Checking In
I’m barely making it in under the cutoff for my two posts per month minimum. Whew!
Let’s see, since the last post…. I had a great week of training, a sprint race, a week off of training due to another nasty head/chest cold, and this week easing back into training.
The week of training leading up to my first sprint race of the year had gone really well. I’d done a couple of harder efforts on the bike and run just to remind my body what it’s like to go fast…….there ain’t a lot of fast going in Ironman training. The race was Saturday morning and I took Friday off from training to rest up a bit.
I woke up around 5:00am on race morning and had breakfast. I loaded up the truck and headed out around 5:45. I arrived at the race site about 6:30 with plenty of time before the start at 8:00am. I got my race packet, timing chip and T-shirt and headed to transition to get set up. I omit some piece of gear from my sprint transitions every year….this year it was my running hat. I’ve whittled it down to: my bike, helmet, bike shoes, glasses, running shoes and race number belt. As a result, setting up my transition area took all of about 5 minutes, which left me plenty of time to mull around and chat with a few friends. I did a short warm up run about 30 minutes before the race start and then did a swim warm up about 15 minutes before the start.
After a short delay, the horn sounded and we were off. The swim was very short, 400 yards. There were three waves in the race and mine was the largest and first to go. The swim was very crowded in the beginning and it took a couple minutes to find any clear water. We reached the first buoy and things bunched up again, but it was fairly smooth going afterwards. I had a pretty decent swim for me and came out to the water feeling good. There was a 200+ yard uphill run to T1. I crossed the timing mat going into T1 in 8:31. I exited T1 in 49 seconds and headed out on the bike. The first part of the bike course was very technical with several sharp turns. After clearing all of the turns, I went fairly hard and finished up the bike in 37:30 at an average of 20.8. Quick change and I headed out of T2 in 50 seconds. I found my legs pretty quickly on the run and went as hard as I could go. I completed the 5k in 23:35 and finished up with an overall time of 1:11:12. I bettered my best time for this race by 1:40.
I took the remainder of the day off from training after the race and did 1.5 hours on the trainer the following day. I felt great after the race and all day Sunday. When I got out of bed Monday morning, my throat was a little sore. CRAP! Not again!!!!...was all I could think. KJ had been sick with a cold and I was the next lucky recipient. I struggled through my long run Monday afternoon and felt like crap afterwards. It didn’t get any better Tuesday or Wednesday and I ended up home from work Thursday and Friday. My energy started returning Saturday and Sunday and I resumed training Monday. I’ve been easing back into it this week and I think I’ll be good to go by next week…..if I can get rid of this lingering congestion.
We are heading up to Tennessee this weekend to say adios to summer. I’m planning to take my bike along and get in some riding in the Smokies. Anybody know any good routes in the Pigeon Forge area?
Happy Training!
TJ
Let’s see, since the last post…. I had a great week of training, a sprint race, a week off of training due to another nasty head/chest cold, and this week easing back into training.
The week of training leading up to my first sprint race of the year had gone really well. I’d done a couple of harder efforts on the bike and run just to remind my body what it’s like to go fast…….there ain’t a lot of fast going in Ironman training. The race was Saturday morning and I took Friday off from training to rest up a bit.
I woke up around 5:00am on race morning and had breakfast. I loaded up the truck and headed out around 5:45. I arrived at the race site about 6:30 with plenty of time before the start at 8:00am. I got my race packet, timing chip and T-shirt and headed to transition to get set up. I omit some piece of gear from my sprint transitions every year….this year it was my running hat. I’ve whittled it down to: my bike, helmet, bike shoes, glasses, running shoes and race number belt. As a result, setting up my transition area took all of about 5 minutes, which left me plenty of time to mull around and chat with a few friends. I did a short warm up run about 30 minutes before the race start and then did a swim warm up about 15 minutes before the start.
After a short delay, the horn sounded and we were off. The swim was very short, 400 yards. There were three waves in the race and mine was the largest and first to go. The swim was very crowded in the beginning and it took a couple minutes to find any clear water. We reached the first buoy and things bunched up again, but it was fairly smooth going afterwards. I had a pretty decent swim for me and came out to the water feeling good. There was a 200+ yard uphill run to T1. I crossed the timing mat going into T1 in 8:31. I exited T1 in 49 seconds and headed out on the bike. The first part of the bike course was very technical with several sharp turns. After clearing all of the turns, I went fairly hard and finished up the bike in 37:30 at an average of 20.8. Quick change and I headed out of T2 in 50 seconds. I found my legs pretty quickly on the run and went as hard as I could go. I completed the 5k in 23:35 and finished up with an overall time of 1:11:12. I bettered my best time for this race by 1:40.
I took the remainder of the day off from training after the race and did 1.5 hours on the trainer the following day. I felt great after the race and all day Sunday. When I got out of bed Monday morning, my throat was a little sore. CRAP! Not again!!!!...was all I could think. KJ had been sick with a cold and I was the next lucky recipient. I struggled through my long run Monday afternoon and felt like crap afterwards. It didn’t get any better Tuesday or Wednesday and I ended up home from work Thursday and Friday. My energy started returning Saturday and Sunday and I resumed training Monday. I’ve been easing back into it this week and I think I’ll be good to go by next week…..if I can get rid of this lingering congestion.
We are heading up to Tennessee this weekend to say adios to summer. I’m planning to take my bike along and get in some riding in the Smokies. Anybody know any good routes in the Pigeon Forge area?
Happy Training!
TJ
posted by TJ at 11:36 AM
5 Comments:
congrats on the race! that's a pretty good time right there...hehe and don't be worrying about the blog posts, I've only done one this year!!!
LOL... Nice job on the sprint! Good solid times across the board, and a PR to boot! Woo hoo! Have a great time in Tennessee. Let's see... Pigeon Forge? Hmmmm. Down the mountain and into the valley, and its all flat from there :-)
Dude. Nice race, bro.
I found it was hard to go fast with all the IM training. How about you?
Great race - congrats on the PR! I ditched my running hat last year, too. Too much trouble.
Hope you had fun in the Smokies!
Congrats on the Course PR! Hope you are feeling good and had fun in Tenn. I'm so ready for fall!
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