DeRuyter Triathlon

Yesterday I raced the DeRuyter Triathlon, This race consisted of a 1/2 mile swim 16 mile bike and a 3 mile run.

I was using this race as and of season race to go out and have some fun!! And thats exactly what I did. I went into the race hoping to place in the top 5 overall based on the past years results.

It has been said that you can not win a race during the swim but you can lose one. Well I proved that theory wrong. I took first place overall solely due to out swimming the field.

I swam 15:20

Biked 44:10 = 21.6 mph

Ran 21:40

to finish in 1:22

I had the race I wanted to have!! However I never knew i was winning because I started in the 3rd swim wave and was chasing people the whole race. The guy who took 2nd started in the 1st wave 10 minutes before me and the 3rd place finisher started 5 minutes ahead of me so they both finished ahead of me so i had thought I placed 4th or 5th. Needless to say I was very delighted with todays performance. I rode my new Cannondale and had a good ride but still need to work some kinks out. I was very pleased with my Swim, run and transitions today they made all the difference.

How it is a month of running focus hoping to build mileage up to 17 or 18 miles by Nov. 1st

The Speed Baby!!!

I received my first big investment of my Ironman experience. I bought a new speed machine!! I got a unreal deal on a brand new from the factory Cannondale Slice 3. This bike was said to climb like a charm and after two rides on it I can say that the reviews are correct. Considering that I will be spending between 6 and 7 hours on my bike during race day I felt it would be good to get a new speed machine.

Big George~~~

Last Sunday I competed in my first 1/2 Ironman since 2000. This is a distance I wanted to step into to prepare for IM Lake Placid in 2012. I took all summer to focus on this race and it paid off!! I did have to take some training time off due to a knee injury so my fitness may have been lacking a little bit. I set some simple goals for this race and hopped to meet them all.

Distances for the race were 1.2 mile swim, 56 mile bike, 13.1 mile run

Goals

Overall Time - Under 6 hours

Swim Time - Under 40 mins

Bike Time - Under 3 hours

Run Time - Under 2 hours

Big George is a first year 1/2 IM race located in Lake George, NY.

The course was absolutely beautiful, and hilly

My swim went as planned I got a little beat up at the start but then settled into a nice pace and swam 38:03 for what was most likely 1.4 miles so I was happy with that, the swim was long.

I got out on my bike and tried to get settled in as quickly as possible but that was hard to do because the first 5 miles of the bike course are all up hill. After this first climb I finally got racing. I had a great ride however I did not take in enough calories due to my gel flask which was 550 calories falling off my bike after hitting a bump. I would end up paying for this later.

I continued on the bike course and paced myself rather well my average Heart rate for the ride was 149 bpm. I finished the bike course in 2:55 which for 56 miles is 19.1 mph however the bike course measured 58 miles so that 19.1 mph turned into 19.8 which I was really happy with for such a hilly course.

The run started out well, I only wish it could have finished the same way. I felt good for the first 6.5 miles right on pace mile 7 I started to hit the wall. I had to walk one hill and then began running again. I was holding my 9 min per mile pace through 8 miles and then I started to shatter. This is where I needed those 550 calories that I did not get on the bike due to losing my gels. I made it through the miles and suffered. I ran the 13.1 miles in 2 hours 11 mins.

I finished 71 of 250 racers and 17 of 35 in my age group. I met all my goals for the day except finishing my run under 2 hours so that gives me something to focus on. Overall a good day of racing. This is just the beginning of so much more fun to come.