Evondo's Group - FULL (Page 91)

My strategy to beat Wroble

 I reviewed Wroble’s times in his other 5 races and determined he was weak in the transitions. With him doing the Mary last year I know he would have me on the run. My weakness is the run and my strength is the bike. My game plan was this.

1. Be even at the swim exit
2. Gain 1 minute in T1
3. Hit the bike hard and gain 2 minutes on the bike
4. Gain 1 minute in T2
5. Go hard out on the run until I saw him on the other side so he thought there was no way to catch me

We ended up having our bikes on the same rack right next to each other with his on one side and mine on the other. This ended up hurting me.

Swim - The swim part went well. My first step in the water and I cut my foot. My swim plan was to line up on the outside left and toward the front. Well Wroble was right there to start with me. I was going to go out hard for 30 strokes then cruise and draft and then hit it hard the last 100. Well at about half way I finally caught a good draft of who I thought was Wroble. I realized a little late that my draft had died and I lost some ground.  I was 30 ft behind the main group. I hit the last 100 hard and saw Wroble getting out of the water. I get stuck behind people at the steps and then the guy in front of me sort of falls back and I push his up and then get out. My goal was to swim 2:00/100 and came in at 2:07. Nice bit I find out after the race is Wroble past competitive swimming experience.

 T1 – I jog up to my bike and see Wroble sitting down getting his stuff on. I dropped my goggles, cap and ear plugs. I of course drop my ear plug into my running shoes. I take the 10 seconds and fish them out and then head out. Leaving Wroble sitting there. Goal was 0:50 and did :53. I was 5^th in my ag and would have been top 2-3 if I didn’t have to get my ear plugs out of my shoes. The one thing with us being so close he saw I was in and out fast so that speed him up.

 Bike – I head out and got my shoes on and going well. Wroble passes me with in the first mile. I was doing 18 and he cruised past me. Hmm this wasn’t in my plan. I bet that he couldn’t hold that pace, and I was right. I knew I would be picking it up so I did and passed him at mile 2.5. My goal then was to put some time between us and get out of his sight with out killing myself.  My goal was 36:00 and I did 36:41.

 T2 – I jump off the bike run in put shoes on and grab my belt and am off. It was good it was fast. I was 3^rd in my AG. Now Wroble knows I am out running and he has ground to make up. This makes him get in and out faster that he ever has.

 Run – I totally fall apart on the run. I was going to run out at an easy 10 m/mi pace and see how much I could push it from there.  About 2 minutes in I get side cramps that grind me to running 10:45 m/miles. I do my slow runs at 11 m/mi. I really don’t know what was wrong but I just couldn’t go any faster. I wasn’t pushing it, breathing too hard nor were my legs toast. I got caught with about ½ mi to go. Wroble got about 30 yards in front of me. I tried to make a last ditch sprint to the finish effort with .35 to go and it wasn’t happening. My goal was 28-30 – I came in at 32:55. Wroble ran 9:46 m/mi.

 I lost by 41 seconds. As you can see my run is where I totally lost it and didn’t even come close to my goals. I had the perfect plan to beat him and was executing it to a T. I am just a huge ego loss as to what happen. I am way to competitive and this one hurt. I could have pushed it if I was just winded or tired or legs were hurting but I jsut couldn get though those side cramps.  

Todd
Swim = 11:25
T1 = :53
Bike = 36:41
T2 = :47
Run = 32:59
Total = 1:22:43
Chris
Swim = 10:48
T1 = 1:42
Bike = 38:26
T2 = 1:05
Run = 30:04
Total = 1:22:02

Here is the other report.

Play Tri RR

I'm doing this little experiment where I deprive myself of coffee (actually all caffeinated beverages, but coffee is really the only one I hold near and dear) the week leading up to a race, and reintroduce it on race in hopes of a performance boost.  Today is day 2 with NO caffeine and I'm realizing with a long, long week this is going to be...and I think my co-workers may be realizing it too.  {Enter cranky Kelli}