Full Weekend Ahead

Despite a bit of stumble on Thursday (I literally flew over the handlebars while cruising at 5kph) which left me checking my bike and taking care of  the bruises on my hand and and my knee after hitting it on the handlebars, my weekend was full steam ahead…It started with a double header at the Provincial Swim Champs in the 400 IM and the 1500 freestyle with back to back swims. My 400 IM went as planned; uncontested, but I still had to play smart and not waste unnecessary energy since I had the 1500 immediately following. And so still reeling from my 400 IM, I found myself on the start block for the 1500m and decided that I would go out with the field and that as soon as I chance to open a gap I would take it. This did not happen until the 500m mark when little by little I was able to break free from my pursuer and shake him; once I had a body length, the gap quickly grew until it was insurmountable. My times weren’t great but with a full weekend ahead of me, I knew being smart and conserving energy outranked P.Bs.

Next was a bit of a transition day, since I only had the 200m and 100m free and the 4x100m freestyle relay to contest. It was all pretty smooth sailing, though, my speed definitely isn’t up there with the top guys, I still was able to snatch a 3^rd on the 200m. The 100 was a slightly different story; I was only able to crack the top 8, but at the end of the day I was walked away with a gold medal in the 4x100 free relay and the team was able to execute and maintain the lead through the race.   The day ended with a light activation on the run to set the non drafting Olympic triathlon the next day.

It was an early morning wakeup call on Sunday since the race required a bit of traveling, but after a good night’s sleep (so tired that I fell asleep as soon as I hit the pillow), the early morning start didn`t seem so bad. It was a breeze to set up transition and get a good warm up on the beach (really needed it since my arms seem to still be blocked from the 2 days of swim races). So after a quick briefing on the race day perils (sunny and not a cloud in sight – but lots of tourists out on the course….), it was time to get going (so the heat wouldn’t eat us alive!!)  I was surprise by how fast the pace was off the start and had to play catch up to the first buoy. After getting to the front I set, what I thought was a high pace but was not able to drop my swim companion even after several attempts to get rid of him (doing the yoyo around the buoys and almost eating sand). So I was resorted to a quick transition and put on a high tempo to demoralize any hope of my pursuant giving chase on the bike. Though I would have preferred to leave my competition for dead, that didn`t seem to work the way I wanted (he tried to chase ardently, to no avail and ultimately paid for surpassing his limits on the chase). After those first 5k I settled into a steady rhythm just letting the gap open naturally over the 40k. So when coming off the bike my was once again to push hard and settle into a rhythm somewhere between race and a steady tempo and thanks to all those hours of training it was quite easy to find the pace I was looking for.  Even though my pursuant was running faster I still was able to maintain my lead all the way through the line.

After such a heavy weekend the only thing that was left was to get a nap in and start packing to head home where Christmas with the family waits.  Thanks to MultiSports Club, Atleta y Enmanuel Jimenez for the amazing pictures taking of the weekend that I’m able to put here today, also to Tri-Master and FEDOTRI for setting up such great events.