Over the Mountain

S: 7000
B: 215
R: 36

T: 16.6 hrs

I have been really bad about swimming lately.  Gee darn!  In my defense... Wait, I have no defense.  Sometimes it's tough to get motivated; I've been having to swim by myself a lot lately.  Anyone want to be my new swim partner?

Two hard efforts on the bike this week (Inside-Out ride on Tuesday and the race on Saturday) in which I pounded some fools into the ground (IOS ride) and was beat by a guy more than twice my age (among other beat downs issued upon me) in the race.  A really good long, steady ride with Behme and Fletch on Sunday of 108.  If we had continued, our ironman bike split would have been roughly a 5:12.  Not too shabby.

I also got in two good run workouts with the first being on Tuesday with Kelly (2x3 miles at 6:20 avg and 6:10 avg) and the race on Saturday.  The race was only a workout because it was a brick as I was definitely not running particularly fast!  Oh well.

Over the Mountain RR
2:18:55, 5th overall

Swim - 22:50 (12th)
The swim was wetsuit legal so I got to sport my B70 Axis (the wetsuit 'designed' for cyclist/runner triathletes who have more muscle in their lower body relative to their lower body).  Despite how jacked and ripped my upper body is...most of my muscle is definitely in my lower body so it's a perfect wetsuit for me.  Unfortunately, I did not get the chance to wear the wetsuit prior to the race so OTM was it's maiden voyage. I also failed to warm up for the swim, which was definitely a big mistake as my lats/triceps were really hurting the first half of the swim.  I felt like I was going very slowly but luckily I ended up with a good swim split (although everyone was pretty fast today).  I care more about the fact that my swim was the 12th fastest as that is an important marker for some progression.

T1 - 2:08
Immediately upon swim exit you run up the most giant-est hills ever.  I was prepared for this and had been thinking about taking off my wetsuit immediately upon exiting the water but when it came to decision making time I didn't pull the trigger.  I ran (very slowly and probably could have walked at the same speed) up the hill hitting a max hr of 187 before getting into transition and to my bike.  I bent over to put on my shoes after taking off my wetsuit and pretty much passed out, wondering how the heck I was going to finish the race and why I liked racing in the first place!

Bike - 1:15:26 (10th)
The important things to note about this bike:
1) It took me 10 miles to catch Stacey Richardson and Amie Krasnozon, they are fast and Stacy absolutely CRUSHED me at Bandits last year.  Luckily for her, I was overtrained.
2) It then took me 5 miles to drop them!
3) The bike course is really hard!
4) I am not good at going up hills
5) My front tire was a little flat.  Scott and I pumped it up appropriately at the beginning but for some reason it didn't hold air very well.  I looked down at mile 20 and thought it was totally flat.

T2 - 1:06
Took my time.  Thought about how nice some pizza or a Mountain Dew would be...

Run - 37:26 (13th)
Started out running really fast and then gradually slowed down the whole time.  Just the way I like to do it!

Two things of note:
- I was mentally excited for this race but I honestly think I raced with the thought of riding the next morning in my head. I know this was only in my subconscious but at least a couple of times in the race I thought about it. One of those times was when Behme yelled at me on the run: "Save your energy dude we have to ride 100 tomorrow!!"
- Todd saved my butt on this race as like a total rookie I left my cycling shoes at home and only realized once we got to T1 to set up for the race. This was totally bad karma on my part as I made fun of Jackie, Jamie and Shenna for creating checklists before the race. Luckily for me, Todd had not left yet so he swung by our house to pick up my shoes and when I got to T1 they were there waiting for me. Thanks Todd!