What a day. Here I sit feeling the after effects of a long race, sore muscles and really sorehip and knee joints. The whole race has become a blur of a memory so I want to write down as much as I can before the memory fades away. You can read more on my fitness 2013 page for the complete race break down. Finish time = 5:27:13
I must say though that the highlight of the race was the swim. It was the area I was most fearful of, thus I trained the hardest for, and it ended up being the part I dominated the most. funny how that works!
The wet suit made the difference. You feel like a million bucks once you have it on, and it adds to your bouancy. Normally when I try to float, the water level is above my eyes. Exhale and I sink right away. But with the wet suit on I could easily relax in the water with my whole head above the surface. This made me feel safe and secure and all thoughts of drowning vanished. I suddenly had huge confidence in the water.
Next, the suit makes you fast. I was staying a little too close to the edge of the lake, which ended up adding about 200 meters to my swim. At one point I was so close to the shore that I almost ran into a private dock. But looking down I could see the rocks at the bottom of the lake. I could also see that I was swimming much faster than I do in the pool. According to the Garmin times, I am a full 3 minutes per km faster with a wetsuit in a lake during a race, than I have ever been in the pool. Man did this ever make me feel good. I knew I was swimming well when I started to see green, blue, pink, and white swim caps on the people around me before I had even reached the north turn point.
As I said, the swim was the highlight of the race because it was new, and I did way better than expected. The bike and the run portion are old hat to me now and I don’t have much to say other than I need to train harder and do more Brick sessions. Below is a list of things I learned during the race.
-
- Too much water on the bike, 2 unused bottles
- Too much water on the run, 1 unused bottle
- Too much food total race, only needed 3 bars and liquid gels
- Use the provided food and water to save weight
- Only bring supplements food and water
- Sight more often in the water, you turn without noticing
- Try to drop into swim pace sooner, too fast out of the gate
- Stay closer to center line, less extra distance 2.1
- Plan out transition 1 better, too much time lost here
- Drafting is allowed as long as you are always passing people, use the draft MORE
- More training time in aero position to avoid a sore neck
- Find partners to race with in the bike and run
- Conversation makes the miles fly by, and the race more enjoyable
- throw out the motivation to all those around you
- Be ready for the end game, the real race started in the last 5km of running
- Find ways to boost mental attitude when feeling defeated
