This triathlon was close enough to home so we decided to save some $$$ and drive down the morning of the race. Jeff came with us as the babysitter, so AJ was able to come too! They were great cheerleaders! I stayed at Nicole's house and she even cleaned my bike while I was at work ... my my how the tables have turned!4:45 am - I am blinded by my room light being turned on in an attempt to wake me up ... thanks Nicole! You're a great alarm clock =)
The drive wasn't very long, but I still managed to pass out ... that was until Jeff took a picture of me and used the flash. I remember waking up from my nice slumber and saying "you're sooo mean!" Of course that picture quickly got uploaded to Facebook. Btw, don't listen to what they said, I was not drooling!
Guess you could say it was any other normal race morning. This was my first race wearing my new On On Tri jersey! We got to transition, set everything up, got body marked, laughed with friends, tested out the bikes ... ooo... why isn't my bike shifting into the big crank. I start to panic & was not very happy. Thankfully there was bike mechanic there and he tightened up my cables for me, and then I was all good again. =)
What?!? It's already time to go into the pool?!? We start lining up in numerical order and I started to panic again. Seriously? I am #49. What if I am not fast enough for being #49 and get passed ... I don't like getting passed in the pool! They tell me to go and I take off running. Last week I walked to the edge and then dove. Well this time I was feeling a little confident and decided to run and then dive. Haha! You know you are in the air way to long when you feel like you are floating in the air and wondering what's going to happen next. And then all of the sudden I just kinda went kerplop into the water & my goggles ended up around my neck. Ooops! Gotta practice that a little more! Ok, so it turns out #49 was perfect. I didn't get passed, but I did pass 3 people! The swim felt pretty good. I ended up passing the first guy at the first wall but then it was clear sailing till the last 50 where I hit the 2 ladies. After climbing out of the pool I took off running into transition. 44 seconds baby & I was out on my bike!
The bike was a 3 loop course through downtown Columbia. This year my bike was a little faster than last year, and the course felt so much safer! I pushed hard & I only threw up once! Yes, maybe I'm on the mend! It was a technical course and you definitely needed to be alert. Every time I take a fast corner I still get nervous & feel my bike sliding out from under me (even though it's not), but at least now I don't really slow down because of it anymore. Katie whizzed by me at one point & yelled out some encouraging words. At the end of the last biggest hill, Nicole passed me and hollered at me too. Maybe one of these days I will be zooming around like them =)
Ah, the run. Hmm ... well it was slower than last year. Obviously I was not happy about this. I could chalk it up to the 55mi bike and T-run from the day before, but whatever. That's what happens when you are training for a 70.3 and are using this race as a training day. It is disappointing to see the lack of improvement in my run. Honestly its my own fault though. My coach (Nicole) tells me what I am supposed to do ... I have just had issues getting it done. Look at Katies freaking awesome running form in the picture below. I think she's even smiling! Yep, that's what I have got to work on! If anything the run this past weekend was a wake up call and helped me realign my training priorities.
Even with the slower run I was able to bring home 2nd place in my age group (25-29)!!
I am now on recovery week. Yay! Since Sunday's race I have already been working on my running drills and I will continue to work on the run as the weeks go by.
No comments:
Post a Comment