Apparently it wouldn't be a race for me unless it was pouring rain. My season ended last year with a rainy Chicago Triathlon...the race where I got injured. So I know I promised to pull out of a race if it ever did that again, but come on..I'm healed. Plus my physical therapist promised before I left that she could fix ANY damage I did during the course of race day. So I jumped into the 58 degree water and swam my hardest, gutted it out on a wet course with rain pelting me, and ran on icicle legs and frozen feet. I could have sworn up and down the whole run that there were rocks in my shoes but it was just the pain of frozen feet pounding the pavement.
I'm very pleased with my run time at Knoxville. I'm definitely capable of running minutes faster over the course of a 10k, but I had only put in one week of speed work before the race. All other miles had just been endurance miles as I fight back after a nerve/back injury to my left side. It was also very difficult to run hard off of the bike when everything is frozen and on the verge of cramping. I find it incredibly interesting that I only ran 30 seconds slower than the time I posted last year at this same race. Comparing facts: last year at this time I had completed about five months of speed work on the run. This year: I started running in February for ten minutes at a time and built my way up to being able to run for 1.5 hours and completed my first speed session by race day. Two very different courses in training, and proof of how ineffective my last training program was. Glad to be racing with Vanguard Triathlon now this season!
