Rocked the W - Earned the W

Yesterday Was seriously the best ever complete race I've had in my short "career". It was only my 12th triathlon and my second ever overall Win. I did this race because I Wanted to defend my "title" from last year. Only problem is the venue backed out so the race Was moved to a neW location. So I Won the race tWo years in a roW, but not at the same place. I probably Won't do it again next year because it's technically a beginner targeted race and I felt kind of silly doing it again. I didn't taper the Week before and didn't change any of my training. I actually did intervals the night before. I ended up Winning the race by 1:55 Which is tough to do over a short distance. Which is another reason I probably Will not come back. I Would only be trying to increase that margin, and to me that is cocky to do. That's just not me. So let's get to the race.

First, thank you to my amazing Fiance Kayla and my mother for coming out to support. It was great to share that with both of you.

Second, thank you so much to Sean Watkins and the Wattie Squad for your support, inspiration, encouragement, and advice. It is truly a privilege to get to race With all of you.

SWim 200 yards (3:10) - Blueseventy Vision Goggles

So sWimming is my strong point but for some reason I decided to just take it easy. I took it a little more easy than I had intended though. Actually sWam it 12 seconds sloWer than I do during my Warm up lol. I Was third into the Water and the tWo guys in front of me Were very confident that they Would sWim faster than me. Turns out the first kid did, the second kid I passed in the first 50 yards, then sWimmer 4 passed me around 75 yards and that Was all the passing that happened. The reason I decided to just chill Was because it Was only 200 yards. At best a strong sWim Would only save me 15-30 seconds. That can be made up in transition. So I let myself go easy and just kept reminding myself that was the plan and that the bike Was Where the fun Would begin.

T1 1:54

It Was quite a run from the pool up to transition. I just stayed calm.

Bike 10 miles (23:33) - Easton EC90 TT, Renn 555 disc, ISM Prologue, Challenge Tires Triathlon Tubulars, Speedfil A2, CytoSport Cytomax and Base Performance Amino mix

The course Was a tWo loop course and very fast! I passed the first kid during transition and caught the second kid at half a mile. For the rest of the time I just tried to catch the motorcycle lol. Obviously that Wasn't going to happen but it Was fun to try. My computer Was being strange so it Wasn't telling me my avg. So I sWitched it to current speed. I saw speeds anywhere from 22-33 mph! Which Was aWesome. There Were stretch's that I stayed betWeen 28-30 mph. I Was loving it, I felt like a kid at Christmas. I've Worked my butt of this season to be a better cyclist and I really am starting to see it pay off. Mainly because of using trainerroad.com. It's virtual power and it has given me real workouts instead of just getting on my trainer and watching the time go by. I have a poWer test in tWo Weeks and I expect to see some major progress from Where I started 5 Weeks ago. Anyway, I ended up having the second fastest bike split, someone beat me by 5 seconds. The gap I had coming off the bike Was huge though. I didn't even see the next runner until I had already hit a mile and Was on my way back to the finish.

T2 :47


Run 2 miles (13:22) - K-Swiss K-Ruuz 1.5, Tifossi Sunglasses from Hibiscus iWear 

The second big change I've made this year is Working with a running coach. Mainly because of the terrible run I had at IM Augusta 70.3 last year. Coach Scott has increased me from struggling to hit 25 miles a Week to feeling like a slacker if I haven't even run 30 miles a Week. My running has gotten 10 times better. So to run this split after the beating I put myself through on the bike Was a huge confidence boost. It Was a tWo mile out and back course With one little loop into the camp ground during the second mile. Which kind of sucked because of the smoke from camp fires. Like I said before, I didn't see another runner until I Was over half Way finished. I Wasn't Worried about being caught, but I Wasn't about to let up either. Last year I let up in the same situation and ended up Winning by only 4 seconds. A feW more seconds of shoW boating could have cost me my first ever WIN. That Was my motivation to keep running. I kept saying "just 4 seconds". The last climb to the finish was punishing to say the least but I kneW I Was almost done so I didn't care. Once I crested I got myself back up to speed and kicked in the last .2 to the line. I Waited for about 4 minutes before the next runner finished. Honestly that felt pretty good so I let myself enjoy it for a bit. I think I had the 3rd or 4th fastest run split.

All in all it was a picture perfect day. I had hit the race just as planned. Cruise in the pool, SMASH the snot out of the bike, and Work With Whatever legs I had left on the run. Honestly I'm more excited about the run. I Want to Win overall places in the races I enter plain and simple. The only Way to do that is to have a great bike and run combo. I Want a sub 40 min 10k this season in an Oly and I Want a sub 1:30 in a 70.3 this season. Both will be difficult to do because of heat but I knoW I can do it With the Workouts that coach puts me through. So I'm pumped I ran the Way I did after that bike and on the feW hills that the run course offered.

Next up I have a 100 mile ride and 10 mile race in early June then I'm getting married!!! In July I start back up with an Oly in Chattanooga and an Oly in Nashville. They will be my Warm ups for my Oly in August that I really Want to smash. I have sprints mastered, Oly's are still proving difficult but I'm close I can feel it. In September I have a warm up 70.3 in Nashville then IM Augusta 70.3 Where I really Want to qualify for the 2013 Ironman 70.3 World Championships. I have a Ways to go to get to September and June-August will be the toughest. Last year I burned out during that time span. It's tough to run in 100 degree temps with humidity. This year I have no plans to. I want to continue to build on this season and get another W if possible!!

Thanks for reading!!