The 2012 racing season began yesterday at Texas Motor Speedway. It was the first opportunity to see the state of my fitness after a career changing decision to leave Marcin's guidance last October. Since Halloween, I have trained diligently, killing myself in the water and on the bike to improve my major weaknesses. In the past three and a half months I have gained seven pounds of muscle, despite logging training hours in the upper 20s per week.
I finally had a respectable performance at the Speedway, posting an opening run of 10:01 that brought me first in to transition. All winter I had feared that 2+ hour long runs and the the swim and bike focus would diminish my speed. That wasn't an issue as I cruised through the first mile in 4:49. My bike lost the race as usual, but it was 90 seconds faster than last year. Lucas had the ride of his life though, besting me by a minute. He put together great runs and finished less than two minutes behind me.
My second run of 10:25 brought me in in 1:03:58, nearly three minutes faster than the 2011 edition of the race. Finally some results. Despite the increase in speed, I finished 9th compared to last year's 10th due to the fact that it was the SMw Regional Championship and drew some heavy competition. Will Huffman won for the second year in a row.
This race is a big step forward. I wasn't tapered in the slightest. It's only going to get better at Regionals and Nationals, especially since Lucas and I hung with the top A&M guys. Maybe there's hope for a Regionals upset. Maybe...
Monday, February 20, 2012
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