9 Months to Tri

Time: 7:51 - 56:50

So, this is where I lost my race. And my spirit. And possibly my mind. Totally.

But first, its now been two complete days since I finished. I was hoping to write posts 3 and 4 tonight, but it isn’t going to happen. I am just far too tired. I can’t believe I’m even awake and writing this. Between capturing the images from the camera last night, choosing the ones to use and then writing the first two posts, I got to bed about 2 a.m. last night and then got up again at 6 a.m. Stupid, I’m sure.

Anyway, besides being just generally tired (I decided against working out today) I’m still sore. Some muscles are more sore today than yesterday. Its that whole “second day” effect at play. But nothing abnormal. All is fine. I just need to finish this and hit the sac. Lack of sleep can’t be helping my recovery.

So, OK. The bike ride. Right. This is where I totally lost it. I guess it was just stupidity on my part and a real overconfidence in my abilities. Also, I feel like I got some bad intel on the bike course. When questioning folks and trying to find out what kind of trails I’d be riding on if I chose the 5 mile mountain bike route (as opposed to the 8 mile road course), I got the picture that it was a lot of fire roads and jeep trails, mixed in with a little bit of non-technical single track. Boy, was I wrong. Don’t get me wrong, it wasn’t hyper technical riding, but it was almost all rough single track. Lots of bumps, hills (my eyes popped out of my head when I saw a few of the climbs; I swear some of them were 40 to 45 degrees) and switchbacks. Lots of slowing and going.

Now, let’s look at my ‘training’. Besides a few rides I had actually taken on my own bike on non-technical firetrails and riding paths, most of my riding was done in the gym on a stationary bicycle. My training was geared for a road race. Straight ahead and 100 rpms. Not slowing, speeding, gear-shifting or climbing. I was also apparently SO unconfident on my bike that I couldn’t even take full advantage of the downhill portions; riding cautiously and watching for a trail that I’d never ridden before.

I was actually supposed to have a new, non-ten-pound bike this year. My wife had saved up for one for our anniversary, but economics being what they were, I ended up telling her is was OK to spend the money on some more essential items that came up unexpectedly.

So, 10 minutes into the race, I was dead. If I’d been in the least bit prepared, I could have at least put road tires on my 18 year old mountain bike and done the 8 mile road race. I SHOULD have been able to finish that in 24-30 minutes. In fact, that had been my original estimate.

Here I’m going to speculate, but I really think this is how it might have played out, and why I’m just very unsettled with my performance. IF I had chosen to ride the road rather than the trails, and IF I had finished the 8 mile road race at my standard 3 minutes per mile, I’d have finished in 24 minutes. That’s HALF of what I actually did. And IF I had finished in 24 minutes, then I would have started the run 25 minutes earlier, and with a LOT more energy than I had after a 50 minute bike ride. IF I had that energy back, I think I could have knocked another 10 minutes off my run. More about the run in tomorrow night’s post. But seriously, let’s think about that (but not too much, or I’ll get upset again). 30-35 minutes added to my time because of a bone-headed decision. 1:12:00 would have put me in the 190s, not at 262nd.

Well, enough of the fiction. Let’s get back to reality.

What I actually experienced on the trail was VERY humbling. I didn’t pass a single person. Everyone was passing me. I joked to myself that I should have written “On My Left” with a big arrow pointing to my left on the back of my shirt. I certainly heard it enough. The scenery was actually very nice, and the trails were beautiful, but I was too pissed at myself to enjoy any of it.

Another thing I noticed while riding was that I had NO IDEA where I was or how far I had to go. I was just following arrows. Did I have 4, 3, 2 or even just 1 mile to go? No clue. Surprisingly, I found that lack of knowledge to be very discouraging.

In all, I found myself at my absolute LOWEST point mentally during this part of the race. While I didn’t expect that I’d do as well during the bike ride as I did during the swim, I really had expected to hold my own, not watch the entire race crumble around me. It was during this part of the race that I remember thinking to myself that this was insane. I would never do another one of these races again.

Anyway, I finally came into the home stretch, which was by far the most humbling event of the evening. As I guided my bike onto the trail that would take me to the transition area, I found that I was merging with the early runners that were just finishing their race. Imagine that. At roughly 55 minutes, the early finishers had already been done for 10 minutes already, including Mike the Trainer, who finished in 52:04 and who had been done for 2 or 3 minutes. Me, I still had a 40 minute run ahead of me.

I pulled into the transition area, ditched my bike and helmet, and headed out to the trails on foot, completely uncertain as to whether or not I’d even finish this ’stupid’ race. The only bright point of all of this was my little girl cheering “Go, Dad!” Well, sometimes smiles come easy.  :smile:

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