This was a new distance for me and honestly it was a late
add-on to my last bulky IM training week.
I had accumulated roughly 115 miles on the bike and 12 miles of running
three days leading up to the event. I wasn’t concerned about my performance. I
was going to treat this race as one last hard training session before IM Texas.
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| Transistion Madness |
On race morning I was going to make a few last minute race
decisions. I knew it was going to be cold, upper 40’s to low 50’s, and I
planned on wearing toe booties on the bike to keep my toes from going numb. I
also wore my compression calf sleeves and arm sleeves. I decided to add a pair
of cold weather cycling gloves to my T1 setup. My legs normally warm up well
and I figured my upper body would be fine considering the sun was rising.
I was looking forward to the open water beach start. I can’t
think of any other races in the DFW area that offer a similar start. Walking to
the beach with my wetsuit on, we had had 15 minutes before we hit the water. I
was hanging around with some friends eagerly anticipating the race start. As
the minutes ticked away my body decided it needed to use the urinal. All zipped
up and with a hand full of minutes to the start, that potty break was not about
to happen. It was mind over matter at this point.
The swim started and a couple hundred of us dashed into the
lake. Several athletes immediately started to swim and several athletes ran as
far as they could until it was too deep to run. There are several different
strategies to a mass open water beach start. I chose to run as far as I could
and to try and stay away from the masses during the swim. The first part of the
swim was into the sun, as I approached the 500 meter mark I begin to realize
how cold the water felt. My feet were
pretty uncomfortable. Luckily/unlikely other swimmers kept crossing over me and
hitting me, that kept my mind off my feet.
It was a wetsuit legal event and despite the occasional run
in with other athletes I ended up having a good swim. Though the race
advertises a 1 mile swim, I think the swim was closer to 1,500 meters. My swim
time was fast, too fast for a mile. As I exited the swim area my wetsuit was stripped
off by the volunteers with no issues at all. I started jogging to T1 and noted
how cold my feet were.
I hit T1 and dried off with my towel, and grabbed a pair of
socks I had worn to the event. I normally do not race with socks however I made a race time decision to put them on my
feet during the bike. I was hoping they would warm up my toes. My hands were
cold and wet, and I struggled slipping the cold weather gloves onto my hands.
What felt like minutes upon minutes of wasted time, were probably 30 seconds.
Though it was a training race I will admit it’s hard to turn off the
competitive spirit. I had to remind myself that I was out here for training and
the extra time in transition was fine and would be well worth it on the bike.
I exited transition and hopped on my bike. I didn’t know
what kind of course to expect. I knew I was doing two loops and that there
would be some overlapping Sprint and Olympic distance traffic on the second
loop. The course ended up being a bit windy in some areas, holding me to a 13
mph to 17 mph pace. On the flip side there were a few areas where the wind
helped me hit a 30 mph plus pace. My feet never warmed up on the bike and my
toes ended up going numb. My legs also never quite warmed up. The course had
several rolling hills, with some traffic. The streets were made up of mostly
smooth surfaces. The sections that were not smooth had small stripped out
smooth sections you could ride through. There was one water only hand up area
on the course, I carried my fluids so It wasn’t an issue for me. The weather
was also cool enough that I’m sure it wasn’t an issue for most.
Finishing my second loop I headed into T2 where I stripped
off the gloves, shoes, socks and arm warmers. I slipped into my Zoots and was
out on the run. The he urge to urinate
resurfaced about a fourth mile into the run I came across a park restroom. I
knew I had to make a stop or my run experience would be miserable, so I quickly
darted into the restroom. Though I physically felt a million times better after
making the stop, but my legs did not feel right and my toes were completely
numb. It took the better half of three miles of running before I felt my toes
and was able to get into a comfortable run rhythm.
The run was pretty flat for the most part. There were a
couple places you had to climb, but nothing too extreme. There were plenty of
aid stations on the run handing out fluids and gels/GU packs. I’m not sure of
the brand or kind, because I did not take any in. As the day heated up I made
it a point to dump the water onto my head to keep my core temperature cool. My
quads were feeling the strain of the week’s workout, and from the wind and
rolling hills of the bike. As I
approached the finish line I decided to push the run pace for the last half
mile or so. I ran through the finish took a deep breath and felt good about the
race.
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| Tri Junkie Crew |
In the end I swam my fastest 1500 to date so that was a huge
positive for me. My bike time and run time were pretty much where I thought
they would be going into the race. Over all I was happy with my efforts on the
day.
The TexasMan X-50 was a well marked course. It takes place
in a nice park area. The Dallas Athletes crew will host a similar event, Disco
X-50 in July. Their prices are a little
steeper than some of the other events in the area, but the swag you get is well
worth it. In my X-50 packet I received a cap, shirt and socks. At the end of
the event everyone gets a finisher medal and a finisher shirt. I would expect
the same swag for the Disco event.
..ej
EJ,
ReplyDeleteNice blog post. I have some athlete's doing the race this year. What do you think the water temp was on race day?
Awesome! They'll love the course. I'd bring a wetsuit just incase it is wetsuit legal. I always use a wetsuit if given the opportunity. Feel free to email me if you have any other questions. Best of luck to you guys!
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