DNF

The Harvest Moon HIM was a disaster for me. Temps were a chilly 47 outside before the race. The water temps were 61 at the shore and upper 50's at the turnaround. Only I never made it to the turnaround, or even the first bouy for that matter. After standing around for about 1.5 hours before the race, I was frozen. The water was actually warmer than the outside temps. The water felt ok, but I could not breathe. I slowed down, kept my head up, tried to relax, etc... but it just was not happening.

So I did the unthinkable. I waved my hand for the boat to come pick me up. After 4 minutes in the water, I was done. My first DNF. Ever. After the boat let us off at the docks, I packed my gear and headed home frustrated, humiliated, disappointed, and thankful that I was not going to spend the next 3.5 hours freezing my tail off on my bike. I had never quit anything before in my life. But I can't say that anymore. After all is said and done, I believe I made the right decision. This race was for training only and not that important to me. So instead of being miserable, getting sick, or possibly worse, I lived to train and race another day.

I went home, cleaned up, warmed up, ate, slept, and watched the Denver Bronco's (our new team) beat San Diego. So I wasted a week of resting for a race when I could have been training. At least I am well rested for the last 10 weeks of training for IMAZ.

Lessons learned: 1) select races more carefully, and 2) pre-swim the race water, especially if it is a wet suit legal race.

It's not too late to make up some ground training for IMAZ. But there is no room for error. I have reviewed my training plan with my tri coach for the last 10 weeks. She really helped a lot by reducing some shorter week day workouts and making the weekend workouts longer. Makes sense. There really aren't that many long bikes and runs left, so each one is critical for my success at IMAZ on Nov 23.

Cheers.

Labor Day

Whew! Where did the summer go? It was 50 degrees this morning when I left for work in COS.

After a few months, my whole family is now back under one roof. I moved to COS in April, wife and younger son in June, and our older son joined us in August. It is good to have everyone together and all is going relatively well. Both boys just started school and seem to be off to a good start. Wife is pretty busy scurrying people around to where they need to be and getting our house settled. Moving cross country is more demanding than I realized. We all miss friends back home but are trying to find new ones out here.

As for training, it has been spotty. I have some good workouts every now and then and even some good training weeks. But I have not been able to put together two good consecutive weeks. Will try again this week and next. Have a long swim this Fri followed by a long bike on Sat. Need to get it done!

Went to Switzerland last week on business. The country is beautiful, the people friendly, and the food is great! Didn't want to come home! Would love to retire there, but it is rather expensive. So it put a cramp in my training and my left shoulder. Sitting on the plane for 100 hours must have done it. It's killing me, but getting better. It was worth the trip though. I can train anytime.

Supposed to do the Harvest Moon HIM in Auroria, CO (Denver area) next week. Have no idea how well I will do. Am doing this as a training workout, not for a PR. The water will be chilly and the bike hilly. The run is flat and wide open. Temps can range from snowing to hot. So who knows?

The next 12 weeks are CRITICAL to my success at IMAZ! I could really use some folks to train with, or to just kick me in the rump to get me going. Difficult to train solo for this, but that's what it calls for so that's what I will do.

Will post again after the HIM on Sept 14.

Cheers!