In the last month, following Boston, it got a bit hard motivation wise. Sure I did the 2 / 3 swims a week, a couple of bike rides a week and 1 or 2 runs a week. But the intensityand most importantly the mental wasn't there.
I fixed my mountain bike and went riding in the trails behind my house (video below). Wow are these trails fantastic or what? Mountain biking is so exciting, more varied than road biking and feels amazingly fast in the downhill portions.
Yesterday I did my first Olympic triathlon which marks the beginning of the official start of my high intensity triathlon training.
How did I do? Well a bit disappointing 'middle of the pack' performance. But really it is a reflection of how my training has been going.
As expected the swim was a bit of a struggle. Effort wise it felt kind of easy but the problem was in staying orientated. I kept swimming too far right, too far left, bumping into other people, and I had to stop and breast stroke every 10- 15 strokes to see where I was going. I completed the 0.9swim in 39 minutes. A bit slower than my pool swims but given all the zig zagging, I could not expect much better.
Coming out of the water I had left some shoes on the pier to help me run to T1. Thank god for that plan. I had modified some old trainers so I could put them on quickly without show laces.
Like in training I ran out of the water, unzipping my wetsuit and rolling my goggles and swim cap inside the sleeve of my right arm. Unlike in training I realized after running about 50meters that the goggles and cap found their way out of the sleeve and fell down. I had to run back to pick them up (30 sec wasted)
One thing I did not realize is how taxing running our of the water is. I was slow jogging but it somehow felt like a full on sprint. I even got a stitchon my right side. I ran back to T1. I had prepared a foot bath to clean my feet but did not use it. This T1 should have been real fast but it wasn't. I rolled down the suit took it off, wated a bit of time struggling with the sunglasses caught on the straps of the helmet. than ran odd bare foot with thebike. I had carefully attached the bike shoes to the bike with rubber bands like the pros do. After passing the transition mat, I got on the bike (no I did not hop on it like a pro...I did not dare, this will take more training). Unfortunately the exit of the transitiona area was uphill which made it harder to get going on the bike when you don't have the shoes on. I pushed on the pedals and slipped. The rubber bads broke, the bike stopped and I was left awkwardly trying to balance on the bike with the bike shoes rubbing on the floor.
I managed to put my feet back on the top of the shoes and got the bike moving again. Then I realized I had not loosened the shoe's velcro bands... After a minute or two, I managed to put my feet in the shoes and started to accelerate. Then I realized that I had forgotten to attach my water bottle with the velcro band between the aero bars. DAMN! trying to do that while riding is asking for trouble. I took me a good 3- 5 minutes while riding slowly to attach the bottle properly. With all these mistakes, I am guessing I could have saved close to 5 minutes off my total time. Lesson learned I hope.
I started pushing hard on the pedals. Soon I was in cardiac zone 4.5 - 4.7 and passing quite a few people.
When I reached about 1/3 of the bike distance, I decided it would be a good idea to fuel. I munched on some kind of powerbar 300 - 400 cal which was really hard to swallow. The bike ride was fun but also quite challenging with some tough hills.
I passed a couple dozens people on the bike.
When I look at the garmin data, I find that there seems to be a lot of potential to gain time on the flats and downhill as my heart rate quickly drops in the 150's.
Then it was time for the run. T2 went without incidents. However, I did slow down in transition, second guessing myself to make sure I wasn't forgetting anything.
I ran off fairly quickly at first (6:30 pace) but quickly I felt that tackling a run after of couple of hours of other sports is something to get used to. My pace dropped consistently each mile to reach about 8:00 pace towards the end of the run. 48:47 for 6.5 miles is nothing to brag about for me but I have to admit, I was really tired towards the end. The garmin data reflects that as well. My heart rate kept going up and up from the start of the run to the end. The rising heat of an amazingly sunny day didn't help with that either.
I fixed my mountain bike and went riding in the trails behind my house (video below). Wow are these trails fantastic or what? Mountain biking is so exciting, more varied than road biking and feels amazingly fast in the downhill portions.
Yesterday I did my first Olympic triathlon which marks the beginning of the official start of my high intensity triathlon training.
How did I do? Well a bit disappointing 'middle of the pack' performance. But really it is a reflection of how my training has been going.
As expected the swim was a bit of a struggle. Effort wise it felt kind of easy but the problem was in staying orientated. I kept swimming too far right, too far left, bumping into other people, and I had to stop and breast stroke every 10- 15 strokes to see where I was going. I completed the 0.9swim in 39 minutes. A bit slower than my pool swims but given all the zig zagging, I could not expect much better.
Coming out of the water I had left some shoes on the pier to help me run to T1. Thank god for that plan. I had modified some old trainers so I could put them on quickly without show laces.
Like in training I ran out of the water, unzipping my wetsuit and rolling my goggles and swim cap inside the sleeve of my right arm. Unlike in training I realized after running about 50meters that the goggles and cap found their way out of the sleeve and fell down. I had to run back to pick them up (30 sec wasted)
One thing I did not realize is how taxing running our of the water is. I was slow jogging but it somehow felt like a full on sprint. I even got a stitchon my right side. I ran back to T1. I had prepared a foot bath to clean my feet but did not use it. This T1 should have been real fast but it wasn't. I rolled down the suit took it off, wated a bit of time struggling with the sunglasses caught on the straps of the helmet. than ran odd bare foot with thebike. I had carefully attached the bike shoes to the bike with rubber bands like the pros do. After passing the transition mat, I got on the bike (no I did not hop on it like a pro...I did not dare, this will take more training). Unfortunately the exit of the transitiona area was uphill which made it harder to get going on the bike when you don't have the shoes on. I pushed on the pedals and slipped. The rubber bads broke, the bike stopped and I was left awkwardly trying to balance on the bike with the bike shoes rubbing on the floor.
I managed to put my feet back on the top of the shoes and got the bike moving again. Then I realized I had not loosened the shoe's velcro bands... After a minute or two, I managed to put my feet in the shoes and started to accelerate. Then I realized that I had forgotten to attach my water bottle with the velcro band between the aero bars. DAMN! trying to do that while riding is asking for trouble. I took me a good 3- 5 minutes while riding slowly to attach the bottle properly. With all these mistakes, I am guessing I could have saved close to 5 minutes off my total time. Lesson learned I hope.
I started pushing hard on the pedals. Soon I was in cardiac zone 4.5 - 4.7 and passing quite a few people.
When I reached about 1/3 of the bike distance, I decided it would be a good idea to fuel. I munched on some kind of powerbar 300 - 400 cal which was really hard to swallow. The bike ride was fun but also quite challenging with some tough hills.
I passed a couple dozens people on the bike.
When I look at the garmin data, I find that there seems to be a lot of potential to gain time on the flats and downhill as my heart rate quickly drops in the 150's.
Then it was time for the run. T2 went without incidents. However, I did slow down in transition, second guessing myself to make sure I wasn't forgetting anything.
I ran off fairly quickly at first (6:30 pace) but quickly I felt that tackling a run after of couple of hours of other sports is something to get used to. My pace dropped consistently each mile to reach about 8:00 pace towards the end of the run. 48:47 for 6.5 miles is nothing to brag about for me but I have to admit, I was really tired towards the end. The garmin data reflects that as well. My heart rate kept going up and up from the start of the run to the end. The rising heat of an amazingly sunny day didn't help with that either.
Everything considered, even though I can't help feeling a bit disappointed with my performance, I see a lot of potential for improvement. I am glad I took part of the even as I feel it is my first 'real' triathlon test. It was my first open water racing experience and the length of the event 2:40 gives me a hint of what to expect in a Ironman. Boy the run will be hard...Yesterday, I really don't know how I could have run a marathon instead of a 10k.
Training required...
Monday I am starting a new triathlon swim class with a once a month open water workout. I am planning to join a triathlon club as well to help keep my mot
