So i realize that it has been way over a month since I last made an entry. I have been busy, life gets like that sometimes. Also, I have not been racing except for a 10k I did last week that was just for fun. I realize though that just because I am not racing does not mean life ceases. There is far more to life then just racing, in fact, the amount of time that any of us actually spend racing, no matter how much we do so truly accounts for a very minute amount of time in our lives.
4 years ago I was in my senior year of high school. A run-a-holic, I was a racing nut. I lived to race. I devoted every waking moment of my life to running XC/Track for my high school. I was dead set on running in college, regardless of where I would have to go to do so. Therefore, when I received an offer to attend the University of Miami where I would run XC and Track for the Varsity program ecstatic only began to describe my state. As most of you know that did not work out for me so well. In addition running lost its "fun."
The other day after an hour on the rollers on a rainy day I laced up my shoes and set off for a run in the rain in 60 degree weather. As I cruised around the campus, people carrying umbrellas gave me disdaining looks as I flew past them over the brick covering the campus sidewalks. The weather perfect, my body perfectly in-tune with itself I realized that I was smiling. Smiling and running? What the hell is this, training isnt supposed to be fun....right?
This is where many of us are wrong. Some of you know Jon Grey, the all-american runner at the college as a 28 10k guy. This is one hell of a feat. Unfortunately, Jon tore is labrum last year and has been suffering with mis-diagnosis and will now have to undergo surgery. The other day Jon and I were discussing being injured and having to take time off. Jons time away from running has been tough for him. When I was injured in Miami, or last year when I thought I had torn my ACL, my friend and family had me on suicide watch (almost no joke).
Surprisingly enough we decided that it is the time away from the sport that allows us to step back and take a different perspective of who we are and where we are going. It gives us a chance to put our athleticism into perspective. Both of us have aspirations to be professionals in our disciplines, but you must be ready for the worst. That means living life today in a way that you would be proud if there was not a tomorrow. This balancing act is tough but being injured/not able to do what it is we love gives us perspective and makes it easier to balance ourselves out. On one hand we want to be the best athletes we can, but we also must enjoy ourselves while we are doing so. Keeping this "see-saw" balanced is no easy task, especially because there is constantly new things being thrown on either side. However, we are people, I am NOT just a triathlete, Jon is NOT just a runner, and it is important for us to remember this. We as athletes must be careful to avoid this trap. We should be encouraging of other to try out sport and getting them into it and realize that after all, it is about enjoying yourself. If you see someone who needs a new tube on the side of the road please do not ride past them. Lets be accommodating to the rest of the world too, we are all homo-sapiens, dependent on air, food, and water, lets not forget that! I hope this does not come out as preachy, as i write this as a PERSONAL revelation NOT to be a dick.
A special thanks goes out to my buddy Jon who has helped me to understand this. Best wishes to him for his pre-consult next week and surgery Nov 1st!
TRI THIS
Sunday, October 24, 2010
Saturday, September 18, 2010
Edogenous Opioid Peptides
Endorphins- an endogenous morphine (edogenous opioid peptides) produced by the body during exercise, excitement, pain, consumption of spicy food, and orgasm. Produced by the pituitary gland and hypothalamus in vertebrates during exercise. Craved by Gregory James Grosicki. Produce analgesia and a general feeling of well-being.
Friday, September 10, 2010
The experience of a LIFETIME
As most of you know, this past weekend I competed in the biggest completion of my life, the Duathlon World Championships in Edinburgh Scotland as a member of Team USA. A year ago when I begun the sport of triathlon I did so for the same reason everyone else does, to push myself and test some new waters (hahaha). Okay, that was a bad one, but you’ll just have to live with it. Anyway, a year later I found myself toeing the starting line in Holyrood Park at the biggest Duathlon competition that one can compete in. Before I recount my tale I feel as though I need to say HOLY SHIT I AM SO INCREDIBLY BLESSED IN SO MANY WAYS IT IS UNBELIEVABLE. Alright, now that’s said let us move on.
All of my life I have loved to compete. For me, there is no greater satisfaction then testing my limits and seeing how far I can push myself. Let us go back to the lima bean bet of my younger years. One day at dinner as I refused to eat my lima beans my dad bet me 20 bucks I couldn’t eat 3 spoons of lima beans. We made the bet but I told him I would do it in a few days before I had eaten supper. That night he came home with the LARGEST spoon you have ever seen in your life. I HATE lima beans, they are the most repulsive food known to man (and I am NOT picky, just yesterday I ate Haggis and LIKED it, and for those of you that don’t know, Haggis is sheeps stomach stuffed with organs). After choking down the beans I went up to my room with my 20 dollars sick out of my mind, but oddly satisfied with myself for rising to the challenge. A love for competition or possibly a masochist/idiot? You decide for yourself.
My mom and I were discussing the reason for my obsession with competition and I still cant really figure it out. Fast forward to last week and an entire WEEK before DuWorlds I was already nervous as ever. The desire to feast that typically plagues me hourly was no longer present and sleep began to come in shorter and shorter intervals. Yet, for whatever reason, this is what I do. I spend all this money to make myself sick out of my mind. The days before the race I swear I was more moody than a pregnant woman on steroids (thanks mom, for putting up with my bs). I did still manage to enjoy Edinburgh the week before, however as the race grew closer and closer my enjoyment began to dull. The night before the race with the help of a beer I managed sleep about 45 minutes, and I thought Christmas eve was bad when I was 5….
Race day did come, but there were no boxes or bags, just a whole bunch of incredibly nervous athletes crowded in the metal confines of the starting box, waiting anxiously for the gun. 10 minute delay….great, 10 more minutes of anxious waiting. Everyone makes nervous casual conversation in the box, a little different when its in about 5 different languages and a lot of different accents. The gun goes off and we begin making our way up the 1200 meter hill before the turn around, which we would do 4 times for the first run. Not even 25 meters into the race a lad from Great Britain falls over and eats shit directly in front of me. I am no steeple chaser but fortunately I manage to hurdle him. The first 2 laps go by and the 3rd lap I know will be the hardest. I grind through this lap, the slowest one of them all, and before I know it Im on the bike with a new 10k pr.
My legs are fried. I desperately hope that power returns to them soon. Fortunately after a couple minutes they begin to feel rejuvenated. I get to the climb, which we will do 5x and immediately begin to reel people in, god I love being a skinny bastard in times like these. Not before I got to the end of the first of the five laps I feel my calves begin to cramp. Fuck, this has never happened to me during a race. I try to stretch them out a bit and keep the crampinig at bay. The first 3 laps go by rather uneventfully. I didn’t get caught and managed to catch a good amount of guys. The fourth lap though both of my hamstrings turn to pretzels at the top of the climb. I stand up and lean back trying to stretch out the monstrous knots in both of my hamstrings. The unrelenting cramping continues and negative thoughts about not finishing begin to creep into my mind. I am only moving forward at about 5mph, and people begin to go by me. A man from Australia in the 25-29 encourages me as he flys by me. Finally I felt that I could pedal and began to slowly turn over the pedals, I feel the micro-seizures of my hamstrings with every rotation, but fortunately I was able to hold off disaster for the rest of the bike. I knew this may plague me in the run so I finished my water to attempt to rehydrate.
My flying dismount went epically and my transition felt fluid and smooth into the second run, just 2 laps this time. The first lap hurt. The 1200m uphill teased me with the fact that as I ascended it I would only have to loop around and do it all over again in less than 9 minutes. An 800m hill workout I did over the summer at Occoquan Park began to creep into my mind and I focused on staying smooth and working my way to the top of the hill. On the final ascent I cruised to the stop and tried to open up my legs into the final downhill. My quads had different ideas however and were not pleased with the pounding they took as I tried to open my stride to coast down the downhill and pick up speed. As I approached the finish line I heard the announcer through the loud speaker “And here comes Grosicki of the USA, the Mens 20-24 Gold Medalist” my mind immediately went nuts, I looked backwards and saw that no one was close and through my hands up as I crossed the finish line. My state was shock and disbelief as I gasped for sweet air in the finishing area. Overwhelmed with emotion I was stuck between disbelief and sheer joy. Tears began to make their way down my cheeks, what a bitch I am I thought to myself. I went over to the fence and hugged my mom and called my dad.
Before I left, everyone told me I was embarking on the experience of a lifetime. Everyone told me how sure they were that I would do well, but no one, not even I, expected this. For days people asked me if I was still on cloud 9, the answer is yes I was, to be honest its almost a week later and I still haven’t come down. Just typing this up has got me all worked up like a mom watching her kid get on the school bus for the first time. I can’t put into words how lucky I am. I am so blessed. So blessed to have such a great family that has supported me and been with me all of my life. So blessed to have the BEST friends in the entire world, and lots of people say stuff like this but I know theyre full of shit because I really do have the best. You all are fucking incredible, thank you so much for being there for me and encouraging me. So blessed by the lord to have all that I have and be able to do what I can. Thank you everyone so much for all of your support, especially the past couple months. What a gay way to end a blog right? Could I possibly have been more trite? Maybe…but I am the champion of the world in the duathlon not JK Rowling, so if you were expecting wizards, thats your fault.
All of my life I have loved to compete. For me, there is no greater satisfaction then testing my limits and seeing how far I can push myself. Let us go back to the lima bean bet of my younger years. One day at dinner as I refused to eat my lima beans my dad bet me 20 bucks I couldn’t eat 3 spoons of lima beans. We made the bet but I told him I would do it in a few days before I had eaten supper. That night he came home with the LARGEST spoon you have ever seen in your life. I HATE lima beans, they are the most repulsive food known to man (and I am NOT picky, just yesterday I ate Haggis and LIKED it, and for those of you that don’t know, Haggis is sheeps stomach stuffed with organs). After choking down the beans I went up to my room with my 20 dollars sick out of my mind, but oddly satisfied with myself for rising to the challenge. A love for competition or possibly a masochist/idiot? You decide for yourself.
My mom and I were discussing the reason for my obsession with competition and I still cant really figure it out. Fast forward to last week and an entire WEEK before DuWorlds I was already nervous as ever. The desire to feast that typically plagues me hourly was no longer present and sleep began to come in shorter and shorter intervals. Yet, for whatever reason, this is what I do. I spend all this money to make myself sick out of my mind. The days before the race I swear I was more moody than a pregnant woman on steroids (thanks mom, for putting up with my bs). I did still manage to enjoy Edinburgh the week before, however as the race grew closer and closer my enjoyment began to dull. The night before the race with the help of a beer I managed sleep about 45 minutes, and I thought Christmas eve was bad when I was 5….
Race day did come, but there were no boxes or bags, just a whole bunch of incredibly nervous athletes crowded in the metal confines of the starting box, waiting anxiously for the gun. 10 minute delay….great, 10 more minutes of anxious waiting. Everyone makes nervous casual conversation in the box, a little different when its in about 5 different languages and a lot of different accents. The gun goes off and we begin making our way up the 1200 meter hill before the turn around, which we would do 4 times for the first run. Not even 25 meters into the race a lad from Great Britain falls over and eats shit directly in front of me. I am no steeple chaser but fortunately I manage to hurdle him. The first 2 laps go by and the 3rd lap I know will be the hardest. I grind through this lap, the slowest one of them all, and before I know it Im on the bike with a new 10k pr.
My legs are fried. I desperately hope that power returns to them soon. Fortunately after a couple minutes they begin to feel rejuvenated. I get to the climb, which we will do 5x and immediately begin to reel people in, god I love being a skinny bastard in times like these. Not before I got to the end of the first of the five laps I feel my calves begin to cramp. Fuck, this has never happened to me during a race. I try to stretch them out a bit and keep the crampinig at bay. The first 3 laps go by rather uneventfully. I didn’t get caught and managed to catch a good amount of guys. The fourth lap though both of my hamstrings turn to pretzels at the top of the climb. I stand up and lean back trying to stretch out the monstrous knots in both of my hamstrings. The unrelenting cramping continues and negative thoughts about not finishing begin to creep into my mind. I am only moving forward at about 5mph, and people begin to go by me. A man from Australia in the 25-29 encourages me as he flys by me. Finally I felt that I could pedal and began to slowly turn over the pedals, I feel the micro-seizures of my hamstrings with every rotation, but fortunately I was able to hold off disaster for the rest of the bike. I knew this may plague me in the run so I finished my water to attempt to rehydrate.
My flying dismount went epically and my transition felt fluid and smooth into the second run, just 2 laps this time. The first lap hurt. The 1200m uphill teased me with the fact that as I ascended it I would only have to loop around and do it all over again in less than 9 minutes. An 800m hill workout I did over the summer at Occoquan Park began to creep into my mind and I focused on staying smooth and working my way to the top of the hill. On the final ascent I cruised to the stop and tried to open up my legs into the final downhill. My quads had different ideas however and were not pleased with the pounding they took as I tried to open my stride to coast down the downhill and pick up speed. As I approached the finish line I heard the announcer through the loud speaker “And here comes Grosicki of the USA, the Mens 20-24 Gold Medalist” my mind immediately went nuts, I looked backwards and saw that no one was close and through my hands up as I crossed the finish line. My state was shock and disbelief as I gasped for sweet air in the finishing area. Overwhelmed with emotion I was stuck between disbelief and sheer joy. Tears began to make their way down my cheeks, what a bitch I am I thought to myself. I went over to the fence and hugged my mom and called my dad.
Before I left, everyone told me I was embarking on the experience of a lifetime. Everyone told me how sure they were that I would do well, but no one, not even I, expected this. For days people asked me if I was still on cloud 9, the answer is yes I was, to be honest its almost a week later and I still haven’t come down. Just typing this up has got me all worked up like a mom watching her kid get on the school bus for the first time. I can’t put into words how lucky I am. I am so blessed. So blessed to have such a great family that has supported me and been with me all of my life. So blessed to have the BEST friends in the entire world, and lots of people say stuff like this but I know theyre full of shit because I really do have the best. You all are fucking incredible, thank you so much for being there for me and encouraging me. So blessed by the lord to have all that I have and be able to do what I can. Thank you everyone so much for all of your support, especially the past couple months. What a gay way to end a blog right? Could I possibly have been more trite? Maybe…but I am the champion of the world in the duathlon not JK Rowling, so if you were expecting wizards, thats your fault.
Wednesday, August 18, 2010
Every new beginning comes from some other beginnings end
And so ends my summer. It is hard to believe that it is already time to go back to school. Ive got to say, the entire summer I feel like Ive spent a good deal of time complaining about how Ive missed school and such, but now that the school year approaches, I have to admit I am a tad nostalgic for the area of which i am from. Even harder to believe is that this is my last year at the College of William and Mary (assuming I pass haha).
Haven't written for a while. I guess I missed the Page County race report big time. It was fun though, nothing like racing through some good ol' hills for 3 hours, it definitely plays to my aerobic advantage. I won't bother writing the details of the race, however I feel it is somewhat noteworthy that before the start of the last 11 mile lap some dudes spokes sliced the top and major buckle on my shoes, making the last lap a tad more difficult. Kind of sucks that my 300 dollar Mavics are probably ruined now, but thats bike racing I guess...better than my bike or my wheels. So ended my 2010 cycling season. Id like to pronounce it a success. I got my Cat 3 upgrade, and proved to MABRA that the guy riding more or less unattached can indeed hammer out some decent finishes in Cat 3 races. Im definitely excited next year to race with Team Bike Doctor though, it will be fun to have some teamates.
The reason i didnt write a report for Page County was because the following week the family and i took our yearly vacation to Lake Anna. It was fun times. Found a good 40 mile loop to ride that encircled the lake, and got in one open water swim in water that nearly cooked me (this stuff was 96 degrees and getting out of the water I promptly hammered 3 bottles) thanks to my mom for kayaking along side me so that I did not end up in some boats engine. The hardest workout of all however was probably going fishing out on the boat with my two cousins, Collin and Stephanie, ages 10 and 7. Unfortunately the stupid fish would not stop biting, which meant constant unhooking, worming, untangling and so on. Largest catch of the day ME.
Got an email today from Team USA about DuWorlds. Im not going to lie, although Im looking forward to the race and being over there, i am undoubtedly more nervous about this race than i have ever been about any. I know that I have been putting in the hours of training, but the whole concept kinda gets me a little worked up. Oh well, I do what I can I guess right? Special thanks to Mark, my moms bf, for sitting at Burke Lake the other day to act as a transition area for my bike and my shoes as i did a mini Du. The legs felt great, got a loop around the 4.7ish mile lake in 2720, then hammered out an hour on the bike and did another 2.2ish mile run in 12 minutes. The money is in the bank, now to play the waiting game for September 4th. Anyway, Saturday I leave for the Burg. Definitely excited, as SemiSonic says "every new beginning comes from some other beginnings end."
Haven't written for a while. I guess I missed the Page County race report big time. It was fun though, nothing like racing through some good ol' hills for 3 hours, it definitely plays to my aerobic advantage. I won't bother writing the details of the race, however I feel it is somewhat noteworthy that before the start of the last 11 mile lap some dudes spokes sliced the top and major buckle on my shoes, making the last lap a tad more difficult. Kind of sucks that my 300 dollar Mavics are probably ruined now, but thats bike racing I guess...better than my bike or my wheels. So ended my 2010 cycling season. Id like to pronounce it a success. I got my Cat 3 upgrade, and proved to MABRA that the guy riding more or less unattached can indeed hammer out some decent finishes in Cat 3 races. Im definitely excited next year to race with Team Bike Doctor though, it will be fun to have some teamates.
The reason i didnt write a report for Page County was because the following week the family and i took our yearly vacation to Lake Anna. It was fun times. Found a good 40 mile loop to ride that encircled the lake, and got in one open water swim in water that nearly cooked me (this stuff was 96 degrees and getting out of the water I promptly hammered 3 bottles) thanks to my mom for kayaking along side me so that I did not end up in some boats engine. The hardest workout of all however was probably going fishing out on the boat with my two cousins, Collin and Stephanie, ages 10 and 7. Unfortunately the stupid fish would not stop biting, which meant constant unhooking, worming, untangling and so on. Largest catch of the day ME.
Got an email today from Team USA about DuWorlds. Im not going to lie, although Im looking forward to the race and being over there, i am undoubtedly more nervous about this race than i have ever been about any. I know that I have been putting in the hours of training, but the whole concept kinda gets me a little worked up. Oh well, I do what I can I guess right? Special thanks to Mark, my moms bf, for sitting at Burke Lake the other day to act as a transition area for my bike and my shoes as i did a mini Du. The legs felt great, got a loop around the 4.7ish mile lake in 2720, then hammered out an hour on the bike and did another 2.2ish mile run in 12 minutes. The money is in the bank, now to play the waiting game for September 4th. Anyway, Saturday I leave for the Burg. Definitely excited, as SemiSonic says "every new beginning comes from some other beginnings end."
Monday, August 2, 2010
Culpeper Sprint Tri
This weekend was my second time racing the Culpeper Sprint Triathlon. That officially means that I have been racing triathlon/multisport for over a year! The weeks leading up to the race I really focused on my swimming. I mentioned briefly last week that I was now training under Debi Bernardes, owner of Ucandoit multisport coaching out of Fredericksburg. Debi has been great thus far, she has got me doing things that I wasn't doing on my own, such as speed work and things to work my anaerobic system in addition to getting me in the water 3-4x a week. The water part made a huge difference. Last year I swam a high 13, this year I swam 3 minutes faster! First 1/3 of the race, monster success.
T1 went alright, the insole in my shoe came up and clumped under my foot, which sucked, but in the first mile of the bike I passed probably about 10+ other cyclists. I love swimmers, especially when they cant ride bikes. It brings me great joy to go by these fish as they are weirded out by the fact that they can breath whenever they want while exercising. Unfortunately for them, I am now joining their breed by trying to grow a pair of my own gills, 2 points for me!
The bike portion went well, the course was hilly. I passed the 15 mile mark at 37 minutes, somehow the next mile took me 7 minutes? Im not really sure about the distance. I did have the 6th fastest bike there, which pleased me. I want a TT bike, I also want about $20k of other bike stuff, a big house in Colorado, and a beautiful wife, I guess lifes just rough sometimes. That said, I love my Zipps, they are fantastic, its also fantastic to fly by people while they have to listen to the beatiful noise of my carbon wheels, poor bastards =)
T2 went about as well as T1. I didnt wear socks and could barely get my left shoe around my heal. Some fish that I gained time on in the bike beat me out of the transition. Unfortunately he could run pretty fast and gained even more time on me in the run. Luckily he caught 2 other people in the run and I caught them too.
I finished the race in 4th. My goal was top 3, but its hard to set goals like that before you know the competion. Props to the dude who won by beating Robbies time last year by 3 minutes. Not to mention hes only 19, I cant wait to see where he is in 4 years, and hopefully Im not up against him. Also props to my buddy Ben for a great race finishing in second, and Nate Martins for finishing his first tri, 2nd in our age group and 28th overall!
After the race Nate and I went to Skyline for some camping and relaxing. We enjoyed some delicious beverages while relaxing in the wilderness. We feasted and zonked out pretty early. Monday morning we woke up early for a beatiful foggy and cool run on the Appalachian trail. Nate was able to show off his Army ranger skills by avoiding the slippery rocks and warning me to be careful every time Id nearly roll an ankle or slip on a rock. After we came back to the campsite where we ate some delicious smores oatmeal and packed up the campsite. All in all a great weekend with some great people. Thanks for reading!
T1 went alright, the insole in my shoe came up and clumped under my foot, which sucked, but in the first mile of the bike I passed probably about 10+ other cyclists. I love swimmers, especially when they cant ride bikes. It brings me great joy to go by these fish as they are weirded out by the fact that they can breath whenever they want while exercising. Unfortunately for them, I am now joining their breed by trying to grow a pair of my own gills, 2 points for me!
The bike portion went well, the course was hilly. I passed the 15 mile mark at 37 minutes, somehow the next mile took me 7 minutes? Im not really sure about the distance. I did have the 6th fastest bike there, which pleased me. I want a TT bike, I also want about $20k of other bike stuff, a big house in Colorado, and a beautiful wife, I guess lifes just rough sometimes. That said, I love my Zipps, they are fantastic, its also fantastic to fly by people while they have to listen to the beatiful noise of my carbon wheels, poor bastards =)
T2 went about as well as T1. I didnt wear socks and could barely get my left shoe around my heal. Some fish that I gained time on in the bike beat me out of the transition. Unfortunately he could run pretty fast and gained even more time on me in the run. Luckily he caught 2 other people in the run and I caught them too.
I finished the race in 4th. My goal was top 3, but its hard to set goals like that before you know the competion. Props to the dude who won by beating Robbies time last year by 3 minutes. Not to mention hes only 19, I cant wait to see where he is in 4 years, and hopefully Im not up against him. Also props to my buddy Ben for a great race finishing in second, and Nate Martins for finishing his first tri, 2nd in our age group and 28th overall!
After the race Nate and I went to Skyline for some camping and relaxing. We enjoyed some delicious beverages while relaxing in the wilderness. We feasted and zonked out pretty early. Monday morning we woke up early for a beatiful foggy and cool run on the Appalachian trail. Nate was able to show off his Army ranger skills by avoiding the slippery rocks and warning me to be careful every time Id nearly roll an ankle or slip on a rock. After we came back to the campsite where we ate some delicious smores oatmeal and packed up the campsite. All in all a great weekend with some great people. Thanks for reading!
Sunday, July 25, 2010
Easiest 5k ever.
The past few days have been about the hottest temperatures I have ever dealt with. Saturday, as I discussed last week was supposed to be the big day. I was all set to run my PR for a 5k. The week started out hard, and got easier 2 days before the race. Thursday I rode at Wakefield and it was the first time all year that I was not constantly attacking every time my heart rate dropped to a point where I felt like I could put a good hurting on my compatriots. Friday i did an easy ride and a short run and Saturday I felt good. The weather however, did not.
Sometime on Friday the weather decided to politely give me and my PR chances the finger and that was all she wrote. Saturday when I woke up at 8am after closing the deli the night before the temperature was already in the upper 80's, this is bad. It got worse when the family, including my little sister Lauren, went to DC and the walk between the air and space museum and the museum of natural history felt like I had bonked at the end of a half marathon. The heat was the kind that got inside of you and zaps you of all energy. Upon arriving back at my house i called my coach Debbie B. of Youcandoit out of Fredericksburg and we decided that a swim this afternoon was a better idea than killing myself in the brutal heat. The swim was my 3rd swim of the week, a feat I havent accomplished since school at sWiM club, when I got injured and couldnt run for 2 weeks. The swim went well and then after Nate, Charlie, and I (2 of my friends at USNA, and USMA) went to see Inception in an air conditioned theater, that beats a 5k any day!
Next week up is Culpeper Sprint Tri. This was my second ever tri last year. Im definitely stoked and looking to put together a much better overall performance in all 3 components than I did last year. The fact that i dont have to worry about an untied shoe lace 1 minute into the run should help! ;) Thanks for reading!
Sometime on Friday the weather decided to politely give me and my PR chances the finger and that was all she wrote. Saturday when I woke up at 8am after closing the deli the night before the temperature was already in the upper 80's, this is bad. It got worse when the family, including my little sister Lauren, went to DC and the walk between the air and space museum and the museum of natural history felt like I had bonked at the end of a half marathon. The heat was the kind that got inside of you and zaps you of all energy. Upon arriving back at my house i called my coach Debbie B. of Youcandoit out of Fredericksburg and we decided that a swim this afternoon was a better idea than killing myself in the brutal heat. The swim was my 3rd swim of the week, a feat I havent accomplished since school at sWiM club, when I got injured and couldnt run for 2 weeks. The swim went well and then after Nate, Charlie, and I (2 of my friends at USNA, and USMA) went to see Inception in an air conditioned theater, that beats a 5k any day!
Next week up is Culpeper Sprint Tri. This was my second ever tri last year. Im definitely stoked and looking to put together a much better overall performance in all 3 components than I did last year. The fact that i dont have to worry about an untied shoe lace 1 minute into the run should help! ;) Thanks for reading!
Sunday, July 18, 2010
Keeping the eye on the prize
Less than a month and a half left until Duathlon Worlds. Got my jersey this week. Sweet jesus it is sick. Excited? God Yes. Ready for it to be over? Also yes. I owe a HUGE thanks to my family and friends for giving me so much support with this. My grandparents for helping my mom and I with travel expenses and my friends for training with me and giving me travel advice, and also listen to me bitch and complain on the days when I have to do my second or sometimes even my first workout of the day and I dont want to do it. I guess training goes through ups and downs though, very much like a roller coaster. There are days when you want to go out and kill it, and more power to you on these days. There are also days when you feel like your body is going to kill you, and these are the days that test our will. I certainly have had my fair share of both over the past few months.
Races are good not only to serve as tune-ups and gages to see "where you are at" but they also make things fresh and interesting and give you short term goals if your goal race is possibly a while down the road. This weekend I raced at Giro Di Coppi, a 3/4 bike race in Maryland. It was HOT and the course way HILLY. Fortunately, both of these are great news for me. Being smaller helps me stay cool and climb hills, this was my kind of race. The roads were also narrow and the on and off pace of the field gave many of the riders an uneasy feeling and was the result of alot of nerves among the riders. By the last lap the heat and climbing had taken its toll on many of the riders and the field had been reduced to less than half.
The sprint was an uphill finish, another positive for me. Unfortunately, I managed to get stuck behind and Evo rider whom the uphill finish did not benefit. Seeing riders go by me I wiggled my way past him on the outside and gunned it for the line. I got two riders right before the line and finished in 7th, my first top 10 finish in a Cat 3 race. Solid finish? Yes. Satisfied? Not really. Thats bike racing though. You've got to pick a wheel or be at the front, and pick the wrong wheel and your hosed. Such is life, live and learn. Overall result of the day, a good 50+ miles of riding with alot of climbing and some points towards my Cat 2, Ill take that.
Thats enough for tonight, work has drained me. Next weekend is the Crystal City Twilight 5k in Arlington. Should be a fun race. Big names, fast times, post race beer...enough said. My goal? Hell yes I have one, that said though... HELL NO, im not telling, don't want to jinx it. As always, thanks for reading.
Races are good not only to serve as tune-ups and gages to see "where you are at" but they also make things fresh and interesting and give you short term goals if your goal race is possibly a while down the road. This weekend I raced at Giro Di Coppi, a 3/4 bike race in Maryland. It was HOT and the course way HILLY. Fortunately, both of these are great news for me. Being smaller helps me stay cool and climb hills, this was my kind of race. The roads were also narrow and the on and off pace of the field gave many of the riders an uneasy feeling and was the result of alot of nerves among the riders. By the last lap the heat and climbing had taken its toll on many of the riders and the field had been reduced to less than half.
The sprint was an uphill finish, another positive for me. Unfortunately, I managed to get stuck behind and Evo rider whom the uphill finish did not benefit. Seeing riders go by me I wiggled my way past him on the outside and gunned it for the line. I got two riders right before the line and finished in 7th, my first top 10 finish in a Cat 3 race. Solid finish? Yes. Satisfied? Not really. Thats bike racing though. You've got to pick a wheel or be at the front, and pick the wrong wheel and your hosed. Such is life, live and learn. Overall result of the day, a good 50+ miles of riding with alot of climbing and some points towards my Cat 2, Ill take that.
Thats enough for tonight, work has drained me. Next weekend is the Crystal City Twilight 5k in Arlington. Should be a fun race. Big names, fast times, post race beer...enough said. My goal? Hell yes I have one, that said though... HELL NO, im not telling, don't want to jinx it. As always, thanks for reading.
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