Like most kids, I went through a pretty serious Disney phase in elementary school. To this day, a depressing amount of my brain is occupied by the song lyrics of Aladdin, The Little Mermaid and Beauty & the Beast*. The other day, I was reminded of The Little Mermaid upon reflecting on my race at the Kitzbühel WCS, where I finished a surprising 10th place after yet another disastrous pre-race lead-up. More specifically, I thought of Ariel and the advice that Ursula, the evil sea witch, gave her after taking away her voice in exchange for legs. How ever would poor Ariel seduce the prince without her best attribute, her beautiful singing voice?! Ursula reminded little Ariel that she had other qualities that might be appealing to that hottie prince. I believe that the actual lyrics are “Don’t forget about your looks, your pretty face/ And don’t forget about the meaning of the body language”. Amazingly, Ariel almost gets away with snagging the prince despite her limited means and only through Ursula’s use of magic is her marriage to the prince thwarted. (If you want to know the ending, you’ll have to watch the movie yourself.)
So what exactly does this have to do with triathlon? Not much, other than it reinforces the lesson that you can sometimes get away with more than you think with less than 100% of your ability. For a week and a half leading into the race in Kitzbühel, my training was seriously impacted by a knee injury. I had to lay off of running, ride no harder than an easy spin and use all of the sports medicine and physiotherapy I could to decrease the pain to a manageable level. Fortunately the USAT staff and DIrk, the German team physiotherapist, were thorough and generous with their time. (Thanks!) However, the knee injury was yet another setback in a season of setbacks, making me incredibly cranky and physically underprepared. The stress alone forced Coach Daz to binge on Swiss chocolate and to contemplate sending me back over the Atlantic. An injured Groffy is a handful, needless to say. Fortunately my training partners are nonplussed by my antics at this point, as was evidenced by their performances in Kitzbühel. That being said, I owe them big time for putting up with me this season...
If I was injured, stressed out and underprepared leading into the race, how was I able to finish 10th in a world-class field? Honestly, I was shocked that I managed a good result. Not as shocked as after my post-Death Spiral Hamburg result, but still very, very surprised. Instead of relying on my fitness (i.e. racing like a meat head), as I would have in the past, I raced as calmly and intelligently as could, focusing on racing efficiently and with minimal impact on my knee. While I would have loved to feel fitter and less flat, especially in the second 5k of the run, I couldn’t have hoped for a better result given my lead up to the race. It is probably safe to say that I am gradually becoming a more skilled racer, making me optimistic for when I can race with both skills AND have a greater level of fitness. After all, while the prince was enamored of mute Ariel, he was even more psyched when she had her voice as well.
* I’m sure that this is a confession that I should be embarrassed about, but I really have no shame. I run around in public in my swim togs, after all.
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