I am Smart Enough To Learn From My Mistakes...

Grand Columbian is an extremely tough race. I have no excuse for what happened. I need to have the courage to ask myslelf the question, "why?" I am smart enough to learn from my mistakes...The past 2 days I have analyzed my race, looking for clues to solve my self destruction riddle. By no means are these excuses, simply explanations for what may have went wrong. What happened is in the past, I would like to not repeat it.

My entire goal is to take a look at my race day approach and learn from it. I know my fitness is capable of much faster racing, I hit splits in training consistently. I guess that's why the say this is a hard sport.

Here are my potential points to draw experience from:

In my half IMs, this year, I have come off the bike extremely dehydrated. Thinking about Saturday I only drank 1.5 bottles of liquid during the bike, about 30 oz would be my estimate. That isn't even close to what I need.

After the race I notice I had at least half my energy bottle left, that would put me at about 350 calories for the bike segment. Calculating this out astounds me, what the heck am I thinking. I know how many calories, and water for that matter, I need. This is no where close, why didn't I consume all my calories?

Other than that, my only other way thinking would be that this type of course just doesn't suit my abilities...yet. There were people who I absolutely destroy on shorter courses, and less hilly ones, that averaged the same speed on the bike as me. Usually the bike is my strength. Someone once told me to "train your weakness and race your strength." I need to objectively look at my training and make adjustments if I hope to ever crack this course.

Is it possible this problem is mental, have I built up this race so high that it is mentally too high to climb? Certainly mentally this race is demanding, but am I letting the immense pressure of 13.1 miles on tired legs build up too much mid run? Is my past experience acting as a mental block, subconciously limiting my belief in what I can do, and contributing to my run segment implosions here? The only one that can find the answers to these questions and others is me...I look forward to searching for them.

The fact that I self destructed no longer matters at this point, the most important thing to gain from this race is the experience to not repeat the mistakes I have made. Looking at my list I have an idea of what I need to do to correct them.

I am lucky enough to have the opportunity to experience all these unique emotions and situations, an opportunity to swim, bike, and run. Most of all the opportunity to move forward...