CapTexTri 2013 race report
Pre-Race
When I signed up for CapTex, I was planning to get in a lot more training than actually happened. Life intervened and I was sick and Emmaline was sick and we were on vacation and busy and so on and so on. So my training has been fairly minimal lately. I also took off most of the winter, only doing a little biking, an occasional run and some core/strength. Actually, mostly core and strength training. But I found that doesn't make up for swimming, biking, and running in terms of speed. My general fitness was maintained, but I lost some of my speed in those areas.
So my goal for this year's CapTex was just to go out, relax, and have fun. I wasn't going to push like crazy or work really hard, just go and take it easy - more like a training day. I didn't worry about my times or my pace. I didn't worry about making specific splits. I kept my heart rate lower (it was in the range I used when I did Longhorn Half Ironman).
The morning was fairly uneventful. The only thing I goofed up was leaving my wetsuit in the car. So once I got transition all set up (which takes me about 10-15 minutes these days), I had to run back to the car, grab my wetsuit and run back to transition and deposit my keys and my shoes. Then I just had to wait for almost two hours for my wave. I chatted with some friends, used the portapotties a couple of times and listened to my iPod (I took along an old iPod shuffle that I could stash with my sandals and water bottle in a bag to retrieve later). I got into my wetsuit and got ready to start.
Swim
An olympic distance swim always feels really long to me somehow. This course in particular feels really long because you go down river, then turnaround and go up and past the start and then continue all the way up under the bat bridge (stinky) and then back to the finish. So that section after the first turnaround feels like forever. Then the section on the way back after the second turnaround feels pretty fast.
I felt good on the swim. I drafted for awhile on the way down behind a girl that was a good speed for me, but I lost her on the turnaround. On the long way up, I was mostly on my own, bummed that I couldn't find the other girl, but she had very minimal kicking so had been hard to follow anyway. I couldn't blame her, I kicked relatively little - almost treating it like a long pulling set in the pool - saving my legs for the bike and run. Then at the far turnaround, I found a really kicky girl in my age group and jumped on her feet. I swam in behind her. The glorious, glorious swim out volunteers helped me out of the water and the girl I had drafted off of turned and said, "Good swim!" I congratulated her as well and told her I appreciated her pulling me into that last stretch of the finish. She told me I, in turn, had pulled her along for a good while. I guess we were even. :)
T1
My first transition was totally uneventful. I had no troubles with my wet suit, grabbed my helmet, sunglasses and bike and headed out - seeing my whole family on the way.
Bike
The bike course at CapTex is a 6.2 mile loop course. Olympic participants complete the loop four times for a total of (about) 24 miles. I actually really like loop courses. They can be congested, but you get to see a lot of spectators. There's never periods of total isolation like I've experiences on other courses (like Vineman or Longhorn). I cracked up every time I saw Roger's sign (which he surprised me with). It said "Jens says: 'Shut up legs!'" and it had a picture of Jens Voight. It was awesome and I guess a lot of other people enjoyed it as well.
So I just ticked off the laps, again, at a nice pace. I wasn't going super easy, but I definitely wasn't riding very hard either. There are a couple of hills, but all in all, it's a pretty easy course. I tried to stay on top of my eating and drinking. Overcast days can be VERY deceptive so I knew I had to eat and drink even if I didn't feel like it.
T2
My second transition would have been great, but some volunteer wouldn't, for some reason, let me go out the way I was headed. I didn't see the little hole in the fence for the run out in the olympic section and instead headed for the giant inflatable "RUN START" arch that was up near the sprint transition. But when I got there, the volunteer turned me around and made me run all way back across the Olympic transition area, to that run out, and then I had to run all the way back up the ramp to the same point I would have ended up if the volunteer would have just let me continue. It was probably only about a 30 second detour and I would have been annoyed more if I had been trying for a good time.
Run
Because I didn't hammer the bike, the run wasn't so bad. Well, that first mile was a doozy, but it always is. This time around I made myself eat a gel. I always take the gel thinking, "I'll eat it if I feel like it." I never feel like it and halfway through the run I start to wish I had the gel, but I know it won't make any difference by that point. So I don't eat the gel. This time, I ate the gel right after getting out of transition. I didn't want it, but I made myself eat it. And you know what? I felt good the whole run! I had several people ask, "Are you doing the sprint?" and when I said no, that I had two loops, they said I looked really good. So that was nice! :)
So then I just ticked off the miles, surprising myself by running through the water stops (instead of walking them like I normally feel like I need to). I took a few sips of water and gatorade and dumping the rest of the cup of water on myself at each aid station. I wasn't breaking any records, but I kept running and felt pretty good. I lapped my watch at the start of the second loop, just out of curiosity. I didn't negative split, but my splits were only about a minute off so that was pretty good. At the last mile, I tried to pick it up a little bit and give whatever I had left in the tank to my final effort.
So, a good race! 15 minutes slower than the same race last year, but hey, not bad taking it relatively easy and with minimal training. And it wasn't a total sufferfest! Last year I had a really fast race, but I felt so badly afterwards, I couldn't even stand up. It was much nicer to feel like I wasn't going to die at the end of the race. What's really funny is that last year I was 15 minutes faster and was 31 out of 63 in my age group. This year I was 29 out of 61 in my age group so really about the same overall.
My final times:
total time - 3:12:20 29/61 in age group
1500 M swim - 31:40 1:56/M
T1 3:36
40 K bike - 1:28:36 16.8 mph
T2 2:36
10k run - 1:05:50 10:36/mi
When I signed up for CapTex, I was planning to get in a lot more training than actually happened. Life intervened and I was sick and Emmaline was sick and we were on vacation and busy and so on and so on. So my training has been fairly minimal lately. I also took off most of the winter, only doing a little biking, an occasional run and some core/strength. Actually, mostly core and strength training. But I found that doesn't make up for swimming, biking, and running in terms of speed. My general fitness was maintained, but I lost some of my speed in those areas.
So my goal for this year's CapTex was just to go out, relax, and have fun. I wasn't going to push like crazy or work really hard, just go and take it easy - more like a training day. I didn't worry about my times or my pace. I didn't worry about making specific splits. I kept my heart rate lower (it was in the range I used when I did Longhorn Half Ironman).
The morning was fairly uneventful. The only thing I goofed up was leaving my wetsuit in the car. So once I got transition all set up (which takes me about 10-15 minutes these days), I had to run back to the car, grab my wetsuit and run back to transition and deposit my keys and my shoes. Then I just had to wait for almost two hours for my wave. I chatted with some friends, used the portapotties a couple of times and listened to my iPod (I took along an old iPod shuffle that I could stash with my sandals and water bottle in a bag to retrieve later). I got into my wetsuit and got ready to start.
Swim
An olympic distance swim always feels really long to me somehow. This course in particular feels really long because you go down river, then turnaround and go up and past the start and then continue all the way up under the bat bridge (stinky) and then back to the finish. So that section after the first turnaround feels like forever. Then the section on the way back after the second turnaround feels pretty fast.
I felt good on the swim. I drafted for awhile on the way down behind a girl that was a good speed for me, but I lost her on the turnaround. On the long way up, I was mostly on my own, bummed that I couldn't find the other girl, but she had very minimal kicking so had been hard to follow anyway. I couldn't blame her, I kicked relatively little - almost treating it like a long pulling set in the pool - saving my legs for the bike and run. Then at the far turnaround, I found a really kicky girl in my age group and jumped on her feet. I swam in behind her. The glorious, glorious swim out volunteers helped me out of the water and the girl I had drafted off of turned and said, "Good swim!" I congratulated her as well and told her I appreciated her pulling me into that last stretch of the finish. She told me I, in turn, had pulled her along for a good while. I guess we were even. :)
T1
My first transition was totally uneventful. I had no troubles with my wet suit, grabbed my helmet, sunglasses and bike and headed out - seeing my whole family on the way.
Bike
The bike course at CapTex is a 6.2 mile loop course. Olympic participants complete the loop four times for a total of (about) 24 miles. I actually really like loop courses. They can be congested, but you get to see a lot of spectators. There's never periods of total isolation like I've experiences on other courses (like Vineman or Longhorn). I cracked up every time I saw Roger's sign (which he surprised me with). It said "Jens says: 'Shut up legs!'" and it had a picture of Jens Voight. It was awesome and I guess a lot of other people enjoyed it as well.
So I just ticked off the laps, again, at a nice pace. I wasn't going super easy, but I definitely wasn't riding very hard either. There are a couple of hills, but all in all, it's a pretty easy course. I tried to stay on top of my eating and drinking. Overcast days can be VERY deceptive so I knew I had to eat and drink even if I didn't feel like it.
T2
My second transition would have been great, but some volunteer wouldn't, for some reason, let me go out the way I was headed. I didn't see the little hole in the fence for the run out in the olympic section and instead headed for the giant inflatable "RUN START" arch that was up near the sprint transition. But when I got there, the volunteer turned me around and made me run all way back across the Olympic transition area, to that run out, and then I had to run all the way back up the ramp to the same point I would have ended up if the volunteer would have just let me continue. It was probably only about a 30 second detour and I would have been annoyed more if I had been trying for a good time.
Run
Because I didn't hammer the bike, the run wasn't so bad. Well, that first mile was a doozy, but it always is. This time around I made myself eat a gel. I always take the gel thinking, "I'll eat it if I feel like it." I never feel like it and halfway through the run I start to wish I had the gel, but I know it won't make any difference by that point. So I don't eat the gel. This time, I ate the gel right after getting out of transition. I didn't want it, but I made myself eat it. And you know what? I felt good the whole run! I had several people ask, "Are you doing the sprint?" and when I said no, that I had two loops, they said I looked really good. So that was nice! :)
So then I just ticked off the miles, surprising myself by running through the water stops (instead of walking them like I normally feel like I need to). I took a few sips of water and gatorade and dumping the rest of the cup of water on myself at each aid station. I wasn't breaking any records, but I kept running and felt pretty good. I lapped my watch at the start of the second loop, just out of curiosity. I didn't negative split, but my splits were only about a minute off so that was pretty good. At the last mile, I tried to pick it up a little bit and give whatever I had left in the tank to my final effort.
So, a good race! 15 minutes slower than the same race last year, but hey, not bad taking it relatively easy and with minimal training. And it wasn't a total sufferfest! Last year I had a really fast race, but I felt so badly afterwards, I couldn't even stand up. It was much nicer to feel like I wasn't going to die at the end of the race. What's really funny is that last year I was 15 minutes faster and was 31 out of 63 in my age group. This year I was 29 out of 61 in my age group so really about the same overall.
My final times:
total time - 3:12:20 29/61 in age group
1500 M swim - 31:40 1:56/M
T1 3:36
40 K bike - 1:28:36 16.8 mph
T2 2:36
10k run - 1:05:50 10:36/mi
Comments
Post a Comment