After taking absolutely no time to think about my race in
Vegas, I felt it was best to immediately get back on the pain-train and put the
pedal down in some workouts. It’s been nice to not feel the need to run 2-3 long
runs or head out on two 3-4 hour long rides every week. I’m all about quality
over quantity (in almost every aspect of life). I never understood length
requirements on papers in school. I enjoy writing, so I typically never griped
too badly about this, but I always found it unnecessary/dumb to write an 8 page
paper and say everything precise and quaintly in five pages and have to
bullshit out three more pages of redundancy. I always loved the teachers that
graded on the quality of ideas you’ve presented and not how long and wordy an
essay is. That being said, I take the same approach in my workouts. I feel it’s
almost a waste of time (for myself; not being an “iron-distance” athlete (yet)
to spend more than 4 hours on my bike. At that point, I’m not doing any quality
work; I’m just bearing the pain of sitting on a harmonica-sized seat and
keeping my legs spinning and staying upright.
All of that to say, I welcomed back Olympic-distance racing
last weekend with open arms. It was “fun” to turn up the speed/pain, and go
fast again. I was telling everyone before the race “all I want to do is blow
up the bike”. I didn’t even care about the run, I could’ve run a 45 and been
satisfied as long as I went under an hour on the bike. It’s funny how I almost
always go into a race having a “plan” and it almost always never works out the
way you imagined it.
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| Standard Butsko bewildered swim exit look |
Swim: Having put some time in the pool since Vegas, I was
hopeful that the ‘old Keith’ would come back last Sunday. Nope.. It’s getting
better, but my swim is still nowhere near what it should be. As I watched the pros
take off, I saw my buddy Kenny Rakestraw took the best line out to the first
buoy by running on the north side. I decided to take that same line and it
worked out pretty well. I reached the 1st buoy simultaneously along
with one other dude before the rest of the collegiate/ 29 & under wave. As
soon as we turned south, I had no idea where to go. The only other buoy was
like 700 meters south near the pier. It was slightly choppy and I came to a
complete stop 3 or 4 times and talked with this other guy I was swimming with.
We were just confused at where we were swimming. It really wasn’t racing, more
like getting lost and making the best of the situation. I came out somewhere in
the 24 minute range. Kind of stinky.
Bike: After a quick exchange of pleasantries with the guy I
was swimming with while changing in T1, I was off. I went out way too hard the
first 10 miles, after that I felt dead. My legs just didn’t have any life in
them. I wasn’t wearing a watch but I knew my bike split wasn’t near what I had
hoped for. The course is a false flat for the first 10ish miles towards
downtown LA; then it’s an alternating (very slight) up and downslope 2 lap-7
mile loop. Overall it’s a pretty flat course, no real challenging hills, so it
not advantageous for me at all. I
finished with a 1:02 low bike split. At least it’s a minute better than last
year right?
Run: As I headed out onto the run course, I felt I had a
nice and quick pace ½ mile into it and started to settle in. I then turned a corner
and saw Greg Bennett bolting towards the finish line; probably running a 4:45
mile pace. He ran by me so fast that my pace looked like a relaxing jog. I
almost quit endurance sports straight up when I saw that. However, I didn’t and
decided to just keep at it. Not feeling too inspired I trudged on, getting
distracted every so often by the bouncing pony tail of Magali Tisseyre… After
chatting with a few people about PLNU (as I got the usual comments about my
green hat) and noticing that I probably had a lock on the Collegiate and 29
& under win, I rolled into the finish feeling good. I saw the results and
noticed I ran a 36:24, which is a 10k PR in a triathlon for me and nearly 5
minutes faster than what I ran here last year…
2:06:19 overall
Ended up wining the collegiate division and the overall Age
Group win (However, I wasn’t credited as the overall AG champ at the awards
because apparently the Collegiate division wasn’t included for whatever
reason). No matter, it was a fun day racing and hanging out with friends. Shout
out to Kosuke, who had a huge day and was 3rd in the elite division,
and to my dogs: Bill Gleason and Jonathan Lopez, who were high on the podium in
their respective divisions. Huge day for TCSD (and PLNU triathlon.. kind of).
I’d like to say a special thanks to Sonja Johnson and Zoot
for getting me in a super fast wetsuit for this race! B+L Bikes for being THE
BEST tri shop in SD. My fam for being awesome and my friends for all the
support. And last but certainly not least, Nic Cage for making some of the worst(=best)
movies of all time.
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| Sure, Cheers. |
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