{"id":16842,"date":"2023-08-14T08:08:22","date_gmt":"2023-08-14T15:08:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.drjimtaylor.com\/4.0\/?p=16842"},"modified":"2025-06-19T06:44:50","modified_gmt":"2025-06-19T06:44:50","slug":"i-practice-what-i-preach-usat-nationals-then-triumph-part-ii","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.drjimtaylor.com\/4.0\/i-practice-what-i-preach-usat-nationals-then-triumph-part-ii\/","title":{"rendered":"I Practice What I Preach: USAT Nationals-Then, Triumph (Part II)"},"content":{"rendered":"

As I described in Part I<\/a> of my experience at the recently completed USAT National Olympic and Sprint Championships, my first race, the Olympic distance, was a source of some tribulation for me. That\"\"<\/a> discomfort continued through the day post-race and when I woke up and prepared for my Sprint-distance race the following day.<\/p>\n

Pre-race<\/strong><\/p>\n

I had a decent sleep on Saturday night and felt physically rested and ready to race. But I also woke up with an undefined emotional feeling that didn\u2019t feel good. I arrived at the race venue about 1:40 hours before my wave start time and that nagging feeling kept getting worse. After setting up my transition and \"\"<\/a>completing my physical warm-up, I lay down on the grass near the swim start and I was clearly not in a good place mentally. I was totally not excited to race and was having thoughts that I\u2019ve never had before on race day: \u201cI really don\u2019t want to do this,\u201d \u201cThis isn\u2019t going to be any fun,\u201d and, most disturbingly, \u201cMaybe I\u2019m done with triathlon.\u201d (That last one really scared me!).<\/p>\n

But I was obviously going to do the race, so I used many of the mental tools I offer my clients on myself: positive and energizing self-talk, mental imagery, breathing, physical activation, and smiling, to name a few. As I did my warm-up swim just before my start and as I settled into the water next to my fellow competitors awaiting the start horn, I adopted my usual \u201cbring it on\u201d attitude to get myself hyped up and ready to charge.<\/p>\n

One transition mistake that I will learn from. When I set up my transition area the morning of races, I usually pull out and review my laminated checklist to ensure that I have everything I need and do\"\"<\/a> everything I need to do. Well, on Sunday morning, I just plain forgot to review my checklist and, as a result, forgot to load my PowerBar chews into my bento box. There\u2019s no way to tell if my lack of nutrition impacted my race performance (though, as I will explain below, the competitor in front of me beat me by only seven seconds), but it was a distraction and it couldn\u2019t have helped.<\/p>\n

Also, four of the six guys in my age group who beat me in the Olympic-distance race, including the \"\"<\/a>perennial winner, Tony Schiller, were also racing in the Sprint. Given the strength of the field, I had no expectations for the race, but did have a goal of getting on the podium, despite my bad attitude that morning.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Swim<\/strong><\/p>\n

I felt surprisingly good the first few minutes of the swim, and, to my surprise, I soon sensed a switch flip inside of me. My energy increased, my mindset turned positive, and I began to feel excited about the race. I finished the swim strong and felt ready to attack the rest of the race.<\/p>\n

T1<\/strong><\/p>\n

As I noted in my last post, I have made my transitions a priority that involves sprinting from the Swim Out to the Bike Out and this one was no different. I had a great transition to the bike mount line and nailed\"\"<\/a> flying mount.<\/p>\n

Bike<\/strong><\/p>\n

As soon as I settled into the bike, I knew something was different than the day before. Even though I was pushing the pace, my legs felt good, and I was pushing about 20 more watts than on Saturday in the early part of the race. Plus, I was passing a bunch of people. However, as I approached the overpass climb, two guys in my age group passed me, followed by another a few minutes later. I assumed that, like on Saturday, I wouldn\u2019t see them again on the bike (except after the \"\"<\/a>turnaround) and that I had no chance to catch them. But an amazing thing happened. Over the last three miles of the bike, I reeled them all in and we came into T2 together. This surprising turn of events gave me confidence heading into the run because that\u2019s my strength. Plus, as I noted in analyzing my bike data after the race, I rode at a pace that was 20 watts higher than the day before.<\/p>\n

T2<\/strong><\/p>\n

My transition went flawlessly, getting my shoes on quickly and grabbing my hat, sunglasses, and number belt, and putting them on at a full sprint as I headed to the run out.<\/p>\n

Run<\/strong><\/p>\n

This part of the race was the most fun! As I left the transition area, my legs felt great, and I saw that I was on the heels of another guy in my age group who was clearly a good runner. I didn\u2019t know who he was at\"\"<\/a> the time, but later learned that he was Tim Brown, who finished second the day before. It has been rare for me to actually race someone in a triathlon, so I saw this as a great challenge.<\/p>\n

As I settled in behind Tim, my plan was to just follow him the entire race and then put on a surge and, hopefully, pass him near the finish. However, at about 1.25 miles, he slowed to get some water at an aid station, so I passed him. Again, I didn\u2019t know who he was or how good a runner he was at the time, so I thought I would just continue to build a gap and leave him behind. Unfortunately, I didn\u2019t. He sat on my heels and just followed me for a while and let me burn some matches \"\"<\/a>worrying about and trying to drop him. At about mile 5, he passed me, but I was able to stay within a few seconds of him, though not right behind him. With less than a mile to the finish, he put on a surge, and I went with him. But, at that point, I didn\u2019t have anything more to give and he maintained his lead to the finish.<\/p>\n

Post-race<\/strong><\/p>\n

I was still thrilled to have finished 3rd<\/sup> against such a tough field. And racing against Tim on the run was extra fun, even if I wasn\u2019t able to prevail. I was especially pleased with my bike in which I was able to reel in the two of the guys who passed me earlier. Plus, I had flipped in the Sprint two of the guys who had beaten me the day before in the Olympic. Finally, for the third year in a row, I had a very strong Sprint race the day after a demanding Olympic distance.<\/p>\n

A lot of the negativity that I felt leading up to the start of the Sprint had melted away as I basked in the strength of my race. In fact, as quickly as I had lost my tri-mojo, I have found it again, and felt excited to return home and hit my training hard in preparation for the Super-sprint and Olympic-distance races at the World Championships in Pontevedra, Spain in late September.<\/p>\n

There was some questions that continued to nag at me in light of my feelings after the Olympic and before the Sprint.<\/p>\n

What caused my existential crisis after the Olympic race? Was it temporary and due to physical fatigue or was it more lasting and insidious that I needed to explore in more depth (I think I need a sport psychologist!)?<\/p>\n

How could I have been stronger and faster on Sunday after feeling flat from the physical demands of the Olympic-distance race on Saturday (my coach had some ideas about this related to having focused on shorter distances in training until just recently)?<\/p>\n

Finally, do I even want to do Olympic-distance races in the future (though it seems a bit childish because 7th<\/sup> place in a National Championship is still pretty darned good) or should I focus on my strengths in the shorter-distance events?<\/p>\n

Much to ponder in my future in triathlon. In the meantime, I have my final \u201cA\u201d races of the season to prepare for!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As I described in Part I of my experience at the recently completed USAT National Olympic and Sprint Championships, my first race, the Olympic distance, was a source of some tribulation for me. That discomfort continued through the day post-race and when I woke up and prepared for my Sprint-distance race the following day. Pre-race […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":18553,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1770,1517,1557],"tags":[1458,394,163,230,915,1459,155,1460,1039],"class_list":["post-16842","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-cycling","category-sports","category-triathlon","tag-bike","tag-mental-training","tag-mindset","tag-motivation","tag-pain","tag-run","tag-sport-psychology","tag-swim","tag-triathlon"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.drjimtaylor.com\/4.0\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16842","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.drjimtaylor.com\/4.0\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.drjimtaylor.com\/4.0\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.drjimtaylor.com\/4.0\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.drjimtaylor.com\/4.0\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16842"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.drjimtaylor.com\/4.0\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16842\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18554,"href":"https:\/\/www.drjimtaylor.com\/4.0\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16842\/revisions\/18554"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.drjimtaylor.com\/4.0\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/18553"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.drjimtaylor.com\/4.0\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16842"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.drjimtaylor.com\/4.0\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16842"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.drjimtaylor.com\/4.0\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16842"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}