Two steps forward, one step back

Where to start? The positive? Or the learning experiences? Eh, both are positive, if you think about it.

I'm pretty darn sure that I made my best sprint time last weekend, but I had some chip problems again. In hopes that it would faster to take off my wetsuit, I took off my timing chip. It didn't make it's way back to my ankle. Yeah, so my transition time was faster. But, I don't know for sure what my times were.

But it felt really good, I pushed myself really hard (and actually needed more recovery than I anticipated).

At the race they tried something new, they put us in corals based on our swim time. I think it went 1:20, 1:30+, 1:40+, 1:50+, 2:00, novice. When I'm doing my relaxed swimming at the gym -relaxed being a very key word here- I'm swimming 2:00 minutes for a 100 kinda...  Or at least I thought. So I got in the front of the 1:50 group and, well, it was the wrong time. But it was okay because by the time I caught the other group they had started to disperse and it was just the normal comfortable messiness of a swim segment. Swimming into someone, on someone, getting kicked, etc.

Anyway, overall, I think the corral idea was good, if they make the number smaller that go each time. And as it becomes more normal people will start to pay attention to their 100 times more (leading to better grouping).

That corral start set the tone for the rest of the race, which was playing catch up. The bike felt really good, and so did the run.

Argh. I hope they are able to help me determine a time of some sort, that would be awesome. The guy in charge of timing said he would try. :)

The big big news for me is that I'm getting faster with my target heart rate zone :) The time and slowness is actually starting to pay off! Today I ran 30 mins at a 10 min per mile pace and kept my heart rate the same as it was a couple months when I was doing 4.5 mph (12 min mile).

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Tuesday
running/coaching session
90 min biking
30 min run

Monday
abs

Sunday
sprint triathlon

Saturday
bike
swim

Friday
Bike
abs