So I finally did my first tri (~700yd/14.7mi/3.1mi) of the year yesterday. I did this race last year, and the bike/run courses and conditions were pretty much the same as last year. Some differences:
2006: did Eagleman the week before; averaged ~15mi/week running the previous 5 months
2007: got ~5hrs sleep after packing and moving a bunch of stuff to our new house; swim was about 150yds longer; probably averaged more like 25mi/week, mostly easy; only biked perhaps 600-700 miles total in 2007; only ran ~10mi/week the last 3 weeks.
Short story: bike was :29 slower, run was :34 faster. I felt very good on the run (at least until the last 2 minutes), despite having pushed the bike and not having done much hard biking this season. So, at age 49, I think I can get faster.
Consistency: 7th fastest swim, 9th fastest bike, 8th fastest run, 6th overall. http://www.lin-mark.com/tgtrioof07.txt (don't believe the bike speeds: distance was a little under 15mi, not the claimed 16). The park says the the trail we ran on is 3.1 miles, but who knows.
One gripe about this race (and only one) and others around here: I really don't need another mug that says "Award Winner". As I had some time commitments (and a 1:45hr drive ahead of me), I debated sticking around for awards (it takes some time to get to us old AGers awards), but figured it would be a bit disrespectful to bail. It was nice to shake the hands of the 2nd and 3rd placers, and I like Mark Toretsky. Still, there are a couple of awards that I've gotten that are distinctive enough to be kept visible (like the medal they gave at the NJ Triathlon which sits on my desk at work, or the trophies at the Monmouth Sprint race), but this one will disappear, too.
Looking forward to the rest of the season.
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"Go yell at an M&M"
2006: did Eagleman the week before; averaged ~15mi/week running the previous 5 months
2007: got ~5hrs sleep after packing and moving a bunch of stuff to our new house; swim was about 150yds longer; probably averaged more like 25mi/week, mostly easy; only biked perhaps 600-700 miles total in 2007; only ran ~10mi/week the last 3 weeks.
Short story: bike was :29 slower, run was :34 faster. I felt very good on the run (at least until the last 2 minutes), despite having pushed the bike and not having done much hard biking this season. So, at age 49, I think I can get faster.
Consistency: 7th fastest swim, 9th fastest bike, 8th fastest run, 6th overall. http://www.lin-mark.com/tgtrioof07.txt (don't believe the bike speeds: distance was a little under 15mi, not the claimed 16). The park says the the trail we ran on is 3.1 miles, but who knows.
One gripe about this race (and only one) and others around here: I really don't need another mug that says "Award Winner". As I had some time commitments (and a 1:45hr drive ahead of me), I debated sticking around for awards (it takes some time to get to us old AGers awards), but figured it would be a bit disrespectful to bail. It was nice to shake the hands of the 2nd and 3rd placers, and I like Mark Toretsky. Still, there are a couple of awards that I've gotten that are distinctive enough to be kept visible (like the medal they gave at the NJ Triathlon which sits on my desk at work, or the trophies at the Monmouth Sprint race), but this one will disappear, too.
Looking forward to the rest of the season.
----------------------------------
"Go yell at an M&M"