Still in the Middle of the Pack

Week Review

Decent training, just not nearly enough. The high light of the week was racing on Sunday. Tri for your Cause out at the Boulder Res. 500m swim, 17 mile bike, 3.1 mile run. I went into this race knowing I wasn't going to be fast. So my goals revolved around pacing. The water at the res was a refreshing 55 degrees. In case you weren't sure, that's really cold. Like ice cream headache just from putting your face in the water. But hey, cowboy up right! Started in the last wave, immediately swim out to the left away from the main pack. This is my first open water swim of the year and between that and the cold I didn't want to be bumpin' and grindin' with the pack. I found clear water and just focused on setting a strong catch and fully switching from one side to the other. The turn came up real quick and after banging into someone who was hanging on the buoy (which is a bad place to park btw) I just focused on continuing those long relaxed strokes. Hit the beach in 8 minutes. I'm guessing the swim was a little short, because that's 1:36/100m. But I was glad to be out of the ice bath. :) With the successful swim completed, I headed up the beach for my looonnnngggg transition. Before the race I decided not to rush T1. I ended up taking 5 minutes in T1. I dried my hair, arms and legs, put on socks, arm warmers and a heavy vest. The air temp was in the 50s, and I was determined not to be frozen for the bike ride.

Off on the bike, 17 miles, out of the Res, up jay/36 to Neva and back on 63rd and the Diagonal. The biggest challenge I had here was keeping it under control. I found myself riding up near threshold, which would have been perfect is I was ready to "race", but I was guessing that if I tried that, I'd blow to pieces on the run. I kept reminding myself to chill, that the run was the key for the day. I settled in ok, focused on loose ankles, a fluid stroke and keeping my upper body relaxed. Ended up making it around the loop in 49 minutes for an average of 20.8 mph. I'm pretty happy with that considering the amount of riding I've done.

T2 was quick, under 1 min, and off on the 5k. We headed East out of the parking lot and hit that first hill, I chopped my stride and leaned into the hill and chugged my way up. This dude came by me, huffin' and puffin'. I thought damn, this guy is flyin', "go get'em man!"...he barely made the top of the hill and boom! He was done. I just kept playing the little Phil that could, maintained my cadence and lean and went by him. It was a nice reminder of what happens when you run with ego, rather than your head. I settled in, and set about chasing down the folks in front of me. First mile was 7:22, second mile 7:16, third mile 7:03. I'm really happy with the way the run played out, negative splitting and all. It was nice to be the one catching people for a change. I got passed by one person on the run, that's it. 22:25 is dreadful for 5k, I know this. but I feel good about the effort and the pacing.

Oh, finish time of 1:26

Other notes on the day. Managed my HR well through out the day. Didn't hit my highest HR until right at the end of the run. The Felt works pretty well. I'm looking forward to getting the disk on it. I will need to mess with the saddle position some though (things weren't quite perfect there, numb is not a good thing). My lower back was fine on the bike, even when I was pushing. Cadence on the bike was good, stayed 90-95 for the majority of the day. I let my cadence determine the gear I was in and this seemed to work really well.

Lessons learned:Experiment with the position of the saddleBlue Seventy Swim Socks rock!LIFT !!!! I wasn't able to truly take advantage of riding down Neva and 63rd because of lack of force to the pedalsTrain more. More Aerobic miles. What I'm doing is reaping benefits, so Stay the Course.