Learning to live with myself, part 1

It has been a while since my last post because I was on a trip, so I will divide my news in two parts. I have learned a lot about myself playing hard over these last weeks, and this actually came adequately as end-of-year reflection.

On 11/30/08 I raced the Turkey Tri (0.5M swim, 14M bike, 4.5M run), in commemoration of Thanksgiving and Triathlon season finale. I neglected swimming and cycling for a while, and I knew I would pay a price for that. My prediction was a finish in 1h50min, without knowing the course.

Bonelli Park is a beautiful place, with mountains at sight, a big central lake, and a lot of green. But the water was dark and cold, the bike course is moderately hilly, and the run path is narrow. That together with my unpreparedness brought a weird result to a beautiful day and a beautiful course. If you can believe, the race organization did not track transition times, even using chips. So my times were: swim 28:31, bike 56:35, run 40:31, finish 2:05:37.

During the swim I had shortness of breath, probably a mix of cold water, bad technique and panic, and I needed to float for about three minutes.
The first buoy was very far from the start, and all swimmers had navigation problems. On top of that, many experienced triathletes had the impression that the course was longer than 0.5 mile. At T1 I checked my time, and then I started a personal race against the clock. The bike leg was exciting, with many turns and rolling hills, my first using cyclocomputer. From that I know my bike time was 49 min, with probably T1 5:35min and T2 2 min. My legs complained a little on the run course, but I still could have a relative catch-up. I placed overall 318/601, and age group 54/76.

I paid the price for not being prepared, and I will have to live with that. But within a context of Half-Ironman training for next season, this showed me this is the time to stop racing for fun and curiosity, to know courses and have experience, and start objectively racing, with defined training plan, goals and purpose. I already know I can do it and finish it, even without preparation, but it is time to train against myself. I am always very enthusiastic and hungry for new experiences, bright characteristics of Aries natives, but hard-headed and hard to adhere to hard long and steady plans.

Now it is time to be a grown-up triathlete and focus my time and energy.

Next races: Big Cat Challenge 12-hour Ultramarathon (12/27/08), Surf City USA Marathon (02/01/09), 27th Annual Avia Wildflower Triathlon Long Course (05/02/09), Vineman Ironman 70.3 (07/19/09).

Hero of the week: Manny Pacquiao, who won against the odds and the media, making history starting a new era in boxing.

Quote of the week: “The day the child realizes that all adults are imperfect, he becomes an adolescent; the day he forgives them, he becomes an adult; the day he forgives himself, he becomes wise.” Alden Nowlan.