So, June 6, 2010 Tejas Tri in Sugar Land, I jumped in this one for the open swim experience. I decide to join one of the Sugar Cycles Factory Team relays. I would do the swim, Shane Baldon a road racer would do the bike leg and Thomas Hardin a tri member would do the run leg. Sugar Cycles had other individual age groupers and one more coed relay team in the event. The training for Lubbock and Kona has been going very well for me. I have made a lot of progress in short a time period. This last week was a rest week with light workouts and plenty of taking it easy. So you think I would be going into this race firing on all cylinders. Ahhh, ya I made ANOTHER stupid mistake. But I guess that what these smaller tri are for?Saturday I show up for the Sugar Cycles shop ride for an easy 2 hour spin. Ya easy, that didn’t happen, I just can’t let go of the one thing I am already good at. The ride turned into a cat and mouse race for the first 35miles then a quick tempo pace for the rest of the 80miles, mistake 1. What didn’t help was the Texas heat was in full effect at 98degree in June. Without any boring details, I was super dehydrated and fatigued the rest of the day. I wore my Zoot compression socks and down all the Kagan water I could get my hands on. I went home from work feeling as good as I could. I had a nice big dinner and went to bed early.
I wake up at 5am and head to the tri with Kelly and her son. We get there go through the motions and wait to start the race. And it starts to hit me, I am tired! All the relays start with the women’s 40+ class, which I have found to pretty laid back for a tri swim. Women’s 40+ are still fast swimmers but they like to spread out to avoid contact. This made me relaxed and not worry about where I started in the pack, mistake 2. The gun goes snaps and we are off, and the pack does not spread out. And the slapping and bumping began. I make a little opening and get after it. But I can’t even hang in there for the first 300. I could of rolled over on my back and gone to sleep in the water. I slap the water for the next 300. So, coming out of the water off that “awesome” swim, I can’t find Shane to hand off the chip. After a lot of yelling we make it happen and I try not to pass out. Not pre checking the transition zone, mistake 3.
I finished the 600 in 12:40:4, ya that’s what I said to, CRAP THAT’S SLOW. My slowest 600 swim till today was a 10:30:0, and I can easily have put in a 9:00:00 on a normal day. Which was the first thing to eat at me, but I found out the team that beat us, only had 1min and change on us. That’s right we placed 2nd in the relay, with Shane and Thomas winning the bike and the run. And me the ball and chain with an 8th place on the swim, lame. I feel really bad for my, understanding teammates, for not putting my best foot forward. I have been sprending the rest of the day recovering and getting ready for 2 solid weeks of hard training. With 1 week of tapering that leads up to Lubbock 70.3.
