Pre-Race and Race Morning:
With this race being only a week removed from Williamsburg I had no pre conceived notions for how I would do today. I did pretty much nothing all week. I swam a little on Wednesday. That's it. No running. No riding. Just recovering and resting. I didn't do much prerace prep. I ate a little carb heavy yesterday but otherwise I just kinda lived a "normal" life. Race morning I woke up, had my usual Greek yogurt and granola. Washed it down with some OJ then made my pre-race coffee. I enjoyed my coffee whilst playing on Facebook then suited up, loaded up and headed out. Got to the race site, checked in, then went for a short warm up run after setting up my transition area. I wandered around, talked to some people then kissed my wife and went to the swim start.
Swim:
My race plan for the day was to go all out in the swim and see what happened. If I came out good, then I would push the bike and run. If I came out of the water out of contention then I would just "go through the motions" and enjoy the day. I went for a little warm up swim to see how things were working today and I felt good. I felt fast. I lined up behind the boom to the outside as I had in the last several races. It has worked well for me and did today as well. The gun sounded and we were off. I went hard. The guy on my left was FAST (he would end up winning our AG). I stayed with him as long as I could. In doing so, I gapped the rest of the field. I was pretty much swimming alone. Fine by me. I just kept pushing and working on being as efficient as I could. Stay long, get as much out of each stroke as possible and stay fast. I came out of the water 2nd in my AG. Swim time: 12:30 (1:33/100)
Bike:
Bike was bad. Really feeling the fatigue in my legs from the last few weeks. I pushed but just wasn't feeling it. The whole bike course was rollers. My legs were not happy. I got passed on the bike by a few of the 35-39 guys. They were fast. I didn't feeling like trying to keep up and they weren't in my AG so I let them go. I kept them in my sights but had no desire to play that game today. I never caught sight of the other guy in my AG so I just stayed in my zone. Bike split: 44:10 (21.8mph)
Run:
The run felt good. I came out of transition smoothly. I was feeling steady in the high 7's. First place was no where in sight. I just tried to stay consistent. My heart rate was holding between 178-181. I continued to chug along. It was starting to get hot. I passed the aid station, took a sip of water and splashed the rest on my face. Around the turn around, back passed the aid station and headed for the finish shoot. Crossed the line 2nd place AG with a run split of 24:24 (7:49/mi).
Total time 1:22:27. New Sprint PR and a spot on the podium for my efforts. Not a bad way to spend a morning!
Quick note on my nutrition for the day. With the short course I did not use my normal Infinit Nutrition bike mix. I filled my bottle with my Infinit run mix which has no protein or BCAA's and is easier for me to digest at higher intensity. Since it was going to be another hot day, I added a scoop of BASE Performance salts to the bottle. It worked perfectly. I felt properly fueled all day and no cramps in sight.
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