Eureka! There's no substitute for racing; also, thanks

Triathlon Forum
1

Thank goodness for tune-up races. I just had my first race of the season(welcome to New England, where the Intl’s start in June) and it vanquished many of my misgivings.

For the past several months, I’ve been training for Lake Placid, so I’m basically overtrained and tired all the time(I know, I know…rest more.) I’ve been bewildered because my power on the bike is up, my cadence is up, and my endurance is way up. But when I get off the Computrainer and ride in the real world, I seem to go much slower than I expect to, usually in the 16-17 mph range.

Today I rode 19.25 mph on a hilly bike course, and ran ~7:00 off the bike, also on a hilly course, and I did no taper at all. I really don’t know where that came from, considering that I was tired and sore this morning, except that the race environment makes me push myself more, and I definitely hurt on the bike and the run.

On a related note, this is my sophomore season racing tri’s, and I owe a huge debt of gratitude to the ST folks who have provided so much information over the past couple of years. I still have much to learn about racing, but it is pretty cool to drive to a race that you have done before, knowing that you have set everything up correctly, are familiar with the course, and know what to expect throughout the day. It means that when the gun goes off, it’s all on you.

I also conquered my problem with swim vertigo. I am so totally psyched! I started using those silicon ear plugs, and no more dizziness coming out of the water. If you haven’t experienced this, you have no idea how awful it is, wobbling through T1, feeling like you’re going to yak for the first 20 minutes on the bike, and having a headache for most of the race, until your ears clear. If you have a problem with this, try silicon ear plugs. They feel funny, but it beats the alternative.

Course comments: The run from the water to T1 was .4 miles of wooded paths more suited for mountain biking than running, the run from T2 to the run course was ~300 yards, and the run was about .7 miles long because they moved the transition area but didn’t change the course. Overall, though, it was a good, but difficult race. Afterwards, I observed some people loading their race bags with the post-race food. Is this proper etiquette? I usually grab a couple of bars and bottles for the ride home, but these folks were loading up, and only half the field had finished. Well, whatever.

I gotta go get some stir-fry 'n noodles.

3

It was the Ashland International. As usual, I saw the leaders coming in for the finish when I was going out on the run. I think I was somewhere around MOP. I didn’t stay for the complete listings because it was really crowded, there was no shade, and I was starving(see my earlier post on food hording.)

I’m not sure who was at the race this year. It was hard to get a look at the result listings, and they had no run splits posted. I think I was 33rd in my age group, and around 202nd overall, but I don’t know how many people there were total. It did seem a lot bigger than last year. I think the M35-39 was twice as big this year. The wave was huge(relatively speaking). I look forward to the final results.

You did the Hyannis Sprint? I hear that’s a great race, but is really a crowded course. How many competitors were there this year? I hope you had a good race, and a good time.

6

What you describe(re: the bike course) is exactly the same account I got from a friend who stopped doing that race several years ago.

Excellent finish! Great Job.

It’s pretty cool that someone can win two tri’s in two days, but it makes me wonder just how much training is required to accomplish something like that.

A 10-15% no-show rate must be standard these days, since my race had 422 people listed on the results, but I saw bib numbers up to around 500. FIRM doesn’t typically sell out its races, though, so no one is losing the chance to race because of someone else no-showing.

7

Sounds like you had a great time! Congratulations!

The last race I went to, the guy that won one of the 30-something year old division, did the Mount Mitchell Assault the day before. It’s been described as one of the top 10 hardest biking events in the nation…102 miles, the last 27 uphill to the highest peak in the Appalachians. He just looks like a normal, bony triathlete, but, he’s obviously tougher than most people out there! I wonder what his training is like…not that I could ever do it, or would even want to be able to do it.

Just training and participating in triathlon is a big deal and is worthwhile in itself…these freaks of nature/training are interesting for us to consider, but, to the couch potato…it’s all incomprehensible!

8

Nice job! I was out there as well for my first race of the season. T1 turned into an event unto itself - I think I was about 7 minutes all told from water to riding.

9

My T1 was about the same. I figured about 6:35 from the timing strip until I mounted my bike. It’s misleading to look at the results without realizing that the bike split includes the half mile run from the water, and that your run split includes T2 and about a 300 yard run to the street.

I’m half tempted to drive the run course with my GPS to see what the actual distance was. I think it was around 6.7(I heard Bill Fiske say ~11K). This year I sawm slightly faster, rode faster, and ran about the same, but my total time was about 6 minutes slower than last year.

Even then, it’s a great race and a lot of fun. The only criticism I can think of is that they could have used more water stops.

10

I thought the run was pretty close to 10K, but I didn’t measure it. It seemed well short last year and I thought the move down the street would roughly make up that distance.

I agree about aid stations. Usually FIRM is very good about those, though I recall the same situation last year. They seem to have a hard time with volunteers for this one…do your own body marking, few aid stations, etc.

They also need to do something about those hills :slight_smile:

11

My brief, quasi-scientific analysis of this year’s results compared with last year’s results, considering top finishers who did the event both years, indicates that times this year were 6-9 minutes slower than last year, with most times closer to 9 minutes slower. That was based on a sampling of around 10 finishers in the top 50.