Columbia Triathlon Results

If you read my last blog, I was proclaiming my return to the blogger sphere with increased fitness to boot. Well I can proudly say that after my first goal of the season, the Columbia triathlon, these were not mere words. Columbia was just my third Olympic distance triathlon, and by far the hardest. It also turned out to be my best performance by far. My swim time dropped from 41:36 at St. Anthony's last year, to 35:45. A reduction of almost 6 minutes and a better than 14% increase in performance! What a difference my 2009 swim focus made in my swimming progress! My race nutrition also improved as, despite the very hilly 10k run course, I did not bonk as happened last year during the St. Anthony triathlon. I also eclipsed my personal best at the Olympic distance by better than 4 minutes, despite a much more difficult bike course and crept with 2 minutes and 23 seconds of the elusive 3 hour mark.

The Race

Columbia is a superbly run race, the lake swim was a cool 70 degrees at the start. The swim is out and back,except the finish is actually at a different point than where you enter the water. It's a wet start, so you can get a short swim in before your wave gets underway.

Conditions for the race were good except for a light rain falling during the start of the bike leg. Luckily, the rain let up about half way into the bike course. The course starts out challenging with a number of tough climbs in the first 8 miles or so. Luckily I had ridden the course before hand so I knew what to expect. I took advantage of the very fast descents to overtake some of the more reluctant riders, who were cautious due to the wet roads. I also noticed a number of riders experienced flats and were forced to stop to repair them, luckily I avoided this fate. I pushed the pace on the bike until the last 2 miles or so when I geared down a bit and started to prepare my legs for the run. I had decided in training to trade some strength on the bike for greater run endurance. This decision paid huge dividends during the 10k run.

The run is one of the toughest 10Ks I have ever run. There are a number of hills that must be double digit grades. It made it very difficult to dial in your pace with the constant uphill / downhill changing of gears. I had prepared by running in my neighborhood which has quite a few hills, but I was truly not prepared for the severity of some of the hills. In the end, I ran just one second slower than the 10k I ran in my first Olympic distance triathlon 2 years ago. I consider this progress given the difficulty of the Columbia course.

This performance has given me enough confidence to try my first half Ironman next year. I may also do Columbia again, depending on life's demands. In the meantime I have 2 new goals on the horizon. My first USCF time trial in more than 10 years is on June 13th and the Tri-to-Win sprint triathlon is the following week. At Tri-to-Win, I am aiming for a new PR so I will spend the next few weeks ramping down the endurance rides and runs and adding doses of speed work. I'm looking forward to some of you guys joining me on those short, but painful days.

Til then.......

Keep training.....

Peace

Rob