So, after a hard week of work and training, I headed to Central IL, for a sprint DU - Multisport Mayhem in Mattoon, IL. It was a Tri/Du combo so, it was good to see how I would match up with running and riding with triathletes and to see how the legs were doing.
The course is not super hard, however, Saturday morning brought cold temps, and howling 25-30 mph winds. As is typical with Spring racing in the Mideast, the winds were also gracious enough to be swirling, so you never really got a tailwind for any substantial period of time. The first run went as I expected, with the first mile plus, into the wind, and a cross wind, with me hitting T1 in 2nd and feeling relatively decent.
Hit the bike, and rode as hard as possible, passing lots of triathletes, and chasing down the guy leading the Du. Now, the bike would have been a lot more tolerable if it wasn't resembling the Team Time trial from the Giro D'Italia. I know the country roads weren't closed off, but, when I caught the leader, I felt like I was his lead out man for the sprint at the end of a stage. I thought about pulling up to see what he would do, but, into the head wind I knew I would come to a standstill. I finally just hammered the last mile into T2, and took off on the run. Same course, same wind. I was hurting a bit, but started to come around, when this guy came back on me. He even thanked me for pulling! We raced to the line, but he got me. After I crossed, he saw I was pissed, so, he came over to congratulate me, and thank me again for pulling and protecting him from the wind. I kid you not.
The idiot didn't realize the RD was right there, as were about 5 other people who were stunned he thought this was ok. He got a 3 min penalty, and I got the win. Its not really the way I wanted to win, but, it was a win. Its my fault for not really dropping him sooner and running his race instead of my own. So, there's your lesson - always race your race, not someone else's. Yeah, he may have got his, but I still believe if you race your race, you'll feel better no matter what the result.
Something else I learned from this race, and its something we all are known to do from time to time - don't leave your best race in your training. I do 95% of my training solo, as many of us do. But, we need to be better barametors of our effort. I know I wasn't tapering for this race, and had close to 13 hours of training in my legs before the gun went off, but its not an excuse for leaving my best running on the trails closest to my home. I have done that twice this year, and it proves costly. I went into Powerman AL flat, b/c I had over-trained, and then, in an effort to show that Powerman was not indicative of my ability, I repeated the same mistake going into Mayhem. I agree that some over-training, or very hard blocks of training are necessary to improve LT and stamina, but not every workout should be a race. In talking with my coach after the race, she put it plain and simple - "You train too hard. You don't back off on easy days, and it costs you. " I share this with everyone so if you see yourself doing the same, maybe reading this will help you re-evaluate how you train and race.
On a side note, as some of you may know, I was the topic of conversation on a forum that I will not mention. The comments regarding my status as a pro were questioned by a few athletes whom I did not know, nor have I raced against. It was my first time experiencing such hateful and crude comments from complete strangers, who know nothing about me. I am not going to address them here, because I know nothing would make them happier, and I refuse to stoop to that level. What I would like to say is, when anyone bad mouths an opponent, for any reason, it diminshes all of us in the sport. In the current economy, multi-sport is not high on sponors priority list. When they see bashing taking place, why would they want to support that? If our sport is truly supposed to be "a sport that anyone can do, or at least try" and if we are truly grateful for the opportunity to race, at any level, then better we focus on improving ourselves, and growing the sport, not acting like high school children, writing notes in class. To sink to that level is abhorrent, and keeps this sport from reaching a more mainstream market. Having the benefit of being on both sides of the sport, in marketing and as an athlete, when things like that pop up, its negative publicity that we don't need. So the next time you think you have some cute comment to make about your fellow athlete, or would like to rant about your fantastic abilities and how you can beat so and so, stop and think long term. If we don't do it now, we'll soon be relegated to racing each other on training runs. Think about it.
Stay Strong
Guy
