Saturday marked the much-anticipated start to my 2012 triathlon season with the Coyote Carrera Triathlon held here in Albuquerque. The weather was absolutely gorgeous and the event seemed to have gone off without a blip.
I will be completely honest when I say I was not completely "ready" for the event. Yes, I've been training steadily but the last few weeks I have been slightly off on my usually solid regiment of swimming, biking and running (and, of course, cross training). To make things worse, I was sent on business travel this past Tuesday and spent a couple days away from home base, working odd hours in a different area without my usual resources and with gobs of good eating with coworkers. Not the ideal scenario.
For all the business traveling that I have done, I have never been able to make progress on any fitness/weight loss/etc. goals while away. That's why I'm so impressed with someone like my friend Quoc who can have a man-weekend in Vegas and still stay on track with his goals. Whoa! Way to go.
As for me, my "workout" leading up to the race was limited to sitting in large conferences rooms and walking from point A to point B. As a result, I felt stiff, rusty, tight and generally unprepared Saturday morning for the race. Imagine the tin man from Wizard of Oz before they would oil his joints. That's how I felt.
Nevertheless, I was excited! It was a gorgeous New Mexico morning among a couple hundred fellow triathletes. Got up a little later than anticipated and ended up getting to the transition area at about 7:10. Luckily traffic was light. Was a little later than I wanted to get there but still had plenty of time to find my spot, get numbered and start to prepare.
After some light socializing, a short jog and dynamic stretching and the Star Spangled Banner, it was go time. I was in the first wave (8:00AM) and the run started right on time. The course was very similar to the Thanksgiving 4 Mile race from last year and it brought back some good memories. The run felt pretty good. The majority of it was on the Bosque which is a nice flat trail. I pounded a Cliff energy gel right before the transition area. My T1 was pretty bad. Getting out of running shoes and into bike shoes should be a pretty smooth transition but I botched it up. My transitions need some work.
EDIT: The run was supposed to be a 5K course. However, I noticed my time and my pace, as displayed on the results, did not match up with a 5K run. After an inquire to the race director, it appears the course was unfortunately set up short. The run was actually 2.72 miles.
The bike route was a two-loop course on open road. In addition to dealing with other triathletes, we had to deal with horrible New Mexican drivers. And the worst part was 9.5 miles of the little-over-10 mile course was on pothole-infested roads. They made Pennsylvania roads look like a smooth sheet of ice. I hit a few unavoidable ditches and thought my kidney was gonna jump out of my stomach. Rolled into the transition area, racked my bike, grabbed my goggles and headed in to the pool for the swim.
The swim was as hectic as I assumed it would be. Bodies splashing all over the place. Each lane had people going in both directions which made it nearly impossible to pass (or, for that matter, to be passed). Was one of my weaker swims. I just couldn't find my cocoon of calmness and I felt, on numerous occasions, my technique slip. My time was also killed by the waiting at the walls for all the traffic to sort out. Jumped (read: walked up the steps) out of the pool, across the Red Bull finish line and celebrated the completion of my season opener.
Below are my official results for the race:
2.72 mi Run: 19:35 (7:12/mi)
T1: 2:20
16.5K Bike: 30:32 (20.14 MPH)
T2: 1:02
400m Pool Swim: 8:57
Total: 1:02:26
That was good enough for 55th overall (out of 201) and 12th in my AG (out of 17).
Overall I wasn't completely disappointed with my performance. My rusty body could have used a couple of squirts of oil along the way, but that's the life of an AG triathlete. Seeing a nearly 9-minute 400 meter swim makes me cringe a bit, but that's the nature of the beast with these pandemonium pool swims.
Looking ahead, ITU San Diego is only a few weeks away which is very exciting. Travel plans are set and all I have to do between now and then is continue along with my training plan.
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