I don't feel much like dwelling on yesterday.. but I do know there is value in learning from the tough days on a race course, and hopefully its helpful to some readers who have either gone through similar disappointments and/or are sharing in their own racing journey, so here goes.
Usually these are called race reports, but there wasn't a whole lot of racing for me going on yesterday, so here are my point form take-a ways from the day. And before, I go further - HUGE THANK YOU, to my wife and kids for their undying support and to mom, dad, bro and friends who were there lending an encouraging word yesterday. I really do love having people I care about at races with me and I appreciate it. That said, on days that go bad (like yesterday), I almost feel more bad, as you have made the efforts to be there and I fail to reach my goals. I know you love me just the same, but that's just a reality I face when I'm out there.
PRE-RACE: Going in, I felt fine. I had no reason to really expect being off, or to under perform. I did have a few small doubts in my head (from the odd "flat" workout that had popped up over the past month - but they can't all be 100% strong) - and I had hoped the doubts would be positively answered with a strong performance on race day. On Thursday, before the race, I had a great brick workout where I rode for 1:30, and ran for 30'. I averaged 36km/hr+ on the bike, and ran 4:35/km, both in easy Z1/2 efforts. This is the type of workout I've been doing week in and week out, and I mention the paces because, surely it reasonable to expect to race at at minimum - these speeds (on similar terrain of course), but really, I hoped and should be able to go even faster.
SWIM - The swim was pretty uneventful. I expected to be around 30-32 minutes, and came out in 31:41. Not super fast, but a minute here or there didn't matter much in my game plan, as I really wanted to nail the bike and run.
BIKE - I got on to the bike, and had the usual high heart rate from the swim and transition. The first 5-10km, can often feel awkward, and they did. I tried to settle in and let the heart rate come down, which it did. I was hoping to start feeling strong, but it seemed to be taking longer. I keep spinning, taking on nutrition, and by 20-25km, doubts start creeping in as I was not moving through the field like I planned. My lower back started getting unusually tight and I was getting discouraged, because I should have been passing a lot more people by now, but instead I was basically holding my place, with the odd rider going by me. Anyways, a tight back and lack of strength, led to a very underwhelming ride. I had hoped to be around 2:25-2:20, but instead was 2:32 (avg speed 33.6ish km/hr), and the course was short, so it was more like a 2:40 (which for me, is way off the mark and concerning, to say the least!). (For reference, 2 years ago I rode a 2:26 for 90km)
RUN: Sadly, things just got worse here. I had very "heavy" legs and the tightness in my back, ran through my glutes and into my legs - taking any smoothness of stride away. Mom commented after the race, how skinny I was looking, but I felt like I was running with a 100lb Gorilla on my back! To make matters more annoying, I did not get my racing nutrition right, as I had some cramping in my quads around 2km into the run. I stopped and took down more salt, and a gel and that took care of the cramps - which never did return, as I kept taking on nutrition as much as I could. I haven't had a run.. more like "shuffle/walk", like that in a long time, and it was so hard mentally to keep moving. It just gives you way to much time to dwell on all the doubts, and questions that days like this raise. All those training runs where I've been cruising 4:30-4:40/km, and now 6 minute km's are a pipe dream - that is UGLY and hard to take, and frankly far to great of drop off for what I have put it, for even an Ironman - let alone a half. The "run" was 2:17:42... I was hoping at worse to run a 1:35, (and should be able to go 1:30 or better - 'nough said.
At the end of the race, I finished in 5:24:09 - 24/34 in my AG.
As I was typing this, Jodie said to me "I feel like I have a hang over or something", and that sums it up well! Its a mix of disappointment and anger, going through me today. I know, it was "just 1 race", but I love to compete - and to me that's as much a part of it as anything, and this was way far from the competition I was expecting to bring. I felt like I was fighting my body pretty much the whole day, and I don't enjoy that at all.
Time to go back to the drawing board and re-build from this - I will get stronger.
Jon
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