weekend recap

well, since it is about time for the next weekend to start, i better talk about last weekend! sorry, this week has been busy. i'm still at work now, but needed a break---all alone at work at 5:30 on a friday is an odd experience. i digress...

last friday morning, i got up at 5:00 and finished loading the car. i backed into the Alford's gate on the way out and then it got stuck. shoot. eventually i make it to the gym and do a quick 40 minute run through of a triathlon...i'm loving the short workouts! i pick up April and we hit the road to Oklahoma.

a couple things happened on the drive:
1. we talked a lot. listened to a lot of music.
2. a 70-80 year old woman turned around right in front of us and started going the wrong way down a one way highway...so scary.
3. we stopped at an old gas station and the bathroom was a cricket graveyard.
4. come to think of it, we stopped at a lot of bathrooms....sorry April!
5. we found a great ice cream place (i'm pretty sure it rivals ivanhoe's) with the cutest waitress

we made it to oklahoma and found the race site and got everything situated. april has a long lost family member in oklahoma city so we stayed with them. we tried to carbo-load at pizza hut...not the best, but also not my choice. when we got back to the house, the dogs had snuck into my bag and eaten my breakfast....a jar of peanut butter and an english muffin!

saturday was supposed to be "a perfect race day". i now believe in the power of jinx. i had dreamed all night about being late...and i almost was late. it was horribly stressful. it then started to downpour....like hurricaine ike and the half marathon last year! i was too wet to get my wetsuit on...ironic, huh? they announced that they weren't sure if we were going to be able to do the bike portion because of flooding. at that moment, you are kind-of relieved and then kind-of upset. goodness, you have exercised so hard for so long!

we end up being able to do it and i hit the water. the swim went pretty well. i got kicked a number of times. i really like fresh water swims vs. salt water. you just don't get as nauseous when there isn't the salt to swallow! someone grabbed my leg and i had to stop and make sure i didn't lose my timing chip. all in all, very pleased with the swim. i cut 5 minutes off my time which is substantial!

transition to the bike went pretty smoothly too....no one talks about the dizziness that results from going from the swim to the bike. i always feel a little like vomiting!

the bike course was tougher because of the rain and a lot more hills than galveston. yes, they weren't horrible, but they were hills. the first half went pretty well. on the whole, i was pushing too much at the beginning so i peetered out a little bit mid-way through. i have a major problem with taking in calories on the bike. you are supposed to do this to get through the run....i only consumed about 250...definitely not enough. all in all, i was pleased with the bike. the course was harder and the conditions were worse and my time was almost exactly the same. that is when i got great hopes for the run.

transition between the bike and run was rough....i literally could not get my shoe off....ridiculous i know! i was thinking i was going to have to have someone cut it off...then i got it!

the run was rough. i definitely didn't have enough calories. the first half was okay...not stellar. it was just frustrating because i had actually been running really well in training and had dropped a lot of time. this was not reflected last saturday. the last 6 miles were so painful. i ended up going about the same pace as in april which was disappointing. overall, i basically dropped the 5 minutes from the swim.

i was initially just so glad to be done, but was disappointed in the outcome. if i had been able to run better, it would have been a great improvement on last time. oh, well!

i just didn't have a lot of focus through the whole thing...i was thinking about patients and then high grade neuroendocrine tumors....how many bugs i was eating...all over the place! i'm sure focus would have helped. also, i didn't mention that this was the national championships of this distance...so there were some amazingly fast people there. it was neat to see, but they certainly left me in the dust!

things to do better next time:
---better nutrition
---more bricks (with longer runs)
---get a triathlon bike (still don't have one)

i think this does mean that there will be a next time....we'll see! by the way, i'm impressed if you made it this far! i'll post some pictures soon.