Well, I haven't done a half since Sept 05, and have had a bunch of ups and downs and major left turns in my life since then... but lo and behold, I found myself at the start line of the Oliver 1/2IM race this past Sunday. I had heard a lot of very positive reviews about this race, and training this year seemed to be on the right track, so I was actually pretty excited and anxious to race. We got into Oliver mid-day Saturday, to high wind gusts and warm sunny weather. The winds were a concern, as a short spin around the course made it pretty obvious that any decent headwinds would turn the ride into a sufferfest. Checked into our B&B (Elm Farm B&B - very nice & quiet!), hit registration and got our packages, got in a quick ride, sat thru the pre-race meeting, saw a lot of familiar faces, checked into transition. Almost 1300 people registered for this race, which was a huge increase over prior years. I had never been in a tri with thsi big a field - even IMWA was only about 900 people. Should prove interesting - hopefully the drafting is minimal. Then Dinner. Mmm. Usual pre-race meal (spag bolognais w/1-2 beers), then back to the shack for rest and sleep.
5am and there is no wind! Excellent! Got to transition, ran into Alexia (turned out to be my rack mate!) and several women I swim with (Alison, Debbie, Leigh) (also rackmates). P, Alexia and I dawdled down to the swim start around 7, did a quick warm-up/wet-down, warmed up the wetsuit, and waited for the start. This was P's first 1/2, and I knew the swim would annoy him (being so much washing machine) - sure enough he had his Polar kicked off his wrist within 300m :-( but he had a great swim overall. I get in, say bye to Alexia and hit the water. That swim was one of the more rough ones I have done - rough in terms of the mash of fellow swimmers. It took almost 1500m to get to a semi-civilized state out there. I ended up two-stroke-breathing almost the whole swim and I am a die-hard bi-lateral breather. But it was just so busy and crazy out there, I couldn't get into a rhythm. I'm sure the murkiness of the lake didn't help matters. But I was feeling very good while in the water, so just plpowed on. Out in 38 and change. Hmm - not bad. One of my better 1/2IM swim times.
(Turned out it was 19th/62 in my AG - I have NEVER had a FOP swim before. This just baffles me now.)
Oliver has a fairly long run to T1, about 450m actually, almost all on pavement. I don't mind these set-ups, I find that my feet are so beat up and abused that they have no problem running barefoot on pavement. And they had BONUS wetsuit strippers - so that neoprene came flying off - WHOOSH. Jog to Transition, get my gear on and head out. Noticed Alexia's bike still racked - great now I gotta wait for her to pass me on the bike ;-)
(I ended up with the 9th fastest T1 in my AG - LOL! - Khai would be so proud).
The bike: nice course, 2 loops plus a ~13k section at the start, and one of the main roads had recently been repaved (super smooth). The wind started to pick up a bit so that on the Southbound section, there was a nice headwind, which of course meant a tailwind on the Northbound section. Heading South, there is one or two small climbs, nothing to write home about. I found myself easily passing people on these hills which was a nice feeling, as I have been trying to work on my climbing this season. However on the flats I was still being passed by a lot of guys - not too many chicks. Alexia did finally pass me, around 30k or so in, she just disappeared from sight soon after that. The drafting was not as bad as I expected - although there were a few pelotons out there, and more than once I had to snot-rocket someone off my rear wheel - you certainly could ride clean if you wanted - which I did.
I was feeling good, taking my gels every 40min, and my legs felt pretty strong - until the last Southbound leg with the headwind - I could feel some "wilting". (Looking now at my power data I do see my power level drop a bit, not a lot, but some.) I still managed to climb just fine, but I was having trouble pushing a decent gear into the wind, esp. on any false flats. Hmm.... what to do... what to do... Have another gel? Can't hurt at this point.... Fluids? Some more sure, but I'd been taking in enough... Suck it up princess? Yeah, that's about right. So I sucked it up and finished the bike. I felt like I had a decent ride, that I managed to actually "race" (for me) and keep pushing - no dogging it or "oh I better take that super easy... I still gotta run..." going on in my head. One of my goals of this race was to feel like I rode strong the entire time, and I think I did that. 3h almost bang on. (Ended up with 24/62 bike split in my AG - Also far better than I actually expected but still room for improvement - about 10min worth at least.)
Hopped off, glad to be done, had a smooth T2, I felt ready to tackle this run and have a PR dammit! (19th T2 in my AG)
And then reality hit home. My legs had no pop, no momentum, no sizzle. I walked a bit, hit the portapotty, and tried to RELAX. My first 3k took about 35min :-( But I knew if I could relax, and run with good form, that I could get going again and finish no problem. Would I have a PR? Hmm doubtful now. Dammit, and I really thought I had it in me. Got running, managed to get back to 6:00/k (not super fast but good enough for what I had left to do) and kept that pace almost the remainder of the run. I felt better as I kept going, the flat cola always works for me, although once I hear my stomach gurgling I knew I had to lay off the fluids for a while. And just when it was getting hot out too! Bah! Saw P twice (he was having a great race!), saw Alexia twice, saw some rackmates and a fellow masters swimmer who was volunteering, saw my friend Kerry (actually saw her a bunch that day now that I think about it!!), and just tried to keep on going. I started passing people on the second loop of the run, not a lot of them but enough to keep me mentally going. Too bad so many passed me on the first loop, especially in those first 3 k! That all said, I'm pretty happy that I managed to pull it back from being a potential walk-a-thon/sufferfest. Not to say I wasn't glad to be done, I sure was! But I was pleased that I didn't mentally check-out and just let my run turn into 3hrs of yadda yadda yadda. Ended up about 2h23 - still not my worst 1/2IM run LOL! (Turned out my run was 43rd/62 in my AG, and not so super-happy-terrific, but I knew that. No reason I can't take 10-15min off that split either).
Finished in 6:13, still barely managed a PR (by 2min! I'll take it dammit!) got a nice pic with P at the finish, jumped in the lake to cool the jibbly bits (and promptly ran into Calvin, another buddy, had about the same race as me). In retrospect, I think I went too hard on the SWIM not the bike. At first I thought it was the bike, that I went too hard on the bike, but I don't think that's it - at least not all of it. I know that swim took a bunch out of me, and even though I felt good coming out of the water, I probably spent too much effort there and never really recovered. Well, I might have if I had rode more conservatively. Of course, that wasn't the plan - so while I planned the race, I only raced 2/3rds of the plan. Usually that means the plan isn't quite right.
So now Francois will make me run and ride a stupid amount before the Subaru Vancouver 1/2IM next month and IMC in August. It's my own dang fault. ;-) I'll post some pics when I get home... I think they're up now.
Final results:
30/62 F3539 AndyPants swim: 19/62 38:26 T1: 9/62 4:09 Bike: 24/62 3:05:45 T2: 19/62 1:59 Run: 43/62 2:23:13 Total: 30/62 6:13:30
Post race: Cheeseburger, watermelon, beer, wine, beer-can chicken, salad, ice cream, aloe vera and sleep.
AP
------------------------
"How bad could it be?" - SimpleS
5am and there is no wind! Excellent! Got to transition, ran into Alexia (turned out to be my rack mate!) and several women I swim with (Alison, Debbie, Leigh) (also rackmates). P, Alexia and I dawdled down to the swim start around 7, did a quick warm-up/wet-down, warmed up the wetsuit, and waited for the start. This was P's first 1/2, and I knew the swim would annoy him (being so much washing machine) - sure enough he had his Polar kicked off his wrist within 300m :-( but he had a great swim overall. I get in, say bye to Alexia and hit the water. That swim was one of the more rough ones I have done - rough in terms of the mash of fellow swimmers. It took almost 1500m to get to a semi-civilized state out there. I ended up two-stroke-breathing almost the whole swim and I am a die-hard bi-lateral breather. But it was just so busy and crazy out there, I couldn't get into a rhythm. I'm sure the murkiness of the lake didn't help matters. But I was feeling very good while in the water, so just plpowed on. Out in 38 and change. Hmm - not bad. One of my better 1/2IM swim times.
(Turned out it was 19th/62 in my AG - I have NEVER had a FOP swim before. This just baffles me now.)
Oliver has a fairly long run to T1, about 450m actually, almost all on pavement. I don't mind these set-ups, I find that my feet are so beat up and abused that they have no problem running barefoot on pavement. And they had BONUS wetsuit strippers - so that neoprene came flying off - WHOOSH. Jog to Transition, get my gear on and head out. Noticed Alexia's bike still racked - great now I gotta wait for her to pass me on the bike ;-)
(I ended up with the 9th fastest T1 in my AG - LOL! - Khai would be so proud).
The bike: nice course, 2 loops plus a ~13k section at the start, and one of the main roads had recently been repaved (super smooth). The wind started to pick up a bit so that on the Southbound section, there was a nice headwind, which of course meant a tailwind on the Northbound section. Heading South, there is one or two small climbs, nothing to write home about. I found myself easily passing people on these hills which was a nice feeling, as I have been trying to work on my climbing this season. However on the flats I was still being passed by a lot of guys - not too many chicks. Alexia did finally pass me, around 30k or so in, she just disappeared from sight soon after that. The drafting was not as bad as I expected - although there were a few pelotons out there, and more than once I had to snot-rocket someone off my rear wheel - you certainly could ride clean if you wanted - which I did.
I was feeling good, taking my gels every 40min, and my legs felt pretty strong - until the last Southbound leg with the headwind - I could feel some "wilting". (Looking now at my power data I do see my power level drop a bit, not a lot, but some.) I still managed to climb just fine, but I was having trouble pushing a decent gear into the wind, esp. on any false flats. Hmm.... what to do... what to do... Have another gel? Can't hurt at this point.... Fluids? Some more sure, but I'd been taking in enough... Suck it up princess? Yeah, that's about right. So I sucked it up and finished the bike. I felt like I had a decent ride, that I managed to actually "race" (for me) and keep pushing - no dogging it or "oh I better take that super easy... I still gotta run..." going on in my head. One of my goals of this race was to feel like I rode strong the entire time, and I think I did that. 3h almost bang on. (Ended up with 24/62 bike split in my AG - Also far better than I actually expected but still room for improvement - about 10min worth at least.)
Hopped off, glad to be done, had a smooth T2, I felt ready to tackle this run and have a PR dammit! (19th T2 in my AG)
And then reality hit home. My legs had no pop, no momentum, no sizzle. I walked a bit, hit the portapotty, and tried to RELAX. My first 3k took about 35min :-( But I knew if I could relax, and run with good form, that I could get going again and finish no problem. Would I have a PR? Hmm doubtful now. Dammit, and I really thought I had it in me. Got running, managed to get back to 6:00/k (not super fast but good enough for what I had left to do) and kept that pace almost the remainder of the run. I felt better as I kept going, the flat cola always works for me, although once I hear my stomach gurgling I knew I had to lay off the fluids for a while. And just when it was getting hot out too! Bah! Saw P twice (he was having a great race!), saw Alexia twice, saw some rackmates and a fellow masters swimmer who was volunteering, saw my friend Kerry (actually saw her a bunch that day now that I think about it!!), and just tried to keep on going. I started passing people on the second loop of the run, not a lot of them but enough to keep me mentally going. Too bad so many passed me on the first loop, especially in those first 3 k! That all said, I'm pretty happy that I managed to pull it back from being a potential walk-a-thon/sufferfest. Not to say I wasn't glad to be done, I sure was! But I was pleased that I didn't mentally check-out and just let my run turn into 3hrs of yadda yadda yadda. Ended up about 2h23 - still not my worst 1/2IM run LOL! (Turned out my run was 43rd/62 in my AG, and not so super-happy-terrific, but I knew that. No reason I can't take 10-15min off that split either).
Finished in 6:13, still barely managed a PR (by 2min! I'll take it dammit!) got a nice pic with P at the finish, jumped in the lake to cool the jibbly bits (and promptly ran into Calvin, another buddy, had about the same race as me). In retrospect, I think I went too hard on the SWIM not the bike. At first I thought it was the bike, that I went too hard on the bike, but I don't think that's it - at least not all of it. I know that swim took a bunch out of me, and even though I felt good coming out of the water, I probably spent too much effort there and never really recovered. Well, I might have if I had rode more conservatively. Of course, that wasn't the plan - so while I planned the race, I only raced 2/3rds of the plan. Usually that means the plan isn't quite right.
So now Francois will make me run and ride a stupid amount before the Subaru Vancouver 1/2IM next month and IMC in August. It's my own dang fault. ;-) I'll post some pics when I get home... I think they're up now.
Final results:
30/62 F3539 AndyPants swim: 19/62 38:26 T1: 9/62 4:09 Bike: 24/62 3:05:45 T2: 19/62 1:59 Run: 43/62 2:23:13 Total: 30/62 6:13:30
Post race: Cheeseburger, watermelon, beer, wine, beer-can chicken, salad, ice cream, aloe vera and sleep.
AP
------------------------
"How bad could it be?" - SimpleS