2012 Lavaman Keauhou Olympic Triathlon

Fear kept me from attacking any hills during training, after my nasty bike crash nearly 3 months ago.  Didn't run much hills either during training. No excuse there. It was scheduled once a week alongside the speed work and long training runs for Honolulu Marathon. Just felt like I needed to rest my legs more for the long runs. All that and the pressure of training for two different types of races a few weeks apart. More focus was on the Honolulu Marathon, but I still wanted to do well at Keauhou.

Joe Wedemman lent me his wetsuit for the swim, which made me feel like I was floating. The Outrigger closed down, so our new host was the Sheraton. The transition was a bit long, but it gave my legs a good warmup and bonus time to take off the wetsuit on the way. Had a little trouble with the legs, so I sat down to take them off. 1500m swim in 0:30:44 for 88th/320 and a 1:42 transition

This was the 2nd time I rode my TT since the crash. Had 28s on the back, but only 39 up front. Could've used a 34 for this climb. That first hill out of transition was killer. HR spiked at 180, then I eased off back down to 160s. Kam3 was a nightmare. I didn't have the gears or legs to get my cadence above the low 60s. My HR was steady 160, and my speed was a sad 7mph avg up the hill. On the way down, my cadence dropped to practically 0, because I was still afraid of going fast downhill, which was proof in my still elevated HR lol, I topped out at 35mph on this first section. I had no choice now but to go. It was a race! By the 2nd downhill section, I felt more comfortable. I think it was then when I hit 44.2mph, my fastest to date. I thought coming down Kaiwi St was going to be sketchy, but it actually wasn't as steep as Kaleiopapa St. I wasn't prepared for that one, and the transition turnoff felt like it was still on that slope! 26.7mile bike in 1:26:13 (18.72mph) for 107th/320 and a 1:45 transition. Avg HR 158bpm, 1,095' of climbing about 81 cadence.

The run was brutal. Started with a hill and the rest was through the golf course. Tried to chase down Kawika Singson and Adam Busek, but they kept getting away. The last mile flattened out and I finally gained some ground. Kawika is the best sport! He kept cheering me to catch him, which also kept pushing him to run harder. Finally caught him with less than a quarter mile to go. Missed Adam by a few seconds. The 100m home stretch was too narrow and windy to catch him.  6.2mile run in 0:47:39 (7:41 pace) for 42nd/320.

Overall 02:48:03 for 69th/320 overall and 5th/22 (30-34M)

Official results http://www.jtltiming.com/results/lavak.html
Garmin tracker http://connect.garmin.com/activity/244795922