Turtleman and Beyond

Turtleman was my last standard tri of the year and the last MM race I'm doing for the season. When I got there, I noticed that there was TONS of bike racks, and most of them were already full.

I set up next to 2 ladies on mountain bikes, and got ready. The lot wasn't sweeped, so I used my bare feet to sweep away the dirt. I wasn't feeling really motivated. This was to be an "A" race, and my goal was to average over 24mph on the bike. Having trained little this week for a few reasons--book club, shin splints, and the general need to do laundry.

Since my number was 700-something, I got to wait while nearly 700 people started before me.

Swim: 23:23. 1:26/100yd I took about 10 steps into the lake, where my legs sunk almost knee deep into mud. I then decided to begin swimming the the ~1.5ft deep water. The water was black--it completely cut out the sun only a few inches down. It was difficult to get a feel for pace, since I didn't really have anyone to swim against. On the way back, the swim exit on the east bank was difficult to see as the morning sun made for some dark shadows.

T1: Clusterfuck. 1:33 Biking was allowed in the transition! Effing Ridiculous! I got my bike and rode off into the steep uphill immediately at the transition exit, except I couldn't clip in my right foot. It took a long time to actually get it clipped in, so I sacrificed some speed here.

Bike: 23.6mph I tied my best bike effort. It was my intention here to go 24+, but I just couldn't do it. The course was pretty flat, and had LOTS of turns, and most of them were fast. There was also cones out to apparently protect bikers from traffic, but they did more to obstruct me on a busy course.

T2: I almost ran a guy over coming into my rack. He wasn't paying attention to what was going on. No biking in transition please.

Run: 7:25/mile Most people told me this was a pancake flat run, but they live in a parallel universe. There was a couple long inclines. About 300meters out of T2, I felt my calf tense up, and almost seize. This really kills your confidence when you want to run fast, since I didn't want to walk 5 miles. About 2 miles in, I did feel a rhythm setting in, but it didn't last long. I have found that I'm a pretty good runner when it comes to hills, and I did pass tons of people that I was jousting with on that hill, but overall, I felt slow. It hurt. The finish line came up alot faster than I thought it would.

Age Group 4/37 (just missed podium)
Overall 78/79x


Now, the floor in my room is covered in dirty clothes. My bikes are filthy. My car is full of crap and clutter. My desk looks like a paper bomb went off at tit. It's all a perfect metaphor for my future triathlon & other sports goals--complete disarray.

I've felt quite burnt out during my last couple races, and I don't feel like I'm becoming as fit as I want to be. I will surely compete next year, but to what extent I don't know.....maybe a 1/2 ironman, a road race here, a mountain bike race there.....

Backpacking.
Camping.
Mountain Climbing.

Friendship.
Family.
Focus.