Traditionally, I have always raced faster the day after a sprint triathlon. No matter how hard I push, it just seems to warm my body up to smash it the next day. Unfortunately, this was not quite the case on this day.
The previous day had gone quite well. Followed feet for the short swim and the legs were making good power on the bike the entire time. When I got off to run, only my recent lack of running to heal up a knee injury held me back. I expected, as usual, for things to be even better the next day. However, rough waters, residual fatigue and tight hamstrings made it quite the struggle.
The swim started out well, as I got a jump on the beach start and was off in front until we started swimming. I tucked in and found feet and settled in quick. However, with no swim warm-up, the arms were a bit sluggish, and I quickly found myself swimming all alone with noone around me by the first turn. And that's when I really started to feel the chop of the water. It wasn't much, but it was enough to occasionally obstruct vision on a sight and throw my rhythm off just enough to keep my off balance. I soldiered on though, and on the way back to shore, my arms came alive allowing me to finally get a strong pull on the water as I forced it back behind me with as much acceleration as I could muster.
Surprisingly, I came out of the water in decent shape (a testament to my rapidly improving swim fitness), and after a quick transition was out on the bike working hard to catch everyone I could. Since we were one of the last waves to go, I had a lot of people to pass. I worked flat out, as hard as I could the entire way, not knowing if the legs would last or not. Hitting target power was a struggle though, and the steep hills of the course were taking a toll on my tired and tight hamstrings. Overall, I ended up about 10-15 watts under goal power, but it was enough to catch up to and pass all but one who started in my wave.
Out on the run though, the tight hamstrings and lack of running were really affecting me. Less than a mile in, the plan became to just keep moving, running as hard as I could maintain for one more mile. Despite this, I was getting run down and passed. A lot. I did what I could though, and just kept moving at the fastest pace I could maintain for just a little longer. And then, just passed the halfway mark, when I thought I wasn't going to make it the whole way, my legs woke up. Like a switch, they were on. I felt normal. I pushed the pace up. And up. I was passing again now. Not just the collegiate athletes in the waves ahead struggling to run. I was now repassing the athletes in my wave who had caught me. Faster and faster I ran. I saw the guy leading my age group way up ahead and knew I had to catch him. And do it while we were still running into a headwind. I put on a surge when I got close to discourage him from following. It didn't matter. He was dwindling, as were several others who had blew by me earlier. Either the heat or the tough bike course, had likely caught up to them. I was picking up speed, however, and gaining on the rest of the quicker runners, way up ahead. The course stretched on and on, but it only served to give me more time to catch up. Finally, with the wind at my back, I had caught all but a few, who were still running fast. With a half-mile to go I had run out of room for two up ahead, but there was one more left to catch and he hadn't let up a bit. I was running almost flat out now, as hard as my legs could physically move at this time. I had no more speed to surge, but I tried anyways and my pace kicked up again. The finish line in sight, I held that surge, showing no mercy. I was going to break away now and not leave any chance of a finish line sprint. It worked. I got clear and ran hard into the finish, never slowing up. Turns out, my run fitness was still there, just hiding, waiting for the moment when I needed it most.
It was good enough for 4th in the male under 40 wave, with two over 40 guys and 3 collegiate athletes finishing faster and bumping me to 8th overall and 1st in age group. It was a fun, competitive race and a good gauge to really see how my fitness is coming along. Even now, I am faster than I was last year, which is going to make it fun to see what happens when I get that race where I hit target power on the bike and come flying off of it for the entirety of the run.
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