Great Clermont Sprint

This week marked a return to running and biking after I decided to take 5 days off from them last week to swi  due to a knee injury that wasn't healing well. It was rough, being that my only goal here in Clermont is to do precisely those things, but thankfully, the time off worked, as I've ran and biked the majority of this week and seem to be fully healed. However, most of the week something was off. The hamstrings were so tight on the bike that they were preventing me from riding even as close to as hard or as long as I should have. This was a time where I decided I needed to break through whatever the problem was, as I already had plenty of rest from cycling the previous week. So Thursday, I went out for a long ride. Solo. Two hours in felt like four hours, and it only got worse. Overall, I made it the 4 hours, but just barely, and not without a LOT of struggle. After a 30' run off the bike to see how things felt, I, well... felt really really bad. Terrible in fact. So I went for a swim. And afterwards, all was right.

By Saturday morning the legs were light. And loose. My body had possibly figured out things were not getting easier and so it was going to have to adapt. And it did. It was raceday at the Great Clermont Sprint, and despite some early morning rain and lightning, the air was clear for the start. Despite the extremely short 440yd swim, I decided on a wetsuit because of the 68°F water temp during my warmup swim and then left it on for the extra transition practice. Glad I did, as I had it off in seconds, and it helped me stay ahead of everyone in the small line of swimmers off the front. The first few guys gapped us, but I stayed on the feet of another guy who pulled me all the way around and in with noone else in sight.

Transition went as smooth as ever as I was in my shoes and hammering away in no time. Albeit, up a very steep hill that was not part of the course, as volunteers sent the first few of us on the bike out on to the run course which had us doubling back up a steep section once the mistake was realized. And just like that, the swim advantage we had created was gone. This was now a bike race. However, I had people to work with and we were working hard. A guy in a Subaru kit and race wheels and a former D1 runner from Iowa I had met the day before on a road bike with aerobars. Soon, as the road opened up, I could see the pace car and a small paceline at the front working to try to keep us away. The power went to upper Vo2 max as I poured it on in an attempt to bridge the gap. I knew if I didn't catch them soon, I wouldn't and the whole race would be affected. The guy in the Subaru kit made it. But I didn't have faith in my legs to get me there, and they didn't. I was forced to watch as the rest of the race I did all I could to keep them in sight and from gaining, and surprisingly they stayed right there. They had overcooked the first part of the bike and had settled in a bit. It was only when we got to the hills though that I started to reel at least one of them in. However, that's when the D1 runner caught up.

A quick transition put me in front of the two I was now with to start the run and quickly I could see the leaders weren't far off. We reeled in one, and then another, but I had fallen off their pace when we hit the hills and was now just trying to hold the gap. By the halfway mark we had caught all but one, however, they were pulling further away and I was unable to hang on. Turns out the guy in the Subaru kit who made the break was able to hold them off, while I cruised it in with noone in sight for a solid 1st in Age Group finish and feeling very good about racing again the next day.