Train for a marathon
Get hurt
Get sad
Get better
Decide to do a "test" race to test out healing of leg
Then....
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| Win |
Yep, went just like that... South Carolina continues to be good to me... real good...
The week before the race, I had flip flopped on if I should race or not... Was my leg healed up enough to put a race effort run on it? Had I trained enough to cobble together a decent effort? Was it worth it to wake up at 4:00am on a Saturday, drive an hour, only to be either beaten like a drum, or have to pull out because my leg was acting up?
Fuck it, only one way to find out...
I didn't run much the week of the race... in fact, I didn't run at all (unless you count the Sunday run)... I did a TT on Tuesday, was pretty disappointed (initially) with the effort, did another bike workout on Thursday, and swam once (on Monday)... perfect taper week... maybe a little too much taper.. but I guess one has to actually train and build to taper, so, considering I'm perpetually in a cycle of tapering (since I don't usually do all my workouts every week), I figured I was as good to go as I could have been...
In typical fashion, I hadn't registered before they closed online registration... I emailed the RD and asked if he could still seed me based on my predicted swim time, to which he replied, "Probably so, but I can't promise anything"... he should have just told me no...
I started second to last... in the entire race... great, guess I'll have to fucking swim over people, bike around people, and maybe be lucky enough to pass a few people on the run... I might as well be playing Pac-Man...
I did a brief bike warmup of 20mins or so, and a quick swim warmup of maybe 400-500m... no run warmup... I felt incredibly sluggish in the water... I kept telling myself, "THIS is what you get for skipping so many damn swim workouts... you're going to get destroyed in the water, and it's all your fault"... come to find out, that couldn't have been further from the truth...
So, here we go...
Swim:
Easy 250m pool swim, with a TT start... up and down each lane (no going twice) so that made things a "bit" easier to manage... Hop in an immediately feel how cold the pool was... mid way through my first lap, I realized that the reason I felt so sluggish in the other pool is that it was heated... this one wasn't, and I knew I was flying... passed a bunch of people, swam over a couple, and got out of the water in in 3:48... puts me at 1:31/m or 1:23/y... speedy for me, even when I'm fully trained...
T1:
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| Not much to report here... a quick 0:28s T1, and I'm off on the bike... |
This was the first race on the Shiv, and I knew I was going to have a good bike split... while not my fastest, it was surely my most comfortable... The course was advertised as a "flat out and back" on "smooth country roads"... really, the only part of that statement that is true is that it WAS an out and back... I guess though, that compared to other terrain in the area, this was about as flat as it was gonna get...
It's no secret that I use the bike to my advantage... I feel like I have become much better at pacing myself on the bike using HRZs, but I also knew that I wanted to treat this 10mi bike course more like a TT than a race course... gun it for 25-27mins, then hope you left enough in the tank for the 2 mile run...
So, I knew I'd have to make up some time, and I kinda figured I'd see just how hard I could push it, or how many people I could pass before coming back into T2... Right outta the gate, I passed two or three people just coming out of T1... I kinda smiled and told myself, "Go for it"...
As you can see from the splits on the left, I had a pretty decent bike split, with the exception of the first and last miles... I sit here, kind of kicking myself for not going harder, but I also sit here and remember how fucking hard I had gone on the bike... I managed to keep my HR fairly low, usually in Z4, which is where I wanted it for a super sprint...
The course itself was rather uninteresting... it ran through a couple of busy intersections, one in particular where I didn't think a guy was gonna stop until I yelled at him... I wasn't using race wheels, only an aero helmet, so I started wondering just how much faster I could have been with wheels... my guess is 1-2mph faster, but, looking back, my bike split was good enough for that day, so I ain't complainin...
Managed to pass a TON of people on the bike.. Once I saw the race leaders coming back towards town on the far left, I started counting how many people back I was... I lost count after 20 or so, so I just resolved to gun it, and lay down as much as I could on the run... Come into T2 holding onto what I thought was a decent race pace.. Averaged 22.1mph on the bike, which was a little disappointing, but, after the realization (and gentle reminding by Kendrick), that I haven't done much, if any, threshold biking to build up race pace efforts, I kinda felt like this was a great jumping off point for where I might go this season, bike wise... I guess I was just trying to see the silver lining of what I thought was a shitty bike split...
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| Comin' in hot... |
T2:
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| Again, nothing much to report... in and out in 0:28s |
Run:
I love YMCA races... their runs are always short, and I just knew this one would be short too... advertised as a 2mi run, I figured, that I could lay down a good swim, a great bike, then be able to trot on the run if my leg hurt, and still maybe be able to find my way onto the podium... I also love doing races where the run is short, but they split it out over the distance advertised... always makes me feel really good about how awful of a runner I am...
This race was no different... nice route, out and back, on a sidewalk, with decent shade (not that it was terribly hot or anything)... I told myself to keep the first mile around 8:00 or a little above, but then to absolutely gas it on the second one, leaving nothing in the tank when crossing the finish line... if I threw up blood, so be it...
I kept a close "watch" on my leg, and couldn't feel too much discomfort during the first 5 or so minutes... so, I felt like that was a good thing...The side stitches came pretty quick into the run... I knew I was red-lining it, but really didn't care since I kept telling myself, "It'll all be over soon, just keep moving"...
I hit the turn around, took a couple of sips of gatorade, and headed back towards the finish line... I wasn't passing many people on the way back, but was able to get an idea of who might be ahead of me as I watched people come back in... On the way out, it didn't look like many Clydes, if any, were ahead of me, which was comforting... After hitting the turnaround, I figured I could slow down a little and still have a good shot at getting on the podium...
But no... I decided to just go as hard as I could on my leg to see juuuuuust how uncomfortable I could get without an utter meltdown... I DID have some aches and pains on the way back in, but just gritted my teeth and gunned it...
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| New pace PR |
Total time: 46:17
Clydesdale Rank: 1/2
Yeah, only 2 guys racing Clydes, which made me feel like somewhat of a sandbagger, but, as Hammond said, "You can only beat who shows up"... Hung 5+ minutes on the 2nd place Clyde, who turned out to be a really nice guy (I talked to him after the race, when he said, "Man, you blew past me on the bike like I was standing still...which totally made me feel good)...
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| 3 for 3 in South Cackalack! |
A cool part about this race is that afterwards, I got to hang out with my buddy Billy, who I worked at Mississippi State with, and who I haven't seen in 5 years... we hit up a great Irish pub for lunch, drank a few beers, and got properly caught up... good to see him...
Overall, I was very pleased with this race, even though it was over in the blink of an eye... I know I need to swim more... I know this... Especially if I want to race Augusta at the end of the season... I know my leg will continue to heal, as long as I do what I know I should do (which is not over train/under recover)... I'm planning to take racing on a case by case basis- basically, do I feel healthy enough to do it, and can I afford it... Still looking to add power to the bike, so that may take a big chunk of racing monies away (but I think it'll be well worth it)
Looking forward to tearing it up this season...
Thanks for reading..
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