Its not me, its ...

The Wetsuit ...

First, two weekends ago, olympic triathlon. Going into this, I was worried. Very, very worried. Not only was I undertrained, I was injured. Shoulder, neck painful injury had reappeared accompanied by symptoms of a pinched nerve. Awesome. I consulted the chiro who told me that participating (I don't compete, I participate) would do no permanent injury but could lead to a "painful flare up." Super. I didn't want to not start, but I also didn't want to not finish. I decided to go to swimming (with the cutie coach) the Thursday before and if I made it through that I would try the tri (drowning would be the worst way to not finish). And I made it through the swimming work out so we were off ...

[as an aside, I'm the fastest swimmer in the class. I've never been the best at anything athletic and while i know my fastness is more of a statement on the other people's slowness, i really enjoy it! if only i could get over my constant state of flusteredness when cutie coach is around, I'd enjoy it even more!]

Anyway, made it to the race site, met up with friend Susan who was doing the Sprint as her first tri and waited for Triathlon Friend (who, going forward, we'll call Sara) and her husband, Scott. Followed S&S to the hotel and knew, right away that this was going to be much better than last year's Danskin Sprint because we were NOT at the Extended Stay America, thank you very much.

After dinner and ice cream I thought I'd be ready for bed but there was much tossing and turning and then 5 am was upon us. To the race site we went. And they decided that there was not room in the BIG FIELD that was serving as a parking lot for my cute little car. Awesome. I was exiled to the cricket field with no friends to help with my gear. Being single sucks.

Usual pre-race stuff. No time for a warm-up. Too warm for a wet-suit ... and:

The Swim
36:11

It rocked. I was not nervous or claustrophobic or anything. Got in to a rhythm, avoided being beat up to the first buoy after which I got next to the buoys for the crew meets and it was basically like swimming in a pool (these little buoys were every few feet so if you got to the wrong side of them you knew you were off course) and I just SWAM. Freestyle. No freaking out ... even when the lead people from the two waves behind me swam OVER me.

The Bike
1:37:20

Um, maybe I should have ridden my bike more than twice in the past month? But I was injured ... so I didn't. And boy did it show. Awful. No fun. Never felt like I was just cruising. Windy. And, didn't let my HR settle down. Whatev. Next time, kids. Next time.

The Run
1:08:37

This was actually better than the time indicates. I ran almost the whole way and felt decent. But my legs were fried from the bike.

So there you have it. Given my undertrained status, I was pretty happy to walk away knowing that its not me, its the wetsuit. I think that barring any unforeseen circumstances and some quality time with my wetsuit I will see much improvement in the next oly ...

The Hormones ...

Next, last week, why did this race report take so long? Because last week sucked. PMS would have been an understatement and ALL I wanted to do was crawl up in a ball and wake up 10 days later. Those of you who managed to avoid me last week should be grateful!

Them ...

Finally, there are reasons why I don't go to certain parts of the Jersey Shore. Sometimes I forget those reasons and go anyway. This weekend I remembered those reasons and I won't be back for a long time!

Very excited to stay in town this weekend. Looking forward to a hair cut, some training and some new babies to visit ...

Later, kids.