Better late than never: Rio Salado Race Report

The coolest club ever...

Another race underneath the proverbial belt! It's been 8 days since Rio Olympic Tri based out of Tempe Town Lake (TTL), and this one was actually a triathlon withvthe lake finally in swim shape...so I'm calling this the first Tri of the season for me. With this year heavily focused on Kona (Oct 8) and IM AZ (Nov 20), right now I'm just focusing on staying in good shape ready to hit the hard stuff once we hit the heat, and the build to Kona. In the same sentence though, racing "for fun" with my ONE teammates keeps the fire burning to improve on short distance/local events...so here's my Rio Salado Olympic Tri race report!  Rio Salado Olympic Results

So to start off, I forgot to put is race in my workoutlog, so Chris AIMP Coaching was unaware of it until the Monday before the race---when he gave me a pretty daunting week leading into the race not only with zero taper, but with a 3 hour bike/90 minute brick run on Friday...and raceday was Saturday. Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday all had swims of 4000+ yards, with a bike after the swim on tuesday and a run after the swim on wednesday---yikes!  This has been the norm for the past few weeks..really working monday, tuesday, wednesday, with active recovery on thursday, then a tough weekend starting friday.

Just a cute pic while on a date with Sophia

Bikes were racked friday afternoon---and enjoyed some time with Dan Cadriel, John and Cyndi Dean before heading home to hopefully recover from the friday workouts.  I usually don't have sleeping issues the night before the race (I consider myself lucky!)---I take the mindset into the race that I am "overtrained" for any event other than an IM at this point---and it works for me.  I was up at 4 ish, eating my normal breakie:  scoop of Ultragen, serving of steel cut oats, flax seed powder, craisins, almond milk (about 700 cals total).  I also worked in some EFS and my daily consumption of MultiV and Optygen HP all from First Endurance...can't live without any of it (and I have tried!).  I got to transition decently early, and actually was pretty fired up to race---there was going to be a swim finally!  I had my normal tunes going, my breakfast was treating me well, and I was ready!  Well, ready to race, but I hadn't really worked out a "game plan" yet.  As I warmed up, I sipped on Pre-Race and EFS with water, of course!  I was very excited to have Jenny AND Sophia coming to this race---I love their support and cheering, and it gives me something to look forward to as well as a break in the action on the course.

Transition...

Swim: 23:43...10th overall, 1st in 35-39
I almost forgot my timing chip (thanks Brandon!!!), but managed to slide into the ONE Sailfish wetsuit with moments to spare.  I jumped in and decided I was going to start on the right side---I wanted to see what was happening.  I knew I would go out decently hard, and breathing on my left gave me a full view of who was where once things sorted out after the first 200 yards.  A quick Hi to Jenny and Sophia (yes, they spotted me as I grabbed a quick seat on the docks to adjust my goggles, another Hi to my ONE teammate Anthony Hirschman, and the horn sounded.  I liked the line I was on, and was going stroke for stroke with Kevin Taddonio for the first portion of the "long" out section, then decided to drop in on his feet as we were literally making eye contact on every other stroke (always an interesting situation!).  We hit the first turn and I was settling in well...I think Kevin may have made a bit of a "line error" heading a bit too far to the inside---although my goal is to always swing just a bit wide so I don't have to stop while I make a broader turn.  I ended up losing Kevin at this point and was alone basically till we hit the steps...I was 4th out of the water in my wave (which was male below 40, male pros), and 1st in my division (didn't know this yet).  Thanks Bill...you are becoming a professional spotter!!  My plan on the swim was to stay near the front (whatever that means...), and I was feeling good about the swim.

T1:  0:51.2 secs  I did have a transition plan...keep it abnormally simple!  Helmet on, shoes already clipped in (thanks LG for the helmet and shoes BTW!!!!)...grabbed a couple gel blocks and threw them in my mouth, and I was off---happy with it!

Bike: 62:37...14th overall, 2nd in 35-39

Coolest LG helmet...thanks LG, and Andrew for the shot!

My goal here was to simply not kill myself , both with the amount of effort and the course itself (it was technical with all sorts of tight turns and hairpins...).  I knew I wouldn't have a lot of "extra" power for this due to the training week, but I held my own (somewhat)...looking back though, this is where I lost the race.  I rode the bike pretty much completely alone (of course Kevin T blew by me half way through the first lap...he is a beast on the bike!  He's a swim away from being sensational...)  Outside of the 3 gel blocks, I had no nutrition plan, and took in a bottle of water on the bike as well (needed more water and could have used some more calories).  My plan was for the big breakfast to carry me through the race---it IS only an Olympic!  ;-}}  Inside the final mile, I backed off the intensity just a bit (thus letting Bryan Dunn (eventual winner) catch me from the wave behind) and "spun it out" getting the legs ready to run (meaning: high cadence to simulate high running turnover).  I did beat Bryan into transition at least;-}  he had some "issues" with his shoes...and I have to say he is a pure joy to race with (not against!)...I think we are both out there for the same reasons---to test ourselves, but also have fun!

T2:  0:44.3 secs--again kept it simple, but I always feel like I am forgetting something, so I hesitate before heading out (some day I'll get it!)..shoes were off in the final 100 yards of the bike  (still on the pedals..), helmet was off running to my "spot,"...running shoes on, belt, glasses and watch in hand, then RUN!!!

Run:  38:31...5th overall, 1st in 35-39

Our ELITE Oakleys, courtesy of Airpark
Bikes...they ROCK!!!  Thanks guys!
I wore these on the run...

Onto the run...again no real plan in place other than to first settle in (and not blow it up!), then keep pushing to almost failure.  Everyone was there...the Folts brothers, the Focus Tri Guy (don't know his name), another guy from Tri Sports, then me, with Trevor Sehr and Bryan Dunn right behind me.  Of course I don't count Lewis who was out of sight, and Kevin (both pros) who was within sight , but also can hammer the run.  I was waiting for Bryan to pull up on my shoulder, but that never happened (T2 issues!!!!).  I basically settled in while watching the guys in front of me---the Tri Sports guy quickly dropped off (meaning: he hammered the bike---he was in the wave behind me and passed me, but he was cooked for the run---bikers ;-}  About 2/3's of the way through the first of 2 laps, I caught the Focus Tri Guy, but was also passed by Trevor Sehr (I don't know most of these guys here, but I am learning who to look out for now!).  I realized only at this point that I was in first in the 35-39...cool...just keep it going I thought.  I picked up the pace a bit at the finish of lap 1, but Trevor was having nothing of a battle with me today---we did pass one of the Folts brothers, and trevor was watching me like a hawk 10 yards ahead of me...I knew it would take a huge effort to overtake him, so I stopped thinking I could, and just stayed on him as a pacer not knowing or looking behind for any competition.  I had to take in water throughout the run due to a lack of water intake on the bike (or, next time carry a bottle out of transition dummy), which slows me just a bit, but otherwise I felt pretty good about this run...maybe some gel calories would have suited me better...but I am not complaining!

On the run...

Overall:  2:06:28....4th overall, 1st in 35-39...2nd place was Russ Brandt 2:07:04...phew!
So Ill take it!  All in all feeling pretty happy about the results, finding out who my competition is for future races, but really only caring about challenging myself, enjoying the celebration of my training, and having my family and ONE friends around as well!  BTW, to my ONE teammates volunteering---awesome job!  I saw you everywhere---wetsuit stripping, ice cold water on the course...you rock!!  And Bryan, GREAT WIN!!!  Like I said above, being on the race course with you, Dan Cadriel, John Dean, Super Sue Meno, (missed you Carlos!)...make racing a blast for me!

Nike LunarElite +2...ONE edition (not even
customized!)

Training with Power! (no it's not an engine!)

Being a week later, I have made some changes in my arsenal...thanks Carlos for the SRM hookup and to Airpark Bikes for their continued support of my insanity!  Oh, and check out the newest edition to my Imelda collection:  these are for "wearing around town"...I dunno if I will dare dirty them up!