Harriman Olympic Triathlon

Some days go better than others. However, there are no excuses. I made a promise to myself 10 years ago that I wouldn't show up to a race unless I was ready to race. I was hoping to use the Harriman Olympic race to dust off the cobwebs and kick start my racing season before my qualifying race at 70.3 Eagleman. I have been starting my racing season a little later over the past couple of years as I try to stay fresh into 70.3 Worlds in September and the Ironman World Championship in October. It's kind of a double edge sword. I'm trying to peak later in the year, but I'm having a harder time hitting high intensity efforts without racing. I was curious to see what I could put together at Harriman. It's a good odd distance race to prep for a 70.3. The swim is .6 mile long, while the bike is 28 miles with a couple of big climbs. The run is the standard 10k. Swim: 14:54 I thought the 59 degree water actually felt pretty nice. I swam well, but just was not prepared to hit threshold for the effort. I was by myself the entire swim and felt very comfortable. Bike: 1:19:11 This is where I started to really work out the kinks. I headed out onto the bike. My QR Illicitio felt great even though I had only been able to ride it outside a couple of times before the race. I got about 3 miles into the bike and realized that my Joule 2.0 had popped off of my handlebars. I didn't think it was a big deal. I figured I would be able to find it after the race. I then began the first minor decent of the course and I noticed that my handlebars were a little low. I didn't think much about it until a car decided to cross over the road right in front of me. I grabbed my bullhorns(brake pads) and the bars went right down close to my front wheel. I thought I was going to hit the car. Fortunately, I was able to miss the car and make the right hand corner with my bars down. Then I got into the aero position and pulled my bars back up. I spent the remainder of the bike pulling the bars back up as they would slip down on every bump. I had a very hard time bringing my effort up, but I tried to stay as consistent as possible. I came into T2 with some fresh legs. I saw two guys heading out on the run as I was entering. I figured they had about two minutes on me. So I tried to get ready to go as hard as I could and see if I could pull some time back. Run: 35:04 I was really happy with how I went on the run. I committed to running as hard as my fitness would allow me to. The leg turnover was good and I was able to get my heart rate up into Z3. This is not the most ideal for an Olympic distance race, but I was happy on the day. Finish: 2:10:23 2nd Overall