re: mock tri blues

Did a mock tri today on the race course for Saturday. Well, not a whole tri, just the swim and the bike. Now this is supposed to be a nice and easy tri. You know a tri to get me used to the season, my first one and all. All I can say is that if I get through this triathlon I can do anything!

First I get to the building where the swim is inside in a pool. The caretaker showed me around, showed me where the shower was and the locker rooms. Then we went inside the pool area. It was stepping into a sauna. Literally. You could see the steam rise from the pool. Apparently the pool is a theraputic pool where people who need rehabilitation go and well, get rehabilitated. It is extremely hot! How hot! Well, it was 91 FRIGGIN' DEGREES. Yep, you guessed it just shy of body temperature hot. I'm thinking how in the hell am I going to swim 525 yards in 91 Friggin'-degree pool water? Geez. What are these people trying to do, kill me? So I got into the pool and started doing laps. It was so hard to get my breath. I had to pop my head up on each length and breathe fresh air. Oh, my God! It was so hot in that pool. But I go through the swim in about 10 minutes which was a good time. Hopped out, already had my tri shorts and sports bra on and ran to the parking lot to get my bike. I remember thinking, "The bike surely has to be easier than the swim. I mean, it's the bike right?"

Got my bike out of the car, shoes and socks on, handkerchief on my head and butt on seat in 5 minutes. I think I was just so tired from the swim. I usually can swim 1 mile w/o any tiredness but damn, that pool was mighty hot. I had already scouted the course the weekend before so I knew exactly where to go. The bike started out really well. All downhill. It was beautiful. Took me 28 minutes do do the first six miles. It wasn't until I got to my last land mark before the turnaround that I knew I was in trouble. Right there in front of me was BAH - yep, Big Ass Hill. OMIGOD! I shifted into low gear and humped up that hill. It was crazy. I thought I wasn't going to make. All I kept thinking about was this is going to be great on the way back! Wishful thinking.

Did I mention that this tri is in Pueblo, Colorado? Pueblo is like the Kansas of the Rocky Mountains. You might as well not be in Colorado. It's hot, desert like prarie, plains conditions. Which means one thing - a whole lot of WIND! OMIGOD!

There must have been between 30-40-mile an hour winds on my way back. So it made the flat road seem like uphill. So basically the six miles back was like climbing up Pikes Peak because it was high winds, resistance and just plain miserable. Tears streaming, nose dripping, mouth dry from huffing and puffin' I trudge my way back to the bike start. I thought I wasn't going to make it. In my eagerness to quit I turned on the wrong road. Did I mention I'd scouted the course before and knew that Harmony Drive was the wrong but Harmony Lane was right! It didn't matter. So my detour took me into the brush, among the yucca, tumbleweeds, rabbits and snakes (I think I saw one). OMIGOD.

By now I'm not even thinking of doing the run because it's getting dark and well, hey, I'd been through enough. Out of the brush I come and onto the road to get to my right path. Up ahead is Harmony Lane but there's something that stands between me and victory - you guessed it a BAH! So now I'm riding into a 40-mile hour wind right up a BAH. Is there no end to this torture?????

One, two, one, two, slowly I pedal! It's like little kids on big wheels are passing me up. What the hell is going on here. Finally, I get to the top and I see the swim caretaker in her little yellow VW bug. "Hey," she yells, " You forgot your goggles! I'll meet you back up at the swimming pool."

Great I thought another visit to the sauna masquerading as a pool. I look at her forlonly. Please, I silent beg, throw me atop your little Beattle and hurl my ass back to the building. No such luck, she's already turned around headed back up to the pool. One, two, one, two, I trudge up a small hill back to the bike start. I hop off and crawl through the grass landing sloppily on the Beattle. She comes out smiling handing me my only swim cap and my trusty goggles.

"Good luck on Saturday," she screams.

Saturday, I think. OMIGOD. I have to do this again!

Ovetta