The Los Alamos triathlon last year was my second multisport event and my first triathlon. It was nice to be able to return to it this year, see all the new people I've met through the sport and have a great race. The LA tri is run in an unusual order: bike, swim, run. Since it's a pool swim, this is done to spread people out by the time they hit the water. Also on offer for the first time this year was a time-trial start for the "elites". I got talked into signing up for this group, so I gathered with the fast guys and gals at the start and waited my turn to leave. One every 30 seconds... a friend snapped me about 50 yards down the road from the start (that's why I'm the only person in the picture, I'm really not that fast).
Waiting around at the start, it was pretty chilly, so it took a while for the legs to warm up. Training for the ironman distance doesn't really emphasize the short efforts, so I think I may have under-paced the ride. On the other hand, riding harder might have bought me another minute at the expense of time on the run...
I got back and had a minor nightmare unclipping at the dismount line. Left foot, out. Right foot... come on right foot... On my first attempted dismount I started to lift the bike with my right foot and had to give a good sharp twist of the foot to get out of the pedal and off the bike. Next step, almost running past my rack at transition! Anyway, it wasn't that bad, but it was good practice at not getting flustered and practicing "less haste, more speed". So then I was off to the pool, for my worst swim of the year. My arms felt like lead, my legs would only kick slowly and the water felt like hot treacle. A swim that should normally take me seven minutes and change without pushing too hard took over 8 and a half minutes. Maybe some of it was the residual of Thursday's 2 mile swim session, but frankly I don't think that was it. Sometimes you just have a bad day, and I apparently can't swim after cycling.
But I can run (apparently)! Once I got out of the pool I was back to zip through transition (well, it felt speedy, but it was longer than T1) and see whether I could catch anyone on the run, having been overtaken in the pool. Well, one personal best 5k run later (18:49) I was crossing the finish line having shown an improvement in all three events over last year, for a final time of 1:05:16. Even better, it was enough to take 6th overall! Signing up for the elite wave took me out of contention for an age group prize, but I don't need the glassware and it was super fun to do the time-trial start.
So now back to my regularly scheduled training... I'm looking forward to the week after next, where I start my taper (yay, less training!) and get my left eye operated on (yay, vision!). Then it's all recovery until the big day in Pembrokeshire, Wales.
(You can still sponsor me and raise money for Olivia's Vision, a uveitis charity. For details, see this old blog entry.)
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