Downs and Ups

I know it's supposed to be ups and downs, but that's not the way it went!

Pigman HIM was supposed to be my big last race rehearsal and give me big confidence for IMOO. Instead, the bike portion of the race was largely in a huge wind and rain storm, and then it dried out and got warm. I had GI problems (thank goodness for the portapotty on mile 9 of the run), and bonked on the run. Hard. I still finished in 5:26, but this was a big comedown from the 5:08 at KS, and my contemporaries had times that were much more comparable to their KS efforts. I had lots of potential excuses, but I don't really know...

For most of a week, this was a big problem for me. I kept wondering if all this work was going to happen, and then I still suck. Big confidence problem.

But last weekend made things a lot better again. All I did was ride an easy century (is that an oxymoron?) on Saturday, then run 16 mi (albeit pretty easy, about 8:30 pace) on Sunday. Nutrition was no problem on Saturday, and the run on Sunday went fine with nary a water or nutrition stop.

Oh, and I got to watch Christopher at the Hickory Grove Tri. He averaged 21 mph on the bike for the first time and came in 3rd among all competitors 24 and under, 1st among everyone 19 and under. 19th out of 420 overall. Not bad for a 14 year old. His friends/teammates came in pretty much right behind him. Awesome.

Now it's Tuesday, and the legs feel fresh again. Life is good. Onward.