RR: LavaLove Triathlon

Saturday morning was my first triathlon of the year, the newly renamed LavaLove Triathlon; actually it was my first race of any kind since August 7, 2011.  I really like this race for multiple reasons, first it is in the town where I spent every summer as a kid (and my 'rents live there now), it has only about 300 participants,  and it is flat as a pancake.  I made the trek down on Friday night and managed to fall asleep around 9:30PM which was awesome!

Excuses:  My training over the past year and a half has been less than stellar and it is especially true for the past two months.  Family, work and miscellaneous things have made free time scarce, thus my running/biking has taken a major hit.  Those will be the last excuses I will throw out there. 

Swim - .4 miles - 11:11 (Overall 80/284, AG 5/22)
It was  a beautiful day, air temp was around 65F, blue skies, and a great atmosphere in transition.  The water was pretty warm for early June, around 71F, but still meant I was wearing a wetsuit.  After treading water for about five minutes or so the gun sounded and we were off.  For some stupid reason I positioned my self right in the gnarliest place you can be for the start of a swim, inside front row.  Ugh, I didn't mean to be there, but that is where I ended up.  Regardless, I got the crap kicked out of me for the first 200m.  After the typical mid-swim thoughts of just quitting, I decided to just finish the swim and get on the bike.  So I tried to streamline a bit and made my way for shore.  All in all, not a bad swim for me, I finished in the top 30% of all finishers which is great for me.

T1 - 1:29
My transition could have been faster, but then again I had to strip off my wetsuit.

Bike - 13 miles - 37:42 (19.9 MPH) (Overall  48/284,  AG 6/22)
Oh boy, I did not have a very good ride, and this despite my brand new wheels!!!  With that said, I could have been riding the most aerodynamic bike, with the lightest components, with an aero helmet and a rear disc wheel and it wouldn't have helped all that much.  When you don't ride a bike more than once every ten days, you just aren't going to be fast.  I did my best with the fitness that I had, I passed a bunch of people, was passed by a couple and managed to not exhaust myself in the process.

T2 - :46
A very good transition for me, could have shaved off maybe 10 seconds if I really had to....I will next time.

Run - 3.8 miles - 30:45 (8:06/mile) (Overall 85/284, AG 4/22)
This is the one time that absolutely killed me....over 8 minute miles on the run portion for a sprint triathon is horrible.  It didn't help that my Garmin died about 100 yards in to the run, thus I was running blind.  I managed to hook up with a guy around mile two who helped pace me for a little bit, but he pulled away from me and I couldn't catch him.  I did the best I could and realized that I need to get out running at least four days a week from now on.  With regard to the race, with about 200 yards to the finish I was about to be passed and I decided that I wasn't going to do down like that, so I picked up the pace and beat the guy by about three seconds, preserving my 58th place finish.

Post-Race - 1:21:56 (Overall 58/284, AG 5/22)

I finished right around where I expected to; my run and bike need vast improvements.  Provided I can make the time to run four days a week and bike three/four days a week, I should see improvements pretty quickly.  Next race is the NJ State Triathlon on July 22nd and then after that I may be doing the Born to Tri on July 29th.