Well, I was nervous, but it ended up being a great morning.
Getting up was no problem, because of the time change, and I got downtown with plenty of time to park in a close spot and sit warm in the car for about 25 minutes looking at the news and relaxing as all the parking spots around me filled up. Easy walk to the start by the Vietnam Memorial, the Lincoln, the Korean War Memorial, and some of the most striking parkland in the region and a relaxed warm up with some pickups and it was almost time to start.
It was in the upper 40s and sunny and I was planning on wearing shorts and a t-shirt, so I waited until the last 8 minutes before the start to drop my bag and got over to the corrals.
There was a front group of young guys in singlets and bare arms so I looked for where the women started and slipped in about there, maybe a few rows back. The race started on time and we were off.
I was immediately kicking myself for not being more bold, as the women directly in front of me started off running in a way that somehow seemed to make her not even more forward, tiny springy steps, and I had to dodge her and a few more before I came out into an open space.
I felt good. I knew there was a tailwind behind me, that would become a headwind in 3 short miles, but I was feeling pretty good. My plan was to start conservative for 2 miles, maybe 7:20s, and then speed it up for the next two and try to lay it out for the last two, with the hopes that I would end up with a time that would give me a good baseline for workouts at the track over the winter.
When I looked at my watch and saw 6:55 pace about halfway through that first mile, I questioned this strategy. In the end, I finished that mile at 6:58 but decided I needed to dial it back a little but try to keep a pace that would be more aggressive than my original plan.
Although I was afraid for the first 5 miles or so that I could possibly be on the path to a terrible failure in pacing, that didn't happen. I possibly made one tactical error after we went around the tip of Hains Point and into the wind for the first time, since a woman I was running near took the opportunity to tuck in behind me and I had no one I could catch to do the same. However, after the turnaround and our return around the tip of Hains Point into the headwind home, I did search out other runners to block the wind. It doesn't help like it does on a bike; that is, I didn't feel like I could ease up and go the same speed, but I am certain it made at least some difference.
Other than that it was a pretty uneventful race. I had a touch of a side cramp in the 5th mile, but nothing like I had this summer at the NJ triathlon and I don't think it affected me. I was surprising myself at the ability to hold my pace though.
I thought my data was interesting from the race, with my average heartrate for each mile gradually going up while the mile times (except for the first one) staying in the same range.
1: 6:58/ 156
2: 7:09/ 161
3: 7:12/ 163
4: 7:09/ 164
5: 7:13/ 167
6: 7:14/ 168
last .2: 6:56 pace/ 170
Dave says that the fact that I could pull out 6:56 pace for the last .2 means that I had more in the tank and could have shaved more time off. Maybe he is right, but it was work getting that pace in the end and I was suffering. I am not sure how much longer I could have held it, or if I should have just been going a little faster throughout, but I guess that is what I am trying to learn.
I ended up with a 44:38, 4th in my age group, and waited around for awards since this time would have had me on the "podium" (there wasn't one) at last years race. But it was a fast day out there so I guess I will have to wait to earn my chance at a trip to the podium in a road race. In all the age groups younger than mine, everyone on the podium went sub-40. That's a long way off.
I have my baseline to shoot for 43:30 and have learned that I have been sandbagging at the track, since I have been doing my mile repeats at about 7:12. I guess I can probably go faster than that. No real running races planned until the 10k in February, so it's time to settle in for some work.
Tacchino
Thursday, November 7, 2013
Saturday, November 2, 2013
Update: Rudy's
I just want to say that I have been reunited with my sunglasses - they came back to me just over a week after I sent them, with lovely new clear lenses that are crisper then my regular glasses (though I won't give in to the temptation to wear them all the time instead of my regular ones, because I might look a little silly). This was all in plenty of time for tomorrow's end of daylight savings time and the resulting dark bike commute home. Boo.
And, hopefully, for use when night mountain bike rides return to my life.
They also replaced all the used and abused rubber bits on my frames so the glasses that came back to me were almost like new.
Thanks, Rudy Project!
And, hopefully, for use when night mountain bike rides return to my life.
They also replaced all the used and abused rubber bits on my frames so the glasses that came back to me were almost like new.
Thanks, Rudy Project!
Thursday, October 31, 2013
Race Week - 10k Edition
All racing is just for fun, at least at my level, so it seems a little weird to make the distinction I am about to make: my last few races, the cyclocross ones, have been just for fun, but today I am feeling nervous.
I am focusing on running at the 10k distance this winter and Sunday is my baseline race. Run for the Parks 10k in Washington. And it is 3 days away and I am already nervous. Part of this is nailing down the logistics, since the race starts at 8 am and they ask you to take Metro because parking is limited but Metro isn't opening early. The Metro schedule tells me that the very best I can hope for, if everything goes right, is to arrive at the Metro stop about a mile away at 7:38 am.
If everything goes right. And Metro isn't delayed.
That's not going to work for me.
So I am driving. So I am parking. So I will be departing early in the morning, I guess, fo my sanity and peace of mind.
But the other part of my nervousness is definitely about performance. I haven't been training a terribly long time since I decided on this goal and it is just for a baseline, but still... a hard 6 miles always hurts, no?
I am focusing on running at the 10k distance this winter and Sunday is my baseline race. Run for the Parks 10k in Washington. And it is 3 days away and I am already nervous. Part of this is nailing down the logistics, since the race starts at 8 am and they ask you to take Metro because parking is limited but Metro isn't opening early. The Metro schedule tells me that the very best I can hope for, if everything goes right, is to arrive at the Metro stop about a mile away at 7:38 am.
If everything goes right. And Metro isn't delayed.
That's not going to work for me.
So I am driving. So I am parking. So I will be departing early in the morning, I guess, fo my sanity and peace of mind.
But the other part of my nervousness is definitely about performance. I haven't been training a terribly long time since I decided on this goal and it is just for a baseline, but still... a hard 6 miles always hurts, no?
Monday, October 28, 2013
Cross Season: Tacchino and DCCX
I kind of knew all along that I wanted to race cross again this season, and I even incorporated some cross-type intervals into my commute over the summer (I don't get to do a proper bike workout during the work week, so all work on the bike has to happen as part of my commute. Surprisingly, this did not lead to me signing up for any cross races and the morning of the first I could make it to, Tacchino at Rosaryville, I found myself (1) switching my commuting tires out for a pair of race tires and (2) signing up day-of when I got to the race.
Tacchino
My last minute preparations meant that I didn't get to preview the course but I could tell pretty fast that it was muddy. Luckily my new tires would help with that. It was a fairly small field, 12, maybe, so starting position wasn't a big deal. There is a new Masters Women 45+ race that they have going off with the Cat 4 women this year, so it is a little hard to tell where you are in the field unless you know who everyone is. I don't know who everyone is.
The mud was greatly to my advantage, though, as I just dropped my elbows mountain-biking style and powered through it while lots of people were getting off. It was a slippery mess for most of the course, but I managed to stay upright through all of it. I passed some people, but felt like there were lots of women still ahead of me. Imagine my surprise then, in the last climb, when a group of spectators told me that #3 was right ahead and I should "go get her!"
That didn't seem likely and I actually thought they were teasing me, which seems like something cross spectators might do, so imagine my surprise when I crossed the finish line (legs literally shaking) and my friends told me they thought I had won the Cat 4 with the women in front of me all being in the Masters class ("Just don't go anywhere just yet," they advised.) In the end neither group was right, as there was a very young girl in the mix who everyone probably thought was a Junior but was actually Cat 4. The other 3 women were in Masters, however, so I was thrilled with my 1st cross podium in 2nd place. I got a medal and some chamois cream. Woot!
DCCX
Not signing up much in advance came back to haunt me more at DCCX, which is, it turns out, a huge race. By far the largest field for the Cat 4 women that I have been in in my vast experience of 6 cross races. Again I had not managed to get there in time to pre-ride the course (darn you Army Ten Miler and your road closures), but I kind of remembered the course from the clinic last year so I hoped it wasn't much different and went in blind. Unfortunately, the fact that I signed up week-of the race placed me in the last line for the start. Though honestly, the girls didn't seem to be very good at lining up by number despite the officials telling them to.
I seem to be learning that a lot of the time in cyclocross, you make your own luck. That is, my live and let-live attitude out on the course that probably comes from only racing bikes in the context of triathlon does not seem to be the norm. We'll leave it at that.
So the start was crowded, but I passed a big group of other women in the first couple of hundred yards, which felt good since last season everyone just seemed to pull away at the start.
This course was dry, and I wasn't convinced that was to my advantage, having been able to pass a lot of people in the muck at Tacchino. I also thought the course was really quite hard, starting with almost a full lap that, as my friend John pointed out, "Didn't even count" since it was only almost a full lap. The lap had 2 sets of barriers and another spot where you dismount to run up some enormous stairs then mount at the top just to go straight down and do a 180 and go straight back up. I guess that's cross, because that happened a few other places on the course too.
Let's just say that when I went by the judges the first time and the lap counter said 3 laps to go, I might have let slip an expletive. But I checked my watch and yup, that painful lap had only taken 9 minutes, not the 15 it felt like.
So I just kept powering on, for what felt like eternity. (That might be hyperbole, but it felt like a long time.) I picked off a few more of my competitors and went back and forth with one woman in knee high bright pink socks.
Is the knee sock thing at cross a fashion choice or a performance choice? I haven't been able to figure that out...
Actually, after the first lap, I had hardly any jostling around the corners and tight spots and was pleased that the only places I had to put a foot down was when I got off the bike for the barriers and the stairs. Until the last lap, when going into the final uphill turn I made the mistake of thinking, "Last hard turn!" at which point I ran into the tape along the side of the course, got tangled up in it, and had to dismount. Whoops.
It was a really fun race and I ended up 9th, which I was ok with, since it was a hard course with a big field. Anyway, out of 29, being in the last row meant I started behind 20+ of them from the start.
A few more races to go this season, and maybe I will sign up not at the last minute. If I'm smart.
Tacchino
My last minute preparations meant that I didn't get to preview the course but I could tell pretty fast that it was muddy. Luckily my new tires would help with that. It was a fairly small field, 12, maybe, so starting position wasn't a big deal. There is a new Masters Women 45+ race that they have going off with the Cat 4 women this year, so it is a little hard to tell where you are in the field unless you know who everyone is. I don't know who everyone is.
The mud was greatly to my advantage, though, as I just dropped my elbows mountain-biking style and powered through it while lots of people were getting off. It was a slippery mess for most of the course, but I managed to stay upright through all of it. I passed some people, but felt like there were lots of women still ahead of me. Imagine my surprise then, in the last climb, when a group of spectators told me that #3 was right ahead and I should "go get her!"
That didn't seem likely and I actually thought they were teasing me, which seems like something cross spectators might do, so imagine my surprise when I crossed the finish line (legs literally shaking) and my friends told me they thought I had won the Cat 4 with the women in front of me all being in the Masters class ("Just don't go anywhere just yet," they advised.) In the end neither group was right, as there was a very young girl in the mix who everyone probably thought was a Junior but was actually Cat 4. The other 3 women were in Masters, however, so I was thrilled with my 1st cross podium in 2nd place. I got a medal and some chamois cream. Woot!
DCCX
Not signing up much in advance came back to haunt me more at DCCX, which is, it turns out, a huge race. By far the largest field for the Cat 4 women that I have been in in my vast experience of 6 cross races. Again I had not managed to get there in time to pre-ride the course (darn you Army Ten Miler and your road closures), but I kind of remembered the course from the clinic last year so I hoped it wasn't much different and went in blind. Unfortunately, the fact that I signed up week-of the race placed me in the last line for the start. Though honestly, the girls didn't seem to be very good at lining up by number despite the officials telling them to.
I seem to be learning that a lot of the time in cyclocross, you make your own luck. That is, my live and let-live attitude out on the course that probably comes from only racing bikes in the context of triathlon does not seem to be the norm. We'll leave it at that.
So the start was crowded, but I passed a big group of other women in the first couple of hundred yards, which felt good since last season everyone just seemed to pull away at the start.
This course was dry, and I wasn't convinced that was to my advantage, having been able to pass a lot of people in the muck at Tacchino. I also thought the course was really quite hard, starting with almost a full lap that, as my friend John pointed out, "Didn't even count" since it was only almost a full lap. The lap had 2 sets of barriers and another spot where you dismount to run up some enormous stairs then mount at the top just to go straight down and do a 180 and go straight back up. I guess that's cross, because that happened a few other places on the course too.
Let's just say that when I went by the judges the first time and the lap counter said 3 laps to go, I might have let slip an expletive. But I checked my watch and yup, that painful lap had only taken 9 minutes, not the 15 it felt like.
So I just kept powering on, for what felt like eternity. (That might be hyperbole, but it felt like a long time.) I picked off a few more of my competitors and went back and forth with one woman in knee high bright pink socks.
Is the knee sock thing at cross a fashion choice or a performance choice? I haven't been able to figure that out...
Actually, after the first lap, I had hardly any jostling around the corners and tight spots and was pleased that the only places I had to put a foot down was when I got off the bike for the barriers and the stairs. Until the last lap, when going into the final uphill turn I made the mistake of thinking, "Last hard turn!" at which point I ran into the tape along the side of the course, got tangled up in it, and had to dismount. Whoops.
It was a really fun race and I ended up 9th, which I was ok with, since it was a hard course with a big field. Anyway, out of 29, being in the last row meant I started behind 20+ of them from the start.
A few more races to go this season, and maybe I will sign up not at the last minute. If I'm smart.
Tuesday, October 8, 2013
Living Without...Briefly
I am bracing myself for a short time without my prescription Rudys.
You know how sometimes someone new to triathlon might ask you what your favorite piece of gear is, for me it is a tough call, but the Rudys are right up there.
But I am getting a new pair of prescription lenses, clear ones for riding at night, for fun night mountain bike riding, if I ever do that again, and more practically, for commuting this fall and winter.
They said I would only be without for 5-7 days.
I hope so!
You know how sometimes someone new to triathlon might ask you what your favorite piece of gear is, for me it is a tough call, but the Rudys are right up there.
But I am getting a new pair of prescription lenses, clear ones for riding at night, for fun night mountain bike riding, if I ever do that again, and more practically, for commuting this fall and winter.
They said I would only be without for 5-7 days.
I hope so!
Tuesday, October 1, 2013
Shutdown
There are all number of things I could have spent all day doing on the 1st day of the government shutdown. I did some of those things from the time my "orderly shutdown" ended and noon.
Then I went mountain biking.
Because that's more fun.
Then I went mountain biking.
Because that's more fun.
Monday, September 9, 2013
Update
I have started quite a few posts in the last month and a half, but never finished them, including a race report for my final triathlon of the season, Luray, which was in mid-August and which was beautiful and tons of fun, if a little lackluster on the performance side.
The swim was pretty poor - I think I was out to lunch, though it didn't feel terribly slow. I was quite happy with my bike and the run was average. BUT, what a beautiful and fun course, particularly the bike. And we had a terrific day to do it. Cool. Cool? In August? I'll take it.
I plan to go back. Hopefully armed with a 10k faster than 50 minutes.
Which brings me to my next topic: moving forward.
I've had a couple of weeks of easy going, a terrific vacation in the Adirondacks, and another week of pretty easy going, so it appears to be time to get back to business.
I have been pondering the months ahead and have determined that I should work on speeding up my run for the Oly, so my plan is to run an open 10k in February and try to blow it out.
I don't even have a PR for an open 10k, I don't think. I have run several in Olys and I have run 10 milers and halfs and 5ks and more 5 milers than I can count and even a marathon, but I don't think I have ever run a 10k road race.
I have a goal, but I am not certain it is reasonable. I want to do 43:30 or better, which would be 7 minute miles. This is a real stretch, but I have 5 months so I am hoping it is doable. I should know better about halfway through, I guess.
I wanted to run an earlier 10k to gauge where I was, but I am amazed that I can't seem to find one, so I think I might run an 8k in December and see where we are.
So that's the long-term plan.
But first I might have to race a few cyclo cross races. I mean, I did just buy new cross tires for my bike. But it would be just for fun. (I am trying to forget how much they hurt last year as I say that....)
The swim was pretty poor - I think I was out to lunch, though it didn't feel terribly slow. I was quite happy with my bike and the run was average. BUT, what a beautiful and fun course, particularly the bike. And we had a terrific day to do it. Cool. Cool? In August? I'll take it.
I plan to go back. Hopefully armed with a 10k faster than 50 minutes.
Which brings me to my next topic: moving forward.
I've had a couple of weeks of easy going, a terrific vacation in the Adirondacks, and another week of pretty easy going, so it appears to be time to get back to business.
I have been pondering the months ahead and have determined that I should work on speeding up my run for the Oly, so my plan is to run an open 10k in February and try to blow it out.
I don't even have a PR for an open 10k, I don't think. I have run several in Olys and I have run 10 milers and halfs and 5ks and more 5 milers than I can count and even a marathon, but I don't think I have ever run a 10k road race.
I have a goal, but I am not certain it is reasonable. I want to do 43:30 or better, which would be 7 minute miles. This is a real stretch, but I have 5 months so I am hoping it is doable. I should know better about halfway through, I guess.
I wanted to run an earlier 10k to gauge where I was, but I am amazed that I can't seem to find one, so I think I might run an 8k in December and see where we are.
So that's the long-term plan.
But first I might have to race a few cyclo cross races. I mean, I did just buy new cross tires for my bike. But it would be just for fun. (I am trying to forget how much they hurt last year as I say that....)
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