Lake Logan / Asheville weekend

We (Tassie and I) have had a good time in Western North Carolina this weekend with Bri and a couple of our friends. We rented a cabin outside Waynesville for the weekend and it is a nice place. Like my blog bio says, I enjoy long jogs in the mountains and lazy days at the beaches. Ha! I really would like a cabin of our own (and one on the beach too) but we are not there yet. One day.

On Saturday morning we woke up at the usual 4:00 AM to get ready for the Lake Logan international distance triathlon. It is a great venue and a beautiful course, so check it out if you're ever thinking of heading to this part of the state. I felt pretty good during the week and was looking forward to the race.

On Thursday night I rode with the Inside Out group, which is cutting it a bit close as far as hard training session goes, but the legs felt fine on racing morning.

There are $100 cash premiums for each leg of the race at Lake Logan, so I figured an outside shot at the swim preme. I pushed the swim pretty hard and came out of the water in around 19 minutes, first in my wave, which is great as I haven't been that fast in a while. Results would show that pro racer John Kenny from PA was a minute faster leaving in the wave ahead of me. John is also a former ocean marathon swimmer and New Jersey lifeguard so I didn't feel too bad.

The bike course is a bit deceptive; net downhill on the way out and net uphill on the way back. The air was thick with fog and we had a headwind to boot on the return trip. I rode solo and kept the effort moderate as I wanted to be able to run off the bike. 1:02 something.

The run is a 5k moderate uphill, then 5k downhill to the finish. I am not a great uphill runner so took short steps and tried to keep my turnover and momentum up. A couple runners from wave 1 were ahead of me but they slowly ran away. I managed to keep a decent pace and did a 21:50 5k to the top. I was very happy to see the run turnaround. Running downhill is much more fun. :) Return 5k was 20:45 for a 42:30 or so 10k, excellent for me at the moment.

This put me into 5th for the men overall with 2:05.53. One super fast woman went a low 2:05.

Bri had an amazing race. I will refer you to her blog for her details. I did a doubletake when she told me her time: 2:07.03. That is an olympic distance PR for her and got her 4th place. She also ran a 39:50.

We chilled out at the cabin for a while, then headed to Asheville for dinner with our good friend Al Johnson and some shopping (cupcakes for the girls; beer for me).

Today we are off for an easy ride though easy is relative since there are hills everywhere here.