To Spain and Back

Most important thing, regardless of the race performance, my wife set up a trip that would be amazing. Filled with several stops, lots of touring, great wine, and fantastic jamon and food. But let's starts from arriving in Spain.

It was a fine flight in, and commute to the hotel. I checked in with Team USA, and assembled my bike for the Half Iron competition in a couple days.

After having some nice pinxtos (Basque version of tapas), and some tasty wine I got back to the hotel to prep mentally a little. After a quick stop at the Team info board I saw a blow up version of the course map. The map depicted the Long Distance course; which was nearly double the distance of which I had prepped. That's right, yours truly was days away from doing a race of which I was vastly under trained. After crapping myself, a lot, Molly commented that I either do the race, or I don't. Thanks for the obvious tip, Molly. But she was right, I had a choice, either I do, or I don't. Whatever my decision, I stick to it and I prep and move forward. Considering the obvious, I realized I didn't come to Spain to sit on the sideline. I was going to race.

Now the hard part, beginning to wrap my head around the fact that I have to go almost double the distance of which I am trained.

Over the next few days I developed my amended goal, nutrition and overall race plan.

Each new morning before the race brought a new series of thoughts and emotions; ranging from what have I decided to do, to obviously I'm just doing this for fun, to I've got this in the bag. Although, every time I looked in the mirror, all I saw staring back was worry and frustration. Frustration because my apparent carelessness and lack of attention to detail has put me in a very bad and unprepared state. Also frustrated because I have let down myself, my sponsors, and most importantly those closest to me. Worried because I was afraid of what physical damage I may cause to my body with this distance and lack of prep.

Regardless of how much I wanted to put the race off, or how badly I just wanted to race and get it over, Sunday still came about in normal time. So race morning is a normal race morning; only difference is now I get to don a TEAM USA race kit; finally I'm wearing Red, White and Blue! I do my usual pre-race prep; both at the hotel, and then at T1. Next, I'm hearing that infamous ITU drum beat as we wait on the beach...then...BOOOOMMM! The canon has signaled the start of the race; IT'S ON.

I finished the 2.5mile swim, and had never been so happy to touch earthly ground in my life. Next up is 75 miles on the saddle through amazing rural country villages in the Basque region of Spain. A quick side not on the bike portion. Every year I emphatically watch the various tours on TV, and every tour I think it looks so annoying and rude how the spectators would stand right in front of you as you ride past, nearly missing them. This is not the case in real life, it is exhilarating, and motivating; it adds a such an amazing touch to the experience and makes you feel like a real rock star! Anyways, I finished the bike with a respectable time, and headed off the bike and into T2 in the center of town. The 19mile run looped through town 4 times. The run course was lined with crowds at least 4 deep, sometimes as deep as 13 people; again, rock star status.

Alas I finished the run, and the race. Top half at that too. Not too bad considering I wasn't nearly prepared enough for the distance, let along actually competing...never thought I would be happy with a top 50% finish!

The best energy surrounded the town for the remainder of the day and night. Everyone in town ate, drank, and celebrated. After that, it was on to relaxing and enjoying life's finest cured hams, wines, and seafood. It was fantastic! But those are all stories to share over drinks!

And yes, I would do this race again...properly though!

'Till next time!

2012 Season Round-Up

This has been a season of podium finishes, fun, follies, and some all out failures. From, Florida 70.3, to Long Distance World Championships in Spain I have seen a ton and learned a lot. 

If you've read or heard about my Spain trip, you know I learned a major lesson on a major platform; always, always, no matter how sure you are, look at the course maps carefully and study. Going to a race thinking you are doing one distance, and finding out you are indeed doing something you have vastly under trained for is a rough lesson. In my case this was also a very costly one!

I was met with some more schooling in Florida 70.3 at the start of my season. Without a firm grasp on my new nutritional plan and needs, coupled with extreme heat, I learned that nutrition is key. Regardless of expertise, you need to have a definitive nutrition plan, stick to it, and know how to alter it under different or unexpected circumstances.

I also raced in Maine this summer. While I had a podium finish, I definitely feel I could have done better. One take-away is that when I'm feeling good, I can push it some more towards the end. I feel I was mentally disconnected a bit from my body this season. I didn't gauge as well, my pain threshold/tolerance levels. This is only something I can work on during training and speed work.

I'll write more later about over all lessons and how I plan to alter training for this coming season. Although, all in all, it was a good season, with so many good lessons.

Until my next entry!