Solid Swim

Well it was the first tri of the year this weekend, and it went well. The day could not have been more perfect. It was calm not to hot and just a gorgeous day to be out on the race course. Even though there was no real pressure on this race I always get myself worked up. I get axious around triathlon people and I begin to doubt my abilities, when I really need to just calm down. I was up really early around 4:30 a.m because I had to use the washroom, but I did feel rested, it was not a nervous restless wake up. I stuck with my game plan this morning and just focused on hydration and had a banana. This stratagy has worked for me in the past with running races. I have also been on the other side were I take on too much food and that never works out well. This was a good race at a hard effort to really see how my body was going to respond.

I was one of the first people at the race, it felt good I dont like being under any pressure. I took my time set up and did a really long warm up session. I had enough time to go for a ride check my bike out, a run see how the legs felt, and a decent swim. I really wanted to warm up the swim I had noticed in training that a longer warm up was key to feeling fresh in the water. The rest of the morning was pretty standard and nothing really threw me off. I was able to get in all my bathroom breaks and I felt well hydrated and not over full.

Swim

At the swim start I felt ready to go and had actually managed to calm myself down quite a bit. The start was nothing special and kind of uneventful. My basic plan was to draft most of the first lap, fall into a pace and then progressively pick it up in the second lap. But to my surprise I strated out strong and ended up in a zone all my own just off the lead pack and in front of the rest of the group. As much as I wanted to draft I could not squeeze in the oppurtunity. The leaders were not far off and I didn't feel I was over exerting at all. But I stuck to the game plan. Coming out of the water I heard my girlfriend tell me I was not more then a minute behind I was stunned and I knew there were only 3 guys ahead of me.

Bike

When I started the bike I felt a bit queizzy, It took 5-8 min to really get my legs under me and fire up a good hard push. It was a 3 loop course and by the start of the second lap I was in hammer mode. I knew one of the guys in front of me and I had taken him out I was unsure of the second guy. I thought my nutrition plan was working well but it was here where I saw it begin to faulter. I needed a gel for that last 20 mins of the ride and I would have been perfect. I began to feel fatigued.

Run

Here is where I really realized I needed that gel. I just could not settle into the steller run times I had been putting up in training. It was a good lesson learned. The run was fairly uneventful I pushed through it running mostly by myself taking on water and trying to salvage the race.

In conclusion I was happy with it. My bike and run times were consistant and I put up a new PR swim bringing the total time to 2:13:10. More importantly I think I have my nutrition plan perfected for the olympic distance, I will be able to seal it on the next race which is not until August. But until then happy training and keep checkin back for updates on training, the taper and Ironman 70.3 Rhode Island.

D