N JOUR SANS

For those of you who don't speak French, like myself, I'll translate.........."A DAY WITHOUT". That describes my race today. I would end my blog there but then you all would hang at the ends of your collective seats and I don't want that. Yah, right! Kidding, of course.
I had a little, well, mishap, stupid kind of injury that occurred on my Wednesday run that affected the rest of my week and my mental psyche for this race. No excuses and I won't discuss this further unless it becomes an issue in my training for my actual goal race, IM FLORIDA 70.3. None the less, I decided to race in the elite wave for this race because, time-wise, I was third overall last year and won my AG by quite a bit last year and feel I'm in better shape at this time. However, I'm doing a different program this year with max-weight sessions and hard speed sessions currently. I am probably more fatigued than I like to admit to, being someone who enjoys training until I drop. Unfortunately, I will be 40 in a month and it's possible that my body is not hip to this to the same degree any longer......that doesn't stop me from trying! Anyway, I wasn't sure that I was going to race until I got in a good warm up run this morning and felt things weren't 100% but good enough for a C race. I had a decent swim (.5 miles), 3rd overall, which is quite an achievement for a former non-swimmer such as myself! I'll suffice to say it went all downhill from there. I felt absolutely horrible on the bike (10miles), worst ever, I can honestly say. Got passed by girls that shouldn't be anywhere near me and dealt with it, thinking all along, I'll see you on the run. Not happening..... I got off the bike and it didn't get any better, only worse. The run, for me, was more of the same.......LACTATE NIRVANA. The run is usually my strength but today was just a prolongation of agony. I had no race gears, no pep, no body. It was like my mind wasn't connected to my body. Asking for more power but the body said no with authority. So, I took what the day and body gave and was extremely happy that this was my C race and not my A race! I've beaten myself up enough about being beaten by those who normally don't beat me and will take this as a good workout and a good assessment of my current swim fitness, which I feel isn't too bad. Got to take positive out of every situation......even though I hate losing! I will regroup, recover, reassess, retreat (not really) and really get onto the business of getting my ass in proper condition for IM FLORIDA 70.3. Don't lose hope, I haven't.....and never will!!!!!!!