Here’s my race report for the 2006 White Lake Sprint Triathlon
Official splits:
swim 750m: 15:41
T1: 4:10
Bike 14 miles: 41:38
T2: 2:25
Run 5k: 25:48
Overall: 1:29:39
I placed 9 out of 28 in my age group, which is top 32%.
I placed 62 out of 235 for all females, which is top 26%.
Wow, my transition times are really bad, and my swim time wasn’t nearly as bad as I had thought! Read on for my race report, which I posted before I knew my official times:
My time (according to my watch) was 1:29:30, which was 30 seconds faster than my goal of 1:30. I set my goal to come in the top 20-30% of females (by looking at last year’s results).
In the days leading up to the race I spent alot of time visualizing myself crossing the finish line – looking at my watch and seeing a number less than my goal. I also watched one of my bike workout DVD’s, and replayed the parts where the coach is saying motivatoinal stuff that I liked… “you have to dig in deeper than you ever have before”…and also replayed the clips of elite bikers riding in races. I’d visualize myself riding the way they rode.
The two days before the race, my shoulders were killing me. I’m convinced my shoulder issues are mostly stress (yes, I was stressed out about the race, and even began wondering why I do this crazy thing!). The night before I focused on relaxing my shoulders! Also took lots of advil!
I debated whether or not to wear my HR monitor, and in the end I decided to wear it….mostly because of my uncertainty of pacing myself in cycling on flat terrain.
The weather called for rain – possibly lots of it! I hated the idea of soggy shoes, so I arranged my gear inside my bucket and put the lid on. I knew that would cost me time, but figured it was worth it. It never did rain, yet it wasn’t too bad pulling my gear out of the bucket.
I had trouble pulling up the zipper on my wetsuit. A kind woman in my wave noticed that my tri suit had gotten caught in the zipper, and she helped me fix it and zip up. That’s the thing I love about the tri lifestyle – the people are so great!
My swim was awful. The water was choppy and I had trouble sighting and kept choking on water. I did several stints of breast stroke just to cough water out of my mouth. Despite how badly I swam, my time out of the water was just over 16 minutes. Probably 17 by the time I crossed the mat. I had wanted to do the swim in 15, so I guess 16-17 isn’t too bad all things considered. I definitely need to do some open water training, tho!
I had a little trouble getting my left leg out of the wetsuit because it was caught on the strap holding the timing chip, and I was afraid I’d pull that off if I yanked too hard.
When first going out on the bike, there were so many bikers that there’s no way I could stay out of someone’s draft zone. I felt like I was in a pelaton. There was also one point where a race official made me cross the yellow line to go around a car. I was hoping that the officials realized this stuff, and I don’t get a penalty (I didn’t wait around to see the official results, and I’m not even sure how penalties work – do they pull you over immediately like in the televised ironman races?).
My goal for the bike was to do 20mph on the first lap, and a little faster on the second. I wasn’t sure what speed I could do on a flat, but that was my goal based on my desired finish time. On the first leg, I felt good going 21-22mph. My HR was at 95%…didn’t feel like I was going that hard. I felt like I could go faster and push harder, but decided I better save some for the 2nd lap. The second lap, the wind picked up (could have been fatigue, but it felt like wind). My speed was closer to 19 mph. The last few miles I looked at my time and it was 55 min. I wanted to get back to the transition before 1 hour, so I really pushed hard.
I think my watch said 1:05 when I headed out for the run. I felt winded and wanted to stop to catch my breath. I looked at my HR and it was 95%. I didn’t feel like I was running that hard, and knew I couldn’t afford to ease up, so I “dug in deeper”. At the turnaround my time was 1:18. I picked up my pace a little bit, and my HR said 98%. When leaving the neighborhood (1/4 mile to go?) my time was 1:28. I didn’t know if I’d make it. I really wanted it bad, so I went all out and did not even look at my watch. It was really hard, but I did it!
When they made me stop to get my chip, I felt like I was going to puke. That was another goal of mine…to run so hard at the end that I’d feel that way. I jogged easy until my HR was down to 80%.
I don’t feel exhausted or sore right now. Maybe it will hit me later, or maybe I could have pushed harder on the bike.
Other random notes:
I don’t think I would have made my goal if I hadn’t done the prerace visualizing. I think that really helped me have the will to keep going strong despite the fact that I wanted to slow down. I also think wearing my HR monitor helped me pace myself just right (especially since this was my first race where I really planned on going fast.)
After getting out of the initial pack of bikers and settling into a good pace on the bike, I started looking at other racer’s ages. (The age of each racer is marked on the back of their calf.) I passed a couple of women on the bike in my age group. But that’s all I saw. I didn’t see anyone in my age group the rest of the race – bike or run. I thought that was odd. I know the 1st, 2nd and 3rd in my age group got times of 1:15-1:22. I’m anxious to see where I placed in my age group (and also overall). I’m just guessing that I placed in the top 20-30% based on last year’s results.
I dosed up on Robitussin the day before and morning of the race. That really helped clear out my nose and sinuses so I didn’t have a snot nose on the bike and run! I’ve got to get to a doctor about that problem. Maybe I can just take Robitussin all the time.
I taped a NoDoz pill (200 mg caffeine) to my handlebars and took it 40 minutes before my estimated finish time. I think it takes 30 minutes for caffeine to kick in and I wanted that kick in the last 10 minutes. Can’t say for sure if it helped, but I definitely finished strong. (I had tried that idea out in training).