Today's Workout: Personal Best

Lake Montclair Olympic Distance Triathlon today. Up at 4:10 AM, setting up in transition at 6 AM.

A really beautiful day today. The morning temperature was 65 and rose to 79 by the end of the race. The water temperature was 76 which makes it wetsuit eligible. I was debating the wetsuit but I wanted to best imitate my race in Lake Placid so I wore my LP clothes and went with the wetsuit.

First let me setup the race by detailing last years results. It was raining last year so the course was slow. I finished in 3 hours 13 minutes which included a 41 minute swim, a 1 hour 30 minute bike, and a 54 minute 53 second run.

My personal best at this distance (with a push in the swim from the currents of Lake Michigan) is 2 hours 58 minutes, my first sub 3 hour Olympic distance. Today, I finished the Lake Montclair course in 2 hours and 53 minutes. That's right, I shaved 5 full minutes from my personal best at this distance and 21 minutes from last year's performance on the same course.

I had an outstanding race which started with the swim. I came out of the water in 37 minutes--a personal best time for the one mile difference. This despite being kicked in the back of the head twice, having someone pull off my goggles (yes, off--I had to stop and get them back on my eyeballs), and I swam in blinding sun on the return and could not sight with my foggy goggles. In an unusual circumstance, I was swimming stroke for stroke with a woman wearing a Blue Seventy wetsuit. I used her completely. I could not see but my idea was to swim with her and let her sight for me hoping, of course, that she was not having the same difficulty. I was stoked when I hit the beach and saw my time so from there I decided to push the bike and run.

I pushed as much as I could on the bike but with 4 laps of the same 6 miles it was very crowded. I did not want any mishap so when it got crowded I just tucked in and waited for an opportunity to get back on stride. I rode even splits which means all 4 laps were the same time.

Off of the bike, I looked at my watch which showed 2 hours 1 minute and I knew a personal best was doable if I could just manage a 55 minute run. I started the run course. It starts uphill in a rocky then leaf/dirt covered path. Flashback to cross-country in high school. At the top of the hill I heard something hit the ground behind me and I noticed I no longer had my race belt. I had to go back down the hill (running into the guy behind me) and retrieve my race belt or face disqualification. No way that I wanted a DQ on what was shaping to be a personal best. The race course features 5 miles uphill then a slow grade downhill for the last mile. I wish I were kidding. The run is a killer and at two miles in I thought I was running too slow to make it. I tried to push a little but I didn't have much left. I hoped that I could just push up a little bit and then maintain.

Success, it feels great. What a difference coaching has made. This is my second personal best this year at different distances. I am definitely pleased but particularly stoked about my swim. I was so calm and comfortable, even with the physical punishment and loss of goggles.

To show you how focused I was today, in addition to the goggles and the race belt incidents I also noted that my right bike shoe cleat was making my foot float and hit the frame. After the race when I examined the shoe I saw that the lifts I put on my shoe for my hip were all out of place and that 2 of the 3 screws holding my cleat to my shoe were so loose that two more turns set them free. Yikes. That could have been some serious road rash and certainly the end to my race day.

As for now, I must ice my foot and hip. Both were complaining today but you have to just suck it up. That's what the post race time is for, dealing with the abuse you just dealt your body. Appropriately, tomorrow is a day of rest.