I'm a Musselman!

Not a muscle-y man quite like Hans or Franz.

But--another HIM in my book and a HEEE-YOOOOO-GGGE deposit into my IM bank.

Below is the post regarding my plan for this race. If you read it, you know I was NOT supposed to be PR'ing or really pushing the pace in ANY sense of the word. This was a little hard for SCCS to swallow, but I managed to shut her up most of the time although she popped out a teensy bit on the run--only because I was able to pass LOTS of people and she was excited about that. :)

This race was a QUALIFIER FOR NATIONALS, so, um, the competition was ready to play so to speak. There were some UNBELIEVABLY FAST athletes from around the Northeast, Midwest, and Canada at this race. I was just really excited not to finish in dead last in AG with all the insane competition out there! It was a very professionally run and executed race, and I highly recommend it to anyone looking for a good HIM in Western NY--5 hour drive for Cleveland, 6 hour drive for Boston, and not too far from Toronto!

I will rate my performance in a medium that I am quite used to: The REPORT CARD.

_________________________________________________________

Name: TriSaraTops
Grade: IM Wannabe
School Year: Musselman HIM 2006

SWIM: C-

This is totally my fault. In Cassie's words, I got sidetracked by the sightseeing at the bottom of Seneca Lake--all those cool zebra mussels and trout! OH MY! One just went swimming by my face! That, and the fact that my goggles leaked on the LEFT socket of my new sweet aquamask, but NOT my right! ARRRRRRRGGGGGGGGG I had to stop every 100 yards or so to empty them out. Tried swimming with my eyes closed. Not so good. Guess I should have tried them out more than 30 minutes before I used them in a race. OOPS.

BUT--when all was said and done finished in about 43? I could have done LOTS better than that, as I didn't push very hard at all and had technical difficulties. A far cry from last year's HIM swim. Oh well. Still managed to pass a few dudes that started in the wave 4 minutes ahead of me, so that's fun. But I did miss the guy Cassie saw that came out of the water in TIGHTY WHITEYS---panicked and went back under the water, then removed his SWIM CAP to cover his exposed self! WTF?!

Comment: Needs to show consistent effort, needs to be more prepared for class


T1: (Pass/Fail grade only) Pass.
I mosey-ed through T1 and tried to lower my HR a bit, grabbed my helmet and glasses, slathered on a bit more sunscreen on my back, and was ready to go. Definitely not worrying about losing a few seconds here. After all, this ain't really a race but rather a niiiiccceeelooooonnnnngggg brick, right?

Bike: B

Man, is it hard to keep the HR low. I mean REALLY REALLY hard. When people are FLYING by you and just picking you off, that totally hurts the ego. Part of that comes with the territory of being a relatively stronger swimmer and weaker biker--your ass is just gonna get passed. :) I tried to just keep in mind my coach's words: "If they fly by you on the bike, you will probably pass them on the run." In my head I just tried to think that but it was a hard pill to swallow, so I tried to focus on the beautiful scenery of Wine Country and the Finger Lakes. The first 20 miles were gradual uphills with a few climbs. I tried as hard as I could to SLOW DOWN, spin up the hill, and keep the HR LOW. Maybe, I thought, if I do this, I'll actually NOT have a death march on the half marathon.

I did NOT drink enough. But I felt like all I did was drink! Arg. I still need to work on that.

Miles 20-40 were downhill....YIPPEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE gained some speed back here.

40-56 were mostly flat with some rollers. I checked out the cool historical markers as I went by them on the Cayuga Lake. Hee hee. History.

Arrived back in T2 at somewhere around 3:34. Much slower than last year's half, but hopefully that will pay off, right?

Comment: Is improving in this course

T2: Pass
Again, not much to report here. EXCEPT: Once I stepped off my bike I realized how unbelievable hot it was. I knew it was humid, but didn't really feel like it was that hot. ( note: I will soon find out it was NINETY-FOUR DEGREES)

Run: A+

WOW. It's hot. I'm definitely noticing that. WOW. People are now finishing the race and I have a half marathon to do. Sheesh. Sure hope I drank enough on that bike. I hope my slooooowww bike will pay off now. Guess I'll find out.

Mile 1 was a little fast and I had a hard time getting the HR under 160 with the heat. I decided to make peace with high 150-low 160s and go by perceived effort. The first 7 miles, as the race director warned us, were very hard. He said, the night before at the pre-race meeting, that he "didn't want to sugar coat anything....this is hard run course." He showed us the elevation chart. YOWZA. I didn't even look at that one before since I was so preoccupied with the bike! There were some pretty big hills including one of about 200 feet at mile 7. Hopefully the Hinckley Hill training did me well....after mile 7 it was mostly downhill with a few gradual climbs and short spikes.

WOW it was hot. I started passing people like nobody's business. That felt good. People at mile 2 were already walking. I tried to keep the HR in check and not get too excited YET. It was still a long way to go to the finish.

I think I took about 30 enduralytes during the race. Holy schneikies--that's a lot of happy pills. They worked though, as I didn't cramp up at all, and didn't have white salty sweat marks on me when done like I did in Wisconsin.

Walked through EVERY aid station. That cost me time, but I knew I really needed to if I wanted to stay in one piece. Grabbed water, a gel at every 3rd mile, and poured a cup of ice down my sportsbra at every station. When I ran it sounded like I had maracas hiding in my chest. Hey, it worked, so who cares. I'm the maraca-sports-bra-running freak, I guess.

I passed TONS of people on the run. OMG--for once in my life, did I actually run a good long race?

Realized I was negative splitting my half-marathon big time! This made me sooooo excited as I knew that this would be a good indication of whether or not I biked at the right pace for me.

At mile 11, I passed a bank that was flashing the time and the weather: "94 F." I got this HUGE grin on my face. I was negative splitting a half marathon at the end of a half ironman and it was 94 degrees and sunny. It certainly can't be TOO much hotter in Wisconsin. The plan worked, and I did things right! Both my marathons I had to slow down a bit in the last 3 miles, so it was really exciting to me to finish strong. My last mile was 9:45.

Comment: Has great potential in this subject

Overall Time: 6:47

Deer Creek Pineman 2005 Numbers:
Temperature: 82 degrees F, sunny skies, delayed start by an hour due to fog
Course: Mostly flat bike, VERY flat run
Swim: 33 minutes (course was most likely a little short! I can't really take credit for that)
Bike: avg. 16.5 mph
Run: avg. 12:40/mile (I wasn't kidding when I said "death march")
Kind of race: "A" race of season, full 2 week taper, well rested.
Finish time: 6:34
Age group: 7/7

Musselman HIM 2006 Numbers:
Temperature: 94 degrees F, sunny skies
Course: gradual bike climb of 700 feet, challenging, hilly run course
Swim: 43 minutes (BOOOOOOOO I should have done better!)
Bike: avg/ 15.7 mph
Run: avg. 11:04/mile (that's mosey-ing through the aid stations, too:)
Kind of race: "C" race, no taper at all, trained through
Finish time 6:47
Age group: 15 out of 25

So, can I do a faster half? Definitely. BUT--that wasn't the point of this weekend. I am very pleased with my results and excited I was able to do the run that I did. I know that I put some serious IM MOO training in with this heat on this course, and I am glad that SCCS didn't prevail. :) And to be even remotely close with my last year's time--on no taper!--shows that I have made some big improvements. So we'll call that a victory.

I have passed...and it's time to head onto my next grade.....