Been awhile ....

Ummmmm, yeah. These updates have been few and far between, so here's the short attention span version of the race season so far:

St. Anthony's 2:40:16; Swim was a little rougher this year than last and I dropped 2.5 minutes off of that time despite being in better swim shape, but maybe the adrenaline was really pumping in 2007 as it was my first race! Ride was 3.5 minutes faster than last year and I felt a lot better coming off of the bike. Run started out great, but I hit the wall at mile 4. Struggled home to a 56:xx 10K (which is not that bad by my standards), but feel I could have knocked a couple minutes off of that. The slow recovery from the half marathon really put a big dent in my run ability. One of my goals this year was to break 2:40:00 in an olympic. My next and probably last chance will be at Annapolis.

Columbia Tri: 2:53:19; I was treating this as a training day for Mooseman and didn't plan on hammering it at all. The starting line announcer had to lie about the water temperature to get us all in, but since it was around 55 degrees I don't blame him. Holy crap, that was cold! It did make for a personal best sub-25:00 swim though; I really wanted to be out of that water. Columbia bike course is really challenging with all of the hills, and I lost 6.5 minutes to a flat in the first 4 miles or so. Averaged 18 MPH even with that little hiccup and on that course I'm was happy with it. The run at Columbiz is the real challenge. There are 5-6 seriously steep hills with equally punishing downhills on the other side. I kept my HR in a fairly comfortable zone, walking the hills where necessary to keep from overdoing it. Still came out with a sub-58:00 10K which actually surprised me a bit. Sign up for this race next year is next week (!!!!), but I don't know if I'll do it again. It will depend on which half I might be interested in.

Mooseman Half Ironman: 6:21:27; I was hoping to go (and think I'm capable of going) under 6:00:00 so my time will speak for itself. Swim was right around where I wanted it at 34:06, but I think 33:00 is doable. I had some wetsuit issues in the first couple hundred meters and had to flip on my back to adjust the closure 2-3 times. The water was super clear (and cold at 60 degrees), but it was a good swim.

The bike course was rolling with a couple short, steep hills and some gradual climbs. The road conditions were pretty horrendous, though. I had practiced my nutrition strategy ahead of time, but it kind of fell apart during the first loop and I had some stomach cramps. I got things sorted out by the second loop, but by then it was too late. Neck and shoulder problems made staying aero a chore in the last 10 miles. I had made a tiny (tiny, I swear!) adjustment to my bar position about a month out from the race and hadn't had too many issues, but the combination of probably a slightly stretched out position and a death grip on the bars going over some really rough pavement just made things tense up. (I've since returned the bars to a more relaxed position and haven't had any issues. Lesson learned, but a bit too late!). Rolled in at 3:06:00 (goal was sub-3:00:00), so that wasn't too bad. I think I dropped 8-9 minutes on the second lap compared to the first.

The run is where that little nutrition issue reared it's incredibly ugly head. I had more than 1/3 of my concentrated InfiniT solution left in the bottle when I racked my bike, which included the electrolytes I needed. Oh, and did I mention that despite the 60 degree water it was approaching 95 and humid that day? Yeah, and I was sweating like mad. About 1/4 mile into the run both of my quads cramped up and refused to unlock. I then locked up a hamstring trying to stretch out a quad! Eventually things got moving and shuffled to a 9:1x first mile; that was the closest I was to seeing a 9:00 mile the rest of the day. I got down some salt tabs at the first aid station, but the lack of calories from the bike just left my legs with nothing and the heat was killing me. The next 2+ hours were spent shuffling along and then walking ... often. There were two wicked hills on the two loop course. I was thinking I could realistically go 2:15:00 on the run but came in at 2:36:41. Ouch. Literally. I can't blame the heat and nutrition mistakes entirely, though. Maybe (just maybe ;) ) the fact that my long runs leading up to this race after the March half mary were 6, 6, and 7 miles. And two of those were 10Ks at the end of olympic races. Undertrained = me on the run. I also probably pushed the bike too hard knowing that I would need to make up time there. A decent run would have put me under 6 hours, but it wasn't to be, and I had a fantastic time up in New Hampshire. That's what first 1/2 Ironmans are for, right? To live and learn. Despite some disappointment it leeft me wanting for more. We'll have to pick out a race for next season and actually train better for it. Probably something later on in the summer, though.

General Smallwood Sprint: 1:34:08; This was a fun race to do just before heading down to the beach for the 4th of July. Probably my best overall finish so far: 25/140 out of all men and 4th in my age group. I'd like to say that I was close to a podium finish, but I was a full 3 minutes out of 3rd! It still was nice to see that result. If only I could run well. I dropped my chain on the bike twice (even after adjusting things); once in the middle of a steep hill. Wasn't fun to get going again after that. The bike wiped me out more than I thought it would (again, probably pushed too hard). There were some not so nice hills at the very beginning of the run course that sapped a lot of energy. Oh, and the swim was full of weeds that stole my Garmin watch strap right off of my wrist!! Of course the first time I decide to wear it in the swim instead of putting it on in transition a freaking plant steals it!

Coming up next:

New Jersey State Sprint: this weekend 7/27
North East Sprint: 8/17 (yes, after the half I'm taking advantage of sprints for a little bit ...)
Annapolis Olympic: 9/7 (different course than last year, but probably an easier run)
Savageman Olympic: 9/21 (possibly, not signed up yet; it's at Deep Creek, should be a beautiful but tough course. The Half is tempting ... for next year)
Ragnar Relay: 9/26-27. This is going to be awesome: 183 mile, 12 person relay from Cumberland, MD to Washington, DC. Team DCDD is going to rock it!

Then some time off, but maybe a fall half marathon? Let's not go there just yet!