OK. Now the final catch up to get current. Last week 8/17-8/24 was the final week of build phase 2 before a recovery week. Since I had scheduled a race for Saturday I had to drop one run, and one swim and shift a few workouts. Tuesday’s 1h 10min ride was scrapped and spent packing. I moved Wednesday’s 2300 meter swim to Tuesday. Wednesday I did the longer of the two midweek runs (scheduled for Friday) of 1hour (with sprints at the end) and scrapped the scheduled Wednesday run of 40 minutes. We got to Florida on Wednesday night and Thursday morning went out for the long ride that is normally on Saturday. Although scheduled for 3h 15min I shortened it my 45 min to cover 43 miles. One thing that I forgot about coastal riding is the wind is a significant factor when it is in your face. It was like riding the second half of the ride uphill the entire time, and really was a good leg workout. Friday was off, so no swim or run and Saturday was the Sandestin Triathlon.
This is one of my favorite races for a few reasons. The length is a bit longer than a sprint at ½ mile swim, 20 mile bike and 4 mile run. One of my favorite things is that it is an open gulf swim with a mass wave start so you get the great Gulf of Mexico water along with a bit of the chaos in the water that you miss with a staggered start race.
I felt very strong on the swim and was out of the water at about 14:30. With a little cross current the entire time I was pleased with the time and felt like I never exerted much during the swim. The run to the transition is out of the beach, up a boardwalk, and into the parking lot so the posted time was a little longer since the timing mats are not until you get to the end of the boardwalk. Thankfully this year there were no jellyfish like 2007. My official swim time was posted at 15:58 where my goal was set at 15min.
The bike was downwind to the turnaround and I was moving at a nice 22-25mph pace the entire time. After the turnaround speed dropped to close to 20mph, but I was able to maintain and pin it into the wind to beat my goal of sub 55min bike time. My posted time on the 20 mile bike was 53:42 which was a 22.3mph average. I was very happy with this since I am a 19mph average rider on my training rides.
The run was a nice out and back 4 miler on golf paths and the road inside the Sandestin resort. It took about 7-8 min to get my legs and I really felt like I took it slow the first two miles so I could accelerate to the finish. I ended up running a little faster than I felt. I would have guessed a low 9 min pace, but my actual time on the run came in at 34:17 which was an 8:34 min/mile pace. I was very pleased and felt strong at the end.
My total time on the race this year was 1.47:38. My goal was set at 1h 46 min without transition times so I was pleased with the result since it had been almost a year since my last real race. The real fun was comparing this year’s results with 2007 results (2008 race was cancelled due to Hurricane Fay). Race place improved from 448th place to 135th place overall (out of 700), with age group place moving from 63rd out of 78 to 24th out of 74. My swim time dropped by 1min 49 seconds, bike time dropped by 7min 50 seconds, and run time dropped by 10min 14 seconds. The only time that didn’t drop was my T2 which I blazed in 2007 at 52 seconds. I was a bit slower (due to my number belt breaking) at 1min 21 seconds this year. The overall time improvement from 2007 race to 2009 race was 20 minutes and 4 seconds. Huge improvement in a short race. Obviously by percentage gain relative to time, my run was the most improved. I think that my pre-training half marathon and run base has really helped out looking at these numbers.
I ended up missing my scheduled long run on Sunday of 1h 40min and shortened that to a 40 min run before leaving Florida and heading back home. The plan is to make up for that by making my brick run next Sunday 2 hours instead
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