Seems to be the theme of my racing so far this season. The only difference with the Guelph Lake today was the weather was beautiful...I guess I jynxed it with my last race report.
I had felt off all week leading up to the race. I had been fighting some nagging tightness all week, and I really was not in the mindset to race this weekend. I was seriously considering skipping the race and just putting a good weekend of training in, but by Friday I was feeling good enough that I decided I would give it a shot even if I wasn't feeling 100%.
I was still a bit sore this morning and was cramping a bit in my warmup, but with some encouragement from the Multisport Zone crew I decided I would stay positive today no matter what. The Guelph Lake swim is never all that conducive to fast swim times with a 75m beach run between laps, 200m run up to transition and the potential for strong currents. I went through the first 750m at 10:57...pretty good for me, only 10secs of my race PB. The second lap I lost my way a bit, something I've struggled with a lot this year for some reason.
I was a little over 4 minutes back of the real swimmers like Bechtel, Yorke and Dave Sharratt...as much as that sucks it was about what I expected. I'm working extremely hard in the pool but I'm not yet translating that into strong swims in races. I'll keep working hard, and with some better navigating and drafting I'll be faster.
I didn't get a bike split but I know it was nothing worthy of mention. I felt like I was going ok and pushed hard, but Coach James and I deduced post-race that I've got some muscle imbalance and my glutes aren't firing as they should. Thus my power suffers on the bike. Something I need to get checked out at physio this week, and also need to tweak my TT position. As the ride went on I could feel that my hamstrings and hip flexors that had been bugging me all week, were getting tight and pulling on my lower back. My back problems really started to flare up as the ride went on, and by 30k I had basically decided that the day would become a swim/bike workout and I wouldn't aggrivate things by struggling through the run. But that's when things got interesting.
When I got off my bike I lost one of my bike shoes and only realized about 50 meters later. After a bit of profanity I dropped my bike to run back and get it (to avoid DQ) and in the process managed to cut my foot open on my spokes. At this point I was frustrated enough that I started my run, not realizing that my foot was bleeding through my shoe.
I was planning to stop at any moment as I immediately felt my back cramping. Unfortunately James was strategically placed to motivate me to run a little more. At the first hill I really started to feel it, and just as I had decided I would pack it in for the day...who is there cheering me but the legendary Lisa Bentley. "Ok well I can't stop beside Lisa Bentley, she's only about ten thousand times tougher than I am."
I called it a day at 2k, deciding that I wouldn't sacrifice a week or more of training. I've realized that the issue with my vertebrae will force me to accept the odd DNF when things are acting up, and I'll take that over risking long-term injury. The walk of shame back to medical wasn't pleasant but I know I made the right call today.
So this week will be spent with some physio, a bit of rest and a lot of training. I'm still hoping to race Welland next weekend with the sole intention of having fun and enjoying the race, rather than worrying myself with how the race might go, how fast I should be going, or putting too much pressure on myself to succeed. It will be my last race before a bit of a mid-season break from competition to focus on a hard month of training leading up to my draft-legal stuff. So it's a good time to get back to basics and just enjoy the sport again, for the first time in a while.
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