I was sorta expecting to see higher numbers, but I think taking a full weekend for Ragnar shenanigans made it hard to get higher numbers...
September:
Swim: 9h 20m - 25535.04 Yd
Bike: 15h 18m - 212.96 Mi
Run: 13h 20m 18s - 71.31 M
August:
Swim: 11h 21m 10s - 32097.99 Yd
Bike: 11h 31m 46s - 169.95 Mi
Run: 15h 39m 21s - 86.23 Mi
Bike would have been a smidge higher if I was able to ride outside for all of my rides. My weekday rides have been on the trainer for two reasons. #1: they're either aerobic rides or interval rides. The trainer makes it easier to hit my targets correctly. #2: I can't start to ride until 6 or 6:15 and it gets dark around 7:15, making it pretty hard to ride outside for 1.5 hrs. One of my long weekend rides was also on the trainer because it rained all day long. So I would have probably been closer to 230 miles for the month. Not bad, considering one of those weekends got eaten up by Ragnar.
October is my big (relatively speaking) build month as I get ready for Oilman. Curious to see where those numbers come in.
Tuesday, October 01, 2013
Monday, September 30, 2013
Running slowly more quickly: an update
My coach really likes run training, using the Maffetone method (or MAF). Essentially, you "run" with a maximum heart rate that is pretty low (143 bpm for me, and run is in quotations because sometimes running doesn't happen with a HR that low). Periodically, I'll do a MAF test, which consists of running very slow circles around a track with my garmin beeping at me, telling me to slow down b/c my HR is too high.
My first MAF test was in late October 2012. The results were:
My first MAF test was in late October 2012. The results were:
- Mile 1: 12:37
- Mile 2: 12:50
- Mile 3: 13:22
- Mile 4: 13:47
Really freaking slow.
It has been 11 months, I've been running consistently and I've done an Ironman since then. I've also been working with my acupuncturist on getting my lungs working like a normal human being. I've been seeing improvement, like at Ragnar when I ran as hard as I could for my last leg (2 mi) and my legs were the limiter instead of my lungs. I've also been doing aerobic rides on the trainer, usually a 1:30 ride with a HR target of 130. I did a ton of this last winter and it was pretty easy to get my HR to that point. Two weeks ago was the first aerobic ride and it took quite a bit of effort (and sweating) to get my HR up that high and maintain it. Which tells me that my aerobic fitness is improving. Michelle decided it was a good time to do a MAF test and I agreed. I was curious to see how far I've come. And it turns out, I have really improved.
- Mile 1: 10:53
- Mile 2: 11:09
- Mile 3: 11:09
- Mile 4: 11:54
- Mile 5: 11:36
My best mile was 1:44/mile FASTER than my fastest mile and my slowest mile was 0:43/mile faster than my fastest mile from my first MAF test. Craziness. But also super awesome.
Friday, September 20, 2013
New Swim Coach
Things at my masters team have been a bit disorganized lately. Normally that would irritate the crap out of me and cause me to switch teams, but for whatever reason, I've been ok with it. Probably because I've only been swimming for IMCDA recovery and some general fitness without any real goals. And I do like the group and one of the coaches. So the fact that the other coach would fail to show up or when she did show up, she would sit on a lounge chair and play on her phone the entire practice didn't really bother me.
They hired a new coach, who apparently gave up a "normal" job to be a full time swim coach and is straight out of college. He's been in town literally 7 days. He showed up to watch Monday's practice while the usual coach lead the workout. I felt this was a bit of a test, as the last part of the main set was a ladder of IM (ie all 4 strokes). We (the swimmers) were being tested (on the sly) on 1) who could swim all 4 strokes and 2) who was a whiner. I think I passed both tests.
Wednesday was Scott's first workout. It went like this:
Then he suggested that we do a ONE MILE SWIM for time and we all laughed. That would have put our yardage at 4,000+ m. And most of us had to be at work at 8 AM and doing a mile would have kept us in the water until a bit after 7 AM. Still, I expect to see that one mile appear sometime in the very near future.
Today he was late and I know we were all wondering if he was going to be like our prior no-show coach. Turns out his alarm didn't go off and he showed up after we all did a 500 warmup. Today's workout was a bit of a doozy. But I liked it. A lot.
They hired a new coach, who apparently gave up a "normal" job to be a full time swim coach and is straight out of college. He's been in town literally 7 days. He showed up to watch Monday's practice while the usual coach lead the workout. I felt this was a bit of a test, as the last part of the main set was a ladder of IM (ie all 4 strokes). We (the swimmers) were being tested (on the sly) on 1) who could swim all 4 strokes and 2) who was a whiner. I think I passed both tests.
Wednesday was Scott's first workout. It went like this:
- Warm up: 4x250 swim/kick/pull/swim
- 10x50 golf (I was one of the few people who knew what this was - go me!)
- 5x100 build 75% to 85% by 50
- 6x50 golf
- 3x100 build 85% to 95% by 50
Then he suggested that we do a ONE MILE SWIM for time and we all laughed. That would have put our yardage at 4,000+ m. And most of us had to be at work at 8 AM and doing a mile would have kept us in the water until a bit after 7 AM. Still, I expect to see that one mile appear sometime in the very near future.
Today he was late and I know we were all wondering if he was going to be like our prior no-show coach. Turns out his alarm didn't go off and he showed up after we all did a 500 warmup. Today's workout was a bit of a doozy. But I liked it. A lot.
- 10 x 100 on 2:00 (remember, this is a meter pool). 1-5 build 75% to 85% by 50, 6-10 build 85% to 95% by 50
- 8 x 50 descend 1-8 on 1:05
- 6 x 50 95% - rest consisted of enough time to touch the wall and turn around. yay?
- and the "surprise": 4x50s all out on 2:00 to build lactic acid tolerance.
After that, people still wanted more and he was doling out tempo 500's. I heard that and decided to do a 400 cool down and call it a day.
He did promise to up our distance to 3,200 m, which would consist of 30x100. I told him that he and my tri coach would get along well. (Michelle agreed with me).
Overall I'm a bit scared but I am excited. He's a true swimmer and he's giving us collegiate level workouts. The two that I've seen have required that you stay present and focused on your swimming, which I like. I enjoy swimming smart and learning things. I feel like that's been missing lately, as I've just been swimming to get distance and workouts done.
We'll see what this does to my overall speed - who knows, IMBoulder could be done on a 1:10. That'd be pretty sweet.
Monday, September 16, 2013
Re-Branding
I've been pondering changing the name of this blog. In the beginning, it was more of a commentary on the weird things I encountered (see: freak magnet) but for the past several years this has become more of a tri-focused blog with random asides about beer drinking, camping, and Colorado adventures. I've been applying to local teams and decided that perhaps the sarcasm of my blog title wouldn't quite convey appropriately. So I've changed it.
*boom*
Go Tri Erin
Right now the URL is still the same, but in about a week (or so) I'll be changing it to GoTriErin.blogspot.com
*boom*
Go Tri Erin
Right now the URL is still the same, but in about a week (or so) I'll be changing it to GoTriErin.blogspot.com
Wednesday, September 11, 2013
Ragnar Colorado 2013 - Race Report
Three days later and I'm still not sure how I feel about this event. I'd been wanting to do this race for a year. I thought it would be a fun way to keep me running. I could do training runs in the mountains instead of dreary half marathon (or longer) training runs. I finally found a team (thanks to a facebook friend of a facebook friend) and I was in. 12 women from Denver and we mostly were strangers.
The logistics for this were daunting. Our start time was 7 AM Friday morning at Copper Mountain, which meant we needed to spend the night at Copper. Then we needed 2 x 15 passenger vans. I somehow ended up being responsible for Van #1, I think because no one else wanted to be responsible. Fortunately I have had experience driving F250 pickups in refineries, so a van wasn't too daunting. Then there was the planning and emails and team shirts and themes and decorations and and and and! So much AND! And the packing. Ridiculous. The smart thing I did was to put hot pink duct tape on every bag and labeled each bag's contents with permanent marker (run, post-run, food, misc, cold clothes, shower). I also put duct tape on all of my electrical cords so I knew they were mine. (we had a near meltdown at the end over an iPhone cord... it wasn't pretty)
The race was 192 miles, from Copper to Snowmass. The women on my team were FAST. I was one of the slow pokes. And they were tiny. 2/3 of our shirt orders were smalls or x-smalls. (Will, commenting on seeing photos of us: "you really were one of the bigger girls on your team." Thanks Will.....)
I got the van Thurs afternoon, picked up some of my crew (either at my house or the Golden light rail station). We got dinner at Chipotle in Silverthorne and met Van 2 in Copper for check in and decorating. Upon arrival, they actually had us drive into the ski base on the sidewalk and park in the village next to a restaurant. That was sooooo weird. I'm used to tromping around in my ski boots in those areas, not driving a van!
Our team name was "Your Pace or Mine?" and for decorations, we had a bunch of comment bubble sticker with cheesy pickup lines made up. My favorites "What are you doing at 2 AM?" and "Do you believe in love at first sight or should I run by again?". Fun! We also had xmas lights to put on the bumpers to make it easy to find our van at night.
 |
| Team Your Pace or Mine? |
Then we piled into our condo and sorta slept. I never sleep well in strange places. And some people were very loud at 5 AM, right outside our open window.
We were up around 5:30 or 6, then down to the ski base for coffee and food at 6:30. Our leg left at 7 AM and there were maybe 15 other teams starting with us (there were 200 teams total). Some teams had costumes. We just got matching long sleeve shirts and called it good. Besides, sequin running skirts seem itchy.
 |
| Van 1 reporting for duty! |
I had legs 4, 16, and 28. We decided Van 1 was the place to be. We didn't have to wait around half of the day to start and we didn't get stuck with the graveyard run shift. Liesl was Leg 1 and we drove back over to Frisco and decided to stop part way and cheer her on. We hopped back in the van (after taking a bathroom break) thinking we'd have plenty of time. We were WRONG. She was waiting on us and poor Lisa (Leg 2) had to jump out of the van and run uphill to Breck with no warm-up. After that point, we stayed on point and pretty much went straight to the next exchange.
My first run was on the west side of Dillon Reservoir and took me up Swan Mountain Road. I'm so glad I ran this a few weeks ago because I knew what to expect. My leg was ~9 mi and had 960 ft climbing. I was smart and got in a 5 min warm-up around the parking lot because you start climbing immediately. Ragnar has (sometimes) little chutes made of cones and tape that are the exchanges, usually 2 lanes, enough for 2 teams. We had these rainbow sparkle skirted girls coming in ahead of us (which is fine, other than the rainbow sparkles). But their runner came in and they just stood there taking pictures, blocking me from view of my runner. That really irritated me and I passed their runner EASILY on the first mile. We then made it our team's mission to beat them.
 |
| 9 miles and 960 ft elevation gain |
My run went pretty well. I went out too hard and ran the first 1/2 mile uphill (mainly chasing rainbow sparkle girl). Then I got smart and did 2:1 intervals for the rest of the 2 miles uphill (my previous run was more like 1:1). Then I had a nice long 3ish mile downhill that I pushed, only stopping every mile for water and nutrition. Then it leveled off for a mile and I just ran. Then we hit the low point of the run and had to run uphill back to the marina (Exchange 6). That last uphill sucked. It was hot and mentally I was expecting it to be flat. Not hilly. There was probably too much walking. I finally got to the exchange (8 min ahead of predicted!) and saw my team off to the side chatting. They weren't expecting me and thus, weren't looking for me. That was kinda funny. We sent runner #5 off (Aimee) and I then went to go sit in the reservoir for 10 min as an ice bath. Very smart idea.
Leg 4: 8.95 miles, 11:01 pace, 960 ft of climbing
Leg 4: 8.95 miles, 11:01 pace, 960 ft of climbing
 |
| I made goodie bags full of SunRype for each van |
 |
| probably the best ice bath ever |
The thing with this race is that its a lot of hurry up and wait. You wait to run, you hurry to drive to the next exchange, you wait, you run, you hop back in the van and drive and wait some more.
Our last Van 1 runner (Liza) was ending back at Copper, which was a main exchange, #12. We met up with Van 2 and cheered Liza in. Lisa realized she had a condo in Avon, which was pretty darn close to our next round of runs. We went to a cafe near the condo for lunch (curry chicken salad on gluten free bread) and I then got very very sleepy, like put my head on the restaurant table and take a nap sleepy. We went to the condo (which was AWESOME and so nice of her to offer) and I immediately hit one of the twin beds for a nap. It was not a quality nap because several other people from my van were very chatty in the main room (and the condo was echo-y) and I left my earplugs in the van. I maybe got 1 hr sleep. Maybe. Then it was 5 or 6 (?) PM and we needed to head over to Exchange 18 to start our next series of runs. We hung out, waited for the last runner from Van 2 to run and and saw a beautiful mountain sunset. Really, life was rough.
 |
| in the parking lot at Exchange 18. They make you wear reflective vests after 6:30 PM |
 |
| at the Exchange with a beautiful sunset |
 |
| Van 1 and Van 2 reunited |
Eating was tricky for this thing. I was runner #4, which generally meant I had ~3 hrs to wait after our first runner left. You were hungry but didn't want to eat too much (or not enough). At this exchange, I opted to have some choc protein powder, and apple, and some SunRype Fruit Source bars.
We took the wrong directions to the next exchange and Liesl only had 2 miles. This meant she was waiting on us for a good 10 min and poor Lisa once again had to jump out of the van and run run run with no warning.
Night time was a bit sketchy. We were driving a strange van on strange roads with little sleep in the dark, along with potentially 200 other vans in the same situation. Oh, and there were frequently runners on the same road we were driving on. There wasn't any police support, no reflective or illuminated signage on the roads ("race in progress") and maybe 1/3 of the time there wasn't anyone staffing the exchanges, which had high vehicle and pedestrian traffic. Not really safe. It was as if the race organizers decided "hey, we are making the runners wear all this safety gear so our job is done". This resulted in the only thing alerting oncoming traffic of my presence was me. And I am not ok with that.
My next leg was #16 at around 9:30 PM and consisted of 5.9 miles along US Hwy 6 with a net downhill elevation loss. I was going to try and run it at a 10k pace and see how that went, knowing that I only had 2.1 miles the next morning. It was oddly warm out. I had capris on and a long sleeve shirt and made a last-minute decision to change into a t-shirt.
I took off knowing that there were a few people a few minutes ahead of me and I made it my mission to catch them. It was mildly drizzling (and later lightly raining big drops), which meant cloud cover and no stars. Boo. With the exception of having (at times) zero shoulder, the run was actually really nice. I was running comfortably fast with a goal of chasing down this glowing red light out ahead of me. I finally caught him around mile 3:
guy: how's it going?
me: good, I've been chasing you for miles and I finally caught you
guy: laugh and groan
me: where are you from?
guy: Denton, TX
me: oof, good luck and drink lots of water
This was one of my favorite parts of the race. Each time I encountered a runner I asked them where they were from. There were a lot of flat-landers at this race. I felt really bad for them.
I literally saw 4 people during this 6 mile segment. It was lonely.
The nice thing around running at night was that you really couldn't see the terrain ahead of you. I actually ran 700 feet UPHILL (and 900? ft downhill) and never once did I slow down or walk. You couldn't see the hills ahead of you and so your mind couldn't play games. You just put one foot in front of the other, in the darkness, and run. Makes me wonder how much my head gets in the way of my running... I think I get defeated without attempting to just run sometimes. I need to remember Leg 16 on my hilly runs and suck it up and just run.
My leg ended in Eagle, which consisted of a crappy S-shaped steep hill (lovely) and a run through downtown. There was a bar with a live band and I'm sure they were all wondering what the hell we were doing, running around in our Tron outfits.
I'm really happy with my pace for this leg, tired and in the dark. I did 5.94 mi in 56:47 on a 9:34 pace. That's 53 seconds/mile FASTER than my 10k PR and only 7 seconds slower than my 5k PR.
I hit the exchange and went to the van and we immediately headed to the next exchange. We got settled and I changed tops and sports bras (a good tip is to put your used race clothes in a ziplock bag) then rolled out my legs with my Stick. I also made my recovery drink and inhaled a whole bag of beef jerky. That was dinner. Drink mix and jerky in the back of a van at 11 PM at night. I know you're jealous. I'm amazed I didn't get sick.
We did a few more exchanges and ended up at Exchange 18 in Gypsum, CO at the local rec center. This was where we would "sleep". There was also free coffee, hot chocolate, and snacks. You could also shower and change in the locker room. Some of our group settled in the corner of the gym and I set my stuff out and then changed into shorts and a t-shirt. I doubled up my thermarest because the gym floor was hard. The gym was incredibly warm, so I left my sleeping bag alone. We were positioned directly underneath a flood light, so I put the hoodie of my sweatshirt over my face, which made things warm, but it also made things a bit dark. Insert earplugs and my mission was to sleep until 3 AM.
This was quite honestly the worst night's sleep I've ever had. Somewhere in the gym-area was a fire alarm, beeping a low battery alarm. The women's locker room door squeaked every damn time it opened and closed. And then at 2 AM, so dude announced to the entire gym that he really needed a shower. I heard all of this with earplugs and my sleeping bag over my head. After the guy made his announcement, he pretty much woke up the whole gym and people started rustling and moving, making sleep pretty much impossible. I got up and decided to make myself a mocha (coffee and hot chocolate) and chat with people. Then at 3 AM my team wanted to leave, so I got packed up and we headed over to Exchange 24 in Glenwood Springs. How I managed to be awake and functional enough to drive 55 mph on a very windy section of I-70 is beyond me. But I was actually fine, which was the weird thing about this race. I had 3 hours of crappy sleep in a 36 hr period and was able to form coherent sentences. Amazing.
We walked into the high school there and realized that we should have slept at this exchange (or in our van). Granted, our priority was to sleep so we utilized the closest sleeping area at the time, but Glenwood was so much nicer. And they had a scrambled egg and bacon bar in the cafeteria which smelled DELICIOUS. Sadly, it was close to 4 AM and I had a run around 7 AM so no bacon goodness for me.
The eating thing was a really challenging element to this race. You pretty much eat whenever you can. I knew that my leg would start approximately 3 hrs after our first runner, which is enough time for a light meal. Usually 2 protein bars or a protein shake and some fruit. Then when runner #3 left, I knew I had about an hour before I had to run, so I'd eat another SunRype Fruit Source bar. And after my run, I'd have a recovery drink (First Endurance Ultragen, 320 cals) and maybe more fruit or something else (like jerky, because that makes sense....). You never had enough time for a proper meal and are always walking a fine line between eating too much and not eating enough.
Our first 2 runners had really tough segments. I was thinking I had it rough with my 9 miles, where 2 miles of it was up a 6% grade. Nope, these girls had it really rough. Each had 5-6 miles of pretty much straight uphill. We drove it and all of us just felt so bad for them. I had fresh legs for my "very hard" run. These girls had no sleep and tired legs for theirs. Wow.
This segment was really the prettiest, though. We were on some dirt road, somewhere out in the country between Glenwood Springs and Carbondale, with the sun coming up. It was beautiful. And a bit chilly. During our previous run sets, we were pretty team-spirit oriented. Everyone would get out of the van to keep the next runner company and to cheer in our incoming runner. This last set of runs was less enthusiastic as most people just stayed in the van. We were tired and it was cold. We dropped off runner #3 and made our way downhill into Carbondale for my leg, #28.
This segment started at a strip mall near this place called Gringos. You had to wear your reflective gear until 7 AM (even if you weren't running) and I was projected to run right around the cutoff. One girl in my van was a little bossy (she has little kids, I'm sure its habit.... and we were sleep deprived) and told me literally 3 times in a span of 5 minutes that I HAD to wear my safety gear. Of course I wasn't going to break the rules but if I started after 7 AM, I was ditching the Tron outfit. Also: it was full on daylight by 6:30 AM. I ended up wearing my vest and holding my stuff, with a towel over me. Because it was cold, but it also covered up my reflective vest. (I was going to run in shorts and a t-shirt b/c it was in the mid-50's and I knew I'd get hot.) Anyways, my garmin clicked to 6:59, I headed back over to ditch my Tron outfit and was met by another teammate. At least she got it. A few other runners were there, and I was thankful because I literally had no idea where my run went. Our runners came in off the highway. It turns out I had to take off onto a trail behind a strip mall - not very obvious.
Nancy came and and I took off. I had 2.1 miles of what I thought was flat and I just wanted to run HARD. It turns out it was more like a false flat (100 ft gain). I ran on trail, then through downtown Carbondale, then again on trail. It was beautiful with fog in the valley lifting and sun hitting the mountains. I was trying to take it in but I was also sleep deprived and my main focus was to RUN. I wanted to run hard to test myself, to leave it all out there. No excuses because this was my last leg and I had pancakes waiting for me in 2 exchanges.
I'm really happy with my run on this leg. 2.1 miles in 18:37, or a 8:56 pace. That is faster than my 1 mile repeats a month prior to CDA. The real kicker? I haven't done a lick of speed work since May 30th. I'm not completely sure where all this speed came from (I have my suspicions, CDA training and acupuncture to work on my bad lungs). I was limited by my legs, not my HR or my lungs, which is exactly where I need to be.
I did a quick cool down walk around the parking lot and back into the van I went. My Ragnar was done and I was really proud of my performance.
We did a few more leg exchanges and met up with Van 2 at Exchange 30. Our final van swap. Also: $5 pancakes.
We were in need of coffee and decided to just head to the finish, at Snowmass, figuring there had to be a latte at the base. From there, we pretty much spent 4 or 5 hours milling around while Van 2 was making their long and uphill journey to the finish. Our final runner had 8 miles and 2,000 ft climbing. At the end! Not cool!
We had a lot of time to kill and the finish festivities were really, really crappy. The only shade was 4, 10x10 pop up tents (with chairs) - not nearly enough for the 200 teams of 6 people waiting for their other 6 people to come in. Finish line food was ridiculous - apples, bananas, and some generic unlabeled Shot Bloks. Oh, and we got ONE Bud Light. Embarrassing. There were other vendors handing out samples of Nuun, Iced Tea, and Ice Cream Sandwiches. I've seen better spreads at local charity 5ks. We were starving so some of us wandered down the hill to a pizza place that the gondola liftie told us about (Torchies) and it was really seriously good pizza. Why they couldn't cart pizza up the hill (for free) to the finish is beyond me. We also used some of this time to clean out the van, which is always fun on 3 hrs sleep.
Our final runner was plagued by debilitating leg cramps (at one point she was lying on the trail screaming profanities, wanting to die). Poor thing. Van 2 had arrived and we were all super supportive of her when she came through. We saw her at the top of the ski hill and ran 2/3 of the way up to meet her, do a little bridge thingy (think the kid's London Bridges song) and followed her down the dirt switchbacks to the finish. I was in flip flops, which was pretty precarious.
We got our fake medals (our real medals had a transit issue and weren't there... so we got generic medals with a sticker on them. yay?). And then we posed for a finish line photo. And then it was done.
Time: 32:19:55
Place: 129 our of 194 teams
8th out of 18 all women's teams - pretty solid!
My next leg was #16 at around 9:30 PM and consisted of 5.9 miles along US Hwy 6 with a net downhill elevation loss. I was going to try and run it at a 10k pace and see how that went, knowing that I only had 2.1 miles the next morning. It was oddly warm out. I had capris on and a long sleeve shirt and made a last-minute decision to change into a t-shirt.
 |
| Will said I looked like Tron, another friend commented that I looked like the green Power Ranger. |
guy: how's it going?
me: good, I've been chasing you for miles and I finally caught you
guy: laugh and groan
me: where are you from?
guy: Denton, TX
me: oof, good luck and drink lots of water
This was one of my favorite parts of the race. Each time I encountered a runner I asked them where they were from. There were a lot of flat-landers at this race. I felt really bad for them.
I literally saw 4 people during this 6 mile segment. It was lonely.
The nice thing around running at night was that you really couldn't see the terrain ahead of you. I actually ran 700 feet UPHILL (and 900? ft downhill) and never once did I slow down or walk. You couldn't see the hills ahead of you and so your mind couldn't play games. You just put one foot in front of the other, in the darkness, and run. Makes me wonder how much my head gets in the way of my running... I think I get defeated without attempting to just run sometimes. I need to remember Leg 16 on my hilly runs and suck it up and just run.
My leg ended in Eagle, which consisted of a crappy S-shaped steep hill (lovely) and a run through downtown. There was a bar with a live band and I'm sure they were all wondering what the hell we were doing, running around in our Tron outfits.
I'm really happy with my pace for this leg, tired and in the dark. I did 5.94 mi in 56:47 on a 9:34 pace. That's 53 seconds/mile FASTER than my 10k PR and only 7 seconds slower than my 5k PR.
I hit the exchange and went to the van and we immediately headed to the next exchange. We got settled and I changed tops and sports bras (a good tip is to put your used race clothes in a ziplock bag) then rolled out my legs with my Stick. I also made my recovery drink and inhaled a whole bag of beef jerky. That was dinner. Drink mix and jerky in the back of a van at 11 PM at night. I know you're jealous. I'm amazed I didn't get sick.
We did a few more exchanges and ended up at Exchange 18 in Gypsum, CO at the local rec center. This was where we would "sleep". There was also free coffee, hot chocolate, and snacks. You could also shower and change in the locker room. Some of our group settled in the corner of the gym and I set my stuff out and then changed into shorts and a t-shirt. I doubled up my thermarest because the gym floor was hard. The gym was incredibly warm, so I left my sleeping bag alone. We were positioned directly underneath a flood light, so I put the hoodie of my sweatshirt over my face, which made things warm, but it also made things a bit dark. Insert earplugs and my mission was to sleep until 3 AM.
 |
| looks comfy, right? ugh |
We walked into the high school there and realized that we should have slept at this exchange (or in our van). Granted, our priority was to sleep so we utilized the closest sleeping area at the time, but Glenwood was so much nicer. And they had a scrambled egg and bacon bar in the cafeteria which smelled DELICIOUS. Sadly, it was close to 4 AM and I had a run around 7 AM so no bacon goodness for me.
The eating thing was a really challenging element to this race. You pretty much eat whenever you can. I knew that my leg would start approximately 3 hrs after our first runner, which is enough time for a light meal. Usually 2 protein bars or a protein shake and some fruit. Then when runner #3 left, I knew I had about an hour before I had to run, so I'd eat another SunRype Fruit Source bar. And after my run, I'd have a recovery drink (First Endurance Ultragen, 320 cals) and maybe more fruit or something else (like jerky, because that makes sense....). You never had enough time for a proper meal and are always walking a fine line between eating too much and not eating enough.
Our first 2 runners had really tough segments. I was thinking I had it rough with my 9 miles, where 2 miles of it was up a 6% grade. Nope, these girls had it really rough. Each had 5-6 miles of pretty much straight uphill. We drove it and all of us just felt so bad for them. I had fresh legs for my "very hard" run. These girls had no sleep and tired legs for theirs. Wow.
This segment was really the prettiest, though. We were on some dirt road, somewhere out in the country between Glenwood Springs and Carbondale, with the sun coming up. It was beautiful. And a bit chilly. During our previous run sets, we were pretty team-spirit oriented. Everyone would get out of the van to keep the next runner company and to cheer in our incoming runner. This last set of runs was less enthusiastic as most people just stayed in the van. We were tired and it was cold. We dropped off runner #3 and made our way downhill into Carbondale for my leg, #28.
This segment started at a strip mall near this place called Gringos. You had to wear your reflective gear until 7 AM (even if you weren't running) and I was projected to run right around the cutoff. One girl in my van was a little bossy (she has little kids, I'm sure its habit.... and we were sleep deprived) and told me literally 3 times in a span of 5 minutes that I HAD to wear my safety gear. Of course I wasn't going to break the rules but if I started after 7 AM, I was ditching the Tron outfit. Also: it was full on daylight by 6:30 AM. I ended up wearing my vest and holding my stuff, with a towel over me. Because it was cold, but it also covered up my reflective vest. (I was going to run in shorts and a t-shirt b/c it was in the mid-50's and I knew I'd get hot.) Anyways, my garmin clicked to 6:59, I headed back over to ditch my Tron outfit and was met by another teammate. At least she got it. A few other runners were there, and I was thankful because I literally had no idea where my run went. Our runners came in off the highway. It turns out I had to take off onto a trail behind a strip mall - not very obvious.
Nancy came and and I took off. I had 2.1 miles of what I thought was flat and I just wanted to run HARD. It turns out it was more like a false flat (100 ft gain). I ran on trail, then through downtown Carbondale, then again on trail. It was beautiful with fog in the valley lifting and sun hitting the mountains. I was trying to take it in but I was also sleep deprived and my main focus was to RUN. I wanted to run hard to test myself, to leave it all out there. No excuses because this was my last leg and I had pancakes waiting for me in 2 exchanges.
 |
| this looks hilly but it's really because the scale is small. |
I did a quick cool down walk around the parking lot and back into the van I went. My Ragnar was done and I was really proud of my performance.
We did a few more leg exchanges and met up with Van 2 at Exchange 30. Our final van swap. Also: $5 pancakes.
 |
| Van 1 is DONE! |
 |
| I ate 4 of these. They were delicious. |
We had a lot of time to kill and the finish festivities were really, really crappy. The only shade was 4, 10x10 pop up tents (with chairs) - not nearly enough for the 200 teams of 6 people waiting for their other 6 people to come in. Finish line food was ridiculous - apples, bananas, and some generic unlabeled Shot Bloks. Oh, and we got ONE Bud Light. Embarrassing. There were other vendors handing out samples of Nuun, Iced Tea, and Ice Cream Sandwiches. I've seen better spreads at local charity 5ks. We were starving so some of us wandered down the hill to a pizza place that the gondola liftie told us about (Torchies) and it was really seriously good pizza. Why they couldn't cart pizza up the hill (for free) to the finish is beyond me. We also used some of this time to clean out the van, which is always fun on 3 hrs sleep.
Our final runner was plagued by debilitating leg cramps (at one point she was lying on the trail screaming profanities, wanting to die). Poor thing. Van 2 had arrived and we were all super supportive of her when she came through. We saw her at the top of the ski hill and ran 2/3 of the way up to meet her, do a little bridge thingy (think the kid's London Bridges song) and followed her down the dirt switchbacks to the finish. I was in flip flops, which was pretty precarious.
We got our fake medals (our real medals had a transit issue and weren't there... so we got generic medals with a sticker on them. yay?). And then we posed for a finish line photo. And then it was done.
Time: 32:19:55
Place: 129 our of 194 teams
8th out of 18 all women's teams - pretty solid!
Lodging was ridiculously expensive ($100 for a motel) so I decided I'd camp out on some random forest service road. I took a shower at a teammate's hotel room and then headed back to Basalt, where I turned onto Frying Pan Road and drove past Reudi's Reservoir. I was mad I didn't have my fly rod on me because the Frying Pan River is a gold medal stream and it looked NICE. I found a nice little dirt road (FR400) and settled in under a tree at 7:15 PM. I had a dinner of protein bars (I wanted a sandwich but couldn't find one in Basalt) and had a goal of staying awake until 8 AM. I made it to 7:50 and zonked out on the floor of the van. I woke up once in a while because my hip would go numb (from the hard van floor) and didn't really wake up until 7 AM. My teammates were a bit horrified of my camping adventure (they were worried about my personal safety), but I felt that there were better odds of someone snatching me from Hwy 6 during my run than on this random, isolated road in the woods. Also, I was being cheap and I really just wanted some peace and quiet. I got up at 7 AM, changed into cleanish clothes and headed back into town. The sun was coming up and it was beautiful. Then I drove the van back to Denver.
Good things about the experience:
Overall, I'm not sure I'd do another one. I wasn't very pleased with the lack of safety measures. They pretty much put all the safety responsibility on us and walked away. The race support was also pretty crappy. I really have to wonder where the $1200 entry fee (x 200 teams) went. Ironman is expensive but you see where the money goes (off duty police officers, support, road closures, etc). For the money, I just expected more. But even with better support, I'm not sure I'd do it again. It might be better if I was in a van full of close friends but there's still the logistical challenge. You never quite know when you'll sleep or eat, and the quality of eating and sleeping is questionable. It's barely managed chaos with 3 hrs sleep over a 36 hour period. And the planning (and packing) was a pain in the ass. I really think I prefer Ironman, where you know where you'll be at what time, what you'll be eating, what support you'll be getting, etc. From a effort/reward ratio, I simply get more out of Ironman. I'm glad I did Ragnar but it wasn't life changing, or even really all that great. It was ok. I was hoping for a lot more than that. I even feel guilty that it wasn't more. Most of my teammates thought this was an amazing, indelible adventure. Granted, I have a larger endurance resume, but I pretty much feel "meh" over the event. Basically a bucket list type of thing for me and that's it. And now its back to Triathlon because I have the Oilman 70.3 in less than 8 weeks. Time to get focused. :)
 |
| a random lime kiln in Thompson, CO, a few miles away from where I camped |
 |
| Colorado sure is ugly.... |
- No one in my van got very sick. There were some stomach issues but they were easily resolved.
- No one backed the van into anything. Yay!
- No one got injured!
- Everyone from my van ran really, really well. We were ~30 min behind pace at the start of our last set of runs and we caught ourselves up. Really awesome.
- Everyone got along, which is pretty remarkable for a bunch of strangers
- I'm really happy with my performance.
Overall, I'm not sure I'd do another one. I wasn't very pleased with the lack of safety measures. They pretty much put all the safety responsibility on us and walked away. The race support was also pretty crappy. I really have to wonder where the $1200 entry fee (x 200 teams) went. Ironman is expensive but you see where the money goes (off duty police officers, support, road closures, etc). For the money, I just expected more. But even with better support, I'm not sure I'd do it again. It might be better if I was in a van full of close friends but there's still the logistical challenge. You never quite know when you'll sleep or eat, and the quality of eating and sleeping is questionable. It's barely managed chaos with 3 hrs sleep over a 36 hour period. And the planning (and packing) was a pain in the ass. I really think I prefer Ironman, where you know where you'll be at what time, what you'll be eating, what support you'll be getting, etc. From a effort/reward ratio, I simply get more out of Ironman. I'm glad I did Ragnar but it wasn't life changing, or even really all that great. It was ok. I was hoping for a lot more than that. I even feel guilty that it wasn't more. Most of my teammates thought this was an amazing, indelible adventure. Granted, I have a larger endurance resume, but I pretty much feel "meh" over the event. Basically a bucket list type of thing for me and that's it. And now its back to Triathlon because I have the Oilman 70.3 in less than 8 weeks. Time to get focused. :)
Tuesday, September 03, 2013
Ironman Coeur d'Alene Video
A friend (who is somehow linked with the photography company) put this video together for me. My finish line jump looks sorta cool in motion - way better than the still photos. I think I can also see where I kicked the guy and broke my toe. Maybe I should get his bib # and see how his heel felt?
My favorite part is around 3:22 - you can hear my little victory whoop when I cross the finish line :)
My favorite part is around 3:22 - you can hear my little victory whoop when I cross the finish line :)
Monday, September 02, 2013
August 2013 Training Totals
aka starting to get serious again. Or really, I just ran a lot.
August:
Swim: 11h 21m 10s - 32097.99 Yd
Bike: 11h 31m 46s - 169.95 Mi
Run: 15h 39m 21s - 86.23 Mi
July:
Swim: 12h 40m - 35870.52 Yd
Bike: 15h 30m 52s - 212.08 Mi
Run: 5h 14m 27s - 22.73 Mi
July was pretty much a recovery month from IMCDA - and I had a broken toe so no running.
August was race month, where I had 5 races in 4 weekends. It was also "welcome back to running" month.
Looking at my logs, this was my 2nd highest run volume month EVER. If I had done my full 90 min run on Saturday, it would have been my highest. My calves and feet are bugging me (going numb b/c they're crazy tight) and I was under strict instructions to cut the run short if my foot went numb again. I got abeating massage Friday and that seemed to help. During my run on Thurs, my foot went numb for the last 1.5 mi and wouldn't release, even with stopping and stretching. Saturday I made it an hour (conveniently a full loop) before it went numb and I stopped. It released right away, so I feel like I'm doing better. I also managed to very nearly sprain my ankle on Saturday by trying to take a step on the side/top of my foot. That really doesn't work so well. Fortunately, its ok. Good thing too, because Ragnar is in a week.
This month was also the month of running up hills. I think that in the past 8 days (Sat - Sat) I managed to climb 2,000+ feet during my 45 - 60 min runs, averaging 500 feet climbing per run.
September will be more of the same, but with longer bike rides, all in prep of my 70.3 that's in early November. I'm actually excited to run less and ride more.
August:
Swim: 11h 21m 10s - 32097.99 Yd
Bike: 11h 31m 46s - 169.95 Mi
Run: 15h 39m 21s - 86.23 Mi
July:
Swim: 12h 40m - 35870.52 Yd
Bike: 15h 30m 52s - 212.08 Mi
Run: 5h 14m 27s - 22.73 Mi
July was pretty much a recovery month from IMCDA - and I had a broken toe so no running.
August was race month, where I had 5 races in 4 weekends. It was also "welcome back to running" month.
Looking at my logs, this was my 2nd highest run volume month EVER. If I had done my full 90 min run on Saturday, it would have been my highest. My calves and feet are bugging me (going numb b/c they're crazy tight) and I was under strict instructions to cut the run short if my foot went numb again. I got a
This month was also the month of running up hills. I think that in the past 8 days (Sat - Sat) I managed to climb 2,000+ feet during my 45 - 60 min runs, averaging 500 feet climbing per run.
September will be more of the same, but with longer bike rides, all in prep of my 70.3 that's in early November. I'm actually excited to run less and ride more.
Wednesday, August 28, 2013
Double Run Day
I've been running a lot. Well, maybe not a lot for some, but a lot for me. I've got 73.7 miles logged so far for August, and I probably have 2 more runs left for the month. My two highest distance months in 2013 have been July (with IMCDA in there) at 88.9 and April with 74.5. This means that August will be my second highest distance month in 2013 - and my first month since being cleared to run after breaking my toe.
Why all the running? Well some dummy (me) decided to sign up for the Ragnar Relay. It sounded fun - 6 months ago. Now that I'm a week out..... well, hopefully it is fun.
To get me ready for this event, my awesome/evil coach made me run up a Cat 3 hill on Saturday. Yesterday's workout notes said "AM - 1 hr hill run. PM - 40 min easy flatish run". Yeah. Super.
I mapped some stuff by my house but it really didn't fit the definition of "hilly". (I'm looking at you, Melissa, because I'm sure you'll say my neighborhood trail is hilly). My local run store has a Thurs night run club where they typically go and run up this geographic feature called "The Bluffs". Its basically a bluff (duh) that you run up and then around. I have yet to actually make it all the way around, either because of time constraints (most weeks) or because of hail and huge, scary lighting storms (last week - not cool). The Bluffs is really close to my office (we have showers and a locker room) and so I decided to make that the location of my morning hilly run. I should have brought my phone with me to take pics because it was soooo pretty. Also: my Garmin had a corrupt file and I had to do a master reset, so I lost my data. But if I had it, the elevation profile would have looked like this:
I was nice to myself and did a quick 10 min (or 5 min out and back?) run through the neighborhood. This was so my legs were nice and warm, because once you enter the park, you head straight up the hill. Also, it was dark and there are no lights in the park. 10 min was about right for some pre-dawn light to get going.
I was dreading this run but I actually really, really enjoyed it. It was really peaceful and it was fun watching the sun rise in the east and then seeing the sun light up the mountains. to the west, with you being above everything around you. I felt a bit off on the first part of the run, but by the time I hit the back of the Bluffs, I was nice and warm and running well. I ran up pretty much all of the hills, except for the switchbacks (those are really steep). I got to the end of the "up", otherwise known as the where you hit long downhill part of the trail that loops you back to the parking lot. I really didn't want to go allllll the way down and then back up again. And this was on the east side of the hill and the sun was at the annoying point on the horizon where your hat doesn't block it out. So I decided to turn around and run back the way I came.
In a nutshell: I was dreading this run but I got a really nice little endorphin high and some sightseeing.
5.5 miles in 1 hr for an 11:02 pace. WITH HILLS. Go me!
Also: I think I need trail running shoes because all of these little trail runs are starting to chew up my PureFlow2s. Time to get some PureGrit2s and see how those are.
Then I spent the day wanting to sleep under my desk. Not really. But sorta.
My afternoon 40 min run was in the heat of the day (90s?) and on my "flat" neighborhood trail, which is a gradual uphill as you go east. I usually walk this annoying hill that's about a mile out, but with the Garmin re-set, my screens and alarms were all off so I had no idea where my HR was. I decided to just go by feel and make myself run the whole time. The first mile was icky but once I got warmed up it was really nice. Except for the last 1/2 mile where my foot went totally numb because my calf is tight. My massage therapist was in a really bad car wreck a month ago and has a broken arm. Bad for him and bad for my calf. Boo. I managed 3.77 miles in 40 min, for a pace of 10:45. And it felt EASY.
Today my legs actually feel good. I think I'm ready for Ragnar :)
Why all the running? Well some dummy (me) decided to sign up for the Ragnar Relay. It sounded fun - 6 months ago. Now that I'm a week out..... well, hopefully it is fun.
To get me ready for this event, my awesome/evil coach made me run up a Cat 3 hill on Saturday. Yesterday's workout notes said "AM - 1 hr hill run. PM - 40 min easy flatish run". Yeah. Super.
I mapped some stuff by my house but it really didn't fit the definition of "hilly". (I'm looking at you, Melissa, because I'm sure you'll say my neighborhood trail is hilly). My local run store has a Thurs night run club where they typically go and run up this geographic feature called "The Bluffs". Its basically a bluff (duh) that you run up and then around. I have yet to actually make it all the way around, either because of time constraints (most weeks) or because of hail and huge, scary lighting storms (last week - not cool). The Bluffs is really close to my office (we have showers and a locker room) and so I decided to make that the location of my morning hilly run. I should have brought my phone with me to take pics because it was soooo pretty. Also: my Garmin had a corrupt file and I had to do a master reset, so I lost my data. But if I had it, the elevation profile would have looked like this:
I was nice to myself and did a quick 10 min (or 5 min out and back?) run through the neighborhood. This was so my legs were nice and warm, because once you enter the park, you head straight up the hill. Also, it was dark and there are no lights in the park. 10 min was about right for some pre-dawn light to get going.
I was dreading this run but I actually really, really enjoyed it. It was really peaceful and it was fun watching the sun rise in the east and then seeing the sun light up the mountains. to the west, with you being above everything around you. I felt a bit off on the first part of the run, but by the time I hit the back of the Bluffs, I was nice and warm and running well. I ran up pretty much all of the hills, except for the switchbacks (those are really steep). I got to the end of the "up", otherwise known as the where you hit long downhill part of the trail that loops you back to the parking lot. I really didn't want to go allllll the way down and then back up again. And this was on the east side of the hill and the sun was at the annoying point on the horizon where your hat doesn't block it out. So I decided to turn around and run back the way I came.
In a nutshell: I was dreading this run but I got a really nice little endorphin high and some sightseeing.
5.5 miles in 1 hr for an 11:02 pace. WITH HILLS. Go me!
Also: I think I need trail running shoes because all of these little trail runs are starting to chew up my PureFlow2s. Time to get some PureGrit2s and see how those are.
Then I spent the day wanting to sleep under my desk. Not really. But sorta.
My afternoon 40 min run was in the heat of the day (90s?) and on my "flat" neighborhood trail, which is a gradual uphill as you go east. I usually walk this annoying hill that's about a mile out, but with the Garmin re-set, my screens and alarms were all off so I had no idea where my HR was. I decided to just go by feel and make myself run the whole time. The first mile was icky but once I got warmed up it was really nice. Except for the last 1/2 mile where my foot went totally numb because my calf is tight. My massage therapist was in a really bad car wreck a month ago and has a broken arm. Bad for him and bad for my calf. Boo. I managed 3.77 miles in 40 min, for a pace of 10:45. And it felt EASY.
Today my legs actually feel good. I think I'm ready for Ragnar :)
Tuesday, August 27, 2013
Powdr Shot Race Report
I found this very random race through an e-newsletter that I get. It had a 70% off coupon making the race ~$20. And Will was excited because they had a 3k option and he got to shoot guns. Hey, whatever works to keep him motivated and running. It also provided an excuse to head up to the mountains and do more running in prep for Ragnar. We had some family/friends also enter the race and we brought our fishing gear for some fun afterwards.
Because my coach isgood at her job evil, she had me running a bonus 1-hr run, up the big hill that I do on my first leg for Ragnar. I decided that for logistics sake, it was easier to get up earlyish and do the run before the race. Otherwise, I'd have to skip post-race beers/lunch to go run. Fortunately, Will was ok with getting up there a bit early and only whined a little bit. It helps that the biathlon started at 11, with shooting practice at 10. With my pre-race run, that meant we had to leave the house at 6:45. Totally doable.
I've been fighting a little cold all week, so I wasn't much fun on the ride up. I think I slept for a good chunk of the drive. We parked at Summit High School, which was good access for going up Swan Mountain Road. I decided to do a little 10 min warm-up on the bike path before launching myself up the hill.
I ran opposite of traffic and I was glad I was wearing a bright pink shirt. There's a ton of cyclists but zero runners (go figure). I didn't have any car close calls, fortunately, but I can imagine I surprised a few of them.
About half way up I had GI issues and had to hop over the guardrail and find a tree. Random fact: pine branches aren't as scratchy as you'd think. I blame my head cold because I never have issues like this.
I continued running up the big hill. I ended up doing a run-walk pattern, maybe 1:1 or something around there. I made it to the top in 20 min, which isn't awful (about a 13:20 pace). I got to the top (yeah!) and there were a ton of cyclists. The looked at me like I was crazy.... which is probably justified. No one runs up that road. Back down was really nice - I let gravity do the work. Had some flashbacks of GTIS but my knees/quads were ok. Total pre-race run was 5.28 mi at an average pace of 11:21. Faster than my Ironman time - I'll take it.
I'm glad I did this run before Ragnar so I can get a gauge on how it felt. Really, 20 min uphill isn't that bad, compared to other things I've done this year. I'm glad that this hill is on my first leg - at the start of my run. I can do it on fresh legs and the rest of my runs are flat. I also didn't notice altitude, which was a relief.
We headed over to Copper Mountain for the Powdr Shot race and had a text message from friends who were already there, saying that this was a pretty casual event. That was an understatement. We checked in, somehow the guy already knew my name. People loved our Pistols for Pandas shirts. We learned to how shoot guns (air pellet rifles). Chase and I decided it would be a good idea to do a run loop and then shoot. You pretty much run UP the ski hill, then across, then down. They said the run course was 1k but I'm pretty sure it was short.
I was actually getting the shooting thing down. I could hit 3-4 of the 5 shots.
I had signed up for the 5k, meaning that I was supposed to run 1 loop, shoot 5 shots, then repeat that 5x. I had to do a short penalty lap (see the little circle area in the areal image above) for every shot missed. They had tags for us to pin to our backs that they'd remove as we crossed the "finish" line. The order of tags in their stack = finish order. There was no timing chip or anyone keeping track of total number or laps or penalty laps. This was all on your honor.
They started the "Expert" (5k) group first, so that meant that Chase and I were up, with ~10 other people. Somehow I was 2nd to last in the first 100 feet, going up the hill. Really? Ugh. And going up was pretty steep. Across was fine. Down was a rocky singletrack that had really tricky footing. You had to go slowish or risk twisting an ankle. It was also narrow which meant no passing. Then you got down to the base, ran across the grass and shot a gun 5x.
I somehow missed all 5 targets.
I don't think my gun was shooting correctly. No way did I miss that many legitimately. This also meant I had 5 penalty laps. Lame sauce. So I ran around in circles (literally), completing my penalties and then started lap #2. Chase lapped me up at the top. Lovely.
So that was pretty much the race. Shoot, do penalty laps, run up the hill, across the hill, down the hill and shoot some more. Will and Chase's friend were doing the 3k so they finished while I still had 2 or 3 more laps. They were nice and cheered, but it was really more annoying than helpful. I walked up all of the uphills, sometimes trying to at least make it to the fence before the walking started. That pre-race run really wore my legs out. I did suck it up on the last lap and ran a bit more, but there was still walking on the steep bits.
Somehow I finished 2nd to last. Behind the fat guys and the kids. Will thinks I mis-counted laps, but I distinctly remember how many targets I hit with each round (0, 4, 3, 3, 2). I think perhaps some people weren't so honest with their penalty laps or their overall laps. But whatevs, I was there to run at elevation and that's what I did.
Random notes: the elevation (maybe 1,000 ft more than my earlier run that day) REALLY got to me. Holy schmoley. I was winded going up those hills.
Also: the "1k" loop was way short. I did 13 penalty laps (ouch) and my garmin clocked my total distance at 3.12 miles.
The post-race awards were pretty cool. Top finisher in each division got 2 free lift tickets (!!) and stainless steel engraved shot glasses. Everyone else (regardless of finish) got a shot glass and we all got t-shirts. Will got 3rd in his division. Overall, a pretty sweet deal for $20.
We had lunch and beers at the Dam Brewery in Dillon and then tried to go fishing on a random creek behind a gas station at the Copper exit. No fish and I was so tired that I literally couldn't be bothered to toss my fly around. So I found a nice spot on the bank and laid down. Chase eventually came over and said "that's not fishing!". Sorta, I was fishing for zzzz's.
Because my coach is
I've been fighting a little cold all week, so I wasn't much fun on the ride up. I think I slept for a good chunk of the drive. We parked at Summit High School, which was good access for going up Swan Mountain Road. I decided to do a little 10 min warm-up on the bike path before launching myself up the hill.
 |
| that, my friends, is a 6% grade for 1.5 miles. solid! |
About half way up I had GI issues and had to hop over the guardrail and find a tree. Random fact: pine branches aren't as scratchy as you'd think. I blame my head cold because I never have issues like this.
I continued running up the big hill. I ended up doing a run-walk pattern, maybe 1:1 or something around there. I made it to the top in 20 min, which isn't awful (about a 13:20 pace). I got to the top (yeah!) and there were a ton of cyclists. The looked at me like I was crazy.... which is probably justified. No one runs up that road. Back down was really nice - I let gravity do the work. Had some flashbacks of GTIS but my knees/quads were ok. Total pre-race run was 5.28 mi at an average pace of 11:21. Faster than my Ironman time - I'll take it.
I'm glad I did this run before Ragnar so I can get a gauge on how it felt. Really, 20 min uphill isn't that bad, compared to other things I've done this year. I'm glad that this hill is on my first leg - at the start of my run. I can do it on fresh legs and the rest of my runs are flat. I also didn't notice altitude, which was a relief.
We headed over to Copper Mountain for the Powdr Shot race and had a text message from friends who were already there, saying that this was a pretty casual event. That was an understatement. We checked in, somehow the guy already knew my name. People loved our Pistols for Pandas shirts. We learned to how shoot guns (air pellet rifles). Chase and I decided it would be a good idea to do a run loop and then shoot. You pretty much run UP the ski hill, then across, then down. They said the run course was 1k but I'm pretty sure it was short.
 |
| two funny things: I think its hilarious the the google street view is from the winter. I also think its hilarious that they basically had us run through the where the half pipe usually is. |
I had signed up for the 5k, meaning that I was supposed to run 1 loop, shoot 5 shots, then repeat that 5x. I had to do a short penalty lap (see the little circle area in the areal image above) for every shot missed. They had tags for us to pin to our backs that they'd remove as we crossed the "finish" line. The order of tags in their stack = finish order. There was no timing chip or anyone keeping track of total number or laps or penalty laps. This was all on your honor.
They started the "Expert" (5k) group first, so that meant that Chase and I were up, with ~10 other people. Somehow I was 2nd to last in the first 100 feet, going up the hill. Really? Ugh. And going up was pretty steep. Across was fine. Down was a rocky singletrack that had really tricky footing. You had to go slowish or risk twisting an ankle. It was also narrow which meant no passing. Then you got down to the base, ran across the grass and shot a gun 5x.
I somehow missed all 5 targets.
I don't think my gun was shooting correctly. No way did I miss that many legitimately. This also meant I had 5 penalty laps. Lame sauce. So I ran around in circles (literally), completing my penalties and then started lap #2. Chase lapped me up at the top. Lovely.
So that was pretty much the race. Shoot, do penalty laps, run up the hill, across the hill, down the hill and shoot some more. Will and Chase's friend were doing the 3k so they finished while I still had 2 or 3 more laps. They were nice and cheered, but it was really more annoying than helpful. I walked up all of the uphills, sometimes trying to at least make it to the fence before the walking started. That pre-race run really wore my legs out. I did suck it up on the last lap and ran a bit more, but there was still walking on the steep bits.
Somehow I finished 2nd to last. Behind the fat guys and the kids. Will thinks I mis-counted laps, but I distinctly remember how many targets I hit with each round (0, 4, 3, 3, 2). I think perhaps some people weren't so honest with their penalty laps or their overall laps. But whatevs, I was there to run at elevation and that's what I did.
Random notes: the elevation (maybe 1,000 ft more than my earlier run that day) REALLY got to me. Holy schmoley. I was winded going up those hills.
Also: the "1k" loop was way short. I did 13 penalty laps (ouch) and my garmin clocked my total distance at 3.12 miles.
The post-race awards were pretty cool. Top finisher in each division got 2 free lift tickets (!!) and stainless steel engraved shot glasses. Everyone else (regardless of finish) got a shot glass and we all got t-shirts. Will got 3rd in his division. Overall, a pretty sweet deal for $20.
We had lunch and beers at the Dam Brewery in Dillon and then tried to go fishing on a random creek behind a gas station at the Copper exit. No fish and I was so tired that I literally couldn't be bothered to toss my fly around. So I found a nice spot on the bank and laid down. Chase eventually came over and said "that's not fishing!". Sorta, I was fishing for zzzz's.
Tuesday, August 20, 2013
Rattlesnake Crazy Back-to-Back photo comparison
Olympic Race Report
Sprint Race Report
One of the fun features about doing a back-to-back race series is comparing photos from each race.
Honestly, the main difference is that I wore different kits each day and I pushed harder on day #2. My club kit is just way more comfortable for longer distances, so I wore it for the Oly. That, and Rattlesnake is a major club sponsor so I wanted to show some club and sponsor love.
I could have you play a game to let me know in comments what the main difference is in the photos. Hmmm, can you see the ONE thing that's different in the above photo? And no, its not the giant "Proof" watermark.
Again, pretty similar. Nice drape of the wetsuit over the arm and I don't look like a swamp monster.
Taken from the same hill in both races. Full disclosure: I popped down into aero when I saw the photographer. Could they have any worse exposure levels for the Sprint race? It makes it seem like I was racing on the surface of the sun.... I think I was working harder for the Sprint and really didn't care about getting a good race pic.
[there is no nice pretty run photo. I swear I saw the race photog for the Oly but there is no run photo posted. Boo]
I put my hands up in the Oly out of obligation. I was all by myself and going through the chute solo is a bit weird. And I was happy to be done but not very happy with my run performance. So this is a bit of an ironic victory arm raise. Moreso because that's what people expect. The sprint was me just not really caring because I was running close to an 8:00 pace by that point and I was hurting.
And in a not-really-but-sorta related note: I was off on the "cheater" guy's number by one digit and the guy was considered an "official" finisher in both races. I did some internet stalking (Athlinks!) and I just don't know. The guy's swim time, in relation to time of day and my race position, just doesn't quite add up. And what are the odds of a 55 year old dude posting the 5th fastest swim time for the day? Weird, right? And then his bike and swim times were slower than mine - definitely not representative of an ace athlete, which is what you'd expect of someone with a top 5 swim time. But with my internet stalking, I saw that he was posting top 15 overall swim times in most races (and not very good bike and swim times) so maybe the swim is legit. Or maybe he cheats at every swim. If he honestly does swim that fast, I kinda want to contact him and tell him to spend less time swimming and more time biking and running. Posting a 5:53, 500 m swim is cool but not when you're running a 40 minute 5k in the same race.
Sprint Race Report
One of the fun features about doing a back-to-back race series is comparing photos from each race.
Honestly, the main difference is that I wore different kits each day and I pushed harder on day #2. My club kit is just way more comfortable for longer distances, so I wore it for the Oly. That, and Rattlesnake is a major club sponsor so I wanted to show some club and sponsor love.
[there is no nice pretty run photo. I swear I saw the race photog for the Oly but there is no run photo posted. Boo]
I put my hands up in the Oly out of obligation. I was all by myself and going through the chute solo is a bit weird. And I was happy to be done but not very happy with my run performance. So this is a bit of an ironic victory arm raise. Moreso because that's what people expect. The sprint was me just not really caring because I was running close to an 8:00 pace by that point and I was hurting.
And in a not-really-but-sorta related note: I was off on the "cheater" guy's number by one digit and the guy was considered an "official" finisher in both races. I did some internet stalking (Athlinks!) and I just don't know. The guy's swim time, in relation to time of day and my race position, just doesn't quite add up. And what are the odds of a 55 year old dude posting the 5th fastest swim time for the day? Weird, right? And then his bike and swim times were slower than mine - definitely not representative of an ace athlete, which is what you'd expect of someone with a top 5 swim time. But with my internet stalking, I saw that he was posting top 15 overall swim times in most races (and not very good bike and swim times) so maybe the swim is legit. Or maybe he cheats at every swim. If he honestly does swim that fast, I kinda want to contact him and tell him to spend less time swimming and more time biking and running. Posting a 5:53, 500 m swim is cool but not when you're running a 40 minute 5k in the same race.
Monday, August 19, 2013
Rattlesnake Sprint Triathlon Race Report
Yes, I did two tris in one weekend. Because I have mental issues. Here's the report from the Oly the day prior.
Getting up for the 2nd tri sucked. I was happily asleep and sleeping HARD. And then the alarm. Boo. Time to get up and race. Again.
Pre-race routine was pretty much identical as yesterdays, except I was out of gluten-free bread. So I ate 2 SunRype Fruit Source bars. I was pretty much "meh" about the whole thing. It had been a good 2 years since I raced anything fast. And (yes, I am a certified Ironman snob now) getting excited over something as short as a sprint just wasn't going to happen. My friends working transition kept asking me if I was ready, which was pretty funny. I was tired and wanted my bed, but nope, I had this silly race to do. Of course I could do a Sprint, even on tired legs. That's what Ironman training does for you.
This whining is a bit in jest. Once I got moving, it was fine. I did my 10 min warm-up run by myself this time. I felt stiff but not sore. I was hoping the stiffness would go away and for the most part, it did.
I tried to keep to my time management on track today and did ok. I was running a bit behind and ended up being still in the water for the National Anthem. Awkward. So I stood in the water, hand over heart, and then quickly rushed into the swim start line when it was over. I was greeted by familiar faces (we all raced yesterday) and everyone was happy that today was only a sprint. I was so blah about this race that I honestly had no idea how long the swim and bike were, other than "less than yesterday" and I knew the bike turn-around was at the road where I typically take a left to go ride a 60 mile loop.
 |
| don't I look like I'd rather be in bed? |
Today's coach-mandated mission was to go fast. She was very curious to see how this would go (and to see the data - help!). I have done virtually ZERO speed work since early June so we weren't quite sure how this would go.
Swim
Fortunately, unlike yesterday, they let the raft people go first. Yay! The swim was 500 meters and I opted to wear my sleeveless wetsuit again, since we had strippers. No yellow rope to follow today, so I was having to rely on drafting and sighting to get through. Well, drafting didn't happen because apparently I was too fast. My instructions were to really try to redline the swim, since it was so short. The problem was - I just didn't have that gear. I was swimming fast but not fast enough to really, truly hurt. I was trying, but it just wouldn't happen. So I just held on to "fast and smooth". (my lack of gears is because I literally haven't had to swim fast in probably 2 years).
I only had one person pass me in the swim and she was FAST. I tried to stay on her feet but she really was hauling. The entire swim was clean and without issue, so there really isn't much to write about. Swim, kick, keep my head down, hope I swim straight, aim for the swim exit flags, touch sand, stand up, and done.
I think I came out pretty quick too, because my transition friends all seemed a bit surprised to see me.
Stats:
Time: 7:57 (1:35/100 m pace)
Age Group: 5/52 (YEAH!)
Overall: 55/355
Either I swim REALLY good in my sleeveless wetsuit (a possibility) or the swim was still short. I really don't know - what are the odds of both races being really short? (of course I assume it was short twice instead of giving myself credit for being a fast swimmer..... ) This is a minute PR for this distance. Either way, I think I have finally figured out how to do an OWS to my indoor pool potential.
T1
Time: 1:20
Age Group: 13/52
Overall: 105/335
Dang, I lost some places there. Need to be faster.
Bike
With this being a sprint, the goal was to go hard and hold on. I really wanted to stay in my big ring, especially after not being able to hold on yesterday. I had a feeling I could manage to do this because I stayed big ring up until today's turn around during the Oly yesterday.
I got on Merlin and realized I was at the back of a good-sized pack (legal) and there wasn't anyone behind me. Sweet. It was go time. Not a ton to report here, I just tried to stay big ring and to keep my HR up.
I was going to be trixy and try to use the multisport feature on my fancy new Garmin 910. I normally don't swim with it, because it is SO huge and it gets tangled in my full wetsuit, but today I was wearing the sleeveless and I thought I could save some transition time by having it on my wrist this time. I got it all set up as I stood in line for the swim start, got in, swam, got in transition, then hopped on my bike and realized that I didn't actually hit start. Bummer. So not only do I NOT have swim splits, but my bike split is a bit mangled because there's a swim and T1 in there. :facepalm:
The bike takes you through the park (that the reservoir is located in) and then out on Quincy. I was maybe on the first hill on Quincy when I noticed an older gentleman ahead of me. This was odd, because I should have had only (older) women ahead of me on the swim. I was number 43 and he was 82, which meant that he should have started about 3 min behind me. This also meant to be in this place at this time, he would have had a sub-4 min swim. That is highly unlikely, which meant he cut the swim course short or did some other weird shenanigans. It was also weird because I was passing him up the hills (he'd pass me downhill because he was heavier than me). And he was having to stand up and mash up the hills - not what you would expect from someone starting 40 spots behind me with a rocking swim. I took a mental note to take to the refs (for reference, you need their Bib # and 2 other points of ID like bike color/brand, clothing type/color, etc). I felt a little odd turning the guy in, but it would have been really unfair if he got an age group award. I checked the official results for his info today and there's no record of him at all, not even a DNF or penalty. So either I got the bib number wrong (which would be really bad) or they caught him cheating and erased his results. So weird! I need to see if he has race photos, and that will solve the mystery for me.
Anyways, back to the race, where I should have my head down and be going too hard to pay attention to people's bib numbers and bike frame details....
There were two other women that I was leap-frogging with. Again, I would pass them on the hills and they'd pass me on the flats or downhills. Thank you IMCDA hill training! I passed one pretty solidly after a few hills and I passed the second one on the hill coming into the finish. She was really cool, joking about how she thought she passed me for good on the flat, and I told her not to worry, that she'd pass me on the run.
I think I pushed pretty solidly. My max HR was 166, my average was 153, which is a touch low for a sprint. But I remember wondering, when I was coming back into transition, if I was going to have anything left in my legs for the run. That's generally a good sign that you've pushed pretty hard.
I zoomed into transition and had massive cheers from my friends, which is super cool.
 |
| So Pro - staying in Aero around the final corner just before the dismount line |
Stats:
Time: 39:34.5 (18.16 mph)
Age Group: 10/52
Overall: 100/335
The cool thing about this bike split is that this is the third FASTEST sprint bike split for me. The other two races? Houston. Flat. Not hilly. In other words, Thank You Merlin and IMCDA Training! I'm really happy with this bike split.
T2
0:43
Age Group: 5/52
Overall: 47/335
The trick here is to pop your helmet off, pop your shoes off w/out unbuckling them (I am NOT coordinated enough to take my shoes off on the fly), put your shoes on and then grab everything else (drink, hat, snacks) and deal with those as you're running. Boom. In, out, done.
Run
Ok, so here was the test. It was only a 5k. I can run a 5k w/out stopping. The good thing is that since this was a sprint, it was only half the distance of yesterday's race AND we were on the run course about an hour sooner, which meant it wasn't nearly as hot.
So I ran. I turned my HR high alarm off so I wouldn't have the dumb thing beeping at me the whole time and I could just run. I was actually pretty good at only looking at my watch for a distance check and not really looking at pace or HR.
The first 0.6 miles weren't very fun. My calves felt like cement - just stiff and so heavy. I normally don't feel this way in a brick so this must have been attributed to racing the day before. I just told myself to keep running and eventually things would feel better. And they did, somewhere around 0.6 or 0.7 mi into the run. I think I hit a nice long shallow downhill or something and things loosened up. Magic. And then I ran. I held a steady but hard pace. Not so fast where I was dying - I kept it more like a mile repeat kind of feeling. I wish I had run splits, because I think the speed difference was pretty significant. In skimming over my garmin file, I see paces that are around 9 even or faster. And the last stretch is sub-8:30. Where did that come from?
Oh, an I had a personal asshole moment on the run. There was an aid station at the turn around. It was a bit warm and I was dumping water on my head to cool off (you know where this is going). I was the only one going through the aid station. I yelled water and pointed to a kid who nodded and handed me "water". I dumped it on my head and I heard "oops, that was Gatorade, but it's diluted Gatorade". I was running hard and was pretty short tempered. I didn't curse. But I did say something along the lines of "When someone asks for water, you need to give them water!" Some guy yelled back at me "he's just a kid and a volunteer", publicly shaming me. I had my number flipped around to my back, giving the volunteers plenty of time to write my number down, and I half expected to see a time penalty for my comment. Still, I think it was (slightly) justified. And I was sticky for nearly a mile after that. Not cool!
I crossed the finish line and my paparazzi (ie club friends) weren't at the finish line, so I'll have to wait until the official photos come out. I think I was too fast because they didn't get my swim or run photos.
Stats:
Time: 28:53 (9:19 pace, but my garmin had me at a 3.02 distance, which is more like a 9:35 pace - still fast)
Age Group: 33/52
Overall: 201/335
So clearly, my weakness is my run. I get my run faster and I have a good chance to place. Except that I'm "lucky" enough to have local Kona-qualifiers in my age group so I will probably never, ever podium in Colorado. I feel strongly that if I posted these numbers in Houston that I would have placed.
On a good note: for a sprint tri, assuming the slower 9:35 pace, this run was my 2nd fastest sprint tri run split and my 3rd fastest 5k. Wowzers. Again, the tris were in Houston with a flat bike and flat run. So happy. And so was my coach (although, this makes me more than a bit afraid of any future speedwork she gives me)
Overall Stats:
Time: 1:18:28
Age Group: 12/52
Overall: 115/335
Pretty solid day, especially since I did zero speed training. Yay!
 |
| clearly after the fact (see: flip flops), but you get the idea |
Rattlesnake Olympic Triathlon Race Report
Weekend #3 in August and here I am racing for the 3rd time this month.
And once again, I'm making things interesting for my coach by throwing in some races that really don't belong with my season goals. Fun stuff! The main reason why I was doing this race is because I registered last year but had to roll it over to 2013 because I broke my heel in 2012. I signed up for the "Crazy Back-to-Back" which meant I'd be doing the Oly on Sat and the Sprint on Sun. I knew I had the endurance and strength, thanks to IMCDA. I just didn't know where my speed was. Only one way to find out!
Pre-Race
Hurray, I get to sleep in my own bed and get up at 5 AM. This race is about 25 min from my house, which is AWESOME. I made sure I got there by 6 to ensure a good transition spot. My triathlon club runs transition, which is always fun. I chatted with some friends, got marked up by another friend for good mojo (complete with smiley faces). We've had a ton of smoke in the area from fires burning in Utah and Idaho, so sunsets and sunrises have been pretty darn amazing. This morning was no exception:
I was instructed by my coach to do a 10 min run as warm-up, so I grabbed a few club-mates and we went for a jog. Then it was a final transition check to make sure everything was just so. I was a bit of a dummy and only brought 1 package of Honey Stinger chews. I decided to save those for the run. Fortunately, I had some spare SunRype Fruit Strip bars (120 cals each). They are really easy on your stomach so I decided to eat that on the bike. I also had 50% diluted EFS drink mix to drink.
I had enough time to wrestle into my sleeveless wetsuit and take a a chug of my (really disgusting, but really effective) mixture of 100 cal Liquid Shot + 1/2 scoop of Pre-Race, which makes me feel like a rabid squirrel for the swim start.
I headed down to the swim beach and got in the water. I was actually surprised with how cold it felt and wondered if my sleeveless wetsuit was a good choice. I brought all 3 of my swim items. My full wetsuit, my sleeveless (which I had bought 2 years ago but NEVER worn, even in practice) and my speedskin. I stood there for a good minute, debating on if it was worth it to run back up the hill and wrestle on the full wetsuit. I decided against it, which was the right call. I did a few little out and backs, mainly to get used to the cold. Then it was time to get in line for the swim start.
Swim
The one thing I'm not a huge fan of for this race is how they do the swim. Its a time trial start, women first and then oldest to youngest, each 5 seconds apart. The benefit to doing the Back-to-Back is that we get to go ahead of the people who are just doing the Oly race. That means less standing around and (theoretically) less heat as the race goes on.
I was number 43 (yay!) and my group of women seemed pretty friendly. After not much time, it was my turn in the start chute to go. #42 went on, I got ready to go and they decided to hold me back to let the two people with rafts go ahead of me. I wasn't happy but I also felt like an ass for not being happy. These two guys were racing with their disabled kids, which is amazing. But I was pissed because I had to stand there and wait for them to get set up and into the water, watching all hope of drafting off of someone head way out into the distance. Boo.
Finally I get to go. Nothing but clear water - not a person to draft off of, which has been my recent reason for swimming success. The cool thing about this swim is that it is 2 "loops". The first loop is more of an out and back - the trick is that there's a yellow rope keeping the out side separate from the back side, so you don't really need to sight (other than to gauge where the last buoy is). You just need to follow the yellow rope. So that's what I did. A few times I was following a bit too closely and swam into the buoy (or swam under it). But it worked pretty well.
The start of the 2nd loop was a bit crazy because they were still releasing age-groupers while we were whipping through. I saw a friend of mine having a really rough go of it. She was swimming breaststroke and looked panicked. Every time she came up for air another arm would come over her head. I asked if she was ok and she said yes and I kept swimming. The rest of my swim was remarkably clean. Follow the rope, no big deal. The last leg split away from the rope but I must have done ok sighting. My pace was a comfortable fast - a bit faster than IM but not so fast that I was dying.
Fingers touched the sand, I stood up and then it was a jog up the hill, through wetsuit strippers, and into transition.
Stats:
Time: 23:13 (for a 1500 m swim, including wetsuit strippers and a pretty decent jog up the hill into transition). This is a near 4 min PR over 2011
Age Group: 10/37
Overall: 101/315
I know that the race director uses a laser sight to place the buoys, which is pretty much the best and most accurate way to get the right distance. I am highly skeptical that the swim was really 1500 m though. That puts me at a 1:32/100 m pace. I can't really even do that all-out in a pool, much less in open water with an uphill jog at the end. Hmmmm.
T1
time: 1:32
Bike
The goal for this bike was to push at a sustainable pace, but not to push so hard that I couldn't run a fast 10k or not leave anything for tomorrow's race. Ideally, I wanted to stay in the big ring the whole time.
There's not a whole lot to report on the bike ride. I got on Merlin and rode. There were hills. There wasn't really much wind, until the end. Just riding on a course that I'm very familiar with. I tried to stick to my big ring resolution but that only lasted through the 3rd or 4th hill. I was burning my legs up too much. So I used my small ring and spun up the rest of the hills. This was probably the right thing to do as my right adductor was whispering to me and I didn't want it to get any worse with a another race happening in 24 hrs.
I did get a "nice bike" comment at the turn around. Merlin is pretty. :)
The last ~1.5 miles are the worst, as they're mostly uphill on chip seal. Ugh. Then it was a nice quick downhill into transition where I was greeted with cheers from my club.
Stats:
Time: 1:28:59 (40k)
Age Group: 12/37
Overall: 176/315
I was actually a hair slower in 2011, which was on my other bike. I'm a bit disappointed about this. But when I look at placement, I'm actually placed higher than 2011. So maybe 2013 was a slower year overall and I should just care about where I placed relative to other people?
T2
1:20
Run
The goal here to was to run sustainably hard and to limit walking. My coach's actual words were "if you end up walking, then we're going to really need to talk".
I was running ok-ish. I was running for a mile then walking 0.05 mi to eat/drink. It was hot. And hilly. My HR was zooming up to 170 and I just wasn't feeling it. I did pretty good until the turn around and then the hills and heat got to me and I walked more than was ideal. One of my clubmates (who is also a coach) decided to really yell at me to run (he ran past me during one of my walk breaks). It was actually rude the way he yelled at me - I'm not one of his athletes. (he did apologize to me for the yelling afterwards, he was actually trying to motivate me) Everyone else from my club was cool, we were all commiserating with each other, giving a high five, and whining about the heat. The run turned out to be long. My Garmin clocked it at 6.5 mile and the RD did admit that it was long. I tried to do more running that last mile, but I don't know if I did. My garmin ate the file, so who knows!
I'm not super happy with the run, but I don't know if I really could have (or felt like) doing more. Maybe if I didn't have a sprint looming over me.....
Stats:
Time: 1:08:13 (10:58 pace. Or a 10:29 pace for a 6.5 mi run, which actually is a pretty decent pace for an Oly. Hmmm, maybe I should quit being cranky)
Age Group: 23/37
Overall: 211/315
Total Race Stats:
Time: 3:03:03 (I think that's a cool number). This is a 3-min PR from 2011. Thank you fast swim time.
Age Group: 15/37
Overall: 173/315
Post Race
I didn't eat any of the food, because it was bagel sammiches and I was avoiding bread with a Sprint in less than 24 hrs. I did have my recovery shake, another bottle of water, and a bottle of Gatorade. I was thirsty! We hung around for awards and then I hung around in transition. Then I decided I should do my coach-dictated cool down (either a 10 min swim or 30 min bike). I chose to swim in the lake with only my tri kit, which made it sorta like an ice bath (but not as cold). When I came back, my friends were still there and they handed me a beer. Sweet!
Then it was home to put my feet up, eat, and get ready for tomorrow's sprint.
And once again, I'm making things interesting for my coach by throwing in some races that really don't belong with my season goals. Fun stuff! The main reason why I was doing this race is because I registered last year but had to roll it over to 2013 because I broke my heel in 2012. I signed up for the "Crazy Back-to-Back" which meant I'd be doing the Oly on Sat and the Sprint on Sun. I knew I had the endurance and strength, thanks to IMCDA. I just didn't know where my speed was. Only one way to find out!
Pre-Race
Hurray, I get to sleep in my own bed and get up at 5 AM. This race is about 25 min from my house, which is AWESOME. I made sure I got there by 6 to ensure a good transition spot. My triathlon club runs transition, which is always fun. I chatted with some friends, got marked up by another friend for good mojo (complete with smiley faces). We've had a ton of smoke in the area from fires burning in Utah and Idaho, so sunsets and sunrises have been pretty darn amazing. This morning was no exception:
I was instructed by my coach to do a 10 min run as warm-up, so I grabbed a few club-mates and we went for a jog. Then it was a final transition check to make sure everything was just so. I was a bit of a dummy and only brought 1 package of Honey Stinger chews. I decided to save those for the run. Fortunately, I had some spare SunRype Fruit Strip bars (120 cals each). They are really easy on your stomach so I decided to eat that on the bike. I also had 50% diluted EFS drink mix to drink.
I had enough time to wrestle into my sleeveless wetsuit and take a a chug of my (really disgusting, but really effective) mixture of 100 cal Liquid Shot + 1/2 scoop of Pre-Race, which makes me feel like a rabid squirrel for the swim start.
I headed down to the swim beach and got in the water. I was actually surprised with how cold it felt and wondered if my sleeveless wetsuit was a good choice. I brought all 3 of my swim items. My full wetsuit, my sleeveless (which I had bought 2 years ago but NEVER worn, even in practice) and my speedskin. I stood there for a good minute, debating on if it was worth it to run back up the hill and wrestle on the full wetsuit. I decided against it, which was the right call. I did a few little out and backs, mainly to get used to the cold. Then it was time to get in line for the swim start.
Swim
The one thing I'm not a huge fan of for this race is how they do the swim. Its a time trial start, women first and then oldest to youngest, each 5 seconds apart. The benefit to doing the Back-to-Back is that we get to go ahead of the people who are just doing the Oly race. That means less standing around and (theoretically) less heat as the race goes on.
I was number 43 (yay!) and my group of women seemed pretty friendly. After not much time, it was my turn in the start chute to go. #42 went on, I got ready to go and they decided to hold me back to let the two people with rafts go ahead of me. I wasn't happy but I also felt like an ass for not being happy. These two guys were racing with their disabled kids, which is amazing. But I was pissed because I had to stand there and wait for them to get set up and into the water, watching all hope of drafting off of someone head way out into the distance. Boo.
Finally I get to go. Nothing but clear water - not a person to draft off of, which has been my recent reason for swimming success. The cool thing about this swim is that it is 2 "loops". The first loop is more of an out and back - the trick is that there's a yellow rope keeping the out side separate from the back side, so you don't really need to sight (other than to gauge where the last buoy is). You just need to follow the yellow rope. So that's what I did. A few times I was following a bit too closely and swam into the buoy (or swam under it). But it worked pretty well.
The start of the 2nd loop was a bit crazy because they were still releasing age-groupers while we were whipping through. I saw a friend of mine having a really rough go of it. She was swimming breaststroke and looked panicked. Every time she came up for air another arm would come over her head. I asked if she was ok and she said yes and I kept swimming. The rest of my swim was remarkably clean. Follow the rope, no big deal. The last leg split away from the rope but I must have done ok sighting. My pace was a comfortable fast - a bit faster than IM but not so fast that I was dying.
Fingers touched the sand, I stood up and then it was a jog up the hill, through wetsuit strippers, and into transition.
Stats:
Time: 23:13 (for a 1500 m swim, including wetsuit strippers and a pretty decent jog up the hill into transition). This is a near 4 min PR over 2011
Age Group: 10/37
Overall: 101/315
I know that the race director uses a laser sight to place the buoys, which is pretty much the best and most accurate way to get the right distance. I am highly skeptical that the swim was really 1500 m though. That puts me at a 1:32/100 m pace. I can't really even do that all-out in a pool, much less in open water with an uphill jog at the end. Hmmmm.
T1
time: 1:32
Bike
The goal for this bike was to push at a sustainable pace, but not to push so hard that I couldn't run a fast 10k or not leave anything for tomorrow's race. Ideally, I wanted to stay in the big ring the whole time.
There's not a whole lot to report on the bike ride. I got on Merlin and rode. There were hills. There wasn't really much wind, until the end. Just riding on a course that I'm very familiar with. I tried to stick to my big ring resolution but that only lasted through the 3rd or 4th hill. I was burning my legs up too much. So I used my small ring and spun up the rest of the hills. This was probably the right thing to do as my right adductor was whispering to me and I didn't want it to get any worse with a another race happening in 24 hrs.
I did get a "nice bike" comment at the turn around. Merlin is pretty. :)
The last ~1.5 miles are the worst, as they're mostly uphill on chip seal. Ugh. Then it was a nice quick downhill into transition where I was greeted with cheers from my club.
Stats:
Time: 1:28:59 (40k)
Age Group: 12/37
Overall: 176/315
I was actually a hair slower in 2011, which was on my other bike. I'm a bit disappointed about this. But when I look at placement, I'm actually placed higher than 2011. So maybe 2013 was a slower year overall and I should just care about where I placed relative to other people?
T2
1:20
Run
The goal here to was to run sustainably hard and to limit walking. My coach's actual words were "if you end up walking, then we're going to really need to talk".
I was running ok-ish. I was running for a mile then walking 0.05 mi to eat/drink. It was hot. And hilly. My HR was zooming up to 170 and I just wasn't feeling it. I did pretty good until the turn around and then the hills and heat got to me and I walked more than was ideal. One of my clubmates (who is also a coach) decided to really yell at me to run (he ran past me during one of my walk breaks). It was actually rude the way he yelled at me - I'm not one of his athletes. (he did apologize to me for the yelling afterwards, he was actually trying to motivate me) Everyone else from my club was cool, we were all commiserating with each other, giving a high five, and whining about the heat. The run turned out to be long. My Garmin clocked it at 6.5 mile and the RD did admit that it was long. I tried to do more running that last mile, but I don't know if I did. My garmin ate the file, so who knows!
 |
| yay - its finally over! |
 |
| yep, that's about how I felt. This is the 2nd week in a row that I've been photographed like this. |
Time: 1:08:13 (10:58 pace. Or a 10:29 pace for a 6.5 mi run, which actually is a pretty decent pace for an Oly. Hmmm, maybe I should quit being cranky)
Age Group: 23/37
Overall: 211/315
Total Race Stats:
Time: 3:03:03 (I think that's a cool number). This is a 3-min PR from 2011. Thank you fast swim time.
Age Group: 15/37
Overall: 173/315
Post Race
I didn't eat any of the food, because it was bagel sammiches and I was avoiding bread with a Sprint in less than 24 hrs. I did have my recovery shake, another bottle of water, and a bottle of Gatorade. I was thirsty! We hung around for awards and then I hung around in transition. Then I decided I should do my coach-dictated cool down (either a 10 min swim or 30 min bike). I chose to swim in the lake with only my tri kit, which made it sorta like an ice bath (but not as cold). When I came back, my friends were still there and they handed me a beer. Sweet!
Then it was home to put my feet up, eat, and get ready for tomorrow's sprint.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)