First Sprint Triathlon of The Season : Ormond Y Tri

Sunday was my first sprint triathlon of this season. I was very anxious to race because after spending so much of the winter training for my run, I had issues come up before each one of my early season olympic races.

The Friday before Daytona Frogman, I came down with the stomach flu and was down like 8 pounds by the time Sunday came around. I had bad plantar fasciitis issues for 6 weeks before St. Anthony's and had to walk half of the run for that.

I have got back to light running with the help of my Vibram shoes and "The Stick". I felt good going in to the race this weekend.

The swim was a 1/4 mile ocean swim and there was a little surf that made the swim interesting for some of the participants. I am comfortable with swimming in the surf as I have grown up surfing and I'm used to the ocean. I came out in 8:22 (some said the course was a bit long but who cares). I felt good running up the approach to the transition area.

I hopped on the bike and took off. I was in approximately 20th position after the swim. I made a few good passes and kept the head down and gave it all I had for the short 10 mile course. I put in 22.8 mph avg. in 26:20. I came off the bike in 12th position. After a quick transition, I was off on the 3 mile run.

I started off by holding back a little to make sure the foot was going to hold up and slowly increased my pace. I had some really good runners pass me by and held on with what I had. I had a good sprint to the finish and held off a couple runners. I ended up finishing the run in 22:51. In hind sight I probably could have went a bit harder in the beginning, but since I was not sure about my foot, I felt it was smarter to test it out first.

I am in the 35-39 age group and it was tough. I ended up 6th in my age group and 20th overall with a time of 59:35. I was happy with the overall results and it was the first time I have broken the 1 hour mark in a tri. The next one is in 3 weeks and I will be looking to push a little harder and knock off a couple guys that have beaten me over the last couple years.

Daytona Frogman Race Report

I started my weekend on Friday feeling great and ready for my race on Sunday. I was very excited to see where my fitness level was because I have been traing hard and I feel pretty strong. When my wife called me Friday afternoon and said she felt horrible, I was a little concerned (of course for her) that I may pick up some of it before the race. She was sick all night and I took care of the girls, 6 and 14 months. The youngest was the first one to come down with the sickness. I did my best to wash my hands obsessively but something must have gotten through. I started to feel the yuck at 2 a.m. When Saturday morning came around, I was down for the count. I spent all day Saturday feeling horrible. When I weighed myself Friday night I was 193. When I woke up Sunday morning, I still felt sick. I weighed in at 186. I was down 7 lbs from Friday night. Not good. I just tried to eat some toast with peanut butter and drank some water.

This race was to benefit the families of retired and fallen Navy Seals, so the race was started by the Seal parachute team dropping onto the beach right in front of us. Pretty awesome sight and gave a huge shot of adrenaline.

We got lined up on the beach for the start and were a bit delayed while they tried to get the buoys to stay set. They finally started the race and we were off. I felt good getting through the surf and was on my way. I fell behind the lead pack and was fine with that. I just wanted to keep an easy pace to see how my stomach was going to feel. I was doing okay. Water was rough and was tough to sight at times. I was between the lead group and the rest of the men, so no drafting for me. I ended up coming out at 16:42. The course was obviously shortened due to the times that were put up. It was probably more of 1200 yd course. As soon as I hit the beach and started my run to transition, I knew I was going to have a long day. My stomach hurt right away as soon as I started to jog. No problems with transition. Wetsuit off easily and helmet on.

Shoes were on the bike and no problems mounting the bike. It was about 1/4 mile when I strapped in to my shoes, no problems. I did not practice transitions as planned due to being violently ill on Friday and Saturday. It worked out okay. I dropped my chain going over the bridge. My fault, I waited too long to gear down. I put it back on mid bridge and still got over it rather quickly. I Took it easy with the headwinds and tried to reserve my energy for the tailwind portions. Started too lose my steam about half way through the ride due to my stomach funk. I ended up with a bike split of 1:10:01 (21.3 mph) so not too bad after all.

The run felt horrible from start to finish. I stopped sweating at mile 2 and got the goose bumps. Not good. I was intent on finishing, so I slogged through the miles. Every time I started to run, my stomach knotted up and was very painful. I ended walking probably 3 miles of the 10K. I was so disappointed because my run is so much improved. My last open 10K was 44 and change so obviously, I was not happy with an 1:01 10K. I watched the people pass me by on the run that I have beat all winter in the run races and I felt worse with each one. I finally got to the finish line and kept running straight to the bathroom. 10 minutes later I emerged to see my beautiful wife and 2 daughters waiting for me. My oldest said, "Great job Daddy. You finished". That brought a smile to my face for the first time all day.

I am glad I finished the race even though it was probably not the smartest thing to do. I spent the rest of the day in bed and in the bathroom. Good times. After beating myself for a little bit, I focused on the facts that were positive. I had a good swim, and decent bike even though I felt horrible. Transition times were fairly good and I got through them rather quickly. I will take these positives and prepare for St. Anthony's next month. If nothing else, this will keep the fire going to continue training harder for St. Anthony's next month and Florida 70.3 in May. I am taking today off, and getting back into training tomorrow.

Thanks for following.