Maintaining the Status Quo

Posted by on October 5, 2010 in Training

The status quo:  my definition means not making any forward progress.  Sure, I was able to complete the Red Bank Triathlon this past weekend, #78 of the career, but I didn’t train at all in the week leading up to the race.  I neither gained speed nor did any of the core strengthening exercises to prevent injury.  I tried to avoid doing anything strenuous and simply maintained the status quo by carefully avoiding retrograde which went hand–in-hand in not making forward progress.  Seems pretty uninspiring generally, but it’s October, and I’ve been at this for about 10 months now.  I’m ready for a break.

Regarding the race, I was pleased, as I always am, to have the privilege to race with one of the warmest, most supportive, and impressive people I know, Chris Rusert.  We used to be around the same level of speed… until he discovered his true potential.  He’s now a couple of light years ahead of me and will be taking on his first Ironman event next July in Lake Placid.  Ironically, I’ll be taking on Ironman Germany that same day, so I’m particularly fortunate to look forward to some great training with Chris in the months ahead.  On Sunday however, we were focused on a short course event and true to form, Chris was awesome.

Just before race start, it was around 54 degrees and winds were reported to be in the 25 mph range.  With the swim destined for the Navesink River and with water temps said to be around 70 degrees, I wasn’t sure whether to go with the wetsuit or not.  The race director wound up changing the swim course altogether to accommodate the fairly strong sweep (aka direction of water flow) so that athletes wouldn’t have to swim against the current, but the course was so short that I ultimately decided not to use the wetsuit.  I was in the stark minority, but truly, the only issue was leaving the water since it was warmer than the air that greeted me upon the swim exit.

The bike course had a fair number of turns here and there, but the road quality was generally pretty good.  I found that I had decent power but I wasn’t able to put the hammer down and sustain high intensity efforts for a long period of time.  I was only passed twice, once by an amazing female athlete (I got “chicked” as they say) and in the final miles, I wound up picking off some of the faster riders one by one.  That felt good!

Going into the run, I found that I had great legs right through the one mile marker.  At the second mile, my pace fell off about 18 seconds and at the turn-around at mile 2.5, I felt as if I was slogging through this final portion of the race.  Somehow though, around mile 3.5, things changed.  This one guy in a red shirt passed me, but not with blazing speed.  I stayed somewhat near him through the 4 mile marker and upon hearing someone else behind me begin to edge closer, I decided to pick up the pace.  I was working fairly hard here, and fortunately the effort brought me closer to the red shirted guy.  I kept close track on how much time/distance was left and figured that with about two minutes to go, I’d have to make a move.  I could only pray that he didn’t have another gear to counter my effort; if so, failure might await me.  I made the surge past him initially with just a small effort, but as I felt him begin to surge too, I went harder.  A glance at the watch revealed that there were only 90 seconds or so left, so I made the commitment to myself that no matter what, I wouldn’t let him pass me.  As we made the final turn towards the finishing chute, I found my last gear and ran hard with long strides and with as much power as I could muster.  Eventually, I crossed the finish line exhausted but super happy that I was able to maintain that good effort.  The red shirted guy crossed another 20 seconds after me, a fair amount of time actually, and when we later chatted, he said that I had broken his spirit with not with the initial surge but with the counter effort once he tried stay with me.  I humbly thanked him but deep down, I was so happy to have strategized well.  I keep telling friends that this sport has so many more mental/cerebral elements to it than most realize.  Who knew that strategery would be so beneficial to me?!

Next up is the Cedar Beach Triathlon in Long Island.  It’s yet another new course to me and is considered to be a true sprint triathlon with a .5 mile swim, a 15 mile bike, and a 5k run.  There are a lot of high fliers on Long Island with whom I’ve trained and raced, so I can only hope that none of them will show up!  If I complete this event, it’ll mark my 79th triathlon and my 161st multisport event.  (Notice use of the word “if” in this sentence; I never take this stuff for granted and I know there are no guarantees about finishing.)

Thereafter, I’m planning to spend the rest of October and all of November doing yoga and weight training.  I will plan to swim, bike, and run once a week each, likely not more.  My focus will be on core strengthening and flexibility so that once I begin training in earnest for IM Germany, I’ll be doing so on a base that is structurally sound and strong.  I predict weight gain (uh, I should say MORE weight gain, sigh), but that just means there’ll be more of me to love/hate.

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