10 Days in Florida

Miami Triathlon and USAT Sprint Development Race-Clermont, Florida
My trip to Florida began at Disney resort, where I was representing Mission Skincare and working at the Lady Foot Locker booth. In addition, I was able to speak to athletes of all running levels about nutrition and sign autograph cards for several hours. I met so many great people and although it was a running race, I was excited to meet so many triathletes! Nate and I had a great time and hopefully next year will have some more time to hang out at Disney resort.
This past week, I have officially begun my start to the 2010 racing season. On March 7th, I raced in Clermont, Florida in a draft-legal sprint triathlon. This race was very unique in that developmental athletes, who have not yet obtained a pro card, were permitted to race and gain experience and a feel for what draft-legal racing is all about. I have not competed in a sprint race since my first year of racing back in 2003! The race went by very quickly and I can’t complain about my result finishing up on top of the podium. The entire race was in Lake Louisa State Park and was a wetsuit legal swim, since Florida has been experiencing a colder than average winter. The swim was especially short, because we had a long run in and out of the water. The bike was four laps on a smoothly paved, flat road and the run was a two loop flat, fast course. I exited the swim just behind Sara McLarty and ended up cycling with her as well as Alicia Kaye. I felt good on the swim and bike, but needed to brush up on my transitions, as they were quite rusty! I felt strong on my run and thought about my new run form I have been working on since January. I spend the following week training in Clermont, Florida while I was preparing for the Miami Triathlon.
I wanted to still get in some quality training this week, but this past week was also scheduled as a recovery week, so I was able to go into Miami with some rest after my big build up in training in Arizona. Clermont had some gorgeous days, but also had days wih complete downpours and tornado warnings that we don’t see in Colorado. On Friday, I drove down to West Palm Beach and was able to see friend and team USA chiropractor Alex Keith. Nate and I enjoyed his kind hospitality and got to hang out with his family before we finished the drive down to Miami on Saturday morning.
Late morning on Saturday for a couple of hours, Team Fuji (Matt Reed, Sara Mclarty and Omar Nour and myself), got together for an autograph signing at Mack cycles. We were welcomed by the University of Miami Triathlon Team and helped the young athletes with questions about getting into the sport, training, racing, etc. Nate and I did our best to get to bed early (we were in bed by nine); however; we had a very early rising with the time change happening on race day. I had my alarm for 4:30AM, but was up much earlier worrying I was going to miss my alarm (4:30AM was really 3:30AM!). Often times, I may have a restless night of sleep before a race, especially when the race start is early morning so I know it does not really affect my race outcome.
I raced Miami back in 2008 and finished in first, so the goal was to defend the title from a couple of years ago. The water was a cool, 69 degrees, but fortunately, I had my TYR’s Sayonara Swimskin. which kept me a little warmer. I had a great swim and exited just 15 seconds back from the super star swimmers McLarty and Piersol. I had much better transitions this race and got onto my bike working hard to catch the leaders, but feeling strong on my new Fuji D-6 with Oval concept bars! Unfortunately, I went slightly off course about 7 miles into the bike course and lost a little bit of time, but kept my head in it to get right back on course and back into my riding rhythm. I ended up exiting the bike about 15 seconds behind McLarty, with Peterson about 40 seconds behind me. I started off the run at a good pace; not quite sure what was going on behind me. The run was a two loop out and back, so we were able to see our competition. I noticed that I was gaining time on the other athletes and was able to back off the pace a little towards the end of the run. The faster I can recover from a race; the faster I can get back into serious training for Sydney, my first big race of the year!
I am currently in St. Louis for a couple days and getting a chance to see the family and celebrate birthday’s with my nieces (Sarah turned three on the `14th and Anna one on the 17th). I have another tough training block approaching the next couple of weeks (and an altitude adjustment since I have been away from home for six weeks!)