It is the same tri I did as my first tri two years ago. I was pretty excited about doing this tri to see my progress.
It did not go as planned. I know I am a better swimmer and much stronger on a bike now than I was before, and run, I do not think that I have improved.
I do not know what was wrong today, maybe that I was at work for 14h on Th, then drove 8+ hours yesterday from IL to MI, maybe because of cold weather, maybe because I have zero fire in me.
Ok, so the race.
The day started with scrapping frost of my car windshield. Good, isn't it?
Swim: 26:18 Hell yeah!!! They postponed the start by ~20' which gave me time to warm up, which was good I think. I felt strong, smooth, efficient. Just great! I swam alone for most of the swim. I was trying to draft off one gal but I kept loosing her feet and then we ran inti men from previous wave and sprint race waves and it become a mayhem. But anyway, I am very hapoy about the swim.
T1: I have not tried a flying mount since September and I chickened out. Embarassing.
Bike: 1:11 Which is time I rode in that first tri on a road bike in running shoes...I felt good at first but I think that I must have gotten too cold. Or maybe I need to ride the TT bike outside more (well, today was the second time I rode it outside since October) because my position is different outside and I felt uncomfortable.
By the end of the ride my hands and feet were so cold that I had hard time shifting. And I drank one small sip of gatorade the whole race because I just could not hold a bottle in my frozen hands or open a gel.
T2: Had trouble unbuckling the helmet because of the frozen fingers and had hard time putting the shoes on for the same reason.
Run: High 41 Embarassing but I am progressing. I think that I can run close to 40 off the bike by this fall if I can run.
I had no idea what position I was in I saw some women on an out and back section and I passed the last one with 1.5 miles to go.
I felt good the whole time, except for two miles that are run on a grass (that was not cut!!!) and I was tripping over my own legs. But my running just sucks. Plain and simple.
Total time: 2:23 (I went 2:27 and 2:21 on this course before)
I am disappointed because I know I can ride and run better but I do not know why I did not. Geez, I need to get over this by June 30!!!
I was pretty confident I won but then I saw the results and I was second. So I drove 8+ hours to be second?!? Grrr. However after the initial disappointment when I was able to think clearly I realized something was not right. According to the results the first women swam 30, rode 59, ran 40. And she was 44. If there is a gal who can TT 40km (this course is accurate) under 60' AND run 40' 10k afterwards I want to see her. Is it possible? Even female TT specialists cannot easily ride 40k under an hour. So I went back to check what the first man rode to compare. And then I saw that they updated the results and I was first. So I feel better now:)
Oh, and I got a parking ticket at the race. What a stupid day!
Any advice how to get my fire back?
Mmmonyka! Congrats on your win and awesome times, especially in cold weather. You are SO fast and any amount of disappointment can easily be explained by either the cold weather and, more importantly, the "lack of fire". Really sounds like either you are low on sleep or have had too much training volume recently. I guess you would know better, but always better to scale back on training if in doubt, because getting the fire back is essential! Many, many congrats, though on a truly awesome performace.
ReplyDeleteI agree on he increased sleep, reduced life stress thing to get your FIRE back... Solid race though! Congrats!
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