To be Naive

Another race has come and gone.  I had the opportunity to compete in the last Rev3 Pro race in the near future.  Unfortunately for me, I raced some pretty fast boys.

Naive: adjective (of a person or action) showing lack of experience, wisdom, or judgement.

This describes me to the "T."  I had huge goals coming into this year.  2009 was my first year competing as a professional triathlete, and I went into that year with similar goals to mine this year.  I was a first year pro and fully expected that I could win several Professional races and would just excel as a "professional" athlete.  I found out early on that year, that racing against Age groupers/amateurs is a whole different ball game than the Pro's. 

I eventually got stronger and faster and during my third year racing as a Pro, I had some good results and unfortunately picked the big prize purse races to be my A races for the season.  Well, when there is a large prize purse, the "big" boys show up.  I finished inside the top 15 in two races, the top 10 in two others, and only once in the top 8 which is what earned me a pay check.  I got injured towards the end of that year (2011) and then didn't do another Pro race until New Orleans of this year (1 month ago).  

My off season training this year had been pretty solid, but looking back on it, I didn't really ride my bike that much.  And looking at my recent results, it is showing that I didn't ride my bike that much.  I was feeling strong during most of my workouts, only missing a handful of workouts all year, and had a lot of confidence going into NOLA.  I expected to pick up right where I left off in 2011.  At that point in time, my 1/2 Ironman race pace efforts were in the ball park of 300-320 watts and Olympic distance was 320-340.  I could then get off the bike and run 5:30-5:45 pace depending on the distance.  Even when I ran "bad" I was sub 6 min miles for 13.1.  

Well, I didn't pick up where I left off and am realizing I have a long road ahead of me.  My competitors have only gotten faster, and I missed 1-1.5 years of training that has left me playing catch up.   

Rev3 Knoxville was the worst kind of Pro field for myself.  There were 6-8 "super" swimmers and probably another 6-8 that were really good swimmers.  And then a few other guys.  The field was small only being about 20-25 guys.  Where I'm at right now, I just don't have that kind of speed in the water.  At NOLA, there were about 30 guys there, and only 1 super swimmer, Andy Potts.  I was able to keep the pack close and stayed on some feet for almost the whole swim in NOLA. I came right out of the water in the mix of things. At Knoxville, if the whole start list had raced, my race might have played out a bit differently as I could have come out of the water with a few guys, rode hard, and maybe stayed close to everyone. 

Unfortunately, I got dropped about 4 minutes or so into the swim and swam solo the rest of the way.  I was 16th or so out of the water, only about 1 minute back from 3-4 guys.  I took off hard on the bike, but never saw a soul until I got passed at about mile 20.  I kept him close and I rode into T2 about 30 seconds behind him.  I felt strong, but just never got into a rhythm, especially in the aero position which is important in these races.  Because of this, I lost a lot of time on the bike and came into T2 WAY behind everyone else.  

Starting the run and having a little fun.

I started the run with my family and Casey yelling for me and getting some great photos. This helped me get my mind right and prepare myself to suffer for 10 miles of running.  I started clicking off 6 minute miles and at about half way, I realized I had 2 guys only about 30 seconds up the road.  I picked up the pace and negative split the run.  I caught both of those guys and ended up finishing in 16th place.    

I can't thank Casey, my dad, and my step mom Phyllis enough for coming to watch the race.  They gave me the motivation I needed when the race wasn't going like I wanted it to. 

Casey and my family have been huge supporters of the whole process.  During the 2012-2013 winter, I had convinced myself I didn't want to race anymore and Casey supported whatever decision I was going to make.  I got a lot of questions from my family and in laws about my racing and I always just gave some general answer and would end up dodging anything specific.  Later in the year, I realized how much I missed the sport and started training again.  The few local races I did only added fuel to the fire for my return to racing.  I knew my first few races this year would be a re-learning process, but I expected to be in the mix a little more than I have been.  I now know what I need to work on, and in what direction I need to head.  My coach, Beth Atnip, has helped me a ton in the past month since NOLA and if I keep progressing like I have been, then I expect to be back in the mix.  I just have to trust in the process, the work I'm putting in, in my Lord and Savior, and to have confidence when racing.  

Kansas 70.3 is in less than 3 weeks and I'm back at the grind. 

Thanks for reading.