Wednesday, June 14, 2006

The Metroplex Sprint Triathlon

The Sprint triathlon over the weekend was a workout with the intensity of a race and a cool occasion to see a bunch of friends. Lisa Taylor did her initial tri of the Triple Challenge, Terry Bunker's 20 year old son Nathan did his first triathlon with some friends and Gary Zimny, like me, needed the workout. Lots of supporters came out; Patty, Scott, Terry and MaryAnn didn't have to wait too long for this one to be over. Starting at 7:15, everyone was pretty much done by 9am.

Warm water was whipped a little by heavy wind chop but I worked my way treading water to the imaginary start line. Taking off for the 800m with at least a hundred swimmers of 3 or 4 age groups all in yellow hats it seemed like I was in a crowd but the first mark rounding was pretty easy. Cross-wind I was glad to be a right side breather because the chop was heavy. At the final turn I was just starting to get happy with the swim when WHAM!!!, right in the kisser. Punched hard enough, I thought the fat lip was going to cause water drag and it hurt! But it made me mad enough that I passed the guy and kept up a hot pace all the way in. That last few hundred meters might have helped get my 5th place of 43 in age group that I was really happy about.

The ride was uneventful though short. I was able to push for 22.8 mph which I was also very satisfied with. My run, as usual, stunk the place up. An 8:46/mile average is slow by any measure. I'm taking some steps this week to try to fix this. Terry's clinic in Tyler has a staff coach specializing in running form evaluation and they're sure they can offer me some assistance. This might be just the thing I need so I'm very appreciative and taking up the offer this Friday.

Lisa and Nathan finished the MST with 1:45 and 1:41, respectively. A good showing for both. I know that Lisa is disappointed with her swim because of her swimming history but triathlon is different... its kinda like a cross between boxing and swimming. Nathan, I can tell, just got his interest piqued. I've already heard he's looking for a new bike. You go, dude!

Check out these athletes... (sorry Nathan, they didn't list any pics for you).





The training program is peaking for the Buffalo Springs Lake Half-Ironman next weekend. This is a tough week with over 10K in swimming, 30 in running and 150 cycling with a slight taper next week.

My next log should be a positive result from Lubbock. I remember my last race of this distance..... and it wasn't pleasant. I need to remember its an endurance race and I just need to finish. It'll go great this year.

1 Comments:

At June 19, 2006, Blogger Jomme said...

Go get 'em in Lubbock Ed. From what I hear, there are no hills and there is no wind out there. You can do this race in zen-like state of mind!

 

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