate. I need to trust my fitness more, and just let it rip. Race plan for the next race is to try to blow myself up on purpose, so that I know where the edge is. Rather than tiptoe up to it, he told me to take a running jump off. :)
Run time: 49:23
Total time: 2:29:47. That puts me at 16th in my age group, and 115th overall.
Next race is in 2 weeks, and not much rest for that, as I'm training through it to get ready for my next 1/2 Ironman which is coming up in only 4 weeks!
Water temp on race day was 79 degrees. 78 is the cutoff for wetsuits. If it's warmer than 78, you can't wear a wetsuit as they worry that people will overheat. Swimming with a wetsuit gains me about 1-2 minutes, thanks to the increased buoancy it provides. The swim course also seems to have been a bit long. Normally at an olympic distance ( especially the regional champships! ) will see top swimmers coming out in the 16-18 minute range. At this race, only 3 people finished under 20 minutes, and only by a few seconds at that. So the suspicion is that they didn't measure the course right, and we all swam a bit extra. Since everybody did the same swim, it doesn't matter in the overall race standings, only means that you can't really compare it to other races.
There was an early morning fog that settled on the lake, so thick that you couldn't see the first buoy from shore. That delayed the start by almost an hour, which was annoying, as it threw off my warmup schedule.
We finally got underway about 8:30'ish. The swim went well, I picked out one of the fastest guys and drafted him for about 2/3rds of the course. Really happy about that. In turn, I got drafted, as I felt several hands touch my feet throughout the entire swim. In a way, I'm happy about that, as it means that I was going fast enough that someone else wanted to draft off me. An offhanded compliment in a way.
Swim time: 25:04
Got out onto the bike pretty fast. Slight uphill out of transition, so I pedaled with my feet on top of my bike shoes up the hill, then put my feet in coasting down the otherside. This was a fast bike course, but I didn't push hard enough at the start. I didn't really kick in the bike until about mile 8. Kept speed over 22 for just about all of the rest of the bike except for a couple bigger rollers at the end. Pretty uneventful, just a nice bike course. Not many turns, so lots of time on the aerobars cranking away the miles.
Bike time: 1:12:11
Got in off the bike pretty fast and out onto the run. Because of the later start, it was warmer than I'd hoped on the run. I kept up a good cadence on the run. Didn't take any gel, took in gatorade twice from the aid stations, otherwise just water, most of which I dumped over my head. Kicked it at mile 5 like I planned. Finished the last 1.2 miles in just under 8 minutes, so I was really cruising the end. My average pace came in a 7:57/mile so I broke the 8:00/mile barrier finally!
I didn't hurt as badly as I thought when I kicked, so I probably could have pushed it harder on the run. My coach agrees. I don't really know where my limit is, in terms of how much I can make myself hurt on the run before I detonate. I need to trust my fitness more, and just let it rip. Race plan for the next race is to try to blow myself up on purpose, so that I know where the edge is. Rather than tiptoe up to it, he told me to take a running jump off. :)
Run time: 49:23
Total time: 2:29:47. That puts me at 16th in my age group, and 115th overall.
Next race is in 2 weeks, and not much rest for that, as I'm training through it to get ready for my next 1/2 Ironman which is coming up in only 4 weeks!
posted by Chris Parker at
7:54 AM
2 Comments:
Wow, that is a great race, smoking performances on all segments. I'll be interested to hear about your upcoming "red-line" race. :)
By
klbarrus, at 2:17 PM
Pretty amazed Christopher! The photos are great and you are doing amazing! 2 years ago I would have NEVER seen this coming, you should be totally proud!
Jen
By
Jennifer, at 5:09 AM
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