Fresh Paint

Rudy Project, I hope you appreciate all the work that went into this.

5430 Long Course

Last Sunday was the 5430 "Half-Ironman" Long course race. My IT bands have really been acting up lately, and with Worlds just 3 weeks after the race I couldn't risk the injury running the half-marathon. Just for fun, I raced the swim and the bike, and then called it quits at T2. I had a great time, especially since I could go all-out on the bike and not worry about saving any energy for the run.

Before the race I wasn't really "in the mood" to put in a big effort. I didn't feel like swimming, and I hadn't prepared for the race in the days before. I was just going to go out, put in a hard effort, and call it a fun, hard training day. I positioned myself at the front and center of the swim start, and at the gun I took off and led my wave into the glare of the unknown. It was really sweet to have smooth, open water to swim in. I didn't worry about anyone drafting off me and just swam directly into the glare of the sun off the water. One by one I found the swim buoys, until finally I ran into the stragglers of the waves before me and had some splashes to follow. I just kept chugging along and came out of the water over a minute ahead of the next person in my age group.

I felt like crap, like always, on the run up to transition. I took my sweet time getting on the bike and let my legs warm up for a few miles before putting down the hammer. My buddy Josh caught me around mile 10 and I tried to stick with him, but he dropped me after another 10 miles. I finished the first 25 miles in 58:26! After 28 miles I knew I had gone out too hard, so my goal for the second half of the bike was to keep everything under control. Another buddy and tri-team cohort Dan caught me around mile 38. Instead of playing "leap frog" with him on the bike course I decided to do the conservative thing and just hung out behind him for the next 14 miles. It's really surprising how much of a benefit you get riding behind someone outside of the "drafting zone". Psychologically, pacing off someone in front of you makes the effort you're putting in seem a lot easier, and I'm pretty sure you can get a tangible draft riding 25 feet behind someone. With a few miles to go I put down everything I had and was determined to make my legs hurt. I mooned the 3rd bike aid station as I went by, I'm sure my friends volunteering there appreciated it. I came into T2, jogged my bike to the rack and caught my breath, cheered on a few friends as they trickled into transition and on to the run, then I went to work.

26:58 - 1.2 mile swim
2:15:53 - 56 mile bike

Excellent swim!
Pushing hard on the bike.

Boulder Peak

Boulder Peak Triathlon was over a week and a half ago, I just haven't gotten around to writing about it yet. My race was a little disappointing, but I finished the race and still had a fun time.

The start of the swim went directly into the sun. After the gun went off I stuck myself to the back of the lead group of 5 guys. We had a good 25m on the rest of the field within the first 500m. I kept trying to sight the turn buoy but couldn't see ANYTHING into the glare off the water. I looked to my side and saw a course buoy about 50m to our left and immediately panicked that we were going off course and had missed the turn. So I took a sharp turn and ditched my draft pack to try to get back on course, thinking the rest of them were going to swim for a while before they realized they were going the wrong way. As soon as I "got back on track" I turned and saw the turn buoy...directly in front of the lead pack. I ditched the lead pack for no reason at all, and I lost time swimming sideways. Needless to say, my swim sucked. I started the bike almost 2 minutes behind where I wanted to be, and kept it conservative for the first few miles out of transition knowing I had to get up and over Olde Stage. I conserved energy to the base of the climb, and when it came time to open up and give it everything I had, nothing was there. I felt like Hans Solo expecting to haul ass only to find out his hyperdrive was busted. I got through the bike and had an AWESOME T2, best I've ever had. After half a mile on the run I just fell apart. My form disappeared, my cadence slowed, and my IT band syndrome reared it's ugly head. By mile 2 I was in pain and knew I was going to have to settle for just crossing the finishing line. My trademark dying animal noises emerged from my mouth, my neck went slack, and my stride turned into a limp. I'm positive I resembled a zombie... With a half mile to go, my good buddy Matt caught up to me and paced me to the finish line.

Crawling up Olde Stage

Me on Mike's heels into T2

Matty and I heading to the finish.



I didn't do so hot in this race last year either. I think the placement of the race relative to my racing season may have something to do with it. It's just a few weeks after I peak for Age Group Nationals and it's right around when I start feeling burnt out. I've got the 5430 Half coming up in a little over a week, and I'm looking forward to finishing my first race at that distance. I've been contemplating what I would do if my IT band problems came back during the half marathon run. My strategies include; running backwards, skipping, and speed walking.

In other news, I had a great swim today. I had a 500y set at tempo pace, which I did in 6min flat, only 5 seconds off my 500 PR! If I had actually been gunning it I'm fairly sure I could have broken my PR. Pretty exciting.