Tuesday, October 16, 2007

How fast can I go?

Based on one of my big sources of inspiration, my friend Linae, I went to the old results to see what it would take to go Top Ten at Eagleman (half Ironman) and Columbia (Olympic) next year in my age group (50-54). Well, just because I'm racing age group instead of Athena there next year simply because I don't want to start out the day as a Tail End Charlie with the Athenas in the next-to-last swim wave.

Oh crap.

Actually, I found out that the AG competition is much more fierce at Eagleman than I knew - the times are much faster and packed tighter together. Maybe has to do with that little Kona-qualifier cachet.

Top ten at Eagleman would require about a ~6:00 finish: roughly swim ~43:00, bike 3:11, run 1:57.

Dang those old hags are fast. That sounds like I might as well aim to be the first woman on the moon. At first. But then I start breaking it down and think that any one of the disciplines is within reach with hard work, so maybe....

Top ten at Columbia is much closer to me, about a 3:37 finish: swim ~37:00, bike 1:36, run 1:10. All well within reach in each discipline if I had a great day.

It's just that putting it all together on one day that's kind of tricky. But that's what keeps it interesting.

Just saving these numbers in my notes, so to speak, for future reference. . . .

4 comments:

Melissa said...

It's always good to have numbers in mind. You can do it super athena. :-)

Brent Buckner said...

Yeah, sometimes striving for performance seems a nice add-on to the lifestyle....

21stCenturyMom said...

Women in the 50 - 54 go just before the Athenas so you won't get a lot of gain there.

Trying to hit numbers is a great strategy, though. Can't hurt!

Nancy Toby said...

No, I should get a start an hour or more earlier if they do the swim waves like previous years (here's Columbia):

WAVE# START DIVISION CAP COLOR
1 06:45am Men & Women PROS GOLD
2 06:50am Men: 55+, Women 45+, PCH WHITE
3 07:05am Men: 50-54 BLACK
4 07:13am Men 35-39 RED
5 07:21am Men: 40-44 PURPLE
6 07:29am Men: 30-34 ROYAL BLUE
7 07:37am Men: 16-19,20-24,25-29 DGLO GREEN
8 07:45am Men: 45-49 SILVER
9 07:53am Women: 35-39 YELLOW
10 07:58am Women: 40-44 LIGHT BLUE
11 08:03am Women: 30-34 MAROON
12 08:08am Women: 16-29, Athena PINK
13 08:13am CLYDESDALE PUMPKIN
14 08:18am RELAYS, AQUA VELO NAVY BLUE