HITS Olympic Race Summary

Saturday April 14th HITS Napa Valley Olympic triathlon
Previous Best was a time of 2:20 at Rancho Seco

Pre-Race:
We arrived to the location a little later than we would have liked to so it was a little bit of a rush to go and get race packets and prepare my transition.  The transition locations were all predetermined which was a huge bummer because i was stuck at the beginning of the transition area which meant i would have to run the full transition in my bike shoes twice.  I got my transition area set up and walked over to the waters edge to find the swim course was set up for a straight out and back 2 loop course.  I was immediately frustrated because in my opinion thats just a dumb way to set up a swim course.  Your just asking for people to run head on to each other at that point.  I didn't have a lot of time to warm up because of time but it was ok because the water was cold and i didn't want to spend extra time in the water.

Swim: 1:20/100yds average
I started in the front of the pack as usual and got out in front.  I was somewhere in the top 10 during the swim and wasn't trying to hard to be first, i knew there were a few pro's in the pack and this wasn't an "A" race for me.  The initial swim out was a little rough because of a slight current, jet ski waves and the fact that we were swimming right into the sun.  The second lap was especially difficult because of the mine field of people on the course.  I found myself having to site way more than normal to avoid people.  At one point 2 female swimmers crossed in front of me one doing back stroke and one doing breast stroke both swimming sideways to the course!

T1:
First transition was fairly easy and quick.  The overall transition areas was bad because of the gravel everywhere.

Bike: 19.1mph
My feet stayed frozen through the entire bike.  I was not really ready for all the hills the course had to offer.  I could feel my body wanting to settle into a slower "Half-Iron" pace which i have been training at.  As far as nutrition i had one gatorade bottle and some shot blocks.  The bike was a constant uphill/downhill with not much flat in-between.

T2:
Again long run in bike shoes and frozen feet.  Some guy working the event started up a conversation with me while transitioning like he thought i was going to be there for a while.

Run: 7:32 mile average
Tried to use my phone and RunKeeper but it wigged out on me and was not accurate because it couldn't pick up signal.  My feet stayed frozen and couldn't feel from the ankle down.  They slowly unfroze and were ok by mile 5.  First part of the run was uphill then some gradual up/down and then a big down hill.  The turn around was a little rough to go back uphill but it made the last mile or so a breeze.  I felt like a kept a very good steady run pace with good breathing.

Post Race:
Felt great.  Probably could have used a little more nutrition and fluid.  Felt like I left some on the course, but overall it was a good tune up race for my Half-Iron in 3 weeks.

Place:
25th overall
7th in Age Group (30-34)