SCM, free, 100s
warm up 600 choice
1 x 100 @ 1:35
2 x 100 @ 1:30
3 x 100 @ 1:25
R:15
4 x 100 @ 1:30
R: 30
2 x 100 @ 1:30
2 x 100 @ 1:25
2 x 100 @ 1:20
R:15
4 x 100 @ 1:25
R:30
3 x 100 @ 1:25
2 x 100 @ 1:20
1 x 100 @ 1:15
R:15
4 x 100 @ 1:20
6 x 100 kick 1-3 w/o fins @ 2:15 4-6 w/ fins @ 1:45
6 x 100 swim w/ fins @ 1:25
200 warm down
Monday, August 29, 2011
Friday swim practice
Short course meters
Warm-up 600 choice
5 x 200 free @ 3:00
2 x 25 @ :15
4 x 200 free @ 2:55
4 x 25 @ :20
3 x 200 free @ 2:50
6 x 25 @ :25
2 x 200 free @ 2:45
8 x 25 @ :30
1 x 200 free @ 2:40
10 x 25 @ :35
All 25 are sprint
3 x 200 kick 1,2 w/o fins @ 4:15/3 w/ fins @ 3:30
3 x 200 Pull @ 2:50
Warm down
Warm-up 600 choice
5 x 200 free @ 3:00
2 x 25 @ :15
4 x 200 free @ 2:55
4 x 25 @ :20
3 x 200 free @ 2:50
6 x 25 @ :25
2 x 200 free @ 2:45
8 x 25 @ :30
1 x 200 free @ 2:40
10 x 25 @ :35
All 25 are sprint
3 x 200 kick 1,2 w/o fins @ 4:15/3 w/ fins @ 3:30
3 x 200 Pull @ 2:50
Warm down
Monday, August 22, 2011
Pigman Half-Ironman Triathlon Cedar Rapids, IA
4:10-1st in the age group, 4th overall
This race was the last qualifying event for the US national team that is to compete at the ITU World Long-Course Triathlon World Championship. Since this was my only opportunity to qualify for a race that I had circled on my calender for more then a year, I felt that I had to do whatever I could to ensure that I qualified for the team I chose to race accordingly. The distances for ITU Worlds are 4k swim, 120k bike and 30k run. These are the distances of the old Nice (France) Triathlon which Mark Allen won repeatedly and is almost never contested in the States.
Swim:
Few people in this area have ventured to Cedar Rapids for this race and overall I think that it is a good race that unfortunately is difficult to get to. The swim took place in scenic Pleasant Creek State Park that had to be in the lower 80s, yet the officials found somewhere (perhaps at the bottom of the lake with a couple ice cubes surrounding the thermometer) at 77 degrees. Everyone get your wetsuit on! Unlike most races, Pigman is a time trial start with racers leaving single file three seconds apart. Some people love this style since it makes the swim start less intimidating with out the mass start, but it's not my favorite because you have no idea where you are in the overall competition. At least in wave starts you can figure out the times of other racers because you know where they started based on which wave they were in. In a time trial start you have no idea where you are. Before I started I asked the starter how far ahead the elites started and I was told 30 minutes. Racers were able to pick their place in line of like colored caps so I placed myself at the very end of my age group line thinking that that way everyone I passed I knew I was ahead of. The other reason why I don't like this style is because you never have clear water and you always have to swim over people for most of the race.
The course was a triangle where the first and second leg of the triangle combining for 1500 meters with the last leg into the beach only spanning 400 meters. With such long legs I had real troubles with sighting because there were only small (balloon size) buoys in between the two larger buoys at the corners and a couple hundred racers with red and pink caps that looked like the course buoys. I swear that I ended up swimming from one 'buoy' to the another only to discover each time that the 'buoy' was actually a participants head. In the end I tried to split all of the 'buoys' and hope for the best. I got out of the water slower than I would have expected, but upon getting into transition I saw I was first in the wave to come in. That meant I had up to a 3:30 lead on everyone in my age group. Things were looking good for qualifying.
Bike:
The bike course was a challenging out and back through the corn fields of central Iowa. I was proud of my 15 stalks in the back yard before this trip, I was overwhelmed by the millions of corn plants as far as the eye can see and I haven't had the heart to go in the backyard to look at my once regal stalks of corn. The roads were in poor condition and the early railroad crossings jettisoned my water bottles every which way.
Now I am a slave to my heart-rate monitor. Normally I have some general guidelines about where I want my heart rate to be at anyone time during the race with the understanding that given race situations things may need to be modified. Since this was my only opportunity to qualify for team USA I felt I needed to exercise an abundance of cation in planning and executing my heart rate. Once on the course I settled into pace that I could hold without risking a later blow-up. For me it was keeping my heart rate under 155. Normally on the bike I try to keep it under 160, but I had to qualify and I thought I would still have a fast enough ride with the lower effort knowing I should be able to out run the rest on the age-group if need be. I rode the course as I planned and I was never passed by anyone in my group. All was going well I suppose. I was still first in the age group so I knew that a conservative run would do the trick.
The funny thing was that another racer that I passed before mile 4 used me to pace the entire course, we got into transition together. It turned out he is on our Runners Roost team and lives in Boulder. I didn't know that because he was racing in an Erin Baker's Cookie team having never being given a team racing kit.
Run:
The run was also an out and back with the first half having a net down hill into the wind. The last 2 miles were defiantly a challenging up hill back into the park. The scenery you ask? Corn, Corn , and more corn. My normal strategy in a half-ironman run is to keep my heart rate ceilings for the run at 165 for the first half and 170 for miles 6-9 with 10-13 having no restriction. Since I wanted to assure a slot on Team USA, I subtracted 5 beats per minute for each of these sections. I ran the first 5 miles at 155, 5-8 at 160, 8-11 at 163 and 11-13 at 170. Much lower then normal. The run was very pleasant. I never felt like I was pushing and I didn't have anyone to race or pace off of. At this point I had passed almost all of the 600 racers that started before me (OK, passing that many is the fun part of time trial racing). I did see the elites coming back and assuming I started 30 minutes after them I was sitting in a comfortable 2nd place so I didn't think I should deviate from the plan. I finished thinking that I was second behind a pro. Unfortunately I discovered after the race that the starter was wrong about how far back I started I didn't start 30 minutes behind, I started 27 minutes behind. A 60 second lead evaporated into a 120 second deficit and I had finished fourth overall.
I don't think my race plan was misguided. I needed to qualify for worlds and I still handily beat everyone in my age-group. On the other hand, I was so close to finishing second that I am having some misgivings for racing so conservatively. If I had raced as I normally would, there is no guarantee I would have gone the two minutes faster I needed to finish second, but I do believe I would have. I feel a bit like a wimp. On the other hand, I could have also toed the line in an effort to have the fastest time I possible could and then fallen apart, so who knows if I was right to do what I did. In the end this is an effort I will not look back on with an overwhelming sense of pride, but I did exactly what I set out to do, qualify for Team USA. I look forward to my next race in Glenwood Springs where I can race for the love of racing instead of racing like it is a job.
This race was the last qualifying event for the US national team that is to compete at the ITU World Long-Course Triathlon World Championship. Since this was my only opportunity to qualify for a race that I had circled on my calender for more then a year, I felt that I had to do whatever I could to ensure that I qualified for the team I chose to race accordingly. The distances for ITU Worlds are 4k swim, 120k bike and 30k run. These are the distances of the old Nice (France) Triathlon which Mark Allen won repeatedly and is almost never contested in the States.
Swim:
Few people in this area have ventured to Cedar Rapids for this race and overall I think that it is a good race that unfortunately is difficult to get to. The swim took place in scenic Pleasant Creek State Park that had to be in the lower 80s, yet the officials found somewhere (perhaps at the bottom of the lake with a couple ice cubes surrounding the thermometer) at 77 degrees. Everyone get your wetsuit on! Unlike most races, Pigman is a time trial start with racers leaving single file three seconds apart. Some people love this style since it makes the swim start less intimidating with out the mass start, but it's not my favorite because you have no idea where you are in the overall competition. At least in wave starts you can figure out the times of other racers because you know where they started based on which wave they were in. In a time trial start you have no idea where you are. Before I started I asked the starter how far ahead the elites started and I was told 30 minutes. Racers were able to pick their place in line of like colored caps so I placed myself at the very end of my age group line thinking that that way everyone I passed I knew I was ahead of. The other reason why I don't like this style is because you never have clear water and you always have to swim over people for most of the race.
The course was a triangle where the first and second leg of the triangle combining for 1500 meters with the last leg into the beach only spanning 400 meters. With such long legs I had real troubles with sighting because there were only small (balloon size) buoys in between the two larger buoys at the corners and a couple hundred racers with red and pink caps that looked like the course buoys. I swear that I ended up swimming from one 'buoy' to the another only to discover each time that the 'buoy' was actually a participants head. In the end I tried to split all of the 'buoys' and hope for the best. I got out of the water slower than I would have expected, but upon getting into transition I saw I was first in the wave to come in. That meant I had up to a 3:30 lead on everyone in my age group. Things were looking good for qualifying.
Bike:
The bike course was a challenging out and back through the corn fields of central Iowa. I was proud of my 15 stalks in the back yard before this trip, I was overwhelmed by the millions of corn plants as far as the eye can see and I haven't had the heart to go in the backyard to look at my once regal stalks of corn. The roads were in poor condition and the early railroad crossings jettisoned my water bottles every which way.
Now I am a slave to my heart-rate monitor. Normally I have some general guidelines about where I want my heart rate to be at anyone time during the race with the understanding that given race situations things may need to be modified. Since this was my only opportunity to qualify for team USA I felt I needed to exercise an abundance of cation in planning and executing my heart rate. Once on the course I settled into pace that I could hold without risking a later blow-up. For me it was keeping my heart rate under 155. Normally on the bike I try to keep it under 160, but I had to qualify and I thought I would still have a fast enough ride with the lower effort knowing I should be able to out run the rest on the age-group if need be. I rode the course as I planned and I was never passed by anyone in my group. All was going well I suppose. I was still first in the age group so I knew that a conservative run would do the trick.
The funny thing was that another racer that I passed before mile 4 used me to pace the entire course, we got into transition together. It turned out he is on our Runners Roost team and lives in Boulder. I didn't know that because he was racing in an Erin Baker's Cookie team having never being given a team racing kit.
Run:
The run was also an out and back with the first half having a net down hill into the wind. The last 2 miles were defiantly a challenging up hill back into the park. The scenery you ask? Corn, Corn , and more corn. My normal strategy in a half-ironman run is to keep my heart rate ceilings for the run at 165 for the first half and 170 for miles 6-9 with 10-13 having no restriction. Since I wanted to assure a slot on Team USA, I subtracted 5 beats per minute for each of these sections. I ran the first 5 miles at 155, 5-8 at 160, 8-11 at 163 and 11-13 at 170. Much lower then normal. The run was very pleasant. I never felt like I was pushing and I didn't have anyone to race or pace off of. At this point I had passed almost all of the 600 racers that started before me (OK, passing that many is the fun part of time trial racing). I did see the elites coming back and assuming I started 30 minutes after them I was sitting in a comfortable 2nd place so I didn't think I should deviate from the plan. I finished thinking that I was second behind a pro. Unfortunately I discovered after the race that the starter was wrong about how far back I started I didn't start 30 minutes behind, I started 27 minutes behind. A 60 second lead evaporated into a 120 second deficit and I had finished fourth overall.
I don't think my race plan was misguided. I needed to qualify for worlds and I still handily beat everyone in my age-group. On the other hand, I was so close to finishing second that I am having some misgivings for racing so conservatively. If I had raced as I normally would, there is no guarantee I would have gone the two minutes faster I needed to finish second, but I do believe I would have. I feel a bit like a wimp. On the other hand, I could have also toed the line in an effort to have the fastest time I possible could and then fallen apart, so who knows if I was right to do what I did. In the end this is an effort I will not look back on with an overwhelming sense of pride, but I did exactly what I set out to do, qualify for Team USA. I look forward to my next race in Glenwood Springs where I can race for the love of racing instead of racing like it is a job.
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