Unretirement

It wasn't really an unretirement race... more of a unhiatus race... I guess...

A few weeks ago, I pulled myself together for one last race for this season, a super sprint back home in Lafayette, LA... The race is put on by UL Lafayette's Rec Sports people, so I expected a somewhat similar race to Rebelman at Ole Miss (Funny story about that later)... My old friend Brian Franks (former GA at MSU and racing buddy from time to time) now works at UL and offered to comp my race entry if I came and did the race... Having not been home since Christmas of last year and it being UA's Fall Break, I packed up the car and hit the road...

I didn't really know what to expect, fitness wise... Training and racing were both put on the back burner, pretty much since the bike crash back at the end of July... At that point, I was completely burned out... The thrill was gone... I had a hard time stomaching workouts (figuratively and literally as many of them ended up as puke sessions or cramp sessions) so I found myself skipping more and more of them, until before I knew it, I hadn't swam, biked, or run in weeks... Adding to this was the focus on my dissertation proposal becoming the number one, all consuming thing in my life... I made a lot of excuses for not training, and dissertation ranked as number one...

So, after Brian offered to comp my entry, I figured I should probably try to get in a few workouts before the race... And by a few workouts, I mean that I rode twice (in the entire month of October), swam a handful of times, and ran a few times, with only one or so long runs... Needless to say, I was planning on winging it...

I got home on Thursday and my parents were at the beach... So I post up all "Home Alone" style and did excatly what I wanted to do: nothing... This semester has been pretty brutal with writing and stressing and having anxiety levels that would rival a tox screen test for Charlie Sheen... Needless to say, I needed a few days hit Cntrl+Alt+Delete...

Race morning, it's cold, and I liked it... I don't do well in heat (or maybe you haven't heard) so I knew that a cool weather race would be right up my alley... The race itself was a super sprint- 200yd pool swim, 8.5 mi bike consisting of two loops, and a 2.5 mi out and back run... I figured I could suffer my way through this, and, according to the results from the previous year, might be able to find my way onto the podium for my AG...

I get to the UL Rec Center early to rack my bike, since it was first come, first serve... I"ll spare you the stupid pre-race details, but I will mention that I felt somewhat confident about everything despite my supreme lack of training... I knew the swim wasn't going to be bad- only 200, and in a pool at that... The bike wouldn't be bad, I figured I'd treat it like a 10 mile TT and average 22 mph+... The run, I figured I'd just build a nice lead on the bike and try to keep my run cadence high and try to average 8 min miles... Overall, I pretty much stuck to this plan...

Bib #28, here we go...

Hop in the pool, and I'm off... I was sort of amazed at how easy this was... Mind you, it was a 25 yd pool, so I'm flip turning into the next lane, which made for fast times... I had projected my swim time to be 2:55, which I sandbagged a little bit so as to get a good spot ahead of all the slow people so I wouldn't have to be passing a lot of people on the bike... I followed the black line on the bottom of the pool, but would occassionally come up to sight, just to see if there was anyone in front of me... What amazed me is that the old guy who started in front of me was NOWHERE to be found... He must have gotten in, grown gills and fins, and taken off... I managed to pass one person, some kid from ULM, and got out of the water in 2:46, which was a) WELL below my projected swim time and b) good enough to grab second in my AG... I attribute the faster swim time to now training in a drag suit... When I swim with a drag suit on, I can "comfortably" do a 200 in just over 3 mins- between 3 flat and 3:05... I'll keep wearing a drag suit, cause clearly it's working...

Hop outta the pool and head towards T1... it was a fairly long run, but I had gotten out of the water in a good place, so it wasn't crowded... As always, I'm sporting my Alabama Tri Suit and got a friendly "Tiger Bait!" from some clown who was waiting on a relay team member to get to T1... Helmet, Sunglasses, Bike, and I'm off...

I hear Brian shouting "Come on Aurich, get it!!" as I leave T1... What I remember are two things: 1) holy shit I'm wet and cold and 2) holy shit I'm wet and cold... Hop on the bike, and had a rougher time than usual getting my feet into my shoes... I should probably practice that...

I settled into the bike, but really never felt like I got warmed up... I didn't do a warmup ride before the race (I'm winging it, remember?), which certainly hurt me... I rode ok though, trying to keep my heart rate low and cadence in the low 80's, which seems to work for me... part of the course went through a neighborhood with two 90 degree left hand turns, which totally sucked because I felt like I lost a lot of speed on the turns... Came off the bike in 25:52... Fuck it...

By the time I roll into T2, my hands and feet are numb.... Comin in hot to the dismount line and hear Brian again "Come on Aurich, almost done, kill it!!"... Throw on the running shoes, run through transition and I'm off on the run...

My feet are numb, so I really couldn't tell how I was feeling... I just kept looking at my Garmin for pace, and it was telling me that I was "killing" it at around 8:10 a mile... I figured I would just keep pushing and (hopefully) not have anyone pass me on the run... No one had passed me on the bike, so this was shaping up to be the ONLY race where I hadn't been passed by anyone...

I get to the corner of Cajundome blvd and Congress and see the first place guy running towards me... So I start counting... 1.... (then I see the next guy)...2... (and another)..3... I was seeing how far back I was, hoping I'd be within the top 10 overall, but, knowing it was a TT start, I figured I'd be way outta that.... The run route brought us right by the stadium, then near the UL track to the turn around point... By that time, I had counted (I think) about 10 or 11 (maybe 12) people that were ahead of me... After making the turnaround, I was able to get a good look at who was behind me... and MUCH to my surprise, there were only 2 people, who both were a good ways behind me.... I decided to just gun it as best I could in hopes of staving them off...

It worked...

No one passed me on the run... I crossed the finish line at 49:34, good enough for 6th in my AG and 23rd overall (20th if you take out team resulst)... Race results say I ran a 20:54 with an avg of 8:22, Garmin says it was much lower at like, 8:07... whatever...

Although I wasn't even close to the podium, I did feel that I had a few "small victories" with this race...

1. I got back to racing again... after such a shitty season, the bike crash, the dissertation, and so much time off, I had really lost that killer instinct I used to have for racing... Like I said earlier, the thrill was gone... I'm not saying that the thrill is totally back, but it's somewhere out there, maybe closer than I think...

2. I raced AG, not Clydes... the UL race didn't have a clydes division, so I raced against guys who were probably in MUCH better shape than I was... I felt like I held my own against them...

3. My swim was fantastic... Although I tend to lose swim fitness pretty fast when I don't swim consistently, I felt like my swim was pretty damn good, and on par with what I would like to swim during a regular triathlon season... Coming in a full 20 seconds faster than what I usually come in on was definitely an ego boost...

4. My run... wowwww... my Garmin chirped splits of like, 8:12 (or :17), 8:02, and 7:55 (for .52 mi)... definitely my best run to date, albeit a bit shorter than normal sprint distance runs... but I'm ok with that... I really never thought I'd be running that fast... like ever... but here I am, running that fast now, which is both encouraging and scary as hell... encouraging because a short three years ago, I ran my first 5k with an average of like, 12+ mins (maybe more)... scary because if I'm running that fast now, I'm scared to see what my run workouts will look like during the off season... Pain, Pain, and more Pain...

5. I made some new (tri) friends in Lafayette... Brian, whom I've known for a few years, and his boss Dave Suter... Dave is a fixture in the Lafayette scene and before I left that day, I mentioned to him that I'd like to get in touch with him while I'm home for Christmas so I can train with him... I think that'll make training at home so much easier to handle...

So, the 2011 triathlon season has come to a close... I intend to write a similar "post season" entry like I did last year, but I'm going to have to give it some real thought... I came close to hanging it up for good this past year, and even thinking about that gets to me....

2011 definitely wasn't my season, but at least I was out there trying...

Thanks for reading...