Sunday Morning, Wes Anderson, Peter Mallet and I rose at 4am to get ready to race at the Kemah Trathlon. http://www.onurleft.com/Onurmark_Race_Productions/Onurmark_Productions-Kemah_Triathlon.html a great race put on by Aaron Palaian. If you ever get a chance you got to do one of their races. I promise you will be happy and have a great experience !
We set up and hopped on the paddle boat to head out for the 6:50am drive off the boat! Check out the photo below. Pretty cool, I actually got a good start but soon after I got kicked badly in the mouth and also pushed underneath and struck in the pack. Basically I had a bad swim and adding in the choppy and extra distance on the swim I was questioning myself, why I do Tri's. But its all for fun. right??
After a quick T1, I hopped on my Dolan and was ready to chase, this season I have chanced up some fit stuff on my bike and I feel really comfortable (our goal was to make me feel good for the longer stuff, as last season in 70.3's I was having lots of issues) Frank @ Solers Tri Sports (an ex DC'er, like myself) spend alot of time in getting in me fit and adjusted with Retul. I ride shorter cranks and also a new saddle and seat post. I have to say I truthfully felt so great and pain free and excited about riding the Ironman distance. On Sunday I did have a hard time finding my speed on the bike, but I haven't done the same efforts in training that I normally focus on for 40k races. Most of my riding have been no faster than IM effort. I did have a solid ride and put myself into a good position to run guys down. Not as close as I normally am heading out ont the run, but I was playing more catch up after the swim too. Bike course was head wind for first 11miles then a out and back before we had a tail wind the last 10miles.
I'm in the middle of the action. around the guy who dived early.
Drink up son !
Hitting T2 I knew I had to be quick in and out and off to hunt, I felt good straight away out on the course. Normally I can tell within the first few steps the way the run is going to go. I rolled around 5:05 and then backed it up with 5:14, at this stage I could see people I wanted to run down. We looped around the twisty Broadway for mi 3 and then passed the finish area (lots of crowds, nice!) Mile 4-5 we ran up and down the bridge. Tough to maintain what pace your running with the wind and incline. But the nice thing is, you can see were you are and the athletes your chasing. Top 3 were well out of reach 4-7 were still in sight, my buddy Wes was battling hard and having a great race in the mix. Pete like myself was putting in a good effort and not having his usual solid day similar to me. I worked hard to pull him back and tried to get him to come with me to chase Grant Glauser, who I could tell was also not having his normally solid performance. His was unlucky not to get the fastest bike. I expect a big race out of Grant soon!. With 1/2mile to go I picked up and kicked in and was rewarded with the fastest run split by almost 2mins (32:54) on a honest course with the hills. I will take it while IM training as most of my training pace is geared towards that effort.
As you can see from my face, I'm not a happy camper.
Next up is IM Texas on May 19th
Thanks to Snapple, Immunotec, Superfeet and Erin Anderson for allowing me to use her front wheel again and again. Also Well done to my buddy Wes Anderson for kicking off his season with a bang!! check out his blog.
http://wesandersontri.blogspot.com/
RW
We set up and hopped on the paddle boat to head out for the 6:50am drive off the boat! Check out the photo below. Pretty cool, I actually got a good start but soon after I got kicked badly in the mouth and also pushed underneath and struck in the pack. Basically I had a bad swim and adding in the choppy and extra distance on the swim I was questioning myself, why I do Tri's. But its all for fun. right??
After a quick T1, I hopped on my Dolan and was ready to chase, this season I have chanced up some fit stuff on my bike and I feel really comfortable (our goal was to make me feel good for the longer stuff, as last season in 70.3's I was having lots of issues) Frank @ Solers Tri Sports (an ex DC'er, like myself) spend alot of time in getting in me fit and adjusted with Retul. I ride shorter cranks and also a new saddle and seat post. I have to say I truthfully felt so great and pain free and excited about riding the Ironman distance. On Sunday I did have a hard time finding my speed on the bike, but I haven't done the same efforts in training that I normally focus on for 40k races. Most of my riding have been no faster than IM effort. I did have a solid ride and put myself into a good position to run guys down. Not as close as I normally am heading out ont the run, but I was playing more catch up after the swim too. Bike course was head wind for first 11miles then a out and back before we had a tail wind the last 10miles.
I'm in the middle of the action. around the guy who dived early.
Hitting T2 I knew I had to be quick in and out and off to hunt, I felt good straight away out on the course. Normally I can tell within the first few steps the way the run is going to go. I rolled around 5:05 and then backed it up with 5:14, at this stage I could see people I wanted to run down. We looped around the twisty Broadway for mi 3 and then passed the finish area (lots of crowds, nice!) Mile 4-5 we ran up and down the bridge. Tough to maintain what pace your running with the wind and incline. But the nice thing is, you can see were you are and the athletes your chasing. Top 3 were well out of reach 4-7 were still in sight, my buddy Wes was battling hard and having a great race in the mix. Pete like myself was putting in a good effort and not having his usual solid day similar to me. I worked hard to pull him back and tried to get him to come with me to chase Grant Glauser, who I could tell was also not having his normally solid performance. His was unlucky not to get the fastest bike. I expect a big race out of Grant soon!. With 1/2mile to go I picked up and kicked in and was rewarded with the fastest run split by almost 2mins (32:54) on a honest course with the hills. I will take it while IM training as most of my training pace is geared towards that effort.
Next up is IM Texas on May 19th
Thanks to Snapple, Immunotec, Superfeet and Erin Anderson for allowing me to use her front wheel again and again. Also Well done to my buddy Wes Anderson for kicking off his season with a bang!! check out his blog.
http://wesandersontri.blogspot.com/
RW
Nice, back on the Dolan (which I still think is a killer machine)? What about the Parlee?
ReplyDeleteNice work Robbie. I'll be volunteering at IMTX, will be cheering you on hard! See you then. Vish
ReplyDelete