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| Good chance to rock the new Zoca kits! |
This race was intended as my opener/warm up race for the 2015 season. My goal was a top ten overall finish and age group win, neither of which happened but I did lay it down and go as fast as I could that day. This course was definitely a lot of fun and it also gave us a good excuse to go to Napa for the weekend! The huge benefit of the HITS race series is they had all four race distances available so both Meg and I got to race in the same weekend and have ourselves a weekend getaway.
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| Meg starts the swim |
Swim:
The swim was beautiful, very clear and clean water with a course oriented away from the sun. A tad on the cold side (mid 50s) but nothing a long sleeved wetsuit can't handle! I rented my wetsuit this time around, as the one I own is short sleeved but the BlueSeventy is peaking my interest. The long sleeve gave me a little extra buoyancy and didn't restrict my swim stroke at all. Swim time came in at 37 minutes, which is a significant improvement over past races but I'd like to be consistently putting out sub 35s some day. Better keep working! Time was still good enough to get me on the bike sitting in the top third.
Bike:
After a bit of a hold up trying to get my wetsuit off (no strippers at this event, strictly family friendly) I was off and away! As most people who follow this blog know, the bike is by far my favorite. This race was no exception, quite hilly but I was able to maintain an average power about the same as my normalized power at 170 watts. Bike time was 3 hours even, which might seem slow compared to my past race times, but did get me a top five bike split.
I broke one of my cardinal rules which is now new gear on race day but this was my first outside ride with my new Cobb Saddle and I have to say, totally worth the risk. Not a single comfort issue all race. In combination with some Ruby's, I was able to focus just on my power output and not worry about other issues.
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| Always good to start with a "wake up" hill |
This course was also a good confidence builder as there were two turnarounds and I was able to keep track of my overall positions. I was sitting at 6th off the bike and ready to go for a podium.
Run:
At first the run was going pretty well, I had a good pace going, was keeping my heart rate under control on the hills, shoved a Bonk Breaker in my face, all that good stuff. Now to come clean, I started feeling some knee pain after a long run about a month ago and this was my first run since then. I taped my knee up during the transition (any tape I had on under the wetsuit was in a soggy pile in transition) and when it stayed on I had no problems.
And then I had some problems.
So KT tape is meant to have some time to set before movement, however in transition time, ten minutes isn't going to work. It unfortunately all came off in a ball of sadness at the third water stop and I had trouble from then on out. 7 miles later, I had fallen down to 11th spot overall and third in age group with a total time of 5:48.
What's ahead for me:
I am biting the bullet and going to a sports doctor to get my knee looked at. I am still hoping to compete in the Diablo Trails 50k Challenge this Sunday but also know that no single race is worth a season ending injury so we will se what the doc says and I will keep everyone posted. It is a race I trained very hard for so everyone keep their fingers crossed that I am told to take an aspirin and walk it off.
In the mean time, if I run Sunday, I will be running to support Save Mount Diablo. You can find my donation page here!
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