This race almost didn’t happen. It wasn’t on the schedule, and I didn’t realize when it was until someone told me about it less than a week before the race. I thought about it, had a brief (text) conversation with my coach, and decided it would be good for me.
The real reason I wanted to do the race was to get comfortable in the open water without a wetsuit. I’ve only done two races that weren’t wetsuit legal, and the last was a disaster. While I can comfortably swim 3000+ yards in the pool, I get very anxious in the open water, and have for a couple of years, since that last race, questioned my abilities. So, I wanted to get back in the water on a shorter distance and prove to myself that I can do this.
Because I took the race on such short notice, there wasn’t time to adjust my training or get antsy about the race. I trained very hard up until two days before the race. Then I snuck in a short swim in an endless pool. I think that was good for me as I was able to swim non-stop for some time. Having the ability to stand up if I needed to kept me calm and I was able to convince myself that not being able to catch that extra breath at the end of each length of the pool didn’t matter.
Jumping forward to the race: Swim
This was a deep water start. As I didn’t want to tread water for several minutes before the race I chose to stand in chest deep water until the gun went off. That put me at the back of the pack and not crossing the starting line for probably 30 seconds. I don’t/didn’t care about the 30 seconds, but the “back of the pack” was a problem. There were a bunch of non-swimmers in front of me. They would get in a pack, stop, and block my path so I kept running into them. One time I actually swam up one guy’s back before I realized what was happening. I just kept telling myself to relax and keep it easy. I could tell my legs were dropping, but since it wasn’t really causing any problems I didn’t worry about it. Besides, there wasn’t much I could do about it anyway.
The final leg was into the sun, which made it difficult to see the exit. I just kept an eye on the people around me and tried to stay near them. The exit was so steep I had to get help getting out of the water, and then staggered up the slope for the long (they said 1/4 mile, but I think it was MUCH longer) run to transition. I remembered to hit the lap button on my watch and checked the time, only to see a scrolling screen I’d never seen before. So much for knowing my swim time! I’d opted to leave some shoes on the road for this run, not wanting to risk stepping on something. This really helped as I ended up with one of the fastest T1 times in my group.
Bike
Jumping out on the bike I had a simple plan: go hard and fast! If I couldn’t run when I was done then so be it, at least I would have had a good bike leg. For most of this leg the sun was reflecting off the screen of my bike computer, and all I could read was my power. I could tell when my cadence was 3 digits instead of two. Every now and then I’d be able to see the distance and speed, but not often enough to be of much use. Since my Garmin wasn’t working and I couldn’t read my bike computer I went by feel: how hard could I push and still finish.
I didn’t keep track, but I think I was passed by 4 riders. On the flip side I passed a TON of people. I was really flying! I couldn’t hear it but I was hoping that my rear disk was making the whirring, train sound I used to hear when riders with a disk would pass. For the most part I stayed in the left side of the lane because there were just too many people I was passing for me to move back and forth. That said, I did get passed one and looked down to see how I was doing and I was going over 23 mph. That guy was moving!
I hesitate to mention this as I’m trying to not be competitive, but I am. When I first got onto the bike course I saw a friend of mine. He was just starting his second loop for the Olympic distance. I knew he was riding twice as far as I and it isn’t a fair comparison, and he hasn’t been training, but he’s also an ex-marine and more than 20 years younger than I. He was in front of me and there was no way I was going to let him beat me! I really pushed it so I could pass him and then kept going hard. He was just like everybody else I torched on the bike!
Run
The moment of truth, how would I fare after pushing so hard on the bike? I grabbed my stuff and started out of transition. I walked for a bit just to get my heart rate down a bit, and then took off. I fiddled, to no avail, with my watch a bit trying to get it going so I’d have an idea of the run time or elapsed distance. I finally gave up on it and decided I’d just have to run by feel. I took stock and thought I was going a bit fast for me to run the whole way. There were a couple of times I was breathing too hard and forced myself to slow down. I kind of figured I was running at about 10 minute mile pace. I was bummed, but figured that was better than walking and just kept going.
I did walk a couple of times: once to take a gel (I used to be able to do that while running) and at the aid stations, just long enough to accurately dump water over my head. I can’t imagine that it was more than 30 seconds total, so I don’t count it as walking.
When we got close to the finish line there was one guy in front of me and no one behind me. I didn’t know if I could catch him, but there was enough room for me to try. I picked up the pace, and so did he. I kept increasing my speed but the gap never closed. At least I had a good finish!
In the end
With no working computers I had no idea how I’d done and it wasn’t until much later in the day that I saw my results. 5th (out of 22) in my age group, with a bike speed of 21.8 and run pace of 8:05. I will definitely take those results! I’ve never ridden that fast before, and to be able to run that well off the bike was surprising. All of this with just a few months of training – most of which has been pretty low key since I’m coming off an injury.
What is going to happen when I start training hard and with a purpose? I could be good at this!
p.s.
I should add that I had a blast at this race! I was frustrated some on the swim, but it was awesome on the bike passing so many people. The run, which could have been less than pleasant felt great. I think that after so many months of not being able to train/race I am even more grateful for being able to get out there and participate in the sport that I love!
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