Catching up on a lost year of posting...part 3, the final

Lake Logan International, August 2013 Another injury affected my performance at this race. 9 days prior I injured my calf while doing a trail run. I don't know what the injury was, but it was very painful. I tried running 2 days after the injury and only made it .3 miles before it blew up on me again. So I took the next week off from running and hoped for the best on race day. By race day, I still felt the injury but it wasn't killing me. I knew I could bike and swim with it, but it was the run that concerned me. Regardless, I set out.. Swim: I had a very good swim. This was the first time I really did a good job of drafting off of other swimmers. I had a faster time that I had done before and felt much more relaxed than in the past after the swim. I need to remember how I did that in the future. Time 24:00 Bike: I had a fantastic bike split. For the first half of the course there was a group of about 6 of us that were constantly passing one another as we approached various strengths and weaknesses. I was clearly the strongest climber in the group as I always took the lead by the top of hills, and others were stronger descenders and on the flats as I'd move towards the back. We never drafted illegally, but there was certainly some legal drafting going on. We probably averaged nearly 26 mph on the front half, never before have I managed that kind of speed for 12 miles. On the return trip we began to separate as the terrain began to favor the flat riders. I wound up finishing the bike in 1:07...average pace was about 22 mph. Run: This is the stretch I most feared due to my injury. Right off the bat I knew it was still there, and it was a matter of how long I'd be able to go before it blew up. I was going really well for the first 1.5 miles. This course is a 5k uphill then a return trip to finish the 10k. I knew if I could go strong for the first half I'd have a great time. It went according to plan for 1.5 miles, I was pacing about an 8:30 mile, a good minute faster than last years race. It was at that point that my calf blew out again. Initially I couldn't run at all on it. I could walk, so my worst case scenario was that I was going to walk the rest of the course. I was not going to quit. I walked it for a bit, and occasionally would jog slowly. I kept trying different kinds of strides to see if one hurt less than another. Ultimately, it became a constant juggle of different running strides until I couldn't tolerate the pain and then I'd walk for a while. I had given up any chance of beating last years time after my leg blew up so my goal became to simply finish. I kept checking the time just in case there was any chance. When I got to the last mile I tried picking up the pace a little bit, knowing I'd be done soon and I could tolerate the pain. As I got closer and closer I started watching my time more and realized I somehow still had a shot and my PR. So I pushed harder to the finish line, injury be damned. When I finally crossed the line I wound up breaking my PR by about a minute! I couldn't believe it, and I couldn't walk! My wife and son were there waiting for me, and she helped me get to a chair. Run time : 1:01:30 Overall time: 2:36:00 LPC Triathlon This was a great race as well, as iDaph puts on an awesome event. This was really fun event as the run is unlike any other I've done. It has a really short swim, only 200 yards, a longer bike ride, 17.5 miles, and as usual a 5k run. The swim was in a pool so it was quite easy. I finished in exactly what I predicted, about 3:00 even. I did better on the bike that I had predicted. I typically ride this course around 18.5 mph, but during this race I paced right at 20 mph, for a time of around 52:30. The run was the odd part. It starts off with about 1.3 miles or so of up and down and ending with a fairly steep climb. I hit the turn around pacing about a 7:30 mile. I had a very fast second half though. The second half turns off the road, onto gravel, then on to grass. You follow a grass trail for a short ways, which was very wet and muddy, which made it interesting, then around a baseball field, before finishing with a bit less than one lap around a track, which gave you a nice final kick. I finished the run setting another PR for a 5k at 22:32, for a pace of 7:16 min/mile. I finished 2nd in my age group and 9th overall. Definitely the best finish I've ever had. Overall time was 1:19:00 And that about covers the last year in triathlon! Lake Lure Triathlon is tomorrow, so I'll write that one up this weekend.