Some things stay the same

My sister who lives in Sydney AUS is back in NC for the month of July.  This afforded me an excuse to make the trip back to where I started racing triathlons to see her, my niece and nephew (who woke me up from my nap & is now out of my will, tough lesson to learn at 11months but better now then never, sorry dude), Mom, Dad, Nana and Granddad.  My sister also happened to have the good sense to come back when I could get in a race.

I started back in triathlon in 1988, here in NC.  In 1989 I raced in my first elite wave. 20 years later, I tee’d it up in the open division. Some of the same people I raced back then are still racing open now.  Us old dudes still have some get up and go, not a lot but enough to teach the young bucks a lesson or two.  Pretty good race overall, googles didn’t leak one bit during warm up and immediately filled with water once the gun went off.  I think they filled with water before I even got into the water. Swim went ok, non wet suit, I rode my friend’s Stacey’s feet most of the way, I didn’t feel great but I’m chalking that up to not swimming since Monday due to travel. Decent T1, only got passed by 2-3 people on the long run to the bikes.  Bike went well, lost my bottle right off the bat.  No liquid refreshment for me on the 17 mile bike.  Just as good though as I was having heartburn from everything I ate and drank this morning for some reason. Good ride, took me a loooong time to catch the train. Finally got on after chasing for 10+ miles and moved through it up a long hill.  The train broke into 2 parts, 3 of us dropping the other three.  I was pretty happy to catch on, it’s hard dangling 50-100m off the back of what started as 1 guy then became 2, then 3 and eventually grew to 5 guys and keep them from pulling away.  The pace was fairly high though, so I got lucky that they weren’t rotating through.  The stronger rides were at the front and the weaker riders were in back.  Had they been attacking and rotating through, their pace would have been higher. I probably wouldn’t have made it on.  Rolled off the bike in 5th place.  Passed one person in T2, and tried to run with 3rd place leaving transition. After 1km he had put ~:05 on me, then he put another :20 on me to the mile mark. Found out later he is a 15:0Low 5k guy and a 69:00 half marathon dude, so no matter what, my running is not going to keep contact with him.   He disappeared in that .4 mile, way out of sight.  Was able to claw back some time on the guy who ended 3rd OV but not enough to move onto the podium.  Pretty happy with 4th OV, didn’t know what to expect since I haven’t raced a tri in NC in 10+ years.   For those interested in power NP was 270 AP 260.  Here is a link to the results:  http://www.setupevents.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=event_results&id=1377

I could really use a nap right now, but with an 11month old and a 2.5yr old running around the house making noise, I don’t see it happening. Good thing I got 3hr and 20 min of sleep last night. Tonight I’m taking an above recommended dose of Lunesta and going to sleep..hopefully for 10 hours.  Maybe a nap on the plane tomorrow, hopefully there won’t be any noisy kids around me when I try to sleep on the plane.

New TT Rig

With a race this Sunday and following Saturday, it seems time to figure out what to do about my TT bike situation.  Thankfully this was in stock http://trisports.com/2009-felt-b2r-ttr-triathlon-bike.html, in my size yesterday at TriSports.com.  So now all I have to do is swap over the SRM, swap seats, lengthen the handlebars, probably need to stick a longer stem on it as well, add a water bottle cage, figure out where a second one goes for a long course race, put on the pedals and then dial in the fit.  It’s Wednesday evening, not going to do anything to it today, so it’s getting sketchy and rather close to Sunday.  I’ll copy my Lucero position on it and away I’ll go (hopefully).

Making matters worse, I got food poisoning.  Ended up losing about 3.5kg and I’ve been feeling woozy and lightheaded since Sunday.  At least today the lightheaded part went away, but solid foods = not appealing.  Those who know me, already know I’m not a big fan of food, I think it’s mainly over-rated. 

So other then having a bike that is not dialed in, feeling rather unfit, haven’t worked out since Saturday afternoon, having multiple bouts of unplanned ab work, and a stomach that still doesn’t feel right, things seem to be spot on for a good race on Sunday.

The Bad Ass Lucero gets the Nod

The srm has been switched over to the Lucero.  Looks like I’m going to get another race or two on this bike.  Now I just have to rummage through my parts and find a seat.  The seat that was on it is on the Specialized which is at the shop.  So now it’s just a getting through each day waiting for Sunday to roll around.  There isn’t a taper for this race, in fact I’ll still put in over 3 hours of training the day before since the first race I really care about isn’t until April.  Have to do the work now to get the results later.

The first race of the year is always a bit nerve wracking for me.  All the unanswered questions about your training get answered.  The objective data says things are good, power numbers are about where they were mid June of last season, average running pace is a bit faster then this time last year, average length of my bread n butter daily run has gone from 6.8miles to 7 miles. I’ve done much more running in the 7.5-8.5 range but not as many long runs.  So we’ll see.  Subjectively I oscillate from being fairly confident that it won’t be too shabby Sunday to what if I get smoked out there?  So many people look fit and fast before the race starts.  I’m hoping this sorts itself out, as in previous years, shortly after the gun goes off.  After the initial rush from the line, things usually shake out quickly, the fit and fast to the front and the I look fit and fast but am not so fast or fit tend to hang around for 3-5 minutes then fade.  Of course this is relative, if I raced elite I’d be neither fit nor fast and would fade from the gun.  The forecast calls for sunny and mid 70’s for the high so racing conditions should be fairly good.  I’d prefer a bit cooler and cloudy but Mother Nature seems to have other ideas.