Steve Sherman's Blog: Tri For Fun

Tri For Fun – July 21, 2012

I was a bit nervous going into Saturday’s race since my right shoulder has been a bit tweaky the last two weeks and I didn’t know how well I’d be able to hold my swim form. That’s sort of important for a sprint tri where you have to red-line the whole way.

I’ve been doing this race series since 1999 – for over 12 years now. So that means I’ve done this sprint tri between 30 – 40 times !!!

Due to my somewhat competitive nature (who me?), I have pretty much always trained pretty intensely and with an eye towards trying to race as fast as my fitness level allows.

With that in mind, it took me several years before I could crack the 1 hour barrier at the Tri for Fun series.

Over the last several years, I’ve chipped away and to break 59:00. A few seconds here. A few seconds there. Going into this season, my PR was 58:17.

I anxiously approached last month’s Tri for Fun, my first tri of the season, and the Gods were definitely in my favor. I set a new PR – 57:57 – chopping 20 seconds off the old PR.

The weather conditions were ideal. Warm but not hot. And not much wind. Got there early to get a good spot in the transition area. Did a pre-race run warmup. Jan arrived as I was getting ready to head to the water. Got my kiss for luck. I probably should’ve gotten another kiss…

Swim: The start of the swim was fine and made it to the first buoy with no problem. But after that first buoy this I got hit in the face on top of the left side of my goggles. It didn’t hurt too much but it knocked the left side out of whack. I hesitated and thought about readjusting the googles. Then I thought since it wasn’t leaking and I only had 200 yards to go I would just gut it out. Then, as I breathed to the left that same swimmer was kicking so furiously I gulped in a ton of water. Then I was getting hit on my right side and someone was literally pushing down on my low back. It was brutal. I started to panic. I suppose not being able to breath and then getting whacked will do that. Got past the second buoy somehow and that’s when the panic really started to settle in. I just couldn’t catch my breath.

At this point on was on the right side and wasn’t getting hit anymore. I just slowed it down a bit and was able to get a bit more relaxed so I could actually breathe. Normally I swim all the way to shore until my hands are literally brushing the bottom of the lake, but this time I was only too happy to stand up and run (yeah, right) my way out.

I was pretty frustrated because I knew my time was slower. In a sprint tri, there really isn’t any time to spare. So I knew getting a PR was out and, frankly, I’d be lucky to crack 59:00 again.

Fortunately, I had a really quick T1. I was on the bike and saw my time was like 8:00. That really helped pick my spirits up.

Bike: Getting the legs up to speed early is always tough. Usually, the second half of the ride is faster than the first half. For a chance at a PR, I’d need to be right at 20 mph from the get go. And I was.

By the turnaround on Vineyard I could see I was in 10^th place. Bummer. No changes in position even after that, which I was a bit surprised about since there’s a spot on Vineyard that I normally hammer and pass people. Not this time. Oh well. But the AV speed was good – and ended up at 21.4 mph. Woo hoo! As I was crossing the bridge back on Bernal, I saw Bryan running along on his was to watch the finish. Hey – fancy running into you out here.

T2 was fast but not much faster than anyone else so I was still 10^th place as I headed out on the run.

Run: Had a good leg turnover from the start. Just kept my sights on the folks in front of me. Picked off the first guy going up the first hill. 9^th place. Picked off the next guy after the first downhill. 8^th. Then passed another guy before the next hill 7^th. Someone passed me. Crap. 8^th. Passed another guy. 7^th. Then going up the last hill passed one more. 6^th. Back across the parking lot and onto the grass area there’s two more guys up ahead. I’ve been reeling these guys in for a while. We’re now about 300 yards from the finish. I’m getting close to one and he goes into his kick. Then I hit mine. I catch and pass the one and am getting close to the second, but he’s just a bit too far (or maybe I just didn’t want to turn myself even more inside out than I already was – which was a lot).

As we hit the last bend, I am waiting for the clock to come into view to see whether or not I’m going to be above or below 58:00. I know my eyes were bulging out of there head from the intensity level, but the clock was saying 56 something. What ?? !!

Despite the oxygen debt I just kept going through the line in 56:38 !! Over 1 minute off my PR.

And 5^th place to boot. (Did a 7:10, 7:09, and a 6:57 mi. pace)

Once again, Jerry was there at the finish with his camera in my face as I’m ready to keel over.

Pam showed up too.