My hope was that I would be able to swim consistently with David's swim team, and that would help my swim fitness. Well, that didn't work for a variety of reasons. Since I no longer have a membership to the Y, and Keeler Gym remains closed to everyone, I haven't been lifting very often. And with every weekend being busy and raining, I didn't get out on my bike much. And now the season has started and I've already paid the price.
Last weekend, David and I traveled to Moses Lake for a sprint triathlon. The weather forecast was for a sunny and warm day, and we were both happy with that. As I loaded up the van, David's breath smelled like a cough drop, and I asked him if he was sick. He mentioned that he had a bit of a sore throat. We headed off on I-5 to Highway 18, and the first sign that it might be a long trip was reader board on I-5 that mentioned a roll-over semi accident on I-90E past Snoqualmie Pass that closed the road completely. Uh-oh. The prediction was that it would be several hours before anyone got through. As we exited onto Highway 18, there was a traffic jam. I switched over to the news on the radio and got confirmation that I-90 was bad, but no real reason why 18 was snarled. As we inched past the Auburn exits, traffic opened up, and there was no obvious reason for the slowdown. We reached North Bend in good time, and stopped at Subway. At that point, we decided to eat in the restaurant, since it didn't make much sense to be in a hurry. After about 30 minutes, we headed back onto I-90 and had smooth sailing until Exit 52. There, we saw the traffic stopped, and people walking on the road. Rats! Still closed. Meanwhile, I noticed that David was pretty congested, and he started hunting around in the console for some decongestants. He ended up popping a couple after he found them. After about 90 minutes, we started moving, barely. It took another 30 minutes or so to get to Exit 54, and by that time, it was 10:00 PM and dark. Finally, we started to move, and made it to Moses Lake around 11:45 PM. I learned that I don't like driving in the dark anymore. So, instead of an easy drive to Moses Lake, planning to arrive at a comfortable 6:30, it was around Midnight by the time we got checked in and unloaded all the gear. Well, at least the race started at 10:00 AM, so we could sleep in.
At 6:30 AM, Tracy called. Double rats! She innocently said that she expected we would have been up and getting ready (she didn't realize that Moses Lake started at 10:00 AM, which is why it's one of my new favorite races). We got up shortly after that and wandered down to breakfast. David was feeling better, with only a bit of congestion and no sore throat.
At the race site, we went to pick up our registration packets and met up with Bryan Brosious. We were happy to see him, and he was happy to see us. We exchanged pleasantries and then went to get our transition areas ready.
I decided to warm up just by running, foregoing my usual bike trainer warm up. Truth be told, I was lazy and didn't want to bring an extra wheel. However, my running warm up is always a bit on the short side; I just don't get motivated enough when I'm running.
The race went off as expected. The water was a good deal warmer than last year, and I was comfortable while I was swimming; well, except for the first 150 yards or so. When I looked at the results, I was 11th out of the water in my wave. Why is it, then, that I got so beaten up at the start? I started in the second row, and was getting beat up until the buoy, and then, even after the buoy, there were people jostling me. Seems to me that if people would just seed themselves where they should be instead of expecting to set a PB, the swim would be a lot less chaotic and painful for us all. But, anyway, I digress.
When I got out of the water and headed to transition, I saw that David and his bike were already gone. I had told him that I expected him to be about 1:30 faster than me in the swim. I ended passing only a handful of people. I saw Bryan coming back towards me at around 4.5 miles. He was alone in front. And then I saw David. He was sailing along in 2nd place! I made the turn, and headed back with a tailwind. I finally caught David at mile 10; he was in 3rd place by then, having been passed. We ended up in transition together, and, as I turned around looking for the transition out in my hypoxic daze, yelling, "Which way?!" he helped his Dad out, and pointed me in the correct direction. His comment was, "I'm dead." Given how sick he was the day before, and how hard he went in the swim and bike, that was understandable. Leaving transition in 2nd place (3rd place guy was stuck, cramping in transition), I felt dead, too. I was going as hard as I could, but it wasn't very fast. I was rapidly passed by Josh Fitchitt, and knew that there was no way I was going to catch him. For the remainder of the race, I was in damage control mode, looking behind to make sure nobody could catch me and take me off of the podium. Bryan and I passed each other at a little past the 1 mile mark, and he looked strong. I saw David on my way back, and he was working hard, too. I finished in 3rd place overall, feeling happy, but hot and tired, a good 7 minutes in back of Bryan. David finished in 10th, 5 minutes behind me, and 10 minutes faster than he raced last year.
I have a ways to go to feel good about my fitness. Right now, I'm fighting a cold, which David gave to me. I guess spending 12+ hours in close proximity to my sick son did it.
What did I learn? Apparently, I'm faster in the water this year, but my swim fitness is poor. My time was virtually the same this year as it was last, but I got tired in the water. My bike time was 1 minute faster, but the conditions were a lot better. And I have different wheels, which may have been faster, although I'm not sure about this. And, despite feeling much worse, my run time was only 26 seconds slower, which could easily have been due to the heat.
What else did I learn? It takes me nearly twice as long to get things ready as it did when I worried only about myself; prepping David's bike and mine and then reconfiguring it out of race mode is double the work. Here are our race setups:
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My P3 with Zipp 404's
The podium shot from Moses Lake:
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