Tape to tape

So after a light week I went to race Homem de Ferro (http://www.homemdeferro.org/) mainly to see how my body would deal with the hard training done in June. I had break records on bike miles totals so I was hoping to feel good on the bike and see how it would unfold on the run. The race should have been half-ironman distance but lets just say it was shorten to 81Km on the bike and 17Km on the run.

After a short warm-up I was back on shore for the start. I knew I had to take charge right from the start by myself since I was there with one purpose only: go as hard as I could on the swim+bike portions. The gun went off and I led the field into T1. I was feeling nauseaus on the first 950meters (lap1) but then I found my rhytm and gain a bit of time on the guys following. Helmet on, wetsuit off and on the bike. Three laps, out and back on a rough road with some fast hills, nothing big. I went out really hard from the start focusing mainly on my cadence and keeping a good technique. Alone and without a heart monitor, power or speed meter, I didn't know how strong I was going. I did however take my watch so at least my nutrition would be on schedule. As the race progressed, I was able to see my chasers loosing time in every lap so things were going as planned. I did the laps in 40, 38 and 42 minutes which was around the 40km/h average.

The run was divided in 5 laps on a very technical course with a LOT of turns. Once on my feet I wasn't feeling like hamering the run. I had a good lead and good legs so I began in cruise mode for the first two laps. By then my friend Sergio Dias had closed the gap to the front swimmers and was already in second place with my fearest rival Sergio Marques - after not having a good day on the bike - back in fifth. I had the race in control but the run course was more dizzing than fun so on the last laps I speed up a bit as I just wanted to finish the roler coaster. By the finish line, I won in 3h32 with the fastest swim, bike and run. It was the end of a really plesant weekend surounded by some of the niciest friends in the sport with a great overall real life race test. One of the most important things I take from this race is that I now can state that I master my nutrition and that hard work (training) always pays its dues. So I'll keep it going. :-)

Results here. Photos from Fernando Lobato.