Promising Start at Triple T

The 2012 season kicked off with a weekend packed full of races in Ohio. I traveled down to Portsmouth, OH early Friday morning to take another stab at The American Triple T - Ohio. I raced this event last year, as a far less experienced long distance triathlete. The event consists of a super sprint triathlon (250m swim, 4 mile bike, 1 mile run) Friday afternoon. Saturday promises to grind you down with morning AND afternoon Olympic distance triathlons (AM: 1500m swim, 25 mi bike, 6.55 mi run. PM: 25mi bike, 1500m swim, 6.55 mi run). If you make it through the first two days, you're in good shape as all you have left is an extremely challenging half Ironman triathlon (1.2 mi swim, 56 mi bike, 13.1 mi run) on Sunday. These races combine to be a touch longer than Ironman distance.
Many people consider this race tougher than an Ironman and I have to agree due to the nature of the event. Seeing that participants compete in 4 triathlons in the span of 40 hours nutrition, pacing, muscle soreness and cumulative fatigue become major issues. It's easy to get caught up in the atmosphere and  race the shorter events, leaving your body destroyed by the time Sunday rolls around, something I was lucky enough to experience in the 2011 race. Let's not forget that each unique bike course rolls through hill after hill, each feeling tougher than the last. The run is no picnic, being the same rolling 6.55 mile out and back trail run all weekend.
I competed in this race in 2011 as part of my buildup for Lake Placid Ironman. I figured that I could test my limits a little bit while also getting a solid weekend in. The race ended up being my most difficult event of 2011.
My return in 2012 was accompanied by a different racing strategy a very high level of fitness, and most importantly an 11-27 cassette to help me spin up the hills. I decided to race the first three races thinking of nothing other than the run on Sunday, hoping to redeem myself from a painful 2:12 half marathon from the previous year. I had a goal of not walking and also being competitive in the overall race results. Triple T draws a crowd of incredible athletes including age group Ironman champions and, this year, elite and professional triathletes.
I made it through Friday and Saturday, quicker than last year and feeling great. My worst race came Saturday night where I did not eat enough between Olympic triathlons and started the PM race under-fueled and hungry. I dragged myself through the race, adding ten minutes to my time from the morning, and started to worry that I might have dug too far into the reserves to have a good Sunday 70.3. I decided to forget about the race and chalk it up to poor nutrition and refueled as well as i could to bounce back Sunday.
In 2011, I came out of the gates swinging hard for the 70.3 I had a fine swim then rode through the first 28 miles of hills in 1:29, crashing on the second lap for a bike time of 3:06. My plan this year was to make it through the swim without issues, ride the first lap of the bike easy, work the second half, and repeat the strategy on the run. I got nervous when my first lap of the bike was 1:34 but I stuck to the plan, started to work the second half of the bike and ended up negative splitting the ride by about 4 minutes, leaving me fresh to run and ahead of my bike time from last year. At this point in the weekend, I had not resorted to walking on any of the run courses and I didn't plan on starting now. I rolled out the first 3.27 miles easy, working on keeping my body cool, my heart rate under 160, and getting some liquids down. I immediately fell into a good rhythm and ran my first loop of the run in 54 minutes. I felt pretty good and decided to start to go to work on the second loop of the run. Up and down the hills, I ran, keeping my heart rate under 165 and starting to work the downhill segments. I made it to the turn around, greeted by a monster climb and let it rip from the top of the course to the finish. My run was also negative split by 4 minutes, and was faster than my run in the Olympic the night before.
Throughout the entire weekend, I had been swimming and riding away from a guy, Andrew, in my rack, then I would try to hold my lead on the run. He ran me down most races, I decided that this was not going to be one of those times.  I started to really let the legs open after he told me he was coming for me on the last loop of the run. Inevitably, he caught me but it was 500 ft from the finish. I switched on my sprinter cap from my days as a 400 runner and told him I wasn't going to let him have it that easy. We had a blistering finish dropping from 6:30 miles to an all out sprint for the line, where we crossed side-by-side, laughing and congratulating each other. The joke was on me as the race was a time trial start and he started behind me but we both knew this and had fun with it. We met Friday night and joked that we would be side by side all weekend. Ironically, we started and finished side by side which was a perfect finish to the weekend.
Digesting the races, I am absolutely stoked about where I am at this point in my season. I had a hard 7 hour brick a week before Triple T, trained 6 hours the week leading up to the race, and only rested one day before the race. To be able to race hard all weekend, racing faster than I had last year at this race, and finishing strong with a 1:46 trail half marathon leaves me feeling great about what is to come.
Next up is the Buffalo Marathon on Sunday, then Keuka Lake Triathlon the following weekend. The plan is not to get too caught up in these races as they are nothing more than training events for greater things to come. I look forward to working with Clint on his first marathon and watching Billy Boy crank out his first marathon outside of Ironman (crazy Bill).
Until then, I will rest up and get some easy miles in on the bike.

Become comfortable being uncomfortable.