The Other Guy

I had good intentions of posting an entry Friday night about how I was feeling.  Then I got to the hotel later than expected.  After an all too short visit with my parents, dinner, and getting ready for the morning, it was soon time for bed and my writing was skipped.  It’s probably for the better, because I know what I was going to write.

I slept better than usual, especially considering this was the first race of the year.  I woke up early, and then I laid around waiting for the alarm.  I couldn’t move up the starting gun, so I ended up getting up early, then leaving early for the race, and then waiting around there.

I spent the time talking with my good friend, professional triathlete Natasha Van Der Merwe, the rookie parked next to me, and a couple of other nuts that were going without a wetsuit in 62 degree water!  Once my wife and parents showed up they distracted me until race time.

Once I got into the water and felt how cold it was, I certainly was glad I had a long sleeve wetsuit!  We got going, and the first thing I noticed, besides the normal jostling and pushing that goes on was the cold water going down my back.  That only lasted a few seconds, and I didn’t think about the water temperature again.  Perhaps that is because the water going out was super choppy.  It seemed like every time I came up for a breath the water would wash over my head leaving me drinking water and gasping for air.  Fortunately that made the water coming back to shore smooth and quick.  There were a couple of times that I noticed my heart was really pounding (especially on the first trip outbound).  Wanting to save for my push on the bike and run I forced myself to slow down.

I staggered out of the water, was quickly passed by Natasha, and struggled to get unzipped while trying to get to my bike as quickly as possible.  Finally some volunteer grabbed the string and unzipped me.  Running to the transition area I dropped two GU from my shirt pocket.  I don’t know what I was thinking when I turned around and went back to get them.  Note to self, next time leave them there!

I never slowed down through transition which was the plan.  Five minutes into the bike leg, with my foot firmly on the gas, my heart was still pounding.  It didn’t matter, I felt I could sustain this pace for the hour+ I needed.  While it was windy, my meltdown a few weeks ago in the wind prepared me mentally for it.  I noticed it in that my speed dropped some, and of course the only hills were into the wind.  To me it wasn’t a big deal, though I did hear people complaining about it afterwards.  The best part of the bike was that I was only passed by a couple of people, and I passed more than passed me.  Every time I felt myself easing up I reminded myself of the other guy.  He would be pushing hard right now so I had to push harder.  There weren’t many people out there so I wasn’t sure where I was in the pack, something that concerned me for the rest of the race.  Was I out front and holding them off, or had I fallen off the back and wasn’t keeping up.

I was out of T2 very quickly, donning my hat and race belt as I started the run.  Almost immediately I was passed by a young lady who was getting a lot of cheers from the crowd.  I decided to use her for motivation, and kept the same gap for most of the first lap.  The back leg of the run was with the wind, a nice break, but with no wind it got VERY hot, forcing me to grab some water for my head.  I got a side stitch and really wanted to walk.  I knew the other guy wouldn’t walk so there was no way I was going to either.  I was getting pretty tired.  Realizing it could be nutrition based I took a GU.  I didn’t notice the fatigue until near the end of the second leg, at which point I thought it was too late for a GU to help.  While my pace wasn’t as fast as I’d hoped, I knew it was the best I could manage at the time.  With 1/4 mile to go (into the wind of course) I gave it all I had.  I didn’t know who might be behind me, but I wasn’t going to let the other guy pass me at the finish.

The finish was a blur.  I got some cold water, a cold towel, and got out of the way to wait for the results.  They finally came:  I’d won my bracket!  My time was 3 minutes slower than I’d hoped, but good enough to qualify me for Nationals!  With that accomplished, I can now focus on getting faster and figuring out how hard I can push myself instead of worrying about getting qualified.

Accepting my first place prize was one of the proudest moments of my life, the other being in 1977 when I won outstanding musician at band camp.  I don’t know what else this season has in store, but this is one hell of a start!

Race season is here!

It is Monday and my first race of the season is in just 5 days.  If I’m not careful I could easily get myself all wound up, overly excited and ruin my race before it even starts.  While I am excited, ruining the race isn’t in my plan.  I’ve worked too hard!

I had another fantastic training week this past week.  Unlike last week I was able to finish the race as strong as I started it.  Funny thing happened on the bike ride Saturday though.  I knew there was some wind, probably a tail wind, but it wasn’t as strong as last week, or so I thought until I made a left turn and the cross wind hit.  I had on my race wheels and the wind was really tossing me around.  Not wanting to repeat my disaster of last weekend I turned around 5 minutes earlier than previously.  Last weekend I rode 15 minutes longer than I was scheduled for this weekend.  So if I turn around 5 minutes early, that knocks 10 minutes off the ride total.  Plus I figured I would be a little faster due to less headwind, which would put me finishing right on time.

The only problem was that this week I didn’t fall apart in the wind.  I hunkered down, did what I could, and finished a total of 30 minutes faster instead of 15.  I packed up my bike, threw on my running shoes, and went for a short run.  I couldn’t believe how dead my legs felt and started having flash backs to what race day is really like!  I told myself that the pace didn’t matter, and I can only do what I can do.  I try to evaluate myself at the end of a run to see if I could have gone faster or further.  I might have been able to run a little faster, though my heart was pounding pretty hard, but I know I could have gone further.  I’m not sure about 4 miles further, but I’m also not sure I couldn’t have.  Finishing the run I packed up and headed home, not even looking at my watch.  Needless to say I was shocked when I downloaded my watch onto my computer and saw what happened.  I ran 2.5 miles at 8:10 pace, after a 2:45 bike ride.  This is huge for me because my legs felt so heavy, and I felt like I was going so slowly, only to find out I wasn’t far from what I hope for a race pace.

Sunday was a long, slow and boring run.  I wasn’t sure I could do it with my legs as shot as they were.  I just started running, and didn’t stop until I was done.  It wasn’t fast (it wasn’t supposed to be), but I did what coach asked.

Saturday I toe the line for my first race of the season.  I’ve done just about everything coach asked of me.  Now it is just a matter of executing the plan.  I can’t control who else signs up for the race, or how fast they run, only how well I do myself.

I’ll try to write again before the race on how I’m feeling to see how that compares to the results.  Wish me luck!

Has it really been two weeks already?

No, it’s really been three!  It seems like two weeks because I was sick the week in the middle and that entire week is a blur.  When I first got sick I knew I would miss a day of training.  That became a week, and by the end of the week I was afraid it would stretch into a second week and jeopardize my upcoming race.  Then it passed as suddenly as it came on.  I took a couple of easy training days and a day of rest before hitting it hard again last week.

After being sick like I was for a week, I was a little nervous about coming back as hard as was scheduled.  I knew I’d had a decent run though on Sunday and hoped it would be fine.  Maybe my body needed that time off because I came back with a fury!  I did a bike field test and was 20 watts stronger than just a few months ago.  I feel like I could have been stronger if I’d only set up a fan in the garage to cool me off.

I had a couple of good runs, including a 5 mile brick at 7:40 pace, which I did without really pushing.  That is wonderful news for me because that is faster than my planned 10K pace come race day.  It gives me confidence that I can hit my target time!

I also had a couple of hard swims, including a 1500M timed swim.  I like the distance because it allows me to get into a groove and work on pushing myself.  I don’t like having to count the laps.  It would be so much nicer if I could just go and have someone tap me on the shoulder when I’m done!

I hit the weekend super high and confident, and the first half of my Saturday bike ride was awesome.  I should have realized that when you are going 20+ mph and there isn’t any wind noise in your ears, there is quite a tail wind blowing.  I didn’t figure that out until I turned around and almost came to a standstill.  What took me 1:20 going ended up taking me 1:55 coming back.  It was a long, hard and demoralizing ride.  It was supposed to be a brick, but I was already over my total scheduled time, the wind was really blowing, my legs were shot, I was upset and talked myself out of it.

I woke up Sunday to dead legs.  I didn’t think I had the energy to run for 90 minutes.  After goofing off for a while I finally suited up and headed on out.  I couldn’t believe how badly my legs felt when I started.  The finish line 10 miles away seemed forever.  I settled into a pace and just ran.  I funny thing happened on the run.  The plan was to run a 5 mile loop twice.  At 4.5 miles into the first loop it seemed like it was never going to end.  Half a mile later, as I started the second loop, I felt almost done!  It didn’t matter that I still had 5 miles to go, or how far I had run already.  Something about being on that last lap made it easy.  I even had to force myself to slow down as the pace kept creeping up.  As it was my second lap was several minutes faster than the first.

All in all a good week of training.  I’m very tired today, but feel like my overall strength and conditioning is very strong.  I think my next race, the first one of the season could be an awesome race for me, my fastest Olympic distance race yet.  I only need to focus on the good days and forget the bad ones!