1.43 hours (86 minutes) per day. Nearly 6% of 2009 was spent exercising.
Thursday, December 31, 2009
Thursday, December 3, 2009
Turtle tri – a recap
Getting on the bike for a quick warm-up before the turtle tri I felt ready and eager to race. The annual triathlon event here in Cayman had come so quickly and now it was time to wring the legs and arms one final time before the off season. Sadly it was not be the race I had hoped for.
The swim start was an odd affair with a fair amount of jostling for space. My plan was to push hard on the first lap to stay near the front. During the year at 800m sea swims I have easily stayed with the initial surge and it was my plan to do the same here, but within 100m I was dropped and any drafting possibilities gone. The result was a solo swim nearly the full 1500m.
Exiting the water I heard I had lost two minutes to my main competitor Marius - the same deficit as last year. I had hoped to close the gap by at least a minute this year.
On the bike I felt okay, but still struggled to push the bigger gears which I did more easily at Clearwater and at the Reefathlon. I managed to make up a lot of ground on Marius and caught him with 12 km to go. My final bike split was reasonable, but again I had hoped to be at least a minute faster.
Jumping off the bike I knew I was going to lose to Marius with only a 90 second gap between us, but thought I might still make this a decent race. Having cruised the last 400m of the bike my heart rate was low and I was ready to give the run section a good effort in order to set a PB. However, 200m into the run I could feel my heart rate shoot up and knew a PB was out of the question. Ultimately, I settled into a training pace mildly disillusioned by the lack of spring in my legs.
Crossing the line I was really annoyed with myself. I had hoped for a PB. In retrospect though I’m happy with my time and glad I gutted it out. It’s been a huge season for me. I raced in a fatigued body and still managed to finish in a time I would have been very pleased with last year.
Racing to ones full potential requires careful planning and prioritization. Physically the body has to be ready and mentally you must be prepared to push to the limits. I know from experience that I can put myself into a world of hurt during races, a place I was very far from at the Turtle tri. Earlier in the year at Ironman Louisville I laid everything on the line and had absolutely nothing left. It was incredibly painful and at the same time incredibly satisfying. But hovering close to the limit is draining both physically and psychologically and something I clearly can’t do many times during a race year. It was necessary to qualify for Kona and will also be required if I am to beat the likes of Marius in an Olympic distance triathlon.
In the future I will carefully select a few key races for these mammoth efforts. That doesn’t mean I won’t race other events I enter, but rather let circumstances, feel and ambition dictate race execution.
The swim start was an odd affair with a fair amount of jostling for space. My plan was to push hard on the first lap to stay near the front. During the year at 800m sea swims I have easily stayed with the initial surge and it was my plan to do the same here, but within 100m I was dropped and any drafting possibilities gone. The result was a solo swim nearly the full 1500m.
Exiting the water I heard I had lost two minutes to my main competitor Marius - the same deficit as last year. I had hoped to close the gap by at least a minute this year.
On the bike I felt okay, but still struggled to push the bigger gears which I did more easily at Clearwater and at the Reefathlon. I managed to make up a lot of ground on Marius and caught him with 12 km to go. My final bike split was reasonable, but again I had hoped to be at least a minute faster.
Jumping off the bike I knew I was going to lose to Marius with only a 90 second gap between us, but thought I might still make this a decent race. Having cruised the last 400m of the bike my heart rate was low and I was ready to give the run section a good effort in order to set a PB. However, 200m into the run I could feel my heart rate shoot up and knew a PB was out of the question. Ultimately, I settled into a training pace mildly disillusioned by the lack of spring in my legs.
Crossing the line I was really annoyed with myself. I had hoped for a PB. In retrospect though I’m happy with my time and glad I gutted it out. It’s been a huge season for me. I raced in a fatigued body and still managed to finish in a time I would have been very pleased with last year.
Racing to ones full potential requires careful planning and prioritization. Physically the body has to be ready and mentally you must be prepared to push to the limits. I know from experience that I can put myself into a world of hurt during races, a place I was very far from at the Turtle tri. Earlier in the year at Ironman Louisville I laid everything on the line and had absolutely nothing left. It was incredibly painful and at the same time incredibly satisfying. But hovering close to the limit is draining both physically and psychologically and something I clearly can’t do many times during a race year. It was necessary to qualify for Kona and will also be required if I am to beat the likes of Marius in an Olympic distance triathlon.
In the future I will carefully select a few key races for these mammoth efforts. That doesn’t mean I won’t race other events I enter, but rather let circumstances, feel and ambition dictate race execution.
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