Tuesday, September 3, 2013

National Age Group Championships

This was a fun race.  I was very impressed with the race venu and how well the race was run.  Especially for the number of participants entered.  For me, this race was like asking a marathoner to do a 5k.  I had a lot of fun, but had trouble accessing the top end of my speed zones. 

I started near the front of the swim pack.  I wanted to have a good swim race and work on my speed/drafting/swimming in the pack.  I had a side stitch a couple times during the swim and had to back off on the speed a bit.  I also drank a good gulp of water 1-2 times, but managed to come out of the water ok. 

Transition was slow for an olympic race, but fairly good for me.  I got on my bike and started do so some work.  The bike course was fast and mostly flat, so I was done before I knew it and running back into transition.  T2 was also not fast for an olympic distance race, but I got it done and ran onto the run course. 

I ran to the best of my abilities, but it was clear that I had not done a lot of speed work.  I huffed and puffed my way through the run (and yet another side stitch) to the finish line.  Boy, was I happy to be done!

Those shorter distances are shorter in time, but man are they hard when you try to push the pace!  All in all, it was a great race and I look forward to doing it again in the future.