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Moss Park Olympic Tri

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Moss Park Olympic Tri Empty Moss Park Olympic Tri

Post  Admin Mon Jul 21, 2008 2:17 pm

After a few months of training for Timberman, my wife and I decided we needed to get in an Olympic distance tri, considering we had only done one sprint in the recent past. Luckily, that one sprint also had an Olympic distance race at the same site a few months later. So we had at least one thing going, in that we were familiar with the race route.
Also, we had found out that a friend from Alabama would be coming down for the race as well. It’s always nice to have others around that you know at a race. She stayed with us over the weekend and had a good time. In addition, we convinced "flmonkey" to do the race, with it being his first Oly as well.
Anyways, race day. Woke up at 3:30 because the race started at 7am, and the site was 1:15ish away. The night before, I had prepared a PB&J, so down the hatch that went along side some coffee and a small glass of OJ. The truck was all packed the night before, so after a few things being thrown into the bags, and filling the coolers, we were off. We met our friend along the way and carpooled. On the ride over, I had a Diet Coke and a Clif Mojo bar. I had to gradually eat my food because I wanted my body to gradually digest, you know, to stave off issues. The drive over went a tad bit faster than planned and the park wasn’t open yet, so we stopped at a 7-11 to use the facilities and grabbed a drink. From there, it was off to the race.
The nice thing about being this early was a nice parking space and no lines at check in. Oh, and easy access to the bike rack. Getting transition ready was a lot easier than last time, when I had all of 30 minutes from race packet to race start. This time I was also able to get into the water to feel open water swimming. I could tell already that I would be just fine.
Anyways, gun goes off and we start swimming. We swam directly into the sun for a distance, turned right, then completed the triangle near the beach, and did it again. I was only wanting to finish the swim without stopping, and that is what I did, minus about 10 seconds where I needed to burp. I stopped to tread, and then realized that out in the middle of the freaking lake, I found the one spot where you could stand. Freaky, eh? From there, I was able to complete the first lap, and the second one was fine too. But looking at the times, it seemed way long, and post race, everyone was commenting on it being longer than advertised too. I will never know the answer, but it doesn’t matter. I swam a mile. Ish. And am thrilled. 44:05 (After further review, this was for sure longer. By a good 3-400 yds)
Transition was fine. Although post race, I purchased a tri top. Enough of this putting on a shirt jackassery. I downed a cran grape juice and took off.
For the first mile of the bike, I had issues with my clips again. This happened at the sprint dues to a lot of dirt and sand in the path between T1 and the bike start. I finally got them both clipped in after over a mile. For the first loop, I was ticking off the miles. I had a really good ride. But as the ride went on, my butt started to hurt. This is due to me adjusting the angle of my seat the night before. The second loop was a tad slower but I got it done with only one person passing me. Oh, and on the ride, I had a bottle of water and one of Nuun. 1:08:11.
T2 was not a problem for me either. I took down a 90cal Gatorade, threw on my shoes and visor and took off. For some reason, I usually have my legs under me pretty quickly. At least I assume so considering I began passing people fairly quickly. The run is a twisting, turning, packed dirt trail with total tree cover. It really is hard to beat. Along the route, they had four stations with water and Gatorade Endurance. I went for the GE every time, and a good thing, I cramped up a mile into the second lap. I kinda had a feeling before then that I would cramp, but it was bad. Luckily, I stopped for 70 seconds, rubbed the muscles, then finished the run with little recurring cramps. I think the Gatorade kicked in. However, I still have a thing or two to work out regarding my nutrition. Now technically, this was not a full Oly tri because the run was only 5.5 miles, but it’s close enough. Anyways, had the chute to myself and finished the run in 44:37.
It was a decent race. I like all the courses, but its very low key. Only 88 people raced the Oly. Of course, that is also why I picked up hardware in the Clydesdale div (2nd). I was supposed to be AG, but they never changed me and they said that the posted divisions are the final ones, so who am I to turn down hardware.
All in all, I was very happy with my race. It helped me learn what I need to figure out still, and it also showed me how far I’ve come. This is the most confident I’ve been for a triathlon, and that’s good, considering Timberman is 27 days away.

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Post  Brian Jones Mon Jul 28, 2008 11:42 pm

Awesome race! That was a very good bike and run split!

Suggestion, get some Speedplay pedals (zeros are my personal favorite), these are the "Lollipop" looking clip-in's and leave your shoes clipped into them BEFORE you start the race. Put rubber bands around the shoes to hold them to the cranks for your run out of transition. Then when you mount and start pedaling, BANG, the bands pop off and you can put your shoes on on-the-fly (the way the pros's do it). No more clip in problems either...

Also, sounds like you took quite a bit of time to down drinks in transition, I do all my drinking on the bike...
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Post  Toe jam on crusty feet Tue Jul 29, 2008 4:45 pm

Brian Jones wrote:Awesome race! That was a very good bike and run split!

Suggestion, get some Speedplay pedals (zeros are my personal favorite), these are the "Lollipop" looking clip-in's and leave your shoes clipped into them BEFORE you start the race. Put rubber bands around the shoes to hold them to the cranks for your run out of transition. Then when you mount and start pedaling, BANG, the bands pop off and you can put your shoes on on-the-fly (the way the pros's do it). No more clip in problems either...

Also, sounds like you took quite a bit of time to down drinks in transition, I do all my drinking on the bike...

Those are really great suggestions, Brian. Smile
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