2012 South Beach Triathlon

Posted by on March 27, 2012 in Training

The common theme for those who read my blog is that I continuously lament not posting enough.  It’s not like there’s a demand for it, just some internal guilt.  So, take this as the standard preface for the next blog entry.

Training has been so-so.  I’ve been working so much that I’ve not been that conscientious about training.  I get great training plans from my coach, but I don’t follow them the way they are written.  So, add another layer of guilt.

I do follow through on the weekend workouts and have been putting in the longer miles, so at least there’s that.  And, it’s been paying off.  Last weekend, I ran the NYC Half Marathon despite having cycled 50 miles with lots of hills the day before, and despite not having run more than 9 miles this season.  I went into the race with the conservative goal of breaking 2 hours.  I then set a medium goal of 1:55.  I set an aggressive goal of 1:50 and an impossible goal of 1:44.  Despite running fairly easily/conservatively during the first 6 miles (within Central Park), I found that my time was tracking quite well, so I picked up the pace just a bit and then coincidentally ran into a triathlon teammate right around mile 7.  We chatted so much that we lost track of our pace and as it turns out, we were getting progressively faster.  As we neared the mile 12 marker, I took off.  The course was challenging in this section, but I managed to record my fastest mile that day, and finished ultimately with a time of 1:48.  What an amazing surprise.  I was sore for a good two days, and have some residual soreness in my left leg in various spots even today, but it was a great confidence booster.

One week later (this past Sunday), I raced the March Madness Duathlon which included a 2.2 mile run, a 12.2 mile bike, then another 2.2 mile run.  I went out a little conservatively in the first half of the first run, but ran harder in the second half, transitioned well, and had a good bike.  There, I felt as if I’d have a much harder time, but I played my cards right and felt the right amount of strength to attack the second loop of Central Park.  The transition to the second run was as fast as always, and though I felt pretty good on the second run, I realized afterwards that I shouldn’t have felt good:  I should have felt terrible as a result of a nearly unsustainable pace.  It was a measly 2.2 miles:  feeling good should have been the last thing on my mind.  As a result, I may have left 25-30 seconds on the course… and that difference would’ve gotten me to a finish time below an hour and 11 minutes.  Ultimately though, I was faster than last year by about a minute and that’s good enough for me.

Next week, around 50 teammates and I are headed to South Beach to race.  I’ll bookmark the trip with a few vacation days in the area, but it’s the race that takes center stage.  I’m excited to go away, and excited about the race, but with that excitement comes concern and stress… because I might be undertrained.  To a certain extent, this race will help inspire some confidence and will help with fitness, but I would have liked it if I had been in the water more, if I had been in the saddle more, and if I had more miles in my sneakers.  C’est la vie though; my focus will be to do the best that I can with the fitness I have, be it good or not good.  In the end, a good race strategy can make all the difference in the world.

To this last point, I recently watched a video at the TED forum in Ontario that helped me remember how easy it is to be happy.  I used to be so dead-on with this message, both in how I lived it and how I conveyed it to others.  It really is very easy to be happy.  For me, this happiness comes from hearing a good song on the radio, or from a sweet hug from my dog Nuzee, or the lemony smell of a clean home.  As I apply this to my triathlon hobby, I have to remember that not performing as well as in the past or not looking as lean as I want are both okay things.  This is a hobby, something that I do for fun.  In the end, crossing the finish line in South Beach this coming Sunday 30 seconds slower than last year will still be great… because I got to be part of the experience.  That’s the beauty, and that’s what I should appreciate.  Of course, I will be working really hard to beat last year’s time because in reality, that’ll make it much easier to be happy!

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