Zoot Sprint Triathlon

They called this "Arizona's Hottest Triathlon!", I would of named it "Arizona's Hilliest Sprint Triathlon!" Now, I know I'm new to the whole triathlon thing. This was only my 2nd race, but I've been a spectator at a half dozen other races and this course had more ups and downs then Britney and Paris combined. All kidding aside, despite the hills which I haven't prepared for at all this was a beautiful day and a great sprint race.

Set the alarm for 4:30am, already had everything ready to go so I sat down to some hot oatmeal, vitamins and water. Woke the family up at 5am, got the kids dressed and in the car by 5:20am. We had packed them a breakfast to go the night before. Got to the venue at 6am and it was looking like it was going to be a beautiful day. Plenty of room in the transition area, I got marked and laid everything out. This took a little different planning then the last race being that it was a point-to-point race. All running gear had to be put into a transition #2 bag to be shuttled over to transition #2 by the race directors.

I entered the water about 5 minutes before the 7am start time. About 50 percent of the participants looked to have wetsuits on, I won't be buying a wetsuit until I really need one. The water felt great, my only warm up was the 100 meters or so to get over to the starting bouy. The gun went off sharply at 7am and we were off. I tried to start off on the outside again but there was still a little contact with some people up until the first turn about 200 meters into the swim. The rest of the swim went much like my olympic tri 3 weeks ago. Kept to the freestyle for most of the swim, used breast stroke to get my bearings every once in a while. I tried to draft off of other swimmers, follow their bubbles so to speak, but many times their pace was different and so I found myself moving to the outside with nothing but open water in front of me. I came out of the water a looked at the clock, 22 minutes. This would make my pace just slightly faster than my first race. Transition #1 went faster than the previous race as well, by the time I got onto the bike the clock read 25:54.

The bike started out with a large climb away from the lake and out to the park entrance. I haven't done much biking at all let alone any type of hill training. This race had about 6 climbs where I was fortunate to average about 9 miles per hour. Of course there were a number of downhills as well where my speed was reading about 35-37 miles per hour. No problems with the bike and I pulled into Transition #2 with a bike leg of 46:48 averaging 18.3 mph. T2 was less than a minute given that I don't have cycling shoes yet and already had my running shoes on. Plus they took our bikes and racked them for us, so all I did was take my helmit off and put a hat on and off I went.

I guess another thing I didn't know going into this race was that 2/3 of the run portion was going to be a trail run with softball sized rockes that you had to navigate all the while climbing more hills! I was feeling good though and I was passing quite a few people. At mile 2 we got back onto the pavement and the course threw one more hill at us. I finished the 5k run in 26:27 which gave me a total race time of 1:39:09. I was pleased with this time given the toughness of the hills. I ranked 63/121 in the men's division and 9/19 in the men's 35-39 age group and 88/237 overall.

I think that was my last tri until the fall, I was thinking about doing the Timex Triathlon in Tempe and then maybe going for the Soma in October. I'll keep up with my training, I'm still trying to drop 10-15 pounds to get down to about 185.

Here's some pics from the Tempe International

Coming out of the water at 34:49 for 1500 meters

1:18:19 Time for the 40k bike

59:20 for the 10k and a finish time of 2:57:57!

I'm looking to continue training hard, I'd like to lose another 10-15 pounds (currently I'm at 203, 1 year ago I was at 240!), I'm going to pick out a sprint distance here in the next month to race in and then set myself up for an olympic distance triathlon in the fall. I would really like to cut 15-20 minutes off of my next olympic distance. I'm confident I can shave 5 minutes off of each of the 3 stages as well as some time off of my T1 (I had a 4:09).

Tempe International Triathlon Competed!

Yesterday I finished my first official triathlon! I'm very happy, and I finished close to what I had expected. The water was 77 degrees so wetsuits were allowed, however, I hadn't purchased a wetsuit yet so I was going without regardless. The temp was fine, it was a deep water start and when the gun went off I tried to select a path that was clear of anybody else. I kept pretty much to the outside of everyone and only a couple times did I come close to anyone at all. The swim looked very intimidating, I hadn't done any open water swims and it looked like such a long way. I guess it's just hard to compare a 1500m loop to 30 laps in my gyms pool. I used some breast stroke here and there to get my bearings and get a good breath after sucking in some water. I exited the water and looked at my watch as I ran to the transition area and it had just hit 35 minutes. T1 was kind of slow, just over 4 minutes, but I have wimpy feet and so I rinsed the grass off of them and toweled them off before putting on my socks and shoes.

I started out on the bike and was trying to get going and was frustrated because I couldn't get my computer to show my speed. I couldn't read the display and eventually just forgot about it and tried to concentrate on my riding. The bike route was a loop to be completed 4 times, I hadn't previewed it at all so it was all new to me. There was a slight climb about half way through the loop but it was short and it had a nice long downslope on the backside of it. All in all the bike portion was pretty easy, the only thing I had difficulty on was getting my fluid replacement. I noticed alot of people with bottles up by there aerobars with a long straws, I definately need this. I had two bottles on my bike, it was just difficult getting drinks while on the go. I need to practice that some more to get more comfortable. I finished the 4th loop and pulled into the transition area and figured that I spent under 1 hour and 20 minutes on the bike.

T2 was a quick one, i think only a little over a minute. I grabbed an energy drink out of my bag and took off on the run. The temp had started to climb and I was feeling it. It was definately in the mid 90's already and I as sucking down the liquids but was feeling upset to my stomache also. I finished off my bottle by the 2nd aid station and started drinking the water they had. Even though my running is my strongest discipline I felt overheated and just not running good. I started walking at the aid stations just long enough to get my water and dump some on my head and then I would pick it up again. My pace was just slower than I had hoped and I knew that my 10k was going to be in the upper 50s. The roar of the crowd as I neared the finished pumped me up and I really tried to push myself the last quarter mile. I crossed the finish line relieved it was over and stopped my timer on my watch it read 2 hours and 58 minutes. This was about 13 minutes over what I had hoped to do but for my first but altogether not too bad. I know a few places where I can make some quick improvements and then of course with some more all around training I would like to see my times on the Olympic distance under 2 hours 30 minutes. I've been looking online for a good sprint distance triathlon in the area to do in the next month or so, but my next major Olympic distance might be the Las Vegas Triathlon in the fall. We'll see! But for now, I'll keep training like a madman. No pictures yet but I'll post some soon.

Tempe International Triathlon 2007

Sunday, May 20, 2007 will be my first official Triathlon! I signed up for the Olympic Distance Tri which consists of a 1500m Swim (approx. 30 laps in 25m pool), 40K Bike (approx. 24.8 miles) and a 10K Run (6.2 miles). Am I ready for it? As ready as I'm going to be for now. I've started a new strength program using the P90X program from Tony Horton. Awesome, Awesome workouts! On top of that I've been swimming down at the gym twice a week, running 7 mile runs in 1 hour about twice a week, and biking (or spin class) about once per week. It's not about finishing for me, I want to do well. Which for me means finishing somewhere in the middle of the pack, maybe top 25 in my age group out of approx. 50. I would be happy with that. I've crunched the numbers quite a bit, but it's hard to say what I'll finish in with this being my first. I would like to think I'll be somewhere around the 2:30 to 2:40 range. I've printed out checklist to make sure I have all the gear, I'll be going without a wetsuit but with our temps being in the low 100's the last couple weeks I'm not to concerned about that. Anyway, I'll be sure to post how I did and then we will go from there in terms of what my next race will be and when. So wish me luck!