July 20, 2010
saturday's loss was painful, both literally and figuratively. the course was tough and the heat was practically unbearable. some athletes suffering from heat stroke collapsed in a disorientated trance in transition while others were attended to by paramedics. as soon as i crossed the finish line i painstakingly made my way over to a shady area and lay on the grass until my head stopped spinning. i was forcing fluids down but it took me several minutes to be able to stand up again. i couldn't think straight and my mind was cloudy. as soon as i was capable i hobbled over to one of the retail tents on site and bought some salt pills and had one every 30 minutes for the next couple of hours. i'd severely underestimated the heat today.
saturday's loss was painful, both literally and figuratively. the course was tough and the heat was practically unbearable. some athletes suffering from heat stroke collapsed in a disorientated trance in transition while others were attended to by paramedics. as soon as i crossed the finish line i painstakingly made my way over to a shady area and lay on the grass until my head stopped spinning. i was forcing fluids down but it took me several minutes to be able to stand up again. i couldn't think straight and my mind was cloudy. as soon as i was capable i hobbled over to one of the retail tents on site and bought some salt pills and had one every 30 minutes for the next couple of hours. i'd severely underestimated the heat today.
i fell back on the first run and came in 2 minutes later than what i'd hoped for. on the bike i quickly caught a couple of the athletes that were ahead of me, passed 2nd place patrick lalonde at about 14k, and overtook kevin smith for the lead just past the 20k point of the ride. i had about a one-minute lead at the beginning of the 2nd run, but this was when the day's heat blasted me. i felt like i was running in a furnace. i knew i had two rock-solid runners chasing me down and tried to keep a solid pace, but the temperature, lack of salt and tough course got the better of me. lalonde caught me with about 1.5k to go and there was nothing i could do to keep up with him. i did my best to keep a gap between myself and 3rd place smith, but the heat had gotten to him as well and he was fading during the last 5k. i didn't see him again until the finish line.
i've been running this race over and over again inside my head trying to figure out what went wrong and i've realized that i need to reassess exactly where i'm at right now. i also need to start rethinking exactly what it is that i'm capable of. while my biking is consistently strong (i had the top bike split for all athletes this weekend in gravenhurst, including triathletes), my running performance continues to be a massive letdown; in every race this year i've posted slower times than what i've felt like i'm capable of, and many of those times were worse than the times from the same race last year. this past weekend, for example, i ran a 10k that was nearly a minute slower than the previous year on the same course. adding to the frustration is the fact that my training is going so well and i'm pulling off times in my day-to-day workouts that aren't transferring over to race day, which means my mental work also needs some reworking. i feel and i know that i'm capable of stronger and faster running performances. i should have had much better run times out there and when i caught those guys on the bike i should have pushed even harder to create a bigger gap. but i didn't. and i lost the race because of it.
i've already had a conversation with my coach about these concerns and we've come up with a plan to move forward. i'm going to start doing more speed work at the track as well as longer tempo runs. i've also scrapped my plans for the toronto islands duathlon and will instead be competing in a 1/2 marathon and 10k race over the next couple of weeks.
gravenhurst was a tough race. it's not a course that suits me, with it's short, steep rollers and tight twists and turns. each little hill ends at the bottom of another and it's impossible to settle into a rhythm, whether you're on the run course or riding. my heart rate was screaming because of the heat and i was sweating heavily. however, everyone was suffering out there on saturday. i lost this race due to mental errors. i wanted this one badly but missed it. this race should have been mine.
