Saturday was to be my last tune-up race before the “Big Race” at Timberman on August 23rd. Training has been going well and I’ve been proud of myself that I have been able to maintain my training along with working the past 2 weeks. Having a job and training is hard on the head sometimes though and so on Saturday, I felt ready body-wise but my brain was a little foggy and not sure it wanted to be put through a race!
It was a beautiful day in O-dot-FINALLY!! I drove over to the race site alone which was only about 10 minutes away (Cliff was going to bike over later to cheer me on). I left the house wondering what kind of race awaited me…you see, there was a sewage leak into the Ottawa River on Friday, and all the beaches, including the one where I would be swimming, were closed. I thought they would probably still get us to swim, but just in case they turned it into a Du, I figured I had to be mentally prepared. There was no need to worry though; on arrival I saw the big orange buoys and knew the tri would go on as planned.
I’ll make this a short report, since it was really only a tune up race:
1) The swim: Felt great although had some trouble during a section where we all had to funnel through a small break in the buoy line…I could have gone forever I felt! My time wasn’t great, (28:38 (1:54/100m) was what I stopped my watch at out of the water) although with a long transition run it looked like ~31:00. This still puts me on track for my sub-40 minute swim that I am aiming for at Timberman though!
2) The bike: So..side note…in transition? Ripped my wetsuit…put a hole right through it…not a big one though so I think it can be repaired!! I am sooooo looking forward to wetsuit strippers at Timberman!!! Started the bike with no computer, which threw me off a bit but I got it working again on the 2nd lap (there were 4 in total). First lap, hammys were sore, but each successive lap, I felt stronger and stronger. I finished with a 31.8 avg which is the highest I’ve ever had, though I would have liked to be above 32. A big thank you to the girl with a 29 on her leg, indicating she was in my age group…she passed me and shook me out of my minute of reverie so that I could go harder –I ended up passing her after the turn around and never saw her again!
3) The run: T2 was much smoother and I headed out on the 1st of 2 laps. I’m not a big fan of this race because of the amount of laps, but it is good for spectating and also for getting tips from ‘coach!’. I felt great off the bike and had lots of energy. I passed quite a few people on the run (and a turtle! Glad that someone moved him off the path before anyone stepped on him!) and only got passed by a couple men who were on their 2nd lap. On the way back on my 1st lap, I felt pretty tired but when I took my razzberry Clif shot on the start of the 2nd lap, it did its job and I felt GREAT on the 2nd lap. I finished with a run time of 46:04…what made me uber happy was that my pace was faster than two women that I run track with and who are a teeny bit faster than me! They said I looked great on the run…if anyone has ever seen me run, I don’t think the word ‘great’ quite describes my running style…more ‘quirky but effective” I think!!
So good race…total time was 2:33:04; 2nd in my new age category of 25-29 and 7th overall woman. The really good thing about the race ( I was telling Cliff) was that I felt like I went hard in each discipline and I don’t think I could have gone much harder, but I still felt like I could have gone farther in each discipline…which is good, since 70.3 is in less than 3 weeks….EEEEEKKK!! Happy training (and eating! I’m famished!!)
Amanda
Awesome race Amanda! I hear ya on the countdown thing. Double EEEEEK!
Thanks! yeah…i woke up this morning and realized it was 2 weeks away…maybe that was why I was in a bad mood??! haha