Tri for the Shelter, Rome

This week was a recovery week but it wasn't totally relaxing because I had Olympic distance tri on Saturday. Our group was split. Susan was going to do Eleven Lake Oconnee tri. The rest of us signed up for Tri for the Shelter in Rome. I would have done Lake Oconnee but it was so expensive. $60 more expensive than the Rome tri. Plus it was half an hour further than Rome. The race started at 7:30AM but the transition opened at 6AM. I went to Eric's house to carpool at 4:15AM. Super early. Funny when I got there, I saw Eric and Sarah wore the Up the Creek without a Pedal shirts. I did too. Great minds think a like.

We left the house around 4:30AM, made a quick stop at a Carterville's gas station to go potty. We were the first few cars that got there at 6AM. The road was smooth. The lake was owned by Georgia Powers. They just resurfaced the roads around the area. Nicely done. This race was the smallest race that I ever participated in. Roughly 50 athletes. It didn't surprise me to see that the bike racks were assigned by age group. It was so cute. After I set up my stuff, I went to see the swim course. The water was so warm. On the beach, I noticed there was a lot of geese poops. Yuck. But I didn't see a single goose. I came to find out that they lit fireworks before the race, so the geese weren't near the swim course. I swam a little bit to warm up. The water was pretty nasty. One of the race organizers said that they tested the water for e coli and something else. Obviously they passed. I brought my speed skin with me but I wasn't going to wear it until I got done with the warm up. My tri top, even though it was tight, swayed a little bit in the water. There were quite a few athletes also wore their speed skins. Serious athletes. I bought it because it was on sale on Bonktown. I paid $40 but the original price was close to $300. 

The swim start was time trial. We lined up according to our race number. I was number 25, right in the middle. I felt pretty good throughout the swim. I felt better in sighting. I went buoy to buoy, just focused on that. It was a mile swim, a little longer than an Olympic distance, I finished around 32 minutes. The run to the transition was a little long. At the end, my swim time was 33 minutes. It was not bad but I would like to be faster. I guess I just needed to work harder in the pool. The feedback from the tri camp was really helpful. Seeing myself swimming made me realize the mistakes I made and learned to fix them.

I got on the bike and saw my HR was 163. That was zone 4. It was way too high. The first 10 miles of the ride weren't easy for me. I felt uncomfortable and even skittish on the bike. I got on aero a couple of times and felt I was going to fall over. It was a weird feeling. My legs didn't have the same power even though I was riding only 15-16 MPH. After 10 miles, I felt more comfortable and things were getting better from that point on. My average speed was 18.1. I started my run feeling fresh. Started with 8:30 pace. It was a little too fast. After a couple of miles, my pace was around 8:45. The run wasn't hard but it was hot. We were on the road. Out and back. 30% shaded, 70% baked. Towards the end, my HR was 164. I felt great and pushed the pace a little bit at the end. My overall run pace was 8:41.

After the race, I had a buyer's remorse. I felt I wasn't performing well. I didn't have certain expectation but felt I should have been faster on the swim and bike. I talked to Mary after that. this was her reply to me.
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From: "tricoachmary@comcast.net" <tricoachmary@comcast.net>
To: Monika Nelwan <monikanelwan@yahoo.com>
Sent: Tuesday, June 26, 2012 8:49 PM
Subject: Re: Race

Monika, your race was a VERY strong effort.  I looked at the competition.  Not sure if you know who was in front of you, but they were some studs.
Your swim was solid.  All of the swim times were slower than the average Oly time, so you are right to think you can go faster.  I would anticipate a 1:14-1:18 swim at Canada.  Some of that will depend on the crowd you get stuck with.
If your heart rate spikes after the swim, it can save you time to spin easy for a few minutes to bring it into zone.  Keep some pressure on the pedals, but stay out of hard gears.
It seems that you are learning how to put it all together and you are getting very good at it.  You had a very good race.  If you look back at your training calendar you will realize that your legs and body should have been shot.  Two very hard weekend preceded your race. Despite that you came out with a good result.  There is no telling what you will do when you are well rested!

Mary Doyle Smith, PT, OCS
Velocity Spine and Sports PT 770-792-7522
Doyle/Smith Tri and Cycle LLC 404-379-6191
USA Triathlon Level I Certified Coach

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Sometimes this was what I needed. A confirmation that I was on the right track and I was putting my best effort.