Rumpus in Bumpuss... Oh yeah!!!

That’s Bumpass, Virginia for those playing at home. I capped off last week off with an international (Olympic) distance triathlon, which I’d say went pretty well (at least for me). For those who aren’t familiar with international distance triathlons, it’s a 1500m swim, 24 mile bike, and 10k (6.2 mile) run. I used this race as a good warm up to get the tri-gears going in preparation for Eagleman 70.3 in June. I will spare everyone from a detailed race report, but will give you some highlights. (Also, see Race Pics Page)

The weather was perfect, overcast and low 60’s for the whole race. The swim was straight forward, unfortunately my swimming wasn’t very straight. I probably ended up swimming an extra 300m from all the zig-zagging I was doing. The bike was relatively flat, with a few rollers. It did take about five miles to get my biking legs under me, which resulted in a slow start.  Not to worry though, I caught up and smoked most of the folks who passed me early on. Fortunately, the really fast folks were already in front of me. The run went well. I ran faster than expected, coming off the bike, and felt like I was only really suffering during miles 5-6. My legs were getting tired and I started feeling the blister on my heel. I raced in some sockless shoes that I've been training in and for some reason got a blister. I think my feet were wet, but I'm not sure if that was the actual cause.

All said and done, I thought it went well. My “optimistic” estimate was 3 hours (ish). I ended up finishing at 2:50 and I’m very pleased with that. A special thanks to one of my training buddies Ginger for making race day enjoyable. You rock girl!

Swim: 34:56 (1:57 min/100yd)

T1: 3:54
Bike: 1:14 (19.1 mph)
T2: 2:20
Run: 55:42 (9:03 min/mi)

Total: 2:50:36

Looking into the future. I need to keep improving on all three disciplines, but for the next four weeks I’m going to specifically focus on my swim (four week swim block). It took me a good 600m or so to get comfortable at the race. It felt like my wetsuit was completely constricting my breathing and I couldn’t get into a good rhythm. I’m not sure if it was the excitement of the start or my wetsuit was actually too tight. Either way, I do need to get some pool time in because I’ve neglected swimming quite a bit.

Eagleman 70.3 is in six weeks… and its coming quick.

Cheers,

Scott

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