Birthday Ride

This was just another day for me. I had an easy ride to work and then swam at lunch. No one at work got the 38 BFD t-shirt joke but the guys on the ride did. I rode from work to meet up with the Wednesday night ride (race?). I was running a little late but was pleased to see about 8 people at Jackson Station waiting for me – thanks Raland.

As soon as I got to the station we took off. We picked up a couple of extra people as we went out. There were some strong pulls from Matt and Butch to shake up the legs. We pulled off the trace into the country side. The ride was pretty sedate – fast but no attacking. The pace picked up and there were several surges. I attempted a couple of break aways only to be reeled back in a couple of minutes later. Like I have said before, I am never going to break away but I do like to force the pace at times. I just think of something I read a long time ago, “You don’t attach when you are fresh; you attack when they are tired.”

I got 28 miles for the Wednesday night ride plus another 10 miles in my commute. Not bad for middle of the week mileage.

I got home I had a wonderful grilled chicken salad and helped Jodie decorate some cupcakes. We then had a relaxing evening together. I had a pretty darn good birthday.

I didn't eat any cupcakes!

The Wednesday night ride might have been a little too aggressive considering that I have the Sunfish Triathlon this weekend. The Sunfish was my first triathlon four years ago. One of the reasons that I picked the race is because it fell on my birthday in 2007. I have not missed this race yet.

I was looking back on my last year’s race report. By the way, if you are not writing your race reports you need to start now – in a year’s time I have forgotten so much that happened. At last year’s race Robin beat me by 51 seconds. I had a great race. It will be tough to top the improvement that I experienced last year. I was in the closing six weeks of ironman training and I was feeling so strong. Looking at the volume of last year is just nuts – I did the Sunfish on a Saturday and then road 110 miles plus a short brick on the next day!

From my race report last year:

2008 SWIM 10:52 T1 1:17 BIKE 47:41 T2 1:02 RUN 22:26 TOTAL 1:23:18
2009 SWIM 08:40 T1 0:57 BIKE 45:20 T2 1:03 RUN 21:15 TOTAL 1:17:13

Last year I remember looking out over the water and thinking about how far it looked. I swam the course the night before and it really calmed some of my fears. The distance did not look so far this time – I am amazed at how different my perspectives are a year later. I swam the course again this year and was about 2 minutes faster than last year.
…
I stood up in the cranks and took the hill – I would do that for all of the hills. I was not going to hold anything back – I was redlining the entire bike. On the down hills I was flying – there were a couple of occasions where I was spinning out – no more gears to grab. Post race I noticed that I topped out at 42 MPH! I did not let up the entire bike – I flew into transition and my legs were shaking.
…
I ended up meeting or almost meeting all of my goals for the race:

Swim a good race – better, faster, stronger – DONE - better by 2:12

Bike a hard race – DON’T LET UP – DONE – better by 2:21

Run a better than 7:00 minute pace – ALMOST – my watch indicated a 6:53 but race results showed a 7:03 – STILL – better by 1:11

Finish faster than last year by 5 + minutes – DONE – better by 6:05
Last year I finished 36th overall - this year 24th.

Beat Robin - Not a good goal - I can only control myself - CLOSE BUT NO CIGAR – DEFEATED BY 0:51 seconds

This will be a tough race to top!