Good Result at Alexandria

Last Saturday officially kicked off the tri season for me with the Chain of Lakes Triathlon. This was a short course with a 600 yard pool swim, 12.5 mile bike and 2.8 mile run. If the weather was better I was hoping to take a crack at Matt Payne's course record last year. I don't think I have my swim down enough yet but I might have been able to make up the difference on the bike. Instead I was greeted with 25-30 mph sustained winds and 40-50 mph gusts. The temp was also in the low 50s and I was not feeling motivated.

Before the race I believed that my toughest competition was going to be Ross Weinzierl. I met Ross before the race and we immediately hit it off. Ross is an ultra nice guy and I enjoyed hanging with him before and after the race. I knew if I didn't hit the swim he could jump all over me and we ended up being in the same lane so we could race close to each other.

The pool swim made me nervous as I am not very efficient at flip turns and have only done a circle swim once. I don't like swimming in cramped pool lanes and this was going to be even worse than I am use to. I was shooting to come out of the water at 9 min which is what I can do consistently during training. The week prior I went down to Mankato and did a swim seminar with the MSU coach and his staff. They really did a great job breaking things down for me and totally revamped my stroke. I have been using Duane Dobko who has shown great results as well but I seem to have fallen off what he has taught me lately. The problem was when I went to train with the new stroke the next day I nearly drown. I was not use to it and still needed practice. Luckily I was able to get it somewhat by the end of my session but still did not have a warm and fuzzy. I felt strong at the end of the swim in Alex and felt if I had a week to build my confidence I could have shaved 30 seconds or so. No matter as I hit my goal time.

I did take a little extra time putting on arm warmers, gloves and a breezer to keep me warm. I was almost too warm but felt strong on the bike regardless of the wind. I may have been in my small ring for a short time but probably wouldn't have effected my time due to the wind and I was still near max output. I did wait too long to get out of my shoes and didn't get to stand for very long on my pedals to get the legs ready for the run. It was apparent that I still have a few winter cobwebs in need to dust off.

The run felt good on the verge of great. I started off slow as I was working against the wind and my legs were still a little sluggish from the bike. All of a sudden I realized I was getting a little complacent with my pace and started picking up my knees. As soon as I did the stride felt great and I was moving. At the turn around on the run I came across Ross. He gave my a friendly high five and we both gave each other a "nice work". I always worry about being caught from behind and Ross was moving pretty good. For some reason it always looks like everyone else is moving faster than me on the return. In the end I was able to hold off Ross by about a minute and a half. Ross certainly didn't go without a fight. Ross is young and only going to get faster.

After the race Ross and I went for a cool down run and shared horror stories of the bike portion. I personally have never raced in such horrid winds before. When we got back I will admit I was expecting to see my name at the top of the results only to find someone named Sam Janicki above me. Who the F*&% was Sam Janicki? Whoever he is destroyed me by over two minutes. Most of that was on the swim but I only took him by 10 seconds on the bike and he took me by 19 seconds on the run. I unfortunately didn't get to meet or congratulate him on his performance. After doing a little research I found, as far as I can find, that he has only done two other triathlons. At Buffalo last year he placed 129th and at the Collegiate National Championships he placed 68th. Neither performance would show that he was even close to capable of such an outstanding race. If this was no fluke this kid is going to be the next Devon Palmer or Sam Hauck. I look forward to meeting him at Buffalo and hopefully will be able to keep up a little better.