LAKE FOREST 4th OF JULY 5K
Jarrett Pflieger
Is there a better way to celebrate our nation’s birthday than with a quick 5K before lunch on the 4th of July? Besides kicking back a few beverages and barbequing, I don’t think there is.
I planned to head down to the Lake Forest 5K on the 4th to market Triathica’s membership specials and hand out some free training zone assessment coupons. The day before the race I realized it would be hard for me to not participate in the festivities, so I signed up.
Not wanting to run alone, I tried to find some people to do it with me. The best I could get was a “maybe” from one of my friends who is not exactly the most athletic person I know — no worries. When I called race morning, I was able to change the maybe into, “Sigh…I’ll meet you at the parking lot in 15 minutes…grumble…grumble.”
I arrived at the Ralphs parking lot next to the race a little after 6 a.m. After a few Triathica marketing activities, I was ready to head down to the starting line to get my bib and race chip. I saw a few people I recognized, but not as many as I thought I was going to see having lived in Lake Forest my whole life.
Jarrett
I think I underestimated how slow my friend was. After a few seconds moving at a snails pace I couldn’t take it anymore. I decided to just go for it and turned it into a workout and a good time-trial benchmark. I darted to the outside and began passing people. The first part of the course was just under a mile long and slightly downhill. I love downhill.
I felt great for the first mile, I think I easily ran sub-6 and the only people ahead of me were all the 120-pound cross-country kids from El Toro High School, one or two girls, and a dude in a dog costume.
He had to have been a cross-country runner because the dog was flying. I’m pretty sure he ended up beating me, which is pretty embarrassing, oh well.
The rest of the race went pretty well. I slowed down a bit on a long uphill section, but made up most of the ground I had lost on the downhill. There was a girl in front of me most of the time that I was determined to pass, but didn’t want to make my move too soon. Typical man, right?
We came around the last turn on what I thought was the home stretch. I kept looking ahead to see if there were any more turns or detours we had to make. Then it looked like some people were veering right onto another detour from the finish line. I didn’t have a watch on, but it felt like it should have just been straight to the finish line from there.
My eyes must have been playing tricks on me because there was no turn, just about 800 meters until the finish. Time to turn on the boosters. I managed to pass probably around 10 people in the final stretch. One guy I recognized from high school tried to match my speed. I knew for a fact he was a cross-country runner back in the day and he still looked in good shape, but somehow I was able to hold him off.
I crossed the finish line but did not get a look at the time and had no watch. A guy came up behind me and thanked me for pushing him hard. I guess we had gone back and forth the whole race and my final surge helped him push himself harder. He said his time was around 19:40 so I figured I was in the 19:30 range.
After more marketing duties, I left to go run some errands. I kept thinking about my time and knew I wouldn’t be able to wait for them to post the results online. I decided to swing back by the race and check it out. They were already halfway through the award ceremony and I strolled over to look at the standings.
Jarrett Pflieger – Div (3)
3rd place? Could this be right? This was my first 5K, how could I possibly have made the podium? I waited around for the ceremony to end and walked up to the announcers. I asked to see the award standings for 20-24 year olds. Somehow the winner’s time didn’t show up on the initial results printout I was looking at. I ended up taking 4th and missing out on a medal by less than 30 seconds. Bummer.
Overall I was very happy with my time (19:33) and pace (6:18). I plan to ramp up my training for the Pacific Coast and OC Triathlons and hopefully improve my run splits. Can’t wait for my next 5K to test how my training is coming along!
PETE AND CORRINNE UPDATE #2
Kelli Whittaker
Pete and Corrinne
Although the path to becoming a triathlete is exhilarating, it has been challenging for Corrinne because of her history as a long distance runner. Accustomed to four to five hour runs, she now needs to break up her training into three very different sports. The change has been challenging, but she says that it has been well worth it. She loves the fact that you get to change things up. One challenge she has recently faced is changing the way she runs. Now she takes short, fast runs instead of long, slow runs, so that her body starts to adapt to the new fast pace.
She also just completed her first ocean swim this past Wednesday at Triathica’s group swim at Big Corona. After the swim she said that she was ecstatic. She is normally deathly afraid of swimming in the ocean because of her extreme fear of sharks, but she put the fear behind her and did very well. She realized that she actually is a much stronger swimmer than she had thought and believes that with a little more training she will be comfortable in the water.
Pete a “returnee” to the sport of triathlon just completed the Breath of Life Triathlon in Ventura. It was his first triathlon in awhile and he really enjoyed the race. He said that it was a “flat, fast race.” He finished 8th in his age group and was happy with his overall performance. He was pleasantly surprised with his biking and attributes some of his success to his training on Triathica’s CompuTrainers. He also realized that he needs to focus on getting a faster 10K split.
Pete will be joining Corrinne in the 12-week training camp hosted by Triathica and looks forward to seeing the improvement and knowledge he gains form the experience. Look for an update on Pete and Corrinne’s training progress in next week’s newsletter.
SOCIAL NIGHT
Indoor CompuTrainer Race
Every week we’re going to try to put together a social event for all of our members, and non-members just to promote the great sport of triathlon. Last week we enjoyed watching the 2008 Ironman World Championships. This week we’re going to try something a little different.
Triathica is excited to offer a chance for you to race the Orange County International Triathlon bike course this Friday, July 17th. Just one little twist, we will do it indoors, at the Triathica triathlon training center in Lake Forest.
With our CompuTrainer MultiRider system, we can have up to six riders at once set up their own bike on a computer simulated course that mimics what will be experienced at the actual race. The computer controlled trainer will simulate climbs and descents in the course by increasing or decreasing the resistance applied to your back tire. Seriously, it feels like the real thing, maybe even a little bit harder.
During the course you will be able to see your cadence, heart rate, watts, speed, and tons of other data on the screen while you race. This is an incredible tool to help you monitor how your body performs under race conditions.
This is a great opportunity for a fun and competitive training session, practice for the actual OC Triathlon, or a way to prove you are as good as you think you are on the bike.
Even if you don’t really want to compete and just want to try out the CompuTrainer, definitely feel free to come in and ride the course for a good workout. No pressure whatsoever.
We will be giving out prizes to the fastest male and female of the day. Its only $5 to race, so hurry and reserve your spot today. Call 949.273.6223 or email Jarrett.Pflieger@triathica.com to RSVP.
Date: Friday, July 15th
Time: Starting at 5:00 p.m. and going until?
Cost: $5.00 each
RSVP: Jarrett@triathica.com
FEAR OF THE SWIM
Ron Saetermoe
Swim
The swim is a challenge for a number of reasons, not least of which, is that the swim can dictate how the rest of your race goes. If you have a lousy swim you may have troubles getting back to your original race plan mentally. If you have a great swim it will set you up for a great race.
No matter how well you swim you still have to deal with the pre-race jitters, all of the contact during the swim start, and the shear exhaustion of the event.
So what can you do to improve? Here are a few tips:
– Get confident in your swim: Get a swim coach to look at your form and give you feedback. Your approach here should be to focus on improving one or two major flaws in your stroke and then refine it. If you or your coach has access to an underwater swim camera, this can do wonders for trying to fine tune your stroke. It helps if you can actually see yourself swimming and get a visual of what you are doing wrong.
– Practice your swim start: After a short warm-up in the pool (or other venue), let your heart rate return to normal then go hard for 100 – 200 yards/meters before settling into your race pace. This will help you get used to racing as you will usually go hard for a while before settling into race pace.
– Practice sighting: You should swim in the open water (lake or ocean) whenever you get the opportunity. When you don’t have lane lines to see where you are going you have to rely on sighting to make sure you are swimming in a straight line. Once in my groove, I sight every 16 strokes. I literally count my strokes during my race to make sure I’m sighting frequently enough and it takes my mind off the pain!
– Swim blind: Another good drill is to practice swimming with your eyes closed. Please don’t try this when there are other swimmers in your lane because you will probably go off course. This will help you understand which arm is most dominant in the swim. Understanding this will help keep you going in a straight line while racing.
Of course, there are many more things you can do, but this should be a good start for you.
To learn more about our swim coaching with Triathica, give us a call at 949.273.6223 or email at Jarrett@triathica.com. We also have an underwater CoachCam and Dartfish video analysis software we can use to enhance your coaching session.
Cheers!
MEET PETE AND CORRINNE
If you’ve been by the club lately you may have already met Corrinne Wallace because she works the front desk here. Corrinne also is in charge of mapping our rides and runs and is sort of our social coordinator.
Pete is a friend of ours that has been a triathlete for many years. He’s a dedicated runner now and coaches running at Snails Pace.
If you pick up a copy of Competitor Magazine you’ll see our latest ad on page 36. The “Transform” ad features Pete and Corrinne in the ad as our “heros” that landed on the mystical island of Triathica.
Essentially, Pete and Corrinne are our “test subjects.” We have already put them through their training zone assessments and will be working with them in the months ahead. They will be attending our 12-week training camp, and will follow the 9-week training plan prescribed in the camp.
Corrinne is a “newbie” and Pete is returning to the sport. They are both ultra-marathoners, which besides meaning they’re crazy, means they race distances in excess of a normal 26.2-mile marathon. Some of these races go 100+ miles.
You’ll be seeing more of them around Triathica and www.triathica.com. When you see them chat them up because they’re both really neat people.
