Sunday

Blue Lake Olympic: 2008 / 2009



Swim
31:46 / 31:38
T1
5:15 / 4:58
Bike
1:07:22 / 1:06:15
T2
2:47 / 2:48
Run
45:47 / 44:06
Total
2:32:58 / 2:29:46

The conditions today were amazingly similar to last year's (as I recollect them): calm, overcast and mild (around 60). Perfect weather for racing. I thought I put much more effort into the swim this year and look at that huge improvement: 8 seconds! I picked up a little more time on the bike, but really thought a 1:05 was achievable. No complaints about the run, however. I had an Olympic-distance run PR, improving my pace by more than 15 seconds per mile. I was aided by a guy who passed me about halfway through the run. I chased him all the way to the finish line, even as he steadily boosted his pace. He finished four seconds in front of me and afterward I thanked him for pulling me along. Without him, I would have run more conservatively, instead of going 7:17, 7:12, 7:09, 6:59, 6:54, 6:44 for my mile splits. Interesting thing is, it wasn't that bad. I mean, it was a big effort and I was tired when it was over, but I didn't collapse at the finish or anything like that. I wonder if I'll ever collapse at the finish. Is that what I need to convince myself I really gave it everything I've got?

Random post-race thoughts ...
  • If I ever get serious about racing these shorter-distance triathlons, I'll need to get my shit together on transitions. Today I gave up 2-4 minutes to racers who didn't swim-bike-run any faster than me.
  • My swim split was 32nd out of 42 in my age group.
  • Bike split: 18/42
  • Run split: 8/42
  • It just occured to me that the swim is relatively more important at the Olympic distance than it is at the iron distance. The swim (1.5K vs. 4K) is 37.5 percent as long; the bike (40K vs. 180K) is 22.2 percent as long; and the run (10K vs. 42.2K) is 23.7 percent as long. Maybe I should stick with the long stuff?
  • My Garmin has never been off by more than a couple of hundreths, and it showed the run course to be a full tenth of a mile too long. Hmm.

All the Blue Lake olympic triathlon results are here.

No comments:

Post a Comment