Cicero Tri

I really miss blogging, so I am going to see if I can get going again. I stopped my general blog for several reasons. I felt like I was in a rut and a few other reasons. I am not going back to it, so if I blog, then this will be the place and training, mostly, will be the topic. Endurance athletics is, in my mind, a perfect metaphor for life, so some of that may show up from time to time.

It is Saturday evening and I'm pretty frustrated with myself. I know I need to let it go but not before it finishes its motivating work. What is my frustration? My car broke down 1.5 hours away? A little but that's not the main source. My main source is my panicked swim this morning in Cicero. It was bad. It was ugly. It was embarrassing. I thought I was past that kind of thing. Oh well. Panic, by nature, is irrational. I did make it through the water eventually. I literally was the last person out, and it was not even close. That was not good for my state of mind heading into T1, but the show had to go on.

T-Roy getting ready

The bike was not bad. I had hoped to top 20 mph, but the technical nature of the course and some nuisance wind kept me at 19.4, which was OK for me. Of course, I did the 56 miles of Ironman Muncie 70.3 in 19, but with the exception of the short miles out and back to the main loop, it was mostly long stretches on a closed highway. None of that today.  It was 10 miles of tiny rollers, twists and turns. It was a fairly enjoyable course really.

I have not seen the results showing transition times, so I don't know how quickly I got out of T1 or T2, but I think I did OK, especially out of 2. I chose not to wear socks for the ride or the run and no gloves for the ride. That saves quite a bit of time, I think. Tim the Elder shared this with me a long time ago. He speaks. I listen.

The run went pretty well. I am still learning what I can do, I suppose. I managed to run negative splits and was happy to run in the low 7:50s. I think I can go faster and do better. This was my first sprint tri. It will not be my last.

I had pretty well decided earlier in the week that my tri season would end today. I would not do Columbus or the Club Nationals. My focus would be/is on qualifying for Boston at Monumental. Now I am really struggling. I feel I need to go to Columbus and do the sprint with its 800-yard swim. I feel like I need to fix what happened today, proving I can get through the water calmly if not quickly. I will ponder it and decide soon.

The sprint distance was fun. Throw in a decent swim and this day would have been a ton of fun. I was so happy Lester had a good day, even though he wrecked his bike. He rode several miles with his wheel pointing straight but his handles bars pointing off at a 30-degree angle. I am not sure how he did it. I was also happy for Nick Swayer. He really had a nice day. Hopefully, Troy finally got some real results. Jim and Rand had their usual solid performances.

OK, looks like I've started again. I have lots of thoughts I want to share about this journey I am on. I hope you will join in with comments and share your thoughts as well. There are just a few of us here. I do not plan to promote this. I will simply invite people who interested in this endurance life we live to come and enjoy. Please feel free to do the same. Everyone is welcome.