Elite Nationals Aquathlon

So... I did my 2nd ever ITU race and it just so happened to be the US National Championships. And needless to say, it didn't go well. A lot of my training this summer has been more focused on longer racing, and this race was a shock to the system. And the month of August is never a great month to expect to have good swimming fitness because the LAC is closed for its annual cleaning.

Anyways, myself, my brother, and many others from Lexington all headed down to Tuscaloosa, AL on Thursday. I ate at Olive Garden Thursday night, and then called it a night early. Friday, we woke up and went down to the race site to workout a little. I got in a great warmup swim in the river. The water was a little warm, but there was almost no current at all thanks to the dams. We rode the amateur bike course, then jogged a little before we grabbed lunch and headed back to the hotel to chill out. We ended up eating Mellow Mushroom that evening and went to bed. Saturday was a early day for Eric, Beth, Ben, Jeff, Sean, George, Sam, Allison and Kevin (and I believe there were still some more from Lexington). I woke up around 7 am and grabbed some breakfast considering my race didn't start until 2:15. I drove down to the race site to watch everybody on the run and everybody did amazing. My bro finished 25th in the extremely competitive 20 - 24 AG while Kevin finished 17th. Eric finished 5th and Jeff finished 8th in the 30 - 34 AG while Beth finished 4th on the women's side of the 30 - 34 AG. George also got 8th in his AG, Allison got 10th in her AG, and Sam got 24th in his AG. Overall, I think Lexington had a great showing at the National Championship.

I got down to the race site around 12:30 and started getting everything ready for my race. Word got around that the dam was opened up because of flooding so the current was extremely strong today. The fastest AG swimmer swam in the mid - 22 minutes, which is extremely slow. Hayley Piersol swam over 20 minutes in the elite women's race when she has been swimming in the low 17's for that same distance in many of her races previous to this one. So I knew it was going to be a swimmer's race, which did not play into my favor. I just stayed positive, got in a great swim warmup, and hoped to find some fast feet for me to sit on.

The horn went off and we dove in. I was stuck in the middle of the pontoon and ended up between the 2 swim groups. The faster swimmers either got on the far left or the far right side of the pontoon, and thanks to my draw, I was one of the last ones to pick my spot. I felt great for the first 200 or so. It was pretty open, and I didn't get beat up like I did in Austin. I tried to come over on some feet and ended up battling with someone for those feet. I backed off and tried to get on his feet and ending up fighting with someone else. This is where it all went wrong. I need to work on my swimming tactics. I lost a lot of time in the next 100 - 200 yards because I spent too much energy looking for some feet instead of just putting my head down and focusing on going fast. I eventually found feet, but it was too late. I was the last person in the pack and I soon realized that our pack was only made up of about 5 guys and we were pretty far back from everyone else. I still had to work extremely hard to stay in that pack and I came out of the water in 22:40 (ugh!!!!) and was 3rd from last (embarassing). My HR felt like it was above 200 and I was breathing extremely hard. I had a dismal T1 and made it almost impossible to catch the few guys I came out of the water with. On the first hill on the bike, I caught 2 of the 4 guys just in front of me, but the other 2 guys pulled away and really worked hard. Unfortunately, myself and the other 2 guys didn't have the organization to get together and work to catch the people up the road. I ended up riding away from those guys and I rode 5 of the 6 laps all by myself. I was lapped by the leaders on that 5th lap so I was pulled from the course and thus embarassed once more.

I know that I hit both my max HR and my max VO2 during that race. That style of racing is so much different than anything that I've ever done. I am usually breathing really hard right after the swim and I use the first few miles on the bike to get going. You can't do that in this race. It is 100% all out, all of the time. I made the mistake of assuming I could use my bike as a strength later in the bike. I needed to recover from the swim in the first 2 - 3 miles of the bike and this is where I should have bridged up to the 2 guys who really worked well together to catch the big pack up the road. They only had about 10 seconds on me out of T1 and I just didn't "man" up to close the gap.

But I know I need to really work on my swim and my open water swimming tactics. I'm sorry to everyone who really supports me and roots for me. I wish I did better and I'm going to do everything in my power this off season to become a better triathlete. I have the Susan Bradley Cox Tri for Sight in a few weeks here in Lexington, KY which is going to be a great race. This is always a great event and they are giving away better awards than they ever have thanks to Kiwami, John's Run/Walk Shop, and a few other sponsors who have made generous donations. Then I'm racing in Augusta 70.3 towards the end of September.

Tony