Coming up to speed

It’s been a busy few months since my last post with lots of surf, good wine, work, and some training and racing mixed in there.

Louisville Crit

Let’s start with the Louisville Criterium. A good pre-race race to keep the legs from getting stale going into the Hawaii 70.3 triathlon. While I found the race a little difficult in the beginning, things came around and I finished in a respectable position, 5^th place. You can read it about here.

Hawaii 70.3

Then it was game time with the Hawaii 70.3 race. When we got to the big island, the heat and humidity was exactly what I imagined. In a word, suffocating. Regardless, I felt like I had put the training in to do well in this race and was ready to finally test myself. My goal was to get into the top five for my age group and do so with a solid run, hoping to repeat my California 70.3 run.

Of course the race started with the swim which turned out to be a pretty flawless swim for me. I needed to exit the water around the 30’ mark to stay in the mix of things. I enjoyed the mass swim start we had instead of the typical wave start. We are all equal at the start and face the same conditions on the course. I found some feet that would take me to the swim exit in just over 30’. So far I was right on track.

The bike course is essentially the middle portion of the Hawaii Ironman bike course. From Hapuna, we head south for a bit before turning around to head to Hawi and back along the Queen K. The trade winds were out as was the sun, just as I had hoped in some demented way. While the first part of the bike leg was pretty aggressive with a lot of attacking, I found a comfortable but hard pace I knew I could sustain. In the heat, you really have to stay on top of your hydration, which I felt I did. As I neared the end of the course, my legs started to feel the twinge of cramping but nothing at that point to slow me down. Put your head down, grit your teeth and keep turning over the pedals. I completed the bike segment in 2:28 which was about 3-4 minutes slower than what I was aiming for on this course.

Although the twinge of cramps were present, I left the bike to run transition with a little bit of a hop in my step. Surprisingly it felt really good to be running. The run course would be dominated by running on the golf course (fairways, greens, rough, cart paths, etc.). Over six miles of the course were on grass. Add the humidity and heat, and it felt like you were running in molasses at times. Nevertheless, my first two miles were run at 6:45 pace. I felt good in those miles, I knew I needed to run a pace that I could sustain over the remaining half marathon. I pulled back to just over 7:00 miles for the next two. At that point, the heat really started to take its toll on me. In the span of a quarter mile, I went from feeling good with a bounce in my step to holy crap, am I done yet? I hadn’t even hit the half way mark. The rest of the race was about running from aid station to aid station. Just survive and try not to let anyone pass you. I survived the race running to a 1:39 half marathon which was six minutes north of my goal. My total time was 4:42 and some change. While I felt like I absolutely melted on the run, my time was good enough for 6^th place in my age group and 36^th overall (out of about 1100 competitors).

The race was hard, but I was pleased with my effort I put forth. The only downside I really take away from the experience is not going to the awards ceremony where I could have picked up a slot to race in Hawaii in October for the Ironman World Championships. It’s safe to say I am hungry and already eyeing coming back here next year to win my age group. To do so, I’ll most likely need to upgrade my TT bike to the new Specialized. If anyone is looking for any gift ideas for me for Christmas, Hanukah, my birthday, or your birthday, I would need a 56cm.

5430 Sprint

Coming off the Hawaii 70.3 race and a couple of weeks in Hawaii and Maui, followed by work trip to DC, I had done very little to prepare for this race. Try to add to the difficulty of the race, I took the opportunity to have a hard 3.5 hour bike ride the day before in our local mountains. Needless to say, expectations were low and I didn’t disappoint. My only real goal was to not blow up on the short swim and to run a sub 20 min 5K. I didn’t meet any of those goals which made me realize I really can’t let my foot off the gas for very long after a race. Lesson learned . Even after 5 years in this sport, I am still learning some valuable lessons. I guess that is one reason I like it so much, the challenge of racing my competitors and myself.

Next up for me is the Boulder Peak Triathlon and Mt. Evans Hill Climb. Now we get into the heart of the summer race season. Why can’t we have summer year round?

Train hard,
Jonathan