Relief!
Was the major emotion of the day as my 2011-2012 tri season finally wrapped up yesterday with the Oceania Triathlon Championships olympic distance age group championship at Devonport.
Six months and one week after the first race of my season, the Long Course Worlds in November 2011 - for which I had trained for seven months - 13 months of continuous, non-stop triathlon came to an end.
We all know how addictive this sport - or any sport really - can be, and you listen to the pros saying 'you need to take a break, have an off-season, to stay fresh and keep your love and passion for it' and you think 'as if, I never will want a break, it's too much fun and I'll lose my fitness!'. But (you'd never guess) they're right! Obviously I don't intend to go sit on the couch for a few weeks, I'll still train, but for fun and not constantly thinking about how this training session fits into my overall plan, or what intervals I should do, or am I doing aerobic or anaerobic today, what's my heart rate, do I need to do hills or flat, panic because I'm not feeling good, blah, blah, blah.
It would have been nice to end such a great season on a high, but I realize that you can't win every time, and basically you get what you prepare for. And as I have said before you learn more from your failures than your successes so again there is plenty to take from yesterday's performance.
I'm not exactly sure why it all went so wrong, but there are many things I believe contributed, the main one being the mindset that I was 'over it'.
I worked pretty much all week and didn't really think about studying the course maps, or writing a race plan.
In hindsight I should have gone down to Devonport and practiced on the course. It's a really technical little course with a 16% hill in the middle that we had to climb six times. By the sixth lap I was confident of going round the corners down on the bars and I knew which gears I had to be in at what points of the course. If I'd known all that from the start it would have been much easier!
Also with a 7am start time I didn't think about my usual routine of getting up three hours prior to the race to have breakfast, so I ate two hours before and something that I hadn't eaten before a race before.
I also had no idea what the swim course went, having missed the athlete briefing on Friday and then found myself warming up for the swim when the girls had the race brief on the beach. I ran up the beach and only just made it in time for the start, dove in and went anaerobic and spent the first leg trying to get back up to where I should've been from the start. By the time I got to the front of the chase pack I only figured out we had another lap to go because I swam through three girls coming back the other way. Thank god for pink caps! But after the next two buoys I wasn't sure where to go so I had to slow down and wait to follow the girls beside/behind me as I vaguely saw another buoy way out to the left and, because I was swimming all on my own, thought 'shit were we meant to go round that... OMG I'm going to be disqualified! What is Johnno going to think!'. So that was a bit disappointing.
No major problems in T1 thankfully except for my sunnies fogging up so I couldn't see anything. I felt OK when I headed out on the bike but as usual it wasn't long before Melissa came past and informed me that there were 7 girls ahead of us. I don't count or care really because I try to focus on what I'm doing and not what can't control like other people's races. But it was a bit of a blow to know so many had beaten us out of the water and we already had a lot of work to do.
It was a bit of a surprise when Kate went past at a rate of knots early in the ride and I decided I needed to stay with her and Mel, but after I was forced to drop back for a couple of men, lost touch with them and from there just kept getting slower and slower. I didn't feel like I had a gear small enough to climb the hill properly, and then I started chucking up my breakfast .. that went on, and on, until I came good with about 10km to go! If only there was another 50km to go, I would have been right!
T2 went ok - not much you can mess up there - but I still felt like I was being far more conservative than usual, for some reason. Which was not my race plan, my plan was to go hard and finish the season with a bang!
Anyway stomach issues continued on the run and I'd also had nothing to drink or eat (which is not unusual in olympic distance for me) but probably didn't help. I still gave it my best and think I had a reasonable run but by that point I was so far behind I wasn't able to catch up and finished third in the 20-24 age group.
Melissa had a great race to take second in our age group after one of the mainlanders. Kate Pedley and Kate Warren held up the LTC name with first and I think third overall, and the rest of the top 10 was filled out by mainlanders. I think I was about eighth overall.
A disappointing end to the season but relief that it was all over and happy for Melissa - she has improved out of sight this year.
Had a fantastic rest of the day watching the junior, U23 and elites race and getting very sunburnt! Congrats to Natalea, Jake and Hodgey who showed off the local talent, and Dylan and Jono who put in awesome efforts in their first big races.
There is one more race this year which is the LTC Beauty Point enduro, more of a novelty race than anything. I hadn't planned to compete as the enduro format is just way too short for me but due to last Sunday's race being cancelled, I need to race to get points in the club series. Regardless I'm not counting it as a proper race so that is it for my season.
More updates soon as to what I plan to do over winter... I don't want to think about it just yet! I'm going to have a well-earned break now and have some fun of a different kind.
Again thanks to all my sponsors and supporters for looking after me through the good races and the bad. As you know I couldn't do it without you:
Specialized/Bike Central - Tex, Dale, Nick, Jas & Jamie, thankyou for giving me the best job in the world and making sure my bike(s) are in A1 condition every time I race. I can highly recommend having a a team of bike mechanics behind you - it rocks!
Harvey Griggs - for the best sports massages ever :)
EFM Windsor - Craig thanks for letting me keep up my crazy, inconsistent training schedule... looking forward to spending more time in the gym over winter.
In Balance Pilates & Physiotherapy - Jude thanks for your great classes and constant encouragement and interest in my sport.
Mum, Dad, Grandma, Grandad and Johnno - thanks for always being there to watch or at least support me in spirit! I appreciate the cheers, even if I only give you a grimace in return!
Melissa, Dan, Jess, Natalea, Maggie, Lou, Kate, Hodgey, Dwayne & Amy, Casey, Paul & the rest of the LTC team - thanks for being a fantastic and fun support network, training partners and best friends. And congratulations on a fantastic season - LTC represented in 2011-12!!!
<3 Holly
