Iron Moutnain Triathlon Day

This weekend I competed in the 1.2 swim that was part of the Iron Mountain Triathlon day. DLT events had a 70.3, sprint triathlon, open water swim, half marathon, and aqua bike all on the same day.

I competed in the open water swim. My goal for this swim was to be able to swim comfortably and hit a PR for the 1.2 mile swim. They had to change the swim on the day of the race to a two loop triangle swim. I started off the swim well and about half way through the first lap started to fill comfortable. I still did not have a great stroke through the swim however. Also, for some reason when I swim in the open water I feel I'm really trying too hard. I was able to finish the swim in 44:00. I was hoping for somewhere around 40:00. I love getting the experience in the open water. After I got back home, I even started looking for open water swims only. The only way to improve is to continue to tackle the open water.

After the swim, I watched other people complete the 70.3. Congrats to everyone who finished. It became a hot day that's for sure and would have been one tough race. I talked to some people after the race and they said it was good course. The course contained some rolling hills on the ride and then an uphill on the 3 loop run that you ran up at the beginning at each loop, but at least it was downhill towards each finish of the loops.

Two weeks until Buffalo Springs 70.3!

1.2 Mile Swim this Weekend

This weekend begins with a 1.2 mile swim down in Arkadelphia. I'm just doing the open water swim because I have Buffalo Springs 70.3 two weeks after that. Open water swimming is my slowest part of a triathlon. I'm going into the event relaxed and hopefully keep my focus on swimming smoothly and slowly. This will hopefully allow me to swim quickly. After the swim, I'll get to watch other people I know finish the 70.3 and sprint triathlon that are going on at the same time.

Change the Weekend Plans

Weekend plans can change in hurry sometimes. On Wednesday, I found out that the Spillway Triathlon that I was supposed to race in had been canceled. They canceled it due to storm damage/debris along the race course. Also, the volunteers were from Teen Challenge. The Teen Challenge facility was hit by a tornado this week, so the race could not put together volunteers on a short notice. The race director was gracious enough to allow you to roll your registration amount into any of the other races that DLT manages. Since, I have a couple more in mind for this year I appreciate this.

So onto to the new plans! I now plan to race in the Toad Suck 10k and participate in the Tour de Toad. The TS 10k is here in Conway, so I'll just have a short distance to travel for this race. I hope to beat my time from last year. My running is feeling pretty strong, so I'll just have to wait and see. The weather is also looking pretty reasonable for the race also. It will probably be in the 60s at the start with no rain.

The Tour de Toad is a bicycle tour that goes West of Conway. You can either do a 33 or 46 mile route. I'll do the 46 mile route. This will be a great training ride and also a chance to meet other riders from the area or elsewhere. I'm sure it will be a casual ride which will be nice. Hopefully the rain hold off for this or it rains Saturday night. Rain will cancel this event.

Scout Trail Run Race Report

Just a short race report for a short race. This was a 3.8 mile trail run located on the Scout Trail at Burns Park in North Little Rock, AR. The race was supposed to be a 4.2 single loop run, but due to some construction on the upper parts of the trail it turned in a two loop run.

The day started off a little cool around 45 degrees but by race time the temperature had warmed into the upper 50's and sunny. We were informed that the trail did contain some muddy spots which would make for an interesting race. I decided that I would be conservative on the first loop and then run harder on the second after learning the course. The first mile of the course was pretty much a very large uphill before heading back into the flats that were muddy. The hard part about the flat muddy section is that had some switchbacks and turns that if you were not paying attention you would fall flat on your face. I went through the first loop feeling pretty good. I continued to take it a little easy until I got to the top of the hill and then I turned it on on the last section of flats. I almost busted on one turn. I decided not to turn to quickly when I realized I was going to fast into a turn. I ended up with a time of 30:45 which was good for 3rd in my AG, but it was small race with 37 runners. Looking at my splits from the 310xt show, 1 mile @ 8:20 min/mile which was most of the uphill, 2 mile @ 7:45 min/mile mainly flat, 3 mile @ 8:35 min/mile back uphill, and final .8 mile was 7:23 min/mile, flat.

Again, I thought this was a great race put on my DLT Events. I would hope that more runners in the future take advantage of these races. The other great thing about small races is you have a better chance of winning door prizes at the end of the race. I didn't this time, but you never know for the future.