Monday, June 22, 2009

5430 Sprint

My first tri of the three-part series in Boulder was yesterday. Overall it went fine. It wasn't my best effort or best race, but it wasn't my "A" race either. Yesterday was a nice warm-up to the longer distances later this summer that I really care about -- the Boulder Peak and the Long Course.

The swim was nice and easy. No major waves, panics, or collisions with fellow racers. The only slight hiccup was that I didn't have a good understanding at the course ahead of time. With the glare of the sun, it usually takes a couple minutes before I can sight the buoy and know where I'm heading. Before that happens, I just follow the crowd. I finally spotted the triangle shaped buoy, thinking that was the turning point. Once I got there, everyone else was still swimming straight ahead, so I figured I must have gotten it wrong. Luckily, following the crowd worked and I eventually made it to the second buoy, which was the actual turning point.

The bike was probably the highlight for this race. Though I'm still worst at cycling of the three sports, I improved the most on this leg. The course (17 miles) was a slight, but definite uphill for the first five or six miles, then mostly downhill with a few rolling hills for the next six, then a mostly uphill, though not as steep, climb back to the transition area. I had practiced the exact course two weeks ago at my team's rehearsal. During the rehearsal, I was really hoping to have an average speed of at least 16 mph, but I ended up averaging 15.9 mph. Urgh! So my main race goal was to average 16mph+ on the bike portion. For the first third of the race--the uphill portion--my average speed hovered between 12 and 13 mph. I was worried I wouldn't be able to overcome that deficit, but ended up making good use of the downhills once I got there. I even caught my speed at 31 mph a couple times. Towards the end of the descent I had an average speed of about 17.1 mph. I was worried that the final miles uphill would lower my average a lot, but I ended up with a final average speed of 16.7 mph! Woo hoo!

I had a pretty quick transition to the run (read: no bathroom break needed). I don't know if it was because I pushed harder than usual on the bike, or because I just wasn't feeling it, but my run wasn't quite up to par for that distance. During the rehearsal, I averaged 10:10 min/miles and was hoping to get closer to a 10 minute mile if not sub-10. Yesterday my pace was 10:30 min/mile. I'm really not sure if I just didn't have anything left to give or if I just wasn't motivated to dig deep and push through.

I think my feelings about the run explain why I've wanted to move up to longer distances in recent years. Since it's doubtful I'll ever mutate into a speedy machine, most of my satisfaction from doing these races comes from enjoying the course and the crowd and just finishing. Now that I've finished the sprint distance several times over, I know I can do it, and "just finishing" doesn't do as much for me anymore. As much as I'm dreading the upcoming 10k following a 24 mile bike and (yikes!) the half-marathon after a 56-mile bike, I think finishing will probably seem a sufficient accomplishment. The Boulder Peak will be a little trickier mentally because I did the course last year and will likely be a little disappointed if I don't beat, tie, or come close to my previous time. But for the half-ironman, I'll be happy if I manage to limp across the finish line before they close down the course.

My overall time was 1:55:28. My other goal was to finish in less than two hours, so yay! In my age group of 111 women, I was 30th out of the water, 84th on the bike, and 88th on the run for a final placing of 73/111. Not bad and fairly typical for me. As the race director said during the awards ceremony, Boulder is a tough place to compete. Most of the podium finishers had at least been to Kona and many of them had placed there too!

After the race on Sunday, I went home and slept away most of the afternoon - I was so tired! But this evening, I'm barely even sore and bounding with energy, which makes me feel guilty that I really didn't give it my all yesterday. Again, it doesn't really matter because this wasn't my "A" race. And, I have two more chances where I'll probably have no choice but to give it everything I've got.