Lifetime Fitness Triathlon

2 down, 3 to go...(Referring to 5 races in 5 weeks)

RACE 1 - Decatur Triathlon - 1st Place
The field had a few local pro's, but going into the race I had trained hard so I was not exactly sure what my body would give on the day. The swim was perfect, a local triathlete lead the swim with a strong pace, and with the help of the WetZoot I stayed right on his feet...Then it was bike time. I was rolling thunder on the bike, wrapping up the bike with a 27+ mph bike split on wet roads and the fastest by over 2 mph. I would run hard to the first turnaround where I would learn the destruction I caused on the bike...From there it was all about running efficiently. The community came out in their numbers to line much of the course and the race was very very well organized. Living in the Chicago area, this one will be on my schedule next year!


Race 2 - Lifetime Fitness Triathlon - 10th Place
The race most dream of winning. As I rode over on the bus to the race start on a cool Minneapolis summer morning small talk was short, faces long. Transition area was all smiles by all of us. This is fun, we love it, that's why we kill ourselves. Then it was swim time! The gun fired. I misfired. I swam hard the first 500 but lacked the razor speed I had at St Anthony's and Capital Texas Triathlon. I would come out of the water in the second pack trailing the leaders by what I felt was a few hours...95sec to the leaders, 60 sec to the lead pack...where I want/should be.

On the bike David Thompson and I shadowed each other, riding hard, but made little progress on the pack and the leaders. Both of us buried ourselves, we could feel when each other were weak and when the other was strong, and with an officials motorcycle behind us for nearly the whole bike it felt a bit like 70.3 Worlds last fall...the difference being I am not leading this time. We hit transition in 6th and 7th place...Okay, not as bad as I thought but I need to get down to business on the run.

As my feet hit the pavement I felt good...that feeling lasted 2 miles. Then the feeling went...I would run the final 3 fearing that I was going to get wiped out of 10th. I was able to keep 10th and finish strong. I felt good about the race and was happy with the result of another top 10 against a loaded field. Yet, when I looked at the results on Sunday I became frustrated with my swim and run...One of these days.

Visit http://astarykowicz.blogspot.com/ for full training as race coverage (and more pictures)!