Bottom Line Up Front:
Overall Time: 1:53:38 Place: 3rd overall
Wildman was a late add to piggy back off a training camp and vacation in Florida with my family. All in all a super productive trip and enjoyable trip. The weather was pretty fantastic, makes me want to move down to FL to take advantage of year round training outdoors. It was a vivid reminder of how much I hate cold weather. The past 5 months have been solely focused on getting me ready for a season of 70.3 distance racing so all of my pacing is set up to optimize my performance distance right now. This was a lesson from last season where we tried to balance Olympic and 70.3 racing and it just wasn’t a good formula for me and it became clear I’m much more competitive at the 70.3 distance mainly due to my sub-par swimming ability. Due to this I knew I probably wasn’t going to be able to go as fast as I would like or am capable at the Olympic distance. Or as my coach said after the race: “my internal Governor is set for 70.3 distance racing” – good for 70.3 racing, bad for Olympic distance racing. . Mentally, I did not approach this race as serious as I typically do which probably carried over a bit into my performance but also meant I was pretty darn relaxed. So, the focus for this race was to get in a good hard effort and work out any kinks prior to IM 70.3 Galveston in 4 weeks. Mission completed and success
Pre-race: Went out to the race site 2 days in advance and drove the course with Kristin and sleeping baby Colt. The bike course was pretty much pancake flat but Kristin pointed out there were a lot of turns and sand at the corners – note taken – course probably won’t be as fast as it looks. Met up with fellow Wattie Inkers Steve Houston and Adam Furlong race morning and chatted it up a bit – the prevailing topic seemed to be the cool weather and freezing cold water. Steve helped me out big time with a borrowed Blueseventy Helix which was essential due to the 63F water temp. Chit chatted a bit, transition set-up (I used fellow Wattie Dusty Nabor’s transition motto of simple simple simple) and off to swim start. Race time temp was ~52F. 
Swim: 1500M, 2 loop course. I was reluctant to do a pre-race swim due to the cold temp at 63F but learned from last season that whenever possible I really need to loosen up prior to swim start. Decided to forgo the pre-race swim (error #1). Zipped up the Blueseventy Helix and we were underway. First time in the Blueseventy Helix and have to say I was really impressed with the performanceof this wetsuit – amazing wetsuit and super pumped to have them as a team sponsor!!! Can wait to zip up the custom Wattie Ink Elite Team version arriving in a few weeks. Ankle deep mass start for the men. Gun went off and the front group was a bit of a tangled mess and I got kicked back to pack 2 and lost the front pack. I immediately realized how cold the water was and tried to hold off the panic attack flashback from my hypothermia event at Knoxville 2 years ago when I had to be pulled from the water. Eventually settled into an awkward stiff/cold pace for the first loop. Finally settled into a faster pace for lap 2 and bridged back up to some feet (which ended up being the race winner) and starting passing a few people until swim exit but totally lost track of the rest of the field. I actually thought we were swimming out front since I didn’t see any more swim caps ahead but I was very very wrong. Overall, swim wasn’t too bad, could have definitely swam faster had I and the water been warmer. Still not too horrible and a 45 second improvement from race #1 last season on a slower course. Way too much time lost to the front group though which came back to bite me later. Swim times have come down but need to continue to drop throughout the season. More steady progress to be made in the pool over the coming months. Swim time on my watch was 23:24.
T1: Long run to transition w/ frozen extremities. I decided to wear socks on the bike since it was a bit cool out. Took me forever to get socks on my frozen feet with my frozen hands – took waaaaaay too long in T1 (error #2). Race winner, Billy Edwards, smoked me in transition. Very simple, transition times need to improve be better. This is the second race in a row where I’ve essentially given up a possible win in transition – not good.
Bike: Bike course was a flat 2 loop course with a lot of turns (think I counted 20 total). Hopped on the new Scott Plasma and rolled hot out of T1 hoping to bridge the gap to the front group. This was my first race on the Scott Plasma and was really impressed with performance and comfort – not the best course for a TT bike but can’t wait to get this speed machine on the 70.3 circuit and open it up a bit. Had no clue how far back I was from the front (ended up being 2:30-3:30min) but knew I needed to get on the crank to make up some time. Got my first look at the front group with “no shirt guy” in front, Steve Houston in second and Adam Furlong in 3rd and was about 2min back. I thought I was going to be able to make this up on the second loop but was struggling to push the pace due to all the stop and go on turns and cold weather – I purposely try to stay away from cold weather races since I never seem to race well in the cold. This was only my 3rd ride outside in the past 3 months so was reluctant to corner hard (error #3). Also calibrated my powermeter incorrectly while the bike was on the rack in T1 which totally screwed up my power readings (error #4). Just rode as hard as I could to try and bridge the gap and cut the time before the run. Lap 2 put me at about 60-90 seconds off the front. As I rolled into T2 I could see Steve leaving so knew I was about 60-90 seconds back. Ride time off my garmin 500 had me at 55:12, race clock said 56:11 – go figure. Either way, a lot slower than I had expected end up being around 25MPH avg vs 26-27MPH avg I had seen in training for race pace efforts.
T2: Got my shoes on very quickly and intended to make this as quick as possible but ended up running the wrong way out of T2 and had to turn around and had to go back out the other direction (error #5).
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| Trying to catch Steve in 2nd |
Run: Flat, curvy run course on sand. I wasn’t really a fan of this run course since I couldn’t see very far ahead due to all the turns and the traction was pretty loose in most parts. I was in 5th to start the run and bridged up to Adam in 4th pretty quickly. He advised that I was about 2min back so a lot of work to do here. I was battling some abdominal cramps and a tight right hamstring over the first 1.5 miles so had to hold back a bit from the 5:20-30 pace I was expecting to run. Settled into a 5:45-50 pace (which just happens to be my 70.3 pace) and got stuck there – not sure if this was mental, physical or both but certainly not what I was expecting. Flew by “no shirt guy” at the turn which put me in 3rd and a lot of work to do in short order to bridge up to the front. My legs just didn’t have their normal 10k turnover so had to stick with my 70.3 run pacing. About halfway through the second loop I could start to see Steve up ahead but then lost sight again through the turns, made my decision to turn on the gas way too late (error #6) due to the shorter run course and ended up finishing in 3rd overall about 15 seconds back of Steve in 2nd and a touch over 1min back of 1st. Always a great sight coming up to the finish line to see Kristin and Colt waving and cheering. Came in at 30:54 (race clock) on a 5.3-6ish mile course so still not bad effort but pretty disappointed in my run today. The one positive is that I felt as though I could hold the 5:45-50 pace all day so a very good sign going into IM 70.3 Galveston in 4 weeks.
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| Wattie crew sweeping up 2nd and 3rd overall |
Great kickoff to the 2013 season with a shout out and thanks to my #1 fan Kristin (wife), coach Torsten Abel, Wattie Ink Elite Team and sponsors: Blueseventy, K-Swiss, Speedfil, ISM (thanks Dave Bunce for the new saddle choice – the breakaway is amazing), Scott Bikes, Fuelbelt, 454 tattoo, Reynolds Cycling, Kask Helmets and Powerbar.
NEXT UP - IM 70.3 GALVESTION APRIL 7, 2013
