How was the weekend? Anyone race or have some key training workouts? I did. I raced the Two Town Triathlon, a 300 yard swim, a 10 mile bike, and a 5K run. The race was a lot of fun, but it also gave me a great gauge on where my fitness in each sport is. So I wasn't technically satisfied, but it's definitely given me a lot of new motivation to go out and train that much harder. I'll break down the race by each of the individual parts: Swim, T1, Bike, T2, and Run;
Swim: The swim was the only thing in this race that I was very pleased with. I knew I was racing against two very fast competitors, and I knew I wouldn't be able to hold one of them off on the run, so I was thinking a lot about the bike even as I got into the pool. It was a pool swim, so we were staggered to leave every 15 seconds. I was seeded second, so I was bib number 2(I always love it when you have low bib numbers, it makes you feel cool). The race started at 8:00, and as that exact second rolled around, the first swimmer left. I prepared myself for what laid ahead, quickly picturing the whole race and how I would run it in my head. I had just finished doing so when the race official counted me down "5...4...3...2...1...Go" and I was off. I shot off the wall like a rocket, and tried to sprint most of the first 50. I was swimming well, and my shoulder, which has had a problem with swimming in the last month or so, was feeling good. As we approached 150 yards, I could see that I was gaining ground on the guy in front of me, which was a good sign, because that meant I must be beating the second guy who was behind us, because in past results, guy #1 was always faster than guy #2. I caught up to him about 15 yards in the time it took us to swim the 300, and subtract the time it took for me to get to the mat, I swam the 300 averaging about 59 second 100's. I was happy, and won the swim overall.
T1: This was a bad transition. I really wasn't prepared for the transition, and I paid for it. As I got to T1, I slipped on the timing mat and almost fell, but caught myself. I got to my bike and saw that the guy I was chasing in the swim had already crossed the bike start timing mat and was going to mount. I thought "Man, he's fast" and got down to my transition. I got my Giro Air Attack Shield helmet on quickly with no problems, and then put on my race belt. However, I fumbled with the clip, and lost about 3 seconds there. I grabbed my bike(outfitted with a Zipp 900 Tubular Disc wheel and Zipp 808 Tubular front wheel) and race to the mount line. I hopped on and broke the rubber bands holding my shoes in place and got clipped in.
Bike: The bike was such a cool experience, to say the least. Not only was I riding on my home court roads so to say, but I had new race wheels. I was doing my best to catch the guy in front of me, but he was riding away with each stretch of road. We were averaging around 29 mph for the first 3 and a half miles, which was a flat portion of the bike where you could just fly. It was amazing, but I wasn't able to get my heart rate under control for that majority of the ride and was killing my legs trying to get caught up with guy #1. But I knew I couldn't catch him once he was out of sight, and so I just biked my own race. I have to say, seeing my shadow on the road with the disc wheel on the back and the 808 wheel on the front looked like the coolest thing in the world. I think I'm going to have to buy some for myself at some point. Anyway, as we got into the back stretch of the race, which was about 5 miles, the hills started to hurt me. We had to climb a 13% grade at one point, and I didn't have time to switch down onto my small ring. So I lugged my bike up that hill, literally pedalstroke to pedalstroke. It hurt, for sure. But then I got past the last slow uphill and came down a large hill into T2. It was a great bike experience, I was riding my Cervelo S5, which is a road bike, but I didn't outfit it with aerobars. I stayed on the drop bars, and ran a basebar aerodrink bracket, and so I had a pretty good aero position. Add that to my Giro Air Attack and wheels, along with the S5's frame, and I was a pretty aero guy yesterday.
T2: The second transition went really well for me. I was trying out a pair of Brook's PureConnects as a new racing flat, which I got on quickly and easily, paired with a set of Yankz, and was able to get out of T2 quickly. Its another part of the race that went well.
Run: The run killed me. I absolutely bonked on the run. I got out of T2 and across the street, probably about a quarter of a mile in to the run, when guy #2 passed me. I was really hoping to hold him off until about a mile and a half, but he caught me early. Good friends, I gave him some words of encouragement, and he told me to come run with him and catch guy #1. I did my best, but could only hold his pace for about 2 minutes, and then I fell off that fast pace. It spiked my heart rate and I had to take some fast active recovery to get back into proper running form and speed. We got through the course, which was extremely rolling, which was destroying my legs, and as I approached the turnaround point, I saw guy #1 running back. I gave him a high five as he went by, another friend of mine, and then guy #2, not far behind, came running down the hill. I thought I wasn't doing too bad, because he wasn't that far ahead, but he was. He ended up having the fastest run split by 3 minutes. I hit the turnaround and headed back. I kind of hit a second wind on the way back, and was running more smoothly and easily. I passed my buddy who I was running the race with, just as I got close to the finish line, about 3 miles. I crossed the street once again, and ran into the finish line. The bike had destroyed my legs, and I definitely paid for it on the run. But regardless, it was a fun race. In fact, I missed breaking 20 minutes in the 5K by only 2 seconds, running a 20:01, which was pretty terrible of a time for me.
Splits
300 yard swim: 3:23
T1: 28 seconds
10 Mile Bike: 26:03
T2: 24 seconds
Run: 20:01
Final Time: 50:16
So all in all, it was an amazing experience. I ended up 4th overall, due to a late entry who got seeded last and was able to run faster splits and ended up beating me. But I had fun, and my friends came out to support me, which was awesome, because usually I do races alone, other than my mom. So it was great to have their support out there, it meant a lot to me. So guys, when you have a somewhat disappointing race, don't let it get you down, but use it to your advantage. See where you were weak in the race and train those areas to get better. Races are always a learning experience, no matter how many you've done. So good luck at all the races guys, and remember to have fun, because that's what really matters in the end.
Happy training!
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