PR streak continues

With Rage 2010 under my belt, I am happy. It was an Olympic distance triathlon on the same course from last year. I beat last years time by 8 min. I have not had all of the pictures delivered to me yet so may be there will be pictures coming. Here is the race recap in the same format as last year.

I do not JUST want to finish anymore. Im over that. No more just finishing for a while. I want to be faster and perform. I dont care what anyone thinks of my times. Its me compared to me. Well, for the most part. lol. I want to compete. Yesterday this mindset was put into motion. My buddy Karl (who crushed his first ultra-marathon yesterday too, CONGRATS BUDDY, YOU ARE A MACHINE....check his blog out) put a quote on his post something to effect of shut your brain off and go. That was my theme. SHUT UP AND GO.

Swim: Last year: 37:04, Goal: 35:00, Actual: 35:24

No thinking. No analyzing, just swimming. Let it all hang out. I was not holding back. I spring to motion at the horn. Glassy eyed dudes waiting for the churn to pass held back as I went. I didnt sit in the back either. Middle, middle. I didnt look around, I didnt let anyone dictate to me, I went. I remember last year the ladies in the wave behind us caught me in the first quarter of the swim, this year, as I turned the last buoey with 300 m to go. I was not tired, I did not have any pain. I felt in control of my respiration rate and breathing. Comfortably hard pace. 2 funny things that have never happened to me. I had plenty of time before the start of my wave so I slowly went about my tasks. I am suited up and ready to head down to the water and I get the urge. I think it would be a bummer to get 500 m into the swim and realize I have to poop? Oh man you cant do THAT in your wet suit. I dont care how warm it is. So I had to de suit in the porta-potty and do the business. WIERD. Second thing was I had something in my mouth the whole swim. Lake Mead isnt exactly pristine water but it felt like a string in my mouth. Algae? Mucus? What was it? I dont know actually. Every time I turned my head to breath I felt it on my chin, WIERD. What can I do to get faster? Train the intervals like I have been doing. I think that has really helped me.

T1: last year: 5:02, Goal: sub 4:00, Actual: 4:46

No real issues. I didnt forget anything. I did not practice it at all. Just have to get faster at it. I didnt feel disoriented or out of breath or anything.

Bike: Last year: 1:47:50, Goal: 1:30:00, Actual : 1:38:26

Easily the thing I need to work on the most. Half the race is spent on the bike. I got out of T1 with only a little problem. I slipped trying to clip and banged my nacha on my bike seat. OUCH. Ignore it, push on. Now the first mile is up and big up. I get up no big deal. As I take body inventory at the top and onto the highway my swimming muscles are tired and my legs are not awake. WAKE UP LEGS. 5 miles in still not awake. My watch says I am moving the way that I want to but my legs fell sluggish. I thought if there wasnt any wind I could go a bit faster. There was a slight head wind going away from the lake which meant that the largest part of the ride would have a tail wind. I have an unofficial checkpoint and on my fastest ride it had been 50 min. I arrive at 53 min. I am passing a lot riders too. I am climbing well and I feel good. The only issue was lower back soreness. I am hydrating well and I have not had any cramping or other distress. I got to the second checkpoint at under 1 min. I am on track for my goal. I got to the last climb and passed 2 riders. This point last year I was praying I didnt have to walk it. Coast home and get ready to run. What do I have to do to get faster? I have to hit them dam hills and learn to climb faster and I need to get higher cadence riding more often in training. I think the hill repeats need to be emphasized. My time trial bike will start to get some miles in it. I rode it today 10 miles and it is fast. I need to be stronger and have better core strength for that bike. I ned to learn more aero related skills.

T2: Last year: 4:31, Goal: 4:00, Actual: 4:02

Off the bike and got the runners on. Off I go. Is it time to get some tri shoes? Sitting down putting socks and shoes on isnt terribly time efficient. Next time do not let the race belt get tangled up, messed around with that for a second. Off I go, lets run.

Run: Last year: 1:03:36, Goal: 55:00, Actual: 1:08:12

My only disapointment. Shaking off the biking legs did not go so hot. No pain, no cramping, nothing out of the ordinary. Just couldnt get the legs going. The first and last mile is all dirt and rocks. After the first mile the road turns up hill. Perfect to let them legs get going-NOT. By the second mile the road turns again up for a mile. At least this road is paved. Then to the turnaround. I am starting to feel good. I am happy to say that all the olympic runners that passed me all got passed except one. I needed an all out sprint at the end to catch him and I didnt have that. But once I turned around I had a massive negative split. I lost time on this run in the first 2 miles. I wish my watch had mile splits to see what they were. I bet it was a 5 or 6 min negative split. Once I was in run mode I killed it, it just took way to long to get there.

Total: Last year: 3:38:02, Goal 3:13:00, Actual: 3:30:49

I have set a new PR at this race by 8 min but fell short of my expectations in the bike and run. May be a little lofty goals. Id rather have that than too lax a goal. I did not spend a lot of time triathlon training this year. I am fitter, lighter, much more conditioned but not as fast as I want. I think the biggest issue was not having ease with transferring to the next discipline. My legs did not respond when I changed. That sums up all athlete struggles but I took way too long to do that. I am happy with my time, just not content, like always. I felt like I belonged. I passed people and held them off. I went as hard as I could go. I didnt let fatigue or pain stop me. I need to get faster. FASTER!! I did not feel out of shape. I did not have trouble with the distance. I just need to be faster!

So what now? Even though at this moment I do not have any soreness or lasting tiredness, when I am fully recovered I want to do another Vdot. Get my run just so much faster. No more just finishing. Go back to small races. 5 K's and 10K's. May be a sprint or 2. Just go fast. I need to get ready for the San Diego marathon relay and use it as a fast workout. Then Ragnar Wasatch and get ready for hills. I want to get my long bike up. I want to get my bike speed faster. I think I will adopt a 10 day revolving schedule of 2 days biking (one hill repeat and one long), 1 swim either long or interval alternating each 10 day cycle, 3 runs (one long and the other 2 do some speed), and 2 days of strength training. Emphasize legs, core, kettle bells, scapular and cervical stability to get ready for aero riding. Then the last 2 days off. I am not sure how my triathlon schedule will look for the rest of the year. All I know is that i want to kill the half Iron Silverman this year. FASTER!!!

IF I wanted to put myself in place with the rest of the field ( I am a competitor after all) here is how that goes. Overall 158 out of 204. Div place 9/10. Top 10? lol. Sex place 117/142. If I reached my goal I would have come in 6th in my division. The winner beat me by 41 min. The bike is my biggest down fall. 15 min too slow compared to my division. On the run 10 min too slow and for the swim 5 min too slow. Hmm goals for next year perhaps?

“If you're not making mistakes, you're not taking risks, and that means you're not going anywhere. The key is to make mistakes faster than the competition, so you have more changes to learn and win.”

John W. Holt, Jr.

umm yeah....thats what I am doing.