Double Header at USAT AG NATIONALS

I've never been to Alabama, so it took me awhile to figure out what "Roll Tide" actually meant. When I arrived to the airport, I suspected there would be many athletes on the only direct flight into Birmingham that day. Well, that was an understatement. Mark Fretta, Sara Haskins, Matt Reed, Cameron Dye and I could go on and on and on. There were also many National Team coaches and USAT Staff including Melissa Mantak, Barb Lindquist and Scott Schnitzpahn. It was really good to catch up with everyone and I knew it was going to be a fun weekend.

After being in bed for 3 weeks with pneumonia, I was just happy to be in Tuscaloosa, but had dropped any kind of expectation for performance. My plan was to use it as a solid training weekend racing the Olympic on Saturday and the Sprint on Sunday with Clearwater Ironman 70.3 World Championships next on the schedule.

Client Betsy and Coach Trista

With only one interval session on the bike and run earlier in the week, I knew Saturday was going to be bad. I just didn't realize how bad! I got out of the water and headed out on the bike and after about 5 miles, I knew I needed to take it down a notch. I was really struggling and the body wasn't shifting into my top gear. After about 1.5miles of riding easier, I was able to then dial it back up and felt pretty darn good. Then mile 17 came and I was tired! Kind of hit the wall a bit. I thought to myself this is all okay, let's just make the run a training day. I headed out into the 90 degree temps and high humidity and oddly enough, did not feel like the heat was limiting me. My training on Isolation Island in Florida had really made me resistant to such conditions =) Regardless, it was a long day on the run course for me, even though I ran the whole 10k. I was just tired and was wondering how on earth I was going to race in the morning.

Sunday morning came and we had rain, rain, and more rain! I felt tired and stiff but figured it's just a little over an hour training session today. Let's just do this. I felt great in the swim and thought, well, maybe I've blown out some cobwebs. Well, I had done just that. I felt like a Rockstar on the bike and held off a few on the run. Fortunately, the clouds really let down only the last mile on the bike, so I high tailed it back as quick as I could to get off the bike and onto the run. The run was solid for where I was at not running for weeks and I even held off a few the last stretch to the finish. I ended up with a smile on my face and an okay finish of 8th place. I felt good and really that is what I was grateful for after being down for weeks.

Running in the Rain: Photo Courtesy of Brian Nath

I will probably take my Team USA slot and race the World Championships in Beijing 2011 for the Sprint race.

A BIG SHOUT OUT TO:

-My client Betsy for placing 16th at AG Nats and qualifying for Team USA

-Coach Melissa for getting me to the race healthy

-Kerry for perspective

-TIMEX Cindi Bannink for coming out to cheer me on in the rain! Your trash bag looked FAB!!

-My family for taking care of me when I was laid FLAT!!!!

-Photos by Brian Nath -Grasky Endurance Coaching and Dick Quinn