Tuesday, April 20, 2010

70.3 New Orleans - By the numbers

I am a little slow getting a detailed race reported completed.  The race with the heat took it out of me and I have hit the hay pretty early the last couple of days.

Transition - Race Morning

But by the numbers;

Swim: This was a rough swim. These were the worst conditions that I have ever swum. There were no whitecaps but the swells were large enough to toss me around, take on water and not sight very well. In addition the swim was an out, a large rectangle and then back kind of swim. There were four 90 degree turns around buoys and starting at the next to last wave meant lots of congestion.

Last year: 40 minutes. Goal time: 35 minute. Actual time: 38 minutes. In better conditions I could have achieved my goal time. All in all, considering the conditions I am happy with the swim.


Bike: This year there was a head wind going out. This is much better mentally. I wanted to race the bike in a rather conservative method so that I could “win” my race with the run. Once again, starting so late in the race (1:12 after the race start) means you don’t get passed much and that there are hundreds (thousands) of people in front of you. I was constantly passing riders and truly flying on the way back. Having a tail wind push you back to transitions was actually cool.

Last year: 2:42. Goal time: 2:40. Actual time: 2:39.

Run: I was in position to reach all of my goals. It got HOT on the run. I let the race slip away. I still have lots of room for improvement.

Last year: 2:01. Goal time: 1:35. Actual time: 1:46.


Total Race - Last year: 5:30. Goal time: 4:59. Actual time: 5:08.

I had a good race and I believe that I did better than the numbers indicate. I am a better athlete this year than last year. This was just a harder race.

10 comments:

Matty O said...

Wow! Still great numbers and huge improvement knocking 20+ minutes off. I was hoping to compete in a Half IM this year with the only goal to finish and work up to a full next year.

Great job on your training though. You definitely executed your plan and unfortunately the conditions were not "ideal".

Keep up the good work!

KC (my 140 point 6 mile journey) said...

You did really well James! You probably would have hit all of your goals on a perfect day. A perfect day is if you could have picked your swim wave/start time (not in your control), if the water were completely flat and calm (not in your control). Your improvement from last year was impressive. Congrats on a great race. I'm proud of you!

Big Daddy Diesel said...

I am impressed. 22 minutes improvement over last year, that includes some rough conditions. Nice work.

Whitarican (White-A-Rican) said...

wow congrats overall! Great times and your bike split is awesome especially since you said you had not biked much in preparation!

LDub said...

the numbers do show youre a better athlete! congrats. and im sure the conditions affected the entire race population. good job!

Ron said...

I wish there was a way to quantify how you feel. You can have the worst conditions, be in much better shape, and the number wont indicate that. You had a MUCH better race than last year and the numbers were at risk to not show that but they did anyway. NICE WORK. Keep pushin it!!

Kristin said...

The weather there is so unpredictable! At least the wind was in your favor this time, that wind on the return last year nearly killed me. Nice work!

Jon said...

Nice job! That is a HUGE improvement over last year! That swim....man....can't imagine a harder one!

Xavi Garcia said...

Just incredibly great!

Cheers from Tokyo!


¨XTB¨ Xavi.

Richard said...

Dude you killed it! GREAT JOB. in the 4s next year.