Fresh Race Season Report

Well you can train all you want but you can not control the weather. Mother nature will do what it wants when ever it wants. Last week was beautiful, the weather was gorgeous and my taper was going well. I though on Wednesday I would take a look at the forcast for my first half mary of the season on Sunday. It read like this:

Wednesday :Sunny high 15
Thursday: Sunny high 10
Friday: Slight cloud high 10
Saturday: 1mm Rain in morning high 8
Sunday: Wind gusts up to 80k, 2 cm of snow -3 and -10 with windchill.

Really? Are you F&%king serious....... Yup. I thought to myself this is a sick joke. And I hoped and prayed that environment Canada was wrong as per usual. But as the days counted down it was not looking good.
It was a mental battle all the way to the start line to accept the fact that it was not going to be the best day. But when the gun went off I went out full tilt PR or ER, and I was on a decent pace too my split at the 10k was 40:32. But eventually all the little slips and the cold weather got to my system. I tried to take in some water that I didnt need and it caused me to cramp up and the 60 k freezing wind nearly stopped me in my tracks. I tried as hard as I could to keep pushing but it was a hard fought battle out there that day. I ended up with a 1:32:48 only 30 sec off my Pr and in the given conditions I was happy with it, and it was good to get a half under my belt early to see how my body would react.

Not wanting to waste my fitness I was back at it again on Tuesday for a duathlon at Birds Hill Park. It was a 4k run 26k bike and 4k run. I was unsure of how it was going to go i felt ok, my calves were tight, but ready to go none the less.

The race was suppose to start at 7 but due to technical issues and bad organization it started at 7:30. So I ended up warming up twice. It was nice to get my bike race ready, I forgot how sharp it looks. My dad was rockin a new bike as well a Cervelo P3, he got lots of compliments on.

Anyways when the gun went off I took off to the front of the pack with me and another guy. He was about 20 seconds per mile faster then me and slowly broke away throughout the race. But I held a strong 2nd until being slowly passed by another guy. I came off the run in 3rd place (run one 15:15), and went out on the bike hard. I caught the guy that passed me within 5 k of the bike. After catching him he slowly crept passed me once as I was recovering, until I passed him one last time and that was the last that I saw of him(bike 41:00). My second run was solid I got into a nice groove quickly and was able to shake my arms out and stay loose. It showed because my second run was only 10 seconds slower at 15:24. For a strong 2nd place finish.

In reflection for next race the only thing I would like to improve on is a faster transition I took my time in there and used it as a little recovery. That and I am going straight to the top next race just sayin. Total time was 1:11:38 next race sub 1:10:00 PR or ER.

Yes this is MAY 1st in Winnipeg