This Past weekend I got to race for the first time in 2011 at the Austin Half Marathon. Let me tell you nothing motivates you to train harder than racing. It felt great to be out competing against other athletes. There is something about the buzz circling the crowd at a race that excites me and the high you feel afterwards has no comparison. Though this was a training race it was still an important race for me for a couple of reasons; 1) I've been working with Coach Zane Castro the last few weeks and it should provide him with some valuable data for planning future training, 2) I'll be focusing on the 70.3 distance this year and wanted an idea of the pace I'm capable of running.
My training on Saturday was lighter than normal with a 30 minute run and 45 minutes swim, which was a good thing as I was hurting a little from a tough 2:30 ride on Friday. I also was fighting a bug all week that I was hoping to have cleared out by Sunday's race. I talked race strategy with Zane Saturday night and then got to bed early. I didn't have ideal sleep Saturday night as I woke up several times throughout the night but I've had worse so I'll take it.
Sunday morning I got up threw down some oatmeal, peanut butter, walnuts, and Gatorade for breakfast and then headed over to the race course. My wife, Erin was in cheer mode today which always makes racing fun. I got a good warm up in and positioned myself in the center front of the crowd for the start. Gun went off and I was racing! The first few miles were faster than I had planned but were mostly downhill so I was alright with that. I had positioned myself in the 3rd pack of guys. Before I knew it we were in a strong head wind fighting for positions. I was trying to position myself behind a few guys letting them break the wind for me. After mile 4 I did a watch check and my pace had dropped a little slower than I hoped. I made a small break to bridge to the next group in front of me. I planned this break so that I wouldn't have to fight the wind by myself. From mile 5 to the finish I consistently picked off runners and ended up finishing 9th out of 10,523 in a time of 1:16:30 for a 5:46 pace. This was about 30 seconds faster than my goal time on a hilly windy course, so I was pretty happy.
Looking back on my race I gained a much better feel of my pacing and know I should be able to push harder and faster yet. I have a lot of training in front of me and this should only produce better results. I need to get in a position where I can run that 1:16:30 off the bike and am confident I'll get there. Next on the race schedule is the Blue Norther Duathlon and I'll be making my Pro Debut at The Gateway to Bay triathlon in Kemah, TX. Thanks for reading and best of luck with your training!
My training on Saturday was lighter than normal with a 30 minute run and 45 minutes swim, which was a good thing as I was hurting a little from a tough 2:30 ride on Friday. I also was fighting a bug all week that I was hoping to have cleared out by Sunday's race. I talked race strategy with Zane Saturday night and then got to bed early. I didn't have ideal sleep Saturday night as I woke up several times throughout the night but I've had worse so I'll take it.
Sunday morning I got up threw down some oatmeal, peanut butter, walnuts, and Gatorade for breakfast and then headed over to the race course. My wife, Erin was in cheer mode today which always makes racing fun. I got a good warm up in and positioned myself in the center front of the crowd for the start. Gun went off and I was racing! The first few miles were faster than I had planned but were mostly downhill so I was alright with that. I had positioned myself in the 3rd pack of guys. Before I knew it we were in a strong head wind fighting for positions. I was trying to position myself behind a few guys letting them break the wind for me. After mile 4 I did a watch check and my pace had dropped a little slower than I hoped. I made a small break to bridge to the next group in front of me. I planned this break so that I wouldn't have to fight the wind by myself. From mile 5 to the finish I consistently picked off runners and ended up finishing 9th out of 10,523 in a time of 1:16:30 for a 5:46 pace. This was about 30 seconds faster than my goal time on a hilly windy course, so I was pretty happy.
Looking back on my race I gained a much better feel of my pacing and know I should be able to push harder and faster yet. I have a lot of training in front of me and this should only produce better results. I need to get in a position where I can run that 1:16:30 off the bike and am confident I'll get there. Next on the race schedule is the Blue Norther Duathlon and I'll be making my Pro Debut at The Gateway to Bay triathlon in Kemah, TX. Thanks for reading and best of luck with your training!
That's a great start for your 2011 season. Good job! Keep all that good energy flowing. We are your #1 fans. Probably Erin thinks we are #2 though :)
ReplyDeletenice race wes... you looked strong out on the course! Excellent start to the season...
ReplyDeleteVish, thanks for the cheers on the course, alwasy good to see a friendly face! See you tonight at wintergains class.
ReplyDelete