Feeling very excited about being registered for my first sprint tri, which is aptly named "My First Triathlon". It is at Lake Lanier Islands in Georgia, on June 5th. I am thrilled that Maverick is coming down to join me!
It will involve a 1/4 mile swim along the shoreline of Lake Lanier, which is the equivalent of about 16 laps in a 25 yd pool, a 12 mile bike ride, and a 3 mile run.
Maverick was wondering about goal times. I looked up on the site the 2008 times by age group. I am in the 35-39 and Mav will cross over into the 40-44 even though she won't hit the big 4-0 until Nov, you compete based on your age as of Dec. 31 of THIS year, 2010.
So...
In both age groups in 2008 the fastest time was about 1 hr, 23 min. The slowest time was about 2 hours, 23 min.
Maverick, I agree that your primary goal should be under 2 hours, as is mine. I like to kick it a bit and think I will make my goal 1 hr, 45 min, which would be the middle of the pack.
Breaking it down...
Swimming - I am not worried about the swimming even though I have not swam a lap since last summer. I think I am a natural swimmer and have a strong freestyle stroke. Basically my plan is, starting in March or April, to buy some lap swims at my daughters swim club and go swim laps to build up my endurance to 16 laps. Now my 10 year old swimmer can swim a 500 yd freestyle, which is 100 yds more than we will be swimming, in 6 min. 59 sec. I have no lofty goals such as this. I would like to do the swim in 10 min or less.
Swim Goal: 10 min or less
Biking - This is my weak area, I am not a biker at all, don't even own one. But I have already started training and find that I like to bike for exercise, even though I have only done a stationary bike so far. I am so lucky in that my dear friend H, who is also doing the tri with us-and will be in your age group, Mav-has a husband who is basically Lance Armstrong with a day job. He is a mega serious biker and they have all kinds of fancy biking workout equipment in their home gym. I have been going over there at least 2 times a week to bike on the actual bike I will be doing the tri on. H has been teaching me about cadence and pushing myself. As the weather is already getting nice here, we will start heading outside where H will try to kill me in a nearby n'hood with lots of hills. I know I will be ready for the bike portion by June. I currently ride 12 miles in 50 minutes. By the time of the tri I would like to shave that down to 45 min.
Bike Goal: 45 min.
Running - I am not worried about the running portion other than to hope that my body does not poop out after the swim and bike. When you first get off the bike your legs feel like bricks, so I will have to train by biking and then running to get a feel for how long it takes my legs to recover from the biking as I run. I can already run 3 miles easily, so my training goal will be to bike and transition to running. In my training I would like to start running 4 mi more consistently, so the 3 mi feels like a piece of cake. Like Mav I know I can run 3 mi in 30 min, but after swimming and biking, I am not so sure. I will have a goal of 35-40 min. That seems long for 3 miles but who knows how I'll be feeling by this leg. I will know better as I start training biking and running simultaneously.
Running Goal: 35-40 min
So that adds up to 10+45+40= 1 hr. 35 min, add in a couple minutes each for the transitions. I think a reasonable goal for me to set for myself is 1 hr. 45 min. or less.
Goose Sprint Triathlon Goal: 1 hour and 45 minutes or less for 1/4 mile swim, 12 mile bike, 3 mile run.
Goose Out.
10 MINUTES FOR THE SWIM?????!!!!! OK I really have to get in the water and get a feel. I was thinking at least 30 minutes. But if Evie can do it in 6ish minutes then I can see why you might think you could do it in 10 minutes but I think she is in much better swimming condition than you are. I look forward to hearing how the first swim session goes. I will lower my goal to 15-20 minutes for the swim but 10 minutes just sounds crazy.
ReplyDeleteThe rest sounds good and doable. We will meet at the finish line...
yes, 10 min, that is my goal and i believe reasonable...evie swims a 500 in 7 min, this is a 400 we will be swimming.
ReplyDeleteplus, i am a stronger swimmer than holly (we've raced in the lake up at her lakehouse) and when she did this race last year, she was doing it in 8 min in the pool when she trained, and in the actual lake swim for the event she felt a little panicky and it took her 12 minutes.
so yes, 10 min for me...i think 15-20 is a good goal for you who is starting from scratch with swimming. just like i am not a very fast biker, it takes me 50 min right now to do 12 miles.