Triple Race Week!

Triple Race Week!

This past week was a heavy race week that included three training races. On Tuesday I participated in a cycling training crit at Lake Louisa State Park. This was my first true cycling race and I really enjoyed it. There was a four person breakaway in the cat 4/5 race that I couldn't grab on to quick enough but I came first out of the main pack for a 5th place overall.

Then on Thursday at the same venue (Lake Louisa) was a sprint triathlon put on by the National Training Center in Clermont. This was the first of a six race series that they are hosting through this spring and summer. Due to a lack of rain recently the water level was pretty low and the swim and involved a combination of running and dolphin diving for the bulk of it. As always my place out of the water wasn't ideal but I covered a lot of ground in T1 and on the bike. After a nice ride with some rolling hills around the park it was into T2 in 5th place. After some course confusion I had dropped to sixth but was able to regain it out on the run course. Overall a very well organized race, its always nice to get something like this in the middle of the week.

On Saturday I took a trip down to Temple Terrace for a reverse triathlon that proved to be a lot of fun. It was interesting to try and figure out the best method for transitions when going in reverse. Socks end up being okay in a race like this since it only take a second to take them off, I actually ended up taking them off on the bike before dismount. The race started with a two-loop run around some fields, I ran shoulder to shoulder with another person for basically the entire run and we had a bit of a sprint finish to the timing mats into T1 for the best run split of the day. I entered T1 first by only a second and was first onto the bike. There was a nice wind which made the two-loop course real slow one way and then pretty fast coming back. I held my lead on the bike and saw a decent amount of people on the second loop but had no real idea the kind of lead I had. Then came the interesting transition, shoes and socks off on the bike, into T2, goggles on and into the water. I was about halfway through the swim (and feeling like a sack of potatoes after that ride/run) before the pack started arriving. I finished in first place overall. It was a great race held by the local girl scout troup and it was fun to mix things up and go backwards for once. I wouldn't want to make a habit of feeling like that for the swim, but thats not to say I'd never do one again. Next race will be May 12th when I'll be in Sarasota racing the FIT International Triathlon.