Well, first race of the season has come and gone. Phew, glad to get that duck off my back after a DNF at the last triathlon I started (Challenge Wanaka in January 2013; an untimely encounter with a traffic cone 90km into the ride ended my day).
The race is part of South Island sports festival held at lake Hood by Ashburton, approximately an hour south of Christchurch
Goals for the day were to see where I was at in terms of flat riding at a certain power and my run off the bike. My swim would just be my swim. John hadn't given me too much of a taper but after 3 big weeks and a TSB that had been well in the negatives for two weeks I did end up being reasonably rested I suppose - a little mechanical issue with the cassette on my sexy new race wheels and thus a trip to the bike shop as well as a full day of a dental course on Friday forced less available time to train on me anyway.
My massage therapist cancelled my wednesday massage which panicked me a little; just had to make do with some serious foam roller+ stretching work
RACE PLAN:
-Get well warmed up, deep heat on my shoulders, wetsuit on early+ lots of dry land w/u. in water w/u shortly before start. Be long, strong and smooth!
- Power range 140-155W, focus on cadence Christine!
-Run- steady out of T2 to start, running off the bike had been going really well in training. Perhaps due to the ultra training over winter and possibly have had shorter ( 165mm) cranks on my TT bike for 4 months.
Race Day:
Brekky - ripe banana, Em's choc oat explosion bar, 2 tsp of natural peanut butter, large cup of coffee
Spent ages putting my wetsuit on + had it pulled so far up my crotch I almost had a wedgie (!) but the range of movement was FAB especially compared to last weekend's practice swim. Water temp was ~17 degrees.
Swim - 34:51. 1.9km A PB!! Have swum once with a 35 in the time, all my other halves have been 37:xx.
Felt good during the swim + stuck to my mantra above.Able to pick it up on the return leg, didn'
worry about stroke rate just being long, rotating ( engaging my obliques) + smooth.
T1 -- bit of a fumble as was cold, limbs not functioning very well
Bike - 3.00.54 ww.trainingpeaks.com/av/7DVHSFLTNWFKYKDJDR6GCVSIQE
I had 91km on the Garmin, legs were cold and felt like I couldn't get moving at all on the bike.
Felt a bit miserable on the return leg of lap1 which from previous experience means I am getting
a bit low on calories so ate some Clif blocks and my mood improved :)
Rode 3 perfectly even splits with even cadence of 89-90 rpm, avg power 146 and NP 147.
Thought I had ridden harder on the 3rd lap but in fact had done exactly the same, but i guess my
perceived exertion was higher by then. Was having a bit of discomfort with a tender spot that
troubles me and also some chafing from the seam of my trisuit , my left quad seemed very stiff
for ages and then my left gluteus was niggling a little.
Ate - Em's power bite ( peanut butter flavour) 1 pack Clif blocks
1 mini Moro bar 1 GU strawberry/banana gel ( non caffeinated)
ate 2 GU chomps from a packet ~ 15 mins before end of bike
Drank - 1 bottle w hi5 Zero tab plus half zero neutral tab
1/2-2/3 bottle plain water
T2 - a bit slow as feet were still numb. Busting for a pee….
Run - http://www.trainingpeaks.com/av/OQTES6A7GBCX65DRE22WKJUA4M
1.46:17 ( including portaloo stop….30-40 secs?)
Couldn't get my Garmin to pick up satellites as I started to run, by the time it picked up I esti-
-mated I had run approx 4-500m. I kept it steady then was able to find a good rhythm as the
stiffness in my left quad worked itself away.The out and back section was a bit of a headspin
as there seemed to be heaps of people coming the opposite way ( ? was i THAT far back?!!)
but as I glanced at my Garmin to keep a check on pace i saw I was running along at good clip
so didn't think about that and focussed on one foot in from of the other. I took some water at the
aid station and had my peanut butter GU then popped out and headed round the lake; managed to
pass a couple of people round here.
I took some coke and water at the next aid station and soon after was back thru transition to start
lap 2 - my watch showed 10.16km so I was pretty accurate with my lost metres.
Once back at the out 'n'back I grabbed some more coke and water then started to get that oh-so-
familiar feeling of a stitch starting under my left rib cage then extending across my diaphragm. As
mentioned here I knew I could just keep running albeit at a slightly slower pace and alternating
each arm above my head to stretch out my torso. It eased up slightly and then i could feel the raw
sensation of a blister on the inner aspect of my right big toe. Once I was back out lakeside, I had
recovered a little and was back to good pace; the only view on my watch was the stopwatch,
pace and distance and had no idea what actual race time was as i wasn't wearing a watch in the
swim and I have a Garmin edge 500 for my bike and a wristwatch style 210 for running.
I had a quick look at actual time of day and it said 1.39pm so i calculated that I would still be
under 5h 30. I managed to pass another couple of people round here which gives such a mental
boost and my stitch/cramping had completely gone. The last aid station ~ 3km from the end had
no coke which was probably a bonus, I had only taken water and some jelly beans at the previous
one as suspected that the coke, despite being very flat, was the cause. Chomped down half a Clif
shot double espresso to keep up my caffeine kick to the end and I hoofed to the finish line with a
time of 5:25:55.
THOUGHTS for going forward :
My go to fuel on the run has always been flat coke but it seems to be the cause of my stitches - alongside concentrated sports drink, must be the sugar? Not sure why never used to be an issue but
wil have to go to caffeinated gels.
Bike was steady but I still have a lot of work to do, especially on my flat riding.
Surprised with my swim as was expecting a ~40 min swim considering how my pool swims have gone. A few factors aside from training have probably helped- been working on my flexibility , especially my left "dentists" shoulder which has issues from holding a mirror all day and a couple of in-depth technique lessons from Dan Abel at www.fitandabel.com earlier in the year.
Pleased with my run, feel I am finally getting nearer to the run form I used to have…..several years ago!
But on the whole, still much work to be done and hay to be stacked in the barn before Ironman NZ in March.
Next up is a local sprint on 24th November www.triathlonfestival.co.nz then possibly an Olympic distance (ouch- hate those!!) on 21st December. Auckland 70.3 ( Asia-Pacific 70.3 champs) on 19th January and that's the pre IM line up.
Training will resume on Monday 18th November……..this week's all about chill in out, getting my admin ( read: end of year accounts for year ending March 31st 2013 to the accountant) done and then a weekend in Brisbane to catch up with one of my besties and do lots of girl talk.
Better go , have hooooooooge blister to burst. Sorry no photos……unless I find some on the net.
No comments:
Post a Comment