Distance Run

Today I competed in the 2007 Hagerstown Sprint Triathlon which was held in and around the Martin L. Snook Memorial Park in Hagerstown, Maryland.

It was my first tri, and I’m very pleased with my results.

Final times are not yet posted, but my unofficial total time was 1:04:54.

I screwed up my lap timers by failing to hit the split after leaving T1 (on bike) and when entering T2 (to begin running), but my estimates are:

This race was extremely well coordinated. I don’t remember the name of the woman who was running registration and the pool heats, but she was awesome!

She told us exactly where to be, when to be there, what to do, and what to expect.

Every race needs someone like her. Her assertiveness was much appreciated since from the results of a hand-poll at the pre-race meeting, a significant number of the participants were first-timers.

There were also tons of volunteers, which I really appreciate, and am very thankful for.

The layout of the transition area was well-done as well.

Notably, stalls were not marked. I like this because it let racers pick their preferred spot to park their bikes.

Additionally, swimmers leaving the pool and runners beginning leg 3 entered and exited out of one end of the transition area. Bikers came and left out of the opposite end. This was excellent for keeping the bottlenecks to a minimum.

The course layout was also well-done. Bikers and runners were, for the most part, isolated. There was only one part of the course (spanning about 1.25 or 1.5 miles) where runners and bikers (nearing the end of their ride) shared the course. At that stage, the course was two car lanes across, leaving plenty of room for safety.

I had an excellent time. Though it rained like crazy, it stopped almost on cue at 7:00am for race start. Cloud cover kept the temperature down throughout the event.

I did a couple of things that I’ll recommend to first-timers, but I’ll save those for a later post.

Overall, this was a great race, and I highly recommend it! The course was less intimidating than the SCC Triathlon I volunteered at a few weeks prior. The transition area at SCC was unintuitive, and I spent most of my time directing racers who were confused about where the entry and exit points to the transition area were.

I’m looking forward to the next one!

Bill

This Sunday is the Hagerstown Sprint Tri.

I’m ready.

Tonight I did my final training swim, and tomorrow I’ll do my final run.

Biking is the only area that I feel I haven’t given enough attention to in the past 3 weeks. I have been taking it easy because of some calf issues that developed.

Fortunately, all pain is gone, and I am sure I could have done more riding, but safety first!

I’m excited about this race:

• 300 meter pool swim
• 11.5 mile bike
• 3.1 mile run

I’m sure I’ll own the run. My target will be 21 minutes to complete the run.

My target for the swim, 6 minutes. Not ambitious, but swimming is my weak link.

The biking is a question mark. It is supposed to rain, and if the course is wet, I’ll take it very easy. The course is not closed to traffic, and there are several sharp turns. On wet pavement this will make me more wary than otherwise.

If, however, the course is dry and well managed, I plan on pushing hard. I’d like to do it in under 30 minutes.

My goal is to spend less than 5 minutes in each transition. I have no idea if this is good or bad, but that’s my goal.

Rock,
Bill

Back in 2005 I was training for the Le Grizz 50 mile Ultra.

At one point, my training weekends consisted of back to back 25-30 mile runs on Saturday and Sunday.

Jocelyn used to accompany me on some of these runs. She’d ride and keep me company.

On days when she’d come, we’d drive down near Great Falls and get on the C&O canal there.

Just near our parking lot is an area called Widewater. It’s gorgeous. Arguably my favorite part of the trail.

On one particularly hot Sunday after finishing the race, I was doing a cool-down walk near Widewater. Dehydration was on me pretty good. I’d been daydreaming of grapes, watermelon, you name it.

At any point, we were walking along and I was staring longingly at the water. It looked so cool. So inviting.

So I jumped in :)

Man I loved that feeling. The cold water combined with the fear that I was doing something I shouldn’t was quite exhilarating.

In any event, ever since I’ve been training for the Tri, I get the urge to go strait to the pool after a run :)

I hope I’ll be able to take a dunk after the Hagerstown race!

Bill

Here’s a cell-phone pic of the Widewater area.

Over the past few weeks I’ve been riding much more, and running a little less.

For a few weeks, I’d bike home (8 miles) and immediately change into running gear and hit the road for a 7 mile run.

Well, it didn’t take that long for the additional workload to begin taking its toll.

The first thing I noticed was chronic fatigue in my quads.  By the end of the week, they would be a little sore, but mainly just felt completely drained.

That’s not healthy, as too much of that leads to injury.  I started to get worried.

The next area was my calves.

I don’t really rely heavily on my calves when running.  My stride tends to be very short, alleviating much of the toe-off that generally occurs with longer striding folk.

But when biking, I use a great deal of calf muscle when pedaling.  I have a tendency to rotate my foot in a pawing motion as I pedal through the bottom part of the stroke.  This is similar to running toe-off, but since I run with short strides, my calf muscles were not prepared for that kind of work out.

Both Achilles tendons became sore where they connect to the calf muscle tissue, and the muscle on the inner side of my left leg got really pissed off, and required several days of massaging and gentle stretching to get happy again.

In the mean time, I’ve started to alternate days.  No more blocks of biking-to-running except for weekend training.

So far it seems to be helping.

Bill