So, last Sunday I did my second sprint distance triathlon, the Equalizer Triathlon at Key Biscayne, FL.
(Take a look at the picture album at the right of this page.)
Following my first Tri, so starting doing weight lifting at the gym with very little running, biking, and swimming. I was going to the pool once a week, took spinning classes (also once a week), and was doing 5Ks once a week (at a 30 min pace); but my main focus was to gain mass and lose fat (16% body fat). Exactly 3 weeks prior to this race, a friend starts talking to me on facebook about the race, and I was going to race it, he was. I checked my work schedule (some weekends I need to work) and luckily enough I was off. Went on to multirace.com website and signed up for the even.
Right after I signed up started planning for a change in my work out routines, no more weights and more swim, bike, run. Starting training twice a day for some days, luckily, my gym opened a new pool closer to home and was able to start swimming more often with out having to drive 1 hour to another pool (at FIU). Even though it was a sprint distance event, I was doing double the distance on each event during training; I did not want to be out of fuel during the running leg as in the previous triathlon. Also I started running with Fogo Running, a club started by a friend of mine; and I started taking Yoga, I read way to many articles off triathletes ripping the benefits of yoga that I did not want to be left out.
3 days before the race, I started to feel the effects of the amount of training I was doing; my legs and shoulders a little tired and sored. I knew anything I could do from that moment on wouldn't be beneficial, so I took all three days off and just rested to the race.
Race morning came up and I was up by 4:30 AM. Started my day by eating a banana (I can't eat anything else before sporting event, I learned that during my rugby days) and some water (woke up thirsty). Loaded up the car and headed to the bathroom (did not have to worry about port-o potties, later at the race :-) ). By 5 AM I was waking up my wife, grabbed some breakfast, and headed to the park. They same thing happened as the previous event, not that many racers so I could get body marked fast, got my chip, and swim cap (did not have anymore during packet pick up the day before), and went on to set up me transition.
7 AM race time, first the Olympic distance competitors started their race and by 7:20 AM the air horn let me know I should be swimming. In comparison to my first tri, this swim was easy, relaxed, goggles worked perfectly; I did get smacked on the head twice. Completed the swim in 0:10:11, I know slower than before, but I felt stronger coming out of the water. Grabbed a glass of water, gatorade, and a hammer gel before entering T1 from the volunteers.
T1 went without a glitch, same setup as before. Sun glasses, helmet, running shoes, bike, off I went. Bad thing is I knocked the only water bottle for the bike during mount and it opened, spilling all its accelerade content on the ground. I did not worry much about it. Drank my hammer gel, that I got from volunteers, as I started pedaling.
This time I went at a 20mph average the whole time (12.xx miles, a bit longer than previous tri), I know it is not that great, but I knew I could make it up during the run. Did a couple of passes, got passed, but it was fun. Arriving into T2 I drank my second hammer gel I had attached the night before to my bike. Bike time 0:38:28
Dismount and run my back into T2. Fastest T2 in my age group, 0:00:44. The only thing I had to do is hang the bike, remove helmet, grab visor and number belt.
Out of T2 and grabbed a glass of water and another gel for the run. I started running at 9 - 10 minutes per mile. After mile 1 I started to pick up the pace, by mile 2 I had my remaining gel and got another water to wash it down. From then on, I was smooth running to the finish line at an average of 8:16 minutes per mile. Wife was waiting by finish line, announcer called my name (I know he just searched my number on computer and read it) but it was a morale booster. 3.1 miles (5K) in 0:25:54.
Did not feel tired and started to think I could off pushed a bit harder on the bike. Another lesson learned for my next triathlon. I got a better idea on how to better plan and set the strategy for the races.
