May 13th, 2018

Today I decided to race like I was supposed to be at the front. When asked if he was nervous about racing Mario Mola a couple weeks ago, Casper Stornes from Norway (in his inaugural World Series race, said confidently, “We train harder than Mola”. Turns out that Casper won the race by over thirty seconds and beat Mario by almost a minute.  Today, I decided to tell myself that I train just as hard and precise as the next guy.  In the Swim I felt pretty bad from the start. I felt as though my arms were a bit weak and I didn’t have the strength to hold a proper catch and keep my elbow up throughout my pull. However, I was able to take off 2 seconds per 100m from last years time, which is an improvement I will take. Once onto the bike, I felt like I usually do after swimming…Like all the blood is in my arms, and my legs feel dormant of oxygen or blood! However, today I decided that I was going to try to push through that feeling and try to make it disappear.  After the first climb, the blood started pumping, and I felt amazing. I pushed harder than I have in the past on a non-drafting race, and was able to go 2 min and 20 faster than last year. Once onto the run, I din’t feel great until about the 2km mark, and then was able to turn it on, especially the last 2km. To be honest, I was disappointed with my run time today. Not anything near what I was going for, but I guess thats why the breakaway guys in WTS always run slower after time trial-ing…It just hurts! Three things I would like to improve upon for the season to come is: 1) Doing a better swim warmup prior to the race, so that I feel ready to sprint right off the start; 2) Continue to hone in on finding my bike legs as soon as possible which will be important in a hot and heavy drafting/breakaway environment this summer; and 3) My structure on the run has improved HUGE this winter and I’ve enjoyed watching my heart rate get lower and lower on structural runs, about 20 beat improvement from last year at the same speed. However, although I showed some promising speed on the track in the 1500 this year, I haven’t translated it into a triathlon race environment. I’m confident that this will come as we start to do functional bricks/track this summer.  Overall, I improved even if very small, in all three disciplines today and am excited for the season to come. Congrats to the Rest of the Team who did AMAZING! And huge thanks again Coach Luke, Mission group and Valeo health Clinic!