June 09, 2010
i didn't taper for last week's race in milton, i didn't do any of my usual pre-race preparation, nor did i lose any sleep over how i might finish. this race was just another workout. early last week when i opened my log to see what workouts my coach had given me for the week, sunday was a race simulation. it was a heavy week of training and as it came to an end i felt strong and made a last minute decision to do my race simulation workout at an actual race. does that make sense? maybe not. but it was a way to psych myself into not thinking of this as any more than a regular workout.
i didn't taper for last week's race in milton, i didn't do any of my usual pre-race preparation, nor did i lose any sleep over how i might finish. this race was just another workout. early last week when i opened my log to see what workouts my coach had given me for the week, sunday was a race simulation. it was a heavy week of training and as it came to an end i felt strong and made a last minute decision to do my race simulation workout at an actual race. does that make sense? maybe not. but it was a way to psych myself into not thinking of this as any more than a regular workout.
arriving in milton i felt good from the start. i took it easy on the first run because i felt confident that i could get the guys ahead of me on the bike, and came into t1 in fourth spot. i breezed through transition and set out for the ride, immediately dropping the three guys ahead of me. by chance my cycling workout from the weekend before was on this course so i knew it well. i knew that there wasn't much point in killing myself up the massive climb on the 6th line, because once you get to the top it quickly transitions into a long, steady downhill that gives you the opportunity to quickly recover before putting the hammer down. after a great ride i came into t2 having no idea how far ahead i was, slipped on my runners, and took off. i'd forgotten from last year that this 7.5k run was entirely uphill on the way out. also making it tough was the loose gravel and slippery mud and grass. it wasn't until i was past the turnaround and making my way home that i finally saw the athlete behind me and knew that i had a very comfortable lead. i stayed strong and finished the race, packed up almost immediately, and headed home as soon as i could. just like i would have after finishing a regular workout.
i felt strong out there and the only thing i'm disappointed with is my second run. i was hoping for a better time but improving my run off the bike is something i'm still working on. i had a number of annoying equipment mishaps, including doing the entire ride with the heel of my left cycling shoe bent in, essentially making my shoe a full size smaller and pinching my big toe. however, that ended up working in my favour because the pain forced me to focus on pulling back with my heel (to relieve the pressure on my toe) which most certainly improved my efficiency. my bike computer also didn't work for the first 25k, but it was actually kinda cool to be out there without it; it was an opportunity to judge how i was doing by heart rate and PRE during a race, something i would probably never choose to do ahead of time.
i needed a race like this. my race a few weeks ago in waterloo was a complete disaster so if i raced in milton and had another bad day, perhaps now is the time to reassess things. if i had a good day, that means waterloo was nothing more than a bad day. i also needed to have a good ride. i've never felt as awful on a bike as i did at my last race, so this race in milton was a confidence booster for sure. it wasn't until later that afternoon that i took a look at my times from last year to compare. even with a slower first run this year i cut 4.30 off my total time, more than 3 minutes of that from the bike alone. who knows how my day may have went if i'd treated this event like an actual race and done some real preparation. as physically demanding as this sport is, without my head in the right place i'm useless out there. lesson learned.
