Race: Greensburg YMCA Cross-Country Meet 5K Master's Division
Date: October 25, 2014
Location: Greensburg Salem High School
Time: 25:11
Overall Rank: 1 out of 2
Age Group Rank: 1 out of 1
Results: http:
First run in about 14 days. I'd say I did excellent. The course was a mix of woods and flat grass and even some pavement, with scattered hilly spots. I was running with Shannan; we were the only two participants in the 5K! We started with the 4K heat of 13-14 year olds who looked at us like "what are you old people doing here?!" All of the kids rapidly got out ahead of me, but one girl was slowing way down and I could have caught up with by the 4K mark. I still had another kilometer to go, though, so I conserved energy and let her lead.
Saturday, October 25, 2014
Sunday, October 19, 2014
AMYMSA swim meet at Hollidaysburg
Race: AMYMSA master's swim meet
Date: October 19, 2014
Location: Hollidaysburg Senior High School
Results: http:
Most Master’s meets have between 60 and 120 swimmers. This one had around 40, for a variety of reasons, one being that it is on the eastern geographic edge of our league so a lot of people decide not to travel there. My usual carpool partners were absent, too, so I just drove myself and made it into a day trip that included a visit to the Horseshoe Curve National Historic Landmark near Altoona and a hike on the Ghost Town Trail near…well, nothing (hence the name).
The swim meet was at the local senior high school instead of the YMCA, and this was an excellent choice. The facility was clean and recently renovated, I liked the huge bank of windows on the side, and we even had touch-pads at both pool ends so I can now examine my split times to get a better understanding of how I performed during the longer events.
EVENT #4: 200 Individual Medley (2:50.95)
I swam this 1.35 seconds better than my old personal record. This was probably all due to my butterfly, which felt effortless. I was a second ahead of Nick in the adjacent lane. I fell half a second behind Nick on the backstroke, but that’s actually good. I usually slow way down during the backstroke to recover from a too-fast butterfly. Today I continued to feel strong and negative-split my backstroke segment (second 25 yards was faster than my first 25 yards). I pulled ahead of Nick again during the breaststroke, with my 49.46 second segment solidly beating his 53.03 second segment. I negative split here, too. I was burned out by the end of the breaststroke and had a weak showing in the first 25 yards of freestyle. I found new energy at the end and negative split once again (23.18 seconds vs. 20.17). Nick beat me by around 5 seconds. It appears I am still inexperienced with pacing myself during longer races. I can also improve with my turns, as most were poor today.
Following the race I was dizzy and lightheaded. I wonder if I might have hyperventilated during the breaststroke; this would have caused the fatigue I felt during the freestyle.
EVENT #8: 100 Breaststroke (1:23.99)
I had plenty of time to recover from the 200 IM and gave a good showing with my breaststroke. I finished about half a second slower than my personal best. My dive and initial pullout were expertly executed and I had very consistent splits over the next 75 yards. I was finishing much slower than others in my heat, though, so I decided to increase my stroke rate considerably at the end. This led to a negative split of around 0.93 second in the last 25 yards.
EVENT #9: 25 Backstroke (16.91)
This was just for fun. I thought this was a personal best, but after reviewing my records I see I missed my best time by 0.41 seconds. Given the short distance of this swim, I wasn’t even close! But I beat everyone in my heat (in fact, all the other heats, too) and I felt quite full of testosterone.
EVENT #11: 100 Freestyle (1:09.46)
I swam 3.5 seconds slower than my personal best—not real good! But oh well. By the fourth event of a meet I am usually fatigued and don’t set a personal best. The meet director greeted me at the end of my swim and apologized for hitting the start buzzer before I was ready. He definitely rushed me, but it didn’t affect my time. Instead, I think I just got ahead of myself. I have been working with my coach over the last two weeks on a shoulder-driven freestyle technique that is used during short distance events. My brain switched immediately into this fast-but-inefficient stroke during the first 25 yards of my swim. I felt strong and it was fun to power through it. But I still had 75 yards to go, so I switched to hip-driven freestyle for the middle 50 yards and then tried to return to shoulder-driven strokes in the last 25 yards. My turns were still sloppy and just like last meet, I don’t remember thinking much about swimming during this race, so my mind wasn’t in it. That’s ok. I had a lot of fun today and swam very well.
Date: October 19, 2014
Location: Hollidaysburg Senior High School
Results: http:
Most Master’s meets have between 60 and 120 swimmers. This one had around 40, for a variety of reasons, one being that it is on the eastern geographic edge of our league so a lot of people decide not to travel there. My usual carpool partners were absent, too, so I just drove myself and made it into a day trip that included a visit to the Horseshoe Curve National Historic Landmark near Altoona and a hike on the Ghost Town Trail near…well, nothing (hence the name).
The swim meet was at the local senior high school instead of the YMCA, and this was an excellent choice. The facility was clean and recently renovated, I liked the huge bank of windows on the side, and we even had touch-pads at both pool ends so I can now examine my split times to get a better understanding of how I performed during the longer events.
EVENT #4: 200 Individual Medley (2:50.95)
I swam this 1.35 seconds better than my old personal record. This was probably all due to my butterfly, which felt effortless. I was a second ahead of Nick in the adjacent lane. I fell half a second behind Nick on the backstroke, but that’s actually good. I usually slow way down during the backstroke to recover from a too-fast butterfly. Today I continued to feel strong and negative-split my backstroke segment (second 25 yards was faster than my first 25 yards). I pulled ahead of Nick again during the breaststroke, with my 49.46 second segment solidly beating his 53.03 second segment. I negative split here, too. I was burned out by the end of the breaststroke and had a weak showing in the first 25 yards of freestyle. I found new energy at the end and negative split once again (23.18 seconds vs. 20.17). Nick beat me by around 5 seconds. It appears I am still inexperienced with pacing myself during longer races. I can also improve with my turns, as most were poor today.
Following the race I was dizzy and lightheaded. I wonder if I might have hyperventilated during the breaststroke; this would have caused the fatigue I felt during the freestyle.
EVENT #8: 100 Breaststroke (1:23.99)
I had plenty of time to recover from the 200 IM and gave a good showing with my breaststroke. I finished about half a second slower than my personal best. My dive and initial pullout were expertly executed and I had very consistent splits over the next 75 yards. I was finishing much slower than others in my heat, though, so I decided to increase my stroke rate considerably at the end. This led to a negative split of around 0.93 second in the last 25 yards.
EVENT #9: 25 Backstroke (16.91)
This was just for fun. I thought this was a personal best, but after reviewing my records I see I missed my best time by 0.41 seconds. Given the short distance of this swim, I wasn’t even close! But I beat everyone in my heat (in fact, all the other heats, too) and I felt quite full of testosterone.
EVENT #11: 100 Freestyle (1:09.46)
I swam 3.5 seconds slower than my personal best—not real good! But oh well. By the fourth event of a meet I am usually fatigued and don’t set a personal best. The meet director greeted me at the end of my swim and apologized for hitting the start buzzer before I was ready. He definitely rushed me, but it didn’t affect my time. Instead, I think I just got ahead of myself. I have been working with my coach over the last two weeks on a shoulder-driven freestyle technique that is used during short distance events. My brain switched immediately into this fast-but-inefficient stroke during the first 25 yards of my swim. I felt strong and it was fun to power through it. But I still had 75 yards to go, so I switched to hip-driven freestyle for the middle 50 yards and then tried to return to shoulder-driven strokes in the last 25 yards. My turns were still sloppy and just like last meet, I don’t remember thinking much about swimming during this race, so my mind wasn’t in it. That’s ok. I had a lot of fun today and swam very well.
Sunday, October 5, 2014
Mario Lemieux Foundation 6.6K
Race: Mario Lemieux Foundation 6.6K
Date: October 5, 2014
Location: Pittsburgh, PA
Time: 34:34
Overall Rank: X out of XX
Age Group Rank: 56 out of 213
Results: http:
I did the Mario Lemieux Foundation 6.6K run this morning, along with 4,000 other people. I finished in 34:34 at a pace of 8:26 min/mile. This ranked me in the top 26% of my gender age group (56 out of 213). This is not a bad result for me but I am surprised on a couple levels why I was not faster. First, it was only 2 weeks ago that I did my half-ironman so I should still be in great condition. Second, I have run two 5K races this summer where I dropped below an 8:00 min/mile pace. It may be that I kept such a pace today until the last mile when I may have slowed. I pushed very hard for the first 2 miles of the race. Then I felt hungry. At mile 3 I lost some concentration. I did, however, remember to "hoot" in the long tunnel we ran through; as a tradition, I do that for every tunnel I enter when running or on my bike. Within view of the finishline I was not feeling well at all. Once over the line, I steered over to the side, just in case I was going to vomit. Thankfully I didn't, but it would not have been out of place to have done so. The nauseated feeling was a sign that I pushed myself as hard as I could and I am happy to have done so. My triathlon season may be over but I've still got a competitive spirit!
Date: October 5, 2014
Location: Pittsburgh, PA
Time: 34:34
Overall Rank: X out of XX
Age Group Rank: 56 out of 213
Results: http:
I did the Mario Lemieux Foundation 6.6K run this morning, along with 4,000 other people. I finished in 34:34 at a pace of 8:26 min/mile. This ranked me in the top 26% of my gender age group (56 out of 213). This is not a bad result for me but I am surprised on a couple levels why I was not faster. First, it was only 2 weeks ago that I did my half-ironman so I should still be in great condition. Second, I have run two 5K races this summer where I dropped below an 8:00 min/mile pace. It may be that I kept such a pace today until the last mile when I may have slowed. I pushed very hard for the first 2 miles of the race. Then I felt hungry. At mile 3 I lost some concentration. I did, however, remember to "hoot" in the long tunnel we ran through; as a tradition, I do that for every tunnel I enter when running or on my bike. Within view of the finishline I was not feeling well at all. Once over the line, I steered over to the side, just in case I was going to vomit. Thankfully I didn't, but it would not have been out of place to have done so. The nauseated feeling was a sign that I pushed myself as hard as I could and I am happy to have done so. My triathlon season may be over but I've still got a competitive spirit!
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