How I Learned to Swim on a Bike

So, I just got back from a triathlon today.  I say this now while the weather is beautiful out.  If you remember, this morning it was pouring rain.  ALL MORNING.  And as soon as I completed the race, the sun began to shine, birds began to chirp, and the weather gods smiled.

Today's race was my "tune-up race" for the big one in September.  A tune-up race is a race that you run a few weeks before your goal race (five weeks out in my case) that is a shorter distance, but gives you the opportunity to evaluate if your training is on the right track and if there are any "tune-ups" you want to make to your nutrition strategy, hydration, transitions, etc.

I did the inaugural Super Olympic Road Tri in Grafton Lakes Park, which consisted of a 1 mile swim, 30 mile bike ride, and 7 mile run.  The poor weather conditions made me change my strategy from speed to safety.  I didn't worry about blasting the downhills, rushing my transitions, or other things that I focus on in dry conditions.  In a way, this took a lot of pressure off.  But it was still a miserable ride weather-wise and reminded me very much of my rainy marathon debut last year.

But, if I could do a marathon in the pouring rain, I could stick this out!  I'm reading a very interesting book by ultrarunner Scott Jurek called, "Eat and Run," in which he describes an interesting strategy he uses to overcome obstacles in a race.  I called on the strategy today and it really worked (power of the mind, after all)!  It goes something like this:

1. Ask yourself why you are mad/frustrated/emotional/etc. ("It's raining and cold and I feel like crap in this weather.")
2. Determine whether or not you have any control over fixing it.  ("No, the weather gods aren't listening to me today...")
3. If so, do what you can to fix it.  If not, separate your emotions from what is real and controllable.  ("Okay, I can't fix the weather.  I just have to do the best in this.  Plus, EVERYONE ELSE is wet and miserable too.")
4. Power onward! ("Suck it up and let's do this!")

At one point I felt like I was waiting for Noah to come by and give me a ride on his ark, but all in all I had a good day and beat my goal time of 4 hours by coming in at 3:40:26!  Plus I am pumped and ready to dial in my training for the next few weeks.  I've got 4 weeks of training, 1 week to taper, and then game day!  For the rest of today though, I'll be wringing out my training gear and taking it easy.