Getting back on the Horse

Bouncing back after the Ambulance Ride

There is never any easy process after an Ironman Race .It is especially harder after a disappointing race . I have now had the full effect of the flu and it has added to the tired legs and the painful blisters on both soles of my feet . It has been  quite a different post Ironman feel to Lanzarote and Busselton last year . I had soreness and stiffness but none of the blisters I have copped this year and much greater fatigue than normal and the dreaded flu.

I am carrying more weight though. I did nothing for a whole week as the blisters did make it difficult to walk. I was signed up for the inter-club Championships and up to the day before I wasn't sure if I was going to be able to race.
I have managed to sleep longer but I am still getting up in the morning at 4am so.Old habits are hard to stop. I had my office Christmas dinner the night before the inter-club race and only managed a short 4 hour sleep. I then drove down to Mandurah for the race .I got there really early , before 6am . The race was at 7.30am. Got set up and I forgot my wet suit so I was swimming without one.

It was hard going barefoot with the raw feet . Racing for the first time for Exceed , my new club.

The guys started 15 minutes after the girls and it was relatively calm waters with a slight chop. I swam a15minute 750m race which was about right . I hobbled to transition as it was hard running on the blisters. Got my socks and bike shoes on.This was not a race where I was going to try a fast mount on the bike with the shoes clipped in. I kept my ride as consistent as I could and passed a few cyclist along the way. Finished the bike course of 17.5km in about 33.31 minutes. Got the runners on and did the 5km run in 25minutes exactly.

All the times were down from last year which indicates the state I am in presently. I was four minutes slower despite a good start to the year relative to last year. I finished in 1.13:56 .

Exceed won the Presidents trophy ( Inter-Club Championships). Fastest Tri Club second year in the row.More importantly , Exceed's catering manager  Rob Parry cooked up a storm of food for the exceed athletes. I was just too sick to eat much after the race .Just Coke zero and water. we had 34 athletes and had the best average and we were 700 points away from North Coast who had the biggest field.

It was great seeing everyone out on the course.Not so great being slow.

I think I do have the touch of the IM Blues or the flu and/or just the touch of the burnout / lack of motivation I have felt for a few months is still lingering .

Despite those feelings I did manage to register for Ironman Busselton 2012. I will now take a break and start planning and making some decisions about how I approach next year. It is the OC syndrome ( Obsessive compulsive behaviour)

My racing weight and nutrition  is going to be the major area I will need to focus on .

I did read a short piece how-to-bounce-back-after-a-poor-performance with the penultimate paragraph :

If all else fails, I like to call on the Jamaican bobsled team for their words of wisdom. Look yourself in the mirror and say, “I’m a bad ass runner who don’t take no $#@% from nobody”. Hey, if nothing else you will feel ridiculous saying it and whether you like it or not, you will smile. Go find a mirror and say it NOW. You smiled didn’t you?

I did.