Posts tagged rr
Ironman World Championships
Oct 18th
I finished, race, ended up walking some of the marathon. Poor bike fit led to really bad lower back cramps. I had to continually get off the bike to stretch my bike. Muscularly I felt good/strong. Weird fever the day before and after the race. I am not a World Championship competitor/finisher. Pretty excited regardless of finish time.
New Bedford 1/2 Marathon RR
Mar 20th
Woke up, I had ground my coffee, filled the maker with water and set the timer, so I woke up to a few great cups of 53x11coffee, oatmeal, sat around for awhile. Then realized I was still hungry so I had a slice of bread with Nutella on it, about to walk out the door, still felt empty, so had another half a PB&J sandwich.
Race was at 11am, I hate ‘late’ races, too much time to sit around. Finally made the 80mile drive up to New Bedford.
Walked around, figured out where to pick up my race packet, dropped it in the car and looked for the Port-A-Potties. Stood in line waiting for the bathroom. Line was moving super slow, some of the doors were marked ‘locked’ but I had seen anyone moved, I asked if people saw anyone go in, they thought they had, finally first guy in line knocked, 3 Port-A-Potties where empty. Line moved much quicker.
Then jogged around for awhile and shed some layers. I still had a ton of time, so I sat around debating what to wear.
Actual run was pretty good. Went out a bit too fast, passed the Hoyts, then settled in and pushed more and more the further I got into the race. I got passed and passed a ton of people throughout the run.
Sort of disappointed at my overall time. It was a great PR for me. Turns out race was chip-timed, but it wasn’t chip timed. It counted your chip as you finished but not as you started, so people that were seeded further back got hurt. Normally it doesn’t matter.
What could I have done to improve? Check my Garmin 305 in the morning (it was DOA), I was up for 2.5hours before I left. I think I could have pushed a bit more after the initial hills.
Test out new shorts on a longer run. I wore a pair of Brooks Infiniti shorts, super comfortable. However I had worn them once before. They are my first pair of ‘short’ shorts. My normal running shorts are just around/just past mid thigh. These are short. My legs don’t really touch, or at least I never thought they did. Sometime around mile 5 my thighs starting burning, by mile 9 they were on fire. I do not think this really effected my race much, except that it added some serious pain. I thought I lubed up well, but didnt go down far enough.
Seriously an awesome race. Everything was setup perfectly. Shops had post-race discounts, tons of free food I skipped out on. Only improvement would have been Gatorade or something similar at the water stations.
Results: 1:36:06
http://www.coolrunning.com/results/09/ma/Mar15_32ndNe_set1.shtml
October Totals and Race Results
Nov 8th
After rolling my ankle, not running for two weeks and catching a cold, I ran in the Mystic, CT Tarzan Brown River Run. It was an awesome race, and had some great chowder afterwards. I managed a 41:10. This averages out to 7:31 min/mile. I had originally hoped to go sub 40, but decided to take it easy instead.
Results: http://www.plattsys.com/results/res2008/tb08.htm
Pictures: http://www.smugmug.com
Nutmegman 1/2 Iron Distance Triathlon
Sep 24th
I was supposed to race Longhorn 70.3 down in Austin next month, however life changes, I backed out of the race. Waited a while debated what I was going to do and decided that Nutmegman was close enough to home. I trained on my home with my bike time being on a trainer 95% of the time. Swam once in awhile. I was under trained going into the race, but was confident.
Pre-race routine:
Woke up just after 3am, had coffee, took a quick shower and ate a bagel. On my way out I grabbed another 1/2 bagel. Drove the 80miles to the venue. Arrived in total darkness, put bike, bag and wetsuit in transition. I had to wait for it to get light to setup and use bathrooms. It was cold.
Event Warmup:
Swam maybe 25yards. Supposed to start at 7am, but the fog was so bad they delayed it 30min. Still real bad when we went in. I waited until the last minute to put my wetsuit on because it was cold. Once I got it on I was still cold and actually like most people there put clothes back on over it.
Swim:
My swim was good. The fog was peasoup. It was real thick and was even thicker the 2nd loop. They took out a ton of algae plants, but there was still a ton. Your arms definitely got slowed in them.
There were entire groups, not just individuals that were off course. I swam alone for awhile and would look back hoping someone was back there. I got off course a few times. It was very hard to see the buoys until you were very close. I had a great swim so I can not really complain.
Tons of life guards and police boat w/diver. Really as you got close to the turn around you looked for the police boat with its lights.
T1:
Fast. Broke my sunglasses, couldn’t ask for anything else except maybe to throw on a 2nd layer on top.
Bike:
The course was brutal. It was very cold. As a result of being so cold I did not consume enough electrolytes/sodium and my quads seized at mile 33, 4x, and 51, two other times they almost seized, but I was right at the top of a hill and was able to peddle out. I tried to make up for lost calories, just couldn’t do it. I had to stop and stretch, I definitely lost time. I always caught back up and people were very surprised when I would. I rode alone most of the ride.
I have never experienced really any sort of cramping let alone having your muscles seize up. It hurt, once it happened I was in pain the rest of the race. My neck and back were also very tight for the first 30miles or so while it was still cold.
Some people could not maintain momentum and fell, one guy I talked to showed me his shattered cleat at the end of the race. Even one of the female Pros fell.
It would have been beneficial to me to ride the course ahead of time, or just ride more hills by me.
T2:
Again fairly fast. I put socks and my Newtons on. Just felt more comfortable in them at this distance than my Pearl Izumi Streaks. The bike next to me had fallen over, and I asked a volunteer to rerack it. They did and I was able to rack and get out.
Run:
Decent enough run given that my quads were still in pain, I stretched numerous times, walked a few hills. They were just in real pain. I have read that some people said the run course was difficult, for sure no harder than my regular runs. I was slow but at ease aside from my quads. I am normally have a jack rabbit HR when I run I was almost 20bpm lower than normal because of how slow I was going.
Overall:
Awesome race. I plan on returning and dropping 30min off my time. Awesome post race massage. Disappointed in my time, but not in my effort level.
Total Time = 6h 20m 3s
Overall Rank = 43/83
Pictures:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/endureitmultisports/
Results:
http://www.plattsys.com/results/res2008/nutiron.htm