After I finished my swim in 45 minutes my original goal of 5:20 was quickly revised to 5:30. Perhaps I am setting my goals too high. Thinking back on my 4 halfirons I have not been pleased with any of my performances at these races. Makes me wonder if I'm asking too much of myself. I don't think so. Maybe I just have to face the fact that my triathlons will never match my expectations as compared to the expectations that I have been able to achieve in my running.
My time on the swim was the same as last time. I really want to curse here. I was hoping to shed at least a few minutes. The swim at Timberman WAS wavy and I found it difficult to grasp a lot of water. My pull was weak. We had 111 women in the 45-49 age group. I was 64th on the swim (25th AG total time). How depressing.
Other than some leg soreness I felt strong on the bike and, equally as important, strong when I dismounted for my run. My bike speed was exactly the same as Pumpkinman last fall. 18.5 MPH. hu?
Regardless of the small victories I had on the bike in preparing for my run I ended up getting some nasty blisters during the last 6 miles of the run. And yes, I had stomach issues. Blah.. Despite these pitfalls my run was OK. I managed to keep the pace at around 8:38s.
I'm feeling pretty ill in some of these photos. I'm also pretty sick of writing about feeling sick and sick of writing about my sorry ass races.
10 comments:
As far I'm concern you are my rock star!!! Please don't feel bad about this race. You are growing in this industry and I think it takes time. Keep on going don't give up. You will get it!! Please smile..
oh goodness Melissa!! I'm sorry you're so down on this race! :o(
regarding the same bike pace...hard to compare race to race I think.
I have stomach issues too much too...grrr...
smile! IT'll all click!
And hey! I LOVE your kit at the race!
Melissa, I think your times are great for the races you did, with your level of experience. Honestly! If you were to pick a smaller HIM, like the one I did, you would do MUCH better. Maybe I am wrong, but I don't think I am. It is much easier to swim when there are less than 100 people swimming with you. Also, the entire experience is not as crazy, anxiety provoking, etc. Also, the HIMs you did had some TOUGH courses! And you placed well at REV, didn't you? And at the Olympic? SO I think you are improving, but maybe you want to do a smaller tri so that you can feel like a big fish in a small pond. That does wonders for motivation and mood!
Oh, and you look so fit! You are so tiny!
melissa - im totally with you that the swim sucked balls. you had a solid solid bike, and you looked GREAT on the run when i saw you. keep your head up - you did have a very great race on a very difficult course!
p.s. you still look smokin hot in your race kit!
OH gosh i am sorry i am so behind on reading blogs, life crap going on:( But yes I agree with Ange, its not fair to yourself to compare different races and even the same race can have such different conditions!
I love the Chrissie pic and I do love the new kit. Dont retire that one!
Here's what I read into it:
1. Your swim time was the same as last but the conditions were worse. That means you swam better.
2. You were good on the bike.
3. There were some uncontrollable problems with the run but you held it together.
Maybe it wasn't the race you wanted but it certainly doesn't sound like you did poorly.
And yes, you do get points for style. ;)
Thanks guys. I appreciate your comments. They do help.
I am so behind on my blog reading!
Sorry.
This is a good two weeks too late.
My swim time was the same as last time too-. This is because the swim was harder--and I believe longer. Remember we started DEEP in the water before? And this time we started at the shore? Even if they did make it shorter to account for that--getting to deep water is slower than just starting deep! Also it was ROUGH--much much rougher than two years ago.
Okay.
The bike. Pumpkinman is a cake walk compared to Timber. You know that, right? It is a very challenging bike course. Here Running and LIving is right.... also. Timberman is extraordinarily competitive. The bike times seem fast because the best of the best come out for that race.
The run is hilly and hard--especially following that tough bike. I had hoped for a solid 7:45 pace--and I was nearly 30 seconds slower than that per mile.
I'm so sorry you are bummed about it. I had a big big goal too--and I was not close. It's hard when you set something for yourself and fall short.
But you still did good. And your upper body is looking stronger in these pics, btw. xo
its so tough when we dont reach our time goals, but you have made some AMAZING progress this year and its important to focus on that. and besides (as jen always reminds me) isnt this supposed to be fun :) ha! hope you are doing well, keep on truckin, the gains are there and more to come.
Post a Comment