Tuesday, May 26, 2009

Cap Tex Tri 2009

Well, it is done. The Cap Tex Tri is in the books for 2009. Talk about improvement over '08. I cut 14.5 minutes off of my time from last year. (2:19:00 Vs 2:33:30) The biggest gains came on the run and the swim. I know that I have said before that I don't do race reports and I keep doing them but I have discovered that it is a way for me to assess the positive and the negative and organize my thoughts for the next race.

The swim: 23:14 excellent swim. Fast swim. About 400M in I was able to catch site of only one other person in my wave and he was even with me most of the way. Then at the halfway point I noticed that I was all alone in the water. For a second I thought that I may be way off course but it turned out to be a clearing between start waves. This allowed me to put on some speed. As I made the turn to the last buoy I was able to pull ahead of someone in my wave (not sure if it was the same person as before). Coming out of the water I knew that I was fast and figured I was at least in the top 10 of my wave in the swim. Turns out I was 6th in my wave and 11th in my AG and ended the day with the 65th fastest swim overall.

T1 is a long run. So transition times look huge but the majority of that is the run. I am not happy with my T1 time. My goal was 2 minutes and I ended up with 3:05. I guess the trouble with my wet suit was bigger than I though. My transition time from last year was 10 seconds faster. Looking at the T1 times of others in my AG I was 29th. There is definitely room for improvement there.

The Bike: I was a little disorganized on the bike. I waited until I was up the hill to put my shoes on but when I did my left shoe strap came completely out of the stay so I had to spend extra time putting it back on. This is not easy on a bike at 15 mph. Then my right shoe would not cooperate and it took me extra time. After about 3 tenths of a mile I was off but had lost position to at least 5 people. Then I realized that my helmet was loose because it kept slipping down and blocking my vision (another unnecessary adjustment to make)! The bike course has a lot of turns and 2 short hills so I would suspect my average speed would be low compared to an open course like back in April at the Lonestar. Even with the adjustment problems I was able to maintain a 22.4 mph average. A little under what I wanted but not bad. It put me at 1:06:23. This is 3 minutes faster than last year. but 4 minutes faster than I was hoping. The only other eventful thing that happened on the bike was that on my last lap I had an elbow rest on my aerobars come off somewhere. Not that big (except that I now have to replace it) of a deal just a little uncomfortable. Luckily it was my last lap.

In T2 I was still slow. I could have cut about 30 seconds at least but I remember mentally checking everything and making sure that I had everything with me. Kind of a mental lapse that should have been second nature.

The Run: Once out on the run course I quickly picked off a few people. I knew that anyone I could pass on my first lap moved me up but after my first lap I would be mixed with people who were still on their first lap and it would not be possible to tell who was ahead of me. I started strong on the run. I ran my first two miles sub 7 minutes, then I started to feel the legs and slowed down but only slightly. After about mile 3 I realized that my legs were cramping and I was cautious. I forgot to bring my e-caps so I was left with water and Gatorade on the course and I made sure not to pass any of them up. After mile 3 I set my sights on a runner in front of me. He was in a younger age group so I was not concerned if he beat me but he was looking strong still and I figured if I could hang with him I would finish strong. He and I battled for position and even exchanged a few words of encouragement for the next 2.5 miles. Then with about a half mile to go he came up beside me and said, "lets see how much energy you got", as he picked up the pace. I wasn't going to let that happen so I took the bait. As we came to the last 400 meters he dropped back and said, "take it". So I sprinted to the finish. I ran a 44:14. Just what I expected it to be.

Overall a great race. Finished 10th in AG and 63rd overall. Solid performance but the competition was a lot faster this year too. Last year my time would have won second in my AG. This year it was only good for 10th. Next year I will just have to be faster.

Back to training.

Wednesday, May 20, 2009

Training update

It has been a long time since I have posted. Between training, working and moving my family to a new house I have had little time to write but I think I can crank out an update to let everyone know that I am at least still here.

It has been 45 days since I raced and I am itching to get out there. Luckily I have a race on Memorial day. I have been looking forward to this race for a long time. This is my first 'A' race of the year and I hope to be on the podium at the end of the day. The weather looks like it will hold up and it will definitely be cooler than last years 100+ degrees, in the shade. I did a little race prep last night at the Pure Austin Splash and Dash. Just a short 750M swim and a 3K run and it went well for my first of the year. I love doing these. Its an all out sprint for 20 minutes or so. The competition is fierce and the hot dogs afterward are good. You can always count on several local pros showing up. Last night there were more than usual and it was the biggest field yet. 200 people and it could have been 300+ according to the race director. I finished 11th overall. I struggled on the swim. I felt heavy in the water. It was not my fastest swim but it was respectable. The most exciting part of the race was that I ran my fastest split (not my fastest ever but my fastest at this race). The reason this is good news is because it was the first time I had pushed my speed that high since my injury almost 2 months ago and I felt no pain!! There is some soreness today but not pain and this is exciting. I have not been running much and when I do it is reserved because of the injury. I will probably still be a little scared for a few weeks but at the race on Monday I will not hold back. If something happens I will have 4 weeks until Buffalo Springs so I should be fine.

Well I am off to do another taper workout and get ready for Monday. It should be a great race. I will have an update on Tuesday.