Monday, May 24, 2010

Some days you have it...some days you don't...

...on Saturday for the first race of the season I didn't have it.  That's about all there is to say, I didn't have it.  The whole day was a struggle, and I never felt good.  I've had some time to think about this, and I'm just going to have to move on.  I didn't do poorly, I just didn't perform up to where I wanted to be, and that's bound to happen.  I would much rather that happened now than in Arizona come November.  So here goes nothing:

Swim - This was pretty uneventful, and I don't really know where I came out of the water.  I want to say towards the front though because I didn't have that many people to pass on the bike.  My body held up well considering I really haven't been swimming much in May, so considering the training I put in I have to accept where my swim was...there is still work to do though!

T1 - I think it went pretty well except for the fact that I couldn't snap my Garmin on my wrist...I dropped it three times and was getting ticked before I just slammed it onto my wrist.  I hate the transition area at the race though...pebbles and bike shoes don't get along!

Bike - I was much better with clipping in this year and started huffing and puffing my way up the hill out of transition.  I knew right away that the power wasn't there.  Usually riders would come back to me much quicker, and they weren't.  Thinking back to it I am guessing they weren't because I was in the first wave, came out of the water towards the front, and the athletes there are better...so they shouldn't get caught as easily.  I kept mashing away at my pedals.  I never felt great, but things started to get a little easier towards the end of the ride.  I guess it takes me a while to warm up, and the longer distances are better for me.

T2 - I really didn't pay attention and didn't unstrap my shoes before the dismount, so I had to run into T2 with my cycling shoes on, take them off, throw on my racing flats and roll on out.  I think I can shave some time off of both transitions, and that's something that I need to practice.

Run - Ugh!  That's about all I can say.  It sucked!  After having some solid running races I had high hopes for this run, and the unfortunate thing is that I never felt good.  Actually I just wanted to bag the race the entire run.  4.3 miles has never seemed so long!  It was super hilly, and that is something that I'm not used to, so in the future I know hill repeats are going to be part of my preparation.  People came cruising by me on the run and I didn't have anything to go with them.  Oh well, I need more work...like I said earlier I just didn't have it.

Overall the results weren't what I wanted, but this was a good test of fitness and I need to remember that I'm not as far along in my training as I was last year at this time because my Ironman is more than 2 months later in the season this year.  So keeping things in perspective I have to take this as a learning experience and as motivation for training.

I have to thank everyone for their well wishes leading up to the race!  Also a special thanks to GU Energy for the Roctane and GU Brew, Brooks for their awesome shoes, Lululemon for some rockin clothes that I always love to throw on before and after each race, TP Therapy for keeping my legs as fresh as they could be, AXA Financial, Rudy Project, and Cycleops!  I did just get a new toy from Cycleops and it's already kicking my butt...I love it!

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