Spring Thaw II

I had the night before the race off, which is as rare as it is nice. On the other hand, sleeping just one night, when I'm normally awake, didn't exactly make me fresh and ready to go. It was another day when Amanda had to encourage me to get up and on my way. We took our time in getting there, which really didn't matter today. The field was about half as big as last time. I set up my transition area, which looked like a good place to curl up and go to sleep.
Amanda and Mr. Nocturnal seeking shade on a hot spring day.

Unlike previous times, I started out aggressive, but my legs ran out of gas very quickly. The first lap revealed that I wasn't running all that well. I wasn't as tired as usual, but certainly wasn't feeling good. My plan was to duck out early into lap two when I got to the trees so nobody could see me. Instead, I ran to the bottom of the hill, but couldn't pull out in front of a volunteer. Lapped runners were everywhere and I was doomed to continue until the bike leg. Lap two and three were slower than lap one. I had been falling further behind the race leader, but holding strong to spot two with my training partner, Mike "the real" McCoy, hanging onto third with a good gap behind him. We've been working very hard at getting ready for Military Nationals, so it was great to see him doing well.

The leader was pretty much out of sight by the end of the third lap, but a pretty slow transition allowed me to catch up. My transition wasn't all that great, but it was in comparison. My run was 18:54.3 (5:43.73/mile), which is very disappointing and made me free game for any names I'd like to call myself for sucking when I'm supposed to be nearing my best. T1 was 39.6. It's more time than usual because I decided to ride with bike shoes instead of platforms and because slow is the name of the game for me today.

They say carbs will make me fat. Maybe they meant carbs will make you fast. Anyhow, should I, a military guy worry when a black SUV pulls up along side and has a passenger lean out the window to take a shot at me?

On the bike, I was able to get a split on the leader as he went through shadows in the distance. He was up about 36 seconds. My legs felt awful, but I was willing to push and see if I could make it interesting. I told myself that I could drop out if I caught him. That was a really poor plan. It wasn't until about 20 minutes in that I was able to close it to under 30 seconds. He must have run out of gas, because I made it all up by the turn at 28:37. I wish I had my front race wheel on to add a little speed. Those I'm racing are often struggling too, which is something I know deep down, but often need to remind my conscious of. I don't mean to diminish any one's experience, but my circumstances are rarely good this year and leave me with extra burden to bare.

Why can't the motorcycle ride a bit further back and to the right (where the wind was coming from)? It's a big gap to 2nd, but these rubber legs know it's far from over.

Anyhow, I prohibited myself from passing for seven minutes to rest up a bit and to avoid getting too aggressive from taking the lead. I needed to put time on this guy before the second run, but knew we had a couple hills and he was fading. As soon as I went, the gap was immediate and significant. I told myself that I could jog the entire second run if I could get there first, then Jessi ruined it for me. She comes by in a black SUV, hanging out the window and screaming encouraging words for me. It normally does little for me, but I got fired up, threw out my mock flexing pose as I rode myself back into motivation. The way out was probably head wind as I managed to negative split the way back with a 24:37. In all, my bike was a fair 53:14.6. That works out to 24.79 MPH for 22 miles, but Amanda said it was only 20.9, which would be 23.55 MPH and probably more correct. I don't like fake numbers no matter how good they look.
OK, so my mock flexing pose didn't quite turn out when leaning so far forward that I feel like I could fall over the front. I found some motivation though.

T2 was 49.4 seconds. The extra time was in putting on shoes where I didn't in T1. It was still not that great. Other than when experimenting, there are few excuses for a slow transition. Perhaps I'm just a bit mentally weak, but I'll fix that before May 31st. I was a bit confused as to the route to the run course because I was looking back to see the guy that outran me in run 1. He wasn't there and wouldn't be until after McCoy went through. I really wish I would have known he took over second because that would be great news to a struggling runner. That old familiar feeling of running on fumes and rubber legs came back and I was right where I needed to be. I had an open road ahead of me and a great chance to finish first. That first lap of run two was the slowest of the day for me, but I was cruising along at a continuously increasing speed. Each lap was faster than the last and I was never in danger of getting run down. My second run was 19:38.7 (5:57.18/mile). My overall time was 1:33:16.6. It's apparent that I wasn't pleased with my performance today. It doesn't matter if I'm first or last, but how hard I try.

Both feet on the ground at the same time ... not good at all.
That's more like it. Rounding the corner for home plate.


McCoy was passed on the run, but held on for a 3rd overall finish, destroying the master's field and all but two others. I was lucky enough to win the drawing for a Louis Garneau Rocket Air helmet from Fitness Fanatics. It's pretty impressive how much is donated. Aside from the helmet, I picked up the $50 gift certificate too. On top of all that, there was apparently a series from the two Spring Thaw races, which I was overall winner of. Staying in bed would have been really nice today, but sometimes it pays to get out of bed. Lying also helps. If I hadn't lied to myself so many times, continuing on instead of pulling out, then it wouldn't have been nearly as rewarding.

Final bit of encouragement from little McCoy (Brandon).

To finish the day off, I did a 3800m swim with Amanda. I lied to myself a lot there too. It wasn't until I got to 3300m that I was finally telling myself that I'd finish the whole thing. The time was pretty poor for me at 1:00:43.2 (1:35.87/100m), but I was just cruising. I have no plans of pushing the swim or bike in Ironman, but I should be around 55 for the distance when pushing it. After surviving the day, a long nap was just what I needed. To top that off, I don't have to work until Tuesday :0).