Wings to Fly

Why???  That is a question I have asked myself over and over this past year.  Why am I doing this?  Why am I trying to push myself through injury?  Why is my body not responding like I want it to?  I am a bit too excited to begin my taper leading up to the upcoming Ironman 70.3 World Championships in Vegas. - 2 weeks, I keep telling myself... I can make it 2 more weeks.  Of course for me, it seems that much of the summer training has been a bit of a taper in one discipline or another.  1st, my calf starting tightening up in the Spring just before the Mountain Madness 1/2 Iron distance tri, then, my hip began giving me painful fits after a self-driven session of yoga (yoga, is a wonderfully good healer for the body if done correctly... apparently, I did not do it correctly and ended up straining my psoas and hip adductor).  Since running and biking aggravated those injuries, I focused on swimming in the pool and lake.  As luck...

"I'm going to go and just have fun with no expectations."  That is what I told my coach and friend, Anne Chrzanowski, the week before Tri the Mountains Sprint triathlon.  We had planned for this race months before, blocking out the weekend at our cabin up in Blue Ridge, GA, arranging Kaitlin Rassett, our sweet college-aged babysitter, to come with us and watch the girls during the race, and signing up before the early entry deadline (something we rarely do for fear of jinxing ourselves).  Jinxing myself might be exactly what happened leading up to the race.   Above the Pines - ahhhh.... I signed up as an Elite - a new division they offered this year for the race, now in its 3rd year.  Last year, the talent ran deep and this year was sure to bring in just as talented athletes, as the race directors dangled a bit of prize money out there to entice.  My excitement was that the elites got to start in the water 1st -the past two years of doing this race...