Optimist Triathlon - TriathlonSprint

I knew the water temp was going to be very close to the legal wetsuit temps based on what I'd heard the night before so I planned on having my suit ready if I decided to use it. The last minute decision to ditch the idea and save the time in T1 by doing the swim without the wetsuit. Now that I have finished and know how abysmal my swim time is I wish that I had used the suit. It may have kept me closer to Patrick and maybe within sight on the run, enough so that I may have seen him and pushed harder.....But this is "Monday morning!"
My decision to skip the wetsuit was brought about because I thought I could get on the heels of someone with a suit and draft them for all of the race. I did just that but I also think I allowed myself to relax more than I should have. Had I pushed a little more on the backl half of the race I would have passed the draftee and stayed closer to the front and, most likely, been right there with Patrick heading into T1. i think this was my second error.
Aas a side note: This was the worst swim I have had from a nasty perspective. The water was really stirred up and I had sand pelting me from almost the beginning to the end. It wasn't nearly as bad last year.

Wear the suit and swim harder throughout. I have a better swim than I allowed myself to perform today. The wetsuit comes off of me so fast that I would imagine I would have lost only 10 seconds in transition and stayed ahead a little longer to keep a better shot of 2nd place in my sights.

I sort of hung around at the bike rack for a few seconds for something. I remember thinking like I was forgetting something but I wasn't. It was a sort of panicked moment but it was very short. I decided to take off and rely on my training and practice and move on.
Once out of the T area and onto the bike I got up to speed and then put my right foot into the shoe.....no problem. The left foot however wasn't so easy. I just couldn't seem to get it in. I would imagine it cost me 15 seconds over the whole bike leg. I am still not sure what happened.

Rely on what I have spent time on in practice, trust that I have laid everything out properly and get in and out fast!
Shoes? I don't know! Tri shoes would make this easier and faster but the budget for a good new pair isn't there yet.

This was a very intense bike leg. The splits show my HR on the redline for almost every single mile. I was pegging my MLSS percentage at almost 100% the entire bike leg as well. MLSS for me is 167 (if it was done correctly) and many of my miles were just under that threshold. I guess I wasn't trying to leave anything in the tank for the run.
Once I was on the route and my feet were in my shoes properly, I began to try to keep Patrick in sight. But this proved difficult because he is definitely a stronger cyclist than I. Besides, with us in the 5th wave on the swim we had a lot of people out on the course by the time we got there so once he began to pull away it wsa hard to figure out where he was.
I just kept mashing the pedals and trying to peg the needle and hope I had enough to survive the run.
Just before the turn around I saw Patrick headed back toward the finish after making the corner. I knew then it would be won between he and I in the run.
As I neared the corner another rider began to slow more than I planned, I called out that I was passing and kept the hammer down. As I approached the corner I hit the brakes hard, began to coast and leaned into the turn, the brakes released and hoping to rip through and begin my sufferfest back to T2. But I was going too fast into the corner! I had to nail the brakes, both front and back, again to keep the bike on the road and maintain control. I made it but only narrowly, with only a couple of inches to the sandy berm.
Once through the turn the suffering began again. I had passed so many people on the way out that only the stronger riders or the early waves that had a large head start remained in front of me. I continued to attack with unrelenting pressure on my system. I was trying to at least stay as close to Patrick as possible.
At the last half mile I began to pass another rider but as I began my pass he decided he wasn't willing to be passed. This frustrated me A LOT!! Once I was onto him, I stood up in the pedals and turned on the gas a lot higher and dropped him. My average speed for this section of the course was 20.6 but my peak was 26.1 which I suppose came as I threw down with that guy. Once I passed him I dropped my effort significantly to get ready to the transition and coasted most of the way. Once I dismounted the bike I looked for the guy I dropped and apparently he didn't have the legs I did because he was back a ways. This made me quite happy from where I was at the time he tried to stop the pass. I gloated a little for a few seconds then kept moving.

Nothing!! This is a sprint race. Put everything on the red line and see what happens!

This was a pretty decent T2. I was in a zone for this transition and I can't think of anything that crossed my mind other than getting out and trying to pin my ears back.

Nothing

From the beginning of this run all the way through the end I felt pretty horrible. This wasn't a bad thing but rather what it should feel like.....VERY PAINFUL!
I left T2 with a vengeance trying to catch up to Patrick. I knew he kicked the trash out of me on the bike and now I felt I might be able to get something back........I hoped. I drove myself to suffer as much as I thought I could stand and kept going. About a half mile into the run I began to think I wouldn't be able to sustain this kind of pain. I somehow talked myself into keeping up the pace but it was very hard.
By the end of the first mile my legs began to feel little better but my breathing and chest felt like they would explode. My mind seemed to want to go faster but I knew there wasn't anyway to get there.
I passed many of the other earlier competitors throughout this leg but as I neared the latter distances the passing became fewer and farther between. About 1 mile in, the guy I passed with fury in the last half mile on the bike passed me on the run. Still behind me he called out; "Hey 42, that was you on the bike!" I said; "you had better be younger than me." He said; "That's what I thought when you passed me on the bike." He passed me and dropped me in a bad way. There was no way I was going to be able to hold his pace. He was cooking me on the run and there was nothing I could do to stop it.
As I neared the hill that marked the most painful spot on the course I allowed myself to recover a bit so I could try to keep a solid tempo uphill. This seemed to work alright as It seemed I didn't have to slow my pace too much. Shortly after the uphill things leveled off before the steep drop to the bottom and about a half mile to the finish.
I was about .15 from the finish and decided it was time to see if I could get my pace a little higher. I was somehow able to get something more out of my legs and pick up the tempo for the home stretch. But it wasn't without a lot of pain. I didn't suffer from stitches that I have come to know for the end of my races but I was struggling to breath and I was audibly groaning trying to get some air into my lungs........I made it! Now began the coughing frenzy of the past few weeks.......Not nice!

I might have tried to run a little harder. I don't think it would have been enough to pull in third place but it may have made me feel a little better.

Ohhh, feel nauseous, cough up two or three lungs and grab some Gatorade and water, a few oranges and a banana. Then head to the big uphill to see the great friends begin to suffer and take their pictures to let them see their own suffering through pictures that we all had to endure.


Fitness. The swim would have been better had I worn the wetsuit. An overall decision to wear it might have closed the gap enough for me to pull off a second AG placement but it would have been VERY, VERY close at best. There's nothing more I believe I could have done. I was at the top of my fitness for the bike and run and I don't think I could have performed any better on these legs.


I loved the time I got to spend with my racing family. I love seeing the people I have met over the past couple of years and enjoy meeting and competing with these athletes every time. If it weren't for many of these people it wouldn't be fun.
Results: http://onlineraceresults.com/race/view_race.php?race_id=25804&relis...