ok so this day came up on me so quickly. its like one of those things you plan for months ago and all of a sudden its the night before. I guess I really didnt have any nerves for this since I wasnt spending days thinking about it. probably a good thing to remember for the future...
so one of the bigger races I've been a part of, almost 400 competitors. Olympic distance. The lake was pretty calm and I was quite happy about that, since my last lake swim a few weeks ago felt like i was in a spin cycle.. it was an in water start, temp about 75 degrees making it wet suit legal. i was pretty happy that i only wore the shortie, (thanks suzie!!) i think the full suit was definately overkill.
so my goal for the swim was to swim. Duh right? but for me thats a tall order. I've spent most, ok all of my last 5 tri swims doing every stroke but the one that i was supposed to (free). not to mention the sheer panic i somehow embark upon the first few minutes of the race. you would think i had been dropped into shark infested waters with a carcass strapped to my leg.. anyway- so i was bound and determined to swim this one start to finish. the horn goes off and me and the rest of the wave take off. it takes me a few minutes to find my own space but to my amazement im swimming freestyle. what? yep i put my head down and just stayed in my own space. after making the turn at the first buoy i decided to do what i thought was unthinkable for me but i began to breath bilaterally (meaning alternating sides on three strokes). so here i am thinking holy cow i'm swimming. again, yes that is the point of this leg of the race, but if you had seen me "swim" at any point over the past year you would have shook your head and probably said something like "poor thing..." so the one down point of this whole swim thing is I didnt meet my time goal. despite all my efforts i was over by more than a minute. but i'm happy with the continuous swimming ... bobby also commented that i looked too "ho hum" coming out of the water so he knew i wasnt working hard.. and post race there was some chatter about it being longer than 1500, but I cant use that as an excuse...
T1 was pretty good. got my wetsuit off no problem and put on my new cool shark socks. grabbed a swig of drink and i was off. i was bound and determined to catch as many people as i could and totally rock the bike. check. i have never felt so strong before. i mean i passed people going up hills. rode aero most of the time and even down hills. again small victories for me. for us girls passing guys on any leg is such a boost - and i did that as much as i could! i dont know my exact bike split yet but i feel really confident i averaged over 20 mph - a best for me. I was a bit worried i was going to screw myself for the run part but then I shut those thoughts out and just kept going..
T2 was pretty fast for me. i was smart and put on all my accessories while running out instead of standing at my station doing it. heck even a few seconds count!
so the run- 2 loops. this is when i usually start to count the girls ahead of me to see where i am. bobby had me about 12th after the first loop. i wasnt moving as fast as i would have liked those first 3.1 miles, so i knew i needed to pick it up for the second half. to my surprise i was ready to do it and started passing some girls. girls who i thought - there is no way they are on the lead lap. but apparently they were. i felt good despite the heat and rolling course. (oh and also the chip strap digging into my ankle.. too tight and a gash to prove it- leave it to me to get bloody somehow..) so i finished up strong and 4th over all. and to top it off improved my over all time by over 20 minutes. huge for me. i met my over all time goal so all in all a really happy day for me. bobby told me later i surprised the heck out of him coming around the corner in 4th. he was expeciting me to be further back and almost missed me. that will show him to pay better attention! he's a good cheerleader though.. tough. telling me to go faster.. which i do until i'm out of his sight. ha ha!
there are always things i can do to get better but i feel like the training i have been doing is starting to show and i'm excited about the rest of the season to see where i can go.
PS a little blatent advertising for a super cool band, Phase IV, where my little bro is the rockin lead guitarist! at my next wedding (dont worry bobby already knows) I will definately be booking them. cheers!
No comments:
Post a Comment