I was a bit nervous leading into the double race weekend( grizzly tri/rocky mountain roubaix bike race) first I had not raced in so long and second I was feeling horrible mid week. I stayed as positive as I could and toed the line in the grizzly triathlon at 1pm on Saturday. The Grizzly Triathlon is a 1k pool swim/12.5 bike/5k run. believe it or not it is the largest tri in the state with 500 participants. I has a really good field with folks like Ben Hoffman, Matt Seeley and Linsey Corbin all participating.
Sarah and Cale were there for support as Chloe had a play date with Sarah's friend Kara and her 4yr old Axle. Chloe had a blast and is fast friends with Axle. Anyway I had been doing a bunch of swimming of late and was anxious to find out how I would do in the swim. Each lane has 4 swimmers and I would be placed in the Elite masters wave by my submitted time of 13min. I started in the 3 spot and after the start I knew that I would need to be smart here. after a 300 I new the first 100 was too fast and as it turned out it was a 1:09! Yikes. I did show some old man savy by letting the 4th guy go by and then settled into his draft for the rest of the way. My splits settled at 1:19-1:21 per 100 for the remainder. However when the dude in front of me was pulled out they told me I had another 2 laps---wait a minute I said-- I was following this guy! it turned out they pulled us 50 early so my time of 2:36 was really around 13:10-15 or so. I am pleased with that right now.
My transitions really sucked and you could tell it had been a while for sure. getting the speed suit off, getting into the shoes, all really slow. On the bike I felt like I had pretty good legs but in retrospect I went a bit hard pushing my HR to nearly 150 which is high for me. but I did blow by my wave and by the turn around I had a pretty good lead in my wave. Then I had to run--- not quite there on the run yet. I felt pretty good for the first mile or so but then there is this monster off road hill that I think may have toasted me. I kind of stumbled in and was passed by the 40-45 winner in the last 400. all in all I was pretty pleased with my time of 1:06 and change and winning the 45-49 age group. Although I still have a long way to go to be competitive in a bigger race with more competition. Staying patient is hard for me but I am taking one workout at a time and just trying to make slow progress. great time after the race as we went to the brew pub, the kettle house where they make my favorite brew( cold smoke ale) then on to dinner at ciao mambo with Nash, Mike, Carissa, the kids, becka., had a great time! was a bit bummed that we missed the yonder mountain sting band playing a the wilma that eve but the kids and my endurance made that difficult.
the next day it was off the the rocky mountain roubaix road race where 1/2 the 40miles is on dirt and gravel roads to simulate the cobbles. I knew it would be a difficult double but I did toe the line not like anyone else from billings. very disappointed that the Billings cycling community has no presence at these very cool/competitive races. I only hope that someday we can come with numbers to these events. After a pretty pedestrian first 10miles the race went ballistic with the first assent. Staying in touch there was hard on my legs but then the descent was crazy on the loose gravel and 40 riders getting sideways! I was doing fine until I was real sideways due to a real flat. got the wheel car fairly quick but the chase was very hard with no help and even though I got within sight it was not going to happen this day. the rest of the race I spent helping some of the 1,2,3 group that had flatted get back in touch and eventually I hooked up with some of the dropped masters group and road in with them, besting them on the hill climb finish. a good day of hard miles and some fun as well. will defently try to do this double again next year!
No comments:
Post a Comment