Father’s Day Weekend Blog Kickoff?? I set this up weeks ago and no real entries so this is as good a time to start as any. Typical busy life, taking an online class that’ll probably roll into a certificate and then maybe a MSL so that’s my excuse. At any rate I had a couple “sporting” events on the calendar.
Saturday, I joined the Parkrun folks for my 20ish min running power test. I’m not sure how techy or technical I’ll get into with these, it may be worth dedicating a few entries to real technical stuff at some point. For background though I do my run training with a power meter and thus a power duration curve should be kept accurate. Don’t yawn yet 😊 the point is I need to do max runs at different lengths of time and an easy one to do is the Parkrun 5Ks. It’s the second time on the College Park course so I don’t quite know the landmarks yet, but it’s a simple out and back course. Mostly shaded and a lot of people come out making it easy to find someone at your pace.
I started towards the front, passed a few people, got passed by a few, halfway through the paces were settled and consistent. My 2nd half motivation..keep the guy that’s spitting quite frequently behind me, not a big deal but I think you can understand the motivation. Maybe with a half mile left this tween-age kid passed me, now right at that time the shade opens up and I kicked it up and passed this tween back. The move wasn’t because of ego although it looked like it, nah I though I was at the end but nope!! I had mistaken the landmark there’s more to go, time to ease up, go ahead kid you got it (this time). Not too long after I found the landmark I was looking for and sprinted in. Boom sub 8min miles, that was a goal but I really didn’t think about it for that day, cheers to small victories.
Next up Sunday’s Sprint Triathlon, pool swim 400yds in 4ft high water, 10 miles cycling, and 3 miles run. There’s also a Super Sprint which is half the distance. This race is interesting because it brings out the ultra-serious sprint specialist to the damn near I was just walking by, saw a line, got in and now I’m swimming in this pool (♫how did you get here♫ 
). Ohh lawd let’s talk about the latter ‘cause this is what makes this race so entertaining. It’s my 3rd time doing this race and without fail there’s a selection (typically guys) that clearly did not race prep LOL and kinda walk a portion of the swim. It’s self-seeding according to your swim time, there’s no pre-validation. Here’s my “pro tip” at the risk of going with stereotypes you can typically tell who hasn’t quite placed themselves in the right time range, either be in front of them or be enough behind them, that way they walk out before you get there. It’s polite to let someone that’s faster than you go ahead of you when you’re both at the wall. Now we’re waiting looking at the folks already swimming, and guy asks to pass. Ol girl replied with a resounding “NO” 😂 Whaaat the nearby crowd is like did she say no!?! Man we laughed, so dude and the other lady behind him that were being held up just swam past the front lady mid lane 3 wide. Cmon folks it’s not that serious let the faster people go by.
As for me, a typical day at the office. Didn’t push too hard on the swim, it’s always hard for me to judge in the moment if my technique is what I’ve been practicing. Which speaks to the purpose of practice making it second nature so it’s not something to think about. Cycling was cycling on somewhat tired legs, and sub 9 min/mile on the run. In these short races, if trying to be competitive a real takeaway is transition times matter. Had I taken 90s off the two transitions time I’d have moved up from 7th to 4th. Had a good time, CA Tri is a great race to get your feet wet. On a side note a few people remembered me from cheering them at the hill of the duathlon a few weeks back, man that hill really created some memories! And always good to see, socialize and talk with my triathlon peeps. With that, the real entry 1 of this here blog is completed, I signed up for another sprint next week that I’ve never done before so maybe I’ll have a more technical entry out next week, peace.