Pulling Out of a Race

Just wanted to poll the hive and see what people think. Little background, my A race of the summer was going to be the AG nats Oly distance race. Through last week was putting together decent training, and had a good winter (trained for and did well at Quassy). Consistency was good, and was hitting some solid numbers, struggled a touch getting used to the summer heat and humidity the last couple weeks, but nothing out of the ordinary. Felt like I probably could have hit my goals if I kept up with plan.

Last Wednesday got doored commuting to work. Lyft passenger opened their door right into the bike lane and clipped my handlebar; I tried to save it and avoided going face first into the pavement or curb, but still went down pretty good. Outside of a few small bruises and scrapes, the major issues were a couple bruised ribs and a sprained wrist. My wrist is getting better and is useable, but the bruised ribs are getting the best of me. It’s getting better slowly, but still is bothering me quite a bit. I’ve done a couple easy runs, but they were pretty brutal. I started riding to work again this week, and any effort on the bike above Z1 is quite uncomfortable, anything above Z3 is brutal. I feel like I’m at a point where it will likely be better by the race, but I don’t think I’ll be doing much if any training up to the race. With accumulated fitness I can probably string together a half decent race, but doubt I’ll be able to do what I know I would have been capable of.

I’ve been telling myself I would make a decision at the end of this week, but recently I’ve been leaning more and more towards not making the trip out. On the one hand I’m just not motivated to schlep myself out to Cleveland to have a mediocre race. On the other, I don’t want to look back and feel like I gave up when faced with a bit of a challenge. If I were to pull out today I genuinely don’t think I would feel that way, but I can’t guarantee if I’m feeling better by race day and sitting at home it won’t be at the back of my mind.

I know there’s already the cry like a biatch thread, but wanted to see if anyone has been in a similar situation, and has any advice it would be much appreciated!

Your commitment level seems low. I’d pull out.

I’ve cracked my ribs three times before and messed up my wrist two times. My advice is don’t go. Not worth it.

In the summer of 2015 I was having my best year to date. I had my best finish on the podium at an IM70.3, my weight was down and I was dialed in. The goal was to have a great race at IM Lou. In the middle of June I got hit by a truck riding my bike that required surgery. I probably still could have “done” the race, but I decided to focus on getting healthy for a solid 2016 and don’t regret that decision at all.

No one has ever regretted skipping a trip to Cleveland
.