Tuesday, August 17, 2010

Where have I been and where am I going?

I realize I sort of fell off the face of the blogEarth after my last post, so I'll give a quick summary of my last couple weeks.


Like I mentioned, I raced the Wool Capital tri. Apparently, less-than-optimal fitness for me means I can still crack the top 10 (9th overall) in a regional race. Despite that, I still couldn't get top three in my age group. Who knew the 30-34 age group was competitive? I was happy though. I had a really solid swim (second overall for individual competitors, I think I was top five when you put relay swimmers in the mix). My bike is where I expected it to be, which is perfectly adequate. My run was so-so, but again, that was to be expected. I ran solid, but had no real oomph.

After the swim I was in the unique position of being in fifth out of the water -- and that's after starting in the second wave. The three guys that caught me in my AG (four total guys passed me) all did so in the back half of the bike. Then they proceeded to run low/mid-6s compared to my high 7s, so the outcome was never in doubt. I did run with the women's winner for a while and she honestly kept me moving along at a good clip. I probably would have shut it down if not for her. On the back half of the run I moved away and finished 7th across the line, but two guys from the sub-30 AGs had a faster time.

And with that, I'm done racing for a little bit. I've deliberately let my training slide while I was focusing on school for the summer session, but if I don't get back on it soon, I'll be in trouble come Longhorn 70.3. And I'd like to do well there (relative to myself). If I enjoy the race, it'll probably be my big event for 2011.


Hannah and I went to Carlsbad Caverns in New Mexico last week. We wanted a trip where we could be outside, but with a limited budget, a short timeframe and the temperature consistently in the triple digits, we were stumped on what to do.

Then it hit me... caves are cool (both literally and figuratively)! We spent a couple days exploring the caves (guided of course; I think we'd still be "exploring" them otherwise). Because this was a whirlwind trip, I naturally forgot the camera, so you'll just have to visit the park yourself to experience the caves' grandeur.


I do have a picture from my drive to Idaho last month though:


What, no good? Okay, here's another of the Budweiser plant in Colorado:


Admittedly, these were taken during the drive, so the quality of any given picture was a crapshoot. I'll leave you with one that came out okay:

That's Montana. Not Texas.


School starts up again next week. On Thursday, I start an actual paying job (tutoring anatomy and physiology). Not that I don't have a job already, but this one will help contribute a little more directly to my planned career.

Friday, August 06, 2010

Hubris

I had lofty goals to not only earn an A in my summer session Physiology class, but also to rip it up at the local olympic distance triathlon this weekend. I'm not exactly sure where things went off track, but I suspect it was right around the time I got a B (81%) on the first exam -- seven days into the class -- despite spending loads of time studying.

The nature of the class (four months of material condensed into five weeks) meant that I would have very little chance to "recover" -- so the triathlon goal went out the window, as did my training. I pulled up my grade going into the final test (91 and 90 on the next two exams, respectively), but that meant I needed a 96 or higher to get the A. Since the last exam was going to cover the most material (whole muscle, cardiac, respiratory and urinary physiology), the odds of me cracking the A were unlikely.

So, I was faced with a (admittedly not life-altering) decision: what to do? I only needed to "not fail" to hold my B. Do I phone it in as far as studying and settle for whatever I get? Honestly, that was never going to happen. I "gave it" and came up with A on the test (91 again). Unfortunately, I was not able to bend the laws of basic mathematics and wrapped up the class with a B average.

For whatever reason, I've been pretty bummed since then. I don't know when getting a B started equating to failing in my mind... perhaps if I earned the A, I'd understand the chemistry of my brain a little better...

I'm still going to show up at this race tomorrow, although the outcome isn't really in doubt. I'll do what I can on the day and I may even try the "never works but sure is fun to try" strategy of "go 'til you blow." On oly is too long to nail on less-than-optimal fitness, but we'll see what happens. If anything I'll have a rocking swim.