This was the first race of the 2010 season for me, and I have to say that I have mixed emotions about the day. Of course I had a blast with the team and fellow triathletes out in Oceanside leading up to the race and post race celebrating our finishes. I went into the race trained, fueled and hydrated well, but I was missing a key component… my head. I just wasn’t mentally dialed in, which is a big part of this sport especially on race day.

I had some pretty decent targets to hit on the swim, bike, and run, which I was very capable of hitting no problem. I was projected to do a sub 5 around 4:50ish on a fabulous day and just around 5 on a good day. The race started off just fine with the swim. The water wasn’t as cold as I expected, but it was still brisk. I started off on the outside of the crowd so I wouldn’t get wacked. It seemed to work out just fine. I came out just at 34 minutes… the higher end of my target, but I’ll take it as this swim is always harsh.

Hitting T1 I was in a scramble to get the suit off and get on my bike ASAP. I was to average 170 watts on this ride, so I wanted to get right to it. I went out fine and within the first 15 miles I was doing OK around an average of 166 watts. The course was fast in the begining so I should have taken advantage a bit more… oh well. Once I hit the hills on the bike it was starting to get a bit tougher. The winds were going nuts and on the downhills, I was holding on for life. No joke! After I got through that mess I was cruising right along. I finished the bike string. My watts were around 164 average according to my SRM and my time was 2:42… after I finished the race I realized my SRM speedometer was not in tact so it did not record my true time, which was really 2:51. Oops… still decent given the conditions.

I made it out of T2 no problem and I was off to settle in at 6:50 and hold on for as long as I could. Now this is where the mental mind games got the best of me. Given the course I could hold that no problem. Well, it wasn’t that easy this time around. A nagging hip/glute injury got the best of me, along with some stomach issues. Now on a typical race day this would not be a issue, as I would just block it all out and deal. I am not sure what happened out there, but my legs just came to a major slow down and all I wanted to do was take it one step at a time. I ran by my teammate Molly and yelled at her that I was running my training pace. So not a good place to be on race day. Sure I had great form and my cadence was kicking, but really I wasn’t pushing as hard as I could. Looks like I had a mental toughness meltdown. Minus the bathroom stops, but including the walking through all the water stops, I managed to pull off a 1:38 (true race time 1:40 with bathroom stops). Not that impressive for me, but it was my own doing. Note to self: don’t let that happen again!

Overall, I ended up with a 5:12 and 9th in my age group. Well, I guess it wasn’t a fabulous day, or a good day, but it sure was a kick in the arse day The head is back in the game for IM Utah… less than 4 weeks to go. Here are some candids…

[caption id="attachment_354" align="alignright" width="300" caption="My buddy Scribs posing for a pic with me "][/caption]

Filed under: Race Reports