First Race of the Season!!

Well, the race season has started with a bang and I hope the rest of the season plays out in a similar fashion. Over the course of the off-season (roughly October-January) I decided to do whatever it took to do better than the season before. I didn’t have a bad first season, but my times just didn’t seem like they correlated with how hard I was training. So in preparation for this season I began doing much more bike work than in the past. Nothing Lance Armstrong style, but much more than I did last season. I bought an indoor trainer for the bike and set out using it three times a week to keep my legs in shape.  By January I was able to start riding outside again and I could tell the difference the trainer made, but still had a long way to go. About at this point I decided to make a huge investment and get a high-end Tri bike. I began noticing last season that nobody who had a bike like mine was passing me, but EVERYONE that had a good Tri-bike and wheel set was blowing by me. I spoke with a friend of mine, Bobby Gonzalez, and he gave me tons of great training advice and also confirmed my suspicions about the need for a good bike. My new bike and wheel-set still have not arrived, but through the graciousness of Bobby, I have been able to use his high-end training bike for the last two races and the results speak volumes

 **If you are competing in triathlons as a hobby and are just doing it for fun and are not concerned about what place you finish in, you don’t need to spend a bunch of money on a bike. Most beginning road bikes will do just fine and you can save your money, but if you want to compete at a completely different level, a good bike and wheel-set is a must**

I guess this is a good spot to include one of those misadventures in triathlons that I have alluded to. Well, my son and I arrive in Alpine on Saturday for the Super Sulley race to kick off the season and I have Bobby’s bike and all I need to do is put my pedals on. First, I need to take his pedals off and that is were the problems began. I was able to get the first pedal off no problem, but spent three hours trying to get other pedal off and had no success! So I went outside and tried riding with one foot clipped in and the other foot wearing a running shoe. Believe it or not it worked OK, but was not the best riding position to be in. The next morning I went to the race and told Bobby the problems I had with the pedal. Turns out I was turning the wrench the wrong way!!! For those new to cycling the left side pedal screws out the opposite of what we all have been taught. No right for tighty and left for loosy, actually the complete opposite. So it took Bobby all of two seconds to take the pedal off and put mine on. My son just rolled his eyes and probably couldn’t believe how stupid his dad was.

As far as the race goes, I have to say that the Alpine 5K course is one of, if not, the hardest 5ks out there. The course flows throughout the campus and is one hill after another. I was able to keep a pretty good pace and made it to the bike in the top half of the racers. This is where I would see if my bike training had paid off. Right away I could tell that the bike I was on was much lighter than my old bike and just seemed to take off with every pedal rotation. I pushed my pace, because I knew that Cody or another 20 racers would soon be passing me, but I’m happy to say that didn’t happen. I finished the bike portion in third place and then transitioned to the swim as fast as possible. I didn’t have a very strong swim and was having trouble keeping the water out of my goggles, but managed to survive and finish fourth overall and first in my age group.

 I was finally able to put myself on a level playing field. As much as being a triathlete is an individual sport, equipment does play a role. I just hope that my new bike is as light as the one I used for this race and I can keep my bike times as fast as possible. Next up is the MVT Triathlon in Las Cruces, NM.