Tuesday, April 8, 2014

Alpha Delta Pi-athlon

My first race of the season has come and gone.  It was a small, local triathlon that had some unique distances.  It was a short 300 yard swim, in a 12 lane pool, so you had to go under a lane line at every 25 yard mark.  It was a short run to the transition area and then a flat, and easy to follow, 11 mile bike ride, followed by a 5k run through MTSU's campus in Murfreesboro, TN.

I knew it was going to be chilly, but was hoping it would be warmer than expected.  That did not happen.  I woke to 42 degrees at my house and thought that I could deal with that.  I packed my car, grabbed my coffee and Chocolate UCAN and hit the road.

Well, as I arrived in Murfreesboro, it was 36 degrees and "felt like" 32.  That is a cold triathlon.  I prepped everything and jogged the run course to make sure I knew where I was going.  The course was marked well, which is a problem is a lot of smaller triathlons, so I was able to scout the course and know exactly where I was going once on the run.

After getting everything laid out in the transition area, I walked to the pool for the start.  I laid my Tri4Him long sleeve cycling jersey on the pool deck to slip on after the swim and walked into the pool.  Everyone got lined up and I was seeded #1.

I was chatting with the #2 guy before the start when a lady walked up and just said "Go" without any warning that we were about to start.  I quickly put on my goggles and jumped in.  After an uneventful swim, I ran to T1.  After a little trouble slipping on my cycling jersey, I got to my bike, put on my Rudy Project helmet, and took off.

One of the main reasons I decided to do this race 1 week before NOLA 70.3 was to get some kinks worked out.  And boy were there some kinks.  Of course my power meter wasn't working for the first time this year, so I tried to figure that thing out for the first mile or two until I decided it didn't matter.  I also just didn't feel right.  I felt like I was a little low on my bike.  After spending the winter on the trainer, it is always hard to get comfortable when riding outside.  For whatever reason, during the winter when I'm mostly on the trainer, I tend to lower my seat a little.  Then once I go outside, I realize that my seat is too low.  Well, needless to say, my bike split wasn't near what it needs to be, but it was ok.  I have since then adjusted the seat height and hopefully got it all figured out.  I got to the last 1/2 mile or so of the bike and had to got over 5-6 speed bumps while trying to get my frozen feet out of my bike shoes with my frozen hands.  This probably cost me 30-45 seconds just doing that.  It probably would have been faster to leave my feet in my shoes and have run into T2 in my bike shoes.

I racked my bike and took off on the run with my numb feet.  Again, it was an uneventful run and I crossed the finish line first.  I never started my watch because of the abrupt start so I had no feedback during the race.  I didn't see a clock until I finished.  I believe I ran the 5k in 17:40ish.  Nothing great, but not bad considering how terrible I felt on the bike.  But it could also be the training I've done over the past few weeks. I had a pretty solid ride the previous Tuesday of about 3.5 hours, and had a great 6 mile fartlek in about 34 minutes on Thursday.  So I was definitely not rested.  But NOLA is the first big goal of the year.  Getting my feet wet in my first Pro race since Steelhead 70.3 of 2011.  I'm nervous, but very excited.  I'm still putting together my nutrition plan, race goals, etc.

No matter what happens, my goal is to finish L.A.S.T.  God has bigger plans for me no matter how I finish.  One thing I used to get caught up in before the race was analyzing the start list.  I am not going to show up and be able to put out some super human performance.  I need to stay focused on what I know that I'm capable of doing and not get overwhelmed by who I'm racing.

NOLA race report will be up in about a week.  Stay tuned....

Make sure to check out the race coverage at Ironman


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