Tri Rock Austin Olympic: Leah’s Recap

The whole week before this race, I was really sick with a tummy bug.  I was hopeful, but there was a chance I was going to DNS (did not start) this race.  The night before I wasn’t feeling well at all, so things were rocky even 12 hours to gun time.

However, in the morning, I woke up feeling intact, so I knew I could at least give it a try.  I did the normal half a starbucks mocha and half a peppermint cliff bar (I’m buying a case when they come back at Christmas) and all seemed to be settling well.  I only got about 6 hours sleep, but it was magical healing sleep, and I was incredibly rested from the week of doing barely anything training-wise, so again, all signs pointed to go.  Leah launch!

We got there, set up transitions, walked the bike pump to the car, found real bathrooms instead of porta potties, and ran back as warmup.  We had 10 mins til transition close at that point so we did final adjustments, sunscreened, and got down to the swim start.  I made some changes to normal race procedure in prep for things I’d like to try at Kerrville, so it would be interesting to see how it went!

We saw Brian and Celeste, said hi, chatted a bit, then it was time for Joel to get on deck so we cheered him off.  Then, I thought I had a lot of time before I started, but we’d read the waves wrong, and I was called to double deck quickly, so I went and then we jumped in the water and found a place not at the front but right behind, and then it was time to race.

Swim:

The first thing we noticed was NATURE.  Oh my dear fluffy lord – NATURE in ALL CAPS.  This wasn’t just a patch of plants, this was unending and tangling NATURE.  I was glad I had done an open water swim at Lake Pflugerville just two days before which was also nature filled or it may have really bothered me (the lake zombies hide in plants, right?)  I concentrated on keeping a strong stroke even if I was pulling weeds and making sure not to stay on slow feet and get past them.

I did not like the white buoys – they didn’t show up as well to me as the normal orange or yellow ones, especially going towards the sun, and I got off course a few times.  I also HIT a buoy because I didn’t see it and then had to swim under it.  Also, the fact that they were all white – no difference in color between turn buoys and straight buoys – meant I started to cut the course at one point and had to back track.  At the end, I got trapped behind this large guy in a blue tri suit who at that point of this course I not-so affectionately nicknamed the whale, in my frustration.  I tried going left and ran into people, tried going right and ran into more people, so I coasted a bit behind him until I saw an opening and sprinted a bit to find open water and then I was getting pulled up the ramp wearing a lot of nature (seriously, I got undressed at home and half the lake fell out) and I was off to transition.

While it was not all rainbows and sunshine on the swim, there were some happies.  I felt very strong when I was actually going the right way and not running into buoys.  I passed plenty of people, and I even started pretty far up this time.  I’m getting better at sprinting around slower people and not getting stuck and not freaking out when people molest me (accidentally, of course) in the water.

Swim time: 37:39.  Not nearly what I was aiming for, but 2 minutes exactly faster than last year under worse conditions (lake was much lower this year, going off course, etc).

T1:

Is it really weird to be pumped up about how your transition went?  If so, call me crazy.  I skipped the sandals (I think I may have kicked this crutch) and ran pretty fast barefoot through the huge transition area to my bike.  I worked on paring down what I had to do this time.  Now that I have a bike bottle, I don’t have to deal with the camelback, which is AWESOME.

I tried two more time savers this time – garmin on the bike (no fumbling getting it on my wrist) and stashing my bike gloves in my bento box instead of fumbling with those before I can go.  I did a practice run with getting the gloves on Saturday, and it worked fine, but the garmin was a last minute change.  I did that two years ago at Kerrville Sprint, forgot it on my bike in T2, and haven’t dared since.  My helmet and glasses were propped up on my aero bars instead of on the ground, which is a little risky if they fall off, but they stayed put and quickly I was running my bike out and up the long path to the mount line.

T1 time: 3:43 (almost a minute better than last year)

Bike:

I got out, onto the bike, and going.  Thankfully, when Joel had cleaned and lubed the bikes the day before, he had shifted me down into a lower gear, so that was nice (though I quickly got out of it once we got up the hill).  I did the first loop of the bike without even looking at the garmin, just trying to keep a good, solid, steady effort and seeing what that got me.  That got me 17.6 mph, which was 1 mph better than last year.  I was totally great with that. My pie in the sky goal was in the 18 mph range, and I was pretty close.

Usually on looped courses, I have a tendency to speed up each loop, but a few things were working against me:

  • The wind picked up.  It wasn’t Lake Pf wind, but it was noticeable enough that any extra effort I may have put out went into just maintaining what I had built on lap 1.
  • I finished the gatorade in bottle #1 and due to a mixup, I had citrus nuun in bottle #2 instead of more gatorade (it was still frozen, and I figured nuun would be better than water or risking it not be unfrozen by the time I needed it).  I forgot that citrus nuun is just about the most vile thing on the planet so I sipped sparingly (though, this may have been a good thing because I sucked down the first bottle so fast I thought I was going to have to learn to pee on the bike in a very crowded Olympic race).  This also may have lead me to under-nutrition because I had planned on getting all my calories from gatorade, and I was 130 calories light (and I forgot to eat anything to offset).
  • I think my subconscious told me to back off a little and not cook myself for the run since I had been sick all week.  My subconscious was a smart lady.  I don’t remember ever thinking about backing off, but I definitely kept a nice, steady effort instead of escalating like normal.
  • Also, it started getting more crowded and I got crotchety at people.  I don’t know if that slowed me down, but how many times do you have to yell “On your RIGHT!” when someone would narrowly miss me as I was legit passing someone?  Sigh.

A goal was 1:20, and I noted that I wasn’t on pace to beat that halfway through the last lap, but I had a chance to hit my B goal: 1:25, so I stayed on it and got in just in time.  At that point, I felt pretty good, not overcooked, a little tired, but who isn’t after the bike, right?

Bike time: 1:24:43.  17.6 mph.  I am pretty excited about this one – even with the wind and the gatorade mixup and the dudeholes being jerks, I picked up 1 full mile per hour this year, beating last year’s time by over 5 minutes.

T2:

I don’t remember this one being particularly speedy, but I didn’t waste any time, and resisted transition gravity.  I noticed the heat suddenly ratchet up about 10 degrees and my legs weren’t really working properly, but forward I went.

T2 time: 3:18.  Faster by about 30 seconds from last year.  However, I could definitely pick this up a little more by running faster.

Run:

Got out and going across the grass/dirt area.  Noted that I was was doing very well per the race clock (about 2:09) and hoped I could hold it together on the run.  Tried to let that buoy me up, but I had nothing in those legs and I was already really hot.  At about .75 mile in, I saw Joel turning around and noted that if we both kept pace, we’d both finish about the same time (actually, in retrospect, he was definitely ahead – at my current pace, I needed to speed up) and hoped that also would keep me going.  I ran the first loop just trotting away, trying to stave off heat sickness and the mental demons.

I finished loop #1 in about 36 mins and just willed myself to keep going.  I saw Manu out cheering and that gave me a little boost (thanks Manu for cheering and the pictures!) I passed the finish line and was hot and tired, but ok.  Then, they made us run on the grass through the dirt again.  Something about that just broke me, and I was just getting hotter and hotter.  When I hit the concrete again, somewhere between mile 3.5 and mile 4, I realized there was no shade for quite a while and I had the chills and was feeling yucky, so I stopped to walk.  I passed Joel again just as I started power walking and said “I’m broken” and kept going.  Somewhere in there Brian also passed me, and I had nothing to be able to keep up with him either.

I walked to where there was shade, and tried to run when I hit the shade and it didn’t really work.  I walked to the next aide station and drank every cup someone held in front of my face – 3 waters, 3 gatorades… I had to go back to refill my bottle because I realized I would have nothing for a mile and that wasn’t happening.  Let’s not forget that on the run, I had already downed a full gatorade bottle from mile 1-4, and took water and gatorade at each aide station.  I was doing all the right things, but it wasn’t enough.  Either I was sloshy and nauseous from hydration, or my body wouldn’t function.  This choice sucked.

I ran where I could, walked where I couldn’t, and nothing could get me going fast.  After the week I had, I wasn’t going to push it too hard and risk missing another week or more of training and/or a trip to the med tent, but I can’t deny that some of it was mental too.  My “give a crap” just ran out.  I just watched my run time and pace go from sucktastic to unbelievably sucktastic and tried to at least keep the four letter words under my breath and finally I was up the bridge and down the bridge and around the corner and saw everyone cheering me in and got through the finish and finally, thankfully, it was all over.

Run time: 1:19:02 for 6.2 miles – 12:46 pace.  I’m not sure I’ve ever traversed a 10k that slow in my life, certainly not in a race. :P

Total time: 3:28:32.  2.5 mins slower than last year.  My run was over ELEVEN minutes slower than last year (1:07:56 for 2012)

As normal, Joel won on the bike, Brian won on the run, I won on the swim.  Brian beat Joel by 8 mins, and Joel beat me by 10.  I wish I could say it was all the run, but Joel had a stellar race, keeping almost a 19 mph pace on the bike and only letting me beat him on the swim by 4 minutes.  I would have had to run a 1:09 on the run to beat him, and I just didn’t have that in me, mentally or physically.

My final thoughts:

I am really happy with my gains in swimming and biking this year.  Beating last year’s swim time by 2 mins and bike time by 5 mins even after being sick all week is pretty awesome.  Imagine what I could have done on a perfect day!

I got 90 free seconds this race just by being better at transitions, that’s 15 seconds per mile on the run!  That’s pretty awesome!

I’m considering skipping the July/Aug/Sept hot summer races in 2014.  This year just broke me.  Maybe a sprint here or there, but nothing longer.  I really just have no fun walking the thin line between racing and heat sickness over and over in the dog days of summer.  The training is not really that fun for me either.  I think spending the summer going FAST (5ks, speedwork, shorter sessions) might be the way to go next year.  I feel a sense of JOY getting out for a long run when it’s 60 degrees outside, whereas I feel a sense of DREAD when it’s 80 at dawn and climbing.  Biking and swimming aren’t so bad, it’s just distance running over the summer sucks.  A lot.

This weekend is Kerrville 70.3, and the temps look to be much milder.  I’m hoping that the last few races not being optimal for me will culminate in an awesome A race for me this year!  Stay tuned!

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Jack’s Generic Triathlon – Woman vs Nature

While I’ve loved the TX Tri series the last two years, I think I’m going to have to cut the ties next year.  It was a cool, fun goal to finish 6 triathlons in a season, but I really don’t need the motivation to finish that many (this year, we were/are signed up for TEN).  Also, at first, I thought it pushed me to do some races that are outside my comfort zone, and that’s cool and all, but I’ve decided that there’s outside your comfort zone, and there’s stuff you really just don’t want to do.

2013-08-04 06.39.44

Racing an Olympic distance tri on August 4th in suuuuuuper hot weather starting after 8am?  Put this on the latter list.  It’s not that it was all terrible, but the memory of that run will haunt my dreams for a long, long time.

Pre-race:

  • Shakeout bike that AM, easy 35 min spin trying out our new speedfill aero bottles
  • Food the day before: pasta w/meat sauce + salad + bread, and a random smattering of snacks like brie and pita later.
  • Spent time with my parents, and had a mostly relaxing day and evening
  • Got TONS of sleep (for a race night), at least 7 hours where I didn’t budge.  Felt super rested in the AM.  Totally different than last year, where I was falling asleep standing up.
  • Thought I was getting sick, but ended up just being allergies from them burning crap in Mexico.  Stupid people burning crap messing with my head, but thank the dear fluffy lord of triathlon that it wasn’t actual illness!
  • Had an oatmega bar, and about half of a starbucks mocha.  Tummy was a little off with the infusion of dairy and caffeine but settled quickly.
  • Got there early-ish (6:15?), but not early enough to get a prime spot (it was totally fine though, Pflug transitions are great).
  • Got a warmup run and legs felt decent, hung out with Zliten and B and B’s mom and then got a warmup swim.
  • Ate my fruit punch sports beans and then it was time to get this show on the road (I was in wave 4).

Swim:

This was going to be a different experience.  First of all, they started all 89 ladies in one wave, in a tiny narrow corral, and it was a beach run start.  The horn went off, I ended up towards the middle/back and inside, and we ran towards the water and the ladies in front of me kinda stopped and walked.  Hellloooo, it’s a race, I thought, and I high-kneed my way around them until I got into deep enough water to dive in and start swimming.  Then, I ran into more ladies swimming slowly, and I shoved and kicked and fought my way to a patch of clear water just to find my goggles weren’t sealed super well and I had a decent amount of water in the left one.

I had a lot of words going through my head at that point and none of them were nice.  It was pretty high-combat.  On the way back to the beach I finally got my stride, but was dreading that stupid beach run.  It was about 100m across a pebbly, rocky beach, and I decided to brave it barefoot (that was me putting on my big girl panties this race).  I swam until I touched rocks with my hands, got up and out and started the run.  Oddly enough, it wasn’t that bad!  I went fast enough to pass people, but people passed me too.  I ran into the water, stepped on a jagged rock, said “OW FUDGE” (…but not exactly that) loud enough I think some people giggled, and I dived in again for lap 2.

This one was great.  I was regularly passing caps in waves before me, the water had thinned out because the sprint waves hadn’t started yet, and I just generally felt calm, peaceful, productive, and fast in the water.  I think I came out wearing some weeds but otherwise emerged pretty happy with my effort.  Definitely better than expected, and ABSOLUTELY better than I expected about 100m in.

Swim Time: 23:47 for 1000m with 100m beach run.

T1:

My sandals were nowhere to be found, so this was another moment of my big girl panties on display here, as I ran to T1 just fine in bare feet.  Note to self – I’m much less tenderfooted during a race than I expect with the adrenaline going.  All went as expected, and it was REALLY REALLY nice to not have to worry about putting on the camelback because I had my new speedfill bottle waiting on the bike!

T1 Time: 2:43 (10 seconds faster than Pflugerville – yay!)

Bike:

Got out on the bike, had troubles clipping in like a noob, and found my bike in trainer gear (all the way hardest it can go) going up an incline.  Ooops.  Noob, noob, noob mistake.  After costing myself about a minute being dumb, I got going and drank and ate.  I looked at time of day and it was two minutes earlier than expected.  Splendid.  Legs felt good, I felt speedy, and though the zipp wheelie boys with 10k$ bikes were blowing by me, I was passing people too.

Figured out early on my garmin was off again (it must not like tracking distance at Pflug), and just turned it back to HR and time of day screen and worked on ticking off the miles as quickly as possible.  I stayed in aero a LOT (the bottle helped), and climbed the modest hills pretty well, mostly, and I kept pretty close to my goal of 18mph.  I completed the first lap of 12.9 miles in about 42-ish mins and figured if I could hold on and do another 42-3 I’d hit an hour 25 which would blow my anticipated pace out of the water, and I usually get better on lap 2 so I started that one really excited.

Everything was going well and then… I hit a wall of wind on the south section of the course (the longest straightaway, of course).  It was BRUTAL.  There was enough wind to notice the first lap and have to fight a little harder, but it REALLY picked up on lap 2.  I kept losing time and losing time and then all of a sudden, I was coming in and it was later than I wanted.  I lost all that time I banked on the swim and more.  I had another noob moment dismounting my bike on the wrong side, but got it together quickly and over the line and into transition.

Bike Time: 1:31:06 (17.0 mph.  Not what I wanted, but pretty decent considering the wind…)

T2:

Went as expected.  Last time it wasn’t hot enough to need a handheld though, and this time it was, so I dealt with that.

T2 time: 1:29 (Pflug was 1:19 – so there’s that 10 seconds I gained on T1 – lost here tinkering with my handheld.  So, total t1 and t2 time – exactly the same as Pflug 2 months ago… hah!)

Run:

On the bike, as I kept losing seconds, I reminded myself I still had a shot at a sub-3, but I would have to push the run as hard as I could.  That wind dissipated, the clouds burned off, and it was just me vs THAT RUN.  The feels like was already in the 90s, and this course has ZERO shade.  I had yet to see either Joel or Brian the whole race, but on the first stretch, Brian blew right past me.  In a different universe, I would have tried to hang on and go with him, but he’s definitely a faster runner than I any day of the week and it was early, so I kept clicking along.

I stayed on time of day because I knew it was hot enough that pace would make me mad.  My handheld melted, I saw Joel, I passed Joel, I hung on, and kept clipping away around 11 min miles.  Something happened though, once I passed the finish line for the second lap, I broke.  It was SO HOT and I wasn’t quite doing what I needed to do to hit my sub 3 (I needed to be more like 10:20s), and I could barely keep pace, let alone speed it up.  I told myself to get it together, but it didn’t work.  I then decided that if I didn’t feel better by the bridge, I was going to walk to rest and regroup.

Dumbest decision ever, because OF COURSE I wasn’t going to feel better, so I “broke the seal”.  I walked.  And from there, all I could manage was powerwalking to a point, then running.  Drinking at aide stations until I felt nauseous, running until I felt overwhelmed and light headed.  Powerwalking, then running.  I couldn’t find a sustainable pace at all.  Joel passed me again clipping along sloooooowly, and I may have given up and just walked the darn thing in except I decided that he wasn’t going to finish before me.  So I’d run to catch him, then walk.  Run, then walk.

The last aide station had ICE (glorious ice) and I drank a bunch and it lowered my core temp enough to give me some oomph, I walked until my tummy settled, and then I ran the last half-ish mile.  I blew by Zliten, I passed other people, and kept going, and suddenly there was the finish line.

Run: 1:12:20 (12:03 pace – UGH JUST UGH)

Total Time: 3:11:28

Post race:

Once I was through it and they gave me water and I turned around and Joel was there right behind me and I said “lake” and he said “med tent” (just for ice) and we did those respective things.  We sat in the lake with Brian and his mom, we ate pizza, and we kinda just ranted about the heat.  As per usual, I won the swim,  Joel won the bike, Brian won the run.  Brian finished about 6 mins before me, and I finished 6 mins before Joel.

I wish I had more on that run.  61 mins for the 5.8 miles I tracked is TOTALLY doable for me in a race situation, and that would have gotten me in at 3 hours.  66 mins which should be a WALK IN THE PARK for me would have beat B.  Instead, I just gave up and thank goodness Zliten was there to be my rabbit this time or I might have done worse.

All in all, not my finest race, but I’m very happy with parts of it!

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