2011 Age Group National Championships

Well I did it!  Back in March I achieved step one of this year’s goal, which was to qualify for Nationals.  This past Saturday I achieved step 2, which was to do the race.  Here are my thoughts about that race.

The day before the race, at bike check-in, I was able to sync up with two fellow athletes from Team RW&B.  Mike and Laurie are super nice people, great athletes and an asset to the team.  I especially like Laurie’s enthusiasm towards her volunteer work.

This was a big race, perhaps the biggest I’ve done so far, but certainly the largest Olympic distance race I’ve done.  There were a lot of bikes out there, and just about every one of them was a time-trial bike.  There were also a LOT of very fit looking people there.  Normally when I go to a race I can walk around as one of the more fit looking ones – not so in Burlington.  It wasn’t until the sprint people started showing up that I saw people who weren’t in incredible shape.

The venue was awesome!  While it was warmer race day than it typically is in Vermont, it was much cooler than what I was used to in Houston!  The water was warmer than I’d expected, and wished briefly that I’d brought my sleeveless wetsuit, but once the race started I never thought about it again.  This picture was from before the race started, when I was in my “I need to vomit” mode.

The water wasn’t very clear, but it was calm with minimal current and didn’t taste too badly.  I started near the back of the swim pack to avoid getting mauled.  Everyone was so fast that I was quickly alone and swam almost the entire race by myself.  By the time I got out of the water, I only saw one bike left in my area.  When you are racked by age group that isn’t typically a good sign!

It was a very nice bike ride, and I’m glad it was only 25 miles.  The course was one of the hilliest I’ve raced so far, and I would have struggled on the run if I’d had to do 56 miles.  I’m not sure if the first part was hillier or if it was the wind, but I was much quicker on the back half.  Everyone out there was quicker than me regardless.  There was a constant stream of bikes going by me, men and women both, and the only people I passed were in there 70’s!  The hills were steep enough that I think I used every gear I had.  I stood up on a couple of them to try and power up past people, but the exertion required was distressing my hamstring and I wanted to save it for the run.  As it was I hit and held power thresholds I’ve never seen before.  While it ended up not being my fastest 25 miles, it was by far the most intense!

Pretty quickly I was off my bike and out on the run.  I had no idea how I was doing relative to my goal, but I was so far back in the pack that I stopped to give high-fives to all my fans that were there. 

They were on both sides of the road, so I had to zigzag for a bit, but it gave me some extra motivation.  I would need it too, as the first 1/4 mile was up a serious hill.  Every time I thought I had reached the top I would see that the road had turned and we still had more uphill to go.  I passed several people walking, which gave me hope that I might make up some of my lost ground.

Someone told me before the race that it was all downhill after the first hill.  That got me through the first hill, even though it took me another 1/2 mile to get my breath back and HR down to a maintainable range.  They had lied to me though.  There were a couple more hills and a long false flat.  The latter appeared about the time I pick up the pace, and I doubt I ran much faster.

I remember thinking a couple of things on the run:  My water is hot, why am I still carrying it?  Where are the downhill sections?  Mostly though I thought about walking.  My leg hurt, I wanted some cool water to drink and I was plane old tired.  I kept thinking about what coach had told me:  no one will know if I walk but me and how I had people waiting on me.  In the end my mind held up and I kept running.

Everyone was there cheering at the finish.  I took my medal, water and stumbled away from the crowd looking for them.  At this point all the pain and suffering of the past year fade away and everything is smiles and happiness.  You ask why I race, this is why!

Of course this doesn’t hurt the cause any:  Ice Cream from the Ben & Jerry’s factory in Stowe with my parents.

Oops!

Have you ever had one of those days that start out wonderful, and then something odd happens and you are left with your mouth hanging open like a fish?  Well I had one of those Saturday.

With my big race less than a week away, my training for Saturday was pretty light; just a 2 hour bike ride.  Since I’d already shipped my time trial bike to the race site, and I didn’t feel like driving all the way to Magnolia to ride on my road bike for just 2 hours, I decided to do the local club ride.  They said it was 40 miles and 2 to 2.5 hours at 18-20 mph.

The ride lived up to expectations.  The pace was close to 20 mph most of the time, but being able to draft it was a very easy ride.  Towards the end of the ride I was getting a bit bored with all the stops and starts, and was ready to be done with it.

I stuck around the bike store for a few minutes, but not knowing anyone that wasn’t very exciting and I went home.  Not being very tired my mind wondered all over the place.  I remember noticing how the recycle hadn’t been picked up yet, saw that Kelli wasn’t home and was wondering where she might be when all of a sudden I heard a huge crash above my car where the garage door was.  My first thought as I looked up was that the garage door hadn’t opened all the way (which has happened in the past) and it caught my bike rack.  I quickly realized the problem was much worse!

I got out of the car to see my bike, still attached to the roof rack, obviously broken and in a lot of pain.  I had to back my car out of the garage to survey the damage, wondering firstly if I had scratched the roof of my car.  While my roof rack is slightly bent, nothing seemed to be touching my car.  Getting my bike off the rack was a bit tricky, as the frame was literally in pieces, held together only by the cables.

I don’t know if the normal stages of grief apply in this scenario, but I know I went through a few before I was finally able to smile just a bit at how comical it really was.  I mean seriously, how many people try to drive into their garage with a bike still on the roof of their car?

As you can see by the two photos below, the garage survived relatively unscathed.  The bike, on the other hand, has seen better days.  I’m not sure what I will end up doing with the pieces of what used to be my bike, but for now it hangs in the garage as a reminder of what happens when you forget about what you are doing!  By the way, I was still so shocked when I took this picture that I didn’t realize the rear wheel was upside down and couldn’t figure out what happened to the bottom bracket!

The moral of this story is:  If you can’t laugh at yourself, you may find yourself in a room full of people as the only one not laughing.

Keeping my chin up

With just 10 days left before my big race this year, there isn’t much I can do to improve my fitness.  At least that is what I have to tell myself as I struggle with a hamstring injury that just won’t go away.

The good news is that the pain hasn’t been so bad that I couldn’t gut it out if I needed to.  The bad news is that by not wanting to cause further damage I’ve had to cut back my running.  Coach revised my schedule, again, and removed all running until Sunday, and even that is scaled back.

At least I will be well rested come race day, although I might go stir crazy without my run workouts!  I will also need to watch my diet until race day.  I don’t want to gain weight because I’m not working out as much.

I’ve a feeling it’s going to be a long 10 days!

Headed back to Airrosti, really??

Today, with mixed emotions, I’m headed for a visit to Airrosti.  I’m very hopeful that they will be able to give me some relief from this hamstring injury that has been plaguing me for 2 1/2 weeks.  I kept putting off this visit thinking that a bit of an easier scheduled would give it a chance to heal, but with Nationals only 3 weeks away I don’t have any more time to waste.

I indicated I had mixed emotions, which is putting it lightly.  I am VERY hopeful for the results, but I am also fairly anxious as I remember how much it hurt the first time I went in.  Compounding the concern is that it might actually be two different areas that are injured.  With only an hour until I have to leave maybe I’d be better off working on deep breathing right now!

My workouts this weekend pretty much trashed me for the rest of the day.  I wonder if the other triathletes I know feel the same way.  I mean seriously, after my Saturday and Sunday workouts, I spent most of the rest of the weekend sitting on the couch reading a book or trying to take a nap.  Is this how they all feel, or am I too old or pushing myself too hard, or just a wimp?  Maybe I’ll query some of them to see how they do it.

Have a great week everyone!