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January 20, 2006
Time Trial
A while back I decided I needed a way in which I could monitor my swimming progress. When I swim "intervals" I don't time them like I would a track workout. I just sort of do them. I'm not sure if that's what swimmers do, but that's what I do.
I determined that I should do a time trial of some predetermined distance every once in a while so I could see if I'm making any progress and also give myself something to shoot for. I picked 600 yds as my distance for no real reason other than the fact that most of the sprint distance races I'm considering doing this summer are in the 400-700 yd range.
So when I went to the pool this morning I did my usual warmup (400 yd easy, 200 yd kick easy, 200 yd easy) and then started my 600 yd time trial. I had no idea how I should approach swimming hard for 600 yds. When I was about 300 yds into I thought I had probably gone out too hard, but when I had 100 yds to go I felt like I was able to really pick it up. Who knows. I was just hoping that nobody (such as the lifeguards) were laughing at me flailing around in the pool in my attempts to move faster than usual.
The end result was a 9:52.65. Of course this being my first time, I don't know what to make of that. I honestly thought it would take me more like 12 minutes so I was surprised when it was under 10. I'll try another time trial in a couple weeks to see how it compares.
After the 600 yd hard I was breathing pretty hard. I took an easy 100 yd to catch my breathe and then did 6x50 yd hard (kind of like doing 200s on the track after mile repeats?). I cooled down with 200 yd kick easy and 500 yd easy, all of which I believe was 2500 yds total. Incidentally, I'm about 99.5% sure I did 7x50 yd hard instead of the 6 I had planned. As I was doing the last repeat I was thinking to myself that I had definitely already done 6 but hadn't paid enough attention to know for sure. Swimming is definitely a mental challenge for me. :)
Last night O and I were planning our summer vacation. It's not until June but we both needed something to look forward to. We are going to Hilton Head Island where my parents live and on the way down I wanted to stop in Charleston, SC to do a triathlon. It's a sprint race with distances of 0.3 mile swim, 13 mile bike and a 5K run. As I was looking at previous years' results I was trying to predict what I'd be able to accomplish. I gave myself 10-12 minutes for the swim (it's in open water so there is no telling what may happen), 50 minutes for the bike and 23 minutes for the 5K. Add in another 5 minutes for transitions and that brings me up to a best case senario of about 1 hour and 28 minutes. If we round that up to 90 minutes total, that puts me in just about last place. Yikes. Or should I say DOUBLE YIKES. Looking at similar distance races here in Pittsburgh, I'd be much more in the middle of the pack, or even towards the top. Not sure why the race in Charleston is that much more competitive. But I do know that I don't want to finish last. Perhaps that will be my goal when I go down there. I'm starting to wonder what exactly I've gotten myself into... :)
Posted by beth at January 20, 2006 10:02 AM
Comments
hmmm...interesting analysis/prediction on tri time. i noticed that as well-how some races can attract different levels of competition. i haven't quite wrapped my head around it all yet but i find it intriguing.
on a different note-are you getting a wetsuit, or will it be unnecessary in the summer?
Posted by: Audrey at January 20, 2006 12:44 PM
FWIW, standard short-course-yards racing distances in that range are 500y and 1000y, so if you want to avoid comparison with swimming specialists, stay away from those distances. :-)
I think you're probably being too conservative in your time estimates. Frankly, it's not a "best case scenario" if you're rounding your estimate *up.* For example, those transitions are *way* too slow, especially if you practice transitions a little. It may turn out that there's something about the swim (i.e. downstream, with the tide,) that makes it faster than you'd expect. But in any case, in most triathlons the real "racing" happens on the bike. You can't separate very much in the swim leg, and once you start running the separation has already happened. But on the ride, the spread between "good" and "great" gets pretty large, time-wise.
Posted by: pjm at January 20, 2006 1:14 PM
After looking into it a little more I realized it shouldn't take 5 minutes for transitions. I'm slow - but I guess I'm not that slow. :) Perhaps I should amend that to 2 minutes and then get busy on my bike since it's there that I will probably lose the most ground! :) I'm glad I choose 600 yds vs 500 by the way... :)
I don't plan on getting a wetsuit just yet. If I really get into triathlons I'd look into both a wetsuit and a nice road bike (vs my sister's old hybrid!) but for now, it's just something I want to try out. I've already decided triathlons are too expensive! :) Most of the races I'm looking into are in open water but also in the June, July and August so I hope I don't freeze on the swim. Depending on who I talk to, I'll either be fine or I'll be so cold on the swim I won't be able to breathe... :)
Posted by: Beth at January 20, 2006 2:26 PM
Swim intervals are different than running intervals. For example, if you were doing 6 x50, on, say, the minute, you have a minute to swim and rest and then leave exactly one minute after leaving for the previous interval. The other option is taking a short, standard rest between intervals, like 5 seconds.
Your transition estimates are *way* too slow. In the (three) tris that I have done, my slowest transition involved changing out of bike shoes into road shoes, and those weren't that long. I assume that you'll wear your running shoes on the bike leg, so that transition will mainly be just racking your bike. Also, some tris don't have as exact of course measurements as running races do, so the it may be short. Our local tri advertises a 5K run at the end, when in reality it's more like 2.8.
Good luck!
Posted by: Blondie at January 20, 2006 3:02 PM
one thing i do with my time trials is have my coach count the number of strokes per length and 100 yard splits (this tells me if i start too fast and fade in the end and by how much)... this has really produced consistency in my swimming....
Posted by: kranky at January 20, 2006 3:16 PM
FYI, if you do end up doing a tri in colder water, you can rent wetsuits. I can't remember what types of places have them offhand but I'll check and let you know.
How exciting - both on the vacation and the triathlon! If it makes you feel better my friend and I are planning to do a half IM tri and our estimated finish time is like 6 hours.
Posted by: Barb at January 20, 2006 5:18 PM
Oh, you definately will not come in last! How is your cholesterol-lowering diet going? Is it tough cutting out the ice cream?
Posted by: Dawn at January 20, 2006 10:00 PM
I also think you will be able to do certain legs of the race, Miss 23-minute-5K, faster than you expect. And maybe not all of the distances are certified/totally accurate. I'd be willing to bet that you won't come in last!
Posted by: Alison at January 21, 2006 6:52 AM