Post by stevebrule on May 8, 2012 20:27:45 GMT -6
So, so here we go. Just bear with me here, I tend to be long winded sometimes. I had some high expectations coming into this race and it seemed as if some others had the same expectations in mind for me as well. This is the second race of the season, but I will call it my first because the Warhawk was so long ago and that event was more of a gage of how the offseason went and what I needed to do in the next month and a half to finish preparing for the season.
As usual, not that I really wanted to, I participated in my pre-race ritual the night before. To eat a Moe’s burrito and a Pedialyte to wash it down. Pedialyte is a must for heavy sweater like me. I don’t know exactly what my sweat rate is but during summer football practice back in college they would have us weigh in and weigh out for every practice. I would on average lose ten pounds and it wouldn’t be uncommon for me to lose upward of fifteen pounds. They did this to make sure that we would take in enough fluids in-between practices as to not become too dehydrated. Both my parents are doctors so they helped me out here with banana bags and eventually weaning me down to Pedialytes. But I digress. So I ended up getting to bed by about midnight. I always have trouble going to sleep the night before I have to get up early for anything. Funny how these things work themselves out, right?
So I get up in the morning around six and pop into a steaming shower to loosen everything up real quick-like. Once everything was gathered up and ready to head out the door I put my head phones in and began the jam out to Pandora. Breakfast consisted of a banana, half a Clif Bar, five salt tablets and half of a Pedialyte. Did I mention already that I’m a heavy sweater? Once everything was done the hatch it was time to head out. So I popped out my front door and rode down to transition. I really do love these local races where I can walk out my front down and it’s a mile bike ride to transition.
Setting up transition was a breeze as always. The hardest part is picking out where I want to rack my bike. I went against logic here and racked my bike as far away as possible from the mount line as I could. I did this not because I wanted to per say but because the other end of transition was already really crowded and I wanted a spot on the end of a rack. I popped open my backpack and plopped down my gear. A minimalistic transition really. A neon T-shirt (neatly folded into a rectangle to help me better find my spot coming out of the swim), my race belt (pink of course honoring my step-mom, a breast cancer survivor), running shoes (the toe section of the sole lubed with Body Glide), my bike with helmet and sunglasses neatly arranged and my trusty Auburn hat. Once getting my body marked, number 116 on the day, it was off to go warm up.
The pool was really warm to my surprise but that was alright because the air temperature had yet to get really warm. I did my normal 200 SKIPS warm up and then got out of the pool and just walked around for a couple of minutes. I finished off the last of the Pedialyte I had started for breakfast. Waiting gets boring most of the time so I just took a seat in a chair by the pool and waited for everyone to begin to line up. Once the line was formed and the prerace announcements were made I made my way up to the line. I think I positioned myself fourth or fifth.
This swim is an interesting one for a sprint race. It is a 400 scy swim but it incorporates two different pools. 175 yds in the first then you pop out, run and jump, feet first of course, into the next pool for the remaining 225 yds. I will say it is a bit disorienting coming out of one pool and trying to get you bearings straight to get right back into another pool. I really didn’t kick any prior to it and must have looked like someone who had just spun around a wiffleball bat a couple of times as I made my way to the second pool. I was expecting somewhere right around a 05:30 time and lo and behold I came through on that estimate swimming a 05:30.7. But this was no time to stop catch my breath and be content with myself. I still had to sprint through transition and get on to the bike.
The bike is a simple out and back down a four lane highway, most of the way. Because it was still early in the morning the wind wasn’t howling yet. I wish it would have been though. It would have maybe given me a slight advantage over the smaller riders out there. This was the first race I have ever truly done off of pure feel. No computer here today. That may have been my undoing though. The sight of the rider in front of me by only about 400 yards kept urging me to catch up with him and pass him. But to my efforts this did not happen. I did notice the great big American flag at the Relay Station did have some flutter to it though. A tail wind on the way back to transition was waiting eagerly for me at the turn around and I grew a bit happier by that sight. I had loaded up six salt tablets into my Salt Stick and had my First Endurance EFS on board between my aero bars. I guess I had hydrated adequately enough the previous couple of days and the morning of because I only took two sips out of my bottle and two salt tablets during the bike. Yes I take cramping seriously. Why run the risk I always say to myself. So back to transition I go now. I am a flying mount and dismount person and today was no exception. I must have been still going fifteen miles per hour when my feet hit the ground. The fun part came when it was time to turn the bike and take it up and over the curb. This turn was immediately after the dismount line and so I start to turn and lift my bike up both at the same time. This was a huge mistake. When I put the wheels back on the ground the front wheel snapped at me causing me to almost run over my bike. Fortunately from me I caught myself quickly and just carried my bike back to the rack. Helmet, sunglasses off and hat and race-belt in hand I was off in my running shoes quickly. In the end I averaged 24.7 miles per hour.
Not quickly enough to my standard though. My right shoe decided to give me a bit of trouble here. Now out on the run it was time to play the mental game. The volunteers were telling me I was a minute down of the leader coming out of transition. This was a good sign because I think he must have started a good thirty seconds ahead of me on the swim (TT start with the next person being sent off when the person in front of them reaches the first wall). So I told myself we’re doing good, just let your legs open up then go for him. The run was only two miles so I thought I could suffer through it. I thought wrong. About half of a mile into the run my legs opened as I expected them to but there was no extra gear there. This was unusual for a short early season race I thought. I was shooting for six minute averages but had to settle for six fifty-two average pace. Was really disappointed in my run on this day and it would later prove to be a complete failure. I need to learn to suffer better at this point in a sprint race. I think I need to just tell my legs to shut up and keep telling myself that those interval repeats mean that I can run my high pace when I’m tired.
So I come across the line in 47:03.8. Thinking ok we’ll see where the times line out after all of this TT start madness clears up. I hit the spread for some bacon and eggs then hit the showers. I am no looking at the computer with the results now and I find the podium times and notice that I’m not there and say d**n should have pushed harder. I finally did see my name, under my age group, in first place and was happy with that. I was happy until I saw my time. Then when the top three overall times flashed by once again I took a double take because I thought I had seen my time this time around there. I didn’t pay attention to the names this time, it wasn’t though. The minutes and seconds were the same by third place OA was seven tenths faster than me on the day. This really ate at me. This is why you HAVE to tell your legs to shut-it during the run of a sprint race. Time is too costly in such a short race like this one. I have a race this upcoming week end and I can for sure tell you that my legs will take a back seat to me running to my extreme limit. My lungs will be burning before I stop my legs. Over all I thought this was a good race but it showed me there is still room for improvement, both physically and mentally. Hopefully I can use this experience in future races like I want to and break that mental barrier down. I hope that everyone else that raced had just as fun of a time as I did and I plan to see them at the second race of the series too! I wish I could figure out a way to put the GoPro video of the race up on here but oh well.
As usual, not that I really wanted to, I participated in my pre-race ritual the night before. To eat a Moe’s burrito and a Pedialyte to wash it down. Pedialyte is a must for heavy sweater like me. I don’t know exactly what my sweat rate is but during summer football practice back in college they would have us weigh in and weigh out for every practice. I would on average lose ten pounds and it wouldn’t be uncommon for me to lose upward of fifteen pounds. They did this to make sure that we would take in enough fluids in-between practices as to not become too dehydrated. Both my parents are doctors so they helped me out here with banana bags and eventually weaning me down to Pedialytes. But I digress. So I ended up getting to bed by about midnight. I always have trouble going to sleep the night before I have to get up early for anything. Funny how these things work themselves out, right?
So I get up in the morning around six and pop into a steaming shower to loosen everything up real quick-like. Once everything was gathered up and ready to head out the door I put my head phones in and began the jam out to Pandora. Breakfast consisted of a banana, half a Clif Bar, five salt tablets and half of a Pedialyte. Did I mention already that I’m a heavy sweater? Once everything was done the hatch it was time to head out. So I popped out my front door and rode down to transition. I really do love these local races where I can walk out my front down and it’s a mile bike ride to transition.
Setting up transition was a breeze as always. The hardest part is picking out where I want to rack my bike. I went against logic here and racked my bike as far away as possible from the mount line as I could. I did this not because I wanted to per say but because the other end of transition was already really crowded and I wanted a spot on the end of a rack. I popped open my backpack and plopped down my gear. A minimalistic transition really. A neon T-shirt (neatly folded into a rectangle to help me better find my spot coming out of the swim), my race belt (pink of course honoring my step-mom, a breast cancer survivor), running shoes (the toe section of the sole lubed with Body Glide), my bike with helmet and sunglasses neatly arranged and my trusty Auburn hat. Once getting my body marked, number 116 on the day, it was off to go warm up.
The pool was really warm to my surprise but that was alright because the air temperature had yet to get really warm. I did my normal 200 SKIPS warm up and then got out of the pool and just walked around for a couple of minutes. I finished off the last of the Pedialyte I had started for breakfast. Waiting gets boring most of the time so I just took a seat in a chair by the pool and waited for everyone to begin to line up. Once the line was formed and the prerace announcements were made I made my way up to the line. I think I positioned myself fourth or fifth.
This swim is an interesting one for a sprint race. It is a 400 scy swim but it incorporates two different pools. 175 yds in the first then you pop out, run and jump, feet first of course, into the next pool for the remaining 225 yds. I will say it is a bit disorienting coming out of one pool and trying to get you bearings straight to get right back into another pool. I really didn’t kick any prior to it and must have looked like someone who had just spun around a wiffleball bat a couple of times as I made my way to the second pool. I was expecting somewhere right around a 05:30 time and lo and behold I came through on that estimate swimming a 05:30.7. But this was no time to stop catch my breath and be content with myself. I still had to sprint through transition and get on to the bike.
The bike is a simple out and back down a four lane highway, most of the way. Because it was still early in the morning the wind wasn’t howling yet. I wish it would have been though. It would have maybe given me a slight advantage over the smaller riders out there. This was the first race I have ever truly done off of pure feel. No computer here today. That may have been my undoing though. The sight of the rider in front of me by only about 400 yards kept urging me to catch up with him and pass him. But to my efforts this did not happen. I did notice the great big American flag at the Relay Station did have some flutter to it though. A tail wind on the way back to transition was waiting eagerly for me at the turn around and I grew a bit happier by that sight. I had loaded up six salt tablets into my Salt Stick and had my First Endurance EFS on board between my aero bars. I guess I had hydrated adequately enough the previous couple of days and the morning of because I only took two sips out of my bottle and two salt tablets during the bike. Yes I take cramping seriously. Why run the risk I always say to myself. So back to transition I go now. I am a flying mount and dismount person and today was no exception. I must have been still going fifteen miles per hour when my feet hit the ground. The fun part came when it was time to turn the bike and take it up and over the curb. This turn was immediately after the dismount line and so I start to turn and lift my bike up both at the same time. This was a huge mistake. When I put the wheels back on the ground the front wheel snapped at me causing me to almost run over my bike. Fortunately from me I caught myself quickly and just carried my bike back to the rack. Helmet, sunglasses off and hat and race-belt in hand I was off in my running shoes quickly. In the end I averaged 24.7 miles per hour.
Not quickly enough to my standard though. My right shoe decided to give me a bit of trouble here. Now out on the run it was time to play the mental game. The volunteers were telling me I was a minute down of the leader coming out of transition. This was a good sign because I think he must have started a good thirty seconds ahead of me on the swim (TT start with the next person being sent off when the person in front of them reaches the first wall). So I told myself we’re doing good, just let your legs open up then go for him. The run was only two miles so I thought I could suffer through it. I thought wrong. About half of a mile into the run my legs opened as I expected them to but there was no extra gear there. This was unusual for a short early season race I thought. I was shooting for six minute averages but had to settle for six fifty-two average pace. Was really disappointed in my run on this day and it would later prove to be a complete failure. I need to learn to suffer better at this point in a sprint race. I think I need to just tell my legs to shut up and keep telling myself that those interval repeats mean that I can run my high pace when I’m tired.
So I come across the line in 47:03.8. Thinking ok we’ll see where the times line out after all of this TT start madness clears up. I hit the spread for some bacon and eggs then hit the showers. I am no looking at the computer with the results now and I find the podium times and notice that I’m not there and say d**n should have pushed harder. I finally did see my name, under my age group, in first place and was happy with that. I was happy until I saw my time. Then when the top three overall times flashed by once again I took a double take because I thought I had seen my time this time around there. I didn’t pay attention to the names this time, it wasn’t though. The minutes and seconds were the same by third place OA was seven tenths faster than me on the day. This really ate at me. This is why you HAVE to tell your legs to shut-it during the run of a sprint race. Time is too costly in such a short race like this one. I have a race this upcoming week end and I can for sure tell you that my legs will take a back seat to me running to my extreme limit. My lungs will be burning before I stop my legs. Over all I thought this was a good race but it showed me there is still room for improvement, both physically and mentally. Hopefully I can use this experience in future races like I want to and break that mental barrier down. I hope that everyone else that raced had just as fun of a time as I did and I plan to see them at the second race of the series too! I wish I could figure out a way to put the GoPro video of the race up on here but oh well.