ChrisSouza Mooseman Oly Report
This is thefirst RR I have really ever written so bear with me. I wasracing the Oly as a tune up to my “A” race, the Patriot HIM on June 16th,so the plan for the day was to stick to HIM pacing for the entire day, and Ifeel I did a great job with it.
I made my wayup to NH for the Mooseman Oly early on Friday to deal with packet pick up andbike drop off. I had been having issues over the last couple days with shiftingthru all the gears on my Slice but was confident that I had them fixed beforepacking everything up for the trip; however I still took my bike out for a spinbefore racking it for the night. I madea last minute decision, based on weather reports, not to rack my bike overnightin the park, and took it back to my hotel with me.
Woke up at about3:30am to get in a good breakfast (1 egg, wheat toast with PB, a snickers bar(my race fuel and love it) and a bottle of custom Infinit drink), packed up thecar and headed off to site. I know, I amcrazy for getting there so early but I would prefer that than rushing aroundlast minute. It didn’t appear to haverained much over night and the transition area looked to be in great shape, butoh how that will change. Shortly afterarriving (5:01) it began to mist, about 15 minutes later it was a steady lightrain, after that it was spurts of down pours for pretty much the rest of theday. As a person that overheats veryeasily I thought this might not be so bad (I was trying to convince myselfmentally anyway). I managed to stay warmpre-race and about 20minutes before the start I thru on my sleeveless wetsuit(I really do overheat in a full sleeve) and made my way over to the swim start.
(Swim) Theydo not have a record of my splits, which sucks, but I estimate it to be around27’, which is completely horrible!!! Ishould have managed that swim in 22-23, but I only have myself to blame. I couldn’t get to the front of the packbefore the gun went off and managed to get stuck behind a slow group that Ijust couldn’t manage to get thru their breastroking madness. Once I finally made my way thru the madness Ifound some open water and just plugged away.
(T1) Decidedto use the wetsuit strippers in T1, and they helped, but only a little. They were kids and they didn’t really havethe strength to pull the suit off in 1 shot, so it took a few extraseconds. No big deal, it was miserableout there and I was grateful that people just showed up at all tovolunteer. By the time I got to my bikethere was crap everywhere! The idiot onthe side of me just tossed stuff all around and it took a little extra time todig out my stuff. I made the stupiddecision to not wear socks figuring I had already cost myself enough time intransition, so I threw on my shoes, grabbed my helmet and headed out on the road.
(Bike) I hitthe road and it was more than a mile down the road that I came to realize myshifting was going to be an issue. I musthave bumped something sticking it back in my car the night before and Istupidly didn’t do another ride pre-race. I pretty much had use of around 6 gears, which was not going to be funon this hilly bike course. Coming intothe hills I had the choice of pounding up them at 50rpm or spinning up them at120. I choose 120, and it seemed toworkout ok. The middle and back sectionof the course is really where I missed having all the middle gears, I justcouldn’t get a good cadence going without the chain dropping 2 gears randomlyby itself. The weather was also a majorfactor. Low 50’s, heavy rain at timesand wind gusts above 20mph. I waswearing just a tri top and tri shorts and felt pretty comfortable for the mostof the ride (I told you I over heat), but my feet were freezing!!! Not putting socks on for the bike was a HUGEmistake! Overall I was actually prettyhappy with the ride, surprising myself. I managed a 212w average, which is right at where I was hoping to havemy HIM pace, so very pleased with that. I was most pleased with how I handled my race plan. A good friend of mine passed me on about mile13 of the bike, and last year I would have laid the hammer down to try andcatch and pace with him, but I told myself that I had a plan and needed tostick to it. Just kept repeating to myselfthat there is no such thing as a great bike split and a shit run. Total bike time of about 1:25 (based on my Garmin. I am pretty happy with that based on thenumber of gears I had to play with and the weather we had to deal with. Nutrition was spot on, 40oz worth of myinfinit drink mixed into 1 20oz bottle plus a 20oz bottle of just water.
(T2) Racked my bike then sat down to put on socksand sneakers. I don’t usually sit butbeing as transition was a huge puddle at this point I wanted to make sure Ididn’t start the run with soaked feet. Ihad put my sneakers and socks into a zip-lok bag pre-race so they were completelydry. I was on an outside rack so I mademy way slowly out of transitions to not step in the puddles and hit the streetsrunning. 2:15, slow, but I was beingcautious.
(Run) Again I tried to stick to the days plan, pacefor HIM. My feet were solid blocks ofice so I ran easy for the first ½ mile until the numbness went away and I couldfeel that they were still attached to my body. I ran a steady pace the rest ofthe way, even managing to maintain a good pace up the hills. I managed a 48:50 for the run, which is a 7’10 PR, and I know I actually had more in me, but I was determined to stick tothe days pacing plan. I think had I goneall out I could have PR’d by 9-10 easily. The weather was not a factor on the run, it was (to me anyway) perfectconditions, chilly with some rain. No overheating.
My bestfinish ever racing 56th overall, 10/36th in AG, and49/178th overall male. Thedownside to the day is knowing that if I had been at the front of the swim andput together the time I know I could have, I would have probably jumped 10-15places, and if I had just gone all out on the run I might have jumped another 5or so spots. On the plus side, I was proudof myself for being mentally strong and sticking to the race plan. If indeed this pacing holds up like I thinkit can for my HIM in 2 weeks I should be able to PR the race. And not just PR, but with this pace plan I amlooking at potentially PR’ing between 30-40 minutes over last years’ time atthe same race.
Thanks tocoach R&P works is definitely working. The training plan is working wonders so far for my season; I just wish Ihad more free time in my day to enjoy all the benefits of the forums.
Comments
I'll hope to see you at the Patriot half in 2 weeks.
Nice report and exection....it was indeed a messy day.....sorry I didn't see you there!...good luck at Patiot (I'm doing RI 70.3 in July).