Triathlon

It’s the Final Countdown!

The song from that commercial is playing in your head right now, isn’t it?  You are welcome.

I can’t believe my first Olympic distance tri is less than one week away!  I remember signing up for it just before my second sprint distance race.  I’m really glad I signed up for it before that race and not after.  What a disaster that one was.  Of course hind sight is 20/20 as they say.  While I think from a fitness perspective I was ready for it, from a mental perspective, I was completely unprepared.  Part of me gained a little confidence that I could finish the race because I had done so once already.  Of course the swim was my biggest challenge and I told myself that I knew what to expect so it should be much easier and I left it at that.  I hadn’t really considered the fact that every single race is different, every day is different!

We can have the exact same routine day in and day out, but while the routine may be the same we are not.  I can wake up feeling amazing and refreshed, ready to take on the world one day, and awake feeling like a blob of blah the next.  I know that I’m not alone in that, it seems to be human nature.  To expect that the result of one race will predict that of another is a rookie move.  Yes, you can use trends to predict certain aspects of performance, but one does not constitute a trend.  I also realize now that I was having a hard time and never really acknowledged that.  I was dreading this race.  I had just come off a week of vacation, which should sound resting but we all know that while it’s a break away from the 9-5, it’s not really a relaxing vacation most of the time.  I had a really bad cold and I was just not into training.  I didn’t feel well physically or mentally.  In hindsight, it would have probably benefited me more to let that race go.  It’ was much harder, I think, to try to get myself out of the funk that race created, than it would have been to overcome that I just didn’t go.

In the months since the race I have been training harder, but not just in my physical training.  I have been doing some mental exercises as well.  I’m doing much better at putting a stop to negative thoughts as soon as it registers that I am having them, and I am always looking for that one small step that I can take to move forward.  Last week when I arrived at the pool, I did not want to go in.  I didn’t have any sense of dread, no gut feeling that something was awry.  I just didn’t want to go in.  My mind started to mess with me.  “Why bother going in?  There is nothing that is going to help at this point.  The race is soon and no training squeezed in these last two weeks is going to help the outcome.  What’s the point?”  I realized that the negative thoughts were starting to spiral and had to be stopped.  I took a second to reset and come up with a few super easy steps to move forward.  I told myself that I just needed to go to the locker room.  If I felt this against it at that point, I could leave.  When I got to the locker room, my new goal was to put on the swimsuit.  If I did that and still felt horrible, I could leave.  After that, it was to just get in the pool.  Then, just swim a hundred yards.  Allowing myself to have these small steps to move forward, always with the knowledge that after each I could bail if I wanted to, helped me get in and get it done.  I had one of the best swims that evening.  It was just my mind messing with me.

By now, everyone knows that I fear this whole thing.  I am scared when I swim in the open water.  I am scared of crashing on the bike and well, ok I guess I am not scared of the run.  So I am scared of two thirds of this thing, but I am comfortable with that now.  I used to waste time and energy beating myself up for it.  I’ve always heard that you have to conquer your fears, but it wasn’t until I acknowledged and embrace them, that I was able to move forward.  The fears are there, and they will be.  That’s ok, but they are just a part of that negative stream of thoughts.  I feel much more able to handle those this time around.

Unfortunately, my physical training isn’t as up to par these last two weeks as I would have liked it to be.  I realize that as I approach my third one of these, I have a bit of a pattern.  I feel a little burn out at the home stretch.  I don’t push as hard and I tend to miss one or two training sessions.  This blog has been the greatest gift to myself.  I looked back and realized this rough patch is a trend for me (if three can make a trend… I’m going with it).  As I get close I almost think that there is no point of pushing, my fitness level won’t change in a week.  If I don’t have what it takes, I won’t get it in the last few days of training and hey, it’s time to taper, right?  Then, when I struggle I can beat myself up and blame any failures on  how lazy I got at the end.  I see what I am doing to myself and now I can work to stop it.

This race is going to be hard, and definitely harder than the last two.  For those that don’t know, here are the differences: Sprint swim was 400 yards – this ‘OLY’ is about 1,093 yards; the bike was 10 miles – this one is 22; the run was a 5k and this one is a 10k.  I know it’s going to be hard, but things are different this time around.  I’m actually excited!  I don’t recall ever being truly excited before a tri.  Am I scared too? – heck yeah!  Am I nervous? – heck yeah!  Am I confident that I am going to succeed? – heck no!  Am I going to be blazing fast? – heck no!  But, I am confident that I will try my best and that I will not let fear make me quit.   So, the countdown is on!

Bike

Hit and Run?

Is it still a hit and run if you don’t get hit, but crash your bike, and then run?  On Wednesday, I decided I would do a race day simulation brick.  I planned to do 10 miles out and back for a total of 20 miles on the bike and then run a 10k in the neighborhood.   Mother nature was a bit intimidating, the rain was off and on and the winds were pretty hard.  I decided to go for it anyway since it is very well possible it could rain on race day and you just have to deal with it.  I planned to ride on the greenway since there are fewer traffic interruptions except for intersections and planned to get a couple miles in at Markham Park.

I tried to make everything as much like race day as possible.  I wore my tri kit and made my hammer fuel before heading out the door.  I even had a transition area set up in the living room, ready with my run shoes, visor and race gels.  The only difference from race day was that I decided to wear my cycling rain jacket and I packed a small towel in my second water cage.  While I wouldn’t have those things on race day, I also wouldn’t be in the same environment either.  The race course will be closed to traffic and I would be able to have a continuous ride whereas on my own I would have to stop and wouldn’t have any assistance out there.  I headed out pretty excited.

I had some head wind on the way south, but figured it would be nice to have that as a tailwind on the way home.  I tried to maintain a pace that I thought was realistic for race day and had set my watch to auto pause whenever I was stopped so I could see how long the 20 miles took.  At mile 7 I was waiting to cross the street when I saw this older couple on bikes also waiting to cross.  They began into the intersection, which surprised me because we did not have the cross walk signal or right of way.  They just decided to cross when it seemed clear enough.  I was a little frustrated by that because I think a lot of drivers disregard cyclists because they think cyclists disregard the laws of the road, and some obviously do.

I finally got the crosswalk signal to head out.  I checked the turn lane to make sure it was empty or whomever was there could see me.  I had the all clear so I started across the intersection.  A driver in the straight lane decided she was going to turn right…..right into me!  She slammed her brakes just as I swerved to avoid hitting her front fender.  I cranked the pedal to get some momentum because I was wobbling, but unfortunately that sent me careening into the sidewalk on the other side of the intersection.  I’m not exactly sure what happened, but I think my front tire made it and the back tire didn’t.  I crashed down hard on my right side.  Most of me was on the sidewalk, which I was thankful for, but I had to be careful not to straighten out too much or my head would have been in traffic.  My right foot was kind of trapped in the pedal, so I pried it out and pushed the bike off of me.  I got up and picked up the bike to start assessing the damage.

The side of my seat was messed up, and I had some pretty big scrapes on my read derailleur.  Dang.   Then I started to feel the sting that told me that I had lost some skin in that one.  I had landed mostly on my right knee and hip, I thought.  I went to mount the bike and my hip gave a nice popping sound and a sharp pain made me want to cry out.  Then, I saw it and really wanted to cry!!!  My handlebars were totally bent out of shape!!!  I wanted to just call someone to pick me up and drive me home, but there really wasn’t anyone that I could call.  I also thought about the time D2 to fell on his bike.  I was terrified inside but since he was not hurt badly, I told him he had to get back on immediately and he did.  I gave it some thought and decided that if I headed home, it would be 7 miles.  Why not just finish the 10 and then head back?

I got going again trying to figure out if I could shift gears and steer ok, and headed to Markham Park.  I hit the halfway mark and stopped to fuel again. That is when I realized that I must have lost my hammer flask in my crash!  Nooooooo!!!!!  Now I had no fuel and I lost the flask I need on race day.  Dang again.  Nothing to do at this point but head back home.  I was a little bit off my game on the way back home.  I had issues with turns, definitely had issues at intersections and really had problems steering.  I started to realize it was not the smartest thing to have continued on.  My right hand started to hurt, but I thought it might be the weird position it was in due to the handlebars being out of whack.   At this point, I just wanted to get home.

That’s when the rain started.  I almost started to feel sorry for myself, and then I realized that the rain felt great.  It cooled me down, it slowed me down and it just felt nice.  I thought about how terrified I always am of crashing my bike.  I’ve always heard that it’s not “if” but “when.  Every cyclist goes through it at some point, or so I am told.  I started to feel good about it to a certain extent.  I survived my worst crash so far, and got back up and on the bike.  I was proud that I kept going.

I got home and had to decide if I was going to go for the run or not.  I wanted to at least transition and then I decided to get out and run a bit to see how I felt.  I got about a half mile and decided that one mile would be enough for the day.  It would get the blood moving like on race day, but I knew there was no way I was running 6 miles.  I could feel my stride change because of the hip pain and I knew that continuing too far could mean a worse injury so I headed back to the house for a shower.

I guess I was still experiencing some adrenaline from the ride, run and the crash because as soon as I got relaxed, everything started to hurt way worse than it had before.  I felt like I’d been hit by the car,  My entire right side was in pain.  The worst of it was my hand when I would move my fingers, and knee and back.  I decided it would be a good idea to go to the walk in center because my hand was swelling and really felt like the worst of the aches.  The doc checked me out and did some x-rays.  I have road rash and bruising on my right side, and a bad sprain or possible hairline fracture in my wrist.  I have a brace on my hand and was told not to use it for three days.  I decided to take Thursday and Friday off work and training and just rest up.  Can’t use my hand anyway and I knew the pain would be worse day 2.

Sure enough, I was right about the pain.  Now that a few days have gone by, I am healing up nicely and I don’t think I have a fracture, but it took about three days for the swelling to go down.  The bruising is now turning that lovely shade of purple and yellow, which is also a good sign.

The day hadn’t gone as planned, but the bike has been fixed and I am on the mend.  I even did a 5k Sunday and while I was in a little pain, made good time.  I have two weeks until the triathlon and I only got one swim in last week, which stinks, but I did learn a few things from this mishap.  I learned that I really need to buy another hammer flask so that if I lose one I have I don’t want to cry.  (Order placed!)  I knew, but feel like I re-learned that injuries hurt a lot more after the adrenaline wears off!   I learned that some bike parts are meant to bend so that they absorb impact.  I learned that my fear can be lessened a little by experiencing some of the things I am afraid of, though I wouldn’t recommend an incident like today for that purpose.   Most importantly  I crashed pretty hard, but I learned that I can get up and moved forward, even on race day……. At least until the adrenaline wears off!