Well the worst is over



Setting up in Transition -- Listening to Tunes


Well...  At least that's I'm choosing to believe!

Doc helped a ton on Thursday, but he's still rather frustrated.  He said he was going to Dallas over the weekend and asked if he could relay my case to the other doctors.  I said sure he can share anything he'd like.  He's hoping that a fresh perspective might lead somewhere.

Saturday was my first race of the season.  I wasn't sure what I could expect.  I HOPED for a 13:30 swim and to finish the race in 90 minutes.  I guess I hoped too much.

As I went to go get my race packet, an official made an announcement that the water was 68 degrees to wetsuits were legal.  I yelled "BRILLIANT!  That sounds like a swell time!"  He laughed at me as I walked by.  Then I got to thinking:  Dude!  That's freakin' COLD!  After I picked up my stuff, I had to pee REAL bad.  A lady in the restroom made a comment that "68 degrees isn't that bad.  It's actually a perfect wetsuit temperature."  SHE WAS ON CRACK!  Lol.  No one else I encountered said the same.  The consensus seemed to be that everyone was dreading the swim.  Myself included.

I got my wetsuit on and went to the beach to go warm-up for about 10 minutes.  It felt like I was climbing into an ice bath.  Ugh!  Wetsuits don't block that kind of cold.  Lol.  I went to put my face in the water and the breath got knocked out of me.  Not to mention the cold factor just shocked the hell out of me.  I couldn't keep my face in the water.  I kept trying over and over and over again.  Just couldn't do it.  When they started the national anthem, prayer, etc I got out to go line up.  My bf wrapped me in a big towel and tried to convince me that I'd be acclimated by the time I got to the first buoy.  I hoped he was right.

And that never happened.  Once again, I couldn't keep my face in the water.  AND I started getting the burps.  Can't get any air.  Burping.  Frigid water.  Oh yeah!  And my goggles flooded 5 times!  It was great.

I did a series of backstroke & breaststroke then an attempt at freestyle.  I could never find the rhythm in my freestyle like I always do normally.  Somehow I did mange to pass some people, but not many.  I just wanted out of there so bad.  The third time I tried to use freestyle, my left shoulder twinged a lot.  Fantastic!  What a great start to a miserable day!



Not my best performance, but definitely happy to be done



I finally made it out of the water.  I had to put on a long sleeve jersey since it was pretty chilly out and I was soaking wet.  Took me a while and broke my concentration a bit.  I got it on and hopped on the bike.  Since I haven't trained much on the bike this year, I knew it'd kind of suck.  Lol.  My shoulder didn't allow me to get comfortable, but that was ok.  I just wanted to get through it with a similar time as last September (which I did!).



I got off the bike, tore off the jersey, squished my feet into my Mizuno Wave Inspire 8 shoes and took off like a bat out of hell.  Within the first few steps, I noticed my lower back had flared up.  The pain was at about a 9.5.  So I went through my usual steps to try and relieve it while on the go.  None of it worked.  It was just shot.  A half mile had gone by and I noticed that while the pain was still there, it didn't get worse.  So I made a pact with myself that if the pain got worse -- quit, pack up , and go to a hospital.  If it stayed where it was -- even though it was excruciating -- keep going.  So I did.



I was trying to get my shorts from being bunched.  I swear.



So I kept going with tears pouring down my face. I just wanted it to be over. I figured -- the faster I ran, the sooner it would be over. I got to the 1 Mile marker and glanced at my watch. 7 minutes had passed. Holy shit!

As usual, between mile 1 and 2 is where I struggle the most. This happens on any run, but especially during a tri. Didn't help that between mile 1 and 2 are long steep-ass hills. My legs felt like anchors from an oil tanker. I never stopped pumping my knees. I actually had to convince other runners to keep going. I got within sight of the turnaround cone and I started yelling at a guy I was passing, "Dude! The turn around is right there! Pick your ass up and run!" He did. I think he used me to pace off of until the finish too.

As soon as I got around that cone, the anchors fell off. I FLEW back down the road, gravel road and small trail leading back to the park. As soon as I could see the final stretch leading to the finish line, I just gave it all I had. I spotted a chick a ways ahead (turned out she was 43 -- at first I thought her leg said 34) and I said, "I'm passing you..." And I did about 4 seconds before I crossed the finish line.

My lower back was pissed as hell, but I was so happy I was done.



Want to know something even cooler?  I was 14 seconds off my PR for a 5K!  My best 5K time was in March 2011 (Ashley 5K Run in Powder Springs, GA) at 24:25. I just did a 5K run after a nasty-ass swim and crappy bike in 24:39 -- with severe pains! Lol. I guess that could be considered a silver lining...



 So I looked at the results sheet and realized that if I had hit my target swim and had "normal" transition times, I would have placed 3rd in my age group.  DAMN!  That's ok I guess.  I have at least 2 more sprints this year.  Not to mention one of those is this same race in September.  Perfect time to kick ass!







That awkward moment when...  ;)