Another Race Done!

  


Brigantine Island Triathlon
Yesterday I competed in my second race since my return to triathlons. It was a race that competed in just my first year of triathlons way back in 1992. I was one of 508 individuals and 52 relay teams to jump in the water on a very hot muggy morning. It is a sprint triathlon as the distances were .25 mile swim, 11 mile bike and 4 mile run. I did not intend to use a wetsuit but I was surprised to see some people in them especially with water temps 80+.

Swim - .25 mile
It was warm swim in the back bay with the first 125-50 yards straight into the current. The current was not issue as much as the time interval between waves. I was in the 4th wave with 3:00 minutes between waves. I am not the strongest swimmer but to my surprise we swam into the wave before us before the first buoy and it slowed a lot of my age group down. It probably slowed me down by a good minute but I was happy with my swim given the traffic jam. My time was just over 8 minutes but to me the most important part was feeling much more comfortable in a mass swim start. My transition could have been faster but it was a good 150+ yard run to my bike and then another 75-100 yards to the bike exit.

Bike - 11 miles
Plain and simple I hammered the bike as I knew I could. I may have even been conservative on the first 3-4 miles but I felt incredibility strong on the bike. I don;t think you could have designed a flatter course but there were numerous turns on the course but I was able to take them all pretty fast. I made up for the slow swim with the 4th fastest bike split of the day. My time over the 11 miles was 27:54 or 23.7 MPH. It was also the first time I used my new aero helmet! Transition into the run was a bit better but I know I need to work on my transitions. I think if my transitions were where they were when I competed regularly in triathlons I could have saved 30-40 seconds which moves me up to 5th or 6th overall, so some serious work needed there.

Run - 4 miles
By the time the run started, the sun was out and baking all of us. The humidity at this point was very oppressive. I started out very conservative and just maintained a steady but slow pace. I was passing people on the run so in my head I thought I was moving faster than I actually wound up running. One thing that may have helped would have been mile markers on the run but there were none. I think that would have helped me to run the second half a little faster but I guess when you are passing people and nobody is passing you, you don;t realize how slow you are moving. I held a steady 7:11 per mile to hit 28:45 for the 4 miles but should have still run 15-20 seconds faster despite the conditions.

Total - 1:08:02 - 10th overall/ 2nd age group

Overall, I am happy with the race and felt like steps were taken in the direction of getting back to where I was 14 years ago. I do need to work harder on the run as I know some solid track workouts will make drastic improvements there. I hope to also have better transitions when I race again August 26th at Keystone State Triathlon. I have the option of sprint distance or Olympic distance.

http://www.trimaxendurancesports.com/KeystoneState.html

New training totals:
Week
Bike - 5 rides/ 151 miles/ 6.90 hours/ 21.80mph
Run - 4 runs/ 23.25 miles/ 2.80 hours/ 7:13 per mile
Swim - 4 swims/ 3 miles/ 1.60 hours
Total - 13 workouts/ 177.25 miles/ 11.3 hours

2012
Bike - 167 rides/ 5337 miles/ 252.37 hours/ 21.2mph
Run - 102 runs/ 639.25 miles/ 77.20 hours/ 7:14 per mile
Swim - 67 swims/ 57 miles/ 27.83 hours
Total - 336 workouts/ 6033.25 miles/ 356.40 hours

I am hoping to get in 2-3 more races before the end of the season. All I can say that the 2013 triathlon season is looking good at this point!

TdO '12