Spikes post race report - Triathlon Week

Spike10 · 07-23-2007, 09:17 AM

I was a beautiful Colorado morning and a great day for racing, or in my case, surviving the day with a smile on my face.
The race: 16th annual EAS Boulder Peak. Olympic distance 1500m swim, 42k bike and 10k run.
Swim 55:48, this is actually faster than I thought I would do by about 5 min. Man is it hard to keep a good swim rythem when coughing.
T1 4:38, it was 1:38 slower than I wanted but it's a place to work on.
On to the bike (also the worst performance I have ever done!) Out of TA and doing the warm up was great (other than the gremlins in my chest) got to the first challenge of the ride "Old Stage Road" not quite the Beast but it's plenty steep with much less oxygen, I had my plan in place, ride until I ran out of gears then mash a bit then get off and walk until the heart rate drops below 300 then get back on and repeat. Well just as I was about to repeat and go for more my rear tire went flat

so I walked to the top (about 100 yds.) and also the first aid station, got some water and changed my tire. Zoom, down the hill and all was going great until about 5 miles down the road and flat #2

, as I was fixing it a course marshall came by to see if all was o.k., last tube and co2 I hoped that it was the last flat, it was, bike time 2:04:33 this averages out to be around 12 1/2 mph, like I said before not a good performance.
T2 this was a bit quicker at 2:44, 16 seconds faster than I had planed.
The run, this too was not stellar, however I did go into it with a smile and determination (picture a Jack Russel terrier here) it was hot and dry and as I was about 1/2 mile into it, I saw Sister Madonna Buder going the other way, wow what a lady! every aid station was another rung on the ladder as I inched my way to the finish line. At the turn around I started to calculate my time and what I had to do to beat last years time, the math was not on my side so I dug deep and started to push. I ran with as much form and speed as my legs would allow, then walk a bit, then run some more. Last mile, with just walking I could just edge last years time, so what did I do? yep I ran and ran some more, as I got to the top of the last hill for the final 200 yds I could see the finish and I wanted to cross the line before the awards ceremony started so off I went and did it! Run time 1:25:31.
Total time 4:33:17 just a mere 11 min. faster than last year. Next year I hope to be healthy and cut at least 1 1/2 hours off of this time.
Just 3 weeks to the 5430 Half Iron.
Happy training.
Spike.

sfricks · 07-23-2007, 01:13 PM

Congrats on the PB Spike. 11 minutes in a huge improvement especially just coming off an illness.

Will this be your first 70.3?

Spike10 · 07-25-2007, 07:48 AM

No it will be my second, I did this race last year as well and I'm looking for a PB here also. I hope to break 6 1/2 hours, last year was barely under 8.
With any luck at all the cough will be gone by then, as of this morning it's still hanging on.
Spike.