Met expectations

True to form in Long Beach, a homeless guy scowled at me for not holding his bike up for him shortly after I crossed the finish line at the Long Beach triathlon this morning.  Frankly, I didn't realize what he was asking, nor was I prepared to do it--and when he became ornery, I just walked away.  I feel like this is one of those times when someone is being unrealistic about the outcome of the events that happen in life, and it's something my coach has talked about recently.  In this case, this guy had no friggin' clue what he was doing there, and expected people who had just swum, biked, and run to hold up his bike for some reason.  The expectation was that we're a friendly bunch of people, and would all probably help him out (and likely would have in different circumstances), but this guy got really pissed off that he didn't get what he wanted.

There was zero possibility that I was going to have an earth-shattering, excellent race at today's triathlon.  My life has been complicated by recent excessive work hours, ever-extending commutes on the 405, and the generalized mess that happens to us all.  I did not toe the line this morning expecting to have the fastest race of my life.  My discussions with Joanna this week were more about having fun and pushing myself this morning than they were about race performances.  The one thing we did talk about was that, even though this was just a sprint tri, there would be plenty of opportunity to go out too fast and get myself in trouble.  My plan was to be controlled at the start of the bike and the start of the run and build into it from there.  Half my brain agreed with that, and the other half was thinking "how much could a sprint triathlon possibly hurt?"  My expectation was that I would probably walk away without causing substantial damage to myself as long as I didn't race like a crazy bat-out-of-hell.

The swim was pretty normal.  I took off in the front, and the pack started at about 10, quickly dropped to 4, and then I pulled past the fourth guy and hung out with the lead 2 swimmers for the rest of the swim.  At the final buoy, they pulled away and I was in no condition to go with them.  I exited the water 3rd, and ran the 250 yards from the ocean to the transition zone, in the sand.  250 yards.  In. The. Sand.  Let's just say I haven't been practicing running in the sand.

I transitioned, and nothing major happened.  On the first loop, I was initially conscious that I was pushing below my previous best half-iron wattage, and decided that I needed to build into the power. I caught my rear wheel in a rut, and managed to upright myself without a crash.  The Long Beach tri is along some roads that don't necessarily need repair, but have some problems for cyclists.  At the turn at the Queen Mary, there are 3 speed bumps that will take you out if you don't slow down and deal with them correctly.  They had people yelling at you to make sure you did.

The second loop was crowded--the majority of the athletes had gotten on the course by this point, but it went fine--I continued to build the power, and ended up with an average higher than my best half iron, but shy of my best Olympic distance, and this was a sprint tri, with a 14 mile long bike.  I knew that this was not that I had saved too much for the run--my legs felt like they should prior to a triathlon run when I'm in shape.

So I transitioned to the run, which was a 5k.  And I was not terribly surprised to see that my first mile was right at nine minutes.  My legs were heavy, and I was tired.  I realized that I can't remember the last time I did a brick workout.  This was a really good brick workout!  The next mile was about the same, and on the third mile, I was able to add in a little more speed.    I think it was around an 8:30 or so.   Happily, I could feel a burn in my glutes, which meant that my running form was in good shape.  My previous issues with running have culminated in a focus on getting that more major muscle group to fire correctly.

Several times on the run, I had an internal voice telling me to smile.  I smiled inside, even if it didn't show up on my face.  I was beating myself up physically, and that meant that I was achieving my goal of challenging myself for the day.  I walked away from this race this morning with a 10th place in my age group, but feeling good about getting out there and doing it.

My unreasonable expectation?  Thinking that I could walk away from a triathlon without hurting.  Triathlons of any distance, done at practically any speed, hurt if you push them.  That's what we're all out there for.

Looking forward to my next one!