race recap

Playtri Festival
April 22, 2007

DNF

In short, I had a great mini-taper, might've done too much work towards the end of the week (went 2 hours on thursday, 1 hr 20' on friday, swim and run on saturday, race sunday), but was very confident going into the race.

Didn't sleep much on Fri or Sat night, drove on Sat, ate good, felt good. Sun morning felt very lean, wasn't hungry (nerves?), barely sipped some coffee instead of the usual 2 cups. Good warmup, felt loose, didn't get to warm up in the water.

In the race, strong swim - 31' and change, took a bad angle going out, kicked once or twice and took on some water once that I remember clearly. Buoys were hardly visible (yellow buoys while swimming into the sun is not a great combination).

I need to scout the swim portion of the course better.

Exited the water, had trouble getting out of the wetsuit, even with strippers.

I need to practive t1 transition out of the wetsuit more.

Practically sprinting up the ramp, I suddenly felt like I was going to vomit. I nearly stopped to vomit into the bushes beside the transition area. I ended up walking it in to my bike where I stayed hunched over for a minute until I got my wits. Noticed my heart rate was at 167 while hunched over - where'd that come from?

Felt good getting into the bike, but in hindsight (and somewhat knowingly during the race), I went out too hard. HR was above 160 for most of the first lap before settling down. Took in nutrition as planned for the first 2 hrs or so. Began falling apart toward the middle of the third lap. Gluteus medius was cramping some and just ran out of power. Nausea kept me from taking in as much as I should've or thought I was.

Wasn't feeling good coming into t2, didn't even try leaving my shoes on the bike. It honestly didn't even cross my mind until too late and I didn't feel I was in that big of a hurry in the first place. T2 was slow simply because I wasn't excited about going to run.

On the run, everything began cramping by the time I exited the transition area. Not like bent over dying cramping, but certainly not working correctly cramping. I knew something (or everything) wasn't right. I remember having the thought "I might not be able to finish" - something I've never thought before, nor will I ever let my mind conceive again. I don't remember much more of the run - I know I stopped somewhere else out there for a while. I remember being extremely dizzy and nauseated.

I ended up cashing in after the first lap of the run. I remember not being able to see well, everything kept spinning, and I just didn't feel normal. Adie said the paramedic tried to take care of me and then eventually I was taken over to a lounge chair where they put cold towels on me. I remember feeling better at some point after that when the trees and clouds stopped spinning around above me.

I spoke with McGalliard about it yesterday and this afternoon and it looks like we're going to make some changes to the program. I'll get those on tomorrow, but the bed is calling tonight.