Tri Shark

Well last Saturday I raced the Tri Shark Sprint Tri down in Bloomington, IL. Not sure why I signed up to do this as it was quite a journey to only race for an hour and eight minutes but none the less it was a good time.

The day started bright and early at 4:15, good thing everything was packed and ready to go. I was up and out the door in twenty minutes, I stop to get some gas and coffee and I was on my way to drive the two hours to the race. I got there right on time with an hour and a half until race time, picked up my packet, racked my bike, realized there was more racks for my age group in a much more desirable location so re racked my bike and started to lay things out. Once everything was organized and I went through the mental check list, I suited up in my new Blue Seventy and head down to the start.

Swim: The swim is a 600 yard triangle broken into 200 yard sections. The goal was to swim with one of the guys that I swim with in Masters and to stay on his feet most of the swim. I try to start in the front of the pack, not because I am an outstanding swimmer but rather I would rather have folks go around me than go around folks. As we took off I could not get away from folks as it seemed like we had a large pack that was mashed together for the first 200 yards, since I lost my drafting partner I was finally able to settle in after the first buoy and tried to find my rhythm. The only problem I was having was that it was a bit overcast and with my tinted goggles I was having a hard time picking up the buoys, overall the swim felt good. The new wetsuit was much better, no more rubbing on the neck. Time was 9:24.7 or 1:34 per 100.

T1: Transition was pretty uneventful, I have yet to figure out how to get out of my wetsuit with out sitting down. Time was 1:26

Bike: The bike was a short 13.3 and was pretty much flat but did have quite a few turns on small narrow country roads with loose gravel on the edges. The goal for the race was to hammer the bike and see where the legs were afterwards. As I got out of T1 and started down the road, there were about 4 speed bumps you had to go over for the first quarter mile or so but once out on the main road I settle in and started to go. It took me about 3 miles to start to feel comfortable and to get into my groove. Time was 33:49.6 with an average of 23.1 mph.

T2: This was the frustrating part of the day, I love my Brooks running shoes and love Yankz but man I could not get my left foot into my shoe for some reason. Every time I slipped in my foot my sole would bunch up at the front of the shoe from my foot still being wet. After the third try I finally sat down and pulled on the shoe. Going to try a few things this week to see if I can figure this out better, first going to try a little body glide on the the heal of the sole to see if that helps the foot slide in. Time for T1 was 1:31.3, this is about double where I should have been.

Run: Once again I was really feeling the calves on the run for the first mile or so but learning to just deal with and know they will come around. I rode and ran with my Garmin for the first time but was still figuring out the multi sport function as I went. I forgot to hit the lap button until mile 1 so had no idea what pace I was running at. Once I remembered to hit the button and looked down at my pace I was right about where I wanted to be. I could definitely feel the legs but made sure to try and stay on the gas. I had a goal going into this for the 5K to be at 7:10 per mile pace. Time was 22:16.8 average of 7:11.

Overall this was a solid race for me and I finished seventh in my age group, missed sixth by thirty seconds and should have made that up in T2 but what can you do. It was nice to do a Sprint and is entirely different than training for an IM. I mean we hardly are on the gas for that long during our training for IM.

Well next up Kansas 70.3 this weekend and really looking forward to a good race and to see where my endurance is at. No more sprints on the schedule only two half IM's and the big one IM Louisville.