Not there....Yet

While I wouldn't call Waconia a bad race I certainly wouldn't call it my best either. The field was stacked and I was hoping to come in 8th and that is exactly where I came in. I started off with a decent swim but got caught behind some slower swimmers in the beginning and did not get to let loose until about 300 yards in. I came out of the water with Josh Blankenheim and Brooks Gossinger but felt I could've shaved at least 15 seconds off the swim. As I hit the bike I new I had a lot of time to make up but for some reason I just never felt like I could get in the groove and get any power. I don't know if it was the heat or if just wasn't my day but I had to settle for a mediocre bike split.

The surprise was my run. I had been battling a calf strain for about two weeks. I rested it for Minnetonka only to re injure it at the end of the race and the compounded it by doing a cool down run. I needed to get in some mileage last week and a good speed session in as I felt like I don't yet have my top gear like I did last year. While I did get in a speed session it was done very gingerly and at a lower intensity and I decided to keep the mileage down for one more week just to be sure. I wasn't expecting a good run because of this only to have one of the better feeling runs I've had this year. I came off the bike a good minute behind the next guy and as I got off the bike the legs actually felt pretty good. I started turning them over and chewing into the gap. I ended up passing Rhett Bonner, John Shelp, Curt Wood and Brett Lovaas was not far off. My split was slow but so was everyone else's. I felt great at the finish and felt as if I could've kept that pace for a 10k if not even faster. Monday the calf was fine, I wasn't even soar from the race and was able to run 7.5 that morning.

Brett Lovaas did get a little redemption from Minnetonka by beating me this week by about 18 seconds. I feel like there may be a little bit of a friendly rivalry brewing. Brett is a serious competitor and has been one of the guys I've thought of as one of the best. I look forward to racing with him again. I did exact a little redemption myself on Rhett Boner. Rhett is one of the nicest guys I've met yet in this sport. We shared an epic battle at Square Lake last year where Rhett came out the victor in a death race battle in miserably hot conditions. Rhett is not in as good of shape as he was last year and I caught him just past the turn around at mile two. After the race I went up to him and gave a friendly fist pump in the air to say I got this one. I believe I am now 1-2 against Rhett. I look forward to racing with Rhett every time as there is definitely a friendly rivalry between us.

As always I need to learn from this race. I didn't feel like I got 100% out of me and I need to adjust somethings in order to be ready for Lifetime. It was my fourth race in as many weeks to include a Half Ironman. I don't think this had a huge effect as I did have a great race at Minnetonka last week but you have to wonder. Regardless I need to work on my power on the bike and being able to push myself to the next level like I did at Buffalo. I also need to take lessons learned on the run and implement what went right.

Swimming has always been my achilles heal and I have not felt like my stroke has been right for some time. I took some lessons from Duane Dobke over the winter and was swimming like a champ but somewhere along the line my stroke fell apart. Monday night I got in a session with Duane and he confirmed what I had feared. My stroke was awful again. Duane got me to raise my elbows more and Tuesday morning I shaved 5-6 seconds off each set of 200s. Hopefully I can even improve on my form more in the next two weeks.