Race Report: Valdese Sprint Triathlon

Yesterday was the Valdese Sprint Triathlon.  This tri will always be one of my favorites because it was actually my very first triathlon ever.  It's hard to believe that it was just three short years ago that I was racing on my mountain bike with a helmet that I had borrowed from a friend!  I've certainly gotten a little bit more serious about my equipment choices since then!  But anyway, I'm glad that I got the chance to race it again for my third consecutive year.  This date, June 25th, was actually a rescheduled date because the original April 16th event was cancelled due to incliment weather. 

Overall, the race went really well.  I approached the race as a training session, and therefore didn't taper at all leading up to it.  My major goal is Rev3 Cedar Point in September and these sprint races are really just a fun way to get in some brick work.  I still completed my hard VO2 max session on the bike on Thursday night and my tempo run on Friday, and also not to mention the HARD time trial up Pilot Mountain on Tuesday, so when I woke up yesterday morning I definitely didn't have the usual race-day "snap" in my legs.  But, I ended up with a solid 3rd place finish overall and 1st in the M 25-29 age group.  I only missed 1st place overall by 60 seconds, so I can't complain about that.  This is how it all broke down:

Swim (250 yd):  4:27, 38th overall.
This is actually a very solid swim split for me.  My swim still lags FAR behind my bike and my run because I just haven't found the time to spend really working on my stroke with an instructor, but I'm pleased with swimming significantly under 2:00/100 yd (my planned IM swim pace).  I didn't push it too hard on the swim and felt very comfortable coming out of the water.

Bike (9 mi):  25:33, 2nd overall.
In the back of my mind, my major goal for this race had been to post the fastest bike split of the day, so I am a little bummed that I only posted 2nd fastest by 16 seconds.  The bike course at Valdese is pretty hilly and technical, with a lot of climbs out of the aerobars, and I realized pretty early on in the bike leg, that my legs were paying for the hard week of training leading up to this race, so I had to dial down the intensity a bit from my planned 320 W.  I ended up averaging 290 W, which is a significant under-performance for me at that distance, but I am still happy that it managed to snag me the 2nd fastest bike split.

Run (3.1 mi):  18:57, 4th overall.
I really had NO idea what to expect for this 5 km run because I have been doing a lot of longer run sessions lately for Rev3 and have put less emphasis on the speedwork.  I started off the first mile pretty conservatively and was suprised with how good I felt.  As I rounded the 1.5 mile turn around cone, I really picked up the pace and finished very strong over the second half of the race.  Honestly, this is probably the best I have felt finishing a 5 km run in a LONG time and I feel good about the run training that I'm doing for Rev3.

Thanks to SetUp Events and the town of Valdese for putting on a great race yesterday.  I'll definitely have this one on the calendar for next year!

Back in the Saddle!

It's been quite a while since I've had time to post, but I am happy to announce - as said best by Aerosmith - that "I'm back in the saddle again!"  The past couple of months have been extremely busy for me.  I completed my final two surgical rotations in orthopaedics at Wake Forest, and wanted to leave the department with a good impression, so I tried my best to work as hard as possible during the 8 weeks.  Overall it was a fantastic experience and left me completely certain that I made the right choice in deciding to pursue orthopaedic surgery as my future vocation, but it left me with little time for other things like posting on this blog!

I did manage to get some solid training accomplished in my garage (AKA the "pain cave") on the trainer and the treadmill, despite being rather busy, and I feel that I have made some solid gains on both the bike and the run.  My training has really started to "ramp up" lately as I am making the solid march toward Rev3 Cedar Point on September 11th.  My approach to training for this (my first) iron-distance even has been relatively high(er) intensity and low(er) volume than most programs out there, so it has been very challenging mentally to get "psyched up" for hard interval sessions on the trainer or the treadmill multiple times per week, but my body feels great.  The fitness gains have definitely been substantial and I feel fast.  I just need to really listen to my body over these next weeks prior to Rev3 and stay healthy!

I made my return to racing this week on Tuesday night at the "grand finale" of the Mock Orange Bikes MoSpeed TT series.  The final race was held at Pilot Mountain, just about 25 miles north of Winston-Salem.  Pilot Mountain is one of the best climbs in Piedmont Triad area of North Carolina and gains approximately 1400 feet of elevation in 2.26 miles (average 11.7% grade).  The time trial was simply from the base of the mountain to the parking lot at the summit.  Only 2.26 miles...easy, right?  I knew that I would be at a slight disadvantage in a mountain time trial as compared to the other races in the series, which have been flat time trials, because as cyclists go, I am on the larger size (80 kg), but nonetheless, I knew it would be a fantastic substitute for my normal Tuesday night lactate threshold workout on the trainer and a good chance to set some new mean maximal power (MMP) records.

In the end, I am very pleased with how I performed.  I finished 3rd in the B Category, which was good enough for 9th overall.  My total time was 16:10 and my average power was 355 W (4.4 W/kg).  I think I paced the race well and I am very pleased with my average power.  Sustaining a power output much over 4 W/kg for intervals lasting greater than 15 minutes has been a major barrier for me, and I feel like I finally completely obliterated it!  I ended up setting new MMP's for 15, 10, 5, and 4 minutes.  My new 4 minute MMP was set during my last 4 minutes of the race, so I was very pleased with my final "kick".

Tomorrow morning is the re-scheduled Valdese Sprint Triathlon.  250 yd swim, 9 mile bike, and 5k run.  I haven't really been focusing on short-course racing lately, but I'm hoping I can really nail the short bike leg at a high power output and have a solid run!  I'll post a race report when I get the results back.