Well this week was not that great as far as weather goes. Darn rain is sure depressing sometimes. But gotta make the best of it and get out there anyway or I would never get my training done. I did not skimp on my training load this week despite the Triathlon I was getting in this weekend. However I planned all my hardest training for the earliest part of the week in order to save a bit of energy for the Saturday event. Out of the whole week however I missed my first long ride in my schedule but would make up for it after the sprint.
We left on the 3pm ferry Friday evening with a confirmed reservation on the new Coastal Renaissance ferry. Very nice fast and modern. I had not slept very well the past 3 days. Don't know why as I am not usually nervous about a triathlon. Anyway I hoped to catch some good Zzzz's tonight at my friends Gerry and Barb's place. We went out to dinner that night and loaded up on some pasta. Then we headed back to the apartment and made sure all our gear was packed and ready for the morning. We would be leaving by 6:00am
The next morning I woke up feeling rested and refreshed. After getting to the centre and registering, I started getting my bike and gear ready. A few things started going wrong just because that's the way it is with the first tri in the season. 1'st, I could not find my race belt and borrowed $20 from Bob to go buy one. But at the last minute I found it stuck in my shoe. Next I was heading for the pool and instead of grabbing my goggles, I grabbled my sunglasses. Duhhhhh! Back to my bike I went to fetch them. From there in was a long wait in the lineup for my swim wave to start. I had put myself down as 16 minutes because that is what I had achieved in training. However due to this weird system they were using, there was 9 swimmers in the lane at all time. As soon as one was finished his 28 laps, another swimmer would jump in to replace him. So I got stuck in the middle of this pact most of the time so just decided to relax and go with the flow. 18+ minutes later I was out. Yuk! I hate pool swimming.
Anyway out I went and ran about 120 meters to the transition area, got into my cycling shoes and helmet, glasses on and off I went. Brrr.... wet and a bit cold at the start but soon I was pedaling 110 rpm's on the bike and warmed up. It was two loops of a 10k loop and at the first turn I went the wrong way. The marshall quickly yelled at me and I did a 180 to get back on track. I got into the aero position and stayed there the whole time with the exeption of a couple of tight turns and up on this overpass. I was riding good and strong on my Varmint tri bike which I had only ridden once since last year.
Back into transition and as I was standing on one foot balancing to get my running shoe on I went ass over tea kettle and fell down. Shit! another couple of seconds lost. However I was quickly changed and off I went on my run. It felt like my legs were pumping up and down at the same cadence as the bike. By this time the weather was quite warm and I picked up some more time. All in all I finished in a fairly good time despite my lousy swim and picked up fourth position in my age group. It was a well put on event and the weather was the greatest. Sun the whole time. I will go back for sure. Well maybe if I can conquer the pool, but I hink not!
Since then I got the results back from my doctor that my pain in my shoulders are caused by a bit of arthritis setting in and will just have to grin and bear it with pain killers once in a while. That is why the swiming is so difficult for me as I seem to be in pain everytime I push it in the pool. But soon I will be in the lake in this new wet suit I got after the race. It is a nineteen suit, top of the line. The day after the race, I managed to get 70K in on a flat course in Vancouver and the weather held off until we got back. Now back to the grind on more intensifying training which will not let up until we do the New Balance Half Iron in about 6-7 weeks from now. But the training is still going well, no sickness, no injury so not too much too complain about except for the darn shoulders joints. Shit!!!! I guess that means I am getting old! Oh well forever young in my mind! Rock On!
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