Friday, March 11, 2016

Pasadena Triathlon: guess whose locked and loaded for the first time in 17 months?

That's right.  I'm doing my first triathlon since Kona 2014.  It's been a long way back from knee, elbow and back problems/surgeries but as of about 8 am PT tomorrow morn I'm a working triathlete
again!

The Pasadena Tri is a reverse (RBS) triathlon and in this case is a 5k run, a 15k bike and a 150 meter pool swim.  It appears to be quite a big one with 920 people entered and a whopping 37 in my AG!  The weather, while quite stormy right now, appears to be rain free although its projected that it will be 48-49 degrees at game time.....

So what are my prospects for this race?

Well, let me first enumerate the reasons expectations should be low:

1. I haven't raced in 17 months
2. I'm not in very good shape
3. I haven't really been training to race fast--for example, I haven't run faster than a 9:30 mile and about a year and a half
4. I'm 59 and so I'm at the old end of my AG
5. 37 people is a lot of people in my AG
6. I really don't know much about SoCal competition so tactically I don't have much of a plan at this point.
7. I'm using Anders' try bike.  Which turns out to be my old BMC TT01.  The last time I raced on this bike was Kona in 2012 and since then I've ridden it about 8 miles (today).  I have training tires (gatorskins) and no disc wheel.
8. The bike is only 9.3 miles and the swim is very short--definitely a race that favors runners
9. Non wetsuit swim

etc., etc.....

On the plus side, I do have a lot of experience and over the past three months I have begun to get a bit stronger so who knows what will actually happen.  Also, it's only a sprint so i can take risks in the race and not worry about the downside.....

In any event, a lot will no doubt be learned tomorrow....

Check back for the results......








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