Race Report - RTC Sprint 2015

You don't burn out from going too fast.  You burn out from going too slow and getting bored. -- Cliff Burton

You can't be fat and fast, too; so lift, run, diet, and work. -- Hank Stram

Yesterday was my tri-club's annual sprint triathlon.  It is a 400-meter open water swim in a pool (trust me - sheer chaos), 12.75 mile bike, and 5K run.  It's a lot of fun, especially when you know a bunch of people and they're all yelling for you.  On the other hand, when it's cold, it really sucks.  And yesterday it was cold.  Somewhere in the 40s.  So basically you swim really hard for some 9 minutes (at least if you're me) and then you run soaking wet into the freezing weather and get on a bike where, ideally, you are going fast in the wind and getting colder and colder.  Doesn't that sound like fun to you?

I didn't have a great race - but I thought I did.  I had misremembered my times from years past so I thought I had a PR, but it turns out I was 7 minutes SLOWER than last year.  Some of that is in transition where I stopped to put on a jacket before the bike and took the jacket off before the run.  Here (thanks to Iron Sherpa's obsession with numbers) are my times for this course:

LEG	2013		2014		2015
Swim	11:41		9:37		9:31
T1	1:52		1:58		2:38
Bike	42:53		41:18		45:15
T2	2:00		1:48		2:00
Run	29:49		28:53		30:40
Total	1:28:13		1:23:32		1:30:09

Needless to say, I'm a little disappointed.  Clearly not all of my extra time can be blamed on bundling & unbundling in transition...I was slower on the bike and the run from previous years.  Some of that could be the cold too - I can tell you my feet got numb while I was riding.  But I think also that I have gotten a little too fat and I can't be fat and fast.  And so, back to the drawing board with eating.  I've done well before, losing a lot of weight and getting into "race shape."  That's what I need to do now.  But it's hard - I won't lie.  I like to eat.  I like food.  I like drinking beer and wine and going out.  But I also like to be fast.  And I need to remember that going forward this year.  Fat isn't fast.  But it does make for a good song...