Nothing like prepping all year for your triathlons and then getting sick right before a race.
Its tough mentally. So many early mornings, hard rides, swims, runs, trying to eat the right things, but the week of your race you are sick and there’s nothing you can really do about it.
I got off work on Tuesday freezing cold and sweating. It was 95 outside and I felt comfortable with the windows closed and no A/C on my way home. Crawled into bed and slept. My fever got over 102.6, which maybe isn’t so bad but I haven’t had a fever that high in a while. I sweated so much in bed on Tuesday night that my pillow was soaked. I’m sure everyone wanted to know that. Spend my 4th just laying around the house trying to get my fever down and working on getting better. The good news is my fever went down, but unfortunately I got a bunch of sores in the back of my throat since then(today is Friday) that have made swallowing and eating excruciatingly painful. I have only been able to eat soft foods like soup, yogurt and jello for the past few days which hasn’t given me enough energy.
So besides all that complaining, I am hoping that I can still race this weekend. I will most likely switch from the Olympic to sprint. Saturday there is an open water swim so that will be the first time I have done any exercise since last Monday. I am really hoping by then I can gauge how I feel.
Here were my goals if I was to do the Olympic:
- 1500m swim- around 28 minutes
- Bike- AVG. 21 mph to total around 1:11:00
- Run- AVG under 8/mi to total around 49:30
If I am feeling great, here will be my Sprint goals:
- 750m Swim- around 13 minutes
- 20k Bike- AVG 22
- 5K Run- AVG 7:15/mile
I suppose the good news is this isn’t my last triathlon of the year, but its still mentally tough to do some much prep through the year and not have any control over my health.
RESULTS:
Actually felt really good and relaxed race morning. Unfortunately still had major issues with sores in my throat so the night before I hardly ate anything. I just worked on drinking as much as a could and trying to eat any soft foods.
Race morning I decided to ride my extra bike over to the race to let Katie and the boys sleep a little longer. It was only 5 miles from the venue. Of course about 1/2 mile into the ride I got a flat, and all my spare stuff was in my race bike… The bike was acting ok so I just rode the rest of the way with a flat.
This was probably the most relaxed I have ever felt before a triathlon. I think I’ve been dealing with so much pain in my mouth I didn’t have time to really have to focus on the race.
Swim felt good. I feel like I have improved over the past few years, especially when the gun goes off and everybody jumps in at the same time. I remember my first race I couldn’t keep my face in the water because I was so anxious and nervous. Did a lot of dog paddling that race. My goal was to be around 13 minutes. I timed it at around 17:57. The swim was much longer than 750m, I clocked it around 880m.
Ride felt ok. Not knowing the course I think slowed me down a bit. I was able to pass quite a lot of people, but not sure if they were sprinters or Olympic distance. Also, I wasn’t quite sure how long the course was and it was way shorter than expected. I think I made the mistake of conserving too much on the ride. The ride was 9.5 miles and I averaged 20.7 which is much slower than I anticipated. That’s a bad day even on a day where I just go out and ride. I usually average at least 22 for my rides. It was a lot of up and down and not much in terms of getting in the saddle and pushing it out.
Run felt pretty good. My goal was 7:15/mi and I hit 7:10/mi. Run felt weird as I didn’t really have anyone around me. The one benefit of an out and back for the run is you can see what place you are in. I knew I would end up 8th in the male division. I feel like lately my endurance has been built up well where I can get a good cadence going on my runs.
I ended up coming 8th overall out of 145. Second in my age group.
Things I want to improve:
Swim– move my arms more, get a higher temp going. Remember to be kicking my legs. With sprint distance being so short I should have the energy to really kick and pull hard.
Bike- Hills. I have no hills in my area (there is one I hit on my rides and it lasts about 1 minute). Every triathlon I do I feel like it is covered in hills. Always up and down and never enough flat portions. I need to keep training hard on those.
Run- Work on longer runs (or BRICKS) to get that heavy leg feeling at the end of a race. Making sure I keep up a good cadence.
My Triathlon Diary 