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Well, it is a 2K swim and I am feeling good so why not stretch it out a bit. Basically, I am able to swim on his feet so long as I am in a good drafting position. The trouble is that he seems to zig when I zag so I keep getting a little out of alignment. All the sighting that I am doing to stay in his draft zone slows me down a little bit as well. Basically, it's a struggle and I start to get those "what the hell are you doing?" thoughts running through my head. Part of me wants to kick back, have a 40 minute swim and generally enjoy the day. The other part of me wants to go sub-3:20. All of me just wants this guy to slow down a little bit so I don't have to work so hard to stay on his feet.
Soon we are coming in to shore. I get dropped a little bit but there is a short beach run and I know that I will be able to catch him. I stand up and feel the hot water drain from my suit. Later, Steve would comment that he felt like he was swimming in coffee. Mental note, improve swimming and leave the wetsuit at home next time - long john at the most. The second lap was pretty uneventful. Just a running commentary in my head alternating between "this is tough" and "why, oh why, are we doing this". I am bathed in sweat and know that I have lost a fair amount of water. Not yet sure if that fine line between speed and hydration was crossed but I have my suspicions that it is somewhere nearby. Check the clock while exiting the water and it reads 30 minutes. Well, at least I had a good swim. My suit is immediately half off and I run through the showers that they have set up. Strip the suit, check out my heart rate monitor, see the all too familiar 180 flashing away at me and decide that walking to my bike might be the best course of action. I walk a little bit and then jog slowly. Arrive at my bike, get my helmet and shades on and start to feel extremely lightheaded. Having been here before, I lean against the racks and wait for it to go away. The sensation grows and is joined with a hint of nausea. What a way to lose my tri-chunder virginity. I declare a tri-timeout and give myself a 60 second sitdown break. A couple people sneak out of transition ahead of me but I figure that it is better to get myself under control early rather than risk spewing on the fly. Thankfully, I feel much better after 30 seconds, and although my HR is above my biking AT, I am able to walk my bike out of T1 and mount up with my virginity intact. I start real slowly and sip on my bottle of diluted sports drink - I had three bottles on my bike, diluted, regular and strong. After about five minutes, my HR is down to my biking AT and I decide to pedal at what felt like an easy pace but still kept my HR right up. Down to the first turnaround, I pass one lady and a guy FLIES by me like I am not moving. I count the people coming back at me and see that I am in tenth spot. |
Able to walk my bike |