Race Coverage

Bad Race, Bad Spring, Bad Toe...

Thursday, 30 May 2013 01:10

By Dan Hedgecock (danhedgecock.blogsot.com)

I never finished a blog after St. Anthony's. I started one a few times but I didn't have much to say. I had high hopes for the race and then swam so poorly I got beaten by a girl. I've become familiar with the ups and downs of racing, thankfully, and after such a disappointing race I just had to put it behind me and get back to training.

With a little more time and another good race under my belt I can revisit St. A's. I swam awfully which wasn't a surprise with the waves. The last half of the swim went farther out into Tampa Bay and the swells were 4 to 5 feet high. I haven't gotten good enough at swimming to do well in rough conditions. But I also raced terribly on the bike and run. I just felt like I had nothing in my legs. I've only run slower than I did at St. A's (34:41) once and it was at my very first triathlon in 2010 (34:57 on a much harder run course). There's nothing more disappointing than...

tapering for a race and performing terribly. I think the issue is that I put in some great speed work this winter and kept my overall mileage low. Then during March and April when I was moving back to Minneapolis and getting back into the routine of working I missed a couple days here and some workouts there which isn't a big deal if you have the strength to back up your training. For me, tapering after a good long strength block takes a few weeks to get that feeling of snap back into my legs. Tapering after doing a lot of speed work on the other hand is basically nothing. The entire speed block is a taper to keep my legs fresh and work on top end speed. But that also means that after a month and a half of moving, not getting in fast workouts and keeping my mileage low I was well rested but didn't have it on race day. It was my first pro race and I'm fairly confident in saying that I will never forget it.

After St. A's was the worst Minnesota spring ever. It continued to snow through March, then through April and even once or twice in May. The lakes were frozen until the last week in April and a few still held into May. Lake Nokomis, which I live next to, didn't ice out until April 28th which is the latest ice out ever on record.

Tough stuff.