Last week after a somewhat grueling week of workouts, I had planned to race Maumee Bay Olympic Tri. I had never done the race but a lot of local fast competition was planning to do it and I figured it would be fun to do the race that was billed as flat and fast!
After putting in a lot of hard bike miles all week the legs were pretty trashed Friday so I decided to just hit the Greater Cleveland Tri training session on Saturday morning and use the event as social hour and some open water swim practice. It was so nice to give the legs a mini rest day. Later in the afternoon, we headed up to Toledo (about 2.5 hours away) to have dinner with some friends (all doing their 1st oly tri the next day!) at Spaghetti Warehouse.
The wake up call Sunday morning came at 5:30 and after some issues, I made it to the race with some time to spare. I kept thinking I was missing something as setup was too smooth...guess that means I was well prepared and getting more practiced! Then I sat back and chatted with some friends as I sipped my First Endurance PreRace.
I hopped in the water to get in a swim warm-up and the water felt great. However with my wave start I was waaay wide to the far buoy and my sighting was definitely costing me some time as I swam extra mileage. I was breathing pretty hard but was not having any real issues besides being slow and sighting could have been better. Hit the timing mat at 32 flat for the 1500 M swim. Ughhh, just not a great swim and puts me at such a time disadvantage to some of the top females! (Rank 147 OA)
I ran up to the bike transition and as usual, getting the wetsuit off could have been cleaner but I was a bit tired from the swim. T1 1:07, not bad.
Out onto the bike course I was trying to get settled in. I was getting in some water and getting the legs moving. The course was flat and kind of a big square. I did notice I was managing to close some gaps rather nicely on the corners. There was definitely a nice wind coming from the northwest but it was fair in that it helped push you along riding south and east. I was feeling good on the bike, repeating dig, dig, dig on occasion trying to reel in all those people who were faster swimmers (and there were quite a few of them!). The bike went by pretty quickly and I was back in 1:09:03 with a 21.6 avg (3rd fastest female bike split) (Rank 73 OA).
T2 was also pretty uneventful but not sure why it took 1:06.
Out on the run I started out pretty conservatively. It was heating up and I was breathing pretty hard. (I had hit my inhaler pre-race so I was hoping it was enough to keep my asthma at bay). Legs are getting more used to the brick feeling with the practice they have been getting this year. Before long I had reeled in a fast running female vet. I paced off her a bit as I knew this lady could run and I was still breathing hard. I finally decided to push ahead and run my own race. It was a rush to see so many friends out on the course which just fueled me to keep running harder. The run course was nice and it was pretty flat all on the bike path but provided little shade. I think this may be the first tri I ran a nice negative split finishing my last mile with a 6:51. Final 10K 43:39 (7:02 pace and fastest female run split!) (Rank 29 OA)
I ended up with 3rd place overall female with a total time of 2:26:56 (Rank 61 OA) which is a nice big PR! I was happy to see so many of my friends do so well too! So I was pretty pleased with my performance. It was nice that over the course I was able to continue to improve with each discipline! The only thing that is notable was how far 1st and 2nd overall females were ahead of me (10 and 4 minutes total which is sooo much in an oly, of which 8 and 6 minutes were just the swim!). So guess I should spend some more time trying to get stronger there! Overall it was a really fun race and a great day! The thing I did notice was the flat bike really made my tail end hurt from all that digging on the bike!
Now I am ready to race the Summi Tri sprint next weekend!
Last week totals-
7700 M Swim
150.8 M Biked
25 M Ran
10 comments:
Congrats, I was at this race as well, I loved the whole course, though I thought the swim was longer then what it should have been.
Did you see the poor guy that had to taken by ambulance off the bike course, I dont know how he went down, I hope it was ok
COngrats on 3rd OA, a heck of alot better then I did.
Holy crap is all I can say.
You simply murdered the competition.
Great job, I would say the training is paying off huh?
Congrats on the PR and 3rd overall!
Way to go Janet - 3rd female is awesome!
I don't care what you say. You're transition times are better and better every race lady!!
As for your swimming, it is coming along, even if you aren't swimming as fast as you like I bet you are so much more comfortable in the water that it is keeping your HR (conserve energy) under control so you can hammer the bike and the run :)
Hey nice new PR! Next time you'll be closer to those girls and before long they'll be looking at your behind!
Awesome!!!! How great must it have been to mow down everyone along the way! Glad to see all your hard work paying off out there :)
Awesome!!!! How great must it have been to mow down everyone along the way! Glad to see all your hard work paying off out there :)
Woohoo! Congrats on your race! You did awesome! Way to get 3rd place!!
Oh, and good work on your training mileage! Those number are amazing! Wow!
BDD, I heard about that..hope be was ok!
Ahhh, no mowing down and murdering competition. The thing I love the most about these local races is the competition and mini rivalries among many of the ladies that I consider my friends! We all win when we force each other to step it up!
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