A catch up session is in order. 

June 25^th:  Xterra Torn Shirt Triathlon.  This was an off road race that I had wanted to do for a couple of years.  I wanted to do well to remind myself that I am still a pretty good triathlete.  Sue was with me again and ever the perfect companion.  I warmed up this time and the swim was a better then in Ohio.  I got on my mountain bike and it felt great hammering through the woods.  The Murray trail is pretty fast and I was able to pass when I needed to.  I learned why you need to go to the course talks when I got off my bike on the first loop thinking I was done.  My computer wasn’t working so I was going off from time and I must have been thinking road because I still had 7 miles.  Once the crowd gave me the bone head salute I was off for my second loop.  I passed some more people and someone told me I was 30^th.  That would probably get me some hardware I thought so I kept up the pace until T2.  When I headed out the run course was not well marked and I ended up going about a 1/3 mile out of my way until someone told me I was off the course.  I got back on course angry (at myself of course) and really decided to punish myself for missing the course talk by running hard.  I passed enough people to get back to my original place and I came in 3 in my age group.  Now Sue got to see that the old guy can bring home the “Bling”.  I was fun to hang around for the award and I even have my name on the points for the Xterra series races.  Kinda cool. 

June 11^th:  After the bike came in we decided to camp down in Monroe and I did a half iron at Sylvania, Ohio (Race for Recovery) on Sunday.  Sue and the boys were there and I was planning on keeping it laid back.  You just don’t plan you first ride on new bike to be a race if you want to perform at your best.  The race was training and it was designed to give me a starting point for my IM race goals. 

 The race turned out to be a bit of a disaster.  When the race started I hit the water without warming up and my heart rate shot up so fast that it caused me to have difficulty breathing.  This made it feel like my wetsuit was squeezing me to death, which added more breathing difficulty.  This increased the fear to near panic and I had to stop and try to undo the wetsuit because I was hyperventilating.   After I stopped I had wait until I got it together and start again slowly.  Because my wetsuit was unzipped it kept sliding off from my shoulder and impeded my stroke.  I barely match my crappy time from the swim at Benton Harbor last year so I was disappointed but I still wanted to see what I could do on the bike and the run.  As I hit the transition I saw Sue and said “I will make it up on the bike”, very tongue-in-cheek.  I jumped on my new ride and off I went.  I am not sure why I was so full of water but I had to pee right from the start of the bike.  There was a tough head wind going out and I was somewhat encouraged because I knew the TT bike would help.  I forgot that you are supposed to train on them first ;).  I went out and decided I couldn’t wait and stopped to pee.  Twenty minute later I had to pee again.  I ended up peeing 3 times.  The return with the wind was not the flight that I would have needed to make up the slow trip I made into the wind.  When I got to the transition I told Sue “I will make it up on the run” with a big “ya right” look on my face. 

The run started out like the swim.  I had shortness of breath again and I guessed it was because I had hyperventilated in the water.  That kept me from running my hardest and I knew it was a matter finishing the race and chalking it all up to a learning experience.  Each race seems to offer a new drama.  The boys got to see me race and we all had a good time so it was good.  I did however have a couple days afterwards where I could still feel the affects of that swim.