Weblogic

I am sooooo energized and excited to be racing!  The last two weekends have consisted of my early season races.  These are the races that give me an idea of what level my winter training has brought my fitness too.  This winter I worked really hard on my weaknesses - swimming and running.  After many many hours in the pool, and many many hours focusing on good running form, I am quite pleased with my early season results.

First stop was the “one and only” Avia Wildflower Triathlon (half iron) down in California.  This is an epic, high energy, challenging race that tests both mental and physical strength.  Perfect.

I went down to Wildflower a week early to get some bike mileage in on quiet roads in the warm sunshine.  A group of us camped at the race venue (Lake San Antonio).  Camping and training is a great combination as life stays simple and sleep comes easy with the sunset.

Going into this race my goals were to swim and run strongly.  I sure was nervous at the start of the swim, fearing that I would not see the results I was hoping for.  I decided to be confident and positioned myself right at the front of the swim pack only to take and elbow and have my goggles knocked off before my face even hit the water.  I found humour in the event (as I had been SO focused standing on the start line) shrugged it off, pulled my goggles (along with a bunch of lake water) over my eyes and jumped in at the rear of the pack.  I swam through the pack until I was alone and then settled into my own pace with no one in sight- I had lost my pack.  I spent a great amount of time and energy dealing with negative thoughts about how slow I was going to be because of my bad start and not having any feet to draft.  BUT… to my surprise I exited the water with a 32:02- not as fast as I had hoped, but a 1:50 PB!

On the bike, my legs (and bum) were quite sore from the rides earlier on in the week so I just settled in and kept it comfortable hoping to leave some legs for the run.  Wildflower’s run is crazy tough being mostly on trails with steep ups and downs.  This year, I sure felt strong out there and took 12 minutes off my previous run time on that  course!   Not bad.

Next stop was the Bare Bones Duathlon back in Penticton, BC.  I continued to train into this race, only to get hit by a headc old the day before.  After 14 out of 24 hours sleeping, I felt good enough to race but didn’t have high hopes.  When the race started I felt surprisingly good and kept feeling better and better as the race went  on.  For the first time in a long time, I felt the some real strength in my cycling legs.  I was surprised to learn I was in the lead after the first of three laps on the second 5km.  Somehow I ended up winning the race!

These two early season prep races taught me a few good lessons.

First of all, there is no need to panic when something goes wrong on in a race.  The calmer you stay, the faster you get back on track.  Second of all, you can have great days even when your body is not feeling up to par right off the bat- it’s important to give all workouts a try.  Thirdly, rest has great value and can go a looong way if done properly.

Train hard.  Rest hard.  Race hard.