sestivers
06-11-06, 05:41 AM
Hello everyone, I did my first race of the season today. I am happy with my performance considering I've been very sick since Thursday and I went the entire month of May without any bike training (because of an insurance claim taking so long to re-imburse me for my damaged bike after a driver hit me on my way home from work). I took it a little easy because of my health, the weather conditions, and because I was worried I had not trained enough (I haven't).
Location: Oppama, Japan (about 40 km south of Tokyo)
Date & Time: June 11, 2006; 0900
Distances: 1500 m (~300 m X 100 m L-shaped course X 2 laps) / 40 km (5 km X 8 laps) / 10 km (2.8 km double out-and-back X 3 laps + 1.6 km out-and back)
Splits (approximate): Swim with T1 35 min; Bike with T2 1 hr 11 min (20.X mph); Run 42 min (6:45 per mile) Total ~2:30 (my stopwatch is dumb and won't recall the laps or give total time)
Conditions: ~69F, light rain, zero wind
The swim was not my favorite. Wetsuits were required (good for me) due to expected temperature. My guess is that it was almost 70F but i noticed my feet were cold by the end. It is in a protected section of Tokyo Bay. Lane lines connected the buoys so I'm sure the distance was accurate (maybe a little long after you have to swim around the buoys - especially when you have to do two laps). What sucks (for me) is that you start treading water and when you get out you have to go up this steep ramp to the edge of a seawall - so there is no making up of any time "dolphining" at the start and finish of the swim.
I was worried about the bike when I found out a few days ago how many turns there were. I rode the first lap completely in my bullhorns to get a feel for the course (probably should have just ridden the course beforehand). Each loop has several 90-degree turns and two 180-degree turns. I actually brought my drop bars with STI levers to attach because I had a feeling that aerobars would not be allowed - I'm glad they were even though I did not use them much. Many of the 90's I was comfortable taking at ~18 mph ("real" bike riders could maintain well over 20) but it was scary because of the rain. I noticed about five other people crash at some point and several flats as well. Then, of all times, I crashed on the seventh of eight laps. I have no idea how it happened. Apparrently I took the corner too fast and lost traction. I heard my head hit the pavement and skidded on my elbow and right side pretty far. I thought I was going to be more hurt than I actually was - and thought my helmet would be cracked. But, I got up, checked out my bike, loosened the rear brake adjusting screw a little, and went off cautiously. I'm not sure how much time I used getting up and going. To add insult to injury, I spilled all the water out of my JetStream bottle and had not yet eaten my Gu. One weird note about the bike - it was completely flat and with no wind I did not shift gears a single time.
What can you say about a run? It, too, was flat. I knew that my running was going to be stronger than the other events. I used to run 38:XX 10k's but I also used to swim 27:XX 1500m's. They did a smart thing where after every turnaround you put a rubber band on your wrist so that when you start heading for the finish line you know it's the right lap because you're supposed to have a certain number of rubber bands (seven in this case).
That's pretty much it. Oh - I forgot to bring my heart rate monitor chest strap to the race. This would have been my first tri where I tried monitoring my heart rate. Normally for a race of this duration I think woud stay around 165-170 bpm... It would have been interesting to know what I was doing today.
Location: Oppama, Japan (about 40 km south of Tokyo)
Date & Time: June 11, 2006; 0900
Distances: 1500 m (~300 m X 100 m L-shaped course X 2 laps) / 40 km (5 km X 8 laps) / 10 km (2.8 km double out-and-back X 3 laps + 1.6 km out-and back)
Splits (approximate): Swim with T1 35 min; Bike with T2 1 hr 11 min (20.X mph); Run 42 min (6:45 per mile) Total ~2:30 (my stopwatch is dumb and won't recall the laps or give total time)
Conditions: ~69F, light rain, zero wind
The swim was not my favorite. Wetsuits were required (good for me) due to expected temperature. My guess is that it was almost 70F but i noticed my feet were cold by the end. It is in a protected section of Tokyo Bay. Lane lines connected the buoys so I'm sure the distance was accurate (maybe a little long after you have to swim around the buoys - especially when you have to do two laps). What sucks (for me) is that you start treading water and when you get out you have to go up this steep ramp to the edge of a seawall - so there is no making up of any time "dolphining" at the start and finish of the swim.
I was worried about the bike when I found out a few days ago how many turns there were. I rode the first lap completely in my bullhorns to get a feel for the course (probably should have just ridden the course beforehand). Each loop has several 90-degree turns and two 180-degree turns. I actually brought my drop bars with STI levers to attach because I had a feeling that aerobars would not be allowed - I'm glad they were even though I did not use them much. Many of the 90's I was comfortable taking at ~18 mph ("real" bike riders could maintain well over 20) but it was scary because of the rain. I noticed about five other people crash at some point and several flats as well. Then, of all times, I crashed on the seventh of eight laps. I have no idea how it happened. Apparrently I took the corner too fast and lost traction. I heard my head hit the pavement and skidded on my elbow and right side pretty far. I thought I was going to be more hurt than I actually was - and thought my helmet would be cracked. But, I got up, checked out my bike, loosened the rear brake adjusting screw a little, and went off cautiously. I'm not sure how much time I used getting up and going. To add insult to injury, I spilled all the water out of my JetStream bottle and had not yet eaten my Gu. One weird note about the bike - it was completely flat and with no wind I did not shift gears a single time.
What can you say about a run? It, too, was flat. I knew that my running was going to be stronger than the other events. I used to run 38:XX 10k's but I also used to swim 27:XX 1500m's. They did a smart thing where after every turnaround you put a rubber band on your wrist so that when you start heading for the finish line you know it's the right lap because you're supposed to have a certain number of rubber bands (seven in this case).
That's pretty much it. Oh - I forgot to bring my heart rate monitor chest strap to the race. This would have been my first tri where I tried monitoring my heart rate. Normally for a race of this duration I think woud stay around 165-170 bpm... It would have been interesting to know what I was doing today.