Let the 2009 season begin...

It's March and that means 2 things to me...nice weather and racing! The racing season is finally here and I can hardly contain myself. This past weekend I completed my first race of the season, the Shamrock Half Marathon in Virginia Beach which was also my first long distance race ever. Overall I am moderately happy with the results but I am after all a triathlete and will never completely be happy with any one result. I completed the 13.1 miles in 1hr, 44minute (see my official time card from Active.com below).

My average pace for the race was just under 8 min/mile at 7:56/mile. Not bad but after looking back at my splits I can see where I dropped the ball on my training. My mile by mile splits were:

Mile 1: 7:44
Mile 2: 7:22
Mile 3: 7:32
Mile 4: 7:46
Mile 5: 7:54
Mile 6: 8:01
Mile 7: 8:00
Mile 8: 8:03
Mile 9: 8:13
Mile 10: 8:16
Mile 11: 8:31
Mile 12: 8:51
Mile 13 (and .1): 8:18

It's obvious that I need to work on my mile 8 to 13 tempo and lock in on a race pace that I can maintain for all 13.1 miles. During the race I noticed that I never got heavily winded especially for the first 10K which I maintained an average 7:30/mile pace. My weakest link and the limiting factor in my ability to maintain a 7:30 pace for the entire race was my right leg. My ankle and knee were killing me for miles 8 - 13. I need to do more strength training and tend to my IT band with stretching and "rolling" and really focus on building both muscle strength and flexibility in my legs.

Overall I would be happy as a clam if I can rock out a 1:44 in my upcoming half ironman (May 9). But before that race I've got the Bumpass VTS sprint tri to look forward to (April 19th) and Muddy Buddy (May 2). So beween now and then I am on a mission to ramp up biking miles, work on strengthening my run and continue to fine tune my swimming.