Today was the CB&I sprint triathlon in The Woodlands, TX. It was a 500m swim, 15 mile bike, and 5k run. This was my first sprint distance race.
I have been training consistently since the Galveston 70.3. The emphasis has been more on speed vs endurance efforts. Volume ranged fro 10-11 hours per week. So not bad.
Going into the night before, I made sure to eat a good breakfast Friday morning and stay hydrated throughout the day. Dinner consisted of a couple of slices of thin crust cheese pizza with avocado with the family during movie night. I had a banana and a scoop of peanut butter around 9 before bed.
Lights went out around 10 pm, but sleep was minimal. For some reason I couldn't sleep well and neither could Jennifer. I think it felt warmer than usual in the house and according to Jennifer our house got skunked. It must have smelled bad.
Anyways, the alarm went off at 4:30 and I got up. Brushed my teeth, put on my race kit and sweatshirt and headed out the door. The car was packed and I had a Cliff Bar and Banana on the way with a bottle of water. It was a cold morning. The car temp read 46 degrees so I decided to keep my pajama pants on. I think I was the only one that did this.
I got marked, got my chip, and set up my transition area. Shades, race belt, and shoes. Helmet was on the bike and thats it. Next time I will bring an extra pair of shoes to wear around transition. Then it was off to warm up by running a bit to loosen up and get those muscles going.
For some reason, they kept delaying the race start by 15 minutes, then 15 more, until the Elite wave went off at 7:15 or so (45 minutes past normal time). This was somewhat ok in my opinion since it allowed the sun to come up a bit more and warm the air for the bike.
The water temp was about 69-68 degrees (last year the temp was around 80 degrees!) so it was definitely wet suit legal and I wore my Xterra Vector Pro I bought my from my buddy Sean (super fast swimmer BTW). The horn sounded and off we went. I made sure to tell myself to relax on this swim and not freak out like Galveston. Luckily it worked and I kept moving never stopping to breast stroke and get my bearings. Just stroke after stroke and buoy after buoy. Man it went by fast. After the first buoy or so I felt I was alone. I think I came out 2 in my AG at 7:57.48 or 1:35/100 m. I was super pumped about this. Swimming is improving well!
Coming into T1, I was a little worried about stripping the wetsuit off since I had never practiced this quickly before. So 1 arm and then the 2nd as I came out. When I got the bike I did the wetsuit removal dance and it came off easily. Put on the shades then helmet and off I went. My T1 was the fastest in my AG. I hopped on the bike and kept my feet out for about 2 minutes pushing out. Once in I began picking up the pace (or at least I thought I did). The bike felt slow over all to me. I averaged only about 1 mph faster the Galveston, but the effort felt greater. Maybe it was the cold morning and cold air. I don't know. I kept going from 102-107 rpm to 94 and back to keep the legs fresh. Then 40:48 later I came into T2. I pulled my legs out of the shoes and did a flying dismount and boy were my toes numb from the air. I thought they would never warm back up.
In T2 I racked the biked, removed the helmet, and went down to slip the shoes on and a massive cramp hit my right calf on the way up. I got worried thinking it wouldn't go away, but it soon left and I was on my out of T2 onto the run course.
I didn't know what to expect so I saved a bit in the first mile to make sure my legs came to me. I did the first mile in 6:02 and then decided to push it. Mile 2 was 5:48 and 5:46 in mile 3. So at least I kept getting faster. My HR though was lower than what I thought. I peaked out at 171-172 or so. Maybe I had a bit more and could have started the push earlier. 18:17 later I was across the finish line.
Not bad for my first sprint. Overall time was 1:09:41 on a cold morning and took 4th place in my AG and 9th overall outside of the Elites.. Looking forward I need to work on my bike. When looking at the times the bike is the differentiator for me. I am happy with my first sprint and will enjoy getting ready for my next race in July (Oly distance).
Thanks to all for coming out. It was great seeing my brother and sister in law John and Jessica out supporting me. Also, Outrival Racing had a great showing. I'll post some pictures as soon as I can find some.
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