Triathlon Results

The Pfizer Triathlon has come and gone. The good news is that I finished. I was guessing my time would be between 1:15 and 1:20, and I ended up at 1:19:21, good for last in my age group (more on this later).

I'll start with the swim. The swim, I thought was easy, and I'd estimate that the real distance was only ~0.2 miles. I finished it in 7:34, the best time was an blistering 4:16 (someone from one of the teams, the best individual was 5:12).

The bike leg killed me. It was only 12.6 miles, but I poked along at 44:31 (~17 mph average if your scoring at home). Worse still was that it tweeked my back to the point that I had to stop and stretch during the run.

The first 1.5 miles of the 3 mile run was just painful. Fortunatley I recovered enough and finished pretty strong: the total run time was 24:33 (an 8:06 pace vs. the 6:40 pace I had last week - that's telling).

Only 5 people raced in my age group. The fourth place finisher I jogged with, and he pulled away at the end and the 3rd place finisher was only 12 seconds ahead of me - so finishing in the top-3 next year looks like a doable goal (ok, at least not finishing last).

Some general thoughts: First, the triathlon is clearly a biking event.

Clearly, and not surprisingly, the stage most correlated with overall finish time is the bike leg.
If I could shave about 3 minutes off of the bike portion (and not kill my back) - I would have done *much* better. Second though: unlike running - where finishing in the top 1/3 of your age group is generally pretty easy, the triathlon doesn't attract many casual exercise folks - most entrants are pretty into it. As a result, you can be in decent shape in still finish last. Finally: I really don't like biking. I think my dream race is the Rock swim (1.5 miles down, 0.5 mile swim, 1.5 miles back up) - simple. uncomplicated. Maybe I'll time myself a few times this year for fun.

Next week, I become an official New Englander, as I and my family travel to Cape Cod for a little vacation. Hopefully the remnants of Ernesto won't completetly wash us out - but the place we're staying at has an indoor pool - so even then we'll be alright.

Battle of Stonington Road Race

Last night was the Battle of Stonington road race. We had a beautiful night, and I ran what I think was my best pace for a race (besides the short track mile earlier this summer). The final totals were 21:40 for 3.25 miles according to my GPS - although a 5K is suppose to be only 3.1. Based on the Google Earth tracking - the course is around 3.2 miles... So my exact pace will remain unknown for now, but I'll put it at 6:40 min/mile until proven otherwise.

Earlier this week (Monday), I did a 3 mile run, split by a ~800 yard swim down at Eastern Point Beach. The splits going down (6:52) and coming up (7:59) were very different - I guess the swimming takes a lot out of you. I'll find out at next weeks tri. Tomorrow I'll go 'long', then I may not do much until the triathlon Aug. 30th.

More Dog Days

This weeks summary:

• Monday - 2x800,1x400 with Dave (6:06, 6:18 and 6:12) - total run covered 4.34 miles
• Wednesday - 2.85 miles of running and ~ 800 yards of swimming
• Friday - my 'long' run of 5.5 miles in some serious soup - 87 % humidity. Should have done this run yesterday. The overall pace was 8:03, but it was poorly paced (~7:30 for the front 3, and ~8:30 for the back 2.5).

Next week should be a little different:

• Monday - swim
• Tuesday - Battle of Stonington race (5k)
• Rest of week: 1 long run and maybe a bike ride.
  

Wipeout!

Amazingly, there are no great wipeout photos from google images. Well a summary of this weeks activities: Monday - previously logged 4.3 miler on Monday (7:39 pace), Tuesday intervals (3x800 ~6:25 pace, total of 4.2 miles), Wednesday - bike to and from work - about 18 miles roundtrip including a spectacular crash on the way in, Thursday - an easy 6 miles at a slow 8:35 pace. I probably should have done a swim - but my shoulder's range-of-motion is a little tweeked from landing on it yesterday - so I'll get back to that next week.

Other news - the company triathlon maybe rescheduled for the August 30th. This gives me another 2 weeks. I think my schedule will be:

1. Monday - run intervals 3x800.
2. Tuesday - swim ~800 yards.
3. Wednesday - possible cycle (I may only do this once between now and the 30th).
4. Thursday/Friday - 5-7 mile run.

Of course - if the tri isn't rescheduled - i'll just do this minus the biking part (at least for awhile). I liked the idea of driving less - but the crash really shook me up. And no one video taped it for laughs - so it's almost completely useless.

Dog Days

The Dog Days are upon us! This is last week's tale of whoa: Tuesday - ok training run/swim is met with news that Brustolon Buick wants another $1400 to repair an air-conditioner that they already 'fixed' (the week before, for $1100). Wednesday is spent fretting over the $1100 lost and waiting out the hottest day in Southern New England ever - but looking forward to Thursday's Triathlon. Thursday - still blistering hot - Triathlon cancelled due to extreme heat and pending thunderstorms. Feeling better about life Friday (despite 8:51 min/mile pace run with Larry) and Saturday until wife brings up comparison with Mr. Burns from the Simpsons. Sunday: depression. Today, still feeling below average, but getting in 7:39 min/mile pace run with Tingly helps. Maybe tomorrow I can get my intervals in and aim my sites on the Battle of Stonington run on the 22nd.