Here a short RR from IMMD. Good fun race, success by all means, however feeling the worst post IM blues ever and somehow not even excited to go to Kona again. Ok, could be a jet lag as well
First some tri-excuses:
- I scraped bottom of my feet and hand during practice swim, didnt really effect performance but added stress before the race trying to keep the "wounds" from getting infected
- My Polar charging cable stopped working, again managed to charge it in the end by manually holding the cable in place with considerable force
- My swim goggle started leaking and was filling up quite quickly during race, required few stops, but mostly made my navigation even worse than usual
- Power meter crapped out at the start of the bike and showed only random or at least wrongly scaled numbers (>400W)
- My biking sunglasses broke and quickly obtained replacements were polarized in such way that I could not see the screen of the bike computer
:)
Swim 1.00.39
This is my slowest swim ever, so it seems the better I get in the pool, the worse I am in the race. 3 minutes slower than Kona last year and this with wetsuit. Dont know what is wrong, I felt good and could have kept swimming no problem. Maybe the course was a bit long or there was a current, but still.
Bike 4.42
This was good and steady, felt a bit bad around mid point but then better. Very clean being at the front of the race (~top 5). Went by feel and HR and a bit with the random power number by just trying to keep it steady.
Surprisingly many slower people were struggling to ride on the right side of the road. Really annoying when passing somebody who is 90k behind you is hugging the center line and going some 10mph slower. Dont understand this at all.
Also, such a flat bike is tough for me training in Switzerland, here I struggle to get more than 5 minutes in aero before a hill, intersection, village or something else forces me out of position.
Run 3.34
This was disappointing to say the least. Toughest run in any of my races, felt around 1k mark that I want to walk. Conditions were relatively hard with high winds, heat and humidity, but again, cant help but being unhappy.
Not sure if I have any reason or justification for feeling that since never been a good runner (and with early year broken ankle etc), but I do. I was expecting to run at least 10min faster and hoping for more.
Worst episode came around 12k when I randomly decided to take some base salt when offered and almost immediately got a huge side stitch that almost made me stop, it lasted some 5k and then got better. Typically I dont do stupid stuff in a race, so I must have been distracted already by the way I felt.
Anyway, learned or confirmed the fact that I am really motivated by getting faster, I think I would rather have had a 9.15 and taken 5th and not KQ than what I got now.
But I did take the slot, so I need to do one more IM (5th), lets see in the spring how I feel about it then, now its time to start the ice-hockey season and put on some pounds....!
First some tri-excuses:
- I scraped bottom of my feet and hand during practice swim, didnt really effect performance but added stress before the race trying to keep the "wounds" from getting infected
- My Polar charging cable stopped working, again managed to charge it in the end by manually holding the cable in place with considerable force
- My swim goggle started leaking and was filling up quite quickly during race, required few stops, but mostly made my navigation even worse than usual
- Power meter crapped out at the start of the bike and showed only random or at least wrongly scaled numbers (>400W)
- My biking sunglasses broke and quickly obtained replacements were polarized in such way that I could not see the screen of the bike computer
:)
Swim 1.00.39
This is my slowest swim ever, so it seems the better I get in the pool, the worse I am in the race. 3 minutes slower than Kona last year and this with wetsuit. Dont know what is wrong, I felt good and could have kept swimming no problem. Maybe the course was a bit long or there was a current, but still.
Bike 4.42
This was good and steady, felt a bit bad around mid point but then better. Very clean being at the front of the race (~top 5). Went by feel and HR and a bit with the random power number by just trying to keep it steady.
Surprisingly many slower people were struggling to ride on the right side of the road. Really annoying when passing somebody who is 90k behind you is hugging the center line and going some 10mph slower. Dont understand this at all.
Also, such a flat bike is tough for me training in Switzerland, here I struggle to get more than 5 minutes in aero before a hill, intersection, village or something else forces me out of position.
Run 3.34
This was disappointing to say the least. Toughest run in any of my races, felt around 1k mark that I want to walk. Conditions were relatively hard with high winds, heat and humidity, but again, cant help but being unhappy.
Not sure if I have any reason or justification for feeling that since never been a good runner (and with early year broken ankle etc), but I do. I was expecting to run at least 10min faster and hoping for more.
Worst episode came around 12k when I randomly decided to take some base salt when offered and almost immediately got a huge side stitch that almost made me stop, it lasted some 5k and then got better. Typically I dont do stupid stuff in a race, so I must have been distracted already by the way I felt.
Anyway, learned or confirmed the fact that I am really motivated by getting faster, I think I would rather have had a 9.15 and taken 5th and not KQ than what I got now.
But I did take the slot, so I need to do one more IM (5th), lets see in the spring how I feel about it then, now its time to start the ice-hockey season and put on some pounds....!