-Working in an Office that is not in your living room
-Shaving
-Putting on dress clothes with a tie
Why? Because I am lazy and I would much rather mosy on over to my desk next to my lazy boy recliner, with a three day beard and in my nice sweat pants and t-shirt. It would just take all the hassle out of the getting dressed and driving through commuter traffic thing. Plus I wouldn't have to mess with tying a tie..that literally takes me 10 minutes and I have to put it on my training peaks schedule because it is so time consuming...Good grief! hahahaha
This weekend I had the opportunity to race in beautiful Cazenovia, NY. I had not planned to do this race, nor race this soon after IMLP. (Mistake #1). The race was on a Sunday so I took the chance to make a weekend out of the deal and headed to Syracuse really really early to ride the 70.3 course with Don, Chris, and Ken. (Mistake #2) Not a mistake to ride with these dudes but a mistake to go out and ride my longest ride post IMLP (53 miles) with a lot of hills, the day before a race (even if it was just a sprint) but the race was a training race and I am getting back into training mode so I knew what I was getting into..I just didn't really expect my legs to feel that sore. After the ride I had a few hours to kill as I was going to be heading to Mr. Cusetri himself's house for the night, but I wasn't heading there until around 5PM and our ride ended at like 11AM...you do the math. And mistake #3 was that during all of Saturday I didn't really get any rest. I am not capable of taking naps. I just can't do them. I try and try and try but I simply cannot take a nap during the middle of the day. Even if I was up the entire 2 days previous if it is 2pm on a Saturday and I have nothing to do but sit and rest..I still can't nap. It's werid. But anyways, what this means is that I was up all day until like 10:30 or something after getting up at 4am in the morning and going to bed at 11pm the night before. Thus I had a lack of sleep. And finally mistake #4 was that as I sat waiting for the swim start I just had a bad feeling in my body. I was just not with it. Usually I am Mr Energy but I simply was flat. Usually all these indicators would have told me that maybe this wasn't going to be my day and I should resort to my original plan which was to watch the race. But no I was there to get some work in and get some work in I did! After my worst swim ever which had me hyperventalating, throwing my arms around like they were rocks (yes, literally my arms wouldn't move), and had episodes of stopping and bobbing in the water wondering what the heck was going on...I finally made it back to the beach after what seemed to be a few hours. I was exhausted, something was off, I didn't even high five my dad when I ran to transition, he was like 5 feet to my right at one point but that was just to far to move in the state I was in. I tried to get going on the bike right out of transition but it was uphill and not conducive to a good bike start when your all messed up after a swim. So after a really nice volunteer offered to push me I gave her a mumble and was like i'll take care of it..stupid move, I spent the next 20 seconds going back and forth on the dang hill trying hopelessly to clip my right cleat into the pedal. Normally this is the sort of thing I do without looking at my feet but on Sunday I had no coorindation going. None the less I continued on my adventure. The bike was nasty. Very hilly and very very windy with a couple decents that ended with turns which I heard caused many a triathlete to almost lose it into the field that was beyond the curve. I limped in off the bike and did what I could on the run. It was officially the weirdest day of triathlon I have ever had. I do not write this for sympathy, I simply write this because I want to acknowledge the fact that yes the Ironman does take a lot out of you whether you know it. Did I shock my body when I sprinted at the start of the swim. Sure...that'd be my guess. Did my body do the smart thing and shut down? Yes, I believe I did. Did my head agree with the bodies decision? Absolutely not. So sure Ironman you put a scare into me and taught me a lesson but I gained a mental edge on you today! I will adhere to your recovery protocol and respect your challenges...but be warned. I am coming for round 2 as a stronger triathlete...mentally and physically!
But their is a silver lining in this all. Even on the rough days when you set your PW's (Personal Worst's) you can still really learn something about yourself and really get some great mental training out of the situation. Yes, I had a terrible swim. I had to stop and collect myself and then make the choice to keep going. Sure it wasn't going to be at my normal pace but I made the choice to get back to the beach and take it from there. After slogging through a very short swim I was able to take my time in T1 and get on the bike. Once on the bike with high gusty winds I faced more challenges. Like what the heck am I doing out here. None the less the day went on, I got off my bike, was able to run a few people down, and ended up 10th overall. So ya cry me a river right? I am whining and complaining about finishing 10th, but that's just how it is now. At a smaller local race like this I as well as my teammates have certain expectations. We train our butts of for a reason and on race day we like to execute. Unfortunately you can execute everything perfect all the time.
Here I am on my way to beat down Corona with my STICK. This is my way of thanking him for getting me to come to this race :)
Yey, a downhill finally!
Come on Turbo you can do it...it took me about 5 tries to clip in.
ouch, that hurt!
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