Snake River Sprint Triathlon 2010

This was the official first race of 2010, and part of my build-up to Wildflower. It was also my first chance to try out how my body feels on the new protocol from Bioletics (www.bioletics.com) - which is basically based on upping protein intake, decreasing omega 6 fat sources like my all-time favorite peanut butter (you're killing me!), supplementing my body intelligently, particularly with Vitamin D and Magnesium, and based on my metabolic type, doing more interval and intense training as a replacement for "long, slow" volume.



The swim for this race took part the day before, and the following day's bike/run were seeded according to our swim splits. I'm going to attribute a large portion of my swim split to my Blue Seventy Nero speedsuit, but a 5:48 seeded me 4th on the bike.





Knowing there would be a downhill/tailwind coming back that would allow me to spin out the legs and maintain a relatively high cadence, I planned to "mash" to the 6 mile turnaround, probably averaging a cadence of around 70. Within a couple miles on the bike, I worked my way up to first, and knew if I could be in that position at the turnaround, it was pretty likely I'd stay that way into T2, since a tailwind would make it pretty tough for anyone to catch me.



My transition was fast (Vaseline, Body Glide, or chamois cream in your running shoe soles, works every time!), but since I completely forgot to start my watch and also forgot to get splits at the bike turnaround, I basically ran the first portion of the out-and-back not quite sure how close my pursuers were. At the turnaround, I saw that I had a sizeable lead, but EVERYBODY seems to look faster than you when you're being chased, and somehow my mind is able to convince me that someone is somehow going to be able to outsplit me by 60 seconds on that last mile - so I kept myself in a relatively uncomfortable zone running back to the finish line.






My overall time for this distance was significantly faster than last year (when I got 2nd place) and I was able to win with a 47:27. The only downer for the day was that my wife flatted a couple miles into the bike. She still looks pretty damn hot in her little tri-suit, though. Just gotta replace those Zoot's with some Avia's, dear.





This was a great way to start of the 2010 season...afterwards, I popped a few Recoverease and got in a 50 mile prep ride for Wildflower. One last interesting note is that I had a chance to wear the UnderArmour Mouthpiece during this race, which worked out well because the swim was separate from the bike and run, and I didn't have to eat or drink anything during the event. I think it's a great tool for sprint triathlons like this - although I doubt (due to the eating factor) that I'll use it in a half IM or IM.





Thanks for reading!