A Little Speed Work Never Hurts..Well Maybe

06:19

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A Little Speed Work Never Hurts..Well Maybe

Posted in Racing by Tim Hola

My son Connor, 5, finishing the Kids Tune Up Triathlon in Highlands Ranch, CO on June 9 while sporting the Timex colors.

After 2 Ironman’s and a tough Leadman 150 completed by early May of this year, part of me just wanted to ease up on the races for a while and just focus on training for the Hawaii Ironman on Oct. 13. But by mid-May, I realized I needed my fix once again and thought about some local, shorter races that would be fun to do. I remember the minimal time commitment it took to do sprint triathlons, but it seems like I did forget the amount of short term pain we experience when racing really fast. Either way, as we all get older, I feel it’s always good to go anaerobic.

Newly armed with my Timex Marathon watch, I signed up for couple local sprint triathlons. On June 1^st, I did the Metro Brokers TriathlON Friday race in Cherry Creek. Everyone once in a while you see races pop up that take triathlon on a unique twist. Doing a race on Friday night was a blast and I had a lot of fun. It was a ½ mile swim, 12 m bike, and 5K run that started at 6PM. I think my body was still recovering from IM St. George, because it was hard to go that fast! I was 2^nd out of the water, 3^rd off the bike and finished 4^th overall. I had a really good time and it got my juices flowing to do more sprints.

Just about to the finish at the Tune Up Triathlon

8 days later, I did another sprint triathlon, this time only 1.1 miles from my home at our local rec center called the Tune Up Triathlon here in Highlands Ranch. It’s a race that has been going on for the last 6 or so years, but just has never landed on a good weekend for me to race it. However, this year, when my kids wanted to race the kids triathlon on the same day, I had to do the adults race. It was a 500yd pool swim, 12 mile bike and 5K run. The 4 person circle swim went better than I thought since I swam with some fast people in my lane equaling minimal passing for my 6 minutes in the pool. It was anything but flat for the 2 loop bike course, but I ride these roads all the time so it seemed very natural to me in the race. I came into T2 in the lead and headed out on to the quick 5K course. Although it was tough to go fast, I held on for the overall win in 59:12! Perhaps the best part was that I got home at 7:30AM (the race started at 6AM) and immediately went into dad duty so Nikki could get in her workout. I said to Nikki, “I need to do more sprints, look how early I got home!”

Spencer in his final prep in T1 before the kids race.

The boys did the kids race at 12 noon and did well in the 4-6 year old age group. As a parent you never know what’s to come for your kids, but you can only let them try new things and see where it goes. They loved it and I know there will be more to come!

With a little direction from Dad, Spencer heads out on the run

On a side note – on Father’s Day evening I did my 2^nd SUP (Stand Up Paddle) race ever, the Fathers Day 4K/SUP and wow, what a good time it was. 1 mile all out redlining on the Boulder Res. I was just hoping I would have seen my Timex teammate Dennis Meeker out there as well as I know he likes to SUP! 11:07 was my time and I won my age group winning a sweet pair of shoes from Olukai.