Running the Numbers

While on my lunch break I started playing with doing multi-year comparisons of the race results. 2008 had 109 women finish, 2007 had104, and 2006 had 108. There may be slightly more data points than that in the swim and bike in case women dropped out. I kept the numbers because I don't know why they dropped out.

Overall, the times got lower as the years increased. Not by anything significant. However, the item of major note is that the swim times got longer by a fairly sizable amount. Using the average swim time (though the pattern carried through out including the fastest times), 2006 had an avg of 9:36, then 2007 went up to 10:53, then 2008 was at 11:50. My guess is that the women as a whole did not get slower (especially since it did carry into even the fastest time going from 6:03 to 8:24). Most likely the course distance has been getting slightly longer.

Other than that, my goals to have my bike around 1:05 and run around 30 are well within reason. Those goals happen to be less than a minute lower than the average time. So basically, I'm looking to go from being in the 80s in rank to right around 50s in rank (again, out of about 105-110 women).

I would also like to get my transition times down a bit since every second helps. Last year since I was just going for completing the triathlon I took my time to get something to drink between the bike and the run. If I can streamline that, I think I could easily gain some time there.

Ironman Inspiration

10 weeks until the Charlottesville Sprint Triathlon. I have not been as committed to training as I should've been and more than anything its a mental game at this point. I know I can do all 3 distances individually and I'm pretty sure if I took it slow I could do them all in a row right now. However, I need to get my performance up if I want to enjoy the day (aka I don't want to fill incredibly sick from overworking myself to get a decent time). Last year I was really scared that I would DNF (Did not finish) that it inspired me to train lots. This year it's a mental game to tell myself that I need to train more if I want to improve my time. So often when I'm running or biking right now I see a shortcut and think "Well, I could just cut it short today, it wouldn't matter that much." However, all those times cutting short would only hurt me in the end since you can't cram for a race like you can studying. All nighters don't work in physical goals.

To pick up a little more inspiration about doing this, today I watched the Ironman 70.3 competition. Half the length of a full Ironman but that is still 1.2 miles swimming, 56 miles biking, and 13.1 miles running. The perseverance of the athletes was impressive. They also did some stories on unlikely competitors who had overcome hardship to be there. If they can do it, so can I. Plus, my distance is a lot shorter so there is no reason not to be in my best physical shape.

Getting Realistic, part 2

A few posts ago I wrote that I wasn't training as much as I needed to be and that caused me to drop out of the Cville 10 miler. The second casualty has been the Muddy Buddy. I have not ridden a mountain bike in quite some time and certainly not offroad. With only 3 weeks until the event, it isn't going to happen. Instead with the 10 weeks I have left until the first triathlon, I'm going to focus on the activities for that.

My revised list grouped by liklihood
Definites:
Cville Sprint Triathlon
Iron Girl Sprint Triathlon
Richmond Marathon
Iffy:
Cville International Triathlon (as part of relay team - thus need to check with my team)
Unlikely:
Luray International Triathlon - it's just too close to Pennsic
Boys and Girls club ride - I just don't enjoy biking that much and I should be well into marathon training at that point.

Back to training

I ended last season's commitment to running after the Women's 4 miler (Aug 30th) and ended the biking training after the Boys' & Girls' Club ride (Mid October). As for swimming, I wasn't keeping up since July. Now with the holidays mostly over, it's time to get back into training for my series of events. In the near future I will try to post or incorporate a training plan, but for now I'm just going to try to get my baseline back up. I did 2 miles running outside today and that got me out of breathe. I may have a long time until the marathon, but that 10 miler is coming up quickly.

2009 Race Schedule

I've decided on my 2009 Race schedule. Please note I use race as the official term about what the events are, but I don't necessarily plan on competing with others. For most of the races, it is a matter of finishing the race (especially for the longer distances) and trying to improve my PR (Personal Record) on the courses I have done before.

March 14, Martha Jefferson 8K Run

April 4th, Charlottesville 10 miler

June (?), Charlottesville Sprint Triathlon
~ 0.3 mile swim, 16.5 mile bike, 3 mile trail run

July (?), Charlottesville International Triathlon
Trail running portion of relay team.
~ 6 miles

July (?), Muddy Buddy
~6 miles split between running & biking. And the mud pit

August 15th, Luray International Triathlon
~ 1 mile swim, 25 mile bike, 6.2 mile run

August 23rd, Iron Girl Sprint Triathlon
~ .62 mile swim, 17.5 mile bike, 3.4 mile run

October 18th, Boys & Girls Club Challenge Ride
~60 miles biking

November 14th, Richmond Marathon

(Links to each event are on the side)

Ultra Pinkness!

I'm sure this somehow relates... the boxing instructor has referred to me as "Pink skirt" on a number of occasions due to my day-glo pink running skirt I sometimes wear. So this week I picked up a pastel pink exercise top from Target and wore just lots of pink. This of course got the reaction of "You better be hitting hard today if you come in a skirt AND all pink." Exactly what I was going for. I kinda like the image. All pink with skirt, and then boxing gloves throwing out some hard hits.