USA Productions was the group running the tri, and they had scheduled a sprint and an oly for today. There was about an hour between the start of the oly and the sprint, with the oly heading out first. But I arrived at the race site about an hour before *either* of them started in order to get a parking spot, and a decent transition spot. The good thing was they segregated the transition into oly and sprint, and because I was so early, there was still a ton of room on the sprint distance side. I grabbed an end spot on one end of the transition. This made my transition from swim to bike a bit long, but my transition from bike to run SUPER speedy.
I did all my pre-race prep, squeezed into my wetsuit, and headed down to warm up for the swim. The water was warmer than the air and was amazingly clear. There were two women's waves for the sprint, 34 and under and 35+. Yes, I was in the next to last wave yet again, with the relay/Athena/Clydesdale division going off last.
I planted myself close to the front of the swim pack. My goal was to get out in front and find some feet to sit on. The gun went off and immediately my heart was in my throat. I wondered to myself if that gasping, breathless feeling at the start ever gets easier. I didn't find any feet to sit on, but was setting a good pace and before I knew it I was heading around the buoy and in towards the finish. Once my hands were brushing the sand, I popped up and hustled in to transition.
Wetsuit....off. Bike gear...on. Out onto the course. I tried to settle into a hard push on the bike from the get go, but it was pretty crowded out there. There were a few places where I had to pull up and wait to make a pass, but for the most part I was able to keep moving at a good clip and even passed quite a few people. I just wanted to keep pushing on the bike, even if it meant my run would suffer a bit. A good bike split, that's what I wanted. The biggest problem I had on the bike was launching my bottle of sports drink before I was even 1/3 of the way thru the course. Uh oh. That was not going to help my run either. There was no aid station on the bike course for the sprint, so there was no way to replace the lost fluids/calories. Ah well, nothing to be done but keep on moving. Feet out of the shoes before coming in to transition, jump off the bike at the dismount line. Throw the bike on the rack, stuff my feet into my shoes, grab the hat and the race belt and go!
Uh oh. Legs don't want to go. Yeah, I'm pretty sure the lack of fluids on the bike caught up with me. I grabbed two cups of water at the 1 mile aid station and took a gel and not long after that I started to feel a little better. Except for those hills they put on the trail. Ooof. Ran and ran, and ran some more. And started to worry that I was on the oly course somehow. I asked a couple people who were running near me, and they were thinking it was the sprint course too, so I wasn't the only one. When my Garmin said we were at roughly 2.25 miles, I finally hit the turnaround. Oh man, this was supposed to be a 5k run. Turned around and thought to myself....there must be a short cut back through the park. I kept running, and running. I passed an aid station table that hadn't been set up at all, and laying on the ground beside it was a sign that said 2 miles. I kept running.....and running. Finally, after another couple small hills, and a little down and back section, I was told the finish line was 'just down the path around the corner.' Having run a different race at this location, I knew it was true and the finish line wasn't far away. My Garmin put the run at just about 5 miles. Hmm....maybe they meant to say 5 miles instead of 5k.
But no. Turns out we should have been turned around at that aid station that never got set up, where the 2 mile marker was. And it further turns out that not only did some people run that extra section, but that they also got sent down part of the oly course, so they ran more than 5 miles. And additionally, when the organizers realized the mistake, they started turning people around earlier on the course. So there were at least 3 different distances run, all for the sprint race.
In the end they dropped the run times from the award determinations, since they couldn't really say who ran what distances. They were very apologetic about it, with the race director giving a little speech, and he obviously felt very bad. The good news is that they have already decided not to have the oly and the sprint on the same day next year. Just logistically too problematic.
Anyway, when all was said and done, I was 3rd in my age group with the run times. But after they dropped the run times, I moved up to 2nd in my age group, just sneaking past the woman who had been in 2nd.
The highlights of the race:
2nd in my age group on the swim, at 10:25. Altho I'm pretty sure it was short of the 1/2 mile advertised. I'm certain that I've never swum (swam?) a 21 minute mile in my life.
A good strong bike, finally! The bike felt good, I passed a bunch of people. And while I would have loved to have averaged 20mph for the 14 miles, I came in around 19.8. But after the less than stellar rides I've had lately, I'll take it for sure.
At 31 seconds, the fastest T2 time in my age group! Hey, those seconds add up!
A good solid race to help get me ready for the half iron coming up in just about a month! Just over a month....how did that sneak up on me so fast?!?
This week is a big week of workouts, with my longest ride to date on Sunday. Lucky for me, I'm going to have some excellent company.
Sunday, July 31, 2011
Monday, July 18, 2011
Mental
This week I had another lesson in mental toughness.
Friday had a 3 hour ride on the books. With work and non-tri life responsibilities, this was going to have to be on the trainer. And truthfully, I usually find it easier to hit certain intervals/watts on the trainer anyway. But 3 hours is a long time to pedal to nowhere. Even with a veritable smorgasbord of TV shows at my fingertips. I will admit that I was not mentally prepared for this ride. It had been a long week and I was just having trouble with my focus. The TV was not keeping me distracted. I kept fidgeting in the saddle, rearranging my butt. It was a real battle to keep pedaling, and eventually, for the cool down I just turned off the TV, let my head hang and got it done. Oof. Oh, and now go run for a bit. Double oof. My legs were aching to be sure.
Saturday was a blur of eat, errands, sleep, eat, sleep.
Sunday we were up bright and early to head to a local little 5k. When I guaranteed my hubby that it was flat, not "flat" like the last 5k I got him to sign up for, he had signed up too. We arrived to overcast skies, cool temps, flat course. Perfect running conditions. The only drawback was the lack of a true start line, or any kind of instruction on lining up according to pace. So the start was a bit of bob/weave. And it never feels good to have the woman pushing the stroller blow by, never to be seen again. I had the thought, "Yeah, that's just what it would be like if Coach was pushing Max."
The first oh, mile to mile and half, went by pretty quickly. Just got my legs up to speed and tried to keep them steady. Just after I hit the mile 2 marker, it seemed like I was getting winded. My legs felt okay, but my head was telling me otherwise. Amazingly, just before the 3 mile marker, I had thoughts of slowing up. What?!?! The end is *right there*. I was on pace to hit my goal, and yet my head was trying to talk me out of it. Keep moving feet. Just keep moving. A little faster. The faster you run, the sooner you'll be finished. I made the final turn, with just .1 of a mile left, and.......ran up the hill to the finish. I made my time goal, going sub 8 min/miles for the first time in a run race. And that was after a 10 hour workout week. And the tough trainer ride just two days prior. All which make me wonder how much my legs are being limited by my head when I run. I have a suspicion that the legs have more in them than I think. And that is what's holding them back. It's a mental game. But I'm getting a little bit better at the game all the time.
After I finished, I jogged back to find out where hubby was on the course. He was just a few tenths from the finish and I ran along with him, encouraging him to push to the finish. And on virtually no training at all, he made it easily under 30:00. Woot! Now, let's go find some breakfast!
To top it off....when they posted results today, I got 3rd in my age group. My first running "award".
3/33 in my AG (missed 2nd by 6 measly seconds!)
12/116 women over all
Gotta love small races!
We now return to our regularly scheduled half IM training. Biggest training week yet. Giddy up!
Friday had a 3 hour ride on the books. With work and non-tri life responsibilities, this was going to have to be on the trainer. And truthfully, I usually find it easier to hit certain intervals/watts on the trainer anyway. But 3 hours is a long time to pedal to nowhere. Even with a veritable smorgasbord of TV shows at my fingertips. I will admit that I was not mentally prepared for this ride. It had been a long week and I was just having trouble with my focus. The TV was not keeping me distracted. I kept fidgeting in the saddle, rearranging my butt. It was a real battle to keep pedaling, and eventually, for the cool down I just turned off the TV, let my head hang and got it done. Oof. Oh, and now go run for a bit. Double oof. My legs were aching to be sure.
Saturday was a blur of eat, errands, sleep, eat, sleep.
Sunday we were up bright and early to head to a local little 5k. When I guaranteed my hubby that it was flat, not "flat" like the last 5k I got him to sign up for, he had signed up too. We arrived to overcast skies, cool temps, flat course. Perfect running conditions. The only drawback was the lack of a true start line, or any kind of instruction on lining up according to pace. So the start was a bit of bob/weave. And it never feels good to have the woman pushing the stroller blow by, never to be seen again. I had the thought, "Yeah, that's just what it would be like if Coach was pushing Max."
The first oh, mile to mile and half, went by pretty quickly. Just got my legs up to speed and tried to keep them steady. Just after I hit the mile 2 marker, it seemed like I was getting winded. My legs felt okay, but my head was telling me otherwise. Amazingly, just before the 3 mile marker, I had thoughts of slowing up. What?!?! The end is *right there*. I was on pace to hit my goal, and yet my head was trying to talk me out of it. Keep moving feet. Just keep moving. A little faster. The faster you run, the sooner you'll be finished. I made the final turn, with just .1 of a mile left, and.......ran up the hill to the finish. I made my time goal, going sub 8 min/miles for the first time in a run race. And that was after a 10 hour workout week. And the tough trainer ride just two days prior. All which make me wonder how much my legs are being limited by my head when I run. I have a suspicion that the legs have more in them than I think. And that is what's holding them back. It's a mental game. But I'm getting a little bit better at the game all the time.
After I finished, I jogged back to find out where hubby was on the course. He was just a few tenths from the finish and I ran along with him, encouraging him to push to the finish. And on virtually no training at all, he made it easily under 30:00. Woot! Now, let's go find some breakfast!
To top it off....when they posted results today, I got 3rd in my age group. My first running "award".
3/33 in my AG (missed 2nd by 6 measly seconds!)
12/116 women over all
Gotta love small races!
We now return to our regularly scheduled half IM training. Biggest training week yet. Giddy up!
Friday, July 08, 2011
baby steps
I think I have, roughly, 5 partial posts hanging out in blogger. I start to write, then get distracted, then start over. Repeat.
Truth be known, there isn't a whole heck of a lot going on. The usual, swimbikerun workeatsleep.
I did do something for the first time, at least I think its a first. I dropped two running events off my schedule. Okay, yes, I added a 5k next weekend, but I dropped a 5k and a 10k. The half marathon on October 2 will be my last race of the season. We leave for our Kona/Maui trip on October 3. Coincidence? I think not. Last year when we took our Kona trip, I was in the midst of training for a half marathon. And while it was kind of fun to run along the course on Alii drive, and use the aid stations they had set up, it was also tricky to schedule things around the fun. The year before that our Kona trip was because I got my lottery spot and that wasn't exactly relaxing. This year I'm going to be on island time completely. Snorkel, stand up paddle board, maybe some diving. Mostly a whole lotta' nothing. Oh, except a whole lotta' cheering for all those Iron people. Coach especially.
This week has been a step back week. Next week jumps into the thick of HIM training. Less than 2 months from my "A" race for the year. Wow, how did that happen? This has been a bit of a strange year. I haven't made the big leaps forward that I think I made last year. It's a little frustrating, but at the same time, even a little progress is progress. With the new bike, struggling with the fit a bit, some mechanical issues, and more flat tires than it seems fair of fate to throw at me, yeah, a bit frustrating. The last piece of the fit will happen next week, then hopefully I can make my final 'adjustment' and get settled in.
For now, I'm doing the work. Taking baby steps forward. Day by day.
But, I do get to race next week! And a run race, where there is *so* much less equipment to pack up. Woot! Even if, as Coach so eloquently phrased it, "THIS WILL HURT". Giddy up!
Truth be known, there isn't a whole heck of a lot going on. The usual, swimbikerun workeatsleep.
I did do something for the first time, at least I think its a first. I dropped two running events off my schedule. Okay, yes, I added a 5k next weekend, but I dropped a 5k and a 10k. The half marathon on October 2 will be my last race of the season. We leave for our Kona/Maui trip on October 3. Coincidence? I think not. Last year when we took our Kona trip, I was in the midst of training for a half marathon. And while it was kind of fun to run along the course on Alii drive, and use the aid stations they had set up, it was also tricky to schedule things around the fun. The year before that our Kona trip was because I got my lottery spot and that wasn't exactly relaxing. This year I'm going to be on island time completely. Snorkel, stand up paddle board, maybe some diving. Mostly a whole lotta' nothing. Oh, except a whole lotta' cheering for all those Iron people. Coach especially.
This week has been a step back week. Next week jumps into the thick of HIM training. Less than 2 months from my "A" race for the year. Wow, how did that happen? This has been a bit of a strange year. I haven't made the big leaps forward that I think I made last year. It's a little frustrating, but at the same time, even a little progress is progress. With the new bike, struggling with the fit a bit, some mechanical issues, and more flat tires than it seems fair of fate to throw at me, yeah, a bit frustrating. The last piece of the fit will happen next week, then hopefully I can make my final 'adjustment' and get settled in.
For now, I'm doing the work. Taking baby steps forward. Day by day.
But, I do get to race next week! And a run race, where there is *so* much less equipment to pack up. Woot! Even if, as Coach so eloquently phrased it, "THIS WILL HURT". Giddy up!
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