the dreaded DNF.

Well, the race wasn't meant to be, I guess.  First, my goggles came off when I hopped in the pool.  I had to get those back on and by that point, I guess my brain decided it was time to panic.  I couldn't catch my breath and struggled in the pool.  I must have looked like I didn't even know how to swim.  When I finally got out of the pool and went to transition, I had a flat tire.  At that point, I decided to abandon the race.  I didn't have anything with me to change the flat since the race was so short.  One of the volunteers offered to go to her car and get a tube, but I decided to mail it in.

After the race, I went home to run.  Katie and I set out to do 12 miles, but that wasn't meant to be either.  It was ridiculously humid and the temperature shot up.  Additionally, my leg started hurting.  I limped, ran, jog, walked, and complained my way through about 11 of the 12 miles.  All-in-all, it was one crappy training/racing day.

First Tri of the season

Tomorrow morning, I'll be doing my first tri of the season.  Its a super sprint, which really just means "super short."  Since the race is definitely not an "A" race, and probably not even an "C" race, I'm just going to red-line it the whole time.  I'll either have a good race or completely blow up.  Its only a 200m swim, 7 mile bike, and a 2 mile run.  If I blow up, it'll likely be at the 1 mile mark on the run, so suffering will be minimal.  We'll see how the tactic works.  Tune in tomorrow...

Escaping the trap

Its no secret to those that know me that I've fallen out of the kind of shape I was in a couple years ago.  I've eaten too much Mexican food and drank too much beer.  I'm still probably in better shape than most of America, but I'm a long, long way from any PRs.  Falling out of shape didn't happen overnight, but rather was caused by a series of occurrences.  The first, and probably the most major, was moving back to Texas.  When I left NYC, I lost my teammates, training partners, coach, accountability, and a lot of my motivation.  The second major piece was a little bit of mental burnout after stringing together two Ironmans and a 100 mile run, plus all the training, in a two year period.  I decided to dial back the training and take a break, however, when I tried to get back into things, my entire support infrastructure was gone, and I struggled.

My previous attempts at getting back in racing shape have been thwarted by my own mistakes, mainly doing too much too soon.  It was hard to put the notion of big miles out of my head, despite the fact that my body hasn't been physically ready for that toll.  In my head, I was still an Ironman.  I was still a low 3 hour marathoner, and I was still a 100 mile runner.  I'd log a few weeks of medium distance and then start piling on the mileage.  What resulted was a series of nagging issues that ended up putting me back on the sideline drinking beer or running races "for fun."  "For fun" would be the phrase I used to disguise the fact that I wasn't in shape and was internally angry at myself for not being able to run fast.  As a coach, I knew better.  Yet, I repeated the pattern over and over.  No matter how many times I told others the correct way, I was turning around and doing the opposite.

I'm now on the path to success.  I've forced myself to go back to the basics and slowly build.  I'm now in week 5 of a base building program, before shifting into a true distance training block for the summer/fall.  Additionally, I've started doing TRX to build up my core and supplement my run training.  I've noticed big gains in time to fatigue in my quads, especially when running hills.  This isn't to say that I'm running fast yet, but I'm noticing differences in how my body feels on runs.  Additionally, I've noticed that my legs feel stronger on the bike as well.  Yes, I'm incorporating rides and swims to my routine as well.  It seems like a lot, but the riding and swimming is low-impact, and I'm listening to my body.  I've taken days off when I felt overly fatigued.  The last piece that is contributing to success again is finding a group run.  Its not the same as a training group or a team, but at least one day a week, I'm running with others, including people that are faster than me.  Its bringing that social aspect back, and causing me to push myself a little more than normal.

Sometimes its best to just step back and start over.