Another month, another race, another goal met

Wow, it’s been a month already since last wrote. Thank GOD, tha’s pretty much the only negative news.

Today, I’ll share that I am so happy to have exceeded my work expectations in my evaluation, especially in May I was 25% over budget. I just complete my second race of the year, and my 40th birthday is just around the corner. It doesn’t get any better than that, does it? Well, it does. I have a new triathlon bike, so my other two bikes will be going on e-bay soon. I also want to confirm that my weight has remained steady for yet another month, except for Friday this week when I ate some 3 slices of PHut’s meat lover’s – big mistake. I must have gained 2-3 lbs. just from that meal - carboloading turned fat loading. This month I also dropped my training by about 30% and can tell I’ve lost some toning, so June will be back to training goals and routine.

This AM was my second race, Publix’ Sprint Series in Sarasota. After my internal alarm went off at 3AM and no chance of falling asleep again, we ogt ready and took off at 4:30 – the whole gang, my support crew and I. It had been raining and lightning all night so I wasn’t sure what we’d find. The waves were very rough and there was a very strong side current, after an attempt by the organizers to modify the swim course, they ended up cancelling the swim. Instead of a swim/bike/run event we all did a duathlon, run/bike/run. I for one wasn’t very happy cuz I know the second run can be really really tough.

Immediately after the gun went off, it started to rain and lightning again. The rain was coming down so hard it felt like hail. This was a beach run, which makes it even more difficult – loose sand, holes, puddles, tide, etc. I was on the third group, 8 minutes after the elites. The first run went better than I anticipated, per my calculations, I ran 8:15 miles, meaning I should have finished it in just over 25 mins.

The bike leg was an awesome experience for me. I passed people from the go. Must have passed about 20+ riders, even whole packs. I also learned that the USAT regulations require all passes be made on the left side. Another dude caught up with me on the last 3-4 miles and we just used each other’s effort to pull each other to go faster.

When I arrived at the transition area, I had a brief technical issue which set me back about 3-4 sec but the actual transition was so fast that I came out ahead of the people who got in just before me. I have to admit that my legs were spent before I got to the second run; they were not responding with speed when I asked them to. I swear, most of the people I passed on the bike went right by me on the run.

At the end, I finished as I had hoped – SPENT. I left my heart out on the course, gave it my all, with an unofficial time of 1:28:10. I hope to find a picture of me and Isabel crossing the line together. Melva and OJ also sacrificed their morning to join me here and we all got soaked in the rain.

Now, it is back to serious training. I can now tell I have lost some muscle tissue and gained a little bit of fat from my reduced training in May but I am not going to settle for this, even though I am wearing size 32 pants (from 38 in Jan). Now that my new bike is ready, I will start doing more bricks and some swimming.

In restrospect, this month worked out not as I wanted but as it should have. I exceeded my work goals even on this weak economy. This has allowed me set a strong foundation for an even stronger year. God has truly blessed us at home with a steady job, income and so much more than we need. We have also done our part in sharing our blessings; the kids finished school very strongly with excellent grades. Although Melva has bene suffering of a brutal lower back pain we’re hoping last week’s MRI will help diagnose and treat it soon.

My next race is on July 12. Just 5 more weeks down the road, so I will go now. Gotta go work my butt, erase that, belly off. C ya next time.