I guess I was due for a bad week.
We have alot going on personally (family health issues as well as family business issues) and I think it's one of the things affecting my training this week.
On Saturday, I had a long swim and a long run. Both went exceptionally well.
On Sunday, I had a long bike. For many reasons, the bike did not go well. I mentally was not prepared to get lost as many times as I did (my map fell out of my pocket somewhere along the way). I wasn't mentally prepared for the constant climbing (up into the foothills), and I wasn't prepared for the poor road conditions as I road through three different counties. Finally, I wasn't prepared for the....uhhhhh....incident along the way that had something to do with a broken sewer line.
Had I had it mentally on Sunday, even with the bad stuff, I probably would have enjoyed the ride. As it was, for only averaging 11.7 mph, my legs were shot. There were times in which I honestly thought my legs were just going to explode. I felt like I did a century and not metric century.
OK, that was Sunday.
Recently, I've not been sleeping well. This is for several reasons but mostly it's hormonal. It's hard to deal with, but it's also a natural part of a woman's life. It's just the HEAT. The waking up soaking wet. GOODNESS.
This means I'm tired during the day. So on Monday, instead of doing a recovery run, I opted to just do the strength training.
I didn't sleep well Monday night, and that put me on to the day of my Dip n Dash.
I didn't eat well Tuesday.....keep in mind, that I really eat well. Even when I say that I didn't eat well, that's relative.
One thing was for sure, I did not eat enough carbohydrates for fuel for the race. As I stood at the water's edge, I had that feeling. You probably know the feeling. It's the one where you're not thirsty but you know something is missing, right?
Wishing that I had SOME kind of beverage....hell, I would have drank a soda a this point, I scrounge around in my bag and find a two year old bag of Luna Moons.
It's hot out, so they are soft. What the heck. It's better than nothing, and I cram almost the whole bag in my mouth.
I am signed up for the 1500m swim and 5k run.
But, I'm dragging. I run into several women that I've gotten to know over the years from DipnDashes and local races.
My energy level is at it's all time low. I mean that if someone said "here's a cot just lay down and take a nap", I would have done it.
It's hot (95 degrees). I have a wetsuit on when I feel a hot flash hit me. As I'm walking down to the water, I can feel the sweat running down my face down my legs, side. I need to get to the water.
Everyone is talking about how cold it is. But, I go right under, and I've never felt anything so good.
Some women start talking to me. I'm usually very social, but I really need to save my energy.
When it's time to start, I started swimming like crazy. As it is with OW swims, It's frantic. I think to myself, "Wow, the field has really gotten faster."
I know I'm in the front with the faster women. Then, someone swims over me, and under I go. No big deal except that I took in a bunch of water, and the water was pretty rough. I tried to come up for air and got socked with another mouthful of water.
Needing air, I try to do a head out of the water type of swim, but my heart was racing, and I couldn't calm down. I knew that I would be hyperventilating very soon.
I decide to try to swim freestyle again. Just as I start, I look up to find the buoy when someone crosses in front of me and kicks me right in the jaw.
OH geez, that hurt. Now, I can't swim for anything. I wave to a kayaker. I know I need a break.
She starts talking to me and saying things like, "You can do this. I know it's hard. But you can do it. Swim anyway you can, but get back out there."
I'm calmed down and start swimming again. That's when I decide that I'm not doing the 1500m swim. I'm going to do the 750 swim, and I AM GOING to do it.
I'd like to say the rest of the swim was a piece of cake, but it wasn't. The water was turbulent. I kept imagining my wetsuite choking me. Then, I found a guy who was swimming in front of me. I realized that I had actually caught up to the slower guys (who left before the women). I decide to draft him. (For those of you unfamiliar with the swim, drafting is LEGAL in swimming AND it requires less energy because the person in front of you is taking the current. You just get to swim easily behind them).
As I exited the water, my legs felt like lead. My time which should have been around 14 minutes (in training) or much faster (in racing) came in at 17 minutes for 750m.
The funny part is that I would have guessed I was out there for 20minutes! I guess that's good, but now I have to run.
Mike and the boys are sitting there. I must have had a funny look on my face because they start cheering and looking at me as though something isn't right.
I almost burst into tears.
I take off my wetsuit and start running. It's so so hot. Really wishing that I had something other than water.....in this now 97 degree heat. My legs just won't "fire". I don't have my garmin. They've changed the route, so I have no idea how far I've gone. I keep thinking "Just turn back. It's just a dip n dash." But I keep going. The route is entirely small steep hills. I decide to walk up and run down each hill.
The race doesn't use timing chips anymore, and I accidentally stopped my stop watch when I got out of the water. But I think my time came in around an hour.
I guess that's not too bad given that I walked half the course.
Again, it was mental.
I was walking/running thinking that maybe it was time for me to retire from the world of triathlon. Maybe I should just do the cycling thing for awhile. Or go back to running, but I really like swimming. Maybe I should just exercise and not compete.
Maybe I shouldn't even bother with Rattlesnake or Harvest Moon. Maybe CDA messed me up more than I realized. Maybe, maybe, maybe....I should give myself a few days of rest.
Last night, I still didn't sleep very well, but it was better than previous nights. I didn't get up until 8:15.
I know that peak weeks are difficult. I know that the volume of work is physically and mentally demanding. That with "other stuff" can really take a toll on the body. So.....
I'm going to do what I can. When I feel like I need to back off, I'm going to.
We'll see where I stand in 10 days when I have my first race of the year: an Oly tri.
