Good Days and Bad Days

I am not going to make it long, I dont really feel like it. Although I am not mad/pissed/depressed/frustrated I am not happy either about how things went today.

Wednesday (as posted before) was a good training day, everything felt right and getting ready to race. Thursday was a day off, and not much happened. Team lunch, photo, opening ceremony, athletes dinner for everyone racing, and home. Friday I woke up like any other day, things were feeling good. 20 minutes easy in each sport was all I needed to do just keep things moving...

Breakfast, cleaned a bit around the apartment and left for the 20 minutes jog. 10 minutes into it both of my legs simultaneously went rock solid in a matter of meters. I could not bend them past 90 degrees, I walked home. Weird huh? Nothing different, no training yesterday, coming from an easy week (can not be fatigue thats for sure...) Stretched and after hours it sort of went away, but deep inside I could still feel deep pain, like I just run a marathon kind of pain. In the afternoon I rode 20 minutes to drop off the bike and it seemed to be ok (not good but ok) and I stayed positive thinking that maybe there was something off. With Friday being another easy and relaxing day, Saturday I will be fine.

Today (Saturday/Race day) I woke up alright. Still a little pain deep inside the quads, but manageable (kind of felt like post race stiffness/muscle damage). I headed to transition, set everything up, went for a 15 min jog and 5 minutes after same thing happened, very very odd... At this point there was nothing I could do, but to hope that the swim and bike will loosen me up before the run. Went for swim warm up, and the race got underway.

The swim was tough, I have never ever got kicked, pushed, pulled (from the shoulder), swam over like this before, even in elite nationals which was pretty rough. Still, I managed a 19:30 swim which was up there with the main contenders. I exit the water, run 10 meters and as I am getting my wetsuit off the legs go rock solid again. I could only walk/limp to my bike, sit down and try to get my wetsuit off. Well, legs were rock solid so getting a wetsuit off without bending the legs was a 2 minute ordeal. I grabbed my bike and limped to the mount line hoping that it will go away, I could not believe this was happening. Really. I jumped on my bike and with my legs not bending past 90 degrees I could only manage to get my feet on top of my shoes and start riding slowly (~20kph), I never managed to get my shoes on in 5 minutes of riding and decided to DNF. It was a tough decision, I dont quit easily.

In many many years of swimming competitively and 5 years of triathlon (16 races this year alone) I have never quit in the middle of a race. Despite hip pain and injury this year I have run to the finish several times, I have run with shin splints, knee pain. I swam 25km in a week using a pullbuoy because of a sprained ankle last year, cycled up cypress/seymour 3 times in January (snowing at the top once), trained consistently despite road rash from 2 separate accidents at the beginning of the year, swam in kits pool at 5:45 am several times for 1.5hrs until I could not stop shivering (even after 20 minutes under the hot shower). I dont like quitting, but today I really really had no choice. Its 10 hours since my race start and I am still limping, pain had gone down from a 10 to an 8.

I said I was going to be short, but writing seems to sort of help. I am not mad, not frustrated, not dissapointed; what I am is clueless. I have no idea what happened, and most likely I never will. Maybe too much electrolytes, maybe too little, maybe I got dehydrated on Thursday, maybe nerves (although with so much racing this year including nationals I am ruling that out). I will now take some time to think and rest (well, rest for what? I have been resting for 2 weeks and only got to swim 19 minutes! kidding...)

By looking at the final times I think I had a decent shot at a medal, maybe not first but 2nd or 3rd. I still got a finishers medal, I limped after 40 minutes in the medical tent (which included 3 liters of water and 1 valium) to get one at the finish line. I will still hang it on my wall, I cant only be fueled by successes. This year was a great year, I have improved a lot, unfortunately the last triathlon of the season ended in such a low note. Regardless, every time I will come across that medal in my room it will give me something to look forward to and motivate me to work harder; probably even harder than if I got a 1st, 2nd or 3 place medal hanging.

Facundo

Ps: Dad, were you serious about Budapest 2010? I got a spot already at nationals, I just have to take it =)