#TriathlonTuesday: Clermont Race Recap

I raced the ITU Clermont CAMTRI Continental Cup last weekend in sunny Clermont, Florida. Luckily for me, it wasn't all that sunny and the weather was agreeable for a northman like myself...

For some reason (probably because I hadn't raced ITU for 8 months... and even then not that well) I was stuck seeded dead last... 57 of 57. That meant I got to pick out my starting spot on the beach last, which is almost always a big disadvantage at a race. Basically, I got the worst line available as a result. Also, the water was choppy and we swam in wetsuits...

Now, I am a huge fan of the show "Bar Rescue." Jon Taffer is the man, and as a long-time service-industry guy I love his insights. One of his sayings is "I don't embrace excuses... I embrace solutions..."

The fact that I had a bad line is an excuse. Wetsuits and choppy water are excuses. A solution would've been to B-Line it to the buoy and just be the swimmer that I am. It just wasn't in the cards today, so I wound up farther back than a 4th year pro should have.

The bike was decent, I found my way into a pack and we worked pretty well together. I tried to be vocal and get the guys moving, which worked. At one point, I'd finished yelling at a Mexican athlete in Spanish, yelling at a French athlete in broken French, when a Canadian athlete was up. For some reason I continued yelling in French (I assumed he was French-Canadian, I guess?) to which I got a blank stare and a "Dude, seriously??"

We got off the bike all bunched up, and it felt good to show off the legs a bit and dust up some of the younger kids... I haven't done a ton of speed work this year, so I felt super-strong but not very snappy... I ran decent, but it felt like I ran a lot faster. That will come though with some sharpening up!

This race was mostly over-shadowed by some glaring negatives. A bad swim, atrocious transitions, and rusty bike handling are all some things I need to dial in before next weekend. That's right, I race again in 5 short days at the ITU Sarasota Continental Championships on Saturday! Hopefully a week of training with the boys will get me sharpened up!

Until then, wish me luck and FOLLOW THE PACE RABBIT!

2015 Season

Well, here I am, 3 months later, staring down the barrel of what could be my last season racing elite for a while. If you haven't heard, I was recently accepted into the Doctor of Physical Therapy program at Marymount University. This is both very exciting and very terrifying for me... hopefully they have a station that plays country music in DC...

Anyway, in the mean time I wanna throw down at some races!! I kick the season off this weekend in Florida at the Clermont CAMTRI Continental cup, and continue the following weekend in Sarasota. I am really looking forward to hanging out with the boys and seeing what my winter training has been worth this year. 

After that, the plan is still to continue more along the non-draft path. These are easier to get to, and lets face it, I'm just better at them. It looks like my season will probably be cut short as I start classes in August. I'd like to continue racing, however on a smaller level, all through school... but we will have to find out how realistic that is I guess. 

In the mean-time, I'd like to do something a little different with my blog. Since I'm not really trying to look for sponsors or necessarily please anyone, I want to give people a more candid glimpse into my life. I realize not all professional triathletes are the same, but I hope those who are reading will be able to relate, and I hope my readers who aren't elite triathletes will be able to understand us more. Anyway, look for more of that to come in the coming months. My plan is to write more regular, shorter posts... let's see how long I can keep it up!

In the mean time, FOLLOW THE PACE RABBIT!!! That's gonna be Dr. Rabbit to you someday...