I’ve been fretting about this blog since Saturday. After all, what can I say about my disastrous opening tri for the season without sounding like a total whiner?
For most it was a great race. In my case it turned into a bit of a non-event. In a nutshell:
- I had a bit of a panic attack beforehand which included a few tears (aahhh… the old ugly cry…)
- Had a great warm-up swim
- Started feeling sick a few minutes before the start
- Felt so ill that in the time it took the others to complete two laps, I could only manage one
- Had a few quality puking sessions on the bike before
- Stumbling into the team gazebo and falling asleep.
The only good part of the race was being able to cheer some of my friends across the finish line after my puke-induced nap.
Meanwhile, the experience – as painful as it may have been – has taught me a few valuable lessons:
- No matter what you do, DO NOT buy an egg-mayo sandwich for breakfast on the way to your race. Because…
- What you eat before a swim is not necessarily the same as what you’ll eat before you cycle.
- Dodgy food-induced bloating is not comfortable when you’re in a wetsuit.
- Even when you’re feeling super crap, put on your big girl panties and celebrate your teammates’ success.
- When you think you have no more fight left, just dig a little deeper because you may regret not fighting harder in the morning.
- Don’t be too hard on yourself. There’s always next time.
Sunday
I woke up on Sunday feeling like nothing had ever gone wrong in my tummy. Which, of course, made me feel even worse about my DNF. But I didn’t have too much time to think about it as Sofie arrived for our cycle to Noordhoek.
Once the cycle, breakfast and lift (thanks Radesh!!) back to Hout Bay (partly because we were lazy and partly because the wind on Chappies almost blew us off the mountain, scaring us shitless) were out of the way, Sofie and I hit the pool where she helped me with a more efficient swim stroke.
I can’t recall ever having been so relaxed in the water. Come to think of it… it’s the first time I’ve ever been able to swim under water, without breathing, for such a long stretch without gasping for air!
Sofie shows Da Chick and I how to take the sweat out of our swimming.
Soooo… what’s next?
This has been a tough training week so far. A few of us deviated from last night’s tempo run to go up the Biskoppe steps – all 302 of them – twice. Yes, twice up and once down makes for a total of 906 steps!
This morning Sofie and I met for a rocking swim session at Sea Point pool, and I can feel my confidence in the water increasing tenfold.
Tomorrow will see us running up Platteklip Gorge (WHYYYYY, Evil Steve, whyyyyyyyyy?), and then we have our usual early morning canal swim on Friday morning. From now on we’re supposed to go around the island twice. Seeing that I haven’t yet made it around once, means that I’m going to have up up my game.
This weekend’s going to be a biggie: Saturday morning will see a canal swim and 4-hour bike ride, followed by the Landmarks half marathon on Sunday.
My next tri is the BSG Energade sprint triathlon (600m swim, 20km bike, 5km run) out in Worcester on 11 November. Da Kids are going to do the kiddie tri (60m swim, 1,5km bike, 600m run), which means Da Husband must also come along for moral support and to the keep Da Kids in line while I’m out on the course.
Bring it on!
PS – many of these – and future – pics have been taken by the quite fantastic Radesh Moodley, who sadly had to withdraw from training and the 2013 70.3 Ironman due to injury. Not only is Radesh a fantastic photographer, but he’s always willing to share his tri wisdom when you need it most.