THis race was serving as the 2011 Northeast regional olympic distance tri championships.. (roadies- this is a one mile swim, 40K b, 10 K r) I had thought about riding to the race today- 15 miles to quassy down rte 67 which is mostly flat so this would have been ok.. however when i woke at 4am, the fog was thick and was not letting up-- truth be told I was feeling a little tired from the day at 6 flags with junior Haug 1 and 2 yesterday, and from a great day of training on thursday- my longest run(16 m) and longest swim(4400 yards) thus far leading up to Placid. OK enough excuses.
Got to the race early and saw that there were going to be lots of fast people.. definitely a stacked field. I got a good one mile run wu and than a 15 min bike, got the wetsuit on and bull@#$% with some people I know.. than to the swim start. That fog, not lifted yet. could not even see the buoys and the race director attempted to delay the start for the fog to get burned off.. didn't work and they had to change the buoys, bring them in closer and shorted the course.. this was like a sprint race swim, HARd and fast but having to look hard for the boys .. i got out in 11 min, and out of the water in like 4th or 5th in my wave of 35-44 year olds...
to the bike and I saw the leaders getting on their bikes as I was taking the wetsuit off. I love the new suit but it is tighter around the ankles so a little more of a struggle. I mounted the specialized - I chose not to ride the ROLF race tubulars as I am saving the tires now for placid but rode the little heavier but still some nice clinchers I got from CYCLEFITNESS made by Roval. I caught one guy on the bike abut got passed by one guy too so that was equal.. anyway I felt a little dead on the bike today. no pawer tap to keep me in check and I went out HARD. I had not preridden this course but have ridden all the roads individually at some point in training. GOing out hard though kind of sapped the legs for the hills that I did not anticipate being so relentless.
SO I came in for T2 in the same place as when I started which is not a normal bike split for me, which might be due to dead legs but also I have improved my swim this year so get out with some faster guys..
RUN- I had a hard time on this run, which is my weakness and even worse is downhill running which just beats me up.. THe first 1.5 miles is downhill than back up 1.5 miles than down 1.5 miles than up 1.5 miles. One thing that keeps me motivated is racing against individuals. last year a guy ran me down on EVERY race. A real nice guy but it still gives me some motivation to try to not let this happen again. If he does great becuase he is a super nice guy but if not good for me. SO at mile 3.1 turnaround he was 25 seconds behind, than the dreaded downhill again. At that last turnaround he was only 9-10 sec back. Man I got motivated and in my not so great a runner way I gunned it. I stayed ahead but heard footsteps the entire time. My overall pace was like 6: 49 for the run, which on a tough uphill downhill race I am not too upset about.
21st overall- the officials said 600 people but i estimate in the mid 400s. either way not bad and I qualified for USA age group nationals in Burllington- Im not going, but next year that is the goal with no IM on the plate - again it will be in VT.
Next up. a short sprint in Jul y than placid. And lots of suffering on Wed night- more on that later.
thanks for reading. ryan
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