Sunday, April 27, 2008

AZ XTERRA Triathlon

Adding an Xterra to the weekend is always a fun way to switch it up a little bit. During th 1500 meter swim, 18-mile double track mountain bike and a 4.2 mile trail run, temperatures hovered in the mid-80s. The swim started promptly at 9:15am immediatly after this year's new road version; I managed to do it in 27 minutes, just 4 minutes behind the leaders.

I had the 16th fastest bike split which pushed me up a little bit in the ranking. My biggest problem during the race was during the run. My new shoes started to give me some blisters about half way through the run. Even worse, was my transition time from the bike to the run. I underestimated the amount of water I needed, so I had to rest at the T2 and drink some water.

After the race, people seemed to get up and leave a lot faster than last year's race. I think the combination of the roadies this year and the higher temperatures made some of the racers impatient. A few of us hung out, drank some beer, and waited for the award ceremony. Great weather, nice backdrop, free beer..... good times.

18th place, 3rd place in my age group. Not too shabby considering I rarely run anymore. The times below explain everything:

I have some room for improvement, specifically my transitioning and my ability to run at a faster pace. I will be doing more intervals this week in all three sports (dreading this, but I think it must be done), possibly getting back on track with some more running during the week.

3 comments:

Unknown said...

ah man, you're not supposed to get new shoes before a run!

Anonymous said...

Pretty good improvement over last year. 3rd in your group ain't bad. Who's beating you - the old farts or young whipper snappers?

Chad said...

Men in the 30-40 age group tend to beat me, yeah the running shoe thing was a bad move, but I thought I had them broken in the week before. The new shoes + the orthodics did me in.

Trisports.com gives me a gift certificate every top 3 age group/overall placement I get, so it helps with entry fees :)

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