23 May 2010

"Inside of a ring or out, ain't nothing wrong with going down. It's staying down that's wrong." - Muhammad Ali

Good evening,

Yesterday morning I competed in my first Duathlon. Sadly the swim was canceled due to some incredible waves that we surely would not have survived had we swam in them. So the race became a duathlon which consisted of a 3km run 40km ride and then a 10km run. Jeff woke up looked out the window and said, "Thats funny, the bouys are not in the water. " I cursed a bit and ran to the window to see for myself. Though my strength had been removed I refocused and prepared accordingly.

I had a slow start for the first run but built into it. I entered the transition area at the tail end of the main pack and I had a fast transition. Mounting the bike the elastic holding my shoes up snapped and hit the ground at the perfect angle in order to clip off and fall off the bike. I jumped off the bike and ran back to grab my shoe. At this point I was alone.

I rode the 40km ride solo. I knew I was no longer in the running but I set a goal of always holding above 300 mid watts. I stayed hydrated. I aimed at picking off the fragments of the main pack. I stayed relentless and I thought about efficiency. GO GO GO. I had new goals, my goal was to make this a bloody hard training day.

Off the bike I knew I had all my nutrition in me. And though I felt like death I continued to grind away to the finishline. I didn't want to quit. Again I made small goals. "Go hard to that tree." "Pick it up to that post." "Count your steps" Half concious I did make it to the finish line and this is the positive I will take from the race. I will make note that even in the worst scenarios I have the strength to not give up.

I now look forward to returning to Victoria and continue to build upon my body of work. Starting today with a ride through the hillsides of Ixtapa.

That is all for now,
Hope all is well n'ciao for now,
Andrew

PS. The race day song in my head became something a little more relentless. I needed something with a strong beat. Something that matched the goal cadence on the bike and a song that would keep me motivated. The song is Furious Angels by Rob Dougan.

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