Oh how quickly I forget...I went into the race feeling pretty confident, but yet again not having any recent training on the bike. I continue to think that somehow my running will really translate. It doesn't.
I practiced my bike transitions the day before - getting on the bike with the shoes already clipped in and leaving the shoes clipped in to transition to the run. While practicing this I almost wiped out on my dead end street - it was very close to ugly. So I decided I would wait to incorporate that for another tri. This time around though I decided not to wear socks, to wear my bib under the wetsuit, and to forego a shirt for the bike/run. Trying to take care of each of those things in the transition adds unnecessary time, and poor transitions have been an issue the past few years.
The swim was uglier than expected. My wave had a fairly large amount of swimmers, and with a horseshoe shaped swim course, everyone was bunched together trying not to add any distance as they rounded their way back to the shore. Right from the gun I could tell I should have moved to the front of the pack - I was kicked and kicked someone at least 5+ times in the first 100 meters. My swim has improved a lot since last year, but I literally had to wait for an opening a few times due to slower swimmers crowding ahead of me. I finished the swim in ~15:38, good for 82nd out of in that 460+ participants and a 1:04 improvement over last year - I expected that to be much better though.
I don't get transition splits from this tri, which sucks, but I think I made decent time for once. I can't say for sure, but I was likely just under two minutes.
The bike was tough. Do to my complete lack of training and practice on the bike, I'm still a novice when it comes to gear selection. This course doesn't have devastating hills, but it certainly has a few spots where I worked hard. I finished in 34:49 (which includes a transition), not-so-good for 117/460, and a 9 second 'improvement' over last year...there is a lot of room for improvement here, which is encouraging...I guess.
The transition to the run went OK. I probably close to 1:30 - but that's partly a function of the distance I had to go from dismounting the bike toward the run. Note: I need to figure out a way to slip on my shoes already tied. For the sprint distance, I would benefit greatly from just slipping the shoes on and high tailing it out of the transition - so there are still ways to improve here as well.
The run, as usual at the Appleman, was tough. My first mile was ugly - something like 6:5x - but I was finding it very hard to find a rhythm. My quads were really hurting from putting a lot of energy into the bike, and the roads are rolling for the first 1.5 miles. After that point I entered the trails and was able to move a little bit better, but the trail is narrow, rooty, and rocky. I was very cautious as I didn't want to bust an ankle with more important races on the calendar. Towards the end of the trail-section, I crested the final big incline and booked it down the hill before taking a left toward the finish. This downhill is very uncomfortable for me. With my quads cooked, I feel like I'm really loose and unsteady, but I held it together and continued to pass runners. There was a small group of runners about 250 meters ahead of me as I took the left with a half mile to go. I felt like they were slowing considerably, and a kick wouldn't have served much purpose - so I made final .5m push. I ended up passing the group with about 60 meters to go..I finished in 21:29, 9/460, and 1:01 faster than last year.
48th overall.....meh.
Cool race photo:
http://racephotos.instaproofs.com/store/?page=buyPrintPage&event=856947&col=0&id=222228121&type=original
