the day after

Sitting here at my desk at work this morning, my legs are pretty sore. I finished yesterday's race in under 3 hours (my goal) for an unofficial time of 2:52:35. I am super happy about that time and I still have to remind myself that this is still my rookie year of triathlon and the fact that I just did an olympic distance triathlon with confidence just shows that I made some HUGE gains this season.

No official results have been posted yet on the interwebs, but they did tape final times to a van at the finish line, so here are my thoughts on the race.

It was pitch black and cold when I arrived. The transition area was freaking sweet and everyone had a numbered slot on the bars for their bike and gear. Oh and there were about 20 porto-pots!

Again, it was cold. When we made our way down to the beach for the start we soon learned that the sandy beach had sand that was prolly 50 degrees in sub 60 degree temps, so when I walked into the 70 degree water, it was like walking into a bath. AAAAAHhhhhhhhhhhh! I didn't want to leave the water it was so warm.

I was in the last wave so I waited for about 27 mins before I began, which was fine because with the sun in my eyes I couldn't really see which way the bouys were so I just watched the clutter in the water make a path to give me an idea where the bouys actually were.

So once in the water I was fine. My wave wasn't that big there really wasn't any contact whatsoever and to sight I just saw where the mass of people were going. Again, the water was WARM and felt perfect. My arms didn't hurt and I just swam my pace and just "did' the swim. I think I did it fast enough.

Now onto the bike, my thighs were like blocks of ice at the start. I was trying to spin it but my legs just wouldn't loosen up. And as usual, I was passing people left and right. I just stayed on the left side and passed people. Not a single person passed me, other than the ironman guy who would pass me, then I would pass him, rinse and repeat. Basically he couldn't climb hills but was fast on the flats. I could climb hills but was slower on the flats.

Anyways, I knew I was rocking the bike and I was feeling so fast. I was actually kinda worried that I was gonna burn too quickly and lose all of my energy before I hit the hills. Thinking that would happen, I didn't slow down and kept my pace and that would prove to work out!

Onto the first hill, I just burned up it, passing lots of folks. I got into my pace up the hill and soon found an awesome strength that put me into this super consistent spin. It was great. I popped my first GU at the top and continued.

Onto the 2nd hill by the the new studio's location, again I just got into my pace and kept it going. On the downhill portion, I got stuck behind some stupid traffic where this SUV just decided to stop. Yeah, I almost had to stop behind him. So basically instead of booking 30 MPH down a hill, I just maybe 20-ish. GRRR!!!

From this point, I knew the fun part of the bike would begin cuz it was basically 12.5 miles of all downhill. And I flew! It was just a matter of doing it at that point.

Now onto the run, I started out strong, and kept it strong for as long as I could. This didn't mean running an 8:30 min/mile pace, cuz that wasn't happening. It felt like a 9 min/mile pace (and I will find out shortly in face what it was). I just tried to keep it consistent and I think it worked out.

Now the run portion was called flat and fast. Mostly it was flat, but there were 2 hills that almost did me in at times and towards the finish it was a false flat that went up the entire way. I was happy to have finished that run. I had never felt my knees hurt that much during a run!

Overall, this distance obviously more of a challenge than a sprint distance and tested you a lot more than a sprint distance. I immediately figured out right before I entered the finishing chute that doing a few of these each year will definately get your butt into shape!

Hopefully results and photos will show up in the next day or two.

I have a deep tissue massage scheduled for tonight at 6:30. My calves and thighs are pretty sore. My upper back as well.