I figured I should get this report out as soon as possible before I forget anything. I litteraly just got in the door 5 minutes ago, and I am still in my race suit.
I am always excited for the SSS triathlon. I'm not sure why, since it has to be one of the toughest sprint triathlons in BC. The bike course has one major climb, and once you get up it the course becomes an unrelenting spew of rolling hills to zap the legs. The run course is an out and back straight up a large hill, which does not feel good after the bike.
I arrived pretty early and after a solid warmup, I took my bike out on the run course to make sure I remember where each hill is. That is when I noticed that they had changed the course from last year. They still had the out and back up the large hill, but someone decided that wasn't enough so they added another 500m out and back up a similarily steep hill to warm us up before the main show. I appreciate that they are always tweaking to find the best course possible, but it is slightly annoying that because of this new hill, I really cannot compare my run time from last year to this year. Anyhow, back to the race.
The swim was great. I had 4 guys in my lane that swam basically the same pace as me. One guy in the lane was a little frustrating. I was settled in nicely behind him for the draft, and I accidentaly lightly touched his feet, which to him meant that I really wanted to pass. Not knocking the guy, since that is the polite thing to do, but that sent me out of the draft. Then this guy all of a sudden feels pretty fast (due to the draft), so he wants to pass me! I had to laugh! So I let him pass and just conserved energy behind him until the finish. I did the swim in 9:59, which is about 25 seconds faster than I was hoping for! I was going to be happy with a 1:30 pace, but I will definately take a 1:25.30 pace!!!!
I shot through transition. I think there was 3 guys ahead of me from my heat after the swim. I caught up to them pretty quickly on the bike. This is a new sensation for me! I have never been a very powerful biker, but today it seemed like I was passing guys fairly easily. After about 10k on the bike I was alone in front, and just concentrated on attacking the rollers and conserving energy. I finished the bike in 36:05, which is more than 4 minutes faster than last year!
I was first into T2, which was an exciting feeling. I headed out for the run with my legs feeling pretty tired from the bike. I usually do brick workouts, so I know how it is supposed to feel, and this wasn't it. I might have pushed it a little too hard on the bike, but o well, it's a sprint! The run starts with a slight downhill, and then proceeds to go up for about 700m to the new hill added this year. Boy it was tough going straight up right off the bike! I think it would have been a lot easier if I had had a km or so to loosen up before the climb. I focused on good form and held pretty steady over the major climb of the run. On the turnaround it looked like I had put even more time on the guys in my heat. After that it was just solid work to get to the finish line. I did the run in 20:30, which is obviously way slower than I usually do it in. I think it was about 90% due to the tough course, and 10% due to some sluggishness. I ran around that time last year, when the course didn't have this hill, so it's not as bad as it seems. I will be interested to see the times of the other runners. I put the elevation map of the run below. I wish it looked harder than this stupid graph, so I could use it as more of an excuse ha ha.
I am always excited for the SSS triathlon. I'm not sure why, since it has to be one of the toughest sprint triathlons in BC. The bike course has one major climb, and once you get up it the course becomes an unrelenting spew of rolling hills to zap the legs. The run course is an out and back straight up a large hill, which does not feel good after the bike.
I arrived pretty early and after a solid warmup, I took my bike out on the run course to make sure I remember where each hill is. That is when I noticed that they had changed the course from last year. They still had the out and back up the large hill, but someone decided that wasn't enough so they added another 500m out and back up a similarily steep hill to warm us up before the main show. I appreciate that they are always tweaking to find the best course possible, but it is slightly annoying that because of this new hill, I really cannot compare my run time from last year to this year. Anyhow, back to the race.
The swim was great. I had 4 guys in my lane that swam basically the same pace as me. One guy in the lane was a little frustrating. I was settled in nicely behind him for the draft, and I accidentaly lightly touched his feet, which to him meant that I really wanted to pass. Not knocking the guy, since that is the polite thing to do, but that sent me out of the draft. Then this guy all of a sudden feels pretty fast (due to the draft), so he wants to pass me! I had to laugh! So I let him pass and just conserved energy behind him until the finish. I did the swim in 9:59, which is about 25 seconds faster than I was hoping for! I was going to be happy with a 1:30 pace, but I will definately take a 1:25.30 pace!!!!
I shot through transition. I think there was 3 guys ahead of me from my heat after the swim. I caught up to them pretty quickly on the bike. This is a new sensation for me! I have never been a very powerful biker, but today it seemed like I was passing guys fairly easily. After about 10k on the bike I was alone in front, and just concentrated on attacking the rollers and conserving energy. I finished the bike in 36:05, which is more than 4 minutes faster than last year!
I was first into T2, which was an exciting feeling. I headed out for the run with my legs feeling pretty tired from the bike. I usually do brick workouts, so I know how it is supposed to feel, and this wasn't it. I might have pushed it a little too hard on the bike, but o well, it's a sprint! The run starts with a slight downhill, and then proceeds to go up for about 700m to the new hill added this year. Boy it was tough going straight up right off the bike! I think it would have been a lot easier if I had had a km or so to loosen up before the climb. I focused on good form and held pretty steady over the major climb of the run. On the turnaround it looked like I had put even more time on the guys in my heat. After that it was just solid work to get to the finish line. I did the run in 20:30, which is obviously way slower than I usually do it in. I think it was about 90% due to the tough course, and 10% due to some sluggishness. I ran around that time last year, when the course didn't have this hill, so it's not as bad as it seems. I will be interested to see the times of the other runners. I put the elevation map of the run below. I wish it looked harder than this stupid graph, so I could use it as more of an excuse ha ha.
One of my goals was to get top 5 overall in this race. Unfortunatly, almost every NTC althlete was out today, so that probably didn't happen. I did take 1st in my age group, and I secretly take pride in the fact that no NTC woman beat me today! Looking at last years results, I would have come in 3rd OA, so the time I had in mind to get my goal was reached today. A whole 6 minutes faster than last year! Time to stretch and then go to work to suffer through 5 hours of pain!
Total Time: 1:06:35
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