First Tri Of The Season
This morning was my first sprint triathlon of the season. It was great fun. The weather was perfect, and I didn't have any technical difficulties on the bike, I got third (out of three) in my age group, and there was cake at the end. All in all, a productive and fun morning.
We were running a little late in the beginning, so I didn't get a chance to take photos of all the competitors prior to the race, so all my photos are from after, but that's ok. You can get the idea. The first photo is a picture of Lake Erie and the swim course.
We started at the far right of the picture, at the end of the first breakwall, and swam out around breakwall #1, and breakwall #2, and exited at the left of the picture, where the sign is located. See below:
The swim went well - I was sans wetsuit, and the water temperature was ok. The only problem with this race course is when you swim past the breakwalls, the water is fairly choppy, I could get motion sickness swimming out there! I don't know how people do it in the open ocean, for 2.4 miles!! I had to break my stroke a bunch and do breaststroke in order to sight, and just get my bearings, as the water was pretty murky. But the swim portion was good - I exited the water, and glanced at my watch -it was around 7 minutes. Up the hill and into transition. I was breathing pretty heavy, so I did take my time (in both T1 and T2). I put on my shoes and socks, grabbed a drink and my helmet and walked out of transition. I glanced at my watch again, and it was around 11:58.
The bike course was nice. All wide roads, not too much traffic, and then slight rolling hills thorough some small neighborhoods. No mechanical difficulties (always my worst nightmare), and before I knew it, I was entering T2 at around 58 minutes (This is time from the start of my wave of the race. I didn't take splits, but just glanced at my watch at each critical stage.) I walked my bike in, and boy did my legs feel like rubber!! It was like I was a merchant marine out at sea for the last 12 months, and it was my first day on land - totally wobbly.
Another leisurely transition - my legs were definitely not used to biking, let alone grinding out a fast 5K after 14 or so miles, so I grabbed some Gatorade, stretched, put on my hat and sunglasses and walked out of T2. Grabbed some more water from the aid station, and kept on walking. I walked until 1:03 on my watch, and started jogging. Run was hard because it took some time before my legs felt good, and then my stomach was a little crampy because I chugged so much liquid at T2, and I hadn't really hydrated much while on the bike - I think it was too much liquid in a short period of time, so I really felt it sloshing around. On the course I saw TriEric, who was on a 3 hour training ride in his taper for Lake Placid.
Brought the run in a finished in 1:28:46. I felt good about that time, because last year for this same course, my time was 1:31:40, so I bested my time for this course.
Blogger isn't letting me post anymore pictures, so they will have to wait until next time...as well as my answers to the tag from TriEric...Until then.
We were running a little late in the beginning, so I didn't get a chance to take photos of all the competitors prior to the race, so all my photos are from after, but that's ok. You can get the idea. The first photo is a picture of Lake Erie and the swim course.
We started at the far right of the picture, at the end of the first breakwall, and swam out around breakwall #1, and breakwall #2, and exited at the left of the picture, where the sign is located. See below:
The swim went well - I was sans wetsuit, and the water temperature was ok. The only problem with this race course is when you swim past the breakwalls, the water is fairly choppy, I could get motion sickness swimming out there! I don't know how people do it in the open ocean, for 2.4 miles!! I had to break my stroke a bunch and do breaststroke in order to sight, and just get my bearings, as the water was pretty murky. But the swim portion was good - I exited the water, and glanced at my watch -it was around 7 minutes. Up the hill and into transition. I was breathing pretty heavy, so I did take my time (in both T1 and T2). I put on my shoes and socks, grabbed a drink and my helmet and walked out of transition. I glanced at my watch again, and it was around 11:58.
The bike course was nice. All wide roads, not too much traffic, and then slight rolling hills thorough some small neighborhoods. No mechanical difficulties (always my worst nightmare), and before I knew it, I was entering T2 at around 58 minutes (This is time from the start of my wave of the race. I didn't take splits, but just glanced at my watch at each critical stage.) I walked my bike in, and boy did my legs feel like rubber!! It was like I was a merchant marine out at sea for the last 12 months, and it was my first day on land - totally wobbly.
Another leisurely transition - my legs were definitely not used to biking, let alone grinding out a fast 5K after 14 or so miles, so I grabbed some Gatorade, stretched, put on my hat and sunglasses and walked out of T2. Grabbed some more water from the aid station, and kept on walking. I walked until 1:03 on my watch, and started jogging. Run was hard because it took some time before my legs felt good, and then my stomach was a little crampy because I chugged so much liquid at T2, and I hadn't really hydrated much while on the bike - I think it was too much liquid in a short period of time, so I really felt it sloshing around. On the course I saw TriEric, who was on a 3 hour training ride in his taper for Lake Placid.
Brought the run in a finished in 1:28:46. I felt good about that time, because last year for this same course, my time was 1:31:40, so I bested my time for this course.
Blogger isn't letting me post anymore pictures, so they will have to wait until next time...as well as my answers to the tag from TriEric...Until then.
13 Comments:
Great Job!!! Especially since you bested your time from last year.
Buckeye- great job...always nice when you PR at a specific race...proof positive that the training is working!!
Great race Buckeye. I hope it contributes to your well-being during this time of job transition.
Awesome job!!! Way to improve your "course-record" ;-)
awesome job improving on last year's time!
Is Erie as nasty around you guys as it is around us? we have a lot of problems with zebra mussels cutting your feet up on the shore... I can't imagine coming out of the water and having to run through a pile of them. ouch!
Congratulations on your PR! That is a nice race. I did that last year and enjoyed it. You may want to incorporate brick workouts into your training. That should help with the rubber feelings in the legs after biking.
Nice job!! Awesome that you beat last year's time!
congratulations on a PR for that course!! so impressive was your swim too, sorry about the rubber legs tho. great report!
High five! Sounds like it was an amazing day for you. And, dang, that water looks c-c-c-old. No wetsuit?!
Great job, Buckeye! :) Way to blow your old time outta the water!
Nice job at your tri!! Always feels so good to look at the year over year improvement!
Great job! Wish I would have been able to do an Ohio tri this year, I guess it just wasn't in the cards!
Good stuff...
I tend to over drink too and have all that liquid sloshing around in the stomach.
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