Clermont Recap

This last Saturday, I opened up my professional season at the Clermont Pan-Am Cup. Clermont was a big disappointment for me. I completely underperformed compared to the way I've been training.

I am sure it was a mindset problem, which has been an issue in the past. I have struggled with this since high school, and only figured out how to really race in a pool my junior year of college. I guess I need to brush up on those skills and tap into that aggression again!

 Our race was at 11:15 AM on Saturday, so I got to sleep in a bit later than the EDR guys and went for a shake out jog around 8 am. After breakfast, looking over my race plan, and relaxing a bit I headed down to the race with Brandon.

Lake Louisa State Park, which is where the race is located, is a pretty cool place. I wish I'd had more time to explore it than my warmup/cool down and the race itself. One problem with the venue is there is not really any way to get a good bike warmup in unless you brought a trainer. I knew this going in, so I should've biked this morning rather than running to get those muscles activated a bit. I kicked myself, and took off on a run warmup. After this I set up my transition and headed down to the water for a long swim warmup.

I felt good going into the race. I had a solid mindset, and I had a great start, gapping everyone around me. Coming into the first buoy, I saw the fastest guys who had lined up to the right moving up. Instead of saying, "hey, I need to pick it up to meet them at the buoy," I thought, "hey, I'm right with them, I'm good!" But, (big but) they were moving faster and in a group, where I was solo and slowing down without realizing it. I got pushed to the back at the buoy, and had to make up ground coming back. I need to learn how to be aggressive, and never be complacent.

T1 was solid. I advanced, got my wetsuit off, and got into a decent position on the bike. I felt really strong and packed up with 4 guys. We were just off the front pack by maybe 30-40 seconds, and we were gaining on them. I took one pull which was too hard, and Kaleb VanOrt (who is just, like, a man-child on the bike) attacked. I was too tired and in the wrong position. He bridged, taking one of our group with him, and me and Vierula, a Canadian, didn't have a chance.

Its odd the way you get to know people when working with them on the bike. I could tell you his last name and what country he is from because of his race kit. I could tell you whether he swears a lot, what kind of deodorant he wears, and how much he likes to work on the bike, but I can't tell you anything else about the guy. There's also the underlying tension in your alliance, knowing that one of you has to lose.

Anyway, we got caught by the chase group, which had all the runners in it. Lack of focus and too hard of a pull. Dammit, dammit, and dammit.

I had a great T2 if I may say. Secret tactic (Ssssshhhh!) got me off my bike and to my transition ahead of anyone else in my group and I took off hard. Again, a lot of the fastest runners were in this group. I let them go by me. Mistake number 4! Seriously, where is my aggression?? I could've hung with a lot of these guys but I didn't even try. This is the biggest disappointment for me.

I ended up in pretty much the same place as last year at this race (which was my first as a professional) even though my time was 4 minutes faster. Somehow that doesn't make me feel better. In so many ways, I have come so far and changed so much in that year. The athlete who raced on Saturday is not the same athlete who raced a year ago, but he acted like it and made the same mistakes.

I am very disappointed in myself. I need to work on being more aggressive. There, I said it. Hopefully that is a step in the right direction. Until next time, FOLLOW THE PACE RABBIT!