Is Mooseman really a week away?

It's that time of year again: time for Mooseman, the first local tri of the season. My bike can remain intact, save for the front wheel which must be removed so it fits on the roof rack, but I can sleep in my own bed and drive my own car to the race. Nice. With the approach of Mooseman comes the inevitable water temperature watch. Yesterday I happened to meet up with some QT2 teammates for a long ride over at Wellington, the site of the race, and the sign out front said the water was 55 degrees. That is only slightly above what I would consider "freeze-your-face-off" level. I'm going with face here because most of the rest of our bodies will be safely encased in neoprene, although if it doesn't warm up at least a few more degrees then chances are we can all expect numb hands and feet as well. Let me tell you, T1 can be a pretty interesting experience without the use of these extremities.

Mooseman always seems to sneak up on me since spring lately hasn't seemed quite so spring-like. For instace: we have a frost warning for tonight. That means that there is a strong possibility that it will be below freezing. Tomorrow is June 1st. The leaves only recently popped and it took me a while to hit the road for my bike ride on Friday because I had to locate some gloves and a hat since it was raining and in the 40's. But here it comes anyway, the first weekend in June, which means Mooseman time.

I am fairly certain that this is the 5th year that this race has been held. That is, if you don't count the original Mooseman in 2004, but that was held at Waterville Valley and included a sprint tri and an off-road tri - my only off-road race to-date and just to show you how often I use my mountain bike (the one I got in 7th grade) the race number is still affixed while the bike sits in the garage. First thing you should know, the water is always freezing. It's just a fact. Some years slightly more tolerable than others, but you are never happy to be getting in there. Perhaps this is why my fastest half ironman swims have all been done on this course. Although the actual coldest swim I've done - 54 degrees in California '06 - certainly didn't make me any faster in the water. We're actually probably lucky that in recent years it's even gotten as "warm" as it has. For some reason the past few years the month of May has been worse than March as far as weather is concerned. Never-ending rain, temperatures in the 40's and serious flooding. A couple of years ago there were a few days where I couldn't get more than 4 miles from home without having to turn around and go back due to washed out roads. Fun training.

Note that this absolutely does not mean that race day will be cold. In fact, it can mean quite the opposite. The first year, 2005, after months and months of unseasonably cold weather, race day arrived and treated us to temperatures that soared into the upper 80's. There were more than a few total melt-downs that day. Fortunately, I was not one of them. I think I was just happy to be sweating while riding my bike instead of shivering. 2006 treated us to temperatures that maxed out at about 55 degrees with drizzle. The water was actually warmer than the air. Apparently good conditions for me as on that particular day I managed a 3rd place overall finish (lost out to second in a sprint finish - and if you already know I can't run, you should see me try to sprint) and got my still-standing half ironman PR, as well as half marathon PR and swim PR.

In all honesty I don't remember too much about the weather in '07. I think it started out muggy but not too hot. I've mentally blocked out many of my races starting after IM Arizona that year, as that marked the beginning of a long, downward spiral. Unfortunately, I do remember that last year at Mooseman it was once again brutally hot, only this time more like 90's. Like I needed anything else to make me slower after getting injured and fat and not having run very much in the months leading up. That was the beginning of a streak of setting new personal worsts in every race I did all season long. Try not to do that.

The weather report right now calls for temperatures in the low to mid 70's. Hah. If I've learned anything living around here, I've learned not to trust a long-term forecast. You can barely trust the short-term ones. I sincerely doubt that will be the case by next weekend, but we shall see.

I have no idea what to expect for the race. My training, frankly, has been kind of crappy lately, as far as I can tell. I'm getting out there and doing everything I'm supposed to be doing, but none of it really seems to be getting any better. I've also been in "weight-loss mode" for the better part of 7 months now, and the end seems to be getting closer, but still seems like it will never get here. Fixating on your weight for that long can really start to drive you insane, especially when you get to a point where it all gets harder and you feel like everything else you're doing - all of the training - is a complete waste of time if you have to drag around extra, unwanted fat. So that has been a source of frustration as well. Every time I run I feel like I'm dragging around cinder blocks. Nothing hurts, it just feels HARD. Just once I'd like to have a breakthrough run, finish, look at my watch and thing yeah, that felt good. Biking goes well some days, not so well on others. Swimming has, frustratingly, remained exactly the same... since about 2004. Why do I not just do it once or twice a week and spare myself the aggrevation? I am pretty sure my times would remain exactly the same.

Anyway, another big training weekend in the books. Yesterday was a 6-hour ride with many of the QT2 team, as I mentioned. We rode some tough hills, one of which on the second time through seemed to completely fry my legs, irreparably. It is very unusual for me to finish a long ride and my legs are the things that are the most tired and make me want to get off. Usually it is that I'm uncomfortable in the saddle, maybe my back or shoulders hurt, I'm hungry, or just plain sick of riding and want to lie down. But my legs were TOAST. Apparently I went too hard early in the ride, although it really didn't feel like I did and I never thought my heart rate was too high except maybe on some of the hills. I don't tend to attack hills either, I just kind of ride up. But it just wasn't my day, I guess. It was nice to ride with some other people though, and I got to ride with everyone in the group at some point. My run afterward wasn't so much fun, either. I ran along the Mooseman course and my legs felt awful. It was giving me flashbacks to last year when I felt like I could barely cover the course and every step was pain. Very different from 2006 when somehow some magical, fleeting running ability snuck out from deep inside me and I just felt great almost the entire time. Between that race and my marathon at Lake Placid that year, looking back I think I used up all of my good run results in just those two races, because I haven't seen them since.

But anyway, I got it done, and it always feels so good to be done, even if it wasn't the best workout. I got to drink warm Endurox for recovery as my remaining water had been sitting in the trunk of my car all day, as well as a banana which was also baking in there. Definitely not the tastiest post-workout treat. My coach checked my body fat percentage, which he seems happy with given where we are (still going lower for LP, but progress) but I'm still annoyed. And finally made it back to my parents lake house, roughly 25 miles from Wellington (not Chrissie, but the park) and was ready to lie down! In fact, last night I went to bed at 8pm. The sun was shining, the birds were chirping, and I was out for the next 10 and a half hours.

I got a late start this morning for my 1-hour run, 2-hour ride and another 1-hour run workout. Just once I wanted to sit around in my pajamas for a bit and do the Sunday paper crossword, so I did. My first run actually felt pretty good physically, but was another abysmal performance pace-wise. Luckily I managed to avoid the approaching rain on my bike ride for all but the final 10 minutes, and only got rained on for about 15 minutes of the even more abysmally-paced second run. Seriously, how did I ever have good run splits in any race, ever? Ah, but at least it was time to relax for the afternoon.

Chicken for dinner, because with me, it's almost always chicken for dinner. And now just another week until Mooseman. I wish I could say I was looking forward to a nice taper week, but I'm not. just due to the timing I don't really get to taper almost at all for this race. I don't have to do a track workout this week for running, which is certainly a good thing because track workouts seem to only serve to remind me of what a crappy runner I am, and of course Saturday instead of riding my bike for 6 hours I'll be eating lots of pancakes and other carbo-licious treats. But other than that, it's going to feel like a pretty typical, high-volume week. The worst part of the whole ordeal will surely be the 45-minute run and 2-hour bike ride I have to do after the race. I normally have a hard time sleeping after a race, but something tells me that after all of that, I might not have so much trouble. And I'm sure I won't now, either...