Weather
2004 ? COOL
2005 ? HOT
2006 ? MILD
2007 ? COOL/WET
SWIM (400m w/ run to T1 about 100-150m)
2004 11:58
2005 11:02
2006 8:54
2007 8:48 (note: longer run to T1)
T1
2004 3:41
2005 1:43
2006 2:36
2007 1:51
BIKE (13.5 but I always measure out 14.1)
2004 56:39 (14.3mph)
2005 55:28 (14.5mph) HOT!
2006 43:35 (18.6mph)
2007 42:18 (19.2mph) 10-15mph headwind, normally N/S winds
T2
2004 2:34
2005 1:27
2006 1:28
2007 1:29 (note: Longer transition)
RUN (3.1 ? slightly changed course, prior years 3.0)
2004 53:09 (17:45 min mile)
2005 49:25 (16min mile)
2006 36:44 (12min mile)
2007 35:09 (11min mile) - only lost 1:40 to stretching!
TOTAL
2004 2:08:02
2005 1:59:06
2006 1:33:18
2007 1:29:35
Breakfast: Bagel w/ Peanut Butter and Diet Coke.
by 3:30 course PR, top25% swim and bike, top 50% overall ? according to the interim results. We?ll see on the final. They?ve posted them, but there are no Clydes groupings, not rankings, etc ? so I am hoping they revise it later. That or I?m going to have to parse the darn thing? also it had 490 people not the 600+ that were supposed to be there.
LONG VERSION
This was officially a C race according to CoachCarole (only A and C races for me), but B race in my books now that I had a solution/idea on what to do for my shin problems which has cursed me during the run. So I got serious, had a full rest day prior (although travelling) and got proper pre-race meal in. This is one area I?ve really slacked in lately, I?ve been eating all sorts of carp before races lately. But today I was serious, I wanted to do everything ?right? tomorrow. So I even went to the race talk (again, I blow them off 99% of the time now, especially if I?ve done the course before). I listened to the newbie tips. I packed my gear, I double checked everything 3x (ok, I?m so bad now normally I chuck in all in my bag and go!).
I did nothing, not even take the dog for a walk. Got to bed around 11 (EST, 10 my time) and was up by 5 (EST, 4 my time). Normal ritual, more or less complete (will finish there) and headed out. Wanted to get a good spot in transition, even though I only had to fight with 8 people per rack, more or less.
Got there in plenty of time, got chip/marked (36 race number, 36 age!) and was first on my rack. Set up. Visit portapotty. Stretch. Get my bike, head out for 7 mile warmup ride. Felt good. Stretch. Racked bike. Visit portapotty. Put shoes on for a run. Think better of it, go get goggles and leave shoes. 10min/400y warmup. Felt good. My sighting is for poo, but it felt good. Glad I warmup up here. Wandered back to transition, get shoes. Stretch. Run around for a while, ~10min and then? stretch. Another visit to porta potty (good lordy, clearly, not done from the morning). Found out it WOULD be wetsuit legal, so ran and got my wetsuit.
Course talk was normal. Arranged my transition, got wetsuit, goggles, cap and a gel. Wander over to start and watch first wave off. Find a good place, put on lower part of wetsuit and then meditate. Just stand and go zen. Not hard, I?m not nervous. Ready as I will ever be. I?ve done the work, I?ve prepared, I?ve double checked, and I?ve mentally rehearsed. Time to?. Wait. So I waited. Saw the red caps line up, so my wave (Green) next. I wander over. Soon enough, we?re in the water standing around ready to go. I get front/center. Crack a few jokes as we?re waiting (?Remember folks, it?s not the SEAWEED you have to worry about, it?s the SNAKES!? and ?Hey, wait, get ready for WHAT? I thought we were goin? FISHIN!?). Then we?re off. Solid start I immediately pull out with another guy to my right and girl to my left. But there is a whole pack behind us I can just feel it. I settle into something maintainable and our group of 3 turns into 5. We stay together the entire trip out to the boat (not bouy) and BANG I wack my arm on the pontoon! I am UNDER the dang boat! A couple inches over and I would have gone headfirst. Quick adjust, clump up on the turn, and the hit the return. Now it?s 3 ahead of me and 1 nearby. I just keep a solid rhythm going as my diaphragm is cramping, I?m not breathing right. I am having issues with sighting again, so I?m not going exactly straight. I wack the center line several times. Dangit, finally I?m on the tail of the group of 4. Grr. I Start to let loose and I start catching them, one of them falls way back, so it?s now 3 ahead, 1 behind. The other 3 are also having issues as they?re not a solid pack, they?re bumping into each other. I get closer up to them by the end and side by side with one and 50m to go WHACK!!!! I get punched right in the eye, I see stars, HOLY SHTT that hurt, the WHACK in the head, WHACK in the back, WHACK in the back and I give a good solid SHOVE to this joker and knock him offcourse, last I saw of him. Jesh, that?s more contact than I think ever. My left eyesocket hurts. Whatever, GO. Cannot tell when the ground was close but suddenly it?s there. Hop up, wobble, and start running (if you can call it that). 8:00 out of the water, rats ? hoping for better with THAT effort. Fight with my wetsuit on the run back, got half off. I decided to work on that during the run as last year I wasted time in transition. The path to the transition was significantly longer than last year, since they had to increase the transition size from last year. This of course hurts me, as run is a limiter. Whatever, make it to the mat by 8:48.
T1 went smooth. Wetsuit off, gear on, oh yeah, let?s take off the cap/goggles now ? that might be good. Grab bike and run to exit. I was able to run a much better pace than ever before, happy because the freakin transition was looooonger than prior years. 1:51 is a rock star time for me. Pleased.
Clean mount of the bike and I?m gone. Properly had my gears set from the warmup, so I could tackle the 2 immediate hills. Steep, short, and annoying. I didn?t go to granny I had decided early to pound this hill, stand if I must (didn?t much) and use it as an excuse to wake up the legs. This often works for me, although it is very uncomfortable, it typically pays off. Did this time. 30% chance of rain and 10-15mph winds. Well, the stupid winds were from the EAST and we were going EAST. This is unusual in that every other year (and almost every training ride I?ve done on this course) the winds are north/south! So this was different. I was Z4 and going 16mph at points on tiny inclines. Others, 20mph. It was weird, I stopped looking at the speed and just focused on making my legs hurt and lungs burn. That would be the best I could do, that?s all I can do, forget the numbers. I started chanting FASTER FASTER GO GO GO FASTER FASTER GO GO GO at some point when I thought I was slacking. I was getting passed which I didn?t like ? but almost all were relay people, they don?t count, but it still annoyed me. I kept chasing them as able, but they were all well over 20mph and I wasn?t able to hold it between the hills and wind. Either/or maybe but not both. It took me 21:30 to get to the 6mile point, I was on the edge of being annoyed when I remembered, the wind would be my friend on the flipside so I?ll cope. The rain was spitting, make some of the turns a bit slower, that was annoying because the worst turns (MANY 90-270) were at the end. The final 7.5m were in under 20min, so clearly I made it up. One the way back almost nobody passed me that I couldn?t reclaim. One guy did, said some nice things and we chatted and I explained to him that he wasn?t allowed to pass me. Nope. He laughed, said sorry he didn?t read the rules, I said ?see ya? and just laid in on and I jumped from 23 to 28 and held it for a while. Eventually I faded back down but he was long dropped. This highlights to me that for some reason, I do not think I left it all on the course. There were 2 other guys near the end (I HATE this section, it has an enhanced gravitational pull which slows me down for no reason or something? I ALWAYS slow on this half mile.) which I played back and forth, I used everything with them but in the end they stayed ahead of me by a bit ? but it was a good motivator. I passed a ton of people during the bike, which is now ?Expected? (which is funny since I?ve not been able to very long!) but many guys passed me.
My dismount was lame and slow. Ug, I started thinking about it and I just cannot do that. Whatever, GO. I ran into transition, noticed time under 43 (could not remember for the life of me WHY I wanted 43 as my backup plan, 39:59 was my real goal). Later I now know that meant I beat last year. Good ?nuff. Bike up, helmet off, gear on, GO. RUN to exit. I thought I destroyed prior year, 1:29 nope. Freakin-extra-long-transition got me, oh well, same size I would have beaten it.
The run? for the first time in a long time, I went into this run with a positive I-Can-beat-it attitude regarding my shin. I actually do like running now, but having your left shin cramp so bad it shuts your foot down and you?re in so much pain you want to pee yourself, well that is just no fun. So with my new warmup schedule, EHL stretches (that is the muscle we think is the problem) I had some hope on an OK run if not a GOOD run. I really haven?t been able to test my wings in this regard as I?ve done no short distance (5k) races and no races have been successful this year. So it?s kind of like remove barrier? ok what?s next? Well, I stopped soon enough to do a preventative stretch. I told myself, I can loose 1:00 and it just won?t matter, your running fitness has improved enough to get it back. So I stopped, spent 1:00 exactly on EHL and calves. Started off, MAN my legs felt GOOD. Settled into a solid pace. Nice, let?s get to work. I think I held back. Oh, well lesson learned, it didn?t really hurt ? anywhere, and that breaks my rule for sprints: IF IT DOESN?T HURT, GO HARDER. IF YOU CAN BREATHE, SPEED UP. People are passing me like crazy, which is normal, whatever. Now all the women are catching me (they started after) so at least the scenery is good!
Before mile 1 the shin/calves are really tight now and it?s starting. So I stop, do my stretches and go. Lost 0:40 but now the pain is manageable although the tightness is really, well, tight. Oh well, feels much ?better? and at this level, I can tolerate it.
At Mile 1 a nice surprise, DW/DS4/DS6 are there!! WOOT I got my own cheering section! Say howdy but keep going, as I know I will see them again in a few minutes the way it?s laid out. I grab water (hey, I haven?t drank on the run yet even though I have my Amphipods) and continue back and give high fives to DW/DS4/DS6/MIL and keep on truckin?. DS4 doesn?t quite get the concept by DS6 is flippin his noodle, too cute. Some of my running mates comment on the cheering section, and then we get the hill. Ug, same one as the bike. Feels worse on foot. Trudge up it and loose my running mate who is cramping badly. He finds me later, we chat, I drop, he finds, etc. Mile 2 goes pretty uneventful, the tightness continues but the shin pain isn?t so bad. The final mile I decide I REALLY need to pick up as I?m at 24:24 and if I want to break 1:30 (another goal) I need to pick up the darn pace. So I do. I go zen and just pile on fuel on the coals, as I need to get an extended solid effort to pull this off. It?s mostly flat at this part, except 2 overpasses. Those scuk. Tick tock, this is going to be close. Can I hold it? Yeah. I am not watching my pace, intentionally. Again, I am going to just put forth my effort and ignore the numbers (although they call to me? ). Round the final bend, I can see the final quarter mile. Ok, all flat. Push it, breathing really hard. I am close to Z5 now, I know it. Legs, Glutes, Hammies, Lungs ? all burning. Good, hold it now. Come on, shall we give up now? No. Go. Finally see the finish line, look at watch, 1:29:10. OMG I have to cover a LONG way. I pushed to an ALL OUT sprint. My stride totally changed, my legs were flying, I looked like a REAL runner. I hear the crowds screaming my number but I cannot look. I think I hear my name, don?t see DW/DS4/DS6. I just GO GO GO FREAKIN GO GO GO. Crossed the lunch, punched my watch, 1:29:40. WOOOOOOOOOOT. Screamed a deep loud YEAAAAAAAAAAAAAH which amused the crowds. Saw family, went over. OMG, I can?t talk. Ok, I gotta walk. HR still over 180!!! Holy carp I have no idea what it WAS during that sprint, but higher. Max is 199
After a few minutes I was able to enjoy some time with the family, satisfied I made some of my goals.
Then, because it?s a C race? I said goodbye to the family so they could prepare for DS4 birthday party today while I went and ran an hour. I decided to reverse the course and cheer in all the back of packers. By the time I hit 1.5miles I found the final runner. I gave each one encouragement and an accurate read of how far they had left. Many smiles. I find it very satisfying to be ?one of those guys? running after a race. I used to be DESTROYED but now it is, well, a warmup for my real workout of the day
Afterthoughts: Today was not a GREAT race but today was a GOOD race. I was hoping for a GREAT race, but as CC has told me SO many times, you just cannot plan on a GREAT race. Too much out of your control. Either it will or won?t, you just trust your training. And you know what, this was officially a C race on her plans for me. I was hoping to more solidly beat my swim time, but honestly I don?t deserve it because I haven?t been in the pool enough. I?m very happy with the transition times that is on this year?s todo list. I am somewhat sad about the bike, but again ? it is what it is. Still a solid bike across a hilly (not bad hills, just a fair number ? like 5-6 each way) and windy course. The run I?m ok with, drop the 1:40 I lost in stretching and it would have been a great run (PR worthy). And 1:40 is way better than 2 weeks ago 8:30 lost.
So in the end.. today was a good day. Now I'm off to eat some birthday cake for DS4 (not DS3 anymore, he reminds me!)
------------------
Yup That's me[/URL" target="_blank">
2004 ? COOL
2005 ? HOT
2006 ? MILD
2007 ? COOL/WET
SWIM (400m w/ run to T1 about 100-150m)
2004 11:58
2005 11:02
2006 8:54
2007 8:48 (note: longer run to T1)
T1
2004 3:41
2005 1:43
2006 2:36
2007 1:51
BIKE (13.5 but I always measure out 14.1)
2004 56:39 (14.3mph)
2005 55:28 (14.5mph) HOT!
2006 43:35 (18.6mph)
2007 42:18 (19.2mph) 10-15mph headwind, normally N/S winds
T2
2004 2:34
2005 1:27
2006 1:28
2007 1:29 (note: Longer transition)
RUN (3.1 ? slightly changed course, prior years 3.0)
2004 53:09 (17:45 min mile)
2005 49:25 (16min mile)
2006 36:44 (12min mile)
2007 35:09 (11min mile) - only lost 1:40 to stretching!
TOTAL
2004 2:08:02
2005 1:59:06
2006 1:33:18
2007 1:29:35
Breakfast: Bagel w/ Peanut Butter and Diet Coke.
by 3:30 course PR, top25% swim and bike, top 50% overall ? according to the interim results. We?ll see on the final. They?ve posted them, but there are no Clydes groupings, not rankings, etc ? so I am hoping they revise it later. That or I?m going to have to parse the darn thing? also it had 490 people not the 600+ that were supposed to be there.
LONG VERSION
This was officially a C race according to CoachCarole (only A and C races for me), but B race in my books now that I had a solution/idea on what to do for my shin problems which has cursed me during the run. So I got serious, had a full rest day prior (although travelling) and got proper pre-race meal in. This is one area I?ve really slacked in lately, I?ve been eating all sorts of carp before races lately. But today I was serious, I wanted to do everything ?right? tomorrow. So I even went to the race talk (again, I blow them off 99% of the time now, especially if I?ve done the course before). I listened to the newbie tips. I packed my gear, I double checked everything 3x (ok, I?m so bad now normally I chuck in all in my bag and go!).
I did nothing, not even take the dog for a walk. Got to bed around 11 (EST, 10 my time) and was up by 5 (EST, 4 my time). Normal ritual, more or less complete (will finish there) and headed out. Wanted to get a good spot in transition, even though I only had to fight with 8 people per rack, more or less.
Got there in plenty of time, got chip/marked (36 race number, 36 age!) and was first on my rack. Set up. Visit portapotty. Stretch. Get my bike, head out for 7 mile warmup ride. Felt good. Stretch. Racked bike. Visit portapotty. Put shoes on for a run. Think better of it, go get goggles and leave shoes. 10min/400y warmup. Felt good. My sighting is for poo, but it felt good. Glad I warmup up here. Wandered back to transition, get shoes. Stretch. Run around for a while, ~10min and then? stretch. Another visit to porta potty (good lordy, clearly, not done from the morning). Found out it WOULD be wetsuit legal, so ran and got my wetsuit.
Course talk was normal. Arranged my transition, got wetsuit, goggles, cap and a gel. Wander over to start and watch first wave off. Find a good place, put on lower part of wetsuit and then meditate. Just stand and go zen. Not hard, I?m not nervous. Ready as I will ever be. I?ve done the work, I?ve prepared, I?ve double checked, and I?ve mentally rehearsed. Time to?. Wait. So I waited. Saw the red caps line up, so my wave (Green) next. I wander over. Soon enough, we?re in the water standing around ready to go. I get front/center. Crack a few jokes as we?re waiting (?Remember folks, it?s not the SEAWEED you have to worry about, it?s the SNAKES!? and ?Hey, wait, get ready for WHAT? I thought we were goin? FISHIN!?). Then we?re off. Solid start I immediately pull out with another guy to my right and girl to my left. But there is a whole pack behind us I can just feel it. I settle into something maintainable and our group of 3 turns into 5. We stay together the entire trip out to the boat (not bouy) and BANG I wack my arm on the pontoon! I am UNDER the dang boat! A couple inches over and I would have gone headfirst. Quick adjust, clump up on the turn, and the hit the return. Now it?s 3 ahead of me and 1 nearby. I just keep a solid rhythm going as my diaphragm is cramping, I?m not breathing right. I am having issues with sighting again, so I?m not going exactly straight. I wack the center line several times. Dangit, finally I?m on the tail of the group of 4. Grr. I Start to let loose and I start catching them, one of them falls way back, so it?s now 3 ahead, 1 behind. The other 3 are also having issues as they?re not a solid pack, they?re bumping into each other. I get closer up to them by the end and side by side with one and 50m to go WHACK!!!! I get punched right in the eye, I see stars, HOLY SHTT that hurt, the WHACK in the head, WHACK in the back, WHACK in the back and I give a good solid SHOVE to this joker and knock him offcourse, last I saw of him. Jesh, that?s more contact than I think ever. My left eyesocket hurts. Whatever, GO. Cannot tell when the ground was close but suddenly it?s there. Hop up, wobble, and start running (if you can call it that). 8:00 out of the water, rats ? hoping for better with THAT effort. Fight with my wetsuit on the run back, got half off. I decided to work on that during the run as last year I wasted time in transition. The path to the transition was significantly longer than last year, since they had to increase the transition size from last year. This of course hurts me, as run is a limiter. Whatever, make it to the mat by 8:48.
T1 went smooth. Wetsuit off, gear on, oh yeah, let?s take off the cap/goggles now ? that might be good. Grab bike and run to exit. I was able to run a much better pace than ever before, happy because the freakin transition was looooonger than prior years. 1:51 is a rock star time for me. Pleased.
Clean mount of the bike and I?m gone. Properly had my gears set from the warmup, so I could tackle the 2 immediate hills. Steep, short, and annoying. I didn?t go to granny I had decided early to pound this hill, stand if I must (didn?t much) and use it as an excuse to wake up the legs. This often works for me, although it is very uncomfortable, it typically pays off. Did this time. 30% chance of rain and 10-15mph winds. Well, the stupid winds were from the EAST and we were going EAST. This is unusual in that every other year (and almost every training ride I?ve done on this course) the winds are north/south! So this was different. I was Z4 and going 16mph at points on tiny inclines. Others, 20mph. It was weird, I stopped looking at the speed and just focused on making my legs hurt and lungs burn. That would be the best I could do, that?s all I can do, forget the numbers. I started chanting FASTER FASTER GO GO GO FASTER FASTER GO GO GO at some point when I thought I was slacking. I was getting passed which I didn?t like ? but almost all were relay people, they don?t count, but it still annoyed me. I kept chasing them as able, but they were all well over 20mph and I wasn?t able to hold it between the hills and wind. Either/or maybe but not both. It took me 21:30 to get to the 6mile point, I was on the edge of being annoyed when I remembered, the wind would be my friend on the flipside so I?ll cope. The rain was spitting, make some of the turns a bit slower, that was annoying because the worst turns (MANY 90-270) were at the end. The final 7.5m were in under 20min, so clearly I made it up. One the way back almost nobody passed me that I couldn?t reclaim. One guy did, said some nice things and we chatted and I explained to him that he wasn?t allowed to pass me. Nope. He laughed, said sorry he didn?t read the rules, I said ?see ya? and just laid in on and I jumped from 23 to 28 and held it for a while. Eventually I faded back down but he was long dropped. This highlights to me that for some reason, I do not think I left it all on the course. There were 2 other guys near the end (I HATE this section, it has an enhanced gravitational pull which slows me down for no reason or something? I ALWAYS slow on this half mile.) which I played back and forth, I used everything with them but in the end they stayed ahead of me by a bit ? but it was a good motivator. I passed a ton of people during the bike, which is now ?Expected? (which is funny since I?ve not been able to very long!) but many guys passed me.
My dismount was lame and slow. Ug, I started thinking about it and I just cannot do that. Whatever, GO. I ran into transition, noticed time under 43 (could not remember for the life of me WHY I wanted 43 as my backup plan, 39:59 was my real goal). Later I now know that meant I beat last year. Good ?nuff. Bike up, helmet off, gear on, GO. RUN to exit. I thought I destroyed prior year, 1:29 nope. Freakin-extra-long-transition got me, oh well, same size I would have beaten it.
The run? for the first time in a long time, I went into this run with a positive I-Can-beat-it attitude regarding my shin. I actually do like running now, but having your left shin cramp so bad it shuts your foot down and you?re in so much pain you want to pee yourself, well that is just no fun. So with my new warmup schedule, EHL stretches (that is the muscle we think is the problem) I had some hope on an OK run if not a GOOD run. I really haven?t been able to test my wings in this regard as I?ve done no short distance (5k) races and no races have been successful this year. So it?s kind of like remove barrier? ok what?s next? Well, I stopped soon enough to do a preventative stretch. I told myself, I can loose 1:00 and it just won?t matter, your running fitness has improved enough to get it back. So I stopped, spent 1:00 exactly on EHL and calves. Started off, MAN my legs felt GOOD. Settled into a solid pace. Nice, let?s get to work. I think I held back. Oh, well lesson learned, it didn?t really hurt ? anywhere, and that breaks my rule for sprints: IF IT DOESN?T HURT, GO HARDER. IF YOU CAN BREATHE, SPEED UP. People are passing me like crazy, which is normal, whatever. Now all the women are catching me (they started after) so at least the scenery is good!
Before mile 1 the shin/calves are really tight now and it?s starting. So I stop, do my stretches and go. Lost 0:40 but now the pain is manageable although the tightness is really, well, tight. Oh well, feels much ?better? and at this level, I can tolerate it.At Mile 1 a nice surprise, DW/DS4/DS6 are there!! WOOT I got my own cheering section! Say howdy but keep going, as I know I will see them again in a few minutes the way it?s laid out. I grab water (hey, I haven?t drank on the run yet even though I have my Amphipods) and continue back and give high fives to DW/DS4/DS6/MIL and keep on truckin?. DS4 doesn?t quite get the concept by DS6 is flippin his noodle, too cute. Some of my running mates comment on the cheering section, and then we get the hill. Ug, same one as the bike. Feels worse on foot. Trudge up it and loose my running mate who is cramping badly. He finds me later, we chat, I drop, he finds, etc. Mile 2 goes pretty uneventful, the tightness continues but the shin pain isn?t so bad. The final mile I decide I REALLY need to pick up as I?m at 24:24 and if I want to break 1:30 (another goal) I need to pick up the darn pace. So I do. I go zen and just pile on fuel on the coals, as I need to get an extended solid effort to pull this off. It?s mostly flat at this part, except 2 overpasses. Those scuk. Tick tock, this is going to be close. Can I hold it? Yeah. I am not watching my pace, intentionally. Again, I am going to just put forth my effort and ignore the numbers (although they call to me? ). Round the final bend, I can see the final quarter mile. Ok, all flat. Push it, breathing really hard. I am close to Z5 now, I know it. Legs, Glutes, Hammies, Lungs ? all burning. Good, hold it now. Come on, shall we give up now? No. Go. Finally see the finish line, look at watch, 1:29:10. OMG I have to cover a LONG way. I pushed to an ALL OUT sprint. My stride totally changed, my legs were flying, I looked like a REAL runner. I hear the crowds screaming my number but I cannot look. I think I hear my name, don?t see DW/DS4/DS6. I just GO GO GO FREAKIN GO GO GO. Crossed the lunch, punched my watch, 1:29:40. WOOOOOOOOOOT. Screamed a deep loud YEAAAAAAAAAAAAAH which amused the crowds. Saw family, went over. OMG, I can?t talk. Ok, I gotta walk. HR still over 180!!! Holy carp I have no idea what it WAS during that sprint, but higher. Max is 199
After a few minutes I was able to enjoy some time with the family, satisfied I made some of my goals.
Then, because it?s a C race? I said goodbye to the family so they could prepare for DS4 birthday party today while I went and ran an hour. I decided to reverse the course and cheer in all the back of packers. By the time I hit 1.5miles I found the final runner. I gave each one encouragement and an accurate read of how far they had left. Many smiles. I find it very satisfying to be ?one of those guys? running after a race. I used to be DESTROYED but now it is, well, a warmup for my real workout of the day
Afterthoughts: Today was not a GREAT race but today was a GOOD race. I was hoping for a GREAT race, but as CC has told me SO many times, you just cannot plan on a GREAT race. Too much out of your control. Either it will or won?t, you just trust your training. And you know what, this was officially a C race on her plans for me. I was hoping to more solidly beat my swim time, but honestly I don?t deserve it because I haven?t been in the pool enough. I?m very happy with the transition times that is on this year?s todo list. I am somewhat sad about the bike, but again ? it is what it is. Still a solid bike across a hilly (not bad hills, just a fair number ? like 5-6 each way) and windy course. The run I?m ok with, drop the 1:40 I lost in stretching and it would have been a great run (PR worthy). And 1:40 is way better than 2 weeks ago 8:30 lost.
So in the end.. today was a good day. Now I'm off to eat some birthday cake for DS4 (not DS3 anymore, he reminds me!)
------------------
Yup That's me[/URL" target="_blank">
