Monday, May 11, 2009

Rookie Rundown


The Rookie Tri this past weekend was my 1st Tri for the season. The Rookie Tri back in 2006 was the 1st ever Triathlon that I participated in. Back then, I didn't train much at all, got a bike pretty much 3 days before the Tri, a bike with maybe just 3 gear combinations, and had no clue about really anything - I was a true Rookie. It was not one of my best days in my atheletic history. :) My swim was ok. My bike ride was just hell. AND I lost my chip during my bike ride - and ended up with a DNF on the results board! The run was nothing to speak of either Quite a terrible 1st Tri...

Last year, I went back to the Texas Ski Ranch (TSR) where the Rookie happens each year as well, and while I had a much better overall experience, I still ended up with a messed up result on the scoreboard because for some reason, they marked my age as 13 instead of 26 (no clue how this could have happened!), and my swim leg was a ridiculous 32 minutes for 300m! :)

I considered this course to be jinxed for me!

I went back this year with much trepidation. But I wanted to do it since it would be a perfect trial run for my Olympic in 2 weekends. Also, Vishy wanted to do a Tri, and this was a perfect Tri for a newcomer like him! Here's my race breakdown:

Swim - 300m
My goal for the swim was just to relax and swim freestyle throughout the 300m. I managed to swim freestyle for the most part, using breaststroke just for navigational purposes - so I'm pretty pleased with myself for that. It wasn't the most efficient of freestyles. And the water being extremely muggy and gross attributed a bit to that. It messed up my breathing and sighting a bit. Also, swimming freestyle in a pool is vastly different than swimming one in open water. There are no pool borders/lanes to guide you, and veering off the course is pretty easy in open water. Other than that though, I had a good swim and saw marked improvements in my pace, so was pretty happy.

Time:
2006: 12:01 min
2008: 9:32 min
2009: 8:43 min

Areas of improvement:
Practice more open water swimming!

T1:
My T1 this time was not as efficient as I wanted it to be. Vish and I reached the TSR pretty late that morning and pretty much had 5 minutes to set everything up in Transition and I didn't have much time to place everything I needed the way I wanted to. Defn some room for improvement here!

Time:
2008: 2:47
2009: 3:51

Bike - 11.1 miles
My 1st goal for the bike ride was to work on gear shifting, managing the gears properly so as to achieve the best possible gear combination for where I am in the course, either on a flat road, or hills with varying gradients. My 2nd goal was to hydrate properly, so that I am not dehydrated when I start the run! And my 3rd goal was to just not get stressed with the clips, and take my time getting on and off. I did pretty decently with respect to my 1st and 3rd goals...Because I was a little more familiar with the course as well, I was able to anticipate some of the hills and change gears in advance accordingly. I was also more focused when getting on and off my clips and managed to do both w/o any major mishaps. So that was good. My hydration plan on the bike centered around using the camelback I had purchased a week earlier. I was looking forward to trying it out during the Tri. But in my T1 excitement, I completely forgot about it! I remembered it half way through my ride when I saw someone else carrying it. Lucky for me, the weather was not too hot or humid, 2 things that really dehydrate me easily, and I was able to get through the bike ride without much hydration, and managed to improve my time as well!

Time:
2008: 57:55, 11.50mph
2009: 51:45, 13mph

Areas of improvement:
More hill workouts, practice hydrating on the bike!

T2:
My T2 was not too bad considering that I had to do a shoe swap (bike shoes -> running shoes), something I didn't have to do before, and I managed to do it w/o any major hurdles. I plan to try out the easy laces for my running shoes next time to see if that helps make the transition quicker!

Time:
2008: 1:10
2009: 2:40

Run - 2 miles
My goal for the run was pretty much to not walk! I did that for the most part despite my legs feeling like bricks right after the bike ride! I walked for about a 100m stretch to hydrate and take a salt tablet for a side stich, but felt much better after that and continued running. This is defn an area I need to work on and improve as I do longer distances though. Need more BRIC practices for sure!

2008: 25:59, 12:59/M
2009: 23:37, 11:49/M

Areas of improvement: More BRIC workouts needed during training!

Total Time:

2008: 1:37:23

2009: 1:30:46

Overall, I am happy with the way the Tri went. I broke the TSR jinx and it was a good warm-up Tri for the season, and helped me identify areas for improvement. I also had fun being with Vish during his first Tri! I still plan to do the Olympic in 2 weeks - I have no time goals, my goal there will be to simply finish, but I hope to incorporate a lot of the lessons learnt during the Rookie to ensure that I finish strong!

Monday, May 04, 2009

Tri Training - Week 10 Schedule

Last week was one hectic week @ wk and otherwise - so much so that I didn't have time to record my training! Vegas was a blast...but I needed a recovery day to get over the trip! :) I managed to get some good workouts in though - a 1600m swim, a 2hr spin class, a 12-mile bike and a 4-mile run + a Bikram session! I wanted to get a much longer bike ride in during the weekend, but my ride was disrupted when I realized that my front gears were not working well. So instead of continuing my ride (which including going up a nasty hill every 3 miles), I took my bike to Jack and Adams for some TLC instead. The good thing is that I was very minimally sore after the bike ride...usually I can feel the soreness a few hours later after a ride of that distance...so the intense spin classes must be doing some good!

The Rookie Tri is coming up this weekend - my first Tri for the season...I feel confident about the swim and the run - but the biking is going to be interesting. It will be my 1st ride using clips in a race atmosphere...and I really need to not freak out, especially when I have issues clipping on and getting on my bike (and I know I will have issues! :) ). I am not going to focus on time at all during this race - it's going to be my trial race, to ensure that I go through the right motions needed in a Tri, and note any mistakes or rooms for improvement I can then correct/incorporate into the Captex Tri.

I am not feeling too good today....healthwise...probably from all the exertion over the weekend and the crazy ever-changing weather...so I am going to take it a little easy the first couple of days this week w.r.t training. Am also going to avoid the pool since it's where I can encounter the most germs! :)

Monday: No workout, recovery

Tuesday AM: LIFT Class (pending how I feel) PM: Spin Class

Wednesday PM: 4-mile Run

Thursday PM: BRIC - Spin Class + Short Tun

Friday: Rest

Saturday: Short BRIC - 3-mile Bike + 1-mile Run

Sunday: Rookie Triathlon - 300m Swim, 12mile Bike, 2-mile Run

Wish me luck! :)