Sometimes you need to change your lenses to see things a little more clearly...

I've been delaying posting a Williamsburg race report for a while mainly b/c I didn't know what to write and I was horribly disappointed in the result. The overall end result was not horrible but the process used to get that result was flawed. That's probably the best way to describe my feelings about the whole thing, I repeated alot of mistakes in race nutrition and execution that marred the day. At one point in the race I stopped in front of my entire family who all came out to watch along with about 150 spectators and anounced I was done for the day. And then I see a physically and mentally challenged participant on the course having an absolute blast and realized I needed a major attitude adjustment. Looking back, this was a totally embarassing event and goes against everything I stand for and hope to teach my son about hard work, discipline and enjoying what you do. Was I physically unable to continue? NAH. Was I struggling phycially and more so mentally because my body was not performing the way I wanted? YES. I let the situation mentally get the best of me as opposed to still trying to race within the bounds of what my body would allow on that day. Given some mistakes I had made in the lead up to and during the race it was an inevitable outcome. Was I ready and prepared to race again at a high level in Williamsburg post-St. Croix crash? Probably not, but my competitive drive won the day and I forced myself to race to try and "make up" for sub-par performances at Galveston and St. Croix. I read Jordan Rapp's blog post regarding "The First Law of Holes" right after Williamsburg and realized I was doing the exact same thing. I stepped back and looked wholistically at a few things and realized: 1) My training has been solid and consistent all winter and all season - all good here 2) I had some things happen in races that were outside of my control 3) I didn't allow myself to fully recover from serious crash in St. Croix before racing again 4) I let some things slip that were within my control by not using my brain I looked at item #4 a little more closely and realized I was making some classic mistakes mainly by not paying attention, and continued repeating mistakes from previous races. First, I was forgetting that triathlon has 3 disciplines (well 4 really if you count nutrition) and realized I wasn't allowing myself to race the 3rd discipline which also happens to be my strongest leg. I was panicking as soon as I got out of the water to get on the bike and bridge up to the front guys to try and make up all the time I had lost in the swim during. I figured I was a strong enough biker to do this and well... BIG MISTAKE. I was riding what I was probably capable of but not taking into account what I needed to ride and still be able to run fast. I looked at the overall times and run splits and by doing simple math I realized if I would have just eased off the bike a bit and allowed fresher legs for the run I would have bridged back up close to the front during the run in most situations. I got greedy after Augusta last year thinking I could roll into T2 with no bikes on the racks at every race from now on and this is just not a realistic expectation or outcome. Shame on me. Second, I did not fully re-evaluate my nutrition strategy at the start of this season. It had worked last year so I thought I would just take what I did last year up my calories a bit since I was faster and more fit and would be fine. In hindsight, I overlooked a few things and the increase in calories and extra electrolytes that I didn't now need likely had the opposite effect of the result I wanted (increased performance) which put me in the med tent in Galveston and again in Williamsburg. I didn't pay attention to the signs of this during training and it bit me during races this year. I should have made adjustments earlier in the season and definitely after Galveston but did not. So, after 2 months of not racing and letting my body fully re-cooperate and absorb some big training blocks I'm mentally and physically ready to race again at Timberman in 2 weeks. If you read this blog, thanks for taking the time to read. I hope many of you won't be making these same mistakes. Special thanks to Pat Wheeler for taking the time to chat and help me see things a little more clearly (and getting my head out of my ass) to move forward.