Train to Race... or Race to Train?

My next weekend double was a spring/Olympic combo. The Rose City Triathlon on Saturday followed by the first ever TRIFECTA Triathlon at beautiful Possum Kingdom lake on Sunday. Fellow pro triathlete and San Antonioan, Robbie Wade and I journeyed together for the weekend and made the long hours in the car much less boring. Rose City was a sprint race that I've won the last two years and hold the course record for. Bringing my top competition with me may not have been the smartest move but when Robbie took a wrong turn on the bike and last 30-45sec I nearly defended my title. Leading out the run I ran as hard as one can (Which is pretty fast when an angry Irishman is bearing down on you). At last, my efforts were futile however when Robbie caught me with 1k to go then easily kicked by me in the last 300m. We both actually broke my old course record and he helped propel me to my best ever run split of 15:31 for 3 miles. I would have actually pr'd my 5k in that race if it was a 5k.

As much as I hate being rude we had to leave the awards ceremony early so we could jet on the 3.5 hour drive west for the pro meeting at 4 pm that afternoon. It was going to be a small field with only 4 men and 3 women competing. Gary Metcalf, the race director was kind enough to hook us up with a great homestay for this event. Thanks a ton to Judy Parsons and her husband for allowing 4 dirty, hungry triathletes to invade their beautiful home for the weekend! Seriously, their place was amazing and we each had our own little apartment suite with a bed, fridge, tv and bathroom. And a great view of the lake to boot! Here are a few shots of possum kingdom lake-

View from the swim start

A close look at Hell's Gate

I had a pretty good race. Though I could tell my lack of high intensity biking and the hard effort from the day before left my legs lacking a little pop. I came off the bike in 4th and was able to run down Peter Mallett from Austin to secure 3rd. Robbie won easily and Wes Anderson (aka: GI Joe stud muffin) came in a strong 2nd so I was happy to make a San Antonio sweep! It was a successful weekend of racing and I was very pleased to have two back-to-back strong performances.

Podium- Wes, Robbie and me left to right

Another 2 weeks saw me on the road again, this time with afore mentioned Wes, headed to the Houston Triathlon . A week of rain storms turned this event into an aquathon which didn't particularly favor me but a race is a race and we all must perform regardless. Well... I didn't exactly perform. I came in a very unremarkable 7th place. For whatever reason I just felt extremely flat that day and couldn't manage to swim hard or get my run pace much under 5:50's. Oh well, those days happen.

Three weeks later was my big (and first) half Ironman. I'll save that for a later post as I feel it deserves a race report of it's own. Suffice to say I completed it and it was hard!!!  More to come in a few days...