Tuesday, September 9, 2008

Imperial Beach Triathlon 2008






About 2 weeks ago I did the IB sprint distance triathlon, and had an absolute blast doing so! I had expected to complete it in about an Hour and Forty-Five...but I was able to finish in 1:18. The race went well: Crystal and I got to the transition areas @ about 6am...which is very early for both of us! I didn't have any major issues setting up, other than a busted presta valve that came lose, I didn't have any spare tubes so fortunately I was able to fix it!!! Lesson Learned #1: Have some spare tubes, air pump, mini-tool, tire levers, and plenty of Patience!!!

Some guy next to me came prepared and I was able to use his floor pump that didn't damage the valve any further. Thanks Dude!! Ah...I hate not being prepared. Other than this brief act of generosity, the vibe that I took from this event was a bit weird. Everybody was so serious and some what stand-offish. Lesson Learned# Dos: This is so much different from the Xterra scene that I have been lucky to experience. Everybody seems so much more relaxed and easy going. Then The swim begun and in all honesty I feel that I could have done better...I held back for some reason, I should have gone all out! I think my swim was about 13min or so...I think I'll cut it down to 9-10 min next time! Lesson Learned# 3: Get used to swimming in the morning!!! My stomach felt some what queasy. Gotta get out there earlier to get used to being in the water, because most if not all races have their swims at dawn.
Okay...then came the bike leg, here I didn't run into too much trouble. But, before I go into that I should talk about my T1 (transition one; from swim to bike) lol. i did quite well, around 1 and 1/2 minutes. Considering that at my first Xterra I took about 10 min. This was a flash!!! On the bike I went pretty hard...after I over came my nauseousness. Again, I gotta get used to training early!!! And I have to make sure I don't drop my gloves, I had to stop and go back to pick up a glove that I dropped when i was trying to put it on. No major lesson's learned here. Finally, the run Leg: T2(bike to run) time not so good, just got to focus a bit more and get my shoes on a bit faster. The no sock option helped out. Thanks to Conrad Stoltz for that pearl of wisdom!!! As for the run itself, I did the 3 miles in 27 min, which is really slow...at least I think it is. I know for certain i can run it faster, because believe it or not at some point in my existence i was able to run three miles in under 19 min. But, be it as it may , I had a lot fun and I will definitely be there next year and I'm gonna go sub hour...maybe 58min!!! Which leads me to Lesson learned #(what number am I on...oh yeah #4): I gotta lean out!!!! I am way to heavy ( aka FAT) even though I have dropped a few pounds I gotta loss more. The Day of the race i was probably pushing 169lbs and I felt good, but I know I have to get to maybe 145...150 at the most. No excuses! So stay posted, for the next adventure which will be the The Xterra Nevada! At The Finish Line!!!!

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Congratulations! You are awesome!

Anonymous said...

Go for it
&
Ride it Hard

Drew