Monday, August 30, 2010

Hit Me Baby One More Time.....

Ooops, I did it again...

I stealth raced.  Low flying aircraft. Under the radar.  Closet participant. I'm getting to like this!

Round two:
 Show up at intended race. Lay out my little transition towel,  spit shine my sunglasses, put my head down and see what my body has in store for the day.  That's it.

No pressure.
No expectations.
No pre-race chatter days beforehand about what I expect of myself or any specific goals except keep moving FORWARD.

Show up, punch the time clock and and get to that finish timing mat as quickly as possible so I can sit down.   Now we all know this can't go on forever, especially I know this. But for now, it clicks for me. It keeps me from over thinking and more importantly, it keeps it FUN.

Fun doesn't come without a price though and you can be certain, I want my money's worth having fun yet
putting some effort into my journey back. Effort meaning, getting my arms and feet to go FASTER in the water and my pedals to turn faster and my feet to stop doing the old lady shuffle.
But fast= discomfort and I have a confession:

My fairly thick  mental and physical tenacity callouses i call them, have worn off completely. Here's a good example:
.


TGP Before all this injury stuff: " I will mow you down"
   TGP After 3 years of mushy racing and injury  

                                                        
This weekend it was The Kennebunk Fireman Triathlon(s) OLY and Sprint distances In Kennebunk Maine.
Now ya'll know me  enough at this point( I hope)that you can guess easily which distance I chose.
Hint: It's wasn't the Olympic. A 6.2 mile run?  Ummm.. no.

 Yet who thinks of  WALKING during a measly 5k run of a sprint triathlon?  That would be me.
Seriously.
I had no real reason for wanting to do this except for the simple fact of how it hurt my muscles and made me breath really hard. I'm just not used to this suffering even 3 months into consistent training. The mental toughness is right behind the fitness, slow to come but I'm sure it must be there. One can only hope.

As to not bore you with detail. This race was a bit more high profile than last weekend. USAT officials, wrist bands, lots of rules warned of and enforced, well organized. Fun ocean swim and beautiful sea side scenery with  a pancake breakfast post race.

Ok, so like last weekend's first attempt,  I  swam, I biked, I ran (insert more suffering this week than last weekend here)
I ate blueberry pancakes.

and I did score another little tricket for my suffering.Woop Woop!



                                             and I shall leave you with a funnyTrigirlpink Fun Factoid:
I went to High School in Kennebunk.  Now if I could just dig up where I put  this"I will mow you down" look....
Oh... and by the way, Britney was still on Enfimil when I graduated. Oh baby, baby..

5 comments:

Jamie said...

Don't worry. Get enough injury-free races under your belt where you are able to chick a few type A guys and you'll get that "mow you down" face back again.

GoBigGreen said...

OMG you did the hurdles? that hurts my adductors even looking at it!
I LOVE racing under the radar. Good girl, glad you are having fun! AND KICKING BUTT!!!

Anonymous said...

Love the 'I will mow you down look'.

Keep it low key, enjoyable, get some confidence back!!!

BTW It's all in our heads, those callouses will grow back!

Jennifer Harrison said...

Ok to keep things on the down low! I am just glad you are back mixing it up and eating blueberry pancakes! You did hurdles too? That is what I did (god knows how)...hee! FUN.

kerrie said...

wow-a hurdler!!! what an awesome picture. you need a copy of that to put in transition to remind you of what your fierce look is;) grrrrr