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| Finally... A decent pic of me on my bike. |
In a fit of impulse prompted by a Facebook post by a friend, I registered for the Louisiana Triathlon which was held last weekend on May 9th. Normally, I would have done the Big Easy Sprint or New Orleans Triathlon and Crawfishman, but extenuating circumstances prevented me from racing in any of those races... Namely work for Big Easy/NOLA, and the fact that Crawfishman didn't happen this year.
And as a result of those races not happening, I decided that taking a couple months to lay low, not follow a training schedule, and handling some minor medical stuff that needed to be done would be a pretty good idea. I had been training for an 'A' race pretty much non stop for about 2-2.5 years with Dopey, Crawfishman last year, Augusta 70.3, and RnR NOLA and needed a mental break. Burnout was approaching, and it was time to recharge the batteries.
But with the mental break came some challenges. Because I had focused so much on RnR NOLA, I had put my bikes away and hadn't ridden since the day of Augusta. I also hadn't been in the water at all over the winter and early spring. Clearly I wasn't in Triathlon shape. I was still running a fair amount though, and even ran the third leg for a relay team at IM NOLA. (That was miserable and hot... Lakeshore drive, no shade, 85 degrees, starting at noon. I'd do it again.)
But the week after IM NOLA, I had to have a minor medical procedure done. My doctor told me I could swim after about 3-4 days, and start running and riding again within a week. So 4 days after, I was in the pool... And swimming 500 yards sucked.
Two days later, I swam 1000 though and it wasn't horrible. The following Saturday I ran 5 miles on my treadmill without any pain as well. I would have ridden Sunday, but the weather didn't cooperate and riding my trainer didn't sound fun. The Sunday before the race, I bit the bullet and registered for the Louisiana Triathlon.
And then a couple days later I was on a plane to Houston for work.
My biggest concern for the race was the bike leg. The distance wasn't daunting, but I could have had major issues if I wasn't fully recovered from my procedure. I intended to test myself out beforehand, but never got an opportunity. Race day would literally be the first time I'd be on my tri-bike since Augusta.
The Louisiana Triathlon is a sprint distance race (800M Swim/ 18.6 Mile Bike/5K Run) held in New Roads, LA on False River. The swim was a triangle course in False River. The bike was an out and back along False River, and the run was a loop on LA 1 and through a neighborhood. The bike course was especially nice as the road along False River was recently resurfaced and it was a pretty area with views of the water, camps, and beautiful homes.
I originally intended to drive to Jackson, LA (about 20 miles from New Roads) with some friends and stay overnight, but I didn't land in NOLA from Houston until 5PM and didn't get home until after 7. I ended up packing my transition bag, loading my car, and set out at 4AM on race day.
I arrived at the race site about 5:45, picked up my packet, got body marked, and checked into transition. A few of my Tri-Dat teammates were close behind me, so we hung out until the officials opened the lake for a warmup swim. Knowing the course was a triangle, I figured I'd swim to the turn buoy and back as a warmup and I'd be good.
After I did my warmup swim, they added a second buoy about another 100 yards from the one I turned around at. Really? Blah...
Finally at 7:38 my wave started. We started in the water, so I hung back about 20 seconds to let the faster swimmers get out ahead of me so I could have some clear water to swim in. I felt good for about the first 4-500 yards, but started fatiguing, probably because of a simple lack of swim fitness. However, for a change, I wasn't the slowest swimmer in my AG. I was close, but not the slowest. I do remember checking my watch and seeing I still had about 200 yards (or so I thought) and being annoyed. Turns out I probably swam 100 yards or so longer than the marked course because of my inability to swim a straight line.
My bike leg was better than expected. I started out kind of cautiously because of the circumstances, but after about a mile and a half, I started getting comfortable being back on the bike and concentrated on staying tucked down in aero and focused on making steady power. I averaged right at 19MPH for the bike leg... Which was about 1 MPH faster than last year's Crawfishman split, and right about where I was for Augusta. Apparently I hadn't lost much bike fitness over the layoff... Just some endurance. And best of all.. no pain.
Since I wasn't competitive due to the swim, I didn't push too hard on the run. I wanted to stay under an 8:00/mile pace and catch the guy in my AG that passed me on the bike about mile 16. And I did both, so I was satisfied with that.
Post race I hung out with the Tri-Dat crew and another club from Mandeville and enjoyed a post race beer and a bowl of jambalaya.
Considering all the extraneous circumstances going into this race, I'll consider it a good day. I'd like to have been in better shape, especially for the swim, but compromises had to be made. Now it's time to start getting ready for Augusta again, which means early Saturday swim classes, and the huge Sunday brick workouts.
Can't wait.
