Yesterday was my second triaathlon of the season. It was about 40 minutes southwest of my house in beautiful Waconia. The temperature was perfect for racing - the mid 70's. However, it was super windy. As I was driving up to the race site at the crack of dawn, I saw whitecaps in the water. These were no ordinary waves, these were like ocean waves.
The swim was an out, over and back, just 1/2 a mile. Going out was horrible. I was one of the last people to start and saw about 25 people pulled out of the water and another handful just decide to skip the race because the waves were so bad. It took a lot of energy for the first half and it was hard to site the buoys. I think I swallowed a gallon of water! Going parallel to the shore was also a bit hard because the waves were pushing you in. The way back was easier. It was a lot like body surfing! I was out of the water in 15 min 26 seconds. First in my age group and 3rd among ameteur women. Below I am in the middle of the picture starting to get out of the water.
My T1 was pretty slow. I am not sure why I am so bad at transitioning, but that is definitely one of the things I need to get better at. For the first part of the bike, the wind was almost pushing me over. Then I made a turn and was going straight into the wind. Part of the bike was with the wind and I think I average about 25 mph on flat terrain for about 5 miles or so. The rest of the bike was all in a cross wind or heading staright into the wind. I took the bike a little easier than last time (per coaches orders) but still averaged over 20 mph. It was another hilly course and this time I was prepared for it. I did the 25 miles in 1 hr 10 min. T2 was slow again too. I cannot believe how long it took me to take off my bike shoes and put my running shoes on!
The run went a lot better this time. It was shorter than my last race by 2 miles, but that should not affect my average pace that much. I did the run in 34 min 51 sec or 8:43 min miles. I shaved 1 min 15 sec off my per mile time from last time! I am still over a min slower than I should be, but it is nice to see improvement. The first 3/4 of a mile on the run was uphill. The rest was rolling hills with a few short flat portions. As you can see below I am in much better shape at the end of this run than at the end of the run from my last race. Overall I did the race in 2 hrs 4 minutes. I was 4th in my 30-34 age group out of 17 and I was 14th of 115 ameteur women. This was definitely a better experience than last time!
The swim was an out, over and back, just 1/2 a mile. Going out was horrible. I was one of the last people to start and saw about 25 people pulled out of the water and another handful just decide to skip the race because the waves were so bad. It took a lot of energy for the first half and it was hard to site the buoys. I think I swallowed a gallon of water! Going parallel to the shore was also a bit hard because the waves were pushing you in. The way back was easier. It was a lot like body surfing! I was out of the water in 15 min 26 seconds. First in my age group and 3rd among ameteur women. Below I am in the middle of the picture starting to get out of the water.
My T1 was pretty slow. I am not sure why I am so bad at transitioning, but that is definitely one of the things I need to get better at. For the first part of the bike, the wind was almost pushing me over. Then I made a turn and was going straight into the wind. Part of the bike was with the wind and I think I average about 25 mph on flat terrain for about 5 miles or so. The rest of the bike was all in a cross wind or heading staright into the wind. I took the bike a little easier than last time (per coaches orders) but still averaged over 20 mph. It was another hilly course and this time I was prepared for it. I did the 25 miles in 1 hr 10 min. T2 was slow again too. I cannot believe how long it took me to take off my bike shoes and put my running shoes on!
The run went a lot better this time. It was shorter than my last race by 2 miles, but that should not affect my average pace that much. I did the run in 34 min 51 sec or 8:43 min miles. I shaved 1 min 15 sec off my per mile time from last time! I am still over a min slower than I should be, but it is nice to see improvement. The first 3/4 of a mile on the run was uphill. The rest was rolling hills with a few short flat portions. As you can see below I am in much better shape at the end of this run than at the end of the run from my last race. Overall I did the race in 2 hrs 4 minutes. I was 4th in my 30-34 age group out of 17 and I was 14th of 115 ameteur women. This was definitely a better experience than last time!
I think I executed pretty good on the things I wanted to work on from the last race. If I weren't training for an IM, I would probably work on my transitions more. However, I only have one shorter race left. My next race is the Racine half ironman in 3 weeks. The swim may be just as bad as this race because it is in Lake Michigan. I did read about the bike and run course and apparently they are pretty flat!
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