Tonight I did my first twilight series race (I did a du - some made people did tris!). Pretty miserable conditions, which made the biking somewhat treacherous (one right turn, 3 left turns and a particularly wet roundabout certainly slowed me down). Quite a few people racing various lengths, despite the conditions. Will obviously have more closer to tri season and when the weather is nicer! I joined the tri club (it's $50, I get trinz membership, and the races are free - as opposed to $7).
Finished 2nd in the du, and 3rd out of people doing the long event (there were a handful of people swimming, which is frankly mad!) Got beaten by a super fit multisporter in the du, and some awesome young dude who did the tri.
Happy with the first run, not particularly happy with the bike (did have a slow down a lot at the various intersections, because of the water), last run ok - got into a decent rhythm reasonably quickly, but didn't push quite enough. That said, quite an undulating run course, so not too bad.
First time I've run/ridden fast for quite a while.
First run: 2.33 km; 8:40; normalized graded pace - 3:44. As I said, happy enough with this, given I haven't run this fast for about 10 months!
T1: 36 seconds.
Bike: 15.967 km; 29.48; AV watts - 223, normalized power 235. Should be able to hold a higher power output on the bike. Disconcertingly, I was matched by a guy on a mountain bike (that is one damn quick effort on a mountain bike!). The conditions did not help, and it was a surprisingly rolling bike course, but still. Then again, I've been injured, and I was watching my VMO/knee, so not silly to have taken it a little easy.
T2: 32 seconds.
Second run: 4.13km; 17.25; normalized graded pace – 4:08. Not too bad, given the course is undulating and I was running off the bike, but didn't push it anywhere near as hard as I should have (well, it is a training race, so perhaps not stupid).
Total time, 56:55.
Reasonably happy. It's hardly a competitive field, but I did have one guy to push me. Should have been faster, but then again, it's a training race, and I've been injured, so not too silly to have left a little in the tank.
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Good result Phil, 2nd nice!
ReplyDeleteIT seems like a paradox but it's amazing how fast you can go even though in training you've been nowhere near that speed in training... I think many agegroupers would improve further if they consistantly trained like this.
I wouldn't read much into the bike time... defo not worth taking risks in the wet.
Cool, Paul
Yeah, what I noticed during the second run (when I wasn't pushing quite as hard as I should have been) was that depsite running at a reasonably quick pace, I didn't feel the complete breathlessness I used to - I felt like I had more endurance, and could have held that pace for a reasonable length of time.
ReplyDeleteNow I just have to sort out this mystery knee injury (tight left VMO, and strange pain on top right hand corner of left knee cap, if you have any ideas...)