Saturday, June 6, 2009

I am a Wuss

My first outdoor tri of the year was today, except I wasn't in it.

We had a very unusual cold snap roll through last night, bringing lots of cold rain along with it.

Although I had my gear all packed last night, when I woke up this morning and it was 41 degrees, I looked at Hubby and said, "That is two degrees too close to the 30s" -- I'm not getting in the lake".

My friends and I had tried a brief open water swim last weekend and the water temps were "brisk" to say the least.

It may have been one thing to swim .4 of a mile in cold water, but this tri has a 1/2 mile swim, which takes me a bit of time to complete.

The thought of following that with a 14-mile bike ride (while wet) and then a 3-mile run just wasn't cutting it for me.

I may have let my mind get the best of me, but I do have at least one "good" excuse:

I may have a bit of Raynaud's disease. (I'm still in denial about probably having it, as I have the symptoms -- lose circulation in my fingers while I'm running in the winter ; they go white and get a little numb. It can take quite a while for them to get pink again. I have to wear both mittens and gloves to keep my fingers toasty... I'm in denial because I don't like to think of myself having "issues".)

Although this primarily only happens in the winter, symptoms do crop up if I get overly cold.

I was worried that swimming in the cold water would trip the trigger, causing me to lose circulation, which would be very hard to get back on the bike (also making holding on to the handle bars or breaking problematic) or the on run, where it would just be annoying.

So, I bagged the tri. There were 435 people signed up and, according to the race results, only 87 were DNS. That means the majority of people braved the elements and competed.

I really felt like a wuss after learning that.

The only redeeming thing about this whole day was that I did do a tri (of sorts). I covered the same distances from the indoor comfort of my health club.

I swam .5 miles; rode a spin bike for one-hour (surely covering 14 miles) and then ran for 3. I felt good, had circulation in my hands the whole time.

Tomorrow, my friends Nat, Marcia, Gary, Mary S and a new friend, Joe, are scheduled to do Buffalo. (.4 swim/13 bike/ 3 run). The weather is supposed to be much more cooperative for their event.

I'll be there to cheer them on.

I just won't have a spiffy new tee shirt to wear...

3 comments:

Beth said...

The weather was terrible yesterday. Probably a good thing that you didn't get on the bike with numb hands. That's great that you completed your own indoor race. I saw Nat today at Buffalo. It was cold but not nearly as bad as the wind and rain yesterday.

Marcia L said...

You're still my mentor, Amy! Your common sense surely served you well!

Sunshine said...

Weather was about the same out in Deadwood last weekend. I didn't race either. Ugh! Too close to the 30's.