Today was the triathlon. I ended up with my last option, riding my bike to Hertz to pick up my rented SUV, even though I ended up knowing a person who was going and wanted to ask but forgot. So fk me.
Cuz, like the warmup ride, the race was marked by pouring rain. Temp was sub 60, with a gusty wind. The intense fog canceled the swim portion of both the half and Olympic races, which sucked.
We started instead with a 900m run. I took it out too fast, impressed by and caught up in the energy and friendliness of all the racers and volunteers. I also had a good transition into the biking portion, with the help and guidance of set up by my cubby mates. The bike was never terrible. ‘Big hill’ was definitely not fun, but my bike was up to the challenge of that and all the other elevation changes with reasonable pace. I did fall, taking a downslope turn too fast. But It wasn’t a bad fall, I could feel it’s inevitability on the decent. It gave me space to unclip, slow down, aim for soft grass, and tuck and roll. But jeez all the good karma on all these fairly seriously falls with no major injury. Bless up.
I was back on the bike in a minute too.
Coming off the bike, I literally couldn’t feel any of my toes. I desperately manipulated the joints during transition to get some blood and heat, but even still it took 2 or 3 miles to even settle into a moderate run stride.
Reagan, a co-worker, save my freezing ass by lending me his son’s riding jacket, otherwise I wouldn’t have generated and kept enough heat to finish.
I “pushed” the last 3 miles, probably like 9:50ish. Which gave me some confidence that this race didn’t kill me. I ended with a 3:08 although I can’t find an official time so fingers crossed it counted. I am not returning the medal either way.
I’m excited for the half! Taper Time! Get lots of rest, like 5-7 days of 8+ hrs of sleep. Plenty of biking, swimming, yoga. Max 1 lift and 1 bike run next week. 2 the week after. 1 the week after and a run. 1 the week after. As many swims and yogas and miles on the bike are worth it.
55 Likes, 4 Comments - Winston Chiang (@winston.chiang) on Instagram: "I definitely didn't win any metals for speed! But I'll fking take it! #under60andraining #noswim..."