Saturday, April 19, 2008

First Race

My first race of the season is a week from tomorrow. I will be returning to Cape Girardeau, where I did my first tri ever one year ago. I convinced my buddy Justin to come down and race as well. It will be his first tri, after completing a couple marathons the past few years.
The distances are: 450 meter swim (pool), 15.5 mile bike, and 5 mile run.

My goal times:
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Swim: 10:00 (Last year- 12:37)
T1: 1:00 (1:46)
Bike: 45:00 (52:20)
T2: 0:45 (l:28)
Run: 34:00 (38:42)
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Total: 1:30:45 (1:46:50)

I think this time might be a bit ambitious - I remember the bike course being a bit hilly. However, if the stars align and I put together a perfect race, I think I could finish around 1:30. Last year's age group winner was 1:26, followed by a 1:27 (third place was 1:40 or so), so I could be in there for top 3 in the age group. I need to make some time this week to practice my transitions - its been a while!

Training for the half is going well. I started the training program a few weeks ago and have been able to stick to it pretty well, only missing one workout so far (in order to play basketball) which I made up later in the week. Swimming and running have gone really well, but biking had been a little tough. My legs felt pretty tired on the bike until today's workout. I did 34 miles in 2 hours. My legs started to feel really good after an hour or so of riding. Maybe these shorter rides I've done haven't given me a chance to get good and warm on the bike, I don't know. Anyway, I did 2 hours in the saddle followed by a quick 1.2 mile run (minibrick) to get used to the bike to run transition. My legs felt great off the bike, I felt good settling into a 7:00 minute/mile pace right away.

April training totals thus far:
Swim: 10850 yards (6.16 miles)
Bike: 175 miles
Run: 40 miles

2 comments:

Will & Kate said...

good luck!
-K

Brian Cooper said...

Remember, the other guys probably haven't had much chance to practice transitions, either. Good luck!