Post race excitement, Next race worries

Everyone knows that excitement, that feeling of accomplishment just after the race.  You can usually ride it for a few days, maybe even a week.  It's a nice cruise to come down from, but as will all good rides, this one must come to an end.  Once the ride comes to an end you start to dissect everything that happened from said race.  Things like breakfast, the car ride or walk to transition, the sleep, the nutrition both before and during, the swim, the bike, and the run.  You look at all aspects of it and try to determine, did I give me best? Where can I get better?  If you have multiple races close together, here come the worries of the next race.  Do I have enough time to get better, faster, stronger? Will I improve or will I stay the same?  God forbid.....will I get worse? And cue the emotional roller coaster of race season!


Since Escape the Cape I have been training my tush off for the Jersey State Triathlon.  This race is much bigger than my previous.  It is bigger in the field, longer in distance and just bringing some nerves.  Once my wave came to an end after ETC I knew it was time to get after things.  I was having good sessions on the bike, in the pool and on the run.  Things were just going well.  I wasn't shaving huge chunks of time off but my training felt good.  This could only mean one thing, I needed to step it up.  As soon as you get comfortable you need to get out of that comfort zone, or you could be stuck there for awhile.

So I started to step training up.  Workouts were getting harder and longer, efforts were going up and I was seeing results.  With Fourth of July right around the corner I knew I needed to take my bike with me to the beach.  Over the weekend I completed my longest ride to date.  30 miles through the beach towns and it felt great.  Coming home I was feeling good off of this ride.  I went to swim Monday however and I felt like garbage.  I couldn't hold my times I wanted to and I could barely get through my swim.  Things just started to go down hill from there.  The next swim felt like crap again.  At first I thought it was from the weekend away, having fun and enjoying myself, which is something that everyone needs to do.  As I thought about it more though, I knew that if it were because of what I was doing, I wouldn't have been able to do that ride.  Now I am not someone who looks for excuses, when things are going bad I put it on myself to get better.  I was standing on the pool deck one morning though and I noticed the board was reading a temp of 86 degrees in the lap pool.  I started talking to a friend and his swims were also struggling a bit.  I knew it was the water temp. I was freaking out about the upcoming race, knowing that the field is WAY more competitive than any field I have been in before and this wasn't helping.


Fast Forward.....I started this post at the end of last week.  Since then I swam two more times and went for another ride and run.  I swam outside where it was cooler and my times were right where I wanted them to be again.  My bike was the longest to date again, 46 miles and my run was 7.15 miles in an hour.  I am feeling much better about my training going into this weekend now.  I am pumped to compete against a competitive field and I know its going to push me to my max and I am very excited for that.  Coming off of some great workouts that were key going into taper week and thanks to the support of some amazing people the nerves have been calmed a bit.  On my ride this past weekend I conquered my fear of getting into areo on the road.  This was a huge step for me and I thank my buddy Brandon so much for pushing me to get over this.  It seems very small but it was a HUGE step for me.

Dropped down and getting over the fear!

Fenwick Island on the 46 mile ride.

Now it is time to taper off and rest up for this weekend.   I am going in feeling good and confident along with excited to see how things pan out.  As for the rest of the week I have some open water stuff on Wednesday depending on this weather along with one more run.  After that it is just some shake out stuff and a long care ride up to Princeton NJ for the race.  Race is sunday but I will pick up my packet and everything saturday and stay there Saturday night so that I do not have to travel far on race morning.  Anyone else have an races coming up this weekend or in the near future? What are you racing and when? Please share!



All For now
Keep FSU and Do It For Yourself




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