I was somewhat tense when I woke up in the morning about this, even though I was hoping to be excited about this day. I woke up around 9 am, had a bowl of cereal and then kinda just lazied around the apt. My friend Mic stayed the night over playing Halo 3 so suffice to say we had a late night. I had some green tea to help me feel better and started putting my kit together for the session. I was almost positive I had forgotten something (as usual), but ofcourse I would not find out till I actually needed it! ;)
The drive to the Royal Oak middle school was fairly uneventful, and I felt fairly good, not the usual charged self though. I found myself quite distracted with some things in my head and I was hoping it would go away once we started with the session.
Once at the place, we set up our bikes on trainers and listened to some usual pep talk as well as words of advice for race day. It seemed more simulated for the real thing than it has been in the past, so it was good insight. Once we seemed all set for the task at hand, we filed out to the pool area and the coach had us do a couple of laps warm-up. It all seemed to be going good, till he made the group get together at the deep end of the pool and had us treading water for nearly 4 mins before he blew the whistle. Now I am not good at treading water, and I had to literally go down in the water and come back up to keep myself in one position. This was totally throwing me off balance and it got worse when he blew the whistle because there was absolute chaos, with people splashing water, their hands hitting you, running into you.....I was totally in trouble. I some how made it around the bend to where we had to go back and forth and it just seemed that I was out of breath after 1 lap, which is absurd considering I have been able to swim nearly 1.5 miles and still be able to pull off a little bit more.
The chaos in the pool plus the distraction in my head, just put me in panic mode and it caused my left leg to cramp up. I was not sure if I was more frustrated or more intimidated at that point, but I gave it about 30 secs before I hit the water again. I also realized another mistake I had made earlier in the day was having cereal which had really drained the water in my body and that by itself was compounding my current situation!
I struggled all the way through our 30 min swim, avoiding people, going around them, changing direction, and not once was I able to get my rhythm going where I felt comfortable with my breathing and strokes. I know some of you are probably disappointed to hear on the state of affairs on that day, but it just puts a spot light on the human factor during such an endeavor.
We also had Coach Stu swimming close to us, tapping our feet to simulate a real tri swim, and had Bridget splashing water on us using a kick board everytime we came up to breathe, making it personally more harder for me than the the set of issues I was already trying to struggle with. When I heard the bell go off for the end of the swim, it was my salvation. I could not wait to get out of the water, although this time I left with a heavy heart. :(
The bike session went fairly well, given the start of the day and I got rehydrated and got my body back in working order. I also had Nick give me good company and that helped get my mind off the the things that were bothering me earlier. He also gave me half a bottle of gatorade which helped get my electrolyte balance up, and Stu passed around the gel packs which even though tasted terrible, sure made a difference on my sugar level, and I felt more aware and more energized. The hour went by fairly well and I felt significantly better than I did after the swim. I did a quick change of clothes, but I had to stumble to the restroom for a quick break. This left me as the last person heading out for the run.
It took me about a few mins to get my ipod hooked up and my hoodie to get itself in proper order, but I seemed to be getting the running just fine. It most definetly felt quite heavy on the legs, but I figured I have to get used to this transition (notably one of the most hardest transition, thus the term "brick workout"). I got through the first mile, and my body basically begged me to stop, but I just kept on chugging along, and ironically enough, I gained speed the longer I went on, and at the end of the 3.4 mile run, I had passed atleast 7 people if not more, moving quite a bit up from my spot at the absolute back of the team!
All in all, I would call this a success, but it was also a wake up call that training alone will not support me in this, and I need to have my head on straight before I tackle this event.
The drive to the Royal Oak middle school was fairly uneventful, and I felt fairly good, not the usual charged self though. I found myself quite distracted with some things in my head and I was hoping it would go away once we started with the session.
Once at the place, we set up our bikes on trainers and listened to some usual pep talk as well as words of advice for race day. It seemed more simulated for the real thing than it has been in the past, so it was good insight. Once we seemed all set for the task at hand, we filed out to the pool area and the coach had us do a couple of laps warm-up. It all seemed to be going good, till he made the group get together at the deep end of the pool and had us treading water for nearly 4 mins before he blew the whistle. Now I am not good at treading water, and I had to literally go down in the water and come back up to keep myself in one position. This was totally throwing me off balance and it got worse when he blew the whistle because there was absolute chaos, with people splashing water, their hands hitting you, running into you.....I was totally in trouble. I some how made it around the bend to where we had to go back and forth and it just seemed that I was out of breath after 1 lap, which is absurd considering I have been able to swim nearly 1.5 miles and still be able to pull off a little bit more.
The chaos in the pool plus the distraction in my head, just put me in panic mode and it caused my left leg to cramp up. I was not sure if I was more frustrated or more intimidated at that point, but I gave it about 30 secs before I hit the water again. I also realized another mistake I had made earlier in the day was having cereal which had really drained the water in my body and that by itself was compounding my current situation!
I struggled all the way through our 30 min swim, avoiding people, going around them, changing direction, and not once was I able to get my rhythm going where I felt comfortable with my breathing and strokes. I know some of you are probably disappointed to hear on the state of affairs on that day, but it just puts a spot light on the human factor during such an endeavor.
We also had Coach Stu swimming close to us, tapping our feet to simulate a real tri swim, and had Bridget splashing water on us using a kick board everytime we came up to breathe, making it personally more harder for me than the the set of issues I was already trying to struggle with. When I heard the bell go off for the end of the swim, it was my salvation. I could not wait to get out of the water, although this time I left with a heavy heart. :(
The bike session went fairly well, given the start of the day and I got rehydrated and got my body back in working order. I also had Nick give me good company and that helped get my mind off the the things that were bothering me earlier. He also gave me half a bottle of gatorade which helped get my electrolyte balance up, and Stu passed around the gel packs which even though tasted terrible, sure made a difference on my sugar level, and I felt more aware and more energized. The hour went by fairly well and I felt significantly better than I did after the swim. I did a quick change of clothes, but I had to stumble to the restroom for a quick break. This left me as the last person heading out for the run.
It took me about a few mins to get my ipod hooked up and my hoodie to get itself in proper order, but I seemed to be getting the running just fine. It most definetly felt quite heavy on the legs, but I figured I have to get used to this transition (notably one of the most hardest transition, thus the term "brick workout"). I got through the first mile, and my body basically begged me to stop, but I just kept on chugging along, and ironically enough, I gained speed the longer I went on, and at the end of the 3.4 mile run, I had passed atleast 7 people if not more, moving quite a bit up from my spot at the absolute back of the team!
All in all, I would call this a success, but it was also a wake up call that training alone will not support me in this, and I need to have my head on straight before I tackle this event.
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