After riding pretty hard Thursday and a solid tempo run Friday, I had no idea what Saturday's race had in store for me. Going in as the defending champion I had hopes of repeating, but coming off of IMAZ (three weeks ago) and little training since it wasn't going to be pretty.
The swim (25yard pool) sucks, as all pool swims do. This one went well, but still. I swam 1:16/100 leading me out 19 seconds faster than last year.
There were a few faster swimmers ahead of me, but I caught them all within a mile or so. I made up the most ground in the corners, staying aero and pedalling through. Those are easy, smart seconds to get in a sprint, or any race for that matter.
Teammate, Aleck, was the only one to go with me on the bike. I had hopes of pushing the bike and breaking Aleck in the process. Didn't happen. 385 normalized watts doesn't get you the lead on the bike it should... My rpms were 88, which is good, since my cadence at AZ was 75, too low. I was 64 seconds faster this year on the bike, missed the fastest bike split by 13 seconds (nice work Bill). I lead Aleck on the bike the whole way, never able to shake him.
Getting into T2 was interesting. Two two sharp turns right before the dismount, I wanted to keep speed so I waited to get out of my shoes...too late, got one foot out and the other stayed on my foot. I also partially rode past the dismount. Waiting so long was good because it threw off Aleck getting out of his shoes. I had my running shoes on before he got his off. I put 12 seconds on him there. In hindsight, after talking with people who said Aleck put on a fast 3/4 mile to catch me, I should have put in an equally fast 3/4 mile to keep my gap and see if he would have popped and not catch me. He caught me by the mile, as you can see here...
First mile was good, second was worse and third was painful. That's what happens when you raced an IM three weeks ago. I was 31 seconds slower this year running 6:18/mile.
Aleck continued on to win, congrats, and I went on the get run down by shirtless guy...ending in 3rd. Oh well, I still went faster by 41 seconds breaking the hour mark!
Check out the new Factor 9 tri top, pretty sweet, eh?
Well, I have fridge full of beer to drink before I step on a plane, May 19th and begin my new adventure in Abu Dhabi!
The swim (25yard pool) sucks, as all pool swims do. This one went well, but still. I swam 1:16/100 leading me out 19 seconds faster than last year.
There were a few faster swimmers ahead of me, but I caught them all within a mile or so. I made up the most ground in the corners, staying aero and pedalling through. Those are easy, smart seconds to get in a sprint, or any race for that matter.
Teammate, Aleck, was the only one to go with me on the bike. I had hopes of pushing the bike and breaking Aleck in the process. Didn't happen. 385 normalized watts doesn't get you the lead on the bike it should... My rpms were 88, which is good, since my cadence at AZ was 75, too low. I was 64 seconds faster this year on the bike, missed the fastest bike split by 13 seconds (nice work Bill). I lead Aleck on the bike the whole way, never able to shake him.
Getting into T2 was interesting. Two two sharp turns right before the dismount, I wanted to keep speed so I waited to get out of my shoes...too late, got one foot out and the other stayed on my foot. I also partially rode past the dismount. Waiting so long was good because it threw off Aleck getting out of his shoes. I had my running shoes on before he got his off. I put 12 seconds on him there. In hindsight, after talking with people who said Aleck put on a fast 3/4 mile to catch me, I should have put in an equally fast 3/4 mile to keep my gap and see if he would have popped and not catch me. He caught me by the mile, as you can see here...
First mile was good, second was worse and third was painful. That's what happens when you raced an IM three weeks ago. I was 31 seconds slower this year running 6:18/mile. Aleck continued on to win, congrats, and I went on the get run down by shirtless guy...ending in 3rd. Oh well, I still went faster by 41 seconds breaking the hour mark!
Check out the new Factor 9 tri top, pretty sweet, eh?
Well, I have fridge full of beer to drink before I step on a plane, May 19th and begin my new adventure in Abu Dhabi!
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