Yesterday was the first multi-sport race of the season. I haven't quite yet really "felt" like my season has started. Oddly enough I think that won't really come until the Buffalo Tri. In short...I am a triathlete who runs :)
But anyway, sticking to the recap of the race...the weather was great! A little chilly at the starti-but I raced in tri shorts and a long sleeve dry-wick. I'm still struggling with my beginning of the season "blues". I guess I'm not sure what else to call it but I just don't have that positive rush at race start. I don't want to talk competitive or compare equipment or say anything about having a positive race because I feel like all I'm doing it setting myself up for disappointment. I'm slow and pathetic. This may sound weird but I honestly feel like I'm being looked at as the slow girl with the crappy equipment. People pass me and say "good job, keep it up!" because they feel bad for me or something. I know that sounds very odd but it's the truth listed out in the best way I can think to write it. But let's talk about the race itself. The first run wasn't too bad. Course was the same as last year which means most of the run was off-road and through the woods. I felt pretty slow but actually didn't do so bad. The bike started out feeling pretty awesome but a few hills in and my good feeling was throughly run over and I crept along with two very shot legs. I couldn't wait to start the second run but I knew it was going to suck... Pretty much the same course as the first run and there is a horrible hill at the end that I just ended up power walking up. I had nothing left for probably the last mile. Here's a picture of me post-race waiting for prize drawings....unfortunately I didn't win the bike drag nab it :-P
Statistically here was my day:
5k run - 28k bike - 4k run
27:49 (9:17min/mi)
58:23 (17.5mph)
27:17 (10:18 min/mi)
Probably didn't help that I've been battling a sore throat/cold kind of thing either but I won't use that as an excuse.
I also have been having much added stress putting together and organizing my fundraiser garage sale at mom's house. For those of you that know me well....you understand that saying "at mom's house" is the cause of much stress. But I have a TON of great stuff to sell and will post sale pictures from the first day when I have them. It's going to be nutz but all for a good cause :) Here are some pictures from a bunch of stuff in my garage. There's probably a near equal amount already at mom's place
Next event will be in two weeks at the Minneapolis Half Marathon. Ironman training has been going pretty well. Been following the training schedule probably 80% of the time. The sale and some crappy weather are the main causes for the 20% miss but once I get passed the sale, now that the weather is good, I'm looking forward to getting in all the required trainings and hopefully a good amount of optional trainings as well. AND finally have time to get back to the gym and lift. I think that is a big reason I don't feel as good going into a race. I think I've only been in the gym to lift 2x in the past month.
More thoughts to share but those will have to wait for another day. 9:39pm and I need to be up at 5am to get in my bike and run before work because tomorrow evening is once again dedicated to the garage sale.
1 comment:
Hey Kris. Long time no see. Missed you @ Afton last week but at least you'll be able to make that up this coming weekend.
You shouldn't get so down on yourself or your performance. Here are a few statistics for you (unsubstantiated but still fun to list). They're based on marathons and it's easy to argue that the number is smaller for triathlons because of the equipment cost and amount of training required:
Approximately 0.1% of the US population has ever run a marathon by the end of 2005.
By the end of 2007 that number rose to 0.133%. That's not even taking into account duplicate people so the per centage is much smaller.
Of those finishers, 35.9% were female of all ages.
7.36% of those female finishers were in the F25-29 age bracket.
We're talking marathons here. And you're looking at 7.36% of 35.9% of 0.133% for marathons. That's a small number. Translate that into triathlon and you're looking at an even small number yet.
So, just by waking up on race day you're already faster than 99.999% of the ENTIRE US population, let alone ALL women and women in the F25-29 age bracket.
You're a winner before you even start and that's got to be an encouraging thought.
If that's not enough then you have to consider the one piece of training you haven't mastered yet: the mental part. It's an ongoing battle for all of us but you absolutely cannot discount how important it is to keep a positive mental attitude through the entire race. When you hurt, when you feel good, when you feel nothing. Think positive. The mind can carry your further than your body could ever dream it could go.
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