100th Triathlon

Today was my 100th triathlon, the second in the series of 3 indoor sprints.

My wave started at 8AM, so I got to the club at 6:30 to do a good warmup, but DOH! It didn't open until 7AM, so I drove back home (um...sped), got on my bike for 10', got back in the car, got there and managed to do a 15' run warmup and another 10' on the Precor bike. I only had time for 200 yards of swim warmup, but whatever...I had hoped to do 500-600 yards.

Swim was nice, I just swam strong and relaxed. I did do 1 more lap than 2 weeks ago, but it's still not my best swimming, as I need like 800-2,000 yards to warm up nowadays! Still, I wasn't feeling much lactic acid accumulation, got out, showered briefly and suited up for the bike.

There were a number of people behind me yelling at me while I was biking, and I only recognized one voice. Turns out there were others that I know, but once they realized I was hard at it, they left me to my effort where I pretty much tuned everything out. I hit the first mile first in my wave and was close to the front the entire time. I would say that maybe 15% of the time I had my eyes closed. It was cool to be able to do that, you know? I mean, I didn't have to watch where I was going, and I could just really focus on the effort. I went .1 mile farther than 2 weeks ago.

Got off the bike and laid on the floor for maybe 20 seconds, and then headed upstairs to run. I didn't feel I had an adequate run warmup, but too bad, it was go time. I took it out hard but not too fast. I always get a kick out of how so many people go off like rabbits and many of them come right back to me after a few laps.

I felt pretty good running, but not particularly fast, and didn't bother to look at my watch or the race clock just like 2 weeks ago. When I do this, it either makes me feel like I suck or wow this hurts or crap there is a lot of time left, so I just counted my laps.

I was just a hair slower today than 2 weeks ago, and upon finishing, I immediately bent over and felt pukish. I thought I could stop it, but I realized it wasn't happening, so I made my way to the nearest bucket and let fly. It was not very much, but I sure felt better afterwards!

I spent about 1/2 hour chatting with some friends, and then changed and got on the treadmill. I ran for 1:10 and then did some fast incline walking for :15 to round out the day. I got an excellent massage and then chowed down on some pasta and sausage chased with a banana nut muffin, checked the results board (still on top!), showered up and am back at home.

Now I am going to stretch, have a beer or two, watch some Olympics, do laundry, adjust my training schedule, and get workout crap ready for tomorrow.

It was a good showing for me today, and there's one more race to go, but technically I already won the series, but still I hope I was at least in the top 20 females overall today and also want to go faster in 2 weeks.

The bike effort 2 weeks ago made my threshold intervals feel easier, and I am sure that will be the case again this week, which is part of the point of racing, right? Although I do push myself pretty hard in training, a race just brings out more of the pain, which is why I do it--or so I tell myself.

Happy Valentines Day to all the lovers out there!