A little race and build up next for IMC

My training has been going fairly well and I've lost a couple of pounds so I was anxious to see how I would do in a little sprint triathlon coming off 3 hard weeks of training and a recovery week leading up to Sunday. Last Tuesday night I did my first XC race at Waveny.....it was a 3mile speed work run. I felt pretty good in the run and took the rest of the week fairly easy. Sunday I had a good warmup run and bike and swim. The beach was rocky so I was concerned with the start but I was able to dive in and start swimming right away. It was rough until the first buoy or so but it smoothed out quickly. I was able to find a rhythm after 5 minutes and cruised in. I couldn't believe how quickly it went by. A half mile swim now feels like a warmup. I remember when I came to watch this race about 4 or 5 years ago. It was my first triathlon that I ever watched and I remember looking out at the buoys and thinking that the distance was impossible.......interesting how times have changed. Many more things in life seem possible once you conquer the "impossible".

I was anxious to improve my transition times since I usually take my time in this part of the race so I was happy that I zoomed right throw both transitions. I got onto the bike and my HR was pretty high which is normal for this part of the race. I just concentrated on having a smooth cadence and my HR started to stablize.....check. I worked the first hill steady and hard and zipped through the first lap quickly and was anxious to see if I could stay on the pace or increase the pace for the second lap. I felt like I accomplished this. I was able to key off some guys in front of me and felt like I had a solid bike ride. I got onto the run course and my legs felt light and quick. I kept a nice steady pace and steady HR for the first mile. I was all alone at this point in the race. I passed 2 guys near the 2nd mile and cruised to the finish with no one around. I didn't get passed on the run and only got passed on the bike by 1 guy. Finished in 1:06. I did this race 2 years ago in 1:18. Swam 12min, biked 32min, and ran 19 this year. I was 5th in my age group and 33rd overall out of 630 racers. Very satisfied with the result. Off to Lake Placid on Wednesday or Thursday for some work, volunteering, spectating, training, and motivation. And its countdown to Canada now. I have 3 weeks of volume training ahead of me and clean nutrition for the next 5 + weeks.