Come ON let's GO!

Yesterday I had the brilliant (ahem) idea of doing a tri today. Actually, it turned out not to be such a bad idea, but it was totally spur of the moment too. There was a sprint (750m swim, 20K bike and 5K run) up in Encinitas which isn't too far from me...so I said hey let's give it a go and see where I'm at racing wise this season.

The Swim
I have never done a running surf entry in a tri. Actually as I stood on the beach this morning I realized I haven't swum in the ocean in the last 9 months since I moved here. Watching the heafty waves crash in, I realized that this might just be a survival sort of swim. 7 o'clock came and we were shortly off there after. The plan: don't fight the surf, even if I went really, really slow it was more important not to wear myself out on the surf. I finally got through the surf and the rest of the swim til I returned to the surf wasn't too bad aside from the fact it was salt water. Yuck. Not a fan. When I got back to the surf zone, things got a little interesting. I attempted to body surf when I could but I missed one wave and sorta got sucked under the water, which I soon discovered is a bit scary. I realized I was starting to hyperventilate after that happened and had to calm myself down before I continued on.
Time: ~18 minutes. A little on the slower side for me, but not terrible for me either.
T1: something stupidly long like 5 minutes. Dang hill.

The Bike:
Started off fine, got my legs spinning nicely and was just trying to get blood flowing before I started pushing it hard. Had some agro-male jerk decide to pass me on the right side (there was plenty of room on the left) and I gently (yes this was gently...not snarky) pointed out that he needed to pass on the left. There were a lot of newbies, so I was more just trying to be nice and let him know. Really...I wasn't throwing an attitude...well at first at least. The exchange went a little like this:

Me: Next time please pass on the left. (insert in a nice voice)

Him (in an overly aggressive voice): MIND YOUR OWN BUSINESS. IT ISN'T YOUR BUSINESS.

Me (a little more snarky this time): WELL you CAN get DQ'd for that!!

Him: MIND YOUR OWN FREAKING BUSINESS.

Ok...while he was passing me, I wasn't even sure if his helmet was buckled and it was then that I:

A)WISHED I was sooooooooooo much faster so I could MOP him on the course and

B) Secretly hoped he would get DQ'd...the jerk....i actually was just trying to help and initially I really wasn't coping an attitude (I promise). There aren't too many rules in triathlons and many are there for safety so it sorta pisses me off when people act above the rules. I don't always point out when someone is breaking a rule, but he was endangering me as we were in a narrow area as I had just come out of a tight left turn and getting ready to go into a right turn I was trying to get back into a 'hug the right side of the road' position AND he had enough room to pass me correctly on the left. His attitude: totally un-necessary.

The bike was ok. Two loops and planned the first loop...push til you feel the lactic acid burn, and second loop go a little harder. It felt slow to me. I realized I wouldn't care if my biking was slow as long as it didn't feel so dang slow...so I was sorta bummed in a way. Funny thing about Wildflower was that since it was so hilly when you weren't going UP a hill you were coming DOWN one so at least I felt faster...even though I had a way slower avg speed.

Avg speed:~16.5mph...not stellah for me, but not terrible for me either.

T2: Volunteer yelled at me to exit with my bike a different way. Sorry lady, i'm coming OFF the bike...then got disoriented and lost my spot. Lame.

The Run:
A two loop 5K. Not really much to say. Legs were typically heavy...had no idea how I was faring, but my hip felt great! So that was a bonus.

Run: ~26 something...which was such a surprise and made me feel really good about the run. That's a sub 9mpm which is great considering my battle with my psoas this winter and all of that stupidity. It means that I am getting back to my 2006 run times, and even bike times. That makes me happy.

Total: 1:35ish?

Overall:

I don't really know what to think about my times to be honest. I saw them and kinda thought...oh, same old same old...but since the race this morning I have kept reminding myself that same old same old is great...why?? Couple of reasons:

1) It's only May and I'm putting speeds up that I typically wouldn't see until the end of a race season in my previous seasons. Yea!

2) I'm getting over a freaking injury that has caused all sorts of set backs physically and mentally...so to BE posting times that are competitive with what I used to be doing, especially on not a whole lot of training going on in my life...wooohoo!

I'm glad I did it. I am reminded of alllllll the areas I need to work on, but I had fun over all.