Adjusted Reality

Tag: racereports Page 5 of 13

Livestrong Swim.. err Ride

On October 24, 2017

The big biking goal for the year was Hotter’n Hell 100. Done and dusted.

Been there, done that, spent the night, got the sunburn.

Then, we saw a really great deal (something like 65% off) on another century later in the year on a week that we were available, so I figured it would be motivation to keep riding my bike longer in the beautiful fall weather. However, we’ve alternated between hot and rainy and unseasonably chilly in the mornings, so this mythical unicorn weather has mostly eluded us. However, our 80 mile ride two weeks ago was pretty amazing, and there’s NO WAY I would have done that unless I was training for something. So, no matter what, I’m glad we had this on the calendar.

I also thought it would be an interesting experience to fund raise, but apparently when you just ask twice on social media, that doesn’t exactly cut it and we raised approximately 10$ collectively (or my husband raised 10, I raised 0, ahem…). I suck. Cancer is not going to get cured because of me. Sorry.

The day before the race was largely uneventful – we hit packet pickup, had a nice swim at the just slightly below 2:00/100m my offseason pace seems to be settling at (which is just fine), and had lunch with a friend and ate all the things we normally eat and got to bed at a decent hour.

My view for about 2 hours Sunday AM.

We got out of bed around 5:40am, drank some tea (earl grey, hot), ate half a sunbutter+jelly sandwich, and drove downtown. We half thought about riding there but thought that tacking an extra 20+ miles on a century would have been ridiculous, so we skipped it. The plan was to park at Pure Austin, but they have new signs up saying “2 Hour Parking”… so we joined our teammates at the BSS store and pulled in just in time to see everyone roll out to avoid the impending rain. Which was now raining on us. Oops.

We became drowned rats on the way there, and spent the next hour and a half huddled for warmth under the sheltered area at the Palmer Events Center as they continuously delayed (with good reason) the race 30 minutes, then an hour, then an extra 15 for an 8:45am start. While it was the right call, it did not make me happy. First, I doubted they were going to extend the cutoffs, and we were already going to have to watch our aid station times to make sure we were well within them. Second, standing (especially in cleats) makes my body hate me.

Hi, I am drowned rat! Nice to meet you!

Finally, the rain started to let up, and we got staged and crossed the line right around 9am. We started back with the rest of our team and the 65 milers. I hadn’t 100% yet given up on the 100 miles, but, as I told Zliten as we rolled out, I had was about 80% there and we’d see how things went.

Then we got to doing some cycling, finally. It was super fun to ride with the team for a while, and apparently we got props from people calling us super safe to ride with (we were screaming and pointing at holes every 5 seconds on South first because it’s habit to do so). However, my legs just did not want to warm up quickly and they got a little ahead on some of the hills. We passed them at the aid station but they caught back up and we rode together again for a bit.

Around mile 15 Zliten’s wheel just started clicking. Click click… click click click…. click. It was a little… concerning… so we stopped on the side of the road to check it out. Nothing appeared to be out of the ordinary so we click clicked to the next aid station to try to find a bike tech. We did NOT find one there, but we did find an old buddy of ours and we chatted a bit while we snacked.

Best aid station of the day at approximately 30 miles. Sadly/luckily, no actual shots were available for consumption. 🙂

Click click click sort of wore on us after 20 more miles. My back and legs were unreasonably sore for the distance I had ridden. I typically feel this way closer to 80-90 these days (I blame standing in cleats for 2 hours). The wind was WICKED. I had no info about if they modified the course closures and the last thing I wanted to do was have to SAG it out, so when the sign came up at around 38 miles to go right for 100, I took a left towards the 65 mile route with no regrets. I felt crappy and my mood wasn’t great either.

We found out later that they turned everyone back for a maximum distance of 77, so I’m torn between feeling bad that I didn’t at least try, and feeling fine with my decision because I couldn’t have done a full century anyway. Definitely, mostly the latter.

After making peace with our decision we stopped at the next aid station. They had bike techs! Zliten got his steed looked at (yep, spoke out of place, just a little, fixed it right up) and I found some delicious foods and laid in the grass, enjoying the warm sun and a little break. The break was exactly what I needed, I felt much better and instead of letting my husband pull most of the time, we took turns again.

All of a sudden, we were back in town and in traffic. Bleh. I’m sure starting and ending downtown is great for many reasons, but I did not love having to stop at almost every light on a very busy street for about 5-10 miles on the way back up South First. I would have much rather had the route be more of the beautiful country roads we were on before! Also, can I complain about the myraid of left turns in this route (on streets that were not blocked off)? I’m not sure why we didn’t just ride it backwards so we went clockwise and they were rights instead. Two years ago, I would have been terrified! Now, it was just… annoying.

Poor dirty Evilbike. She had a bath the day before and everything! (and obvs, a bath Sunday afternoon as well, approximately an hour after this picture… :P)

We crossed the arch, happy to be done but also feeling a little underwhelmed with our day as we had expected to ride 100 miles and just be exhauuuuuusted. A beer or two with teammates and friends definitely perked us right up. They had amazing looking food (both a taco bar and burgers!!), but we had a jalapeno and chorizo pizza at home beckoning to us, so we saved ourselves for it (and it was so freaking worth it!).

The positives of the day, because I feel like I complained a lot above:

I actually super love the shirt in terms of fit/design/comfort.
Riding 65 miles (plus a mile to and from the car) is a backup plan nowadays and while there were low points, I finished definitely feeling like I had more in me by the end if there was more road to ride (and if there wasn’t pizza and beer waiting for me).
It was fun to ride with Team BSS!
There aren’t too many 100 mile rides in town. It was super convenient not to have to travel!
We kept up a 15.2 mph average (it was better around mile 55, but the stop and go the last section really tanked it). We rode for about 4 and a quarter hours, and total time elapsed was 5:15. Besides the aid station where Zliten had his bike looked at, we did a pretty good job at getting in and out and on with our ride.

The verdict? I wouldn’t go out of my way to do this race every year, but if a bunch of teammates signed up and it didn’t cost too much and didn’t have alternate plans that weekend and maybe someone could have a chat with the weather for a low around 60, high no higher than 80, and a mix of clouds and sun but no rain? In.

Kerrville Sprint Triathlon – a lot of words about a little race

By Quix

On September 26, 2017

In Uncategorized

So, last we spoke, I was doing some major mental gymnastics about a B+ race.

Picture fail. My name is actually right under my butt.

I think it actually became kind of important to me for a few reasons.

This is the first race since Ironman where I felt like I showed up fit to compete. Against my age group, against my previous self, though not really against my husband who is getting super fast (which I love and hate at the same time, mostly love, but yeah…)
B. It’s the last tri of the season.
C. After reading the sports psychology book, I realized that I had a lot of work to do, and less of it involved swimming, biking, or running than I imagined.

So, it’s not that THIS race actually mattered that much, but it was a great opportunity to throw some new strategies against the wall to see what sticks. So, I did these things, some of which are new, and some of which I used to do and they fell off somewhere around Tri #30.

Going to bed, I visualized the race going really well. I actually fell asleep before the end of the run so I have no idea how that one ended up.
I did the same thing as I was waking up. I honestly think it helped me focus my energy somewhere positive instead of being grumpy about how early it was.
When I went to go potty and put in my contacts, I put on my headphones and listened to a few pump up songs good and loud. My husband needs light to wake up on race mornings. I need sound. Loud sound. This was step #2 about not being apathetic and I felt it actually start to work.
I actually followed my race breakfast plan. I consumed a whole sunbutter jelly on wheat and a cup of earl grey, hot. At the race I was full but not sick, caffeinated to the level of excitement and enthusiasm, but not jittery.
We took 10 minutes and went through our normal stretching routine. That helped my body not be so stiff (these things involve standing around for hours before its go time and my body hates standing) and helped having something to DO for a bit instead of spacing out and wandering around.
When I sent my husband off, I spent a few moments away from everything, focusing on the race and what I was asking my body to do and just preparing to fight. Then, I got in line, put my earplugs in, put my game face on, and didn’t talk to anyone.

The end result? I started this race more focused, energized, and enthusiastic than I have in quite a while. Every time I felt doubts creeping in (no effing way you’re going to hit 20 mph on the bike, you’re going to die on the run like you always do, yay, they delayed the start, I don’t have to be ready yet), I countered them with positive thoughts from my alter ego like – “you’re going to ride your ass off and try, you have been running really great off the bike the last month so probably not, eff that, let’s GET THIS THING GOING Y’ALL” with positive thoughts from my alter ego.

Enthusiastic or caffeinated? You decide…

I thought fake-it-til-you-make-it was a little hokey, but damn, that changed my attitude.

I found myself getting pushed to the back of my swim wave in the line as people continue to jump in, and instead of being grumpy about it, I just walked up closer to the front (earplugs in, gameface on, saying nothing). With this confidence, I walked over the line and started my race.

Swim:

This swim is hard to really quantify how I did in terms of pace. First of all, you WALK to the ramp and venture carefully down this steep incline which you are under no circumstances allowed to run. This probably takes about 30 seconds if you’re as paranoid about tripping as I am.

Then, you swim. I think the current was in our favor and I think I did fairly well in terms of my goals. Swimming is the thing I’ve practiced least of all the sports, and open water swimming the least (once since my last race), so I decided that I would try to swim steady and strong but not gas myself. I did just that. Oddly enough, when I seed myself properly, I have a great swim, I never got swam over or passed, and I also had my own little bubble most of the time and never got into combat.

The only thing was there was definitely congestion at the swim exits and only two people at a time could get up the steep ramps with volunteer help, so I probably had to wait another 20 seconds here.

Swim official time: 11:19 – 2:16/100m – 6/29 AG

Interesting notables from garmin: 1:49/100 yd moving speed (which is exactly 2:00/100m). 159 average HR and normally my max in the pool is around 140 so I was pushing pretty hard. Considering my pool swims these days are only about 5-10 seconds faster per 100 I’ll call this a win.

T1:

I knew I had paced the swim alright because I was able to jog up the steep hill. Stepping gingerly on the rocky ground and hoping to avoid the stickers, I hustled to my spot as much as I could. Looks like it took me about 1:20 to get to my spot, 1:00 to do stuff at my spot in transition (my feet were super muddy so I had to take a little extra time to wipe them off or the run would have been terrible), and about 30 seconds to carry my bike out to the mount line.

T1 official time: 2:55. 4/29 AG.

Best I’ve done here so I’m stoked. I honestly think the 3 other girls who got through T1 quicker (2:10-18) were just faster runners than I am.

Death star and I are starting to make a pretty great team.

Bike:

Here’s where I wanted to start spicing up the enchilada. I have been biking my ass off. I have been putting in the miles. I have been chasing faster people. Since forever, one of my long term goals was to hit over 20 mph officially on a bike split. I know this course really well (at least, I thought I did), and I figured if I’m going to do it anywhere this year it’s here.

Then the wind hit me. I started freaking out a little because keeping that 19-21mph pace downhill was actually a lot of work. Then I realized it was all a blessing in disguise. If it was that hard to ride down the hill at that speed, riding UP the hill was going to be amazing. I kept my effort on, and pretty much rode on the left side the entire time and I realized that I had become the person I used to grumble at that passed me and left me in the dust on tris. At least I try to say “on your left” most of the time. The caffeinated gel pre-opened in my bento box was amazing. I may have skipped it entirely if I didn’t remember it was open and would be wasted, but when I did at about mile 3 it went down in 2 seconds, so obviously it was a good decision.

Then, my husband comes whizzing by me and yells, “the bike is two loops!”. I tried to kick into another gear and go with him but by the time my brain found that thought, he was very far ahead. I had yet to see the second half of the course and I didn’t want to gas myself early. I figured I’d hammer the second lap depending on how the second half of the first loop felt.

I continued to pass pass pass and got surprised by a diversion to a side street and had to sit up and slow down a sec to not wreck on the turn. Then, we hit the turn around and I started going up… faster than I was going down. My average speed had dropped to about 19.5 mph at the bottom of the hill and climbed back up to 20.0 by the time I hit the top. Let’s be fair, the total elevation gain in 14 miles was less than 300 feet, so finger quote “hills” is more appropriate, but it still went up vs going down.

The second loop I maintained what I had built but I had a little less oomph up the hill and only got to 19.8 when I pulled into transition. Either way, I was super excited about it because it was my fastest bike split yet and I maintained it at a reasonable heart rate (165), though my power was kind of pathetic (150W, 162W normalized).

Official Bike Results: 43:08 for 15 miles, or 20.9 mph. 3/29 AG.

So, of course my Garmin (19.8) and the official race results (20.9) don’t match up. I’m going to credit it to three things. First, I probably took a few seconds to turn it off in transition. Second, I think my garmin sandbags me because my pace is almost alllllways slower than race results. Third, I think we actually biked less miles than planned. Either way, the exact wording of my goal was to have 20+ mph official result on the bike split and it happened (and I’m taking it).

T2:

I was a little shelled from the bike coming in, but I kept repeating THIS TRANSITION IS LAVA. LAVA. LAVA. I feel like I did OKAY here until I looked at my age group placement.

Official T2 time: 1:43. 10/29 AG.

I was 30 seconds slower than the leader. While this in and of itself didn’t make a difference in my placement overall, I could have hustled more.

Run:

I started here and I had decent legs but not great ones. Sub-10 minute miles were happening with some prodding. My lungs felt like they could handle a little more, but my legs just felt so heavy, especially when we were going up (the absolute smallest) hills. I gave myself the first mile to get with it and tried to turn it on for mile two… nope. I had this 9:40-ish average pace and that was it.

I tried all my tricks. Driving with the hips… which actually worked since my stride length of .96 of a meter is pretty good (for me). Quick feet… nope. My cadence was solidly 85 instead of the 90 when I’m really loose and rocking it. I tried fishing but my mind honestly was too scattered to focus on anything external, it was taking an internal focus to keep my parts moving correctly.

Then, this moment happened. Right at mile two a girl went by me with 39 on her calf. Shortly after that, another with 35 went by as well. “Well, this is it. If you were in 1st off the bike (not likely, but let’s assume), the best you’re at right now is third. Let’s catch them.” I tried, folks. Mile three’s split was about 7 seconds faster than mile two, but looking at both of those girls’ run splits, they were running 7- and 8- minute miles average.

I gave it all I had to cross the line as quickly as possible, but the best I had was roughly the pace I started with.

Official run results: 29:33 for 3.2 miles (9:28/mile). 12/29 AG

First of all, ouch on the AG placement, but I officially (and actually) did what I set out to do. I ran sub 10-minute miles. It’s actually one of my best run paces in a tri yet (I did slightly better at Pflugerville in 2014 and Rookie in 2015 but it’s been a WHILE). However, my heart rate average was 170. I can raise that 3-5 bpm and not blow up usually. I’m not sure what happened there.

Happy finisher. Also, I’m glad my husband and I are about the same size because I grabbed his tri top and that’s what I raced in…

Official results: 1:28:39 for 5/29 AG.

I missed 4th by about 45 seconds and 3rd by less than two minutes. I was in 3rd place off the bike until the last freaking mile. I recognized the moment where I needed to go and tried. I was at least conscious enough to do that. I maintained a pretty positive attitude throughout, and I didn’t quit.

So, here’s what I need to do for next year:

Put my eggs in the bike basket (hehe) next year and go all in. Aim to come off the bike in 1st place in these events (I’m typically coming in 3-5th, and this time I was only down 90 seconds on the leader’s bike time) and hang on during the run.
Or, the obvious, get faster on the run. I’ve made amazing strides (ha!) in the last few months taking my fast runs down from 11-something minute miles to 9-something, but I need to be able to run a 5k off the bike with an 8 in front of the pace to compete for podiums. I need to have a mile time back in the 7s. I need to shed at least 1-minute per mile over what I’m doing now. I can out-bike a lot of women but I need to have a run that can at least hold position if not gain.

More reasonably, I need to work on both. Also, do regular training that’s specific to my event instead of kind of whatever I feel like doing at the moment. Also, maybe run more than 3-5 miles a week max. Also, possibly ride the TT bike more than a handful of times all season not in races. Oh, and swim more than an average of once a week for 20 minutes.

But, none of this was the focus this summer. It was to recover after the Ironman and not get burnt out and still love what I do. Any race goals were secondary to that. I am more than happy with how everything went this tri season even if I was grumbly in the messy middle where my fitness was missing. I’m stoked to have such a great bike split and more confidence on the TT. I’m glad I did reasonably well on the other events and put up a time that’s hard to compare with anything else but was 11 minutes faster than 2011 on the same course, so at least I have improved a little in the last 6 years!

I have all the thoughts and goals for the next two seasons, but for right now, it’s time for one more month of biking all the miles as slow or fast as I feel like in preparation for Livestrong 100!

Not-quite-so-hotter’n Hell 100

By Quix

On August 29, 2017

In Uncategorized

The heat is my KRYPTONITE.

I tend to die a quick and early death when it’s super hot. So, it makes sense that my choice for a ride this summer was Hotter’n Hell 100, in late August in Wichita Falls, TX, where the temperatures can climb to 105+, right? I knew it was a stupid idea, so I did stupid things like ride outside for 3 hours at 5pm on the hottest day of the year in feels-like-110 temps and bike commute two days a week in the heat for the last month to prepare.

Then came hurricane Harvey last week. The devastation in the Houston/Galveston area is terrible, and I would not have wished that on anyone for any reason. However, a teeny silver lining, the effects up north made for some really unseasonably cool and still dry temperate weather.

We stayed up too late on Thursday night because we are dumb and I have determined that we need an adult sometimes to tell us to go to bed. Friday morning, we finished final packing and drove our Turtle Home to work for a half day. Showing off the trailer to a coworker, we realized that we had a tire about 10 miles away from blowing out (ack!), so we took time to fix that and got on the road later than expected. We stayed just a little ahead of the storm the entire time and found Wichita Falls a little wet but sunny!

We didn’t get into town until after 6pm, got a little lost trying to find packet pickup (but got to see some awesome fast boys crit racing which was exciting!), and then by the time we got camp set up and cooked a very quick dinner it was after 9pm. After falling asleep around 10, our propane leak sensor starting wailing at midnight. We fixed it pretty quickly, but… crap. Two pre-race nights full of sleep fail. Not optimal.

Let me step in here and give a shout out to the KOA campgrounds in Burkburnet, TX. They. were. awesome. They offered free shuttles to the race… which was 14 miles and a few towns away. Instead of stressing about parking (and with 12,000 people racing, I’m sure that would have been a NIGHTMARE), they dropped us off at about 6:30 AM (45 mins before the race) a block away from our corral and gave us a number to call to be picked up whatever time we finished, bikes and all. They were all also super nice and it was family owned and the vibe felt good. If I do this race again, I would ABSOLUTELY stay there.

12,000 people with bikes looks about what you would expect it to – we swarmed this downtown area. I have never seen or experienced anything like it. I was terrified of that many people that close together with bikes, but they know what they’re doing with the start. I was able to get across the line with minimal space invasion and freaking out.

The first 10 felt easy, but I had to stop at the first aid station. Normally I would hate to stop so early, but I felt like I couldn’t drink because I had to peeee, and not hydrating could have been a HUGE problem later. There was a HUGE porta potty line, but it was necessary, so I waited. After that, I consumed some redbull and some fruit and then we got back on the road and I could drink again had a gel and life was good.

We met a guy who used to work for REI and we spent about 10 miles talking about Novara bikes and the store and all sorts of other randomness. The temperatures were cool and apparently I was overhydrating, I had to stop again for the second aid station potties. I think I waited for about 20 mins that time. Sigh. In my face went more redbull, watermelon, and a bunch of cookies. The bottles were filled, we let the cookie monster jersey people know that this was their aid station because they had cookies, and we rolled out again.

In the 30s, riding started to feel a little tedious. This is my least favorite part of any long ride – when you have enough miles down where you feel like you’ve ridden bikes (achy arms and hands for me before anything else), but you’re not even halfway yet. Mentally, I felt like I was starting to slip, and we had turned directly into the wind, so I asked my husband if we could take turns every mile or so pulling. He agreed that it was a better idea than riding side by side so we did that.

That made all the mental difference for me. I had something to count down to, and alternated the effort of pulling (harder) and recovering (easier) was better for me than riding a flat pace. I felt so (hahaha) pro actually coordinating our efforts to conserve energy vs just riding. We skipped the next but hit the fourth aid station around 40 miles with a little more of a quickness. Pee, stuff face with PBJs, fill bottles, and hop back on.

At this point, my pulls started to pull away from my husband. Something wasn’t completely right but I figured he was just having a moment and he’d be pulling me later.

To do the full hundred miles, you have to get to Hell’s Gate (mile 60) by 12:30pm. We laughed about this earlier and said no problem. Well, we started calculating times and it was looking like it was starting to become a potential problem, not because of our riding pace (over 15 mph at that point), but our really long stops. There was debate at that point whether it was at 60 or 62 or 66, so we picked up the pace a little to make sure we didn’t get diverted.

We passed by the next aid station to stop instead at camp, since our route went DIRECTLY by it. It was our quickest stop yet, hitting a real bathroom with no line, eating some chips, putting some gatorade in our bottles, grabbing some 303s, and we got in and out and on with our lives in about 7 minutes.

Zliten seemed refreshed after the break and feeling better, and we turned away from the wind, so we enjoyed riding side by side a bit again. Sadly, mile 59 had the aid station I was looking most forward to – bbq sliders (real food!) – but we had 20 minutes to make Hell’s Gate, so we stopped for some cliff blocks instead and put in one more good effort to gain insurance if the gate was more like 66 than 60.

And then, it was indeed mile 60, and we were through with 15 minutes to spare. My husband let me know that riding that effort definitely burned a match for him and he needed to slow a little. We started comparing heart rates – he was in the 160s and spiked into 180s and I’d hear him panting and complaining about the heat (it did reach 90 and sunny but still…) while I was leisurely pedaling with a 130-140 heart rate and feeling fine while pulling. I wasn’t going to leave him, but the slower pace was KILLING ME.

When we got to the 70 mile aid station, I told him that we were stopping, and for a good while, until he felt better. We sat under mister tents for at least half an hour. The guy next to us was taking a nap. I ate probably a jar of pickles and a power bar and some fruit. Nothing at the aid station was either palatable or wouldn’t cause an allergic reaction for Zliten so I went and grabbed him some blocks out of his bike bento box and gave him some of my gels because he had left his on the table in the camper.

We started out and got a mile before he went to take his turn to pull and just immediately stopped pedaling and started wincing in pain. I had to block a bunch of cyclists that were drafting off us from running him over as he pulled over to the side. We waited for the cramp to pass and I said, “look – we’ll go whatever pace we need to finish and if we have to stop and stretch every mile, so be it.” I don’t know who this person is who was so rational and kind and positive 70 miles into a bike ride, but I’m thankful that was the version of me that showed up that day.

I’m also thankful that we didn’t have to get off the bike that often. We took turns pulling, me for 2 miles, him for 1 mile, and got to the next aid station. We almost didn’t stop, but we pulled in to top off the bottles and heard tell of hot dogs, and sure enough… real food he could eat (and FRITOS, which *I* pigged out on). Later, he said it tasted so good he almost cried while eating it. We thanked those volunteers profusely and then headed back out fairly quickly.

Another mile out… and another cramp. Same deal, block my husband from getting run over by wheel suckers, stop, let it pass, and then get going slowly. I didn’t have one damn person besides Zliten pull for me but I was constantly trailing between 3-7 people who never took a turn at the front. One mile before the next stop, another really bad cramp hit him in a different spot and he got off the bike and sat down on the side of the road and I had to talk him out of sagging out. At 89 miles. With 11 to go.

I convinced him to get to the next aid station, a mile up ahead, and figure it out from there. There was an ice bath, which may or may not have helped him, but it was something to do. There was an annoying kid that kept throwing ice at us, but it was late in the day and he was probably super bored so I cut him some slack. Zliten said he was going to medical but instead he just sat down for a bit until he was prepared to tackle the last few miles.

We took it really slowly the rest of the way. It wasn’t windy anymore, so I just let him pull so he could pace us to his comfort. It worked until about mile 99, riding up an overpass, which he ended up doing with one leg while the other was cramping, and we pulled over one more time to wait it out before we made the final descent into the downtown and through the arch at about 4:45pm. 7:16 riding time, 9:20-ish total with ALL the stops.

Here’s probably my second complaint about this ride – at the finish, there was no water, there was one booth handing out cups of coke or sprite but no gatorade, the beer tent was closed, and all the food cost money. They hyped the finish line village and said it was open until 6pm, but nowhere on the website did it say that there wasn’t any thing freely available for athletes. We drank our sprites and called the KOA people for the ride, and we were so thankful they were there to shuttle us to Turtle Home instead of driving.

After a shower and getting changed and shoving about half a bag of popcorn and some strawberry cake in my face and using the recovery boots, I felt pretty great! We grilled up chicken, potatoes, corn, and had some pre-made salads for dinner, which is incredibly healthy compared to the normal gluttony that would ensue after burning about 4000 calories riding bikes. We sipped our beers (and a flask of fireball) and relaxed and watched a beautiful sunset.

While this is already “longer’n hell”, I liked the race enough that I would consider going back if it fit into my plans (doing a back to back 100 mile ride/13.1 mile trail run would be EXCELLENT Cozumel training next year). So, here are things I learned and what I’d do differently next time.

I’m stingy with my PTO usage but it would have been worth it to take a quarter day Thursday and a full day Friday and stay an extra night. It would have been amazing to have an extra day Friday to relax, leisurely pick up the packets, hit the pool, watch the crit racing, etc. Only two days camping made it feel rushed.
CHECK YOUR BIKE AT EVERY STOP. Zliten’s front tire pressure the next day was under 40 PSI (and it’s supposed to be about 100-110). While I don’t know if it was the entire problem, it can’t have helped to have a under-inflated tire.
I would totally stay at this KOA campground next time. The free shuttle to and from the race was awesome. It was convenient to have access to it at mile 56 as our own “aid station” and it was wayyyy cheaper than a hotel.
I’m usually the one that effs up my nutrition, but I’ve been training myself to be a hoover on the bike and fueling with burgers, fries, pizza, etc. I can now ride at a sub-maximal effort fueling on damn near anything. I went back and tracked and I am estimating that I ate/drank over 2000 calories on the ride and had ZERO stomach issues. I’m going to look into some portable food options that work for both of us that can supplement gels and provide something savory. And I’m going to start trying to train Zliten to eat pickles on the ride. I’m pretty convinced the jar or two I ate over the course of the race saved my life.
Having a pulling rotation was actually pretty great. I thought it would feel more like work than a fun bike ride (which, really, was the intention for this one, I had no pace goals). It helped with the mental management of everything.
A pocket sized sunscreen. Because after the ride, my face matched my drink.

Overall, I’m really thrilled with this ride. My legs seem to handle about 80 miles before they start to complain, and I would put their decibel level at the end of the race as politely protesting instead of screaming bloody murder. I’m excited to see what potentially cooler weather and two more months of riding will do, especially because we need to be faster than this (our riding time is fine, just less than the ridiculous 2+ hours of stops) to make the 8h30m cutoff for Livestrong 100.

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Jack’s Generic Sprint Tri – All I do is pass pass pass no matter what…

By Quix

On August 8, 2017

In Uncategorized

Three and a half months after IM day, my body is finally starting to feel like it’s ready to do just a *little* more than play triathlon.

But just a little.

At first I had no expectations, and figured it would just be a repeat of the lack-of-fitness-show in June. Then, this week, I was able to hold some 8s on my garmin for just a little while on a run, and my brain clicked over to perhaps believing that there was maybe possibly something in there. But still, no expectations. Because half a mile at 8:24 and 3 miles on gravel after killing it for 40 minutes on the bike are definitely different animals.

I pretty much did the normal stuff the day before. Panera for lunch, a movie (Valerian – it’s super fun – go!), a pre-race swim, packet pickup, and then we picked up meats from Stubbs for dinner to go with mashed potatoes and veggies. We also received a couple of packages from some custom hat manufacturers that we’d bought some hats from. We were on our feet a *little* more than we would for a B or A race and finished up some chores so we could completely relax after the race.

Saturday was an awesome day and also it enabled us to completely slack on Sunday after the race without feeling guilty about it. Win!

I didn’t sleep amazingly – fell asleep around 10-10:30, and woke up from about 12:30-1:30 for absolutely no reason. 5am came pretty early but after some green tea and peppy music, I felt pretty great.

We got to the venue a little later than expected and ended up parking at the end of Egypt, but luckily we had our handy dandy cart to haul our gear and BSS had a team tent at which to drop off our non-transition stuff. We did the quick version of setting up transitions, skipped the warmup run due to time (would have had plenty of time if I had a second pair of shoes, which would have been NO problem with the team tent, I’ll remember that next time). We hit the porta potties and missed the 3 minute window for the warmup swim. 0 for 2 on warmups. Oh well. I probably walked a few miles that morning, and that’s plenty fine for me.

After cheering EVERYONE ELSE into the water, I lined up with the caps that were my color. I thought I was in the first third, but after people filtered in from the sides, I was probably bringing up the last third. D’oh. Also, as it was my turn to go, I realized I didn’t have my watch set for multisport, so I ducked behind a few more people and got it set up and then I was running into the water like I was on the set of Baywatch and my race started!

Swim:

My lack of paying attention screwed me here. I ended up running into the water and passing people before I even started swimming. Then, it was just like body body body bodies everywhere. And a lot of them were either not swimming even remotely fast or breast stroking or side crawling. Yes, it was totally my fault for not having confidence in my swimming abilities and also not paying enough attention to the lineup, but it sucked to be dodging people doing the backstroke before the first orange buoy.

Once things cleared up a bit, I felt like I was doing alright, just about like I had at Lake Pflugerville, but I looked at my watch about 2/3 through and it was 8 minutes in. Not great, but I was finally going with the current so I didn’t worry about it. Then, I got caught behind a gaggle of really slow swimmers near the exit chute and I was actually literally stopped for a while waiting for people to move. That sucked, but there was no way around except REALLY wide or over people, and I’m just not that much of an asshole. I took it as some time to breathe and rest, but it really did tank my swim time/pace.

Not my absolute worst here but definitely sucks that I was a full TWO MINUTES slower than last year. For the record, my garmin registered almost 600 yards, which is 2:15/100m which is more like what I felt like I was swimming. Seeing how much I had to dodge people, I’m really going to blame my positioning for most of it but some of it admittedly was fitness.

In summary, I need to have confidence that my swim is better than I think it is relative to other people and also it’s time start doing sets and drills in the pool again. For realsies.

Swim – 12:34 for 500m – 2:31/100m (17/39 AG place)

T1:

Because I was so… rested coming out of the swim, I actually PR’d my T1 at this race. At this point I really think the only way I could get much faster here is to improve either my actual running speed or the speed I’m comfortable running barefoot.

T1 – 2:42 (15/39 AG place)

The aftermath. Barely got down any liquid, but that’s probably ok on a ~40 minute bike.

Bike:

And then I got to the mount line. And there were literally 20 people crowded there trying to clip in. My sub-par swim, starting so far back, and being in the last wave had messed up my positioning here too. I’m not the best clipper-inner, but I’ve been getting better so I confidently walked one step over the mount line on the LEFT side away from everyone, clipped in easily, and then went about dodging everyone else wobbling away down the street.

After the swim, I was not about to get stuck behind people. I tried not to be a jerk about things, but I had this song in my head by mile .5 (with the lyrics “all I do is PASS PASS PASS no matter what”). The great thing is that it’s a huge confidence boost to zoom past hundreds of people in the first few miles and get passed maybe 3 times by dudes on the Olympic with 7% body fat on bikes that cost twice what mine does. The not-so-great thing is that it was due to my placement, not my awesomeness. The worst is that I spent probably half the first five miles over the double yellow line. Sorry, but I’m not sorry. I wasn’t the only one doing it and there was no way around it.

After fighting the wind and crowds, there was a nice tailwind section where my speed climbed and climbed and I saw 20 mph average right as we turned back into the wind up a hill. I decided I my goal was to keep from losing more than 2 mph as long as I could without spiking my heart rate too much. We got one more nice tailwind down a hill (wheeee!) and then turned into a wall of wind (ooof).

I got down into aero as teeny tiny as possible, and then found the BIGGEST guy going right about my speed. I did my best to stay legal on the crowded course, but I’m convinced I still got some drafting benefit even the required 5 lengths behind with his size. I wasn’t keeping the 19-20 mph I was before but I was holding 16-17, and slightly uphill and into the wind? I’m happy with that.

My garmin read 18.5 mph average on the actual moving parts once I unclipped and rolled into transition, and I will absolutely take it. I felt very confident and capable on the bike, even though I’ve only ridden it twice inside since the last race. Not my best on the course but I think my second best. One of these days I’ll crack that 20 mph average, but maybe not at Lake Pflugerville for a while with the hills and the wind.

Bike: 42:45 – 18.1 mph (7/39 AG place)

T2:

Luckily, it was not as crowded on the way back into T2. I did my thing with the quickness and was out on the run with no fumbles. Best here by 6 seconds!

T2: 1:30 – 14/39

Run:

I got out and running and… while it felt terrible it didn’t quite feel as terrible as last time. I didn’t want to concentrate on pace, I just wanted to concentrate on quick feet, like my really great run on Friday, so I switched my watch to my cadence and heart rate screen. It stayed at 176 (88 cadence) and 172 HR and I just could not shove it up any more. So that’s where we lived.

The first mile ticked off at 10:53, and while that in and of itself was not terribly impressive, it was about a minute faster than the first mile six weeks ago and my legs felt significantly less like lead bricks. Someone in my age group passed me and I considered trying to go with her, but she was moving VERY quickly and I just didn’t see it happening. Yet. Maybe by Kerrville I’ll have the mojo to run someone down again.

The second mile was about the same as the first and then all of a sudden we hit the wall of wind. Again, just like the last race, I felt I was running standing still, but with signficiantly better stride. I knew the wind was rough when my last mile was the slowest paced. My garmin showed the course SIGNIFICANTLY short, but my Garmin also has a habit of sandbagging me, so I’ll say while this definitely was slower than 9:58/mile pace, it probably wasn’t the 10:56/mile my watch showed.

Run – 29:55 – 9:58/mile (20/39 AG placement)

One day we’ll get a full team picture. This was not that day. Photo care of team captian Claudia!

Total time: 1:29:29. (10/39 AG placement)

Here’s the skinny. If you want to bump up your placement, get better at the bike. The average of 20+15+7 is certainly not 10 but since I did well on the bike, that’s where I placed.

Also, there was some majorly stiff competition. I would have needed to place 10th OVERALL of 186 women to snag third in my age group. I placed 43rd, so top quarter, at least! I was in the top half overall both genders. Oddly enough, if I would have stepped up and did the Olympic, I’m pretty sure I would have snagged 3rd out of 5th in my age group, from times that I’ve posted recently. Ah well. No regerts, right?

I’m definitely not back at peak form but I’m showing improvement. And that’s what’s important. I’m going to stick with my bike focus, because it seems to be both improving my bike and also improving my overall endurance without all the pounding of running. I’m also sticking with playing Dance Dance Revolution plyometrics because it seems to be helping my running form.

Obvs, these guys do not need the plyometrics because they have the HOPS and also they both had pretty great days!

While I’d like to actually run more, I think it may actually be helpful to run less and let my legs forget the marathon shuffle. I have run almost nothing (about 22 miles) in the last six weeks, but I improved my run by over 2.5 minutes on the same course. And, swimming. I have no idea why I’m not into it right now, but one sport has to be the red headed stepchild, and I’m sorry, swimming, you’re it. I really do need to focus a bit better when I do get to the pool, but at this point, I’m going to ride bikes and hope for the best.

Super thanks to all my Bicycle Sport Shop teammates, it’s always a blast to race with you! I mostly signed up for this race because FOMO, and had a pretty solid day.

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Lake Pflugerville Tri – shallow wells, walls of wind, unreasonable ambulation

By Quix

On June 19, 2017

In Uncategorized

Let’s be real: I don’t love racing in offseason.

Generally, during offseason, my race helmet is reserved for protecting me from falling off the couch.

Especially THIS part of offseason where I’ve just mostly finished being broken, and I haven’t yet had time to build anything yet. Ironman took a lot of physical recovery time, and I’m still working with some muscles that don’t exactly want to do what they should yet. I’m working with a brain that’s starting to warm up to the idea of being a triathlete again, but I also am struggling with the motivation to put together 5 hours of training in a week. And this is all totally fine until you throw a race into the mix.

I like to toe lines when I feel fit and fiery. I like to stack my training, block by block, to create my fortress. I like to dig my well real deep. My tendency is more towards building a skyscraper that topples over or hitting a water pipe while digging too low, and not that overtraining is good, it’s not, but I really enjoy trying to find that edge. Right now, my well is about two inches deep and my foundation is just starting to be built again. Be this as it may, it’s Lake Pflugerville, which is my husband’s favorite race, and a lot of the BSS team would be there. So, in the interest of fun, camaraderie, and showing my lack of fitness to hundreds of people, I was in to play some triathlon!

We did the normal things you do the day before: pre-race swim, packet pickup, eating a turkey sandwich for lunch and chicken, rice, veggies, and a salad for dinner. We watched a movie. We practiced transitions in the living room while packing up our stuff. Oh, and we test rode about 5 different mountain bikes and came home with one we found on SUPER closeout sale. What? You don’t do that the day before a race? (oops)

Food and bikes, the stuff of life…

I couldn’t sleep too early (my brain just doesn’t shut off at 9pm these days), but I slept SOLIDLY when I did for about 7 hours, and waking up wasn’t too hard. I ate half a sunbutter jelly sandwich on wheat toast and drank a coconut water en route to the race. All the pre-race things went as planned, except one weird moment about 20 minutes before my wave started where I felt super sick for about 3 minutes and then magically it passed. I was just about to eat my caffeinated gel before that happened and I abandoned that plan and stuck it in my tri top for later. I may be kind of underfed right now, but the last thing I need to do is shove too much in my stomach when it’s already doing flip flops.

Swim:

I made my way over to the beach, and in moments we were in the water, and I actually did a good job positioning myself near the front. I found some feet for a while but then they were going faster than I wanted, so I ended up in fairly clear water for most of the way out. Some people were talking about the chop, and I’m usually the first one to ~~complain about~~ notice those things, but I didn’t.

Except for the sighting mistake on the way back into the sun that landed me almost in the middle of the lake, this one kinda went like clockwork. I passed lots of different colored caps and I swam into the beach as far as I could. I nailed the effort, every year I swim something with an 11 in the beginning, the best 11:10, the worst 11:40, and this one came in at 11:38 which is fine. 6/11 AG.

Ouch ouch ouch ouch pebbles hurt my princess feetsies (picture care of our tri captain, Claudia!).

T1:

Also, pretty much like clockwork. I didn’t have any weirdness or fumbles, but I can tell offseason has made me a little more tenderfooted than I’d normally be around this time of the year, so I was a lot slower than normal running barefoot. I was a little slower than my worst at 2:57 (by 4 seconds), but I also didn’t get the normal pimp spot right by bike out. *shrug*

Bike:

We got going and I drank gatorade and sat up the first mile because the roads are extra super crappy and then noticed my speed. I was holding 22 mph average. This made me ecstatic until I remembered that I’m not *THAT* strong of a cyclist and if I was flying sitting up pushing almost no power, the back half (majority) of the course was going to be a bitch.

A girl and I were riding together (legally) and she kept going straight at a completely unmarked/unmanned corner and I followed her, and then two people behind us yelled at us to turn around. While it might have only taken ~30 seconds, it totally killed my momentum and we both swore about it for a bit as we u-turned into WHOOOOOOSH! A wall of wind. Ugh.

Instead of worrying about pace I started paying attention to my heart rate and it was staying around 165 average, which is probably just as high as (or higher than) I’d like it to be. My level of effort was probably a little below I know I can race a sprint at, but since I’m relatively untrained right now and my heart rate is pegging itself very very quickly, I decided to be safe rather than sorry.

And honestly, it’s not like I was on a pleasure cruise. The effort felt hard, but I know I’ve pushed that race harder. And I know I’ve held more than the ~150 watts doing it. I found another friend and reason to use my ping pong paddles back and forth with on the back half of the course, and Ironman has forever distorted time for me because it was all over in a blink of an eye and I was dismounting my bike while I wondered what happened to the rest of the ride.

The good: 3rd in my AG/11. I got in a really good pocket where I had very few complaints about the course being crowded and people being annoying which is normally the majority of my race report on the bike here. Also, I only got passed by ONE of my BSS teammates, and it was almost near the end of the bike. The bad: my heart rate was higher than watts, and this is a pretty weak pace for me. Not my worst, but not my best. And I should be crushing my previous bikes with my new TT bike. Total time was 44:47, which is technically a PR, but the course was shorter by a mile, so it doesn’t count.

T2:

Everything here also went like clockwork. It’s 4 seconds slower than my worst at 1:46, but also, I was not in a primo spot on the rack. We slept in a bit instead. I’m going to say 30 extra minutes of sleep vs a few seconds in transition for a D priority race was worth it. 🙂

Before, during, (no, not me running, but it’s representative of a thing I was doing) and after.

Run:

Here’s where the problem with offseason racing is for me. I made the decision to give myself some time away from running to really let myself heal up after the Ironman, and long-term-me won’t regret that at all, but short-term-me is going to be VERY whiny about it. My run fitness goes so downhill so quickly if I’m not training, it’s why I never quit running for more than a week or two MAX during offseason, and I know it’s going to be a long road back.

I didn’t even feel super gassed after the bike, but I got out on the run and someone had stolen my legs and replaced them with these funny appendages that wouldn’t move correctly and took a lot of effort to ambulate at any reasonable pace. Normally on sprint runs I’m cursing 10 minute miles and willing the garmin to show me 9s (and occasionally 8s), today I was lucky to shove the pace under a 12 minute mile.

I ate a gel right away since I couldn’t even with that while fighting the wind on the bike, and gave myself some time to let my heart rate settle to race effort, but the first mile split was 11:52, and my heart rate was staying pegged at about 174. At this point, that’s what I have to give, so I switched my display to just heart rate and cadence (which, of course, is also in the toilet at this point) to make sure I kept the proper effort (and also so I stopped seeing paces for the effort that made me think I was back running in Veil at 8k feet).

The wind was so strong yesterday that it actually affected me on the run, about a mile and a half in, I felt like we were running into a wind tunnel and I really really wanted to walk. On an effing sprint. I didn’t, but my pace combined with a headwind almost made me feel like I was running in place for a while. With only a little break, that wind continued to the finish of 3 miles in 32:34, or the pace in which I normally can jog an easy 5k, or 8th/11 in my AG.

We couldn’t manage to get a picture of the entire team contingent but here’s a bunch of us (picture stolen from Frank, our vice captain).

Total time: 1:33:44, for 5th in my age group out of 11.

On the surface, it’s not bad. I got 5th last year. I actually placed better in the bike this year. I expected to tank the run (not quite as bad as I did, but still) so that was no surprise. However, I had wayyy less people in my age group (11 vs 21 last year), so it’s a top quarter result last year vs top half (barely) this year. To add insult to injury, this is the Jack’s Generic course. I did 1:26 on that last year. This year, I would have been second in my AG and finally podiumed.

However, I spent my pennies on Ironman this year. I got to the finish and earned my M dot. I have to cut myself a little slack on not PRing the crap out of things eight weeks removed from that. That’s not how I work. I know this, but yet, I’m still letting it frustrate me a little bit before I get over myself in a day or two.

I think the most fascinating thing as a student of the sport and also the most frustrating thing as a highly competitive person is that my husband DOES work like that. He rocked out a great performance of 1:26-something and had his best AG placement so far (5th as well). He beat me on every leg (even the swim by a few seconds). At some point I hope things tip back to my favor (by me improving, not by him sucking more, heh) at least once in a while, but it’s cool to see him climbing the ranks in his age group to the point where he has his eyes on the podium someday soon too.

At the end of the race, I had resolved not to race Jack’s Generic in August. Why suck at something repeatedly when you can just NOT go? However, after consideration, I think I have an opportunity to put myself into a petrie dish and do an experiment since it’s the exact same course. I’m not willing to train a LOT over the next 7 weeks, but I am willing to focus.

What if I start going back to cycle class and doing more structured rides with other goals besides #happinesswatts and take FTP tests so I actually have an idea what sort of watts to hold? What if I actually do the running drills and do speed work and work on my turnover even if I don’t run much more than 10 miles a week? What if I actually take my toys back to the pool and do drills and actual sets instead of just paddling? What if I actually incorporate the plyometrics workouts in my week like I know I should? In 5-7 hours per week max, can I get back to a performance which feels respectable? Good, even? It might be fun to try and see what happens even if I’m not really ready to go all in on anything just yet.

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Adjusted Reality

“Reality can be beaten with enough imagination.” – Mark Twain

Tag: racereports Page 5 of 13

Livestrong Swim.. err Ride

Kerrville Sprint Triathlon – a lot of words about a little race

Not-quite-so-hotter’n Hell 100

Jack’s Generic Sprint Tri – All I do is pass pass pass no matter what…

Lake Pflugerville Tri – shallow wells, walls of wind, unreasonable ambulation

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