good news usually leads to bad news???

so I have some good news and bad news on my quest for Powerman Florida and maybe a chance at the Powerman World Championships

first the good - I did another tune up race this weekend at Moss Park - since it was the same course I raced on in July it would give me a decent overview of my training and how things are going. I had a couple set backs during the weeks leading up to the race - injured ribs lifting weights and stupid TS Fay rolling through - but I was pretty ready for the race. A little sore in the ribs but not too bad.

The plan for the race was to hit the first 2.75 mile run as fast as possible and then see how long it took to feel "normal" on the bike and to hit the bike (22.5 miles) as hard as possible too. The second run would be a throw in to see how I could survive after being redline for over 75 minutes.

race day arrived and TS Fay took a tool on the race course - the run course was at least 25% underwater with some spots as deep as the middle of my calf. kind of makes it tough to run through the grass and dirt when it is puddles and mud.

I decided to stick to the plan and see if I could improve on my run and bike from the first race and see where the last run would end up after that effort.

The first run of 2.75 miles was done in 16:16, 4 seconds faster than last time (5:54 pace) - I assume I would have been at least 30-40 seconds faster if not for all the standing water, T1 was a couple seconds faster and off on the bike. The bike took me about 2 miles to get my breathing back under control and my legs to feel half way decent - the bike ended up being 13 seconds faster and the seconds lap of the bike was 40 seconds faster than the first lap - I averaged 23.1 mph on the bike course. The best part about the bike - the 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th place riders could not catch me even though they had a decent pace line rolling (can anyone say big time drafting).

The 2nd run of 5.5 was hard - I put my soaking wet shoes on and went off through the puddles and tried to maintain a decent pace (and hold off the chasers)- my second run ended up being 18 seconds slower than the first race, but I was happy with the fact that I held pretty steady and was able to keep anyone from catching me. Without the water the run would have been a tad faster. I still averaged 6:41 pace for the 5.5 miles. I think realistically I can get that run down to a 6:00 pace.

I was lucky enough to win the duathlon and be the first finisher of all duathletes and triathletes for the second race in a row so it was a good day overall.

Now for the bad news - my ribs are a tad sore but getting better and Powerman has moved the date of the race to December from October - I do not want more time to train - I am ready to peak in October and December interferes with other races we have planned - I am not sure if I will do the race or not. I also do not know why they moved the race date - I suspect it is because entries were low but who knows - my fear is I will enter and they will cancel it. We will see.

Cheers - happy training to all.