Tick Tick Tick. Sarasota CAMTRI Sprint Continental Cup
Time goes by so quickly and constant in the moment choices can be the difference between an alright race and a great race. Today I was on the wrong side of the deal. When I crossed the finish line it took me a while to figure out what happned. I was tired, I put it out there, felt strong in the swim, bike, and run. Yet my place was from from what it should be and I ran all by myself again. At first glance I was pissed, I thought I had made a difference over the winter. The answer was that I had, but I broke it down to a few minor details in the swim. For the full story keep reading...
I woke up at a pretty reasonable hour thanks to my race being at 12:30, plenty of rest under my belt. I stumbled around a bit before getting some run clothes on and heading out on a 2 mile shakeout. I take in how beautiful it is. The trees lean in to almost grab you as the sun kisses your skin. The air temperature is just perfect for running sitting in the mid 50s. The shakeout felt great and before I knew it I was out of miles and back at the hotel. I grab a coffee and head upstairs to finish final preperations. Oatmeal, honey, peanut butter, and banana is the meal of choice for the morning. I do some last minute relaxing around before heading to the course on my bike. (Benefit of only being a mile from the course)
Check in is much easier than my last race in Sarasota, and I'm squared away in a matter of minutes. I head over to the team camp and hop on a trainer for a bike warm up. I go through how I feel with Braden and Jeff, walking through it with them I felt great. Body was well rested and was emotionally sharp as I hadn't raced in a long time. After 10 minutes of spinning with a few pickups I hop off and take it to transition to set up. The blue carpet reminds me that it really is race day, and gets me excited every time. Bike, helmet, run shoes...It's all there so I made it that far. I set my bag back in the athletes lounge and head for a shakeout mile before they open the water for us. Feeling smooth makes the mile warm up go by even faster. A brief warm up in the water before I hop out to get staged.
While in the staging line Braden and Jeff again help me out with some hydration and a towel to stay warm. We ask around and figure out that while the other 3 races were wetsuit legal ours was not, so I strip down and hop around a bit to make up for the suit warmth. I get called down to the dock as the 14th athlete and grab a spot close to the center. A smaller field means it isn't long before all athletes are on deck and the air is still. "Take your [beep] marks" The gun beats the official this time around and the dock is thrown back as all the men leap forward.
The similar thrashing of the men's race kicks off once again, and I just put my head down. After pounding it out for a 100m I take a look to see where I'm at and it looks good. Room to work with. Then around 200m an experience that only started this past summer occurs again. I don't know if it is asthma attack (I haven't had them in years) or a panic attack, but I only know of one thing to do when I feel it coming on. Take it as much air as I can, slow down my stroke a bit and relax my body. This only last about a 50-100m, but the time was lost and I begin to make it up. I pass people, they pass me and it is a fun experience company to the attack once again. At around 450-500m something else comes up...I feel my cap sliding back and before I know it I lose it. Luckily I had some major instinct like reflexes and grab it almost instantly. I pull it in and stuff it in my suit, something I guess I didn't need to do according to Craig (an offical and friend of mine) later on when I asked, but I didn't want to risk it. Little did I know the 3-5 seconds I lost doing this would be the difference. As I finish the swim I see an official pointing at me, I'm guessing due to my cap missing or I just look funny who knows. However, I worry about this a bit and as I exit I take the time to pull out my cap and show them I had it. Tick Tick Tick, another few seconds at an important time to be moving fast.
Once I've shown my cap I sprint to my bike and attempt to get my helmet on. I miss the clip the first two attempts and lose a second or two. Tick Tick. Finally, I'm pushing my bike towards the line and I realize I've missed a massive group. 10-15 seconds is the difference between being in the pack or not. One guy pulls up with me and we get to work. I get my left shoe is SUPER easy, but things can't come that easy without something happening. My right shoes won't get on, 3 attempts to get my foot in and all fail. I guess the 2 practices I got with getting shoes on wasn't enough. Iowa weather please agree with us going forward so I can't have an excuse. Once it is I am pulling a lot, and I feel good. I feel WAY better than last year so I with the guy to catch 2 guys. I get to the front and pull through the corner quickly, I motion for the next guy to take a turn at the front. However, I had gapped them without any effort. He pulls up next to me and says "Let's work together", which was my intention. Just hold my wheel better when I pull, I've got the legs now. The two guys we picked up didn't really have much value, but for some reason we kept them in the group and we kept losing ground to group ahead. They were bigger and had more than one man pulling. I lost the 15v1 battle and before I knew the bike was over so quickly. I was talking to Braden later post race, and I realized I never went into the drops. The group was so easy to stay with even when I pulled hard. A good and a bad thing. I may be investing in short bars because I need a method of solo gapping at 28-30mph.
I come out of transition way back and a lot of people may have just turned in the towel being so far back. However, I took the opportunity to work on a form focused run. One guy in my group takes off, but I quickly reel him in and blow by him. The race unfolds way ahead of me and I just focus on smooth running. I catch a person or two, but the group just had too much time on me to make it up today. My run is one of the most even split of the day, so I take that away as a positive being that I pulled the most on the bike. That catches everyone up to the finish line where the weird feeling of not knowing occured. So what to take away from this?
I swim roughly a minute faster than 12 months earlier. I biked while pulling a lot almost 4 minutes faster than a desperatly holding on and barely getting by Tyson. My run was about exactly the same while running in no man's land, while I had to people to continuously pass at Clermont. So I'm in a GREAT position compared to last year at this time, but just got out raced. The seconds added up and I lost to some people that I am very capable of beating. Expect something better around the corner as I get these little details figured out. Now unlike last year when I finished and went straight back into track training, I can carry what I got over the winter and keep improving. I have a quick road stop for the Shamrock Shuffle with Runablaze and perhaps something else. Otherwise the next triathlon is Club Nationals where I will representing the Triclones in the Non-Draft and Draft legal races! Thanks to everyone! REALLY I couldn't do it without your support!
PS:William Jenks took photos of the race and I will add them on here as I get them! 
I woke up at a pretty reasonable hour thanks to my race being at 12:30, plenty of rest under my belt. I stumbled around a bit before getting some run clothes on and heading out on a 2 mile shakeout. I take in how beautiful it is. The trees lean in to almost grab you as the sun kisses your skin. The air temperature is just perfect for running sitting in the mid 50s. The shakeout felt great and before I knew it I was out of miles and back at the hotel. I grab a coffee and head upstairs to finish final preperations. Oatmeal, honey, peanut butter, and banana is the meal of choice for the morning. I do some last minute relaxing around before heading to the course on my bike. (Benefit of only being a mile from the course)
Check in is much easier than my last race in Sarasota, and I'm squared away in a matter of minutes. I head over to the team camp and hop on a trainer for a bike warm up. I go through how I feel with Braden and Jeff, walking through it with them I felt great. Body was well rested and was emotionally sharp as I hadn't raced in a long time. After 10 minutes of spinning with a few pickups I hop off and take it to transition to set up. The blue carpet reminds me that it really is race day, and gets me excited every time. Bike, helmet, run shoes...It's all there so I made it that far. I set my bag back in the athletes lounge and head for a shakeout mile before they open the water for us. Feeling smooth makes the mile warm up go by even faster. A brief warm up in the water before I hop out to get staged.
While in the staging line Braden and Jeff again help me out with some hydration and a towel to stay warm. We ask around and figure out that while the other 3 races were wetsuit legal ours was not, so I strip down and hop around a bit to make up for the suit warmth. I get called down to the dock as the 14th athlete and grab a spot close to the center. A smaller field means it isn't long before all athletes are on deck and the air is still. "Take your [beep] marks" The gun beats the official this time around and the dock is thrown back as all the men leap forward.
The similar thrashing of the men's race kicks off once again, and I just put my head down. After pounding it out for a 100m I take a look to see where I'm at and it looks good. Room to work with. Then around 200m an experience that only started this past summer occurs again. I don't know if it is asthma attack (I haven't had them in years) or a panic attack, but I only know of one thing to do when I feel it coming on. Take it as much air as I can, slow down my stroke a bit and relax my body. This only last about a 50-100m, but the time was lost and I begin to make it up. I pass people, they pass me and it is a fun experience company to the attack once again. At around 450-500m something else comes up...I feel my cap sliding back and before I know it I lose it. Luckily I had some major instinct like reflexes and grab it almost instantly. I pull it in and stuff it in my suit, something I guess I didn't need to do according to Craig (an offical and friend of mine) later on when I asked, but I didn't want to risk it. Little did I know the 3-5 seconds I lost doing this would be the difference. As I finish the swim I see an official pointing at me, I'm guessing due to my cap missing or I just look funny who knows. However, I worry about this a bit and as I exit I take the time to pull out my cap and show them I had it. Tick Tick Tick, another few seconds at an important time to be moving fast.
Once I've shown my cap I sprint to my bike and attempt to get my helmet on. I miss the clip the first two attempts and lose a second or two. Tick Tick. Finally, I'm pushing my bike towards the line and I realize I've missed a massive group. 10-15 seconds is the difference between being in the pack or not. One guy pulls up with me and we get to work. I get my left shoe is SUPER easy, but things can't come that easy without something happening. My right shoes won't get on, 3 attempts to get my foot in and all fail. I guess the 2 practices I got with getting shoes on wasn't enough. Iowa weather please agree with us going forward so I can't have an excuse. Once it is I am pulling a lot, and I feel good. I feel WAY better than last year so I with the guy to catch 2 guys. I get to the front and pull through the corner quickly, I motion for the next guy to take a turn at the front. However, I had gapped them without any effort. He pulls up next to me and says "Let's work together", which was my intention. Just hold my wheel better when I pull, I've got the legs now. The two guys we picked up didn't really have much value, but for some reason we kept them in the group and we kept losing ground to group ahead. They were bigger and had more than one man pulling. I lost the 15v1 battle and before I knew the bike was over so quickly. I was talking to Braden later post race, and I realized I never went into the drops. The group was so easy to stay with even when I pulled hard. A good and a bad thing. I may be investing in short bars because I need a method of solo gapping at 28-30mph.
I come out of transition way back and a lot of people may have just turned in the towel being so far back. However, I took the opportunity to work on a form focused run. One guy in my group takes off, but I quickly reel him in and blow by him. The race unfolds way ahead of me and I just focus on smooth running. I catch a person or two, but the group just had too much time on me to make it up today. My run is one of the most even split of the day, so I take that away as a positive being that I pulled the most on the bike. That catches everyone up to the finish line where the weird feeling of not knowing occured. So what to take away from this?
I swim roughly a minute faster than 12 months earlier. I biked while pulling a lot almost 4 minutes faster than a desperatly holding on and barely getting by Tyson. My run was about exactly the same while running in no man's land, while I had to people to continuously pass at Clermont. So I'm in a GREAT position compared to last year at this time, but just got out raced. The seconds added up and I lost to some people that I am very capable of beating. Expect something better around the corner as I get these little details figured out. Now unlike last year when I finished and went straight back into track training, I can carry what I got over the winter and keep improving. I have a quick road stop for the Shamrock Shuffle with Runablaze and perhaps something else. Otherwise the next triathlon is Club Nationals where I will representing the Triclones in the Non-Draft and Draft legal races! Thanks to everyone! REALLY I couldn't do it without your support!
PS:William Jenks took photos of the race and I will add them on here as I get them!
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