inauspicio.us

Q: What to Jabba the Hut and John the Baptist have in common?
A: Same middle name.

I am a bad person for not writing since June. OK, with that out of the way:

A little racing

Pretty much a very little bit of racing this season, between being injured due by a falling couch in May and getting a new job in June (more on that later), but a resurgent attitude saw me racing and enjoying myself all over the country. In July I had the epiphany that I like racing in triathlons. It may sound a bit weird to realize that now, 13 years into my triathlon career, but better late than never I guess. I’ve always been what they call a “trainer”. I like training, like being in shape, and I enjoy the process of executing a well-thought out plan over the course of several months or years. But I have a huge amount of fear regarding racing, fear that I will underperform or realize that my efforts were misguided.
So I decided the cure for that is more races and that is what I have been doing. I am happy to report that it works.
YMCA of the Rockies Mountain Bike Triathlon, 1st
Well, it’s always good to win a race (he said sagely, having won all of maybe three races in his entire life) and I definitely won this one, with the fastest swim, bike, and run of the day. More importantly, Steph and I got to spend an awesome day in the mountains afterward. The Winter Park alpine slide has to be seen to be believed. The downside: the Winter Park jazz festival was the same day. Jazz, ugh.

5430 Half Ironman, 16th
Pictures
On one hand, I had a two minute PR at this race. On the other hand, wetsuits were not allowed, I trained 4 hours the day before the race, and I got trounced all the way back to sixteenth place. I don’t think it’s very sporting to deprive the entire pro wave of wetsuits and them lump them back in with all the age-groupers for scoring purposes, but obviously I don’t make the rules. I did this race utterly on a whim and was rewarded with a nice training day and a small PR despite mediocre performances in all three disciplines.
BONUS: Steph was there again, I didn’t pass out afterward, and we went out for cheeseburgers that afternoon.

Timberman 70.3, 9th
Pictures :: Results
Just a week after the 5430 half, and only hours before leaving for Star Island, I squeezed in this classic half ironman. I last finished ninth in this race in 2003, the year I got my pro license. This year it poured rain the whole day, which was a good test of my newfound confidence. Historically I race badly in the rain, but with saran wrap over my bike computer and a good swim warmup, I was ready to tackle this demanding course.
I had an awesome if singularly painful swim by attempting to start on the feet of Michael Lovato. My coach’s repeated assurances that you cannot ruin your race by swimming too hard were the only thing that got me back to shore in one piece. Then a pretty good bike ride for me, trying out a new pacing strategy and unfortunately not remembering to eat quite enough. Again on Paulo’s advice, I hit it pretty hard out of transition rather than easing into pace. This worked out really well until someone hit me in the face with a brick wall around mile 8. I lost a few minutes regrouping, and then chugged home in 9th place.
This was a fantastic result for me, but bittersweet because I know I could have done better. A lot of things went right – a great swim, my first decent bad weather performance in years, and a consistent positive attitude – but two or three minutes that could have gone my way if I’d been smarter about eating got away from me, and that cost me some crucial places in the last 5k. Live and learn.
My next, and last, race of the season will be at the SOMA half-ironman. I’m going to try to beat my time and place from last year. Wish me luck!