Gay Games 9 Triathlon--A New Beginning

It's been a long time since I've written in my blog--I can name countless reasons why I haven't.  Brian and I sold our old house and moved to a new one, work stress has grown, we've had way too many issues going on with our dogs, Josie and Max, and frankly, I've just been a little overwhelmed with things.  And I would be lying if I didn't say that my issues with depression have played a role in dealing with things.

I'm currently at Gay Games 9 in Cleveland, Ohio, and yesterday competed in the Olympic Distance Triathlon.  My performance was excellent, but the outcome of the race was not--to sum it up, the race course was not clearly marked on the run, and I didn't know beforehand (as I should have) where the double-back loop was supposed to occur.  It turns out that the loop was supposed to be doubled over the 2 miles of the beginning of the run course, so by the time I'd identified something was wrong (within half a mile of the finish line) there was nothing I could do.  Following the finish, I waited to find someone else who had done the Olympic distance race and figured out where my mistake was.  I immediately knew that I had to ask the officials to disqualify me--the finish time that I was given would likely have been the fastest overall and robbed people of the medals they rightfully deserved.

Given my long term issues with injury over the past couple of years, this is disappointing, but there are some things that make this race a very big positive.  I had a swim split right around the 22 minute mark, which was the fastest of the day--in order to disqualify my results, the officials destroyed my swim split time, so I won't know for sure my exact time, but the next fastest time in the results was 22:47.   Given that I pulled away from my wave in the first 200 meters and never saw them again, I can be happy with my return to decent swimming shape.

My bike split was an average of 213 watts over a hilly course, and lacked the characteristic peaks and valleys in power that I have typically had problems with on this kind of course--it was a better ride than anything I have done in years.   And my run was going extraordinarily well--I ran 8:30s for the first four miles, and was prepared to finish strong for the last 2.2.  If I take a look at where 8:30s would have placed me in the final standings, I would have wound up second in my age group--but 2nd and 3rd in my age group go to the people who actually took the time to know the course beforehand, as they should.

Bike power--The dips under 100 watts are the turnarounds at the far ends of each of the 3 loops

So, I'm back in the shape I was before my injuries and probably even much faster than that. My injuries are under control, and well on their way to being completely non-factors in my performance.  In the past couple of months, the path that Joanna and I have taken is to address the muscular imbalances and weaknesses in my glutes, hamstrings, and core that so many triathletes have from excessive overuse in biking and running.  These new exercises seem to not only be fixing my problems with injury but also unlocking new speeds I have not seen before.

I'm excited to keep on racing--Up next is 5 events plus 3 relays in Gay Games Swimming!