I got Mark to venture out with me to start a 60-mile ride on the west side starting in Champlin. The loop was supposed to be through Rogers, down to Rockford and back to Champlin. Unfortunately about an hour in it started to turn from a cold drizzle to a cold rain. So an hour in
we are soaked and my feet are starting to go numb. As my crabby flag was starting to go up Mark noticed a huge peacock on the fenceline somewhere around B.F.E. and we stopped to take a picture. (check him out behind us in the picture and check out how drenched we look :-P) That lifted my spirits a bit and on we went. Unfortunately about 30 minutes later my hands were numb as well and I could tell my body was no longer able to warm itself up. Fortunately/unfortunatley Mark was at the same point and we decided to get to Rockford and re-evaluate. I think it was about 10 miles out of town that we knew it was time to raise the white flag. The last few miles were horrible but we rolled up to Casey's gas station and I didn't even ask the attendants, I just rolled my bike right in the front door. Strange thing that happened at that point was right as I parked my bike we could hear the air pouring out of my front tire. We later found it was ripped around the stem but how odd it happened right at that moment. I ordered up a few cheap coffees so we had something warm to hold and drink and Mark called his brother to come rescue us. Tired, sore, numb, cold and hungry....we ventured back to the car. 60 miles should have been about 4 hours. We made it 2 hours. Every endurance athlete needs to know the difference between pushing through for positive gains and pushing through and being stupid. If we kept going it would have been downright stupid. And likely would have been a trip to the ER for hypothermia! Side note....from what I hear, 12 half iron TNT folks started the Afton ride and only 5 made it to the end.....weather there wasn't much better.So I'll skip ahead to Sunday. My birthday for those of you that don't know. And what do crazy people like me enjoying doing for my birthday? How about a triathlon? :-P I have never raced Buffalo before but since it landed on my birthday I figured it would be a great way to kick off the tri season. The course was great. One rough patch in the road and a few too many hills to climb but overall it was very nice. 22 TNTers were racing that day. About half did the sprint course (myself included) and about half did the Olympic. Now for why I kind of wish I HADN'T done the race....cold AGAIN!
To summarize, I spent 6-9am shivering in transition and getting setup and when I was at the start holding area I couldn't help but notice the top of my feet actually were purple. No exaggeration. I knew this was going to be a long race because of the cold. Oddly enough the swim was the warmest part. It was about 48 degree air temperature and 70 degree water temperature. I was suprised by how much mass swim anxiety I had but I guess for the first one of the season that should be expected. But I think the swim went very well.
The bike was another story. My toes were numb starting the bike and by time I finished, both my feet were almost completely numb. Amidst that, my knee was aching from Saturday's ride and I figured it was just from the cold. It acted up right away on the bike course and I had to get all my power from my right quad. So that made for some slow interesting hill climbs and needless to say my right quad is seriously tired today and I feel very lopsided :-P
I was very glad to get out on the run and feel like the finish was in sight. My feet didn't regain circulation until about half way through the run (1.5miles in) and I felt like I was just stomping my way slowly down the path. I was surprised my avg run pace was as low as it was. Luckily it was an out and back run so I got to see many TNTers and we encouraged each other along.
One nice thing about Buffalo is that even though it's just a sprint/olympic course, you get a finishers medal. Always good to pay for the races that send you home with bling :) We also got a race t-shirt, aluminum water bottle and a visor. Good return on your registration costs. I would also like to say it's pretty cool that Buffalo gives most all of their money back to the community. They were able to fund some of the school sports programs for at least 2 more seasons that were going to be cut next year.
On some quick general notes before I sign off. I realized this past week or so that I need to quit looking at my times when I swim. I only need be concerned with how many yards I do in an hour. 100 splits don't really matter when my only focus needs to be 4100 yards in 2:20. It's actually quite a weight off my mind and reduces stress of all the things I have going on when I don't need to track the details of every piece of every workout. I actually find I enjoy it more just logging the totals for the day.
And I removed the Tracking My Miles to Ironman off from the right hand column. Again, another thing that is just taking up my time and I keep getting behind on and keep stressing out about. Honestly, I think it's somewhat irrelevant until after the event. Then I will (when I have a little more time) add up my total time and mileage of training and racing and post that as part of my Ironman results.
Almost forgot, here are my stats from Buffalo:
1/4mi swim 7:43 1:45yd pace- T1 2:19 - 13mi bike 47:32 pace 16.41mph - T2 1:28 - 3mi run 27:42 pace 9:14 - Overall 1:26:41
Age division place 27 out of 67 - Overall place 386 out of 868
Well I think that's enough for now. I have so much more to say but it's 11pm now and I need some sleep. And if anyone knows where I can buy a few more hours in the day....call me :)
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