Bryan Brosious: Apple Capital Triathlon

Saturday, August 21, 2010

Apple Capital Triathlon

My "APP-CAP Mishap!"

After a great midseason break, and awesome running camp, I was ready to shake off the dust and get back to racing. While in run camp I really shifted training away from cycling, and totally off of swimming. I knew both my cycling and swimming would still be strong, but I knew I had to sacrifice a little of those to gain in the run. I had a great re-acclimation week on the Murder Machine and swimming in the lake, so I felt they would be there for me.

I chose to drive the day of so I got up early, 2:45am, and drove most of the way in the dark. “Champions do the things other people don’t want to do.” I arrived two hours before gun time. Not surprisingly I was the first one there. I was greeted with a wide-open transition mine for the picking.

After the normal stuff, I was in the water for a swim warmup, and then a pre race meeting. At the pre race meeting the director called out some guy who was supposedly a ridiculously fast swimmer. I believe the director’s words were as follows, “no one really needs to know the swim course because everyone will be following this guy (pointing to the fast swimmer). Just follow him and you’ll be fine.” With a confident manner I said to myself, “ooooohhhh reeeeeaaallllly.”

I don’t remember Man-Fish’s name, frankly I didn’t care what is was, because he was coming out behind me. He may be a super hyped Man-Fish, but he isn’t going to out swim me, not with the year I have had in open water. The meeting finished up as I shivered with semi convulsions until the swim start. 5…4…3…2…1…BANG!

I dove in and went comfortably hard, after a few bumps, swim-over-backs, and jostling, I found my way to buoy number one in 4th place. A few strokes after the buoy, I split 3rd and 2nd place as I continued to gain speed. I found the feet of Man-Fish. He was swimming pretty fast as billed to, I planned to use him to my advantage. Along the backstretch I kept constant contact with his feet and legs, tapping them every 5 or so strokes, to let him know he had company. I know he wanted to the win the swim prime after being called out, so I let him lead while I stuck in his draft. I continued to push his pace, with contact and bumps, to motivate him to swim faster.

As he pulled me along, he also ripped apart the swim pack, giving us a pretty nice gap. As we swam the longest leg of the triangle swim course back to the exit, I lifted the pace a little bit. “Thanks for the help, I am good now.” I pulled up next to him as we made the 100-meter mark; at 50 meters I opened up my pace to semi-hard effort. I had the lead. I hit the beach to some good cheers and the swim prime. “Excuse me Man-Fish, do you see this in my hand…it’s your thunder…I stole it…succckkkkaaaaaa!”

I had a great T1 and left with the lead. The first mile of this bike was a killer because it was a huge hill to climb out of the basin and up to the highway. Climbing the hill in mile 1 was hard, but something was wrong. My bike felt like it was dragging something. I knew it had to be a brake rub or a flat tire. I contorted my body to try and figure out what the heck was the problem.

I leaned over the side of my bike to see the back tire, it wasn’t flat. I couldn’t see a brake rub, but I could hear it, and I definitely felt it sucking my power. I tried to climb the hill while reaching through my legs and checking the brakes.

I finished the climb and dismounted in frustration. I couldn’t spot the rub, 2nd place zoomed by, then 3rd, then 4th , as I tried to remedy the Murder Machine. I saw 5th coming and remounted. I rode to the turnaround with a rubbing “something” that bled my power. I made a sharp corner at the turnaround and felt the resistance notch up. It now felt like trying to sprint while squeezing the brakes. I was off the bike again.

This time is was obvious; my wheel was actually rubbing my frame…sssssuuuuuck. I re-adjusted the skewer, clamped it, and watched a couple more places go by. Once back on the bike the resistance was fixed, I navigated the hills and fought the wind on the super hard bike course the best I could, trying to regain my lost spots. By the time I made it back to T2 I had re-passed the majority of the people, coming into T2 in 2nd place, with a big chase pack seconds behind, and hurting legs.

I had one of my best T2s ever and left in 2nd place on the run. Okay Jacksonville, it’s run time. My run actually felt amazing. My foot strike was quick, I had an aggressive forward lean, and I was running pretty fast. The run course was actually harder than the bike course as we had run up two hills, one of which was the 3/4 mile hill we biked up. Two guys passed me near the top of the huge hill, but I was still running well. I felt much more efficient and much stronger.

*This place has huge hills!

In the last mile I tried to lift the pace and rejoin the two runners that had passed me, but the problems and time I lost on the bike proved to be the difference and I had to settle for 4th place overall, two minutes off the winner’s time. I was able to run away from the majority of the chase pack, and secure an age division win, both positives. Had I not had bike issues, I think it would have been very close for a win. Easy to say now right?

I am extremely happy with my swim, greatly disappointed in my bike, and satisfied with my run improvement. I have a lot of work to do, but Jacksonville was the right direction. I can’t complain about 4th or an age division win. Plus, I did leave with some good stuff. While not elated, I can accept it and look forward to the next race. Yeeeaahhh Bay bay!