With a career best, 4th place at an Ironman 70.3, this past weekend I also found myself grateful for learning another valuable lesson as an athlete (and as a human being) the importance of staying flexible! First and foremost I am very pleased with my solid result at the Muskoka 70.3, north of Toronto, Canada. Some argue that this particular course is one of the hardest on the circuit with the never ending and steep hills on both the bike and the run course. Hard courses are to my liking.
My lesson on flexibility began nearly a month ago when I was spending enormously long hours training, preparing for my first FULL Iron distance race, the Rev 3 Cedar Point. All was going well, I was feeling very fit, enjoying the summer training, but as I moved from the shorter more intense type of workouts, which as bike-racer-at-heart I prefer, to the longer more endurance based workouts, i.e: six hour bike rides with a ninety minute run afterwards, I began to question my ‘love’ for this type of an event. I also started to question, why now that I have begun to master the half-distance, am I jumping ship to the full distance? My race in July in Portland seemed to be such an A race for me….why not continue on that same trajectory? Yes…when you have six hours on a bike, thoughts like these creep in. I never questioned my ability to complete a full distance, rather I defaulted to one of my first mantras or should I say ultimatums that I gave myself “if ever I stop enjoying this, it’s time to do something else”. Honoring that, I gave my coach Cliff a call to discuss.
He agreed with my thinking that sticking and continuing to master the half distance is a way better plan. So within two days, I’d re-routed my plane ticket, contacted Ironman and was signed up for Muskoka. Bam, just like that. My entire mood lifted and I once again felt that excitement in my step!!
Although a 4th place is something to be very pleased with, I have to be honest that I didn’t feel that the star’s aligned for me. Traffic from Toronto the day before, gave me a less than desirable pre-race day on Saturday compounding it with a completely sleepless night before the race. Bluntly put: I was exhausted before the race began on Sunday. But like all good athletes, we have an ability to shut off discomfort and trudge on. That’s exactly what I did and things worked out well!
The most important part is that I was successful in securing some good points for 70.3 Worlds in 2012, which is one of my main goals for the next racing season. This year, 2011, wanting to see how this new point system would shake out, I turned my attention more to the Rev 3 series, which has been an amazing alternative. This race-report comes on the heels of just booking travel for the Anderson, South Carolina, Rev 3 in one month. I look to continue perfecting my racing!
