The first race of the season is in the bag!
Hits Series Marble Falls Texas
The date was April 27th 2013.
First off Marble Falls is a very nice place. Is 30 minutes from Austin Texas. It is situated in "hill country". When it comes to Triathlons "hill country" should be a warning, ha ha.
Really not that funny.
It started with the swim (doesn't always). Actually I had to scramble to fix my bike the night before. When I got to Marble Falls to check in I saw that the pad on my aero bars had come off during the drive. Marble Falls does not have a bike shop so other than taking a couple of hours to drive to Austin I was going to have to improvise. After some quick text messages I decided to fix it with the insoles from an older pair of shoes and duct tape. It actually worked out well. I was 10 miles into the bike leg before I even thought to check on the repair work.
Back to the swim. Crowded start. I usually try and start on one of the sides. Since I am comfortable swimming bilaterally, I can start on the least crowded side and breath to the side that alllows my the best draft position. In this case the starting channel was so narrow and the number of so swimmers high that the start looked more like a marathon corral start. I did not hurry to the start line so when I got there it was shoulder to shoulder across the entire start line. In fact it was 3-4 deep as well. I worked my way up to the second row. I knew that I was in a bit of trouble where I was. Starting on the side gives you a bit more freedom to move and relax. Unfortunately I was in the "Washing Machine"; so when the gun went of it was a bit of a riot.
My plan was to cut quickly to my left and get to the side of the main pack. this meant that I had to go over, around, under or through a half dozen people. When I played hockey I had no apprehensions to going in the corners and digging out a loose puck. So bumping into a few swimmers is not such a big deal. I got bump a few times and someones foot grazed my cheek. I was quickly where I wanted to be. In open water (open water is only a couple yards from the closest person) and letting the pack string out. This then allows me to watch and quickly look for a swimmer to draft off of. I quickly found a swimmer and locked on to their hip.
Swim time was 35:22:18. Generally not a bad time. I should be able to do better. When I got the good draft I got a little complacent. I could have looked for a faster draft and got a better time. I did have the 3rd fastest time for my age group.
Smooth T1 and on the bike. The plan on the bike was to go easy and let the HR go down below training pace. Then after about 5 minutes of low intensity slowly bring up the HR into training pace. Unfortunately the bike began with a 5 km climb. Pretty hard to keep the HR low when you are climbing a long and relatively steep hill ( it is hill country). Also with the bike problems the night before I did not have enough time to fully scout the bike course. I did drive the first 10 miles or so. I knew that after the first climb that a series of average size hills remained. I was able to lower the HR on a couple the down hill sections but not enough to keep on the plan. The entire course was a series of hills, almost not flat sections. The biggest issue with hills is your heart rate (HR). If you are trying to maintain a consistent HR hills do not help. Yes you can recover on the downhill side of the hill but you spend less time going downhill than uphill. This was definitely a bike course that you would need to train specifically for. I spent about 2/3's of the time in Race Pace. The plan was to spend all of the bike in Training Pace. Considering the Hills and the lack of scout time a 3:07:36 time was not bad.
The run course followed the bike course. So again a 5 km climb out of transition. After the first 200 yards my right leg started to cramp up. I was able to quickly stretch it out and massage it and get on my way. Run strategy was similar to the bike start slow and low HR and build through out. Again the hills made this a little difficult. I was able to settle in a build to a nice pace. Noting flashy just a nice steady pace. The only problem I was having was that my HR was staying a little higher than I had hoped. With a little "emotional"
relaxation is was able to lower it a few beats. Emotional meaning relaxing my mind and any muscles that should be relaxed. Just a general de tensing of your body.
At about mile 4 I began to pick up the pace a bit. I was feeling pretty good and moved the pace a little faster. At the water stop around mile 5 I was hoping to get hydrated and I heard those fateful words " we are out of water". At mile 6 the same message no water. The course was a simple out and back so after the 6 mile mark there was the turnaround and you then passed the aid stations on the way back. The 2 aid stations that were out of water still had no water. I was coming up to 3 miles now without water. At the pace I was running that was a good 30 minutes without water. So after the mile 7 I decided to slow it down a bit. At about mile 8 I came a across an aid station that had water. I guzzled down a bunch and continued on.. Time was quite slow, 2:54:27. I really need to get faster (a lot faster).
All in all not a bad start to the season.
Swim 35:22
bike 3:07:36
run 2:54:27
total 6:47:40
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