River Cities Tri

Had a lot of fun this weekend. This is the 2nd time I've done River Cities and it is just an awesome race. Went up there with some very good friends. Goals for the race: 1) Mental - Since IMTX 2011, my pattern for racing has gone from preparing for a race and competing to the best of my ability to not preparing but still doing races, to signing up for stuff but not preparing and not doing the race. Earlier this year, I started signing up for stuff that I wanted to do, only to end up not following through with preparation and not even doing the race. I'm really trying to break that pattern so I looked at River Cities as an opportunity to say, Vic, you signed up for this thing, did a little preparation and no, you're not in the shape you were this time last year but just go out and START the race, do it smart, and see if you can finish. Practice FINISHING something. Someone told me this year that I'm a habitual starter. I start a lot of things and don't finish them. So, I want to break that pattern and FINISH something. That was my goal for going to this race, show up! Finish! 2) Physical - My #1 goal in anything I'm doing nowadays is to burn some calories and get a workout. I figured also that this would be a pretty good physical challenge, especially on the bike as River Cities is a pretty hilly course. So, pacing, being controlled up the hills on the bike, being consistent on the run and burn some calories. 3) HAVE FUN! Swim - 800m in 27:03 (3:07/100y). Something I'd like to work on this year. There is some disconnect between my pool swimming and OWS. I swim 2:20-2:30 in the pool. Bike - 18.2 miles in 1:25:10 - The good news is I finished the bike. Very hilly course, especially for a guy with my power:weight ratio. :) Cadence meter wasn't working but if you looked at the graph, you would see a LOT of coasting. So, basically lowest gear, zone 4 going up for periods of 1 min - 3 minutes, then coasting on the downside. There were some gentle rollers where I was able to get in the big chain and go for a little bit. So, if the goal for the day was to do some work on the bike and get some z4 work done, mission accomplished. Run - 3.1 miles in 54:27 - Again, my goal for this race was a) to get a workout and b) to finish and finish "strong" and I think I did that. I stayed within myself given my current conditioning and body comp. My plan was to do 2min walk/1 min run. I did that all the way through and kept my overall pace pretty even through the entire run. I was able to run in the last 1/2 mile. At the end of the race, I was DONE! Having been out there right at 3 hours, I mean I was toast. I really feel good that I gave it my all. I entertained all the thoughts about packing it in after the bike, cutting the run course short which would have been a very easy thing to do as the course was cut up into a series of out and backs through little cul-de-sacs the the park. But I didn't do that. I knew it wouldn't be pretty but I was going to finish what I signed up for. Thanks Joel, Judy, Belinda, and Pat for the encouragement and camaraderie. Can't wait until next year.