After a month long hiatus, where I was finally getting to put in some base cycling mileage, I decided to to break my promise of not racing in July… and race in July.  The past month was very tiring, still trying to maintain some quality with the swim and run training, all while cycling ~2000k.  I came pretty close, but needless to say, my legs had nothing on race day.

Since I was having some abdominal strain issue lingering for the previous 2 weeks, I decided to race in the Sprint(which only had a 500m swim) rather the full Olympic.  Given the short swim, I thought for sure breaking 1hr should be easy.

RACE- conditions were ideal other than a strong wind to the East.

SWIM- I was super excited about swimming 500m because I’ve never participated in such a short swim in a tri.  This was one of those rare races where I’d lead the swim start to finish.  Unfortunately, because of showing up late to the race venue, my pre-race WU consisted of a 3min swim, not sufficient to get my body ready to hammer.  So I led out of the water by about 30-35sec, but in a not very fast time.

T1- perfect transition, I seem to be better and better with each race.

BIKE- first k was all uphill into the wind… when you take into account me tryingto put my shoes on, that first k too over 2.5min, very slow indeed.  Once over the hill I put my head down and tried to maintain a decent pace, but the legs were just not there.  At the TA, I had a 45second lead, but lost it at the 17k mark coming back.  So much for leading the whole race start to finish.  I only lost another 10-15sec in  the last 3k to this competitor before entering T2.

T2- other than losing 1-2sec to put on my shoes, it was another good transition, and I was first onto the run course.  The former first place athlete was still in transition putting on his socks(??).

RUN- the run course was rolling, and it included the same first k as the bike along the side of the road, uphill, into the wind.  I think I was over 4min on that one.  At the 2.5k TA I was in about 9:30.  Coming back, I noticed my friend Tom caught the rest of the field and was in 2nd place 2:15down on me.  At that point I knew both of us would finish 1-2.  I cruised the last 2.5k, but because I had the tailwind coming back, I finished in 18:25(19:05 chip time which includes transition).

First overall in 1:01:12, about 3:30 head of 2nd place.  So much for having a fast race.  The past month has definitely taken a toll on my speed, but I felt it was necessary to have some base(I couldn’t train much in Feb-Apr due to my surgery) to have a more successful second half of the season.

Next up is Owen Sound Olympic… I’ll try to be more rested for that one.  It certainly will be more competitive.