First Race High

Hi. Did you know that my first duathlon ever is this Sunday?

No?

Pay attention, will you.

In all fairness though, I did only just register for it a few weeks ago and haven't said too much about it. I also haven't trained much for it, which should probably be bothering me a lot except that I have managed to capture the dragon on this particular race-related occasion which is letting me sleep at night without my usual pre-race hysteria.

What the hell am I talking about?

See, there's this racing phenomenon that exists out there (for people other than just me, I'm sure of it) that goes like this: The first time you do any new event, whether it be a new distance or sport, the pressure to perform beyond that of just *finishing* the race, is extremely diminished. Every time you do the same race after that, though, you feel The Pressure weighing down on you to do things like set a new PR or whatever. Once you have that pressure-free First Race High, you can never regain it. Unless you try a new sport or distance that is. Which might explain why I've chased the dragon over to a new sport.

I'm addicted to the First Race High.

For this race in particular, I feel no pressure to do anything other than finish without crashing into anyone or making a public or newsworthy spectacle of myself. I don't even really care how fast my run times are as long as they aren't terrifyingly bad. And because I'm all aglow with the First Race High, I'm planning on not freaking out in the transition zones trying to hurry all up and run around in my bike shoes because who really cares what my transition times are like?

Plus, if I ever participate in a duathlon again, it'll make setting new PRs that much easier. Not to be a totally lazy loser or anything. I mean, I'm still going to try to "leave it all on the course", but if I leave a little less of it than absolutely available, I'm OK with that.

And that last sentence made no sense.

Whatever. I've decided I'm not going to race through the transition area, but rather run in at a pace that allows me to steer clear of everyone, change gear without panicking, lead my bike out at a normal rate while letting any super fast race monsters go in front of me and then I'm going to hop on that spicy mama and enjoy a 12 mile loop with an ocean view.

I imagine my return to the transition area will be pretty mellow and slow, too, but that will be because my legs will be all noodley and I'll have to relive the being chased by zombies in my nightmares slow leg syndrome.

You should also know that I bought bike socks. Two pairs. And they're both ridiculous.

So, you help me choose - do I wear the yellow ones with the bees (to further complicate my heinous color scheme) or do I ruin the reputation of my local bike shop by wearing the pair with the store's logo on the cuff.

When I mentioned that I might wear the store's branded socks in my first bike race, the owner reminded me that I could "fold down the cuffs if you are going to do something embarrassing."

OH THANK YOU FUNNY MAN.

He's actually quite funny. But in that way where he's not trying to be funny but rather the way where I just find really terse and serious people to be funny. He takes cycling rather seriously. Either that or he's Super German, which I think he is. Anyway, no matter, if I go with the store's branded socks and start to, say, take out a whole group of people for whatever reason, I'll fold the cuffs down before the Channel 5 van can get the bloodshed on camera.

And, lest you be mislead to believe that this event is going to be televised, it's not. At least not as far as I know. But any time there's a chance for public embarrassment, you know there's at least a few people lurking about with a FlipCam or digital something or other and ready to go to YouTube with it, so there you go. That passes for TV for me.

Anyway, to sum up this poorly-crafted pre-race post:
I've done exactly TWO brick workouts in preparation for this race - one with platform pedals and one with proper clip pedals.
I'm planning on taking the bike and transition portion of the race pretty slow and easy so that no one dies at my hands.
I have a crazy ass outfit to wear, so I'll look head to toe the part of "Rookie".
And I haven't yet figured out how to work the water bottle, so that will be used only during transitions when I'm not actually ON the bike because last weekend when I attempted to, while riding, remove the water bottle and then drink from it, the mechanics got a little too squirrely and I had to stop altogether and stand in the bike lane while drinking my water and then re-cage it before moving on.  Seems I can't do all that while riding the actual bike.

Again - reminder - ROOKIE.

This should be fun. For onlookers anyway.