Last year, one of my heroes in the sport, Simon Whitfield (but don’t tell him that- I don’t want him to hold that over me) had a pretty shocking race in Washington D.C. where things didn’t fall into place. Sometimes that just happens in racing. He blogged about the race under the same heading that I lifted from him, “So that happened”, and it was this phrase that stuck in my head when I crossed the finish line in the Budapest WCS Final on Sunday. Encapsulated in those three words are the feelings that rose to the surface: disappointment, shock, resignation and frustration.
No matter how you feel about a disappointing race, there is nothing that you can do about it but move on and try to learn something from the experience. In the case of SImon, he went on to win $200k the following weekend at the HyVee Triathlon. For me, my post-Budapest goal is a bit less results focused. I need to become an excellent technical rider. My race didn’t turn out the way that I had hoped for one very big reason: my bike handling skills were simply not adequate for a highly technical bike course with a pack of 40 women. I used up my legs needlessly covering gaps or trying to move up from the back of the pack to an easier position. By the time that I got to the run, I was so mentally exhausted that I had lost count of the bike laps and had to slam on my brakes at the dismount line. While I focused on maintaining a good run form and tried to move up through the field, I was simply too tired to put together anything beyond a heavy plod and finished in 28th place. Amazingly, I managed to squeak into 20th place overall in the series, thanks to the “Get out of Jail Free” cards that I cashed in at Hamburg, KItzbuhel and London. I could have used another one this past weekend, but I guess that it was too much to ask!
Although I have worked on my handling skills, I still have a long way to go. Even though I am disappointed that it had to occur at the most important race of the season, the wake-up call that I received on Sunday will only make me a better triathlete in the future. Until this year, I always assumed that the fittest triathlete won races. This weekend’s lesson reinforced that there is a skill component that I can no longer overlook. The fit athlete will only succeed if the mental, technical and tactical skill level is high. Fortunately, I have a squad of training partners who are highly adept at these skills. How else can you explain the fantastic racing by Andreas Giglmayr (breakthrough top-15!), Barbara Riveros, Kate Roberts, Vicky Holland, Lisa Norden and our junior, Michael Gossman?! I would have loved to live up to the D-Squad level of excellence this weekend in Budapest, but it just wasn’t to be. Sure, “that happened” and I would have loved if it hadn’t, but that is part of the sport. On to the next training session, next race and next season!
1 comment:
Have you ever tried winter triathlon? Nothing like MT biking on snow to improve road biking skills. I trained for and finished one in 2009 and it made road biking seem relatively easy. Your coach might kill me though for suggesting it! I went down a few times in training but falling on snow was no biggie.
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