Good But Not The Best

Musselman 2010 is complete and in the record books for team Crank Skins. Mark, Adam, Manuel, Mike and I all set person best times and finished with out any hick ups. I have to admit that the entire race seemed to fly right by this year. I have been training my butt of since January to make sure I was better prepared for this year than I was last year. Last year I felt like I was out on the course all day long. I am sure the THREE flat tires I had last year contributed to my agony post ride during the run but this year just felt so much better. Also, being more familiar with each part of the race helped me mentally get through the race a little faster. I finished about 40 minutes faster than last year, so I am happy about that but I still think I could have done better.

If I had to make any changes I would start with getting up earlier. I got up at 5:00 and got dressed, ate a bagel with peanut butter and left the hotel to ride my bike two miles up the road to the race site. I had plenty of time to get my transition area set up but I didn’t have a chance to get in the water and warm up. I wasn’t worried about the swim but I really wanted to get my body physically ready to go hard from the start. I swam faster than last year but finished about four minutes later than I had wanted to. In regards to the run, next year I will ask the spectators with hoses in their front lawns to spray my upper body only because by mile 6 my sneakers were soaked. This didn’t really slow me down but I would have preferred to run in a dry pair of shoes. I did pick up a tip from my friend and training partner Mike regarding running down hill when your legs get super tired. He said try running back words. Mike said this will stretch your calves out and take some of the pounding off of your legs. I don’t think I need to tell you what my biggest concern is about running down a hill back words during a HIM (half ironman). Maybe I’ll give it a try on a training run in a populated area so someone can call 911 after I fall down and get knocked unconscious.

I was really happy with the bike portion of the race this year. Last year I got three flat tires during the ride at about miles 24, 30 and 44. This year my overall bike time was better due to the fact that I didn’t get any flats and my average speed went up over a full mph. I also maintained a more consistent pace this year. Believe it or not I have a bit of a competitive streak in me and last year I was trying to race every rider that I went by or that went by me. I am pretty sure that contributed to my burn out last year. Also, anyone who has done the Musselman HIM in the past knows about Sampson State Park. If not, I’ll tell you about it. Sampson State Park is an old Naval base that is now a state park. The road going through Sampson State Park has seen better days. The race director said the road hasn’t been resurfaced in about 20 years so you can only imagine how rough the ride was. This was the portion of the course that gave me my third flat tire last year. This portion of the course also caused some problems this year that I didn’t see until I got home. I had a broken spoke on my back wheel that fortunately didn’t negatively affect my ride. Just so you know this is the second spoke I had broken on my new SRAM S40 wheel that I had just purchased about two months ago. The good news is that SRAM is sending me a brand new wheel.

I got off my bike and ran into transition feeling pretty good. I took my time putting my shoes on and guzzling the rest of my sports drink and started to run out and notice my fellow Crank Skins teammate Mark raking his bike. Part of me said AWESOME we can run together and the other part of me said get moving he might out run you. Did I mention I have a competitive streak. The run started off better than I expected it to. I settled into a very comfortable pace within a few minutes and kept looking over my shoulder for Mark because I know he runs at about the same pace I do. As I closed in on mile number 3 I was running up hill that allowed me to look back about a half mile and I didn't see Mark so I was feeling pretty good about coming in before him. At around mile 11.5 I heard some say come on Scott! I turned around to see who it was and saw Adam another member of team Crank Skins running up from behind me. I didn't expect to see him. I am not saying Adam is slow. I think he we are pretty even when it comes to the run and very close on the bike and the run. I ran with him for a couple of minutes and then let him go. My quads were spent and screaming at me to slow down. At the end of the day Adam finished four minutes ahead of me Mark finished one minute behind me. Manuel and Mike both had a good day but finished about a half hour or so behind Mark, Adam and me.

I am looking forward to next year and the next race this year. Musselman was only two days ago and I am already to jump back into training at full speed but fortunately my wife keeps talking sense into me.

Happy training and stay healthy!