About To Get Back On The Horse That Threw Me

On my last post I went into detail how my day transpired at the Ironman 70.3 Florida two weeks ago.  I have studied the reasons for my struggles that day in detail and I hope that a few answers I may have come up, thanks to input received from many friends, can help me achieve race success once more.

Upon further investigation, and just to add insult to injury, I found out, by analyzing my Garmin data, that my actual swim "moving time" was just over 32 minutes, well under my expected goal of 45 minutes in the swim.  But as posted earlier, my actual swim time was 1:10 and change.  This simply means that I spent almost 40 minutes nursing muscle cramps.  Oh... what could have been!

But, I'm not one to sit back and cry over spilled milk.  It happened.  Period.  Now it's up to me to pick up the pieces and move on.  And so I have done.

I returned to the water, albeit a pool, two days after the race and to open water ten days later.  Both instances went without a hitch.  It is my hope to carry that on to tomorrow's Mach Tenn Triathlon (sprint distance) in Tullahoma, TN.  It has a 1100 yd swim.  Plenty of time to test my work.

One of the obvious elements I've been working on is on ensuring I have plenty of minerals in my system.  Specifically, potassium. I will ensure to eat a banana about one hour before "go time".  Also, I bought a minerals supplement at my local vitamin store that I will take with my water before the race.

Someone pointed out to me that I need to make sure not to over do it due to the fact that the body may start retaining liquids.  If this happens, it could lead to plenty of discomfort as well.   Oh my, the balancing act!

I also need to make sure that I do plenty of stretching and a good warm up before the race.  Did not take the time to do either in Florida.  And we all know that no matter how slow we want to start the swim, adrenaline kicks in.  This could have also been another factor with the cramping issue.

As for the rest of the race?  Gotta have Faith.  Have to stay Focused. And must Finish with a smile on my face.  That's the plan, the only plan I take with me on each and every race I participate.  This one will not be any different.