There is no easy way

Figured it was time for an update.  After embarrasing performances at my last couple of races – namely Elkhart Lake and High Cliff I finally had a good race.

This past weekend I returned to Stevens Point to defend my win last year, I wasn’t going alone as I had managed to convince Matt, his wife, and Mary to join me.  I went into the race expecting to get beaten by Matt, but with the full intention of making him hurt for it (He did).  Anyways, I ended up third overall, coming in a minute behind Matt, and 2 seconds behind fellow Gear-Grinder Tom Shepard – who out kicked me with 50 yards to go.  4th place went to Michael Boehmer.

Despite finishing 3rd, I was very happy with the race.  My performance was much more reflective of my capabilities as compared to some other races this year, especially with a -32 TSB (CTL Constant = 10) Saturday Morning, and my TSB just a couple days earlier hitting -39, my lowest ever.  My swim was good, my bike was a little less then last year (287 vs. 297 watts) with a major fade starting at about 20 minutes in, and my run was spectacular.  I ran an 18:54 for a 3.22 mile run – if you take that pace to 5k, it’s 18:15 – my best 5k by a handful of seconds.

This week is a rest week, I’m looking to bring my TSB up to slightly positive – between +5 and +10, and be in the hunt for a strong performance at Spirit of Racine.  It’s actually pretty important for me to turn in a strong performance this weekend, partly because I “need” to, but partly because I’ve haven’t had a “good” race at Racine since 2006.

After Racine I have Triing for Childrens an Olympic distance – target there will be to break 2 hours.

Training wise – everything has been going very good since High Cliff, I finally hit a good rhythm

Swim: 35,500 meters
Bike: 834 miles
Run: 111 miles
Just shy of 70 hours, all in 3 weeks!  Which leads me to my blog title today – if nothing else the last 3 weeks taught me, if you want to go fast – you’ve got to work hard.