Tuscaloosa, Alabama
April 9, 2011
A new location for USAT’s Collegiate Nationals!
1500M SWIM --- 40km BIKE --- 10km RUN
HOWDIE!!!!
Well well… after 2 years in Lubbock for Collegiate Tri Nats, we finally moved on to a new location.
I’m keeping these results short and not writing too much about the travels and tribulations leading up to the race.
Swim= 22:16.02 – 10th Fastest Female out of the water!
Swim HR Avg = 188
After all that swim training for NCAA’s, I’m really glad that I ended up with a top 10 finish out of the water. Especially because last year’s swim was shortened, I really wanted to dominate this one. I came out of the water and dropped my goggles and stupidly turned around for them and lost a few seconds. But I liked those goggles, so it was worth it. And then I headed up for the long swooping run up to the transition area while pounding my feet on the asphalt path.
T1= 1:20
Bike=1:17:29 – slow
Average power = NA
Average speed = 19.2
Bike HR Avg = 177
Not nearly what I wanted.
But all things considered, like the fact that I biked 3 times before this race, I was okay with it.
It’s frustrating when you know you’re capable of going faster, but your legs just aren’t there. I couldn’t even get my heart rate high because my legs couldn’t work that hard.
And I was also missing Power due to a dead battery in the hub.
Sweetest moment ever: speeding down the bridge highway and watching a helicopter hovering at eye-level with me as it gets a sweet action shot of everyone zooming by in the lead for the women.
T2= :51.07
Run = 55:43.06 – death
Run pace = 9 min/mile
Run HR Avg = 181
The run was excruciating and hot, there’s not much more I can say about that hellish run.
Overall time = 2:37:41
Well, compared to my 2:18:12 from Westchester that was no bueno. But like I mentioned earlier, it was good considering I trained for the bike/run practically zero hours for this race. It was also good considering the women’s race was in about 95 degree heat because our wave didn’t start until 10am, 2.5 hours after the guy’s heat at 7:30am. So not fair. But it was a bigger challenge for us all and I think everyone did a good job overall!
Check out the Stevens Triathlon Team page for the race report for the whole team’s efforts in Alabama! http://sites.google.com/site/stevenstriathlonteam/race-reports
For a final note the event was televised on CBS Sports Network!!!!! The men’s and women’s races were shown April 29 in separate one-hour broadcasts, with the women’s race airing at 10 p.m. ET, followed by the men at 11 p.m. ET. The Stevens team had a viewing party to watch the race on national television and it was awesome!!
