Doing the Best with what you Have

Throughout my life so far I have always been very proud of making the most of my resources and opportunities. Living in the country, we had plenty of space, so running became a great way to explore sport and fitness. In high school, getting good grades and excelling at academics proved a means to getting scholarship money to attend Syracuse University. Along the way I studied German and earned a scholarship to study abroad for a year as a 16 year old. Like most folks with the ‘drive’ chip in their brain, I have always looked for ways to make the best and the most of what opportunities present themselves and what opportunities I can make for myself.

Over the past few triathlon seasons, I’ve had my fair share of obstacles. Frankly maybe it was too easy those first three years of training and racing…maybe I was due some potholes. Who knows? The point is, on a daily basis I do everything I can to mitigate any ‘issues’ that present in my body. Reality is, all pro athletes have tweaks, aches, pains and chronic injuries of some sort, at some time. Some of us may just have more. Be it genetics or a whole host of other potential causes. Currently as I type I continue to cope with a back issue that stems from the L5/S1 area… as simply put as possible, this is what happens. The facets of the vertebrae jam and rub together with certain types of motion (ie swimming hip rotation) due to a degenerated disc and a sharp angle between the spine and the sacrum. The jamming of the facets irritates the tissues in the vicinity resulting in muscle spasms (the body’s way of protecting itself, causing less mobility). The muscle spasms render certain stabilizer muscles useless, which cause the use of other muscles to kick in, in an attempt to make up for the inadequacy. Ultimately this causes more irritation, swelling and the reduction in the space of a nerve canal. This results in the pinching of a nerve. Big time ouch. The training impact is directly felt in the water. Often the pain is so bad I cannot pull myself out of the pool onto the deck…no matter how hard I try. Our strategy has been to keep me out of the water, so that I can at least train the bike and run. But there is more.

I have spent the past three years trying to get to the bottom of all of this back mess. In the middle of that I rolled a tubular tire while racing in the Escape from Alcatraz, was hit by a car and ultimately taken out with a serious knee injury courtesy of a wayward pitbull in July 2004. It took 18 months to recover from that stuff and I rarely notice issues with the knee. So, with those problems behind me it was a return to focusing on the back. If it could only be that easy.

In January I started to notice some pain in my right heel. By February the diagnosis was plantar fasciitis. Here we are, in August, six months later and I still have a lot of pain in my foot. I stretch, strengthen, ice, tape, wear an arch brace and wear a night splint. Add reduced run training, to my reduced swim training and I’m starting to feel more like a caged animal with every passing day.

So, here we are post Vineman and I get to the actual race report: “Doing the Best with what you Have.” I have spent a lot of time beating myself up over the past three seasons. After all I have been posting times that are in some cases measurably slower than my amateur years, in spit of being much stronger and experienced. I have finished races in times/places that many pros have chosen to abandone. While dropping out is a personal decision that can’t be second guessed by anyone besides the athlete themselves, I can tell you that it is very rough to continue to the finish line when the upside seems very minimal. This experience continues to help me grow as a person and an athlete, it is about letting go of the ego and not being defined by your performance.

Over the weekend, coming into Vineman, I was not feeling very well. This was particularly distressing since, like most athletes there, I had been preparing for Vineman as a focus event. Nevertheless on Sunday morning, after driving to Windsor from the Bay Area at 3am (somehow the hotel reservation was lost so we stayed home and drove in) I made my way to transition and to the start. My mantra for the entire race was “race your own race.” My goal was to see how my June/July training block on the bike would transfer into a race situation. I had not been able to swim or run much, so I was to go out there and do the best I could with what I had that day.

The pro men and women swim start was at 6:25 am in the Russian River. It really was cool to see the likes of Dave Scott, Lori Bowden, Heather Fuhr and Wendy Ingraham floating around. Of course there were a boatload of current stars and up and comers in the line up as well. It was a virtual whose who of triathlon. I felt very fortunate to be sharing the water with this group. The horn sounded and we were off.

The typical whitewash churn began. I quickly found myself in a trio of swimmers. Cool! I frequently make the mistake of swimming in clean water, solo off of a pack to stay away from the fray. Problem is there is no draft. This race I decided that I would make it a mission to get on some toes and see how that worked. The three of us traded off a bit in the first half of the swim, but I soon realized that the pace was really pedestrian. At the turnaround, I decided I better try to pick it up and salvage the swim as best as I could. I really couldn’t see anyone within striking distance, so I did my best to surge along with a few of the fast swimmers of the wave that started 5 minutes behind. Exiting the swim, I felt a bit worked. I really missed not being able to wear my Blue Seventy wetsuit.

I trotted up to the rack and donned my race number belt, my Optic Nerve Rodangos, helmet and this time, I put on my shoes. Normally I leave the shoes in the pedals, but due to the long run out and slight incline at the mount line, I decided to would be prudent to run in my cycling shoes. I grabbed my Blue RC4 and was off. Running through the transition to the start line I appreciated the cheering of the athletes still waiting for their wave start. Off into the fog I went.

It is eerie, but not atypical to get on the bike and look up the road and see no one.In these situations racing is truly a time trial. There is no measure of speed as you pass athletes, no slingshot draft as you move up and pass other riders. It is purely you, your will and how fast you can push. Patience is key. So, I recited my mantra ‘ race your own race’ which for me means power to the pedal times ten! I continued to do just that for mile after mile. Within minutes of the bike start I caught a few athletes and then every once in awhile another single rider would appear in the distance. Though I did not count during the race I passed half of the female pro field on the bike. However, passing 10-12 riders over 57.5 miles can make for a lonely ride.

I entered transition in 10th place and saw that I was right behind Ironman World Champion Lori Bowden. It was cool to see Lori back racing, since she had been away for the past year and a half with her first baby. Well, I only saw her for a few seconds and that was it, she was off running her trademark speedy run. I got out of transition relatively quickly and set out to run the 13.1 miles ahead of me. I could see a few of the other gals I passed late in the bike coming into transition while I was in the first mile of the run. I wondered how long I could hold them off.

I struggled a bit during those first few miles. I had to use the bathroom and no porta pottys were in sight. Doh! There were hills I didn’t remember and save the pro men who were already running back towards the finish; I couldn’t see much of anyone up the road. Again, like the bike, a solo time trial of sorts.

By mile 4 or 5, I was passed by Katya Meyer and later around mile 7, another pro gal. After a pitstop near the turnaround I started to feel better and pick up a little steam. I made it all the way to the final mile when I started to tie up a bit and Kathryne Cronje and went by. Then in the last half mile, it was Robin. We all finished with in half a minute and apparently that was the closest bunch of pro women of the race, since everyone else was very stretched out. So in that sense it was nice to have company over those last painful steps!When I crossed the line I was grateful to be there as always. Definitely a bit bummed with my 5:06 time, but ultimately my mission was accomplished. I proved that I am back to being a considerable force on the bike. My split was 4th fastest of the pro field. I finished in 14th place. Though my swim and run were wanting, there were no surprises to Coach Phil or me. I made the best of what my body has currently and that is all any of us can do.

I have a little bit of time to rest and recover this week, and then we are going to make some decisions about the remainder of ’06.

Huge congratulations to Becky Lavelle for a flawless race, to Kate, Desiree and Kelly Couch for climbing atop the podium. A special thanks to Nuun for saving me at the expo with a bottle of Nuun and to my awesome supports, Scott and Julie Gix for setting me up with another pair of Vigor shorts…they were awesome on the race course. Thank you!

In my next report, I will share photos of my soon-to-be built spanking, brand new Blue R6 road bike. I love my RC4, but man this new Blue Rig is S-W-E-E-T!