To be frank (you can still be you), this week, looking back on the race, it seems to be sticking in my memory much more so than Nice last summer. Yes, as I may have mentioned occasionally, the race hurt. However, it was the manner of the pain that profoundly stuck with me. I may well be lamenting a little, but, as I have said before, the biggest part of iron distance racing is what you learn about yourself. How far you can truly go. How much suffering you can take. Where you mind wonders during these times of duress etc.. I can safely say that I pushed that barrier a little bit further during this particular race.
The more I think about how dynamic this race was and yet how long I took to adapt to my ever changing environment that day, the more I realize how poor my nutrition has been up until now. Simply put, until now, luck has been with me. Just the right temperature and just the right distance and the combination of many other factors have allowed me to believe I had just the right plan. It was applied last Sunday and missed the mark by some ways. Not that half of a bottle of nutrition was missed, but why it was missed and how it unravelled the bike portion. This realization has pushed me, in these last few days, to begin to really have a good look at how to more accurately formulate what my actual needs are during the long distance event.
This off season I plan on joining forces with a nutritionist who specializes in this type of fueling and really narrow down what it is that I, me as a unique individual athlete, entirely separate from anyone else's body, need during 14hrs of endurance. Why? Because I never wish to feel how I felt during the last 37 miles of that bike portion! I want to develop a plan A, B & C for my third race in Boulder next year and ensure that altitude and heat do not derail the effort that will be given to next August.
Now, time for a month off and a lot of sleeping and eating. Where's that double chocolate, New York cheesecake ice cream!?
Good luck to us all!
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