Double the Pleasure, Double the Fun!

This weekend I raced a 15k road race and a sprint tri. The plan, a few months ago, was to use the 15k as a training day to run NOLA pace, and the sprint tri to get the rust off. I think I forgot how competitive I am and that there is no half effort racing in me. So let's get to it.

Saturday: Special Kids 15k

The weather forecast for this weekend was awful. I spent so much time distracted on the weather for the tri that I hardly thought about the 15k. I didn't know of any big names that were running it and honestly I haven't figured out who to look for in my new age group. On race morning I felt pretty good. I've never run a 15k though so I wasn't sure about pacing or game plan. I decided to run half marathon pace for the first 7 and pick up the pace the last two. That means going out controlled and getting in the zone. Instead I ran 5k pace for the first 1.5, half marathon pace for the next 6.5, then sub 5k pace for the last 1.3...NAILED IT lol. I got too caught up at the beginning. I was sitting in 7th after the first 1/4 of a mile and we were strung out about 30s to a minute apart for the rest of the race. I had no idea of the course so I wasn't ready for the constant rolling hills. I was thinking it was a pancake flat course. Oh well. At mile two I could tell 6th place couldn't keep up with his buddy anymore and he was starting to move backwards. I eventually caught him just after mile 4. 4-7 was pretty uneventful. I got choked up at one of the race markers at mile seven though. This race goes to benefit an organization that works with mentally and physically challenged kids, and at each marker there was a picture of one of the children. I was starting to hurt at this point and I just decided to suck it up and run with those kids in mind. They'll never be able to run a race like this and I wasn't going to "quit" on them. That got me to mile 8 and now I was ready to cruise in and save my legs for the tri. BUT!! A guy caught me at 8 and said "You must have been training, you've gotten faster. It took me longer than I thought to catch you". Well so much for cruising in. This guy thought he was going to just go by me! My new goal was to break him. I know I'm strong and I know my legs can be punished as long as my HR doesn't get into the 190s. I had about 12bpm to work with at this point. I ran right beside him for 1/2 a mile. We were going up a slight incline and I decided to surge on him the second we topped the incline. Luckily coach puts these types of pick ups in a lot of my runs. So I'm used to dropping the hammer and then settling back in. Anyway, I surged for about 10 seconds and got back in the groove. I waited until I heard the foot steps get close and then I surged again for another 10 seconds and waited again for him to close the gap. As soon as he was close I surged for a third time. At this point the effort level was setting in but I knew I could still close. I was at 8.75 and decided to wait until 9 to make any more moves. I could hear the foot steps getting closer but he was not closing as fast as he had been. I hit mile 9 and started to pick it up. It was a slight incline back to the finish and I wanted to avoid sprinting because I could tell I was about shot. With 2 tenths of a mile to go I started to dry heave. "come on hold it down, don't let him catch you". I peaked back and could tell he was not going to catch me. I continued to dry heave and right as I crossed the line I shot off into the grass to throw up. It's been a long time since I've pushed like that so I was pretty happy with the effort. I ended the day with 6th overall and 1st in my age group.

That's a 5k finisher in case you are wondering

I make dumb faces when I get awards, I'm not sure why

Sunday: ADPI Sprint Triathlon

I woke up and checked the weather immediately. RAIN and 47 degrees!! ugh. I was sore but not too bad. I figured a solid bike would wreck me and I'd be walking the 5k run. I was not looking forward to being freezing cold but whatever, it was the first tri of the season. It would be about near impossible for me to turn down racing.

The race is a sprint with a 300 meter swim, 11 mile bike, and 5k run. Accept like always they have no idea how to measure the run course so it ended up being 2.5.

I think I jumped in the water 5th and I passed two people and was passed once in the swim. I kept it pretty chill. I could tell my quads were heavy so I didn't really want to push too hard with my kick. I wore my new Blueseventy Nero goggles and they are SICK!! They are hands down my all time favorite goggle now. Out of all the goggles I've ever warn.

I got out of the pool and headed out the door and was met by the frigid cold! Ok it wasn't frigid if you were dry, but it was if you were wet. My feet were pretty frozen by the time I got to my bike. I had planned to wear my Wattie Ink bike jacket and some gloves. BUT my jacket got stuck on my wet arm and I immediately threw it to the side. I threw the gloves down as well and said screw it, I'll go without any layers.

You can see all my crap I threw to the side when I abandoned the layers plan

I rode the bike course on Saturday so I would know what to expect. Last years disasters with the course and police led to a drastic overall of race management and a new bike course to make it safer. The first 5 miles had three fairly decent climbs and then it was mostly a gradual decline back to transition. With the rain and wet roads I knew the corners would be sketchy but the rest should be the same as on a dry road. I could see two bikers up in front of me and honestly I had no clue they were the only two. I passed the first biker about 1.5 miles in and went to chasing the first guy. He stayed away until mile 9 ish when I finally made my pass. I was hammering has hard as I thought I could and still be able to run somewhat. My legs didn't feel too bad on the bike and I felt like I was doing pretty good at not destroying them completely. With a mile to go I started taking inventory of my hands and feet. The new course was nice enough to have 6 or 7 speed humps and 5-6 deep water puddles in the last tenth of a mile so I knew I needed to have good hand function. Well my forearms and hands were completely frozen. I mean I felt like my fingers were stuck. As we went over each bump I was nervous if my hands would even stay on the bars. I ended up barely getting my feet out of my shoes and dismounting before the line. Upon dismounting I found out my feet were completely numb as well. My first few steps were actually funky and I had to look down to make sure I was even running correctly.

T2 was pretty funny. My hands were useless and I could barely unbuckle my helmet. I ended up taking my helmet off with my forearms. Next I had to put my K-Swiss K-Ruuz 1.5s on. As I tried to use the rigamortis type fingers I had, I had to chuckle. I got my shoes on and was out of transition. The guy I had passed on the bike got out of transition just a second or two ahead of me.

Talking about how numb we were on our way out onto the run course

As we started the run I was actually amazed that my legs actually felt good. Shocking really. They didn't even feel heavy from the ride. The guy I was running with fell off the pace immediately saying his calves were cramping. So I was in the "lead" now. Obviously with a time trial start I had no idea if I was truly leading. First mile came and went and I was still shocked. I was running pretty strongly and felt pretty good. Mile two had one out and back and I could tell the guy with calf issues had recovered. "crap!! I do not want to get pushed again". Then I saw the third guy and he was flying! Not sure where he came from but he must have started way back on the swim. He turned out to be the overall winner. We rounded the corner and had about .75 left to go. I still felt strong but I had no more gears. It was this pace and nothing more. With 2 tenths left the guy with calf issues caught me. we ran side by side and he started picking it up with about 40 ft to go. I started to go with him and just didn't have it in me. I figured since he started right behind me in the swim he had to beat me by 5 seconds to actually beat me. I think I crossed the line about 3 seconds after him. Now looking back I wished I had just sucked it up and sprinted with him. It was just 30ft at the most but I was starting to dry heave and just didn't have the mental toughness left to push myself to the brink again! I ended up with another 6th overall and 1st in my age group.

Right at the finish. No kick left.

Another award and another dumb face. It's a sickness I think.

All in all it was a fun weekend but I don't think I'll be doubling again unless I can take one race easy and not compete. Kind of cool to be 6th overall and 1st in my age group in both races. I'm really happy with my fitness after this weekend and I hope I've made some new mental gains for Ironman NOLA.

Big thanks to all the Wattie Ink sponsors that helped get me through this weekend, ISM, PowerBar, and K-Swiss

Finally, thank you to my wonderful wife Kayla!! She always supports me weather she is standing is freezing cold or blistering heat. I don't think I would have nearly as much fun if she wasn't with me at the races. She rocked a new 5k PR yesterday which honestly I was more excited about than my own race. Love being a running family!!

Thanks for the read. Next up Ironman New Orleans 70.3!!