Recent Training and Naperville Triathlon Race Report

The week after Ironman Racine 70.3 was a rough week for me.  Due to the crash the Wednesday before the race and the other crash that occurred during the bike portion of the race, my hip was so sore that I was nearly incapable of doing any exercise.

Felt like this guys playing soccer...

As everyone knows who also has this odd addiction to extreme exercise, not being able to workout sucks.  It did not help that I was on my feet all day chasing around 5-14 year old soccer players who never seem to run out of energy or insults at the hobbling guy chasing after them.

I was able to get a few solid bike rides and swims in.  However, the first time that I tried to run was on Friday morning.  My goal was to run 3 miles to the pool, swim 2000 yards, and run home.  Well I ran to the pool and my leg locked up after only holding about 6:30's for the run.  I struggled through 1500 yards and walked home in agony.  I realized then that I needed to recover a bit more and read a few articles about how long I should take before trying to run again.

Felt like this...

These artibles and advice from a variety of sources helped a ton, and I was finally able to run the following Wednesday and PRed my 10K time.  Love having PR's in training!!!  This helped me to gain some confidence going into the weekend for the Naperville Sprint Triathlon.

Total Training week of July 21-27:

Bike: 44 miles
Run: 3 miles
Swim: 4400 Yards

Naperville Triathlon Race Report

The Naperville Triathlon is a local race for me as I only live about 15 minutes from the race and actually sometimes swim at Centennial Beach where the swim takes place.

Pre Race

Woke up, got in the car, ate two Quest Bars on the way to Ryan's, and drove to the transition by 6:15.  We were able to set up transition pretty quickly and luckily didn't have to overthink this part of the race too much.  Having really only raced longer distance races, I really enjoyed not having to stress out about nutrition, water, etc.  I really don't concern myself with any nutrition in my shorter workouts, so I figured that a sprint race should work about the same.  I placed myself in position for the swim start which was self-seeded.


Swim: (9:05, 2:21 min/100m) 


The swim did not go the way I wanted.  Because the race was self seeded and incredibly narrow, I was stuck behind a guy performing breaststroke for nearly the first 150 meters.  This killed my time and ultimately probably put me out of the water a full minute slower than what I wanted.  However, this was the first swim that I felt comfortable from start to finish which made me feel better about future races.  


Bike: (31:27, 23.7 MPH) 

The bike went pretty well for the most part.  After looking back and reflecting, I could have maybe pushed it a bit more and probably saved too much for the run.  That being said, I was happy with the split, but I still need to improve my handling skills in order to become better at shorter distances that require more turning.  


Run: (17:47, 5:44 min/mile)-3rd fastest run split for the race!!!

Considering I have only been running once a week in order to try to improve my other disciplines, I was shocked how well it went.  I love that triathlons end with the run because it always make me feel better about the race.  The course was very flat and fast.  Got to see some of the people I train with cheering along the way as well which always helps, because you don't want to look tired when you are running past your friends!

Final:  35 / 1600ish Overall, 4 / 84 AG

In conclusion, this was a very fun race that I would definitely consider doing again.  Love the city of Naperville and Sprint races are nice because you can literally workout again a few hours later if you want to.  Hopefully, this next week of training goes well.  Here are last weeks totals.

Total Training week of July 28-August 3rd:

Bike: 96 miles
Run: 9 miles
Swim: 10225 Yards


Next week, I will try to pick up the training again in my new home in Winona, Minnesota.  Lots of HILLS!!!

Keep Training.  Nick out.