My build up to the Peak had been going good. Not great, but good. Swimming had been a little spotty since Florida ½ IM, but I was beginning to find my stroke and also riding into form on the bike. Running was also good, but not great.
Bike racing the two weekends before the Peak would be on tap to really build my speed going into the Peak. Niwot was the first of three bike races on menu and as it turned out, it would be the last. After running a solid race for the first 58 minutes, the final lap turned into a disaster. Long story short, I took the final turn too fast and hard and hit the deck at 25-30 mph skidding across the pavement donating copious amounts of flesh (from both sides of my ass) to the town of Niwot. For the next week and half I would ooze blood and slime through bandages and pants. Clearly I would not be working out the final two weeks before the Peak. In addition to half of my ass missing, I suffered some trauma to my left wrist tearing some tendons that connect the ulna to the little finger. The tear while minor made riding up and down hills painful and swimming was a bit of a challenge.
Thankfully the triathlon gods smiled down on me because on the Wednesday before the Peak, I could start training again which I promptly took advantage of. By the time the Peak rolled around, almost all of my injuries had healed or was at least not significant enough to play a role in how I raced. I no longer had injuries to worry about on race day, instead it was just fitness.
The week leading up to the Peak, the family and I were honored to host a one the men’s professional athletes from France, Nicolas Becker. Nico is an easy going guy that seemed to just blend into the family.
I had no real goals for the race. After all on the Tuesday before, I basically threw in the towel after attempting to swim and unable to due to my wrist. I was just lucky to be there. That being said, if I show up at a race, I plan to go hard.
That’s what I did when we launched into the water. I went hard. Too hard! After the first 250-300 meters, I blew up in spectacular fashion. I stopped to look around praying I was only dreaming and would get a do over. But no luck, only charging athletes looking at me ready to swim right through me if I didn’t get moving. After doing some back stroke, breast stroke, doggy paddling, floating, etc., I finally settled into my own pace. At the conclusion of the swim I swam almost two minutes faster than last year. I suspect the swim course was shortened.
The adventure continued with the bike leg. Following the enforced speed limit of 35 coming down Old Stage, once I hit the bottom I began to really crank on the pedals out of the saddle to build back up to speed. That’s when my chain came flying off the big ring sending my legs out of the pedals and my body nearly over the top of my handlebars. Not a good feeling at 35 mph. Luckily, I stayed on my machine and avoided disaster. I reached down to get my chain back on (not an easy task at 35mph) which it did not want to go on easily. It finally made it on and I was off again. The remainder of the bike (and the race for the most part) I simply could not seem to push or go hard. I was on cruise control and unable to accelerate. Same thing for the run, but by that time, I had checked out of the race mentally. I still enjoyed the race (not the heat) and kept a positive attitude. I crossed the line 1 min faster than last year. Again, the swim course had to have been shorter since my bike and run times were slower. The race can be characterized as a comedy of errors. I have three weeks until the long course (half Ironman) so hopefully I can fine tune some things and really have a solid race and be able to push hard.
After my race, I waited for Nico to return from the bike leg (pros started 1.5 hours after age groupers). The men’s pro field was stacked with Olympians, Xterra Champions, and World Champions (Matt and Shane Reed, Simon Lessing, Peter Robertson, Seth Wealing, etc). Matt Reed set a punishing pace on the bike and followed that with a blistering pace on the run to capture the title. Nico, coming off of the Providence 70.3 race last week, put in what I thought was a great race against the best athletes in the world to finish 12th.
The remainder of the week I live like a bachelor with Carey and the kids living it up in Oklahoma with the Bushyheads. Chaos can’t even begin to describe what it’s like there with seven kids and three dogs in that house.
Stay tuned for some more updates as I head into the final part of the racing season.
Ride hard,
J-Rod
