The first triathlon of the season popped up on the calendar by surprise. 5 short weeks after the Tour de Korea I was getting ready to get back after it. I hadn't really let up since the Tour de Korea, I took the first weekend off after the race and then have been racing every weekend since. I made the switch back to my triathlon coach, with the hopes of getting selected to the Air Force team, which did happen. Like I have mentioned before Scott (my tri coach) doesn't like me racing all the time, but I just happen to love racing. We have an agreement that I don't get to rest/taper into these races so I just train through them. It keeps the training consistent and since I am not targeting these past races it is all fine by me. I got up early on Saturday and got out for a long ride and then headed down to Hongseong with my buddy Robbie, who was also racing on Sunday. In Korea you have to show up the day prior to pick up your race packet and get your bike checked.
Once getting the registration sorted out we headed to the transition area and I got in the water for a short 30 minute easy swim. The water was quite warm and I was happy about that. It was going to be a 2 lap swim, but unfortunately they didn't have the course marked yet. I just got out there and got use to swimming in the wetsuit again. After that we managed to go find a hotel, it ended up being about 1.5K from the race start, so it made it nice for the morning of the race to just wake up and ride over. The next task became quite difficult. Dinner.............Being out on the coast in a coastal town we couldn't find anything other than seafood. I mean I am all about trying new things, but when it comes to the night before a race, not the best idea. We drove around for a bit until we found a meat restaurant that had some chicken soup thing and then we think we were served duck meat, but it might of been pork, or possibly dog, who knows either way it was decent and filling.
I ended up getting to bed quite early and was asleep by 9, which was probably the earliest I have been asleep in a while. I was up by 0530, which kind of sucked as race start wasn't until 9. I slowly got up and got breakfast and headed out to the shoreline to just enjoy the morning and eat. After that I just went and lounged around the hotel until about 7 before heading to the race start.
Breakfast- (I forgot to get my go to meal of Instant Oatmeal)
3 hours before race
1- Honey Stinger 20g Protein Bar
1- FRS 20g Protein Shake
1- Chocolate Muffin
1- Pastry
1 hour before race
1- FRS Can
3- FRS Soft Chews
30mins before race
1- Honey Stinger Gel w/ Caffeine
Swim- 24:01
The swim has never been my strong suit, however it seems the races here in Korea there are not a lot of strong swimmers. We started in waves, and we had a pretty small wave with Male 18-34. We started 2mins after the Pro Males and 1 minute after the Pro Females. It was 2 loops, but you never had to exit the water. I started on the outside as the rope kind of swung out and formed a C instead of a straight line. So the shortest route to the first buoy was to start from the outside. I went out pretty hard for the first 200m and found myself side by side with another swimmer. About another 100m I found myself solo out front. I just tried to keep my pace and slowly started building up a lead. After the first lap I looked back and had a pretty solid lead and just focused on swimming the second lap strong. I ended up coming out of the water first for the amateurs and then had a long T1, about a 300-400m run.
Probably one of the few times you will ever see me leading a swim by that much, or I should say at all!
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T1-Ahhh the dreaded wetsuit stripping, didn't use any body glide or lotion so it took me a bit to get it off. After trying to stand on the leg with one foot and pull up with the other and it didn't work I just went it to turtle mode and flipped on my back. Sooner than later it was off and I was running out of T1 with my bike.
Bike- 57:50 (not including T1/T2) 1:00:33 Including T1/T2
Well I wanted to make sure the off season cycling focus didn't go to waste. Luckily the pros were out in front so I had something to chase. I slowly started picking off a few of the girls on the first loop and then a few of the guys on the second loop. It was a 2 loop course with a small hill right out of transition, which you only hit once due to the turn around being down the road a little ways. Then right before the far turn around there was another gradual uphill that was about 400m long. Other than that it was a slight tailwind out and slight headwind back, with 4 180 degree turns. It made for a pretty fast course. The Pro's were ITU draft legal and they combined our T1 time with our bike time so not sure exactly how my "bike" time measured up to theirs, but below is the Top 10 splits.
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Run- 38:01 for 10K, but unfortunately the run was 7 miles.......so 43:16
The one area I was concerned about 5 weeks ago when I came back to the tri training. I had been running once to twice a week during the cycling focus, but my last race was Kona and I left there with a solid run. I was concerned I was going to have a lot of work to do to get back to where I was. Well the last 5 weeks went really well and I came back in my opinion stronger than when I left Kona. I am not sure exactly what it was but these 5 weeks I have been running really well. Scott has me hitting some great workouts and they are working wonders.
I came off the bike still in the lead and luckily I had some pros to chase down. I figured since there was no amateurs ahead of me I would just focus on the pros and see what I could do. The run course was 4 laps, so I was able to see how big of a lead I had off the bike. Well when it came down to it I had almost a full lap. I think I ended up lapping all but 1 guy by the end of the run, and I managed to run my way into the pro field. I was very happy with my run and am anxious to build on this performance and hopefully put down a solid run at Pt Mugu.
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Official Times based on Timing Chip (T1/T2 included in Bike Split)
Swim- 24:01
Bike- 1:00:33- Strava File: http://app.strava.com/rides/9992618
Run- 43:16- Strava File: http://app.strava.com/runs/9992919
Overall- 2:07:49
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Below are some photos from the race:
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