Cohasset Race Report

The turned out to be as good as one could ever expect. I was rather nervous going into this race for a couple of reasons. One my first in the pro/elite field and two I was asked to race there! I did not want to embarrass myself so I wanted a good performance.

0400 wake up call.

Uneventful. Picked up my brother and drove to Cohasset. The area was set up well and I thought that the venue was great. Went to pick up my packet and there was only a section for elites to get there stuff. Pretty cool. Race #13. Lucky 13!

Did a good warm up My brother and went out the bike and tooled around for a few minutes to make sure all the gears were working and put my sneakers to go do some light jogging and warm ups for the run. Got back to transition and then waited to put on the wetsuit and test the water. At 0825, Craig Lewin and I went to test the water and it was perfect. about 64. Had a nice swim and then waited for our start.

0855.

It was a little late but our start finally went off. I was nervous as hell. There were 35 other men and women in my wave who respectively were at the pro and elite level. I had no real idea how to rate myself against these people because I have never raced at this level. It was a run in start and that made things worse because they kept saying one minute, one minute and the sun was baking us in our wetsuits as I felt the sweat running down my back. Then bang the gun goes and so do we. I ran into the water and dove on. Goggles rolled down quick fix and on the way. I didn't feel great in the swim. Not sure if I didn't pull up my wetsuit high enough or if the the full suit is giving my shoulders tightness making it feel like they are working more than they have too. There was some bumping but not much. It felt like I was way back but I drafted off someone and could feel someone drafting off me. got tho the last buoy and headed for shore. I exited the water by my watch at 6:23. I hit the mat up on the beach at 6:45. I ran through transition and grabbed my bike. Off I went. Once in my shoes I raced off.

T1

Got to work on this part. over a minute, Some of the other P/E's were out in under 50 secs.

Bike

The bike was moving. A slightly rolling course with with some technical turns. I feel like I was able to keep things moving quickly. I passed a few elites around mile 2-3 and then I was just chasing the small group about 100 yards ahead of me. I held my power well and was surprised at the end that it wasn't higher. Not sure why. could be because of a lot of turns. I then entered T1. bike computer said 28:?? but race clock was 29:39.

T2

AGAIN! must work on this, 1:09. If I had the same transition times as most of the other elites I would have knocked off 1:oo min of my total time moving me up 3 spots!

Run.

It was 3.2. A couple guys, went past me as we exited transition. I wasn't rattled because I knew I was going to get my legs and going to hold a 6 min mile. That was not the issue. What was the issue was the humidity, The air was getting thick I was at a 9 out of 10. I moved along and took back my two places. Just ahead of was the women's leader, Alicia Kaye, I wanted stay with her because I knew that would get me in under 1 hour, We rolled along and the mile clicked off. I was caught and passed by Carmen Monks of Team Psycho. I then wanted to keep up with him because he was now jockeying with Alicia. At about 2.9 there was tough hill through the course there was a guy from Fast Splits who was giving times to the Psycho guys. Luckily I was close enough to Carmen so I could here the #'s. As we crested the hill it was all down form there. I was trying to pick up the pace to get Carmen in the last 3/10 but he was doing the same. He then entered the finish line with Alicia behind him and me behind her. I hit the stop at 58:00.

The race was awesome. I saw and met some great people. It was crazy to pass the 1995 IRONMAN World Champ on the bike and have her throw out a compliment like she was my coach! I think that as you get to know the course you will be able to cut some time off. I absolutely have to get faster in transition. I must practice this more. There were a lot of Aquaphor guys there and we were represented well on the podium. I am looking forward to the Dam TRI on 07/10 where I will race again at the elite level. We'll see how that goes!

Here it comes.

So I am getting ready for Cohasset this weekend. I have been feeling pretty good, I fact i weighed the other day to see that I am down to 186. I have never been this light. I also checked my power files and noticed that I have been getting a little stronger too. This is good...getting lighter and gaining power! I will be holding it back tonight at Nahant. I just plan on a hard swim and an easy run. I am tempted to leave the bike home but we'll see.

Speed

So the other day I posted about how I was feeling sluggish and that I was "getting there". I am not going to say I am there yet but I can say that I was pretty damn pleased with my race last night at the Nahant Beach Triathlon. This has been going on for 30 years and last night I was told by good friend Warren Macphail that I posted one of the fastest times.

33:16.

Now it is time to get ready for Cohasset!

getting there...

The past few weeks have been kind of sluggish for me. I went to Sandbridge Beach in early June and while I was there I was able to get some quality swimming and running in. However I have put myself in a place were i just felt like i wasn't making any progress. I don't know if have been over training or not. Before we left for VA I did a 1.2 swim in the pool to get an understanding on where is was. I would like to PR for the half this year. After the Patriot half last year, it could be tough. I was sub 4:40 and that was a big jump for me. I have been working on speed lately and not sure if it is settling in. I will be doing my first Nahant Tri today and that could give some of the answers I am looking for. good or bad.

I hope to use Nahant to springboard me into one final good week before the Cohasset Tri. I am still amazed, nervous, excited an uneasy that I am going to be racing in the 1st wave. I feel like this is my first triathlon again. I have been looking at the results from previous years and there are some seriously fast people that will be toeing the line...enough bitching!

So, after looking at my own numbers of the past few days I have been coming in right about where I was last year. Mt run is about the same. I have an 8.2 out and back i run and came in at 54:45 the other day. A couple of seconds off form last year. My bike has been going well and yesterday I had a 2 hour ride up to Gloucester and held a good pace. Threw in a few intervals, My power file showed that average of 205 for 20.2 mph. I am planning on a 220 for the 56 mile bike in the FirmMan. I feel pretty confident in my swim. I held my final set of 5x100's at 1:16 with 15-20 sec rest. I felt strong at the end. I have also set a pr for my 5k this spring.

All in all I think I am getting there, I plan on a solid couple of days with some good stretching and diet to get to where I want to be for Cohasset. I will let you know how it turns out!