LC World Triathlon Championships
Jordan Bryden- Race Report
Race day started out well. In the morning I was really relaxed and excited to get in the water. There was money on the line from one of my sponsors for being first out of the water and I had posted another great swim workout just 3 days before the race so I knew I was swimming fast. When I got to the race site at 5:30 am and found out the swim was cancelled, it made focusing on the remainder of the race difficult at first. I did do a good job at accepting the situation for what it was, and trying to move forward. I really thought they should had left the swim on- because the ITU tempurture rule was originally intended for race with 10 second transitions and didnt really cause much worry given the fact that there were heated changing tents that people could get dried off and fully dressed in.
With no swim I really had no idea how to warm up for the bike. I couldn’t get my bike out of transition- so I just did a light 10 minute run before the
start. When the race started (with five second intervals between athletes) the pace was instantly high. Everyone just started hammering right out of the gate so I stayed with a few guys and used them to pace off of. After about 40 km my legs were feeling great and I felt like I was maintaining a really good pace. I would go steady on the uphills and ride hard on the downhills. Nutrition was easy since it was cold out. No need to worry to much about electrolytes- Just water and calories. About the 90 km mark the course started getting some huge elevation gain and I started to feel the fatigue in my legs. Headwinds picked up but I focused on just fueling for the run and spinning out the legs when I had the change to back down the « grinding. » My focus was still great and I was almost anxious to see what I could do on the run. When I looked at my watch heading into T2 I was happy with the ride time. I’m a Olympic distance athlete who is used to relentless intervals for a hour – and 120km is a whole different game.
The run was great. The first lap went by really quickly. I felt like I was holding a similar pace to what I hold coming of the bike in a Olympic distance race. It was 4 laps of 7.5 km. On Lap 2 I began to feel the fatigue building in my legs so I went for Coke and started to feel much better. I kept drinking coke at every aid station for the next 22 km. The last lap hurt alot, but I decided to keep building the pace just a little bit harder every kilometer. The big climb was mentally exhausting but once I reached the turn around it was 2 km of downhill running to the finish and I finished the run stronger than I thought I would. I expected (given the limited training) that a great run for me would be around 2:05 on that hilly of a course but I ran 2:01.30.
The race was a great way to finish off the season. It has left me motivated and hungry to push hard into the next few months of winter training. I really love the long distance races- and know that I will thrive in that environment in the future. Right now however its time to recover and start pushing hard to see what 2012 will bring.
-J
You give me a good help for the 2 first lap!! I hope to see you on an other long distance triathlon (with the swim)!