Thursday June 21st 2007, 10:43 pm
Filed under: the bike
Wow. Been quiet here, no?
Why?
Well, I’ve been working like mad to prepare for being out for two weeks from work. We’re headed to Steamboat Springs, Colorado tomorrow for the Bicycle Tour of Colorado which starts on Sunday. I’ll be out of town until next Sunday and I’m not even bringing a computer with me. :)
I’m exhausted. And excited. As of yesterday, I’d put in over 36 hours at work so far in prep for being gone. Luckily, I can sleep on the drive there. We’re driving with another couple in their huge Durango. It’ll be a long trip, but fun people to spend the time with. After that, we’re on to our adventure.
I’d really like to write more, but I really need to get to bed. Perhaps when I get back, I’ll fill you in on the prep work in addition to the stories I’m sure I’m going to have. But until then, take care.
That. And kill the bike course with Jen’s Cervelo P3.
So, there was a little pressure going into this morning. I was actually more nervous than I was last week. And I didn’t get a whole lot of sleep thanks to my dogs who were barking at every car that went by
I don’t know how much sleep I got. Maybe four hours?
The morning still went okay. My buddy Kristy arrived and we caravaned out to the course early enough to ensure a good racking spot. I got close to the bike in/out — which is what I wanted. And as the butterflies started to fly around in my stomach, I just concentrated on having a good race. I warmed up a bit on the bike. Kristy and I went for a little warm-up run. Soon, it was time to start.
When my wave got off, the water was shallow and allowed for way more walking/running than I’d prefer. When I finally dove in, I did my best to build a steady rhythm. I knew I wasn’t the best swimmer, but I just hammered it out. I’m pretty sure I was dead middle of my wave and I just concentrated on swimming steady and straight. There were a few close calls with running into people, but nothing to write home about. The swim felt long, but all swims do to me, so I didn’t think twice about the distance. I just plugged along until I saw the finish in sight. Again, the lake was shallow and exiting was a lot of running in the water. I could feel my heart rate was red-lining as I headed into transition. I did my best to get out of there as quickly as possible (which I did — a 1:45 T1 which is a PR for me) and I was off on the bike.
The bike was quick. I hammered. I gave it all I had. It was a still day and no wind on this course made it much easier than the route is normally. I wasn’t passed by a single woman (that made me feel good) and I did my fair share of passing. I probably didn’t drink as much as I should have. But the bike was fun. I felt fast.
T2 was another PR for me. I was out of there in no time.
Then, the run.
After last week’s 8:15/mile pace, I felt a lot of pressure just from myself to repeat it — if not better it. And last year, I managed a 8:19/mile on this course. But both last week and last year were cool temperature runs for me. I just don’t perform as well when it’s over 70 degrees.
Of course, that wasn’t my only problem. Aside from being hot, my legs hurt when I started! I don’t know if it was the aggressive position of the TT bike or the way I hammered it on the course, but my glutes were tired and I felt like I didn’t have much in my legs for this course. I kept telling myself to lengthen my stride and speed it up, but I was already breathing hard and I just felt tapped. And I was hurting. It was not a good run. AND it was a damn long 3.1 miles. I remember last year it feeling so short! But this year, man, I was just wishing to be at the finish so that I could stop.
At the turn around, a good thing did happen. I saw my girlfriend who was gaining on me after I passed her on the bike and I knew, at the pace she and I were going, she was going to catch me on the run. I picked it up and concentrated on not letting that happen.
I gave that last 2.5 kilometers all I had. Running to the finish, I was spent. It took a good 15 minutes to get rid of the shakiness I felt.
At the end of the day? I actually accomplished one of my major goals for 2007. I cracked my divisonal top ten!
Yep, that’s right. I managed to place 9th in the 35 – 40 age group. That’s better than last year. And WAY better than the year before.
Still, I can’t help but have some second thoughts about the race considering my performance on then run. I yielded a 8:42/mile pace (on the 3.1 mile course — although, online, it has me at a 9:00/mile pace for a 3.0 mile course, but I honestly think that is off). Either way, 8:42 or 9:00 are not a personal best. I know I can do better. And I wonder if I’d ridden my own bike, would it have been different? Of course, that said, could I have averaged 20.5 mph on myThe Revenge of Frankenstein rip
I’ll always second-guess performances. It’s the nature of the gam. I took a risk in testing out a new bike. It was fun. Exciting. And I can’t regret the choice. I can learn from it, though.
Ironically, I didn’t beat last year’s time. In fact, it was over 4 minutes longer. But word on the street is that the swim times were more similar to a 3/4 mile than 1/2 mile. Everyone said their swim was super-long. So take that with a grain of salt looking at the times. Also, the Web site says the run is 3.1 miles. The results say 3.0. Whatever. I still placed ninth. ;)
Offical results:
277 out of 510 total finishers
9th out of 30 in 35 – 40 female division
1/2 Mile Swim: 25:32 2:54/100 yd (again, this seem to actuall be a 3/4 mile swim which yields more like a 2:05/100 yd pace)
T1: 1:46
13 Mile Bike: 39:30 20.5mph
T2: 1:18
3 Mile Run: 26:59 9:00/mile
Total time: 1:35:03Ultimate Avengers II hdAbbott and Costello Go to Mars movie download
Saturday June 09th 2007, 12:44 pm
Filed under: triathlon
So, my girlfriend, who is signed up for this weekend’s race, is out of town and told me I should ride her bike. The only stipulation is that I have to be the first Birchwoodie in from the bike course.
Hmm.. not sure if I can guarantee THAT, but I did take her Cervelo P3 with Zipp 303 wheels out today as a test to see if I can possibly race this thing at Manitou tomorrow.
At first, the bike was scary. I wasn’t used to being in such a aggressive position. I felt like I was almost falling downhill when I got into the aeros. Then, there is the rigidness of the bike — sooooo not like my sweet climbing Diva that reacts immediately to whatever I need her to do.
But, after I got comfortable in the position and with the shifting, I have to admit the thing is fast. Holy crap. At one point we were just “cruising at 26 – 27 mph” — and that wasn’t even downhill. Kind of crazy. Which is kind of what James said in that, I’d be crazy NOT to race the thing tomorrow.
So, while I won’t feel completely at home on Jen’s P3, I’ll have a super-fast bike on my side. Hopefully, that can account for any user-error that falls into the equation.
And did I mention how incredibly light this bike is? Oh. My. Goodness. Makes my Diva seem so heavy. Makes me want new wheels, too.
So, wish me luck tomorrow. It’ll be interesting to see how this bike impacts my speed (that, and the TT helmet Jen also convinced me to try).
(the image I just sent Sascha bagging out of an open water swim today so I could drink coffe on my deck instead)
It is absolutely beautiful this morning. It almost makes me feel a little guilty for sleeping in so late. I pulled by body out of bed just before 9am because I knew I wouldn’t be able to live with myself had I slept past then — but I could of… I certianly could of…
Unfortunately, this is the only downtime I’m going to have all weekend. I have a bachelorette party / shower this afternoon & evening. Then, tomorrow morning, it’s uber-early wake-up for the Buffalo, MN tri. I’m doing the sprint course and I just found out from a friend that the swim is only 1/4 mile. Seems hardly worth even getting wet. But a short swim? I’ll take it.
I feel odd going into my first race of the season. Even though I’ve been getting in some decent training, I feel unprepared. The truth is, I don’t even have lace locks on my sneakers. I also got new racing-style cycling shoes at the end of last season and I know they won’t work for tris. I’ve thought about getting some tri-specific shoes, but haven’t acted on it and now, here I am, a day before the race, and I think I’ll have to dig out my old shoes from last year witih the ground-down speedplay plates. At least it’s only a 13 mile bike ride, right?
The thing is, I’ve put so much heart and soul and sweat into my job recently, that the training has turned into more a stress-reliever than anything else. I don’t feel like I’ve been really training to hit any PRs, more just training to survive. To survive the Spirit of Race. To survive the stress of work. To survive not gaining a million pounds because I haven’t been following any sort of diet at all.
Last night I almost gave myself a heart attack. We were on the couch. My girlfriend, who was over for dinner after a preview of next weekend’s tri course, had just left and I was checking email. James asked me when I needed to pick up my race packet and I’d totally spaced. I had no idea. I hadn’t been reading my personal emails. Then, when I did, I noticed that there was a Friday night event with packet pick-up and I’d missed it!!! Why hadn’t I read my email?? Did I miss packet pick-up and the opportunity to race?
Thankfully, after going to the race site, I noticed that they do have race day packet pick-up. Not all races do and I’m lucky. How could I have forgotten to keep up on that stuff?
At any rate, even despite my general malaise about racing this year, I have seen some improvements. I mentioned in the last post that my 1000 yard swim TT is still just a second or two under 19 minutes. That’s a great improvement from last year. I’ve also managed to improve my running speed slightly. At least when it comes to my tempo workouts. All season long, I’ve been doing these monthly “tempo time trials” according to my training program. They started out as warm-ups with timed 1-mile runs at 9-11 beats below my lowest zone 5 number — exactly. I started out the season with a 9:20/mile @ an average 160 bpm. Two months later, this was down to a 9:10/mile @ an average 161 bpm. THEN, on Thursday, the time trial was actually three miles long at the same effort and I averaged a 9:05/mile @ an average of 159 bpm!!! That’s a longer duration, a faster pace and a lower heart rate. How sweet is that? It did a lot for my self confidence given I’ve been a bit down on myself for lack of focus this season. I’ve also not been getting in even 1/2 the mileage I was last year at this time since, last year, I was doing a marathon. It’s nice to see that you can improve without having to put in 20-40 miles of running each week.
I was going to do a whole re-cap of our Ironman Wisconsin ride, but already this entry is getting long. Let’s just say it was stellar. The weather was perfect and I so miss the rolling hills of home. I kept stopping to take pictures of farms and cows. James finally snickered, “I thought this was a training ride?!” I did try to stay in my aeros for the majority of the ride and not stand to climb — but there we’re a few hills where that was unavoidable. I’ve also discovered that my computer is off on my bike. At the end of the ride, I only came in at 57 or so miles and James said we were over 60. So that means my averages are off, too. Truth be told, I have no idea how fast I’m riding this season. I just know I’m stronger than last year.
I guess that’s about it. I’ll leave you with some shots of our ride last weekend. Now I’m off to groom the dogs, do a little shopping, get my race gear together and attend a bachelor party where I won’t be drinking alcohol because of tomorrow morning. I don’t mind non-alcoholic beer — but alcoholic is more fun… ;)
