Sub Par

I wish I was referring to golf score with the Title. But unfortunately it in reference to my race at the US Open Toyota Cup down in Dallas. We all have our ups and downs and it sucks when it happens on races days. I feel a little sick and that is my conclusion as to what happened. I know a lot of people who have been picking up sore throats. (which I have now) Anyway effort of the negativeness !

The whole weekend was a great experience and I was so happy to see Heather's Dad and the kids. It was there first time to a Triathlon. So I was excited about that and I feel they had lots of fun. I love seeing the kids and wish we could hang out more often.
I don't really have much to say about the race other that I had a poor swim, lost the group after 100m, disappointing as I was having some great swims last week in the build up. No really power on the bike, felt like my body only could give tempo effort. It was my type of course too, rolling hills. I out split all the guys in the Elite wave but needed another 1min more back on them. On the run I had no drive (same as feeling as the bike) I managed to run my tempo pace 5:29. So I probably was a good 3-4mins from my best right now. There was no way I was beating Van Ort he was flying . Sounds like a solid guy too, always great to see sound people win.

On the positive I'm now hungry for Clearwater 70.3 World Champs. So Monday was a rest day. 2 easy runs today and back to working hard tomorrow. I'm going to try a different approach and only back off the last 2-3 days before the race. I feel my body responds better to hard work as it stays in top gear. From looking back at my best races they always come when I don't taper.

Thanks,
RMW

Nations

Its been about to long since Nations Tri. Sorry for the long wait with this post. Been crazy with work, life and training. Anyway I want to say thanks to anyone that played a part in my successful race. I have so many great people in my support network from Heather (best Team Manager ever , my training partners Andy, Dirk Zac who push me, John from getting me to believe I can swim and many more. Thanks so much to all you do.

The race couldn't have been more perfect for me, the lovely Irish weather that delayed the start was fine by me. It gave us time to get Dirk a back wheel, as his had a slow flat in it ! Well done to my boy Dirk who had a great race in only his second Olympic Distance. Also Andy crushed his goals.

I got out good in the swim and ended up out of the water in 23:47. Before hand I said to myself get out hard and hang onto some feet. A 80 sec PR, but need to be faster.
Then ran to the bike and Heather shouted 7min down as I got on, I realized afterwards her watch much have not hit the split for my Transition so it really 7min since the 1st guy exited the water, so I was about 4min down. The first 10miles on the bike I hammered it holding close to 30mph, as I was thinking I was alot behind. I caught the group and then couldn't see anyone, was I leading ? No way to early ! At the turn around I saw 4 guys ahead and did a split on each. I knew then I could relax back to tempo pace for the 2nd half of the bike.I caught one of the guys around mi 15. I got another time check from my man Edmund Burke on Key Bridge. Again I was closing in on the lead, then I took another time check about 4mi to the finish. As long as I had my running legs the race was mine. Off the bike I didn't have the best T2. The insole of my shoes curled up, so I spent a couple seconds fixing it. Ah well ! on the long run out I could see Dirk coming in. So I gave him a shoot.
Out on the road my legs felt good, to be honest real good. I caught 3rd well before the mile, then my eyes were set on the 2 guys ahead. I knew Adam Ostot was the man to beat he is well balanced in all 3 sports. Also a solid dude as I found out after the race. I caught 2nd place around 2.5mi and Adam was about 5 secs ahead. I rolled up with 5k to go. He ran with me for a bit we had a brief exchange and I held my pace. I did pick up the last 2miles to around 505-506 pace. I felt like I could have ran another 2miles if I needed today. Clearwater came into my ahead, but hey its a differant ball game when you have to bike over double the distance
Coming down the finishing straight was awesome. I realized I was achieving one of my main goals for 2010 and got excited. I couldn't help but celebrate, normally I just put my hands up as I cross the line. But I felt the need to do more. The crowd was awesome too, they came out in the rain.

Now back to work for Dallas and Clearwater. Oct 10th and Nov 14th.

Harambee

Harambee literally means "all pull together" in Swahili, and is also the official motto of Kenya and appears on its coat of arms. The other day I was running past the Kenyan embassy and saw this sign. It reminded me of Kenyan Runners training together to achieve their goals, working hard and pushing one another. I personally find I train so much better when I work with a team of like minded athletes.

On Monday evening I swam with my buddies Andy and Dirk and I got to be honest I was tried and if I was alone I would have probably headed home or just have swam easy. But instead I got in a great workout and even ran home to end my workout. Furthermore, Saturday I had another solid swim and a great bike ride with Andy and Zac.

My training has been going decent, I hitting more volume that last year, my running is a little behind were it was in '09 due to my Achilles limiting my run workouts. But swim and bike are on track for Dallas.

My plan is to add some miles to my legs the next 3 weeks, I want to put in a good showing at Nations then I will do a tougher 3 week block before a rest week for Dallas, following the another 4 week phase for Clearwater. Basically I'm taking a leaf out of my Cross Country Training with anyways got my peaking for Championship time, and with my Tri races dated the same as XC time. It make sense to follow a tried and trusted periodization .

Ridin' Solo

The last month has been not so exciting for me when it comes to running. It has been limited mileage and no workouts.
Finally as my boy Jason Derulo sings "Yeah I feelin' good tonight"
Did a 5.75mi run after work and had no tightness in my Achilles. Lets hope this is a turn for the good. Yesterday I hit up the track for some pace work effort. 6 X 800m with 200m jog. I av 2:32 in the pouring rain. Goal was 2:35-2:30 to help the legs find 5:00 pace again. Nothing to write home about. But I now take an approach that you need to progress when it comes to getting back to full speed, a few yrs ago I would be banging this session out in sub 2:20, the first week back. Not very smart, right !

This weekend I got the Sprint Super Race in Manassas Va. http://www.triitnow.com/
It should be a fun race, draft-legal on the bike. 400y swim , 8 mile bike (8 X 1mi loop) and 1.8mile Run (2 loops).

On a side note I remember thinking when I started this blog, that I would talk about the tunes that I listen too aswell. So from now on expect to have some more music shit. Well it won't be shit to me. Right now My boy J Derulo is on replay in my ears everytime he pops up in the playlist.

Night !

RW