I apologize for a lack of post recently. The past few weeks have been dynamic. Spring has rolled in to the desert which means unpredictable weather and high winds. And by high winds I mean some crazy high winds. If this was New England, I would go as far as calling them wicked. But it's New Mexico, so I'll just say, "eeeeeeeeeeeeee! These winds are ALL strong!" Phillies baseball has begun and the Broad Street Bullies are preparing for playoff hockey. It's a good time to be alive. To top it all off, a week from Saturday my triathlon season will officially begin with the Coyote Carrera Triathlon.
This triathlon will be here in town and since we lack a solid source of open water it will be a "Reverse Sprint Triathlon." The race will begin with a 5K (3.1 mile) run starting at the designated "Athlete Village" AKA the Rio Grande Pool. This is right along side the Rio Grande River (clever, huh?) and the run course will primarily be on the Paseo del Bosque. I don't know what Paseo del Bosque translates into or what it means, but I do know it's probably the best bike/run/horse/roller blade/etc. spot in town. It runs north-south along the river and is about 16 miles of uninterrupted, paved, well marked trail. It's fairly flat so I'm expecting the run times to be quick.
Transition 1 (T1) will mean flinging off my running shoes and slipping into my Shimano's for the bike. Originally, the course was set to be the standard sprint distance of 20K. But I guess the organizers ran out of real estate and had to cut it down to 16.5K. Bummer. Any who, from the transition area we'll head south towards the "South Valley" and take the bridge on Bridge Blvd (I sure hope they don't use tax money to brainstorm names around here) over to the "west side" of Albuquerque. By the "west side" I am referring to west of the Rio Grande. Before I moved out here, the only bit of advice from a local was "live East of the river." But I think the west side gets a bad rap. In perspective, it's harmless. Will Smith's mother wouldn't send him to live with his aunty and uncle in Bel-Air for a little trouble in the west side of Albuquerque. But I digress. The course then heads north to Central Ave, also know as the old Rt. 66, where we'll head East back over the river and repeat. After two laps we'll cover approximately 10.3 miles. I'm not too familiar with this loop but I have a feeling it is pretty flat and should post some fast bike splits.
After the bike I'll grab my goggles and jump in the Rio Grande Pool for the finale: a 400 m/y (haven't been to this pool before - they claim it's a 25 m pool but never know) swim. It's an 8-lane pool and the deal is you swim down and back in the same lane before ducking under the rope and repeating in the next lane until you cover all the lanes. Sounds hectic, and it probably will be. Both directions in the same lane leaves not a lot of options to pass. All you can do, sometimes, is hope the potentially slow swimmer in front of you is professional enough to pause at the wall and let you scoot by. But that could be asking for a lot.
Regardless, the Coyote Carrera Triathlon will be a nice, laid-back, convenient race to start the season. Unfortunately, due to it's odd length/format/etc., it's not a very good primer for my first A-list race (ITU San Diego) which is only three weeks after Coyote Carrera. I'll take what I can get and plan to use this opportunity to sharpen my skills in a race environment.
Let the season begin!
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