mytrilife

Tribe Club Triathlon

Yesterday, Heather and I rode up to Woodside to compete in the Tribe club triathlon. Distances were 400m/13km/4km. It looked like it was going to be an ugly day as we were ascending Greenhill Road. I was wearing arm warmers and my toes were cold! But, as usual, the cloud cover burnt off, the winds settled and by race start it was warm and sunny.

Sprint races are always classified as "easy", but I find just the opposite. It's an all out hammerfest to the finish, and they usually have me feeling just as cooked as a long course race! As well, we haven't found a massage therapist here yet, and the accumulation of volume has given me more than a few muscle issues. Despite the protesting muscles, I gave it my all, and managed to just catch second place before the finish line. I had no chance of catching Scott, no surprise there! (fyi, he won IM Korea last year).

After an easy cool-down swim and a quick ride over to Balhannah for some breakfast at the bakery, I was planning to go for another couple hours riding with Heather and Helen. Something was funky with rear dérailleur though.. and after a quick inspection at Scott and Helen's place, I found it was toast. No wonder my gears were shifting funny during the tri... uggh. With a buggered dérailleur, all I could do was borrow Helen's car to get back to the city. Luckily, this morning I was able to find a used dérailleur for only $50 at International Cycles. WOO!

Tour Down Under starts tomorrow with a street circuit in downtown Adelaide. Will be there, and hopefully get a lot of pics of the action. I'm hoping to get a good spot about 200m from the finish line. :-)

Off to find a massage therapist now... my muscles are in such poor shape that training is almost impossible without pain.

posted by Greg @ 1/14/2007