Sunday, May 16, 2010

I'm back...kind of!

As of Thursday last week, I finally committed to racing a local sprint triathlon with Tingle and Denny.

After venturing into the XTERRA world, I haven't had much desire to race on the road, but I figured it would be a good mental refresher. I needed to race and this was a good opportunity with a very short run.

Other than the water temperature being 53*, the swim didn't go nearly as bad as I thought and I even got to use my brand new Aquasphere wetsuit!

Since I spent a good 30min the day before practicing my transitions, I managed to be the fastest girl in T1 by a really big margin!

I headed out on the bike and immediately felt awesome. I was sitting 2nd overall and only seconds behind Tingle at the first of 8 turnarounds. At that point, I was really looking forward to hammering the rest of the bike. About 10min later I felt a sharp seize in my lower left back and could no longer produce power in the aero position. I spent the rest of the bike trying to stand up and arch my back and riding on the hoods. I guess that's what I get for not riding my TT bike since Clearwater of 2008. No joke, I literally threw the bike together the night before and just went for it!

I was a little bummed entering T2 as the bike definitely didn't go anywhere near planned, but hey, I told myself this race was strictly for fun so I head out on the run with absolutely no expectations and evening knowing that walking or not finishing was a possibility too.

Deep down, I really wanted to run under 22min which in years past would have felt like walking, but I also didn't want to push anything or make my pelvis any more injured than it already is.

Surprisingly, the run was nearly pain free but a little slower than I had hoped. I still feel so incredibly awkward when I run but I think that my stride will eventually come back with time.

Overall, the race was an absolute blast! Tingle (pictured above) came home with the big win and I was 5th overall. Denny also had a great race and it was really nice to see some of the 'road folk' I hadn't seen in quite some time. Also, big thanks to Bryce for coming out to help and support me! He's the best :)

1 comment:

Nick said...

Hey Erin! Just found your blog. I was at Littlefoot too. Congrats on the great race, looks like you were haulin.