Training Log Archive: hilarity

Event: Anaconda Augusta AR
 

Awesome sight with so many people on the beach - men went first and then it was our turn, and I discovered I could NOT put my face into the water. Eventually I did any my goggles leaked (surprise!) so I did most of the rest of the swim breaststroke. I even managed to pass one guy and about five girls.

However breaststroke seems to use your shins (??) so when I got out of the water I could barely walk. After a couple 100m I was better and started jogging.

Just before we got off the sand and onto the grass I got stuck behind a woman with a very large bum, and there were people breathing down my neck so at the first opportunity I ducked around her, hopping unsuccessfully over a small rock wall. OUCH.

Transition went fine and off I went on my ski, catching people immediately. I would guess I passed about 200 people and no-one passed me. That was more a comment on how badly I did in the swim, not how well I did in the paddle.

Every now and then I glanced down at my very painful toe, which at some point started bleeding. It looked like I had knocked the toenail off so I figured I'd need to put a bandaid on it and see how it felt to run.

Pass more people, more people, more people . . .

Happy again with my transition and my decision to bring a little folding chair to sit on! I lost several minutes (added to paddle time) extracting a bandaid from my first aid kit and getting it onto a toe that made me yelp when I touched it.

My first running steps were ouchy and I had to change my stride to accommodate the foot. I walked the hill and then started jogging, caught a couple people, almost got run over by the fast guys on the bike, but managed to jog all but about 100m of the 3km.

Transition for me involved a big slurp of PowerAde, a huge mouthful of banana, and exchanging cap for helmet. It was quick.

The ride itself was really good, uphill for the first 2km or so which made me very happy that I've been doing the City Beach ride as training. Early on there was a bit of a bottleneck with someone being afraid to ride down a little dip. When I got to my turn the girl in front of me fell off, leaving about 20cm of path and she said to go around. I hopped off the bike to walk around her (I was stopped anyway) and diappeared up to my left knee in a hole at the side of the path. This was hilarious to all, including me.

When it flattened out I really got to take advantage of those 29" wheels and I started actually PASSING people, What fun! The singletrack was a blast. Towards the end a guy came up behind me and said 'passing when possible' but as it was singletrack and I was in a race I yelled back 'not possible' and he backed off.

One little stack at the end - but amazingly this was my best leg in my category - 3rd! 29th fastest girl,

I jumped off the bike coming into transition and some choice words came out of my mouth. I looked down and the entire front of my shoe was blood red. Uh-oh. But off I went and immediately realised I couldn't run without heaps of pain. Walking was only slightly less painful, and manoevering over rocks was excruciating.

Mostly I walked this, with the occasional little jog. I did manage to run up the final stretch to the finish line and then hobbled off to the medical tent.

I really thought all I'd done was lift the toenail off and I just wanted a bandaid to cover it but when I took my shoe and sock and bandaid off the toe was black and bent funny. The ambos got the doctor over who said 'oooooooh' and made a face.

This was a lesson in what adrenaline can do for you - I went for over two hours wirh a broken toe but when they finished with me in the medical tent I couldn't put any weight on that foot at all! Even Jacko says he can't do anything about this :-(

6:44, 5:58

Oh wicked GPS of lies! I sometimes get a bonus 100m or so but today it was the opposite and the wheelie bin that I know to be at the 740m mark was musteriously at 650m today.

But look at that time for the 2nd km, happy with that!

And even happier that the hot spot on my foot has healed up. I'll still fixomull it before Anaconda just in case . . . .

Decided to ride to work for the rest of the week as Anaconda prep - mostly to make sure there are no weird concerning noises from the bike pre-Anaconda.

Spirit (aka Go Paddle Sports) re-cabled my ski for me today, shiny nee stainless steel cable in which I have full faith. :-)

6:33, 6:07

I had to remove my orthotic as the hot spot I created on Friday was still way too painful to even walk with.

Didn't feel too great to start but I harangued mysefl with taunts of 'you're an endurance athlete (ha ha ha) you can do this' and it worked. Go the self-bullying.

Opened it up a bit for the last 100m to simulate race conditions when I'm sure I'll be getting caught by someone speedy.

I'm feeling very lucky - Karl's dodgy home fix-it job on recabling my rudder failed tonight, furthest point away from the cars of course but thankfully at the end of the session.

But why I'm REALLY lucky is that the cable didn't snap yesterday during the race, or Saturday during the mini, or Sunday in the middle of the Augusta rivermouth.

Hopefully I can find someplace to fix it tomorrow, aagh!