Race:
AMYMSA Swim Meet
Date:
15 Sept 2013
Location:
Pittsburgh, PA
This was my first AMYMSA masters swim meet of the season. I started with a
400 warmup. It felt good, so why push it? No stress.
Event #1: 100 freestyle
Finished in 1:07.37, about 1 second off my
personal best. This is great, since it is the first swim meet and with the
triathlon season just finishing, I haven't been training for short races. Dive
was great, first turn was perfect. Then my turns got progressively worse. I felt
sick with lactic acid for several minutes after this race, so I know I worked
hard. My stroke felt really wild; my body was not rigid as it should be, so
there is a lot of drag I can reduce and wasted energy I can recoup with improved
form and less panic.
Event #2: 50 free
Finished in 29.53, which is a personal best. I knew
this was going to be a fast swim when I was in the water. It felt perfect.
Event #3: 50 breast
Finished in 37.34 seconds which beat my old personal
best by 1.28 seconds. That's a big improvement, and it was probably due to my
dive and underwater glide. My coach and I practiced that a couple days ago. I
put it to good use and didn't surface until well past the 15-yard line.
Otherwise, my stroke felt rushed and inefficient. I was fast (for me), but there
is a lot of improvement I could still make.
Event #4: 25 fly
Completed in 13.74 seconds, which was 0.98 seconds
faster than my previous personal best. I smashed it. My dive was great, I did
some strong dolphin kicks to get to the surface, and then I sped up my stroke
cadence. In the past I have paused a bit with my arms outstretched ahead of me
but I have been working this summer to get rid of the pause.
Sunday, September 15, 2013
Sunday, September 8, 2013
The Nation's Triathlon
Race:
The Nation's Triathlon
Date: September 8, 2013
Location: Washington. DC
Time: 2:49:32
Overall Rank: 952 out of 2864
Age Group Rank: 149 out of 316 (top 47%)
Results: http://nationstri.com/results/2013-results/#/person:&entry_id=945:1391895807835
My third season of triathlon has now closed and this race was a great ending. I must confess a malaise crept upon me during parts of the summer; I did not always look forward to my training sessions in the pool, road, and trail. Nor do I particularly enjoy the actual racing; it is hard. But the day after a successful race can be fantastic. That is how I feel today. I feel accomplished. I feel like a triathlete and not someone who just does triathlons.
My friend Geoff and I travelled to Washington, DC on Friday. On Saturday we picked up our registration packets, browsed the expo, attended the pre-race meeting to go over the race course, and left our bikes in the transition zone. On Sunday morning, we left Geoff’s parents’ house and drove into the city, arriving around 6am. The first wave of the race began at 7am. An hour seemed like plenty of time to set up, but I had no time to spare. We parked in the suggested parking lot, but I didn’t realize we would have to walk >0.5 mile to the starting line. The transition zone entrance was a snarl of people and it took a while to get in and out. The Nation’s Tri is billed as the largest triathlon in North America. There were more than 3,000 athletes registered. All of them had to pass through a 12-foot width entrance to the transition zone at least twice (going in and going out) in the half hour before the race began.
SWIM (1.5 K = 0.9 mile)
I finished in 30:58, which was ranked 78 out of 316 (top 24%) in my age group.
The course was in the Potomac River near the Lincoln Memorial. Swimmers swam upstream and under the Arlington Memorial Bridge, then turned around and came back. The swim was a time-trial start, with waves of 8 athletes pushing off every 15 seconds. This really helped to space people apart and minimized the bodily contact that I had to deal with in my previous open water races. I did well in those past races, but I really didn’t feel like fighting people today, so I chose to swim out to the side and make wide turns around the buoys. This means I probably swam greater than 1500 meters, but it was stress-free and I felt good. The water was 79.5 degrees (wetsuits not legal) and as smooth as open water could possibly be. My time of 30:27 does not impress me, since I covered the same distance in choppier water at the Pittsburgh Triathlon in July 2013 in 25:27.
I exited the water just behind my friend Geoff. He had a head start by
several minutes, but I didn’t know by how many, so I wasn’t sure at that point
whether I had swam fast enough to compensate for the faster run time I expected
he would have.
T1 transition (3:51)
This went really smoothly. Given nearly 3,000 athletes, the transition zone was huge, so probably a minute of this time was spent running from entrance to exit. I also had to slow down a bit in order to pass an athlete in a wheelchair. I felt bad about rushing past him.
BIKE (40 K = 24.9 miles)
I finished in 1:14:50, which was ranked 152 out of 316 (top 48%) in my age group. My average speed was 19.9 mph.
The course was made up of two identical loops. We started out near the Lincoln Memorial and went across the 14th Street Bridge to the Pentagon, where we did a 180-degree turn and looped back to the Lincoln Memorial and travelled north to George Washington University. We did another 180-degree turn and headed west on the Whitehurst Freeway to near the Key Bridge and then another 180-degree turn to take us back towards Lincoln again. There was yet another 180-degree turn along Rock Creek and Potomac Parkway. The tight turns on this course were my favorite parts. I feel I have excellent bike handling skills and took the turns as fast and tight as I could to get ahead of my competitors. While there were some sights to see, most of this route was on multi-lane highways closed to car traffic. It was not as picturesque as I expected, but I was concentrating on racing and wouldn’t have appreciated the scenery anyway. There were two tunnels we passed under, and it got really dark under there. I made sure to go “hooooo!” under one of them, as is my custom.
I felt good on the first loop but after mile 14 my back started hurting. It
gets that way if I have not trained enough in the bent-over position that fast bike
riding requires. I decided I would not let this pain get in my way and I don’t
remember it hurting on the rest of my ride. However, my calf and hamstring
muscles were starting to twitch and cramp at mile 20 and I slowed down a tad to
give them a break. I have had leg cramps spoil a run in previous triathlons, so
I knew this was something to pay attention to. I drank plenty of water while on
the bike, and I also consumed a gel, which I have never done while on the bike
before. It did not prove difficult, and it may have helped with the cramping
issue.
On the second loop, approaching the Pentagon (which, by the way, I never saw because I was always looking at the road), I came upon a bike crash involving at least four cyclists. The bikes were strewn at random angles and two people were sitting on the pavement being attended to by race officials and medics. I think all of us who passed by this scene became less aggressive on our bikes for the next mile or so as we processed the fact that what we were doing was dangerous. With so many bikes on the course, we were almost always next to another cyclist, passing them, or being passed. Just like driving a car on a highway, you have to look behind you to make sure there is room before initiating a pass. There are also “slow drivers” that are hazards and some elite cyclists that zoom past you without warning. I even yelled at one of the latter, telling him to “pass on the left, dude!” When I use the word “dude” in this context, you know I was not being friendly. Overall, I had great fun on this bike course, and people were mostly following the rules about drafting, blocking, and no passing near the bridge.
I never saw Geoff while on the bike. I assume that meant he was still behind me, meaning I had preserved my lead. But I couldn’t be sure.
T2 transition (2:58)
I felt better than I was as I racked my bike in the transition zone. As I bent down to change my shoes, I realized that I was super stiff in my hips. I most certainly didn’t feel like running, so I took my time and walked out of the transition zone. The spectators would not have that, so they yelled at me encouragingly until I started to run.
RUN (10 K = 6.2 miles)
I finished in 56:56, which was ranked 188 out of 316 (top 59%) in my age group. This equates to a 9:11 min/mile pace, which was only slightly slower than my run segment in the Pittsburgh Triathlon earlier in the summer.
I felt surprisingly good during the first 4 miles of this run. I kept a steady pace, but not rushed. I figured I would go a bit faster in my last mile. There were some folks who had stopped to walk, and a few were moving their arms but their feet weren’t keeping up. I passed them. It felt good to do so. Running is not my strong suit. There were spectators in places, many of them clapping, ringing cowbells, and dressed in banana suits. Yes, you read that right. There were several people dressed as bananas. It made me smile, and a smile is worth a lot when you are starting to get fatigued.
Between mile 4 and 5.5 I started to feel ill. My stomach was upset from the exertion and the heat (it was in the mid 80s at this point). My heart rate monitor told me I was peaking out in the 170s bpm. My vision was a little dim. But then a spectator said “look, you can see the finish line!” and she was right. There, about half a mile ahead, I saw the finish. So I kept going. I even quickened my pace and held my head high for the photographers.
This was a big regional race. The top 25 finishers in the whole race were from 10 states and the District of Columbia. Overall, I finished in 2:49:32, which was faster than the 3-hour goal that I had set. It ranks me 149 out of 316 (top 47%) in my gender-age group, and in the top 42% of all male competitors. In such a large field of athletes from all around the east coast of the United States, I feel really good to be better than half of them. I also beat my friend Geoff by more than 10 minutes, which is a second little victory that I celebrate, but it is done good-naturedly and with great respect for his excellent performance. I would not have been upset if he beat me, because this race is about what I can do independent of what he can do. I gave it everything I had and feel stronger and more alive today because of it.
I thank Geoff for his friendship and companionship. I also thank him for tolerating my erratic driving on the DC highways. Thanks are also due to his parents for hosting us and cheering us on. It was great to finally meet them.
Date: September 8, 2013
Location: Washington. DC
Time: 2:49:32
Overall Rank: 952 out of 2864
Age Group Rank: 149 out of 316 (top 47%)
Results: http://nationstri.com/results/2013-results/#/person:&entry_id=945:1391895807835
My third season of triathlon has now closed and this race was a great ending. I must confess a malaise crept upon me during parts of the summer; I did not always look forward to my training sessions in the pool, road, and trail. Nor do I particularly enjoy the actual racing; it is hard. But the day after a successful race can be fantastic. That is how I feel today. I feel accomplished. I feel like a triathlete and not someone who just does triathlons.
My friend Geoff and I travelled to Washington, DC on Friday. On Saturday we picked up our registration packets, browsed the expo, attended the pre-race meeting to go over the race course, and left our bikes in the transition zone. On Sunday morning, we left Geoff’s parents’ house and drove into the city, arriving around 6am. The first wave of the race began at 7am. An hour seemed like plenty of time to set up, but I had no time to spare. We parked in the suggested parking lot, but I didn’t realize we would have to walk >0.5 mile to the starting line. The transition zone entrance was a snarl of people and it took a while to get in and out. The Nation’s Tri is billed as the largest triathlon in North America. There were more than 3,000 athletes registered. All of them had to pass through a 12-foot width entrance to the transition zone at least twice (going in and going out) in the half hour before the race began.
 |
| From official race website. |
I finished in 30:58, which was ranked 78 out of 316 (top 24%) in my age group.
The course was in the Potomac River near the Lincoln Memorial. Swimmers swam upstream and under the Arlington Memorial Bridge, then turned around and came back. The swim was a time-trial start, with waves of 8 athletes pushing off every 15 seconds. This really helped to space people apart and minimized the bodily contact that I had to deal with in my previous open water races. I did well in those past races, but I really didn’t feel like fighting people today, so I chose to swim out to the side and make wide turns around the buoys. This means I probably swam greater than 1500 meters, but it was stress-free and I felt good. The water was 79.5 degrees (wetsuits not legal) and as smooth as open water could possibly be. My time of 30:27 does not impress me, since I covered the same distance in choppier water at the Pittsburgh Triathlon in July 2013 in 25:27.
I exited the water just behind my friend Geoff. He had a head start by
several minutes, but I didn’t know by how many, so I wasn’t sure at that point
whether I had swam fast enough to compensate for the faster run time I expected
he would have.T1 transition (3:51)
This went really smoothly. Given nearly 3,000 athletes, the transition zone was huge, so probably a minute of this time was spent running from entrance to exit. I also had to slow down a bit in order to pass an athlete in a wheelchair. I felt bad about rushing past him.
BIKE (40 K = 24.9 miles)
I finished in 1:14:50, which was ranked 152 out of 316 (top 48%) in my age group. My average speed was 19.9 mph.
The course was made up of two identical loops. We started out near the Lincoln Memorial and went across the 14th Street Bridge to the Pentagon, where we did a 180-degree turn and looped back to the Lincoln Memorial and travelled north to George Washington University. We did another 180-degree turn and headed west on the Whitehurst Freeway to near the Key Bridge and then another 180-degree turn to take us back towards Lincoln again. There was yet another 180-degree turn along Rock Creek and Potomac Parkway. The tight turns on this course were my favorite parts. I feel I have excellent bike handling skills and took the turns as fast and tight as I could to get ahead of my competitors. While there were some sights to see, most of this route was on multi-lane highways closed to car traffic. It was not as picturesque as I expected, but I was concentrating on racing and wouldn’t have appreciated the scenery anyway. There were two tunnels we passed under, and it got really dark under there. I made sure to go “hooooo!” under one of them, as is my custom.
 |
| From official race website. |
On the second loop, approaching the Pentagon (which, by the way, I never saw because I was always looking at the road), I came upon a bike crash involving at least four cyclists. The bikes were strewn at random angles and two people were sitting on the pavement being attended to by race officials and medics. I think all of us who passed by this scene became less aggressive on our bikes for the next mile or so as we processed the fact that what we were doing was dangerous. With so many bikes on the course, we were almost always next to another cyclist, passing them, or being passed. Just like driving a car on a highway, you have to look behind you to make sure there is room before initiating a pass. There are also “slow drivers” that are hazards and some elite cyclists that zoom past you without warning. I even yelled at one of the latter, telling him to “pass on the left, dude!” When I use the word “dude” in this context, you know I was not being friendly. Overall, I had great fun on this bike course, and people were mostly following the rules about drafting, blocking, and no passing near the bridge.
I never saw Geoff while on the bike. I assume that meant he was still behind me, meaning I had preserved my lead. But I couldn’t be sure.
T2 transition (2:58)
I felt better than I was as I racked my bike in the transition zone. As I bent down to change my shoes, I realized that I was super stiff in my hips. I most certainly didn’t feel like running, so I took my time and walked out of the transition zone. The spectators would not have that, so they yelled at me encouragingly until I started to run.
RUN (10 K = 6.2 miles)
I finished in 56:56, which was ranked 188 out of 316 (top 59%) in my age group. This equates to a 9:11 min/mile pace, which was only slightly slower than my run segment in the Pittsburgh Triathlon earlier in the summer.
I felt surprisingly good during the first 4 miles of this run. I kept a steady pace, but not rushed. I figured I would go a bit faster in my last mile. There were some folks who had stopped to walk, and a few were moving their arms but their feet weren’t keeping up. I passed them. It felt good to do so. Running is not my strong suit. There were spectators in places, many of them clapping, ringing cowbells, and dressed in banana suits. Yes, you read that right. There were several people dressed as bananas. It made me smile, and a smile is worth a lot when you are starting to get fatigued.
Between mile 4 and 5.5 I started to feel ill. My stomach was upset from the exertion and the heat (it was in the mid 80s at this point). My heart rate monitor told me I was peaking out in the 170s bpm. My vision was a little dim. But then a spectator said “look, you can see the finish line!” and she was right. There, about half a mile ahead, I saw the finish. So I kept going. I even quickened my pace and held my head high for the photographers.
This was a big regional race. The top 25 finishers in the whole race were from 10 states and the District of Columbia. Overall, I finished in 2:49:32, which was faster than the 3-hour goal that I had set. It ranks me 149 out of 316 (top 47%) in my gender-age group, and in the top 42% of all male competitors. In such a large field of athletes from all around the east coast of the United States, I feel really good to be better than half of them. I also beat my friend Geoff by more than 10 minutes, which is a second little victory that I celebrate, but it is done good-naturedly and with great respect for his excellent performance. I would not have been upset if he beat me, because this race is about what I can do independent of what he can do. I gave it everything I had and feel stronger and more alive today because of it.
I thank Geoff for his friendship and companionship. I also thank him for tolerating my erratic driving on the DC highways. Thanks are also due to his parents for hosting us and cheering us on. It was great to finally meet them.
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