Perspective all Wet

Training and racing update. We are deep in the throws of peak training. The second long bike training took place last Sat. Yes the wet, cold Sat. 12 of us left Afton Mn. and made our turnaround just past Diamond Bluff Wi. Sixty-four miles of rain, wind and cold all day. It is trainings days like this that are make or break for what you will be able to do race day. Attempting to find perspective and fight through the mental desire to quit is the biggest challenge. Can the body keep biking in cold and rain....yes. Do you want to at the time when your warm bed is calling your name, that is the question. Many things come to mind to combat these mental predicaments. Four hours of cold, wet, ridiculous hill climbs are not typically something you choose to do.

The first one that I call upon in my mind is knowing that pretty much anything I choose to do training will be way easier than any chemo treatment. It always inspires me to push on when I think of Adam and all the things he had no choice to go through. I think about all the little kids going through treatments. Suffering through the side effects of their treatments. I think about the fight they must put up to endure to get better. This season I am blessed to be training with Josh who fought this battle just a few short years ago. He was one of the fortunate ones to get better and I am blessed to train and race with him. That is why I will choose to push on. Together we are making a difference in the fight. People's lives are being saved with the treatments that are being found.

Sunday, the day after that dauntingly wet Afton ride, was my first tri race of the season. Typically when you have a race coming up you "tapper" your workouts down to allow you body to fully recover from all your workouts and thus have full energy to give race day. This was the furthest from the case for the Buffalo triathlon this year. Buffalo is a "tune up" race this year for the big Pacific Crest Half Iron on June 27. Last year Buffalo was my strongest swim day and most comfortable race of the year. I am one year smarter and have close to twice the training in at this point compared to last year. I knew that yesterdays ride would severely hamper me from performing my best but I still wanted to give a comfortably strong race. I had many bike issues preparing for the start of the race. Thankfully I was able to get the help I needed to fix all my problems but I was not able to relax or warm up the way one would like to.

Race nerves are becoming more manageable with many races under my belt. The swim began and I set out to have a strong comfortable effort for the first part of the race. About 100 yards into the swim I was at the front of my wave when my body asked me a funny question. It was more of a statement I think. "Do you rally think you are going to do this today?" I continued on thinking that it was something to work through but the feeling became stronger and I soon knew that today was not a day to push hard. The focus of this race quickly changed course by the second hundred yards. "Just be comfortable" became the motto of the swim. So I settled back and watched the bulk of my wave go by and was happy to settle in to a pace less than what I could have done on a "fresh day."
Coming out of the water I was dizzy. I took my time to get on the bike and decided that I would make the bike my strong effort for the day. It is my goal to improve on the bike this year so I wanted to push my limits on this part of the race. My legs felt fine and allowed me to push faster than I have ever been able to push on the bike. Things were building stronger as I approached the half way point of the bike leg and knew that I would be able to carry my pace for the majority of the race. Then one big bump and a odd noise occurred. I pushed on trying to figure out what the noise was. It occurred to me not too far down the road that my Garmin computer on my wrist band came unclipped and was now gone. That is not something you want to loose so I quickly changed course to find the missing computer. Sure enough not too far back it was in the middle of the road. Lucky for me it powered back up and I attempted to get back into the grove I was in. I was able to notch things back up but not quite to the pace I was turning.
None the less the bike was the best I have ever turned out. I learned how to better prepare for racing and the swim to bike transition. A great learning experience.
The run was great also. I have been very diligent with running this year. Making each workout valuable this season has really paid off. It is very important to listen to your body during training. Weighing your food, sleep factors into what you can do that day. Pushing when you can push and running "recovery runs" when you need to take things easy. The race run was strong. I really wanted to pull back on this piece of the race but my heart rate was in a comfortable spot so I pushed myself to keep pace and fight the desire to lay up. I turned in a strong pace and was happy to have won the mental battle and finished with a consistent pace.

I do need to be careful from here out to not push too hard. I fraught many thoughts of "burn out" today and it is only the first race of the season. I am pretty sure that the conditions of the Afton bike ride the day before and the race conditions today were better, but not by much. My sleep factor wan not what it should have been either. I will take the next few days to recover and do "easy, recovery" workouts. I know that this week will be a great building block for a great race in Oregon. I am so thankful for all the support this year and my great friends that I am training and racing with. Many of us had challenging moments today but they are all experiences that can make us stronger.

Over all, my day compared to last years race was close to the same. The swim was way slower, the bike was way faster even with the backtracking and stop. The run was a bit faster and my transitions were about double from last year because I was either was not well prepared and or I just did not care to get in and out that fast. The overall time was less than two minuets slower than last year which makes me super happy.
Most of all I was proud of all my TNT team mates that competed for the first time today. Epically those that rode Afton Sat in the wind and rain and finished a great race Sunday at Buffalo.

WAY TO GO!