Socorro Chile Harvest Tri 2010

This was my second year doing the Socorro Tri, I had fun last year so was eager to do it again and it was one of the first on the calender and it was definitely on there as an A race. Its also the only race I did last year that I'm doing again so was really keen to see how my training has progressed over the past year and a good marker how things were going since getting off the couch two years ago. I had some specific goals this year, mainly to swim around 7mins, take 2 or 3 off last years bike and run sub 7.00m/mile pace on the run. Training had gone really well, I think I've refined my swimming a fair bit, my weekly bike mileage has increased and times have been improving in the Tuesday TTs and I've been trying out the Runners World Run Less Run Faster (it should probably just be called Run Faster....) program which really seems to have improved my run times considerably and I would definitely recommend having a look at it. Since Cochiti I was also concerned about my lack of run performance in that race so I've been getting some good Brick workouts in, doing the Little Boy bike course followed by a 5 mile tempo as part of the RLRF plan - again I think this has also helped out a lot too.

So onto the race - I ended up doing the pickup the morning of the race which was easy and followed by chip pickup and bike check into transition. The transition is a nice set up, racks labeled on the ground by letter which made locating it in T1 and T2 really easy. Managed to get a quick warm-up in and everything felt good and in good shape for the race. The swim is in their outdoor pool which was pretty much the perfect temperature and not heavily chlorinated. The start is time-trial with swimmers sent every 15 second so you have to be pretty much ready to go before you get into the water. I managed to pass a bunch of people in the first 3 or 4 lengths of the 8x50m swim and felt really good even upto the end - I've been concentrating on more arm, less leg which seems to send me much less anaerobic so I can go significantly quicker and save the legs for the rest of the race. I got out and into T1 pretty well, it was my first race having bike shoes clipped in to start with and that saved some time and made getting out to the bike much easier. The bike was pretty uneventful, I just kept it as aero as I could and cranked through it trying to keep as much form as I could. The bike course has a few hills but nothing too evil or too long and it finishes with a quick downhill which is nice although I did take my feet out my shoes about half a mile too soon but don't think it really hurt me in the long run. T2 was also good and went smoothly. I felt really good starting the run and could really feel the benefit of the Bricks paying off. The first mile or so is uphill and my pace seemed pretty good time-wise, then it transitions onto a section of double track before getting back onto the road and a mainly downhill final mile to the finish. The whole run felt solid and I could up the pace a little when I saw the tents and the finish line in sight.

Overall, I was really happy with the race, I managed to execute my plan pretty much as I wanted and hit all my pre-race goals which I was pleasantly surprised at and I came in at virtually the exact time I had hoped for in a very best case scenario. Positives were having my bike shoes clipped which seemed to help in transitions, and I think my Bricks were invaluable - knowing what intensity I could bike at in training and still set a good run pace afterwards definitely gave me more confidence and I didn't have those doubts on the bike that I wouldn't have anything left in the tank for the run. The only downside was a slightly slower bike than I'd hoped for but that's just something extra to work on for the next race! The other thing I need to do is to work out how to slow down everyone else in the 30-34 AG so I can pickup some 2010 silverware!

We had a good Triatomics representation there too - Peter, Nathan, Timbad (LBC reprazent reprazent!), Leland, Nick, Scott were all there and probably some others I missed (apologies!) and between us brought home some well earned awards!