April 07, 2011

Triathlon 101 mistake on race day





I always post the good and the bad about my training & racing. I made a really dumb rookie mistake during the Mesa Valley triathlon last weekend. I bought a new pair of Zoot triathlon shoes & was so excited I decided to race in them without having ever trained in them. By the 2 mile mark I had massive blisters on both feet. The last 1.2 miles of the run was excruciating. I'm sure I could have broke the 23 minutes mark on the 5K if I'd have raced in shoes I was used to running in. It's a miracle I didn't get blisters on my face from me grimacing the majority of the run;-)

All in all I'm running well considering how heavy I still am. I'm currently 201 pounds at only 5' 11". That's normal for an average Joe, but it's pretty big for a triathlete.

On the up side I'm down to 201 pounds. I've lost a lot of the off season weight I'd gained. I now only have 11 more pounds to lose to be down to my goal race weight. I should be down to 190 by the 3rd week of May, which is the weekend of the Dog House sprint triathlon. Now that I know I'll finally be down to my race weight that weekend I'm contemplating doing the Dog House sprint tri. I shouldn't because if I race that weekend I'll have raced 5 weekends in a row. That's hard on the body & I really should be focusing exclusively on IMAZ. I have difficulties not getting OCD about the South West Challenge Series. I love the series. A couple of the reasons I love the series so much is because I don't like focusing on racing/beating any one particular local triathlete, they are all so friendly, encouraging, supportive & are honorable sportsmen to the last. But to compete in a series takes away me needing to focus on a person & I can focus on a series of events & my individual performance in numerous events within one goal. The other reason I love the series so much is because I love hanging out with all my tri buddies many times/races through the course of an entire season.

Since my wife has started going to school & I stay home with our babies in the day while she's at school & work nights I've been having to do a lot of my cycling on my rollers & indoor trainer. I think that has a lot to do with why I'm not getting the speed I'm used to at races on the bike. But I'm ok with that. My family comes first. I'll accept being a slow cyclist knowing my wife will graduate, get a great job making lots of money to buy me lots of new & triathlon gear;-)

3 comments:

Duane said...

IM AZ? May have to come cheer you on!

Anonymous said...

Cody-would luv to hear more about what exactly you're doing to get your weight down..

Rob Lovett said...

In addition to being a world-class gentleman, you are also very tough. Here I was moaning about my road rash, and you never said a word about those blisters on your feet and never made any excuses. Very laudable Cody - I'll have to remember your example next time I get a little boo boo.