I'm getting mentally and physically prepared to race this weekend but there are many lingering questions that won't be answered until race day.
Which race will I race?
I asked to be switched to the Sprint and was told it was no problem. My name is still on the start list for the Olympic however. This could be an advantage I suppose :-) So we will see ... I'm not totally opposed to the Olympic but have some real concerns about running a hard 10k on this calf.
How will the calf hold up?
Running has been absolutely minimal this week. Only a 30 minute trail run. At the end of which I felt a very strange sensation in my calf ... a cramp ... high up below the back of the knee on the inside of the leg. I don't usually get cramps, even when racing in the heat. I have felt this before though when doing a hard push off in the pool after not having hydrated well before the workout. Only 3 times that I can remember and I used it as my cue to end the session and gets some electrolytes and calories in me. I was able to invoke the same cramp this morning on the bike by pointing my toe straight down and flexing my calf as I hard as I could. I rubbed it out and tried it a few more times, each time getting less severe until I couldn't get it to cramp anymore. Strange stuff going on down there. So my course of action is ice, rest, vitamin I, water running, stretching, and massaging the area.
The good news is that the tendonitis along the bone has pretty much disappeared on both legs as I knew it would with lower volume for a week or two. If I could just get this crazy cramping to go away I think I can pull off a decent 5k. 10k ... maybe not ... so hopefully I will get out of the Olympic and into the Sprint.
Will I have a good swim in the wetsuit?
Swimming in the suit has been an on-again, off-again problem for me in the past. Sometimes it doesn't bother me at all. Other times I feel like it's trying to suffocate me. The one thing I know is that it makes me fast! So hopefully that speed won't be negated by me stopping to tug on the neck to get more oxygen during a hyperventilation frenzy.
Okay, think positive ... I'm going to hammer the swim. Stay calm and controlled through the first 150 meters, asses where I'm at in relation of the lead, find some feet, pickup the pace, come out of the water within 1 minute of the leader. Quick transition, drop him like a bad habit on the bike, come into t2 with a minute to spare, pray my calf holds up the task, run the 5k in 18 flat.
I keep envisioning how it's going to play out. Everything goes just how I said above and I'm in the lead out of T2, but at the turnaround i see second place and I don't have but a 40 sec gap from my 1 min at the start of the run. By the second turnaround at the end of the levy he is really close. I put in a surge and hold him until we make the right turn into the park area and head for the chute. He comes alongside me. It's a sprint finish. I dig deep and cross the line just a fraction a second before him and collapse in the grass. My wife and kids run over to me and jump on me like a big dog pile, yelling and screaming! It's awesome.
Hey, a guy can dream right? We'll see how it really plays out. I'm hoping for this kind of drama!
My new jersey from Harrell's won't be back from the screen printer until early next week so it's debut race will be Lake Murray next weekend.
Best of luck to all racing this weekend!
back
The swim start here is from the beach and so there is a few steps of running and then 2 dives and you're off swimming. The first few hundred meters were nerve racking with trying to balance pacing myself without getting hypoxic with not losing too much time to the lead swimmers. I was sighting on every 12th stroke and was drifting each way quite a bit as I tried correct my line to the first turn buoy. I must have been over-correcting. By 300 meters out I was on the edge, trying to relax, and trying to find some kind of rhythm. The first 90 degree turn is at 350 meters then there is 50 meters until the other 90 degree turn that points you back to shore. It wasn't until rounding this second turn buoy (approx 400 meters) that I found my rhythm, felt powerful, and began enjoying the swim. With on 350 meters left to work with there was only so much I could do in such a short distance. Getting out of the water I had 10:45 as the split. There is a long run to transition included in the swim time which gave me 11:42 (1 min 1 sec behind the leader). I was ranked 7th overall, 3rd Open.
For this race I put my cycling shoes on in T1 but still managed a flying mount on the bike. Brooks was just ahead and I was determined to get him quick and come past him really strong. I was able to get past him before the railroad tracks and turns that take you out onto the main loop. The loop starts fairly flat and then goes uphill for several miles. I just tried to find a good rhythm and churned up and up. Once on top of the ridge line it is kind of rolling before it turns back downhill. On the rolling section I could see the leader up the road but it didn't seem like I was reeling him in any. I just kept the throttle on and tried to put as much time between Brooks and myself as possible. I know that Brooks is a really good runner and if I was going to beat him, it was going to be on the bike. The other thing I was thinking was that it would be nice to have the fastest bike split of the day. Unfortunately JB took fastest bike split, edging me out by 28 seconds. Bike split: 31:56 - ranked 2nd overall, 1st Open.
After T2 the leader had me by 49 seconds. The run actually has 3 turn arounds, the first of which is only a few hundred yards into the run. The next turn around is somewhere near 1.5 miles and his lead was down to 47 seconds, so we're pretty much running the same pace. That's a lot of ground to make up in 1.6 miles but it "felt" like I was gaining on him. Here I also got the chance to see how much time I had on Brooks. It was well over a minute. This gave me confidence that 2nd place was in the bag. Then ... oh, wait ... who's that coming? It's JB and he's running strong. Let's see ... he started how many minutes back? Crap ... who knows?? ... this is too complicated. Up the hill and back into the park area and I hear the RD say some things about me to the crowd which was something new. Heading out along the levy the leader is in sight. At the turn around the gap is still about the same. At this point there is only maybe 1/8th of a mile left and I knew there was no chance of catching him and also there was no chance of me being caught by anyone else. Cruised it on in for a time of 18:27. Ranked 3rd overall, 3rd Open