Austin 70.3

Because I am totally slacking on blog posts, I am going to get to this one as soon as possible. It may be long, but writing things down is just as much for me to remember mistakes/good moves/ high points/low points in the race as it is about sharing the stories with my friends, so be patient :)


Leading up to this race, I can't say I felt great. I had high expectations for myself, and tend to be a nervous racer generally, so taper was kind of tricky. I never know if I am doing too much, too little, just enough. But, my short course racing gave me confidence that I had definitely gotten stronger on the bike, and I had had a few solid runs before the race so i was feeling ok. Swimming is always a wild card for me, but at the very least my swim fitness was there, even if speed wasn't.

Short synopsis: This wasn't the day that I wanted. Based on the training I had done, the paces I was hitting, and my new strength on the bike, I knew I was capable of something around the 5 hour range. I went into Austin knowing that its not necessarily the fastest course ( hilly run, lots of chipseal on the bike) So a best case scenario for me would have been something in the low 5s, and a top 5 finish in my age group. But that didnt happen. Early mechanical issues (ill put all the deets in the long version below) sent me into a bad headspace. Im usually pretty stoic on race day and can talk myself down from the metaphorical ledge, but I just couldn't today. I rode angry, failed on my nutrition and just tried to hold together any sort of run I could. So sure, I had some challenges that were out of my hands, but my biggest disappointment is that I didn't execute this race the best i could GIVEN the conditions. Usually execution is my strength. So today wasn't what I wanted, but I held it together and hopefully will learn and improve from it. But always happy and grateful to race :)

Long Version:

So Austin is an interesting situation for a 70.3 and given everything that I didn't like about it put together, I'm not sure i'll do this race again ( and not just because it didn't go well for me). Ill point out these things here and there. The first is that there are 2 transition sites and Ironman 140.6 style transition bags ( run gear bike gear etc). the problem with this is that it requires you to prep all your stuff the day before, and spend ALL DAY checking in your bike, driving back and forth between T1 and T2 which ends up being highly congested and just kind of annoying.

 So race morning came, and we had to park in T2 and take the shuttle to T1 so I could put my nutrition on my bike and get prepped for the race. I was in the 13th wave, so had some time to kill where I generally just fidget around and try and stay calm. The weather miraculously cleared up so that it wasn't thundering or raining at the start of the race, but the wind was definitely  picking up. As I got into the water I seeded myself in the front. Im not the fastest swimmer but i HATE getting caught behind people, and being such a late wave, I knew I would be swimming over other waves anyway, so I wanted to get out front

Swim: The girls here in Texas swim DIRTY. fact. the three races I have done down here have been the most contact I have ever experienced, and this includes all the IM mass starts. I tried to work my way through the crowd, but having not worn a wetsuit since IMOO 2012, I was finding it hard to breathe. I was breathing every stroke in the beginning to try and regulate my breathing and it seemed to work. After the race, people were talking about how much push back they were getting from the chop caused by the wind, but Im not sure i noticed it that much. I was too busy getting beat up. After the first buoy I started feeling stronger but sure enough, I also started running into people from several waves in front. This caused a few problems, but otherwise the swim was uneventful. 34 min something on the swim ( watch says less, but whatever)

T1: Ok folks lets talk about T1. During mandatory bike check in, we were being told to carry our bikes from our cars to the racks because of the burrs that were scattered across the grassy patch used for T1. This does not bode well. SEVERAL people got flats during bike check in, and thats when I decided that the only logical thing to do is to carry my bike out of T1 as well ( as a note, they actually ended up recommending this right before race start). So in addition to the swimming, biking, and running, lets add some cyclocross to the mix. As I come into T1, I get a little lost in transition but find my bike and start to get changed. I have a hard time bringing my heart rate down, so i decided to take my time since carrying my bike out of the looooooong transition was about to spike it again. It had rained HEAVILY in the early morning hours so transition was a sloppy mess. I hobbled through transition carrying my bike ( it got really heavy!!) and finally made it to the bike mount line. and then, the fun starts....

Bike: The bike mount line is ridiculous. NO ONE can clip in. Why? because we all have INCHES of mud caked into our cleats from T1. I had the hardest time clipping in , stopped to try and kick out some of the mud ( at the first bike aid station they actually were hosing out peoples shoes but at this point i had managed to clip in). That seemed to help except with everyone struggling so much they were riding really squirrly. This is about when I realized I couldnt break with my rear wheel. Uh oh. not good. I pull over and my rear break is open ( maybe from when I took it to the shop a couple days before? I should have checked this though). Ok, crisis averted. So i get back on my bike. again. a couple minutes later i heard a "phsssssssss- click click click", which to me, sounded like a flat. oh HELLLLL no. I get off my bike. Again. check the front wheel-fine. check the back wheel-fine. Look around and cannot figure out what is going on until i look at my disc cover. The tape/material covering the cut out for the valve was undone, likely due to the morning rain, and was flapping in the wind and hitting the frame. For some reason, instead of ripping it off right there, i try and stick it back on and keep moving. OBVIOUSLY this doesn't work. two seconds later its undone again, and I'm off the bike again to just tear it off.

I finally start moving, but I am angry. angry at the lost time, angry at the stupid obstacles and instead of focusing on riding, I was just fixating on what had happened. Before i know it, ive ridden about 10 miles in a less than impressive pace. A couple strong cycling ladies came up from behind and passed me and realized "oh hey, i can actually ride that fast" and picked it up. I held a good pace, but the ride was exhausting - at least 30 miles of the course are bumpy bumpy chipseal covered in pot holes. between this and a fairly strong headwind, the ride felt long and uncomfortable. I was eating and drinking, but probably not as much as I should have and felt a bonk coming on near the end of the ride. Uh oh, its too late. not enough nutrition means my run will struggle for sure- this is what I get for loosing focus. I come into T2 dreading my usually favorite part of the race. 2:45 on the bike. ugh


T2: yup got lost again. couldn't find my shoe bag. couldn't untie it from the rack. ripped it open instead. whatever. transitions sucked today.

Run: The run course at Austin is a HILLY 3 loop course, this year with a little bit off it "off road"- ie on mud. I was not moving fast. my stomach hurt and I felt dizzy but my lungs felt awesome. My cardiovascular system was not the limiter today. While i wasnt moving fast, i felt like i was running smoothly. There really isnt much to report about this run, other than the fact that I was able to hold it together. The hills were longish, but not super steep so it wasnt actually too bad. but there is no reason my run should have been that slow. I had just set myself up for a bad end of the day and was doing all I could to salvage what I could. at mile 11 i decided to actually look at my garmin and realized I could probably get in under 5:20, so I decided to pick it up as much as I could. I came in to the finish shoot at 5:19 and some change. Close to a PR, but a far cry from what I was hoping for.

This gives me a lot of motivation and focus for 2014. I am really excited to start working with Michelle Leblanc from Outrival Racing. Ill have more on the decision to switch coaching methods and teams later, but I am really confident that Michelle can help me get where I want to. After a couple weeks off Ill start working with Michelle to come up with a racing schedule, and start training for the first major race of 2014, which is IM Brazil. Cant wait to see what 2014 Brings!

Less than a month to Austin

It's been a while since I've written a post, and even a longer while since that post has been about any of my training or racing. But now, I'm less than a month out from Austin, so I figured an update was in order. Things have been feeling pretty good on average, but there are definitely some workouts that feel miserable usually due to some combination of fatigue/lack of sleep/work. But for every crappy training day, or unplanned day off, there are a few really great workouts, where I hit my stride and feel improvements. So all in all, its going ok I guess.

I will say that I miss my team swim workouts with the Well Fit Elite team- don't get me wrong, the masters team here is great. The workouts are awesome, and I get great tips on my swim form, but since the team meets at so many different times during the week, there is a lack on consistency with who shows up when I'm there. I need someone in my lane that is going to push me ( aka, that is a lot faster than me) so I don't get lazy. But, sometimes, I end up in a lane all by myself ( great for the curmudgeonly me that doesn't like to share, but not great for triathlete me). Last night I swam with a lane buddy who kicked my ass, and I woke up sore and exhausted. Mission accomplished. 

Cycling is where I have been feeling the most improvement. Between my commitment to strength training, a new bike (Thor, I love you) , and a solid group of people to push the pace down here in Houston, I have really seen myself getting faster ( and even managed a 23 mph split at my last Olympic, which for me is huge). In anticipation of starting with a new coach and new training program ( more on that to come in a future blog post) I decided it was time to train with data ( power, heart rate etc) and this is where I seem to be struggling. 

Those of you that know me and my style know that for the past 9 years I stuck by the "perceived effort" method of training, and honestly, its worked great for me. I've continued to see improvements year to year and I think the most valuable thing I have learned from this method is to listen to my body and to understand when I need to pull back and to know when I can give just a little more, without blowing the rest of my race/ride/workout. This kind of information, to me, is priceless. I see so many people out there that completely CEASE to function if their garmin dies ("HOW AM I SUPPOSED TO PACE THE REST OF MY RUN? MY GARMIN DIIIEEEEED") that it has occurred to me if you enter this sport with disposable income (NOT how i entered the sport), its really easy to buy all the gadgets up front, and completely miss out on this part of the learning process. Sure, the point of the numbers is to give you an "objective" viewpoint of how you are doing and how you are feeling- and without getting into a dissertation length novel about why I feel like its not always the best way to go- sometimes, i feel like you just gotta go with your gut and trust your training. 

ALL that said- I'm making the change and I am open to it. But so far, I've found it a little frustrating. I've only ever "tested" on an indoor computrainer and there are huge discrepancies between my powertap numbers and my old computrainer numbers, and not in the way I would have expected. I am told this is normal, but the inconsistency in the "objective" measures is frustrating. But these are all things I will get used to and will learn, and I am confident that in order for me to get to the level that I want to get to as an athlete, I have to get a little more scientific with the way I do things. But for now, I am going to keep things as consistent as possible until Austin and see where that gets me. But training and racing in 2014 will definitely bring some new and exciting challenges :)

Back to Basics

So, I've wanted to write a  blog post about this for a while, but it just never seemed to be the right time. Now, we are 9 days out from Ironman Wisconsin, which is basically like Christmas for triathletes in the Midwest, and at which a lot of my friends will be, for the first time, completing an Ironman (special shout out to Sam, my amazing awesome athlete who I have been coaching for the big day for about 9 months). As I troll facebook and my newsfeed, the overwhelming sense of nervousness, excitement and anticipation is palpable. I know anxiety is unavoidable. If you aren't nervous, it means you aren't respecting the race and the distance for what it is, but I also feel like a lot of people, particularly first timers, are doing themselves an injustice by getting caught up in unnecessary details.

I have a very different perspective on triathlon training and racing from a lot of people that I know. When I started playing around with the idea of getting started in tris I was about 19 years old. I was in college and had limited resources and absolutely ZERO friends involved in the multisport community,so I decided I would figure it out for myself. I found the internet to be an overwhelming source of information so I did it the old fashioned way. I went to the store, bought a book, and sat down with my highlighter. I made lists of things I needed, lists of things that would be nice to have, but not necessary and signed up for my first Tri- the Chicago Tri. I'm not going to talk about my first tri experience here, but needless to say I loved it (with an entry level road bike, no wetsuit and no watch, computer or concept of time, and a regular old helmet) and I  was hooked and had my eye on Ironman. I was hooked because I love to swim  and bike and run. I was hooked because I like to do those three sports in succession. And I was hooked because I loved the feeling and sense of accomplishment that came along with training and racing.

So as I started to prepare for my first Ironman, that sense of minimalism that carried me successfully through my first triathlon seemed to be the right place to start. And don't get me wrong- could I have been better prepared? HELL YES. Could I have done a little more research and realized that you don't really have time to sit down and have a frickin picnic in the middle of the bike course? Sure. But, my goal was to finish the race. And I was going to finish it my way. That meant making peanut butter and nutella sandwiches the night before and packing them in my special needs bag ( and yes, eating them half way through the bike course). It meant wearing a one piece bathing suit the entire time because I didn't realize that there were changing tents. What it also meant, however, was that I was able to completely ignore what everyone around me was doing, and focus on my own race and my own wonderful Ironman experience.

Not only did I finish that day, but I finished happy, proud, comfortable and in just over 12 hours (ok, so it was IMFL but still) . I had no idea there were people out there tracking watts (I didn't know what a watt was....try saying that 3 times fast). I didn't know about Garmins, or compression socks, or protein drinks, or Infinit. I just knew I had to fuel myself for a 13-16 hour day and thats exactly what I did.

                   My IMFL finish. All I wanted was a hamburger and they gave me a veggie burger instead. wtf.


I am by no means advocating going into an Ironman uneducated about the sport, or about whats in store. The fact that I made it through the race that day is still somewhat of a miracle since I had never ridden my bike over 80 miles a day in my life. But I guess the point of all this is to tell people to take a step back and truly appreciate all the work you have put into getting to this day and forget about all the fancy stuff for a second. Sure, that stuff is fun, but its not what GOT you there. You will be an Ironman whether you cross the finish line in 10 hours or 16:59:59.  I've come a long way from my first few years of racing- I own a wet suit and soon a power tap. I have the fancy bike and compression socks (even though I still feel like they are toe straight jackets). And now, I do care about my finishing time. But I still look back on my IMFL finish as one of the most awesome experiences of my life.

So, all of you toeing the line for the first time at IMOO in a little over a week:  Get off Slow Twitch,  stop checking the weather, and forget about your Garmin. Just make yourself a Nutella sandwich and think about how awesome its going to be when all your hard work pays off.

Yup, I totally wore my medal to the waffle house the next day. and on the plane. Give me a break, I was 22.

Bridgeland Sprint Race report

Bridgeland Sprint Race report

So I finally raced this season and even though it was a sprint, I still find myself having a lot of thoughts about how the day went and how it could have gone better. To start off  this post you need to know 2 things: 1) I haven’t done a sprint tri since like 2008 and 2) I’m really not good at going fast. * I only have two speeds. Half Ironman and Ironman.  Shorter races do not, in general, translate into much faster pacing.  NOTE: I KNOW this is a relative term. But let’s put it this way. I would rather do a half marathon than a 5K ANY DAY OF THE WEEK. 5Ks hurt. A lot.  I would rather take a mile or two to warm up, ease into a tough but sustainable pace and stay there than redline to the point of vomiting.

So now that you know that, you can tell I probably wasn't too optimistic about how my performance was going to go the day of. I had scouted out the finish times of the ladies in my age group from the previous years and just didn't see a way where I would end up in the top, but I decided I would give it my all, and that if nothing else I would force myself to go as fast as I possibly could. If I had energy left at the end of the race, I definitely didn’t do it right.

Jeff was my super Sherpa for the day, and after a 3:30 am wake up call, we make our way to Cypress, TX.  On the way down there, I decided I should probably look up my wave start time (oops) and saw that I was in the LAST WAVE behind women 60+ and Athenas. I wasn’t going to start until 7:37. Great, I got myself mentally prepared to swim over a ton of people.  After getting transition set up it was time to wait for my wave to go off.

After waiting for what felt like an ETERNITY (and basically after all the spectators had left swim start) It was time for my wave to go off…

Swim 550 meters

 If you had asked me before this race, this swim was about 2.4 miles long. It was a point to point and I felt like it went on FOREVER. Nope, 550 meters apparently. The swim was mostly uneventful, except for the usual punching, kicking and grabbing. It felt more pronounced this time but maybe that’s because I felt I had less time to move away from it. By the time I found my rhythm we had less than 200 meters left in the swim. Also, this was a no wetsuit swim. The water temp was about 85 degrees. So imagine doing a 500 meter threshold swim in your neighbors hot tub and that’s about where I was.  So the swim was ok, not great but enough to put me at 4th out of the water in my age group

T1. Nothing special. 59 seconds. 

Bike 13 miles: Other than not being used to mounting Thor (giggle, sounds dirty) the ride was smooth. I felt strong basically from the beginning but it took me a second to catch my breath. The P2 has a compact crank and I’m just not used to the gearing yet. So I alternated between hammering it out, and a fast spin at like about a million RPMs against the wind. Typical day in the life of Chipmunk Racing. The biggest frustration here was my last wave start which meant I was going to spend the greater portion of my ride passing-  and a lot of these people weren’t too interested in moving out of my way. I made a concerted effort to yell” on your left” from a good distance back, but I found myself losing momentum. Apparently,  the bike course is a social opportunity that warrants riding two across for a good chat. Look, I know it’s a sprint, but why pay 120 bucks to show-up and NOT try your hardest? I managed to average over 22 mph. I felt like I was going to cough up blood in the process, but I did it. Again, sprinting sucks.

 

(picture courtesy of hubby, Jeff )

T2. Not sure why T2 was slower than T1, but nothing special here. 1 min 29 seconds.

Run 3.2 miles: So Houston is hot. I came off the bike and within 2 minutes of starting to run I was dizzy, my legs were wobbly and I just wanted to quit. But as fate, and pride, would have it, I wasn’t going to let that happen and decided that I could put up with anything (even 100+ degree heat and 80% humidity) for 3.2 miles. My only goal was to not let anyone (from my age group) pass me. I hadn’t seen anyone from my age group out on the bike course, so I was fairly certain I had ridden my way into first place. I just had to hold onto it, which was going to be harder than I thought. In the end, I managed 7:20s or 7:30s the entire time- certainly not the fastest I can run, but it was the fastest I could run at that moment. Ice cubes down my jersey came to the rescue on this one.

In the end I came out with a time of 1:10 for a 550 meter swim, 13 mile bike and 3.2 mile run. I won my age group by a solid 5 minutes and was 4^th age group female overall. It’s really easy to get caught up in long distance racing and forget about the work and huge amount of concentrated effort that goes into short course. That said, I’ll take long course any day.  Next race should be the Houston Triathlon on Labor Day. More short course misery :)

Other than that training is pretty solid- even though masters team decided they are allowed to take a “summer break” and cancel practice for a week. I’m sorry- you can’t take break in the middle of triathlon season. That’s like that time the library closed the week before my dissertation was due. Not cool man, not cool.

Also- I’ve committed to purchasing a power tap (I’ve officially crossed over to the dark side). I should get it sometime in September, so stay tuned for the insanity/confusion/frustration that comes about due to my inability to understand what the power tap is supposed to accomplish.

Make it work

Its been an interesting week here in Houston. After Jeff and I took our spill last Sunday, I've really had to revamp my training schedule. My road rash was still a little too fresh to swim on Monday, and my trusty tri bike, Stabler, really got the worst of it in the crash. It looks like its time to get a new bike. As much as I would like to say I would be fine without a bike for a little while, we all know thats a lie. My new ride should be ready in a couple days, so stay tuned for that :)

In the mean time, I've been improvising. I've been doing a lot of running ( and surprisingly hitting my paces- even in the heat) and  A LOT of swimming with the masters team. Instead of biking I have added some pilates and circuit training.  Towards the end of the run on Monday, I hit up this outdoor exercise circuit, right along the running path

This was great for box jumping, lateral jumps/skis and other great plyometric exercises. The fact that I can probably use this year round is great. After i completely shattered my legs, I jogged ( hobbled) on home. 

With a 2 Ironmans year coming up in 2014,  I wanted a fast, cost effective, and healthy way to get dinners done. So from here on out, I plan on cooking a ton of food on Sundays - sides including beans, quinoa and leafy greens, and proteins that I can grill and freeze. 

Last week we ended up with this assortment of salads. 

Tabbouleh on the right ( my mom's recipe, you are not getting it) 

on the Left bottom is Cooking lights triple bean salad (add cilantro) and the other two containers are a Mango Quinoa salad that has chopped up mango, green onion, dried cranberries, parsley and a red wine vinager, oil and dijon dressing. 

This has worked GREAT. Lunches, dinners, snacks. This has made eating clean SO EASY.

Its been tough to keep things going this week after the crash but, I made it work. New Challenge that starts tomorrow? My first day of work at my grown up job. Now its time to learn how to be a full time epidemiologist with a side of triathlon. 

Welcome Back

I brought the blog back. Not sure I'm any more interesting or funny now,  but I have started a new life here in Houston, Texas and left behind a lot of family, friends and teammates in Chicago.

So I'm going to use this as a forum to keep people posted on my training and racing, and keeping myself accountable in a way. I don't have the awesome folks on the Well Fit  Elite team to push me anymore (These ladies ROCK, by the way, and I miss em a ton)

                                                                       but in an effort to meet local triathletes and make friends, Jeff and I have reached out to local tri clubs, and I have checked out the Houston Cougars. So far I've met some really awesome people, and gotten in some great workouts. 

 So from here on out, expect posts about training, racing, my new job, the humidity in Houston ( if anyone needs heat acclimation training, we have a guestroom with your name on it) and  what are likely to be weekly posts about how frickin' good the tacos are here. 

Because of the move to warmer weather my tri season is much later that my midwestern compadres. Lets forget the minor (major) snafoo at Leon's tri and just move on. Here's how my racing schedule looks for now

August 4th - Bridgeland Sprint 

Sept 2nd (yes, on Monday) - Houston Triathlon (Olympic) 

Sept 22nd - 5150 Galveston Triathlon (Olympic) 

October 27th Austin 70.3

This season is a lot shorter than usual (enough races to keep me ranked, but a couple short of ideal) and thats because 2014 is going to be BIG. Jeff and I have already registered for Ironman Brazil 2014, and plan on racing Ironman Wisconsin again that September. I can't wait to be at this starting line 

 Not bad for a one year anniversary trip :)        

             

Anyway, I am really excited to see how the next year of training is going to unfold in Texas! its a different game down here with year round outdoor training, and I am SUPER excited about that. 

                    

 Thats about it for now. Today was a tough training day. Jeff and I got a little banged up on our ride out with Bicycle world. Aimed for 60 miles on the bike + 30 min brick run, but crashed at 45. Long story, and it was a rough day.  Got the battle scars to prove it . Back at it tomorrow with a long brick.