I loved this race and will make it a regular on my race schedule for the next couple of seasons.
SWIM 36:35: This is a great swim similar to USAT Nationals…straight out, over and back. It was easy to site and I must say this was the least amount of contact I have ever had in any race. I was actually enjoying the swim…now that’s a first! I felt like I was swimming by myself pretty much the entire time. My swim time was OK, nothing spectacular for all the work I have been doing. But when I look at my power on the bike, this swim had little if no effect on my bike split, so goal accomplished! My expectations for my swims this year have been to swim a little faster than last year but to be conditioned so that the swim doesn’t take so much out of me that I cannot ride to my potential on the bike. I feel I am getting there. I also need to work on pacing better the first part of the swim. I still feel as if I hold back a little too much the first several hundred yards.
T1 1:29
2:45:45: After my last race I had e-mailed Lang and told him I need a plan for my races. So he sent me a plan. Well it all looked good on paper and I understood what he wanted me to do but once out racing on the course I was having a hard time following the plan. There were different power ranges that I was to remember, depending on whether I was on the flats, a downhill, a short steep uphill or a longer uphill. I tried to follow it best I could for the first loop but was getting frustrated… was this hill coming up a short hill or a long hill? I just wanted to RIDE! I couldn’t get in a groove as I felt like I was speeding up and slowing down back and forth trying to hit these numbers. On the second loop the plan was to pick it up so what I decided to do was take the watt numbers on the flats the top end number on the hills and stay right in the middle as best I could. My perceived exertion for the first loop would have been 5 out of 10; it felt easy. The second loop was definitely much harder and I would have bet anyone a million dollars that my wattage was much higher that second loop. I would say this loop felt like a 7-8 out of 10. Looking at the numbers I averaged 222 watts the first loop and 219 watts the second loop! I almost even split the two loops, and was actually faster on the second loop, with lower watts. Here are the numbers for the entire ride.
Entire workout: 220 watts
Duration: 2:46:22 (2:46:24)
Work: 2194 kJ
TSS: 258.3 (intensity factor 0.965)
Norm Power: 227
VI: 1.03
Distance: 55.672 mi
Min Max Avg
Power: 4 530 220 watts
Cadence: 29 141 80 rpm
Speed: 2.9 50 20.1 mph
Pace 1:12 20:59 2:59 min/mi
Hub Torque: 10 335 85 lb-in
Crank Torque: 0 605 238 lb-in
My functional threshold is 235 so I rode this at 94% of that.
First loop NP 228 watts
AP 222 watts
Speed 20.1
Second loop NP 226 watts
AP 219 watts
Speed 20.2
My goal for the bike was to negative or even split the loops; the second loop was 10 sec faster.
T2 1:12
RUN 1:44:33: My #1 goal for this race was to get under 1:45 for my run. I felt I was capable of this if the bike was paced correctly. I think this is a pretty tough run after the hilly bike. It’s definitely not flat. There are a total of 6 hills on this course. The first 3 miles were tough as expected. I always find it hard to gauge how fast I am running, which is why I have a predetermined pace that I run, based on what I know I am capable of from my training.
In the first mile and a half I saw Shannon …she looked good, but apparently wasn’t feeling too well. I told her to keep running; she would be feeling better soon. Next came Tina. She was running well but didn’t look very comfortable. Her shoulders were shrugged up around her neck. I ran by her and told her to relax those shoulders. We talked for a minute then she reminded me her coach had told her,”NO TALKING.” In her last race report she had talked about chatting with another woman on the course! I had told her there would be none of that today :-) You should not be able to talk if you are truly racing; it should take every bit of your focus to stay on task. After about the first 3 miles I was feeling much better. As I was headed back on the first loop I saw Tina, Shannon then Jess all lined up. They were within minutes of each other. I could tell by where they were they were all running well. I could also tell from their faces they were all working hard. I was very proud of the three of them. I knew they were all going to have a good run and to me that is key. Anyone can go out and hammer the bike and then blow up on the run. It’s hard to pace yourself appropriately on the bike so you can run to your potential. My girls followed their plans and did that!
And yes, I am aware that I run with my head all tilted to the side! This has gotten worse since my bike accident in late May, and I hope to find a chiropractic solution for this, as I am still a bit out of whack.
My nutrition on the run consisted of 3 gels in a fuelbelt, diluted with some water. This worked really well and made it easy to get them down. I also had 1-2 cups of water at every aid station.
Total 5:09:32
Great race, I highly recommend it!
