My World Championship weekend in Las Vegas was as spectacular as the big giant casinos, crazy clothes, neon lights and all the glitz and glam that goes with Vegas, without ever even making it to the strip or into any of the famous casinos (although I did pack some sassy shoes just in case post race I found my way to Las Vegas Blvd). Hanging with my family and friends in such a cool place while getting ready for a big race was incredible. I did play Blackjack for the first time ever 2 nights before the race and was a winner, so maybe Lady Luck was on my side.
This weekend and race topped off an amazing triathlon season for me. It has been 3 or 4 years since I took the tri season serious, but finishing it up Vegas style at the World Championships was a perfect ending. I worked hard all season for this race and am thrilled that it ended on the upside!
The logistics of this race were as challenging as the race itself. But luckily we have been out there a lot and knew our way around so we were ready for a lot of the back and forth. We stayed out at Lake Las Vegas Resort, which was the swim start and T1, but 15-20 min away from the expo, finish line and T2 and all the good food, however, it was nice to just walk out of the hotel and across the bridge to the swim start race morning and took away a lot of the race morning stress of getting to transition on time.
I knew how challenging this course was going to be and did everything I could to be ready for the hills on the bike and run. Add to it a non wetsuit swim and racing against the top 70.3 athletes around and that is a true race to be ready for. The start list alone was enough to motivate me to work hard. I love this kind of challenge and racing against the toughest, it takes you to the next level.
My race: I couldn’t have been more ready thanks to my coach, Scott Iott, who wrote such challenging workouts and kept me psyched up and motivated even on the bad days, but I couldn't have gotten there without the help of my amazing husband.
There is no slacking going on at the Zucco house, and when we both are training hard, it gets a little crazy. He had to put up with a little more disorganization this summer including size xs skinfit tri shorts winding up in his drawer and into his workout bag LOL! I wish I could have seen that. I am continually amazed at the plain old hard work Adam puts into training and tried to do my best at playing along. Standards are high in this house!
Swimming in Lake Las Vegas without wetsuit wasn’t so bad thanks to my Skinfit Plasma (so worth it). I swam strong and felt smooth, but a few too many laps short will leave you off the back, so I sprinted the loooong run to T1, and couldn’t wait to ride the hills. The bike is challenging with like 5000 feet of climbing, but nothing like Georgia. When we preveiwed the course we actually rode farther out which include a much bigger climb before the turn around. I was bummed it wasn't in the race. I loved the hills and passed lots girls in my AG especially going up! When Adam came by me so fast, it was startling! He yelled as he was flying by and I kept him in my sights going up the next climb, then he was gone on the decent, and then I dropped my chain! This is the only negative thing that happened in the race. Maybe I was distracted by how fast he went by! I stayed cool, tried the back pedaling thing to get it back on but no more lady luck. I had to stop and get off to fix it. GRRR. Extra motivation to ride faster. I went from 36th to 16th on the bike. The run was challenging but I loved it.There were 3 loops with basically 2 hills up then down and little to no flat making keeping a normal stride going interesting.
It finally felt hot, but not the super extreme that was predicted. I found my legs quick and was able to follow the plan of run strong uphill and go fast downhill It was working. I never felt bad, although the 3rd time ups the long nearly 2 mile climb I did slow down some and wondered when it would end. I went from 16th to 12th on the run.
Now it’s off season or is it in season for cyclocross? plus a little Kona spectating training.
My Mom and Dad were there, they are training for Kona spectating too!
