2014 Season Opener In New Orleans

And I'm Off... Sorta

With +/- 1200 miles logged on the car I have kicked off my season with an early spring race. Designed to test the early season fitness I found myself befuddled from the results at hand this past weekend. All and all a great trip nothing short of an experience to learn from. But, the truth lies in the details.

VOODOO

Derailed this winter with issues of crashes, illness, and occupational stress I was ready to put Old Man Winter behind me and move onward to Spring. I don't know what it is about March. I always have something that seems to come along to mess up the good moments. I developed a simple, yet affective, saying for the first month of spring.  F-ing March.

I really should not complain, I'm just searching for some empathy on the situation. My goal is to keep my progress as transparent as possible. I write these blogs so that my thoughts are on the table for everyone to understand. The reality is I am new to this level of racing and constantly learning from my good and bad experiences.

It seemed that a constant question that I was asked over the past several weeks leading up to this race was, Are you Ready? always responding with YES. I seemed to convince myself that I was. But the truth was, I didn't know what I was ready for. 

Conditions race morning where not the kind to dream about. 15-20mph winds, cold air temp to start, and very rough water. One of those mornings that you have to shut your mind off to keep from complaining. 

Swim
A small elite field of 6 we where scheduled to start after pro men/women. Allowed to dive from the pontoon I was excited to dive into the washing machine to get the morning going. Apparently I need to work on my entry, water filled the goggles and was left behind draining the water of Lake Pontchatrain. Quickly left behind I found myself playing chase and taking a pounding. Exited the water with a very disappointed 27mins. 5 mins behind

Bike
Left to the chase, I was confident that I could make up time. Great transition on to the bike I start my pursuit on the course. Trying to find a hard grove, I was constantly breaking form. The high winds and rough roads kept me preoccupied. Riding flat and unable to produce power I spun my way through the course. Playing chase to a group that was miles ahead of me I focused on not causing any more damage then already done. Found enough motivation to negative split the 2 loop course, a slow, uninspired 67min ride averaging 22mph. C'MON Really!

Run
Somewhere in no-man-land I really didn't know where I stood in the race. My only focus now was to redeem the poor work from the other 2 legs. Through T2 quickly I found quick turnover and light feet. 5:50@1mile and 11:03@ 2 mile, I began to pick up some momentum. Something was finally going right. Watching the Pros pass by in the opposite direction I used the gap as a carrot. 17:40 through 5k I wanted to maintain the effort and see what happened. Looping around for the second lap I opened my stride to maintain the tempo. 36:50. Not bad all things considered. 


2:14:37 Yikes! Thats not what I wanted. Results post and I come to find it was good enough for a spot on the podium. 2nd was only 50secs ahead, and 1st 7mins ahead(where I should have been). So, 3rd place on the day and earned my qualifying spot for Hy-Vee. 

The more I thought about it, on the very long +9hr drive back from New Orleans I was trying to convince myself otherwise. Training to this point was very basic with the goal of returning from my injury and building the foundation for the year. I had some notion that my fitness had magically returned to the level from last season. With very few structured key workouts I was really just doing aerobic work to get in conditioning and strength... I mean it's only March.

Laissez Les Bons Temps Rouler

Thanks to everyone who has supported me.