2014 Tri For Fun #1

I hadn't planned on doing a sprint after the Morgan Hill Sprint but, my planned Splash and Dashes were canceled due to the drought. I had also done some work on getting my out of control asthma under control and I needed to see what that did to my performance.

Tri For Fun is a series of low key sprint triathlons put on for people just entering the sport. 400 yards swim, 10 mile bike, and ~5k run. That's where I started in 2010. Because I just needed a place to pull everything together, I chose this over a women's only tri or a bigger race both of which were a lot farther of a drive.

Grumpy had a dog show so, I was off to the race by myself. I was grumbling on my way how I didn't want to do this race and then, I remembered how Molly had made herself get over herself and get infused by the new people.

I pulled in early, registered, and set up my spot. The new people were every where and they had lots of questions. I answered a few and then, I plugged into my ipod - I played  AC/DC Thunderstruck... over and over to get my mojo on. Soon, it was time to do my warm up but, first, remind myself of what I was going to do out there.

To help me really pull it together, printed my top goals/objectives for each sport putting specifics:

Swim: Ease into the first couple of minutes and then push and KEEP pushing.
Bike: Starting watts, build watts, hill watts, and the final back to transition.
Run: Keep my HR into the > low zone 3.

And thanks to Tea,

"We are as slow or as fast as we give ourselves permission to be."

Following my race plan, I jogged around for a few minutes and then got into my wetsuit. The water was very warm. I paddled around trying to get my HR up. The briefing went seemingly for ever. Then the first of the 4 waves went off. My wave was last but, eventually, the horn sounded and off we went.

People were zig zagging every which way until the first buoy. As soon as I rounded the buoy, it started to thin out. I kicked up the pressure on the water and my turnover. Soon, I was rounding the final buoy and heading to shore.


(Pictures from 2010)

Swim: 7:21 (2010- 10:55)

T1: 1:48 (2010- 3:00)

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Time to jump on my ridiculously over swank bike and ride hard. No sooner did I get up the steep hill out of transition then I started picking off people. "ON YOUR LEFT!".

Earlier this year, I had done a couple of time trials to concentrate on the feel of cycle racing. It's a little like doing 5/10ks. You focus on just one sport and do what is needed for that one sport.

I passed people on cruisers and mountain bikes. I passed one guy decked out in tri gear in aero position (that happens - NEVER). 10 minutes in I kicked up the watts. It was all good. Finally, I hit what used to seem like a huge hill and it was nothing to even speak of.

Bike: 32:59 (2010- 38:00)

Dump the bike & helmet. On with the shoes and grab my fuel belt, running belt, and hat. I'm out of here.

T2: 1:02 (2010- 2:00)

So now, the run. My plan was to try to up the pace from the Morgan Hill Sprint. In 2010, I had had to walk a lot of this hilly trail run. As I drove up the first hill, I wasn't sure that attacking the hills was the right thing to do. I decided that I would power walk the top, steepest parts of the hills and run the rest. I came down out of the final hill and I had leg. I had lungs. I had plenty in the tank for the first time in a VERY long time. I just have to learn what that means. I think this time, it means I should have run the entire hill.

My wave went off 20 minutes in.

Run   33:49 (2010- 38:00)

Overall 1:17.01  (2010- 1:31minutes)