Peterborough 1/2 IM

Wow, I don't know where that race came from, but I am not complaining. Training has evened out a bit lately, but I was not expecting to improve on last year when I was training hard.

The day started out OK. Got to the site in plenty of time and chatted with some friends.

The swim start. Seeded myself with the top guys, (where I should be swimming) but did not have a great swim. My warm-up was a bit rushed, and I wasn't feeling ready to race when the gun went.

Started off OK, but was feeling a bit lethargic. After about 300m I got hit on the side of the head which loosened my goggles and allowed them to fill up with water. I had to stop to fix them. This allowed the group I was swimming with to put a gap on me. I tried to make this up, but was unable to. Coming back to the beach we were swimming into the sun which made sighting tough. At the turn bouy I turned too much and got myself offline and didn't realize it (because the glare of the sun wasn't letting me see the buoys) until I was probably 30m too far to the left. I then tried to correct this and somehow ended up too far to the right! Not a good first lap.

Onto the second lap, the group ahead of me had about 30secs on me and I knew I couldn't catch them, and there was noone else near me. It was a long lonely second lap, but I sighted a bit better.

Out of the water in a little over 30 min. and into transition in just over 31min. About a minute slower than last year. I wasn't terribly happy with this since it was more just stupid mistakes than anything.

T1 - I took my time to put socks on here. A little slow with the wetsuit removal, but hey, it is a long race what is a few seconds!

Onto the bike. I was feeling OK, and eased into the bike. I was really careful to let my body settle in before I started pushing. Due to the lack of really long rides lately, I was weary of pushing to hard to early. After about 10km I started to feel good, and at about 25km I put the hammer down. I felt awesome throughout the entire bike. I was blowing by people on all of the hills and I didn't even feel like I was struggling! It was probably one of the best rides I have put in ever.

Off the bike in 2:28 (36.3 kmph) Very stoked with this.

T2 was uneventful.

Headed out onto the run. It loops around the soccer fields, and I really dislike this section. It is uneven, and really tough because it taxes all of your stabilizer muscles. I don't run on trails, so I am not used to this. That being said, I was still feeling really good. I had to hold myself back a fair bit at first because the body wanted to really go.

I was aiming for a 1:40 1/2marathon and I was holding this pace very well. It wasn't until the last 4km when I dropped off. Entering back into the park the body really decided it was about ready to finish. I really mentally had to battle to not really drop my pace to much here. I managed to do allright, but missed the 1:40 by a couple of minutes. Not suprised after the effort I put out on the bike, but all in all really pleased with the run.

Finish 4:45:15. Over 3 min. faster than last year on less training. I was not expecting this at all. I am pumped!!!

I now have a significant time off from racing. I don't race again until Steelhead at the beginning of August. This is a good thing. I am looking forward to relaxing and training well.

It is now the time of the year when I get to put in the big miles, and I am looking forward to this.