Never prepared
One thing I learned recently about training for triathlons, is that you’ll never be 100% ready for your race day. There is always going to be some kind of unexpected event.
I had a group ride this week, and last minute our group decided to do a new course. One of the riders forgot to bring her clip-on cycling shoes and went with running shoes (I didn’t have cycling shoes to start with, running shoe gang!). She managed to did the whole ride with very small bike pedals, but she crushed it and I was even struggling to keep with her!
The week before, I went for my first open water swim and forgot to bring my prescription goggles. This week, I remembered to bring my prescription goggles but they end up fogging up pretty badly and I couldn’t see much anyways… Not to mention many times where my gadgets like watches or headphones stop working or are out of batteries. It’s a bit annoying at times to deal with these small nuisances, but what can you do ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Another recent story I heard about people going to Ironman Ottawa. It rained most of the time they were competing - not much you could do about it other than sticking with it.
Maybe that’s the beauty of the sport. You get to try and do a bunch of activities under different conditions. I suppose, if you are a pro athlete and have super powers to control the weather, you could always do everything the exact same way, with the same routine. Well, for us normal mortals, that’s probably not the case.
Even though we aren’t always prepared to meet the unexpected. I encourage you to sticking with it and do your best. That’s what I am planning to do next week, for my sprint!