Saturday (4/19) was the kinetic half in VA. Signed up for it just a couple of weeks ago and my coach and I discussed it to be used as a training day with no real expectations. The plan was to go out on the swim, find some feet and cruise, then take it really easy on the bike and finally push the run.

Unfortunately in a long run 3 weeks ago I did something to my right knee and it had been tight and sore since then but getting better. After taking a relatively easy Mon-Fri last week it felt about 85-90% by Friday before race day so I would just try to stick to the plan and see what happened.

The swim started out crappy. I was in the 3rd wave and was talking to someone waiting for the countdown when the gun went off. Shit, don't have goggles on so I tried to put them on while running into the water. Never got them on right and the left eye filled with water for the first swim lap, plus I swallowed a ton of water at the start. Settled in, tried to find some feet but everyone was fairly spread out and the lead group from my wave was now gone. Finished the first lap and started to run on the beach and looked at my watch. Yep, never started it with the confusing start, so I figured I'd just start it on the bike. Second lap was much easier and I hooked up with 2 others from my wave and we just kind of cruised in. Got out of the water and saw 37 and change on the race clock (we started 6 minutes after the elites) so that put me at 31 something for my swim. Already about a minute behind and I think my slowest HIM swim but again, this was a training day so I didn't sweat it.

Didn't rush t-1 and headed out on the bike. My plan was to do my workout I've done for the last 3-4 which was 1 hr easy, 1hr steady/tempo, 1 hr easy followed by a 7-9 mile HIM goal paced run, only today was going to have a couple of extra miles tacked on the run. So today I planned to ride 18 miles easy, 20 a little more serious, and then 18 easy. My coach had told me to really hold back on the bike as today was to be about the run and to let everyone go by and just stay within my plan. This was harder than expected because the bike course I thought was nice and fast. A few rollers here and there but nothing serious. Right out of the park I knew the knee was going to be an issue. Anytime I came to a roller I couldn't put any power down with my right leg without the inside of my knee starting to ache. I didn't want to screw my knee up any worse so I just stood on every little roller and or hill and eased my way up them. I felt kind of dumb standing on little hills while everyone around me was still on the aero bars but it was the best pain-free way to ride them. I finished the first 18 miles and had been riding, legally, with a group of 3-4 people. I was happy that everyone was riding very legally and there was no drafting. Picked up the effort for the next 20 miles and pulled away from the group I had been with and spent the next hour reeling in riders. That middle hour felt really good and under control, but I was still standing on just about every little incline. Finally, after 20 miles or so I backed down and went back to riding really easy for the last 18 miles. Bike split ended up being around a 2:44, not a PB, but considering the first and last thirds were soft pedaled I was happy with that. Then, coming into T-2 you had to run down a short but steep grassy section. That little bit made the knee hurt more and had me a little worried.

Started out the run feeling great. At the pre-race on Friday the director reminded everyone that the first mile or so was up hill and to take it easy. I took his advice and really took the first mile at what I thought was an easy pace. The legs felt good, the HR was under control and my nutrition (Infinit on the bike) had been spot on so far. Only problem was with every step the knee was sore. I reached the first mile marker and was happy to see I ran it in 7:35 as it was mostly up hill, not too steep just an annoying little climb. Started the slight downhill to a loop and started to pick up the pace. Unfortunately trying to push anything faster really started to hurt the knee. Came to the first aid station and stopped and tried to stretch things out. A couple of guys came over and asked if I was ok and I just told them I'd been fighting a sore knee. One offered me an ice pack and I instantly decided that since this was a "C" race at best for me it wasn't worth causing any more damage to myself and called it a day.

Hung out at the aid station for 20 minutes or so then took a nice slow walk back down to turn in my chip. Along the way I saw the lead male and my coach was about 3-4 minutes behind him, but there were so many people I couldn't tell if he was in 2nd, 3rd or 4th. I just missed the mens finish but my coach, John Hirsch, did end up coming in second overall which was cool.

Hanging out at the finish and seeing everyone come across and get their medals was a little depressing, but after talking to John he and I agreed that with the low priority of this race I absolutely made the right call 100% to bag it. At one point I thought I could have taken a little bit of HTFU and suffered my way to a 2 hr plus run just to get the satisfaction of finishing. But with the TTT just around the corner and an entire summer of racing ahead I did not want do something stupid and wreck my season before it even started. So while I had a nice 7 hr ride home Sunday to second guess my decision to DNF, I am sitting here Monday morning and my knee feels ok and I will live to train another day. So no running for the next week to 10 days and hopefully things will be healed back up by then.

On the other hand, the event was a great race. The water temperature was absolutely perfect for a wetsuit swim, mid to low 60s. The bike course was just hilly enough to make it interesting but was fast overall and the run ( or at least what I saw of it) seemed like a nice challenging course. Definitely a good early season half.