Tuesday, September 7, 2010

Better with time...

     This past weekend I went to Austin with little to no motivation to race.  I ended up having my best one yet.  Only my second one so there's not much science behind that statement.  I took last week off with the exception of track where I ended up having a great workout.  Despite what my coach said I think being well rested mentally and more so physically had the most to do with it.  I needed to give myself a break.  Drove up to Austin Saturday, then stayed with my Sister and her kids.  Saturday was a rough night.  My niece was up sick all night so we were as well.  Sunday was great met up with my teammates, went to the expo to get the packet and drop off my bike.  Decided to lock the bike since we had to leave it overnight.  It was a great piece of mind. 
     Sunday night was great after touring the bike course my coach and her husband and I went and had wine in downtown Austin next to the restaurant we were having dinner at.  Dinner was awesome.  Highly recommend it.http://www.tavernabylombardi.com/.  Salmon was a perfect Med-Rare.  The food was so good that even though I was completely full I had to order dessert.
  After a cuisine induced coma I woke up refreshed and sick.  A mild fever and a sore throat, a possible gift from my niece or nephew, I was dreading the race.  I got my self together enough to make it to transition and set up shop.  A little before the race started I didn't feel up to it.  Confirmed with my coach that there was no fever and went to lay down.  Picked a nice spot on the bank of the lake and watched a few waves go.  I decided that no matter what I was doing the swim.  I could live with a DNF but not with a didn't start.  Found my coach after the pre-wave rain cause a delay reunited with Gena, Greg, Stue, and Michelle.  Was time to go and I was off. 
     The initail shock of the water temp caused me to second guess not using a wet suit, but after a minute of treading water I had warmed back up.  I started in the back of the pack but after a minute I said to myself, "what the hell am I doing back here, these guys are slow.  So I put my face down and went after it.  A minute later I tried to get into my rythim but the water was choppy, my HR was up, and I kept bumping into people.  A few time I needed to clear my head so I would stop for a second then go back after it.  The hardest part of the whole triathlon was getting out of the water.  The ramp was steep bodies were strewn all over the ramp like casualties from a failed beach landing.  I looked over at the guy next to me being drug out of the water as well, and when we made eye contact, he mouthed the words "What the F?"  I answered with, "I know right?"  I looked at my watch after successfully overcoming the course designed troop impairments and saw that I had knocked off several minutes already.  After the 1k run to my bike I got through T1 quickly, but messed up my plan and put the gloves on before getting on the bike.  Ride was great and the new pedals were solid and I lucked out on the positioning of them.  Ride was great, cute girl and I kept passing each other during the ride and I asked her if we should just pull over now and exchange numbers or keep dancing.  She laughed and we continued to pass and drop.  After the second climb on capital before we truned to head towards Caesar Chavez, I finally said you gorgeous but your starting to piss me off and dropped her.  I got into the dismount zone and one off my shoes fell off.  Grabbed it then a bottle fell off and a glove fell out of the bag.  Picked that up and got into T2.  T2 was perfect, except that I had to rinse my feet due to all the gravel at the entrance.  Mats would have been nice. 
  Started the run saying my mantra of "I'm not going to walk." It was a good run after my legs decided to stop fighting the urge of the left thigh and knee wanting to flex for a kick and the right trying to convince me we were still on the bike.  I had plenty of energy to get through it though.  Legs felt good, and was surprised by a little red-headed ball of energy with a huge smile that came up and started talking about a million miles an hour.  Not sure what she said but I answered with' "that's the last time I do anything a week before a race."  I saw Stew a few minutes after and was determined not to get passed by him.  I saw Gena again and remember her saying you only have one small bridge to get over.  The bridge was anything but small and the smell from the millions of bats that live under it was hard to overcome.  I finished strong and had a great time.  Everybody that went had a PR, some just had a great experience at their first time ever, or at a distance.  This one goes on the calendar for next year. 

1 comment:

  1. Nice post...I had a great time reading, thanks for the share...

    --kizzy vibram

    ReplyDelete