Well, last weekend couldn't have gone any worse on such an important weekend! I had put in some solid training in the lead up to LA triathlon and was ready to go. I had two weeks of training on the Big Island of Hawaii and boy was my running and swimming coming along. I was setting run PBs up my street every Thursday on speed days. For the first time since Clearwater I was feeling good.
The problems starting coming when work forgot that I was heading over to LA and the phone calls and text messages were stressful which resulted in lots of strain before race day when i should have been relaxed. Now, the thoughts of what was going to happen when I arrived home was constantly on my mind.
Come race morning I woke up feeling very tired and it took a few shakes from the fiancee to get me up and out off bed. The cold waters of Venice beach sure woke me up as I fought for position. I thought I was going well with a nice draft until I looked up and saw the pack had gradually pulled away and I couldn't make up the groud. Come out of the water in good company with Simpson, and Griffen. Things went down hill from there as my seat post dropped a good three inches and boy did I feel like a amateur. Here is were stress does not tie in well with race day preparations! I failed (yes I take blame, no excuses here) to tighten my bolts on my new P3C. A slip of the seat post doesn't do wonders for power output. Coming into T2 my race was done and it was a cruise to the finish line.
Lots of things to do differently in my last couple of races left this season that I'm glad happened at LA so they will not be made at Clearwater this year. I hope to improve on my 7th overall from last year.
Lessons learnt:
1) Turn off the blackberry
2) Complete full over inspection of bike
3) Make sure work has not forgotten time off request
Nice blog. You are one fine looking triathlete!
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