Tuesday, July 10, 2012

And so it begins...

6.25 - 7.1
S - 12000 yards
B - 181.5 miles
R - 34 miles
Time - 16.87 hours


7.2 - 7.8
S - 9,100 yards
B - 170.6 miles
R -  50.1 miles
Time - 17.36 hours


My title would lead one to believe that something epic ensues.  The title would be mis-leading.  I have, unfortunately, done nothing brutal and/or epic as required by the triathlete's creedo.  I did not have an "epic" 6 mile run or a "brutal 2k swim."  Most of the brutality these past two weeks was a result of my lack of sleeping.

Sleep is a glorious thing and something I cherish.  It's frustrating to get into that vicious cycle of laying there in bed, not falling asleep, then worrying about not falling asleep, then thinking about why you're worrying about not falling asleep, and not falling asleep.  It's terrible.

On June 30th I cracked like an egg during the Taco Ride.  It was so hot. I was miserable.  I rallied for a good week last week, concluding with the NC State TT championships near High Point, NC.  To summarize the race:

Drove up to High Point after leaving at 5:30am.  It's already muggy.  I got to see the sunrise, which is always both cool and mildly depressing.  I'm not really an early morning person.  I'm trying to be, but it's a long, patience-driven road of grogginess.


Got to the race site, picked up my number, warmed up for a while and set off at 8:35.  The first 15k or so of the course was pretty rolling; the course had a total ascent of ~1200' according to the ol' Garmin.  Several climbs with (one in particular) resulting descents (hit 48mph in the aerobars, which was interesting).  My power was high and I caught my minute man in the first 10 minutes.  My two minute man was not far away and I shortly caught him.  




The middle third of my TT was not very impressive.  It was very, very humid so I was sweating a good bit, although I don't think I slowed b/c of the heat.  It's hard to maintain focus for an effort like this.  In a triathlon it's somehow easier because the bike is just a way to get to the run and out of the swim.  It's bookended quite nicely.  A TT feels so finite that it's hard to really crush it.  I definitely didn't ride any harder than I do in an olympic distance triathlon.  I think a lot of people feel like they need to not ride hard in an olympic.  I do not feel that way.  I ride as hard as I can.

Anyway, My 20-30k portion kinda sucked but during that I caught my three minute man who, despite looking fit and wearing pink socks, was not going very fast.  Pink socks are only acceptable if you are very fast.  Yes, I wear pink socks.  You do the math.

Last 10k I pressed decently and crossed the line a hair under 55:40.  I was pleased with the result, although the course was a bit short so the times/mph are slightly misleading.  My time put me as second Cat 3 and 8th overall.  The winner, Ryan Jenkins, was one of only two guys to go under 53 minutes (52:11) so to be a little over 3 minutes down on a cyclist of his caliber was definitely awesome.


Full Results

Next up is a little sprinting on Saturday at the Triangle Triathlon so I'm definitely moderately excited about that!

No comments:

Post a Comment