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Early Season Racing Reports

NavyTriGuyNavyTriGuy
in Races & Places 🏁⛺

This will be a bit of a wrap up of my season thus far. I wasn't sure what to do with my season when it began, but I did sign up for some races. 01 May was the White Lake (NC) Half, 02 May was the White Lake Sprint. 16 May was the FL IM 70.3 and 05 June was the Grandman (Fairhope AL) Sprint Tri. Overall I've had pretty good success, some frustrations and am hoping that I can take all that into account for my future training.

WLH started off with me being pretty nervous. I had not done any swimming at all...zip zero Nada since 7 Nov 2009. Also, I had a stress fracture in Dec/Jan that kept me from running for 9 weeks, so I knew I was behind my goal for the run. Good news is that I was on track for my bike power, so I determined to try to execute to the fitness I had.

Swim went about as expected...that is...awful! I was just happy to get out of the water in 52:48...my worst swim time in a half ever.

Bike went very well. I executed pretty much perfect power splits every 7 miles, and ended up right at .82 IF. I don't think I overexecuted on the bike, but I can tell you I died on the run. I've never experienced this before, but at mile 10, I just could not run any further. Cramps in both legs had my walking/shuffling/walking, and I ended up with my worst run in an event ever. Hydration? Heat? Too hard in miles 1-6? I really don't know, I just know it was baaaad. Finished in 5:54...worst HIM time in several years.

But the sprint race the next day went great! Leads me to think my run of the day before was due to poorly executed miles 1-6. Did a moderate swim, crushed the bike (.95 IF) and ran negative splits at a 7:10 pace for the 5k...that made me happy. So I felt like despite my relative poor showing in the half, I made up for it with a well executed sprint (I know, not much glory in that to be sure!!).

Got home and did my normal training for the next 10 days in prep for the FL IM 70.3 on the 16th. I've done this course before and am not enamored with it, particularly the run. However, I was determined that I would execute better, and believe it or not, the 10 days of run training had helped. Normal heat and humidity for Orlando which I was ready for as I live in FL myself.

Got out of the water in an agonizingly slow 48:19, but I didn't feel gassed, so I think I did all I should have done. Now onto the bike. On the bike, my technique is to hit my lap timer every 7 miles to get a "lap" pwr avg. I was withing a few Watts for each split and ended up right at about .81 IF, 22.2 MPH and a 166 TSS. I was very happy with keeping my IF in the box, and I felt really good off the bike (in contrast to how I felt at WLH).

For those unfamiliar, the FL IM 70.3 run is not a great course. It's 3 laps in the heat, no shade and on some grassy, dusty trails that get very very crowded as the day goes on. I was really hoping to have a good EN run IE...not slow down. It scared me pretty bad when a mile into the run, a left quad cramp started working its way into my consciousness. All I could do was stop and give myself a 30 second massage and hope for the best. I didn't want to slow down too much, and I was able to push through the cramp and keep at my pace.

The day got hotter and hotter so I took advantage of the sponges by stuffing a sponge down the back of my jersey, then one sponge under my shorts on my thigh. At each aid station, I grabbed some ice and water and refreshed the sponges by dumping ice and water down my jersey and into my shorts. I have no shame on the race course!! I was also looking forward to the finish as I was planning on presenting my GF with her engagement ring, so the whole time I was running I was rehearsing "the speech" which kept me occupied. On my last lap, there was a dood passed out in the middle of the run, surrounded by volunteers and bags of ice. Kinda scary

Finished the race in 5:20 which was a course PR for me. Had a great bike split followed by a great run (didn't slow down on the run!). Managed to finish 356th overall, 73/348 in my AG. Interestingly, although I was 65th in my AG in the bike, I was 51st in the run! I think that this is more proof that the EN execution model works exceptionally well. She said yes BTW :-)

My last race to chronicle is a small sprint I did locally. I did this race in my first season of racing back in 2004, so it was fun to do it again.

My swim was slow, I think I came out like 40/55 in the swim but was able to make up a lot of ground. Finished 3/55 on the bike and 6/55 on the run. Also, I negative split my 5k which made me very happy. Finished 5th AG and 39/532 OA despite such a lousy swim that I am embarassed to even mention it.

So despite not swimming at all, and despite an injury, I've stuck with my Off Season Training and have had some success and some not so great success. Three well executed races, one not so much. I'm now in the bulk of my HIM training plan, and really looking forward to attempting a PR at the TX IM 70.3 in Austin in Oct. Then rocking the Marine Marathon in Wash DC on the 31st!

I've been really focusing on hitting all the workouts that I can (life notwithstanding!) and hitting my goal Watts/Pace when I train. Had some good chances to work on executing my race strategy and I think that given the chance in TX, I will be able to apply all the fitness I bring to the line and leave it all on the course.

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