Racine 70.3: The Bike

As I left transition my legs felt heavy, but the normal kind of heavy when I start my brick runs.  Off I went, my first mile around a 9:30 pace, the second was a bit slower and after that…I just had trouble keeping the pace up.  I don’t think my legs were dead, but I just felt zapped of energy.  Soon a little voice in my head started repeating ‘You overbiked!!  You overbiked!!’, which didn’t help my confidence and I started to wonder if those last 20 or so angry miles after the crash were a mistake.

Feeling fresh-ish…sorta

By mile 4 I started doing a walk/run combination until another club member caught up with me and then I started running with him.  Honestly, I think if I had been by myself, a LOT more walking would have happened.  We walked the aid stations and ran a couple of miles together and then I tried to pick up the pace and went a head of him.  That didn’t last long.  More walking/running.  I finally hit the turn-around and all I could think was ‘I seriously have another loop of this?’

Starting loop #2.

Yeah…the running didn’t last long.

I don’t know what the deal was, maybe I did overbike, but my legs didn’t feel terrible, I just felt tired and was ready to be done.  Usually the run is ‘my thing’ and where I get the most energy, like at Kanasas 70.3…I felt like my legs were on fire, in a good way, but today? My legs were in the mood to walk.  I decided it was time to start drinking coke, so at the next aid station I took a water, gatorade and a coke, did a little walking and soon I felt like my peppy energy and legs had decided to show up.  I started to run and my next mile I managed around a 10 minute mile.  Not great, but, better than walking.  The next 6 miles were kind of a blur.  More coke, some walking, some running….I think my pace was around a 10/10:30 min average.  I just couldn’t figure out why this run had become such a struggle, there was shade on the course, it really wasn’t very hot (mid 80’s?) and for crying out loud, I remembered my darn salt tabs on the bike and run!

Soon I had one mile to go, and honestly all I wanted to do was to take a nap!  I did a little more walking (I thought to myself: Really?!? .5 miles to go and you’re WALKING??) and finally ran it in.  Yet another race with a decent swim and bike, followed by a yucky run.  There has to be something going on with what I’m doing on the bike, because I’ve read you never have a good bike and a bad run, it’s more like you overdid it on the bike and had a bad run.  As I crossed the finish line I thought to myself ‘you’ve got some work to do before IMWI because I’m NOT having a run like this that day!’.  I hit the stop button on my watch and sure enough, (and I knew with my run this was the case) no PR.  Although 6:03 wasn’t terrible, and only 1:01 minutes off my PR.

This is my…’did I seriously walk so much during the run AGAIN’ face.

I found JMR after I got out of the finisher’s chute, grabbed a coke and proceeded to drink the whole darn thing.  I think I’m officially addicted to coke (the soda :)) when training.  After heading to the club tent and catching up with everyone to hear about their race, I took a wet-wipe bath in a nearby bathroom, changed and we were on our way back home.  Overall I was pretty happy with a swim PR and almost breaking 3hrs on the bike, but I still have to figure out what’s going on with my runs.  Next season I AM breaking 6 hours 🙂

Battle wound.

Oh and to add some humor, these are the two pictures that the race photography company put in their email to try to get me to buy their pictures.  It really did sum up how the day went: good bike, crappy run.

Run Time: 2:15:54

Finish Time: 6:03:00 (right on the nose!)