International Desert Triathlon

So even after a mental battle to stay off the road and a night full of desert wind we still managed to get our race on Sunday at the International Desert Triathlon. Actually, it was a beautiful day with almost no wind and clear skies...Not too hot and perfect for racing. No complaints...We were happy to race in such a cool place.

(monique with her bag o tricks)

Race morning and everything starts to fall into place. The only problem was I really thought that the race would be canceled which caused me to be so behind that I just got into transition and started scrambling to get my stuff minutes before the sprint distance race started to go. One hour and counting...

I got some big encouragement from seeing Josiah in the transition and it was just minutes before he left and he looked so calm and cool. . . And it was his first triathlon! He took the time to come by and say whats up and that was a good lesson for me to learn. Always make time for your friends because you never know how much it may effect them if you do/dont... Josiah gave me a big push that morning. So what do I do? Minutes later I ride by bike to the car to meet Moninque and we see Kevin Brown. Whad up? I don't even stop because I am in such a hurry to get my pump and start warming up. I'm such a jerk! Monique and him talked it up and then we got our warmup on. Lesson learned and before I knew it we were in the water and ready to get busy.

The swim -
Perfect water in mid 70's and a soft, clean smooth bottom. I have been loving the swim time recently and started out easy because I have only swam this long once before about two years ago. I got into a nice draft between two guys and seriously only looked up two times and the third we were four feet from the first buoy. NICE!! I felt like I was not even working and the swim was so much easier than I remember or thought that it would be. Looking back I should have pushed just a bit more but I was stoked at the pace and felt very relaxed heading into the bike.

T1 - So perfect. This is all that I got to practice for a warmup and it was beautiful. Grab and go, helmet in motion.. hop to seat, Rubber bands pop, crankin away. I got in my shoes on the first little downhill and I wouldn't change a thing.


The (flat) bike -
TT Time! Hammer, drink, Hammer, Gu, Hammer, Hammer, Pass, Hammer. That was about the pace for the two laps we did and it seriously went by so fast. I was loving my bike and my new bars and wouldn't change a thing on my bike. I went out conservative on the first lap and pushed a bit more on the second and ended up having my splits be 24:45 on the first and 24:25 on the second lap. Not bad and I kept my HR at just under 160bpm. Again, I could have pushed harder looking back but I was holding back for the distance and that run. I was still in the window to make my sub-2hr time also and well hydrated/fed.

T2 - I don't want to say perfect again but my T's were just the best thing of' the day. This race was about "practice" for me and it was awesome to have it fall into place so nicely. Maybe it is a little easier on the road to fly through transition? I also took some notes from the Tri-Talk transition video (check out the last point) and it helped a ton. My helmet was off and it landed just about the time I ran by and hooked my bike. Grab the visor and off...

The Run -
Here it comes. Can I run a 10K on flat? I don't think I have ever even ran a 10K unless it was after a tri or in the start of a long trail run. I felt really good off the bike but I had a bubbling in my stomach. I thought this would be a good race to try some new things so I filled one of my water bottles with Red Bull. Not a good idea! After the second lap and when I was out of water I was putting down some gu packs with Red Bull. Sugar sweet dry mouth but not as bad as a pissed off stomach on the run. I wanted to get it out of me and at one point I almost didn't have a say in the matter. I marched on and skipped the aid stations on my first lap and by lap two I was in a nice grove. Solid finish and I made it in JUST OVER 2 hours!! Agghh.. 2:01 So close but I know the pace now and see huge improvements with a little work.

(monique takin' it home)

Monique did an awesome job! She not only made the swim look easy but she almost beat my time from the first Olympic distance tri that I did. She has so much potential and I am surprised that she had the speed and distance with the little training she has behind her but we both need a lot of work before our first half about a month away ;-)

Results should be posted soon and I am interested to see those splits!

(Desert Damage Results and Review)