Pelican Fest Recap
So I thought it would be cool to step down from the olympic distance races and do a sprint this spring, plus the Pelican fest is about as local as it gets (nothing like getting up in my own bed when it is actually light out to do a race). Well it turns out that a few pros decided to show up and I figured, what the hell, I'll play along.
The swim start was aggressive, at least for what I was expecting. I put myself in the thick of it, determined to catch as fast a pack as I could. Even though I sprinted almost as hard as I could to the first buoy, I was still passing quite a few people a few minutes later, so I think that top end speed is something that still needs work. Or maybe I just didn't have enough time to warm up, since I didn't really feel smooth until the 2nd half the swim. Lindsey was on my right most of the way, which was her plan and also kept me from slacking off which I can sometimes do on the swim. It turns out we were in the 2nd pack about 1 minute behind the first pack and almost 3 minutes(!) behind Mark V.
Did the flying mount on my bike, except it was a little struggle to actually put my feet in the shoes - one of these days I will actually practice that, but I don't think I lost too much time there. After that it was put the head down and hammer for the 10 mile loop. I think I averaged a little higher than nationals (278W for the whole ride, 287 for the non-technical part), which is good considering the higher altitude. That got me 25.3 mph which is the first time I have averaged over 25 in a tri, but more importantly, the 3rd fastest bike split of the race, put me in 5th position.
T2 went pretty well, good dismount, but fumbled with the bike for a few seconds trying to get it to stay upright. Gave up on that after a couple tries and just put the shoes on and went. Immediately my stride felt pretty smooth and bouncy, so I thought I was going to have a pretty good run. 4th place was still far enough ahead that it was tough to tell if I was making up ground though, but went we went back by the TZ (about 2.5 miles), I was getting pretty close to him and he had also caught up with 3rd. Still, they were far enough away that I knew I was going to have to put it in the next gear to catch them by the line which was getting close. The layout of the run course had a lot of turns in the final 300 yards or so, but I came into 4th and was just 2 seconds off 3rd at the finish, with the fastest run split and a new 5K PR for me of 17:01. Always nice to get a run PR in a tri (and yes I believe the course was legit based on gmaps).
Now I know the 1st and 3rd guys were pros, and the guy in 2nd has also raced pro at some point I believe, so it was cool to be in that mix even though I didn't beat any of them. And I know this was none of their "A" races, but not mine either, as I did a pretty hard swim workout 2 days before and some hard bike and run intervals earlier in the week. Even so, knowing that I can bike and run at the level these guys are, and just a minute behind on the swim (so more like 2 minutes in an olympic), puts me where I want to be right now. The next 4 weeks will see me hit the pool pretty hard and put in a little more bike and run volume so I can be on top of my game at Boulder Peak.
The swim start was aggressive, at least for what I was expecting. I put myself in the thick of it, determined to catch as fast a pack as I could. Even though I sprinted almost as hard as I could to the first buoy, I was still passing quite a few people a few minutes later, so I think that top end speed is something that still needs work. Or maybe I just didn't have enough time to warm up, since I didn't really feel smooth until the 2nd half the swim. Lindsey was on my right most of the way, which was her plan and also kept me from slacking off which I can sometimes do on the swim. It turns out we were in the 2nd pack about 1 minute behind the first pack and almost 3 minutes(!) behind Mark V.
Did the flying mount on my bike, except it was a little struggle to actually put my feet in the shoes - one of these days I will actually practice that, but I don't think I lost too much time there. After that it was put the head down and hammer for the 10 mile loop. I think I averaged a little higher than nationals (278W for the whole ride, 287 for the non-technical part), which is good considering the higher altitude. That got me 25.3 mph which is the first time I have averaged over 25 in a tri, but more importantly, the 3rd fastest bike split of the race, put me in 5th position.
T2 went pretty well, good dismount, but fumbled with the bike for a few seconds trying to get it to stay upright. Gave up on that after a couple tries and just put the shoes on and went. Immediately my stride felt pretty smooth and bouncy, so I thought I was going to have a pretty good run. 4th place was still far enough ahead that it was tough to tell if I was making up ground though, but went we went back by the TZ (about 2.5 miles), I was getting pretty close to him and he had also caught up with 3rd. Still, they were far enough away that I knew I was going to have to put it in the next gear to catch them by the line which was getting close. The layout of the run course had a lot of turns in the final 300 yards or so, but I came into 4th and was just 2 seconds off 3rd at the finish, with the fastest run split and a new 5K PR for me of 17:01. Always nice to get a run PR in a tri (and yes I believe the course was legit based on gmaps).
Now I know the 1st and 3rd guys were pros, and the guy in 2nd has also raced pro at some point I believe, so it was cool to be in that mix even though I didn't beat any of them. And I know this was none of their "A" races, but not mine either, as I did a pretty hard swim workout 2 days before and some hard bike and run intervals earlier in the week. Even so, knowing that I can bike and run at the level these guys are, and just a minute behind on the swim (so more like 2 minutes in an olympic), puts me where I want to be right now. The next 4 weeks will see me hit the pool pretty hard and put in a little more bike and run volume so I can be on top of my game at Boulder Peak.
posted by Joe at
9:14 AM
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