Peasantman Weekend Report

Saturday morning started off with a bright and early bike ride on the W&OD trail. I wont get into details but I dropped my chain, my left aerobar came loose and I took a huge fall off my bike (I'm fine, just a bruised hip, hand and scraped bar tape on my bike). Not a great ride. Either way, I still managed to get 52 miles in before 11 am.

After the ride I headed to Lake Anna National Park about 1.5 hours south of DC for the Peasantman Triathlon. I was excited to spend some time with my friends from college. Kira, Tahra, Christina, Bill and myself headed to the park on Saturday afternoon to attend an open water swim clinic and then a good ol' fashioned BBQ with other area triathletes.

The open water clinic was really helpful. Wave One set up a 500 meter course in the lake and before letting us loose to swim the course they talked about open water tactics and tips. I learned quite a bit. It was nice to be able to get into the water in a no pressure environment and practice sighting the buoys and get used to open water swimming.

ready for swimmin'!

After our swim practice in the lake we headed to our campsite to pitch the tent and freshen up before the BBQ.

Once camp was taken care of we headed back towards the lake for a BBQ with other triathletes. Whenever you get a ton of athletes together you know there is going to be a ton of food. My favorite part? Smores!



 After the BBQ we hung around our camp site for a while and had the most hilarious conversations imaginable- like what the pole on our campsite with hooks was for (we eventually googled it, but not before laughing so hard about the possibilities). My face and abs hurt from laughing so hard. At 10pm we all crawled into the 6-person tent for a snuggle fest good night's rest before the 9 am race start.

I slept pretty well for sleeping on the ground! And Bill kept the snoring to a minimum so that was nice :)

Race morning came quickly but I felt well rested. We ate breakfast off of awesome plates at the camp site and then headed down to the lake for the race.

I was hoping for a confidence booster after the disaster tri a few weekends ago.  I started in the second wave (out of 2 waves) of the Olympic distance triathletes. It was an on beach start which was really fun! I enjoyed running into the water and diving belly flopping to begin the swim. I did forget to put my goggles down but quickly remembered when my face hit the water. Woops! I felt really strong on the swim. The water was a great temperature. I stayed away from any feet that got too close to my face. I was able to sight all of the buoys easily. I felt comfortable and confident. I did the 1500 meter swim in about 27 minutes. (I am going off what my watch says, not the official times because they are not posted yet!)

The bike was a great course - it had a ton of twists and turns and 2 nice hill climbs. It was 2 loops around the state park, weaving in and out of all of the campgrounds. I pushed it when I felt I could and slowed down around all the turns. I also took a wrong turn and added 1.7 miles to my total distance. So instead of going the 22, I did almost 24. My bike time was 1:20 which is right at a 17mph pace. I could have pushed it harder on the bike, but I didn't want to end up in a mud puddle on the side of the road so I held back a little :)

The run was HARD! It was up a steep hill, down a steep hill, up another steep hill, down the steep hill...TWICE. 4 hill climbs in 6 miles. phew! My legs were burrrrrrrning. My legs never loosened up the whole run. Maybe it was the 85 miles I rode within the 24 hours before trying to run? Who knows. I went at a snails pace up the hills and slightly faster down the hills. My total 10k time was 58 minutes which really needs some work. I blame the hills!

I finished the tri in 2:48 (according to my watch) which I am extremely happy with. Upon crossing the finish line we got an awesome glass and a cupcake!

It was a wonderful weekend with friends and a great training opportunity. It definitely gave me some confidence in my abilities.

Once I arrived home Phil and I celebrated our races by grilling burgers, drinking beers and telling stories about our weekend. Phil had a cycling race today and he came in 1st on his team, 7th overall. Oh, and his max speed on the bike today was 44 mph. sheesh, I was happy with my max speed being 28 mph today!

PS- my tri bike was adjusted to be in a more aggressive position to engage my glutes more than my quads. I was told that if I did it right I "shouldn't be able to sit down". Well guess who's butt hurts right now? This girl!! Thank goodness for Monday morning yoga!