Triathlon Season 2007 Comes to an End

Amazing. This season began last year after Thanksgiving, and a little more than 11 months later, and it is time to reflect. One word, Bittersweet. As I lie on my bed with sore legs from yesterdays Half Iron in Conroe, TX and write this blog, I see people out the window running towards the park - My home for the past 330 days. I feel like I owe it to the 3 mile route around Memorial Park to make my easy 6 mile Monday appearance. Pavlov was right(a lil' shot out to Crazy Jane, M.D. who did her first half ironman yesterday), I am totally conditioned to training, but it runs deeper than that. As the sun gets lower, and begins to amber over the trees, I feel anxious, because my workout hasn't been done yet. There is a certain amount of withdrawal happening as seasons wind down. The daily escape, I call training is not there.

I woke up this morning, literally drank a pot of Kona Coffee, brought the dogs out like three times, cleaned my entire room (if you know me well, that is a task), checked my email, checked it again, went to John's house, went to lunch at Barnaby's with Chau

and the dogs, went to petsmart, brought the dogs out again, napped, sat as my mind wandered into fast moving circles searching for a purpose. So, I look back on these eleven months and realize throughout the withdrawal, anxiety, purposelessness, there is a huge grateful sense of absolute fortune. Life is Good.

2007 began in 2006 for me. Janda and I devised a plan, not only was I excited, I was thrilled to be working with him again after taking a year off. As I lifted and began to build a base in the "cool" Texas winter. My first race goal was set for Half Ironman California 70.3 on March 31, and it was a long, cool, and windy winter preparing for it. I tuned up with a 13th overall at the Houston Rodeo 10k, and was very happy. I have a distinct memory of doing a five hour ride on a Sunday morning last winter out in Katy, TX with John R, Gary Z, and Kurt G. It was 36 degrees and raining at the start and the sun had not popped up yet. I figured being a sailor, a coastie, and a GloucesterMan made me tough, I was wrong. I will never forget the looks on their faces as we hit head wind after head wind. We stopped at a gas station after a couple hours, I remember eating a strawberry pop-tart, fig newton, a powerbar, and a nestle chocolate milk. Haha, we also got grocery bags to put our wet feet in, thats when John told me he had an extra pair of foot covers in the car, thanks. Mornings like that will stay with you forever. It stayed with my legs in California.

After a successful 70.3, we transitioned into short course and aimed towards nationals in Oregon. A couple weeks before Nationals I took the overall at my first triathlon, Tejas Tri, then traveled north to Portland, OR and got humbled. After receiving a slot a few weeks later to ITU Worlds Short Course in Germany, the short course prep continued. I threw in another 70.3 in the middle, in Steelhead (Michigan), and had a stellar run. Work got in the way, and Germany became a missed opportunity and Long Course became the goal. Refurbished with excitement for long course training, I began to prepare for Longhorn Half Iron in Austin, TX and try for another three weeks later in Conroe at Iron Star. Longhorn was a success, and IronStar was good, but still a little fatiqued from Longhorn.

The wednesday before the race, the temperature dropped in tx, to the point where leggings and spandex were a must. Race morning was 48 degrees! Mind you Longhorn reached a heat index of 105 three weeks earlier. I was not ready for that.

After plunging into the choppy water, I realized it was not going to be an easy swim with poor sighting and choppy waters. I stopped a couple of times to clean my goggles and figure out where I was. I got out of the water at a lil over 28 minutes and was a bit shook up by the rockin and rollin, so my t-1 was longer than usual. Wetsuits are not easy to get off when you can't feel your toes. The cold air was beter than a cup of coffee when I got on my bike, but proved to keep me cool the majority of the windy and shaded ride. I spent alot of my summer traveling to the race site and doing long, hot, sweaty, painful rides in those hills. My legs were maybe still tired from longhorn, or they just would not warm up. I did not have an edge on the bike at all, and lost some time during the ride. I got off my bike at t-2 and 36 seconds later, I was running down the road. I really wanted to run to warm up, ha ha. I felt pretty good, but my legs felt heavy throughout. Nevetheless, I ended up with the fastes run of the day with a 1:22, on a decievingly (not flat) run course. I was happy, but I was sore. I didn't feel like I had my edge about me, but I left alot in Austin 3 weeks pior. I finished up with a 4:30:19, and in 4th place overall, 2nd amamteur and I won my age group. As I milled about the finishers area, I realized my season was done.

A huge kudos to my partner in crime, Chris Sustala(see below). Realizing that his (not yet arrived) twins are soon going to be occupying most of his training time, he laid it all out at Iron Star. With a 25 minute swim! 2:30 bike, and nailed the run of his season at 1:31 to finish with a PR of 4:33. Awesome job!

The races are the culmination of all the miles in between, but lets not forget that the volume of miles leading up to performing are where the majority of the memories are kept. Those memories literally make up our lives. If your training 20-25 hours a week with a full time job, there is not much more time for anything else, especially if you own a two year old yellow lab. I would be lying if I said I don't do this for the races, because I love competing, but I also love training. Waking up at 0500 on a Saturday in August, when it is still 90 degrees to go hit up the hills for four hours, or running late at work and having to get your 8 mile tempO run in at 1130 at night, or swimming in a cold pool. These are the internal things that make us stronger, but the people we share these moments with, make us better and deeply bonded. Earthlings don't understand why we live this way, and thats fair, because I don't know how they live the way they do.

Speaking of Aliens - - - - What planet is this from?

The planet of no fashin police, or Lousiana ?