I really let this journal slide, so instead of writing up each race after it way happened, i’m going to wrap up the season with a few sentences of each:
Springfield hilton: another great event, it was awesome seeing justin and oz power up the stairs, flying past me repeatedly. I started off slow and steady, but 40 minutes into the race, i began to feel really sick. i slowed down a bit, and went hard on my second to last climb so could get into the stairs one more time. I managed it, and got 9 climbs, a nice result for me.
Hustle up the hancock: I was hoping to come in under 13 minutes, as the climb is actually a few feet shorter than Aon and i had some gas left after that race. There was an accident on the highway so i was very late to the race, and i had a mad scramble to get to the starting line in time, but i made it just as people were starting to go. I started off feeling OK, but 20 floors in, my legs felt heavy and stiff, and i moved into damage control mode. I got passed by numerous people, so i felt i had not validated my elite start. I finished with cardio gas in the tank, and my legs felt better too. Somehow being so out of it mentally at the start ( as well as physically ) meant i had no finishing grit or sprint. I began to wonder if the two power hours had used me up and i had not been able to recover.
Scale the strat: i got into vegas super late ( my plane was delayed ) and the check-in line was an hour. Even though i had figured out the building splits, and many racers had used my spreadsheet, i didn’t figure out my own pace. I went too slow, and close to the end realized i wasn’t tired enough. I made a mad sprint, but it was too late to make up time. Still, i was tired. I was definitely feeling burned out, overtrained, whatever.
Presidential towers: I finished my first climb and felt pretty good, feeling relatively fresh even though i was much faster than the year before. I stuck to my pacing track until the last 7-8 floors, then sprinted. Tower 2, i hit my headphones,and stopped my audio track, though i ended up with almost the same time. #3 someone hit my ipod and reset my timing track, but again, i climbed hard and had a good time. However, i began to feel really bad, sick, pukey. I took a long break after 3, but still felt really bad climbing #4. I stuck to my pace until 20, then let myself fall slowly behind, but gutted out the last 10 floors, not letting myself fall anymore behind. I was really happy to come in under 21 minutes ( 20:42 ) for 188 floors and ¼ mile run.
Big climb ( seattle ) : I’d spent the previous few days hiking and running with kristin and brady in olympic park. I’m not sure if it impacted me, or i was just done with racing, but i failed to push myself very hard during this climb. My time was not awful, ( 10:45 ) but i knew i should have been a minute faster, and i was out of the points.
Looking back on the season, there were two sub-seasons, both of which i started out very strong, then fell off. US bank and Aon chicago were the first races after months, and in both of those i did very well. I managed to grind out presidential, but my last race, big climb, was just lame. I think next season i either need to do fewer races, no power hours, figure out how to recover better, or some combination thereof.
Overall i'm happy with the season, i learned a lot, but i know i can do better!!!
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