Already tired of the slow and steady workouts I have been doing, I decided to mix it up alittle and race the BridgeLand Sprint Tri. Not the best distance since I have been training for something 10 times as long. But it would be a nice change of pace for me to keep me going till Oct. So I went in to this race just to have a good time and try some new things. The Tri was in Cypress TX 30min northwest of Houston, which Mer's sister lives. So Mer and I kicked one of our nieces out of her room and sleep over. This gave me a extra 45mins of sleep the morning over. YA.
Now for the run, great! I don't feel bad or tired which is a good sign. But not really moving that fast. And here it comes the same amount of people I passed on the bike are now passing me on the run. I slow from about a 8.5 to a 10 minute mile. Not fast at all in a Sprint tri, but not to bummed out cause I have been training for that long distance. I push through the run never stopping and holding that same pace the entire time. But BAM it hits me, 98th place on the run. Wow, during the event I was really thinking that after the ironman I might be able to focus on sprints and really try to win one. But no way in HELL I will be winning anything with that run time. Anyway, all n all I had a great time and really enjoyed the "break" from long distance training. This coming weekend I get to finally race the Texas State Time Trail Championship. Coming off a very hard week of training I don't know how I will do. But looking forward to it very much. So till then, thanks for keeping up.
I drive myself and go through the check in. Very simple with no hassles, so I head over to the swim start where surprisingly no one is. I swim about 1/4 of the course get warmed up. Man, love those master planned community man made lakes, stale. I am in the third wave after the Elite class and the 25-29age groupers. And I have a sold out field of 100 guys. I do something I have never done before, I move to the front of the group. After the 25-29er are about half way through the swim we start our race. I find that being in the front leaves me less bothered by other swimmers. But the stronger guys catch me very soon and put a good gap on me. I feel a little tired but I'm not fading to fast. I catch some of the slower 25-29 guys and some of the guys in my age group that ran out of gas. I come out of the water in 30th place with a 11minute flat swim. Not bad, but not my best, I think I could cut 1 minute off it easy. But not worried about it I had a drama free swim, which is rare.
I jog into transition and sit down in front of my bike. The rest of the guys are looking at me like I'm crazy! But I have decide to just race at a comfortable pace and focus on one thing at a time. I throw my shoes, glasses, tt helmet on and head out of transition. Now we are on the part I love, but again I have decided to hold back a little and drink plenty of fluids. One of my customers passes me at a good speed. Have a few hundred yards I notice he has stopped making forward progress and is holding his speed. So I decide to bridge up to him and buzz him a little bit. I close the gap and pass him with a thumbs up. We trade spots 3 or 4 times through the bike. We pass a large amount of people on the ride, holding a average of 24.6mhp. The only person to pass us is the "Dutchmen" who is a pro road racer. His wife does tri and they will enter the relay with him doing the bike section. Once in transition my customer tells me that is the fastest he has gone in a long time and his speed was 4mph faster then last year. I fell great and really feel I could of gone alot harder. Hope I didn't temp him to go faster and hurt his run time. I ended up placing 5th in the bike with the winner only averaging 25.1mhp. So a very tightly packed group of the top 5. I am very happy with that, because I know I could of ridden much harder and placed higher.
Now for the run, great! I don't feel bad or tired which is a good sign. But not really moving that fast. And here it comes the same amount of people I passed on the bike are now passing me on the run. I slow from about a 8.5 to a 10 minute mile. Not fast at all in a Sprint tri, but not to bummed out cause I have been training for that long distance. I push through the run never stopping and holding that same pace the entire time. But BAM it hits me, 98th place on the run. Wow, during the event I was really thinking that after the ironman I might be able to focus on sprints and really try to win one. But no way in HELL I will be winning anything with that run time. Anyway, all n all I had a great time and really enjoyed the "break" from long distance training. This coming weekend I get to finally race the Texas State Time Trail Championship. Coming off a very hard week of training I don't know how I will do. But looking forward to it very much. So till then, thanks for keeping up.