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American Zofingen is just a plain hard race. Super cool vibe. Knowing about everyone there does not hurt. Drove down at o dark thirty with a newish friend from masters swimming and someone who has been crushing me in races for years who ended up winning the short course after another very much faster friend of ours insanely missed the turn off back to transition and kept going up the stupid steep climb.
Perfect morning for racing. The venue is amazing. Met Peter's wife soon after I got there. He was crazy enough to be racing the long course. Some day I will be man enough for that, not any time soon.
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Short course start. Good thing we all were looking at our watches.
First run was kinda sucky feeling. I must have blocked out just how hard it was from last fall. Fell twice, only once on the bad shoulder. Thought the day was over for a few seconds but all was well. Got around pretty well. Figured a bit of "power hiking" was a good call and I did remember the second run really sucking. 38:26 reasonable. Had a Dev like 35 second transition and was off on the bike.
The dirt climb out of transition is uhh interesting but quickly forgotten when you turn and start going up the real hill. I kept checking the shifter to make sure it was really in the "easy" gear. Must have checked it about 20 times just to be sure. I had maybe 4 people in sight when I got on the bike. Never caught any of them. Maybe actually doing some bike training would help. I will admit that I took it really easy on the downhills. A bit gun shy as the only time I have ever put my new bike into a hard turn [7 days prior] I ended up on the ground. I need to figure out the brakes and ride it down some hills. Pretty weak effort now that I look at the power file. Sure felt like I was working hard...
Duration: 1:40:39
Work: 1279 kJ
TSS: 99.7 (intensity factor 0.771)
Norm Power: 237
VI: 1.12
Pw:HR: n/a
Pa:HR: n/a
Distance: 28.792 mi
Min Max Avg
Power: 0 506 212 watts
Cadence: 34 225 90 rpm
Speed: 2.2 46.2 17.2 mph
Pace 1:18 26:49 3:30 min/mi
Crank Torque: 0 642 205 lb-in
Another Dev like transition [:26] and I was off. The second run was nasty. I caught and passed one person in the SC but he got back by me. Lots of power hiking. Had a new and interesting cramp in my quad. Never felt that before. Managed to hold it together enough to move decent on the flats and down hill parts. Kept passing F1 people and was thinking, you sorry sons of bitches have to ride again, wow you are bummin. Had 2 in sight for the last half mile but could not do anything about it. Turns out the guy 10 seconds in front of me was in the AG. Oh well. 43:27.
11 OA /3rd 35-39. Managed to cut about 4 minutes off of my time in the fall. All things considered pretty cool.
Maybe I was a bit drunk but having a cosmo with duathlon celebrity Dave Roche seemed like a good idea at the time ;-)
The slowtwitch boys!
The RD knows how to throw a party! As the F1 [middle distance] and long course people have to run through the pavillion [about 3 feet from those kegs] on each loop it makes for interesting spectating.
As usual I had a great time hanging around and drinking beer after the race. Luckily they eventually dragged me outta there...
Sorry that I did not get to hang out with Peter as he was still racing when I had to split. Next time.
This is a great race!
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Comments
Definitely looks like an awesome race. One of these years when I get sick of WTC races, I may just have to join you.
With all the smack talk'in on ST and this report, I'm gonna need to add this to the race list at some point!
Makes me kinda want to do it too. Congrats on the improvement and the podium.
This race is really a must see/do to believe. It sets up great for the high w/kg folks, not so much for us, um, "bigger" guys. John McGovern who is the founder, kinda sorta RD [he has the guys that work for him do a lot of the actual RD stuff] describes the race as the "spawn of ST". Seems to be growing as well. Certainly a good check of fitness going into the season.