Making good impressions

This is my first official post on this blog. For now, there is no rhyme or reason to how blog postings from me will be.  Hopefully this first blog will interest you enough to come back.   

I'm currently training for my first Ironman distance triathlon, Beach to Battleship in North Carolina on 10/20/2012. I'm about 10 weeks out from the Ironman triathlon, but do have a few races before then. Back-tracking, I had a triathlon last weekened.

Results:

Siesta Key Olypmpic Distance -  www.multirace.com

Final time 2:30:54; place - 2nd overall women

Swim - 29:36

T1 - 1:38

Bike - 1:07:17

T2 - 1:25

Run - 50:52

Race evaluation:

Swim was good because the water was pretty calm. Usually sighting is what kills my time, but I managed to stay more on course than any other race. Still working on swimming. This is definitely my weakest point. Any thoughts/ideas/suggestions on how to improve? I try to concentrate on keeping my head down to keep my butt up, rotate my upper body, and to stretch my arm out just after it's entered the water before I begin pulling.

This was my fastest bike to date. The group training rides have really helped my speed. I've gotten in a lot more hill and speed work as opposed to long and steady that I usually do when I'm by myself. There are two loops on an open road for this bike course. It's usually early enough for the first loop that there's not that much traffic. But, as you come around for the second loop, all the riders on the road makes the car traffic back up as well. It can get a little hairy and makes it difficult to pass sometimes.

I've done this course 3 other times. The entire run is on the beach. It is definitely the hardest 6.2 mile run for a triathlon I've ever had to do. I was a little angry at the end of the bike leg because of some of the other riders being all over the place on the road. Every time I would try to pass them, they would speed up so I couldn't. And, when I slowed down and got back behind them, they would slow down too so that I was right behind them and had to go to the far right or far left of the lane so that I wouldn't draft. The last 2 miles I just gave up and decided to let my legs relax a little and figured I would catch them on the run. Sure enough, I passed them before the first mile.

Overall, I like this race. As I said earlier, I've done this course 3 other times, and 2 of them were with through Multirace. They didn't execute this race as well as all the other races, but I still enjoyed it. They are really good at getting the results out super fast. They will print out your results as soon as your done and post them on flat screens with your ranking. I even had an email with my results before I got home.

Nutrition:

Pre-race -

1.5 cups of cheerios and non-fat milk at 3:30. Race started at 7:15. About 30 minutes before my wave, I had 3 Powerbar energy bites - Oatmeal Raisin... these are soooo yummy. They had samples of the Powerbar energy gels, so I had one about 15 minutes before wave start.

During race -

Drank water and gatorade in T1. About 15 minutes into the bike ride, I had a Gu energy gel. At mile 21 of the bike (3 miles left) I had another Gu energy gel. On sprint and olympic distance triathlons, I only have my Profile water bottle on the bike. I always drink all of the water by the time I hit T2. At mile 3 of the run I had my final Gu energy gel. There was an water station at mile 1.5, 3, 4.5, and 6. I took water at every station and some extra to pour on my arms, legs and head to try to cool down some.

Post race -

About 5 bottles of water and a strawberry MuscleMilk. I tried to eat, but I felt awful from the heat.