J-Hawk Early Bird 2009
I was not very confident going into this race. Earlier this week I fell on a run and had a bit of a pinch in my back. I had a friend work on it a bit, and it felt much better, but not perfect.
The other ding to my confidence is my perceived fitness level – compared to a year ago, my CTL was significantly lower then last year, I intended to give it my best and execute better as compared to last year.
Swim – 1st OA
5:39 Split (~5:25 at pool exit)
As usual not much to say about the swim. I was disappointed to be third in my lane as it meant I would probably have a repeat of last year and have to deal with passing people. Luckily for me, I had two guys that wanted to PR the swim, and ended up dying fantastically. So I just drafted off of them successively until they each died. And to think back in the day I struggled to swim in the 5:40’s!
Bike – 3rd OA
35:09 (34:25 mount<->dismount)
298 AP/304 NP
Last year I biked way to hard, way to early in the bike. The plan this year was to start out more conservatively, build to slightly higher than FTP and hold it. I was the first out of the water so the first onto the bike course. I hit the road and settled right in around 280 watts.
About 5 minutes in Matt Amman, passed me, flashing an upside down peace symbol. I don’t know if he was wishing me luck, or commenting on our in-side joke regarding who was going to come out on top at the race. Despite this being a sprint, I stuck to my guns and just opened the throttle a little bit.
The race continued that way – Matt slowly pulling away, me slowly adding a little gas. Until around mile 8, other than the occasional person from a previous wave, it was an empty course. About mile 8 there was a small out and back section were I was able to eyeball the competition. I was about 60 seconds down on Matt, and behind me by about a minute or so was Nick Langer (small world – we lived together for a summer), and a little behind him was Terry Harth.
The rest of the bike was just keeping the needle in the red, gaining on no one, and losing on no one.
Run – 4th OA
21:54
The run was pretty uneventful, other then feeling like I was staring on an episode of mXc while sliding through the mode and yuck.
Overall – 2nd OA
1:02:41
Overall, I was pleasantly surprised – not only with my execution but my result!