Reinaldo Colucci's Blog

Last Sunday November 23rd, I was racing in Pirassununga the last stage of the Triathlon Long Distance Circuit.
Pirassununga it is the most popular half Ironman of Brazil, and every time I race there I feel like home, once it is closest race in the season of Sao Carlos, city where I live, and Descalvado, city where I was born.
The race course it is totally inside the Brazilian Air Force Station, what make the race very security about the traffic.
Last year I had one of my best ever performances there, breaking the course record, however this year my hope of a fast race it was left behind once in the beginning of the ride when I took the leader of the race I could see it was impossible, because of the wind, to keep the speed high as the year before
So, I tried to ride in a solid pace but I was also saving my energies to put a good half marathon together to not have problem to hold my position.
In second half of the run the sun was very hot, but with all the normal care with the Hidratation I did not have problem to hold the pace until the end and even I was not able to break the record again I still put a nice time of 3h47min39sec, reaching my third victory on this race, the second in a row.

Hi,
Last weekend I was in Clearwater – USA to race the Ironman 70.3 Worldchampionship.
I have been training for this race since September and I was very confident in a good result!
I arrived in the city 3 days before the race, and the weather was quite chili but it got warmer each day and Saturday was a beautiful sunny day!
I was feeling very good in the race day morning and I was ready to give all of myself during the day.
On the swimming I lost the first group however they were not so far and with just 5km on the bike I was already in contact with the leaders! My big attention on the begging of the ride it was not get involved in any situation where I could possible get a card! What I must say it is a very tension moment on the race once the group it is very big and everybody wants to show how fit the are and with narrow roads that is a very complicate combination where people keep over taking each other and changing the pacing all the time, however this time I was “LUCKY” and because I tried to keep always a much longer distance than the legal drafting zone I was clean about card this time!
After the half way on the bike I started to help to push the pace and it was able to see some guys start to hurt and the first group started to get smaller. I knew the race it would come to run part and I was feeling very in control to get on the ground and put a nice half marathon. I got in transition in a group with around 5 guys, but I knew the gap between us the next groups was not big. I exit T2 in second position just with Terenzo ahead me!
My legs were very heavy and almost cramping but I could feel my heart rate was in control and my turn over it was very good, so I kept rolling down the pace and I thought my muscle would get better soon, however this never happened and after 6km on the run I also start to not be able to keep my turn over, I still finish the first lap of the run in 2nd position but in second half on the 21km I was not able to hold that and I crossed the finish line in 5th position, very close to the podium I was planning too but still enough this time to make it happen. In the end I am happy with my result was it was technical my best ever result in a World Champs.
For the end of this season I still have some national races, however my focus now already it turned to my next “big goal”: try to win Brazil Ironman 2009.