Ready To Go
My homework is completed, to the best of my ability. Valley Girl Triathlon is Sunday, and I'm ready to go. I drove the bike course yesterday, and then ran the run course. Today I did a 12 mile bike ride followed by a 1.7 mile brick run. I may go for a slow run tomorrow morning, but that will be it until race day.
I'm really glad I was able to inspect the course prior to the race. I think it's very important to know what to expect around each turn. I had a couple concerns about the bike course. Right out of T1, the course goes up a 4-6% grade that is about 3 blocks long. There is no time to get any speed up, so it'll be a hard grind from a dead stop, up the hill with rubber swimming legs. Just looking at it caused my heart rate to hit the roof! It looked so steep, I just had to go back and measure the incline with the Garmin.
The bike course returns down this hill, and since the transition area is right at the bottom, it will be very important to control my speed for safety, but not lose too much time with the brakes on. The bike course is somewhat technical in that there are lots of corners and turn arounds. I think it will be important to take advantage of the straight aways and try not to lose too much time through the corners.
When I initially drove the run course, I thought the whole thing was up hill! Once I actually laced up the old running shoes, I discovered that only the second half of the run was up hill! It's a pretty mild incline, so I'll just need to shorten my stride and power through it.
Prior to looking at the course, I had assessed the distances (1/3 mi. swim, 11.5 mi. bike and 3 mi. run) and the finishing times of last year, and thought I stood a decent chance to meet my goal of finishing in the top 5 in my age group, with a time of less than 1:15. After seeing the course, I was having some doubts. After doing some calculations, I realized that last years top finishers had a average bike speed of 20mph and run pace of 8 minute miles. My average speed is about 18mph with 8:45 minute miles if I'm really, really lucky!
It's going to come down to not wasting any time in the transitions, pushing hard through the bike and hoping that none of those fast old ladies catch me on the run! I've noticed that a lot of the ladies took 3-4 minutes in T1. I'm hoping that if the rest of my race goes right, the 2 or 3 minutes I can save in transition could make all the difference. Maybe not enough, but we shall see. I'll give it my all and see how it goes.
I'm really glad I was able to inspect the course prior to the race. I think it's very important to know what to expect around each turn. I had a couple concerns about the bike course. Right out of T1, the course goes up a 4-6% grade that is about 3 blocks long. There is no time to get any speed up, so it'll be a hard grind from a dead stop, up the hill with rubber swimming legs. Just looking at it caused my heart rate to hit the roof! It looked so steep, I just had to go back and measure the incline with the Garmin.
The bike course returns down this hill, and since the transition area is right at the bottom, it will be very important to control my speed for safety, but not lose too much time with the brakes on. The bike course is somewhat technical in that there are lots of corners and turn arounds. I think it will be important to take advantage of the straight aways and try not to lose too much time through the corners.
When I initially drove the run course, I thought the whole thing was up hill! Once I actually laced up the old running shoes, I discovered that only the second half of the run was up hill! It's a pretty mild incline, so I'll just need to shorten my stride and power through it.
Prior to looking at the course, I had assessed the distances (1/3 mi. swim, 11.5 mi. bike and 3 mi. run) and the finishing times of last year, and thought I stood a decent chance to meet my goal of finishing in the top 5 in my age group, with a time of less than 1:15. After seeing the course, I was having some doubts. After doing some calculations, I realized that last years top finishers had a average bike speed of 20mph and run pace of 8 minute miles. My average speed is about 18mph with 8:45 minute miles if I'm really, really lucky!
It's going to come down to not wasting any time in the transitions, pushing hard through the bike and hoping that none of those fast old ladies catch me on the run! I've noticed that a lot of the ladies took 3-4 minutes in T1. I'm hoping that if the rest of my race goes right, the 2 or 3 minutes I can save in transition could make all the difference. Maybe not enough, but we shall see. I'll give it my all and see how it goes.
posted by Barb at 7:31 PM
5 Comments:
Barb,
Good luck in the race. You're doing the right thing by doing a course recon.
If you're not already doing so, be sure to put your bike in an easy gear while setting up transition. I do this no matter how steep the road out of transition might be. It will help you get up and on the road.
Like, WOW!!! OH MY GOD GINA, like you better SMOKE those pony-tailed ladies!!!
Seriously. KICK ASS. Can't wait to hear all about it...
Ya, you just love that Valley Girl name, don't ya? To explain... the race takes place in the city of Spokane Valley. It's still silly.
The race is really popular. This is the third year and it sold out at 500 in the second week of March! Amazing!
Triboomer, I've seen enough video of people starting out from T1 and falling over on their bikes because the gearing is too high! Man, do I ever feel for them! For me, lesson learned!
Good luck! Not that you'll need it. Pre-race prep helps so much on race-day especially for nerves.
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