Triple Race Week #2

We'll go backwards for this one because the first race was the better of the three. This Thursday I raced the 2nd Lake Louisa Sprint Training Triathlon of the year. There was a more competitve field then the last race where I came in 5th place and I was experimenting with a new pacing method. I went much harder on the swim than I normally do and ended up coming out of the water around fourth. I got quick into my shoes and started making up time on the bike. This course is silly hilly, even though its short its not stop up and downs with some nice winds. The front four people were riding in a pack which made them hard to gain time on, I was riding with the sixth place person until he made a wrong turn and I was back on my own. Another fast riding came by midway through the bike and I was unable to stay with him. I came back into T2 and couldn't find my running shoes! My backpack is normally my landmark but I had moved it into my car because it was raining before the race. So I added about 15 seconds and finally got out on the run. I felt great on the run until right before the halfway point, I had almost moved up to sixth place and was shoulder to shoulder until I cramped for just long enough to get dropped. My time was almost 2 minutes quicker than my time on the course a month ago, so between the new pacing and improved fitness something worked, but due to the people who came out the results weren't as great.

This past Sunday I raced at the Baldwin Park Orlando Triathlon. It was a nice size field (about 300-350 people) and I was feeling good. My bike was ready in transition, my mom came out to watch and I headed to the water. I found out they had an open wave and it was too late for me to get a new number and swim cap. The other wave two guys and I stood in the water as the open wave swimmers came out of the water and ran to T1 then it was time for my swim. The water had THICK weeds for the first 100M it seemed worse than it really was. I felt good swimming and was around enough people that I was not concerned. When I came back around to the end and the weeds it was much worse. When I lifted to my head to sight and my legs fell a bit the weeds got all wrapped around my legs. Out of the water and on to my real race. With the open wave started about 10 mintues ahead of us and the bike course being 4 laps I was able to immediantly ride with people as fast as me, which lead to a much easier time holding a fast pace. The third lap I was without fast encouragement and the pace let off a little bit but lap four I really put down the hammer. I entered T2 a little sloppily, had to run carrying my bike a bit to get over some steps, a quick T2 and I was out on the run. I passed a few guys right away and then... nothing. I saw no one ahead of me and I started to lose pace a bit. I recalled a video I saw from cyclist Jens Voigt about self motiviation. He just says "shut up legs" whenever his legs hurt during a race. I was running hard, and I mean real hard it hurt. I finally saw another person ahead of me, which made it alot easier to run fast. When I started getting to the point of seeing the finish line I still had enough in the tank for a sprint and I crossed the finish line with one of the fastest runs and bikes of the day. I won my age group and upheld my 3rd place ranking in the year long series.

Saturday was the big success of this past week. I raced the Madeira Beach Triathlon and won. The swim involved walking down the beach to the start so that the swim was just one straight shot. I swam at a nice pace but not too much I really wanted to kill the rest of the race. I came out of the water somewhere between tenth and fifteenth but I was the second person out of T1. I held pace with the leader on the bike for the first bit until I got into my shoes and then I took him with a clean pass. I found a really nice groove on the bike, I was really cooking along so much so that I caught the pace moto a bunch of times. He was riding to the side, so there wasn't a draft. I hit T2 and hit the wrong timing mat and had to go back, added 5-10 seconds. But I was the first one so I was fine. I hit the run course on the sand and was running around 5 minute miles. I hit the turn around and saw the second place person about 500M back. This is always a debate in triathlon, pushing your win or just securing it. I knew I had a race the next day so taking it easy and still winning seemed like a smart idea but it doesn't neccissarily look good to see the winner coming across the line not pushing it. Well I came across the line in first place! I also set the course record, and the race has been going on for over twenty years. Time for a two week session and then back to more racing!

Florida International Triathlon

Florida International Triathlon

Sarasota, FL

So this was a big one for me, my first International/Olympic distance triathlon and my first ocean (well Gulf) swim. Was up at 3:00 AM, before many people were probably asleep after a Friday night. I ate some breakfast, finalized all my stuff, and hopped in the car en route to Sarasota. This was a big race, the most competitors of any triathlon I've been to thus far and I was ready to show them what I could do.

After transition and everything was set up I got a little warm up jog in and headed down to the water. There was a fair bit of chop, more then everyone was expecting when I was warming up. But I figured I could handle it, I had done swim workouts in the ocean before, just never a race. Male 39 and under was the first wave and it was a beach start so we had to run into the water and dolphin dive until it was deep enough to swim. Only minutes in, like a bad dream, I got kicked HARD square in the face. It broke my goggles and made me lose my nose plug. I continued on and within 2-3 minutes I was seriously questioning continuing the race. Salt water was burning my eyes and throat and I was barely to the first turn. A two hour drive (each way), a high entry fee, along with my grandfather and sister coming to see me race gave me that answer and I pushed on. A few more minutes in and we turned around and it got bad. The waves were coming right at my face now, so more swallowed water, more sighting difficulties, and more survival breastroke. Normally when I'm racing I can make it through any kind of discomfort knowing that it will go away, that's how I am able to run through any kind of cramp or unexpected soreness but this lasted the entire swim. What I expected to be a 26-28 minute swim leg, for 1500 meters, took 43 minutes! But when I stood up on the sand, my race was just beginning.

I hit T1 ready to make up for what just happen, which could hardly be called a swim, I clocked the 2nd fastest T1 of the day and was out on the bike course; two 13 mile laps of flat streets. I was holding 25 pretty comfortably and it seemed as though I would have a nice bike split coming around mile 5-6. I began to try and take it some nutrition and fluids and was having a real hard time stomaching any fluids. I now know that it is due to swallowing so much water during the swim, its still water. Not being able to take in nutrition I eased off the pace a bit, for seeing a bonk if I kept up. Then my competitive nature kicked in. This race had an international distance race, which I was in, along with a sprint race of half the distances that started 40 minutes (or so) later. So not everyone out on the bike course was doing 2 laps and running a 10k afterwards, so not everyone had to pace themselves as much. Someone came and passed me, which doesn't happen too often, so I took notice. I stuck with him, legal distance of course, until he pulled off for the end of his single loop. Then the wind picked up.

There is something strange about doing something twice in a short span of time, and it being completely different from one time to the next. A street that I had just cruised down at 25 mph with no problems now would not let my bike computer hit 20 thanks to a lovely headwind. I got low and pushed through it as best I could til mile 20 or so when I turned around to have it at my back and rode it in nice and fast to T2. Final bike split 1:06:xx. T2 was slower then it should've been because someones bike had fallen on my rack leaving very little space for the other 6 bikes that had to fit and no one wants to add time to there race picking it up. Out onto the run course I was feeling good, real good.... too good. My first mile was around 6:20 then I saw my garmin reading like 6:50 for mile 2, I tried to pick it up but 6:50 was where it wanted to stay. Mile 2 finished, then mile 3 and I was taking in as much water as I could at the aid stations to counter the insane Florida heat. It was just a bit after mile 3 that the run left the sidewalk and went onto the sand. Soft sand is difficult to run on because your fit sink in after each step. So I got as close to the water as I could and stayed on the hard sand, but its just nothing compared to running on cement in terms of speed. As I hit mile 5 I really picked up and tried to put it all out there. This was not the race I came here to make happen, but it was the best I could make of a bad situation. A little bit of soft sand before the finishing shoot and that was that, final time 2:39:xx winning time 2:11:xx. It was a great race put on by the storm tri club down in Sarasota and I look forward to bringing my A game next time around.