Journey to Kona Day 232: Being in the Zone

With 17 days before Kona, I'm reminiscing about key triathlons that I've done over the years.  2008 was my last year in the 45-49 year old age group, and I put my focus on trying to qualify for Long Course Worlds in 2009 in Perth, Australia. The year started off with a sprint Triathlon in Denver, the Tri4Me.  It was a cold April day, but it was one of my most memorable triathlons ever.  I'm not sure how it happened, but I found myself "in the zone" that day. It was an early season sprint triathlon, and I didn't even consider tapering for it.  Yet, I ended up having the best race of my life.  Following are my notes from that race:

"Felt pretty good this morning. Minimal warm up allowed, able to get in only about 50m. Focused on form throughout swim, kept effort moderately hard, never felt like I was redlining it, kept ~1:30 pace/100 METERS (yes, per 100 meters); felt fine coming out of water, tried to put arm warmers on, but arms wet, so decided not to. Good Transition. Bike was pretty technical, with lots of turns, very windy, very cold, kept wattage ~200-220 when I could, last lap (4 lap course), definitely kept wattage up over 220 a good portion, again when not turning or slowing down, or trying to keep from getting blown over, HR was 150-154 throughout the bike. Normalized Power=188, but hard to judge due to lots of slowing down on the turns and winds. 10.6 miles in 29:12, ~22mph. Got to T2, found out I was 30 seconds behind the guy in front of me (George Dallam, one of the top men in my age group, he beat me by 5 minutes at the Fall Frenzy last year!), he started 10 seconds before me, but I still wanted to catch him, got him in my sights within the first 400 and then gradually reeled him in, drawing even after about 1 1/4 miles, he tried to push me on the uphill, but actually, it wasn't hard for me to stay with him. Every time he started to push, so did I. What I didn't do was try to push him. One reason was that I knew that I had a 10 second cushion, and that if I finished with him, I had him beat. In retrospect, from a racing perspective, it would have been interesting to try to push the pace on him rather than react to him. That said, I sprinted at the end, got a step on him, but so did he (with longer legs) and he edged me by a nose (literally!) at the finish line. It was cold, my fingers were numb and blue, and my feet were numb, but that didn't stop me on the run. My HR stayed between 150 and 155 on most of the run, not sure if affected by the cold weather. The run was short, only 2.1 miles, which I did in 15:04 (7:10 pace)."

There were a number of remarkable things about this race. It was cold! At the end of the race, I literally had icicles forming on my nose. But the one thing that I will never forget, was running uphill with one of the best people in my age group (and someone who actually wrote a book about triathlon training!), having him try to put pressure on me, and I felt like laughing! I literally thought it was funny that he was trying to push ahead of me. Honestly, I'd never felt that way before, and I have rarely felt that way since. While it was a local race without a lot of people, I actually finished 2nd overall. It was starting to snow during the run! This race gave me the confidence that anything was possible for me doing triathlons.

I've been "in the zone" doing sports a few times in my life. I once shot an 85 while golfing, literally 13 strokes better than my next best golf result. The explanation for that day was simple, I was preoccupied with work and never "tried" to hit the ball well! I once bowled a 275, starting with 10 straight strikes. It was only when I realized what I was doing and put a little extra effort into it, that I finally didn't get a strike. Later in 2008, I ran my only sub-20 minute 5K ever, on my 49th birthday, closing strong with a 6:13 final mile, where I had a similar feeling about being invincible. I've had moments during other races, and even during some Ironman races, where I overcame my central governor, where I suffered mightily and didn't let down. But the feeling of invincibility that comes with being in the zone is unique, and it's something to savor. I still wear the t-shirt from the 2008 Tri4Me, and it's a reminder that "being in the zone" is always a possibility!