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Race Result

Racer: Steve Smith
Race: Colonies Zone Short Course Champs
Date: Friday, April 11, 2003
Location: Various, --
Race Type: Swim - Swim Meet
Age Group: Male 30 - 34
Time: 0:20:01
Comment: 1650 ...



Race Report:



Sometime ago I realized that two of my "key" races this spring were to occur within 12 hours of one another. First was the 1650 swim at the Zones swim meet at GMU: Friday, 9 p.m. Second was the Plaza America 5k: Saturday, 8:30 a.m. I'm a triathlete! I told myself. This is perfect! Then I saw the weather report for Sunday, and along came an invite for a Skyline Drive cycling adventure. Surely the stars were aligning in my favor.

Given that I've been cranking out some consistent training for the last five weeks (and most weeks prior to that), I figured it was time for a rest as well, so I even "tapered" for the week leading up to these two races.

I wasn't too concerned with the 5K race; I've done lots of those. But I've only done two 1650 swims, one in 1997 at 24:30 and another in December at 20:17. I have some ambitious swimming goals this year, and I am ready for a 19-something 1650, maybe 19-low. The goal is 18:30 before the end of the year, so I figured this was a good intermediary goal. Besides, the kids behind me at practice can swim 17-low in the 1650. The ones just ahead of me are 16-high swimmers. I was looking forward to a sizable PR.

Taper: Monday completely off. Easy 5-mile run on Tuesday with 4x20" strides, and an easy run on the 5K course Thursday morning with 2x20" strides. *Very* easy 60-minute bike ride Wednesday. For swimming, I followed the advice of a trusted swim resource and did my pre-1650 race warm-up on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday mornings: 500 swim, followed by 5x100 descending. I hit my target pace, 1:10 for the last two. Cool-down was a 3x100 IM no fly (bk-bk-br-fr, bk-br-br-fr, bk-br-fr-fr). One of my easiest weeks in some time.

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Friday
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I did the 1000 w/u about 15-minutes before my race, and then I walked around & watched the other 1650 swimmers have at it. I watched Phillip beat his seed time by 1:30! Way to go Phillip! I watched some former Division-I women swimmers go 19:0something. Absolutely effortless. Now it was my turn.

Nope.

20:01. While not a shabby time for a triathlete, I was thinking 19-something was in the bag. I mean 20:00 is so ... round! So even! Obviously I'm damn close, but I still have some learning to do. There are 65 flip turns in a 1650 and for some reason I messed a bunch of these. You can see it in my splits: 36.5, 36.5, 36.7, 36.5, 37.6 (whoops! bad turn), 36.4. And I remember thinking in the water, "Ughh, that'll show up in the splits."

The other obvious thing is that for someone targeting 19-low, 36.5 just don't cut the mustard. 1:13 100s make for a 20:04 1650, minus a few second for the dive & the strong finish ... I should have been swimming 1:10s. In fact, at the time, I thought I was. Whether I can hold 1:10s is another question. I'll find out next week and next as I start doing the pace work on my own.

My race was the last event, so I hopped out & thanked Frank (RMST coach) for hanging around to lap count for me. Frank rocks. I jumped back into my lane and did my 3x100 cool down. Consumed some HammerGel before my shower, listened to the guys in the shower talk about the guy (me) who tanked after 400 yards, went home and ate a pretty large dinner (waffles & honey). Was in bed by 10:30 p.m.

So, for me, the lesson is this: learn my pacing. Do more descending sets watching the clock carefully. Try my hardest to swim my target pace, not just fast. I can do this fairly well running, but in swimming I have empirical evidence that I suck at it. The other lesson is this: Taper includes workouts AND work. I got pounded at work last week. Usually when I rest for a day or longer, my morning HR starts dipping. Not so last week; I didn't get to bed until late for several nights and I never saw the HR drop. The training affect comes from stress (workouts) and recovery (rest). Unfortunately, while work stress doesn't count for workout stress, work stress does hinder recovery. Lastly, racing on a Friday after working all day sucks. It just doesn't feel like a race; it feels like a workout.

(To be continued in the Plaza America 5K RR)...