Adjusted Reality

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Rip Roaring Ride

On October 3, 2016

Before this ride, Zliten said he was really nervous. For some reason, I wasn’t. At all. Yeah, it would be our longest ride outdoors to date. Yeah, it would set a PR for climbing (beating our mountain ride in Colorado by over 500 feet). But I was totally calm about it.

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I think it was the fact that it was fully supported, and I had 3 outs (turnarounds for the 28, 50, and 65 mile rides) if we really weren’t feeling it. Frankly, we would also have SAG support in case of the worst. Do I take those outs? Rarely to never. But… it always makes me feel better to have them.

Also, it wasn’t a race. We had a time where we had to complete the ride by, but there was no timing, no placement, and no stress. And I was on Evilbike, who’s become my best buddy this year. Death Star is very sexy, but we are still getting acquainted. Evilbike is <3. After about 5 years of constant misunderstandings, we just get each other now.

In the morning, we drove up to Liberty Hill Elementary School, which we thought was an hour away but really was less than 30 minutes – score! I completely did a stupid and didn’t eat anything pre-ride, just drank some decaf coffee with a little sugar in it, but since it was a supported ride with a buffet at each rest stop, I didn’t think much of it. There was a chill in the air that morning, but the weather forecast said it should warm up rather quickly, so I decided to leave my sleeves in the car and deal with it.

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We started out with the crush of people, and made our way further up to the front over the first few miles. We couldn’t roll through the first 14 at 10 mph or we might not make it back in time! The ride was supported really well, we had motorcycle escorts on the main road making sure cars were polite. I want a motorcycle escort always please!

Then… it started to rain. Cloudy, chilly, windy… I was really kicking myself for not bringing my sleeves. It was probably the first 2 to 2.5 hours where I was cold, wet, and kind of miserable. I don’t ride in the cold much. This is the weekend my bike usually gets tucked away, except maybe a trainer session here and there, until Spring. I guess I have some things to learn about riding in different seasons. Next time, I will bring the sleeves. I probably would have worn them most of the ride and even if not, they fit easily in my jersey pockets.

I made up for the fact that I didn’t eat by hitting up the buffets as we passed them. Tally for the day: about 3 bottles of gatorade or gatorade-like substance, two date rolls, one caffeinated gel, one small brownie, a few handfuls of pretzels or chex mix, one pb pretzel bar, and one english muffin bacon and cream cheese sandwich, which I stuck in my shirt and ate from about mile 30 to mile 50. I’m starting to think about what’s going in my special needs bags mid-bike and mid-run at IM Texas, and I’ll probably bring something like that.

We passed all the turnarounds, and committed to the longest ride. We took the turn to do the loop that gives you the extra miles, and immediately was glad we did. It was the prettiest section of the course. I didn’t paparazzi a whole lot because we were working, but this is a great representation of what it looked like. Sweet Texas country.

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We found a lot of downhill, which I just can’t bring myself to fully enjoy, because I know I’m going to pay for it, and pay for it we did. Thankfully, the climb was gradual (but long), and we hit the over halfway point, the sun started to peek out, and I was like, “Ok, it’s going to be a long day, but I can totally do this”.

At some point in here, Zliten and I were riding together, a car was riding behind us, so he ushered me to get in front and we happened to turn around a blind corner right as a truck came the opposite way. It wasn’t that close, but my adrenaline was definitely up for a bit after that. Next time I’ll use my common sense and drop back instead.

For some reason, the last half of long rides are usually my favorite. The beginning miles, I just start psyching myself out. When I’ve covered some ground, my legs are usually warmer, and I’m feeling better and more confident. In fact, I’d say that the ride was split pretty squarely in quarters. The first, we were kind of miserable and cold and it took FOREVER. The second, things were getting better. The third, I was really enjoying myself and I took the lead for a lot of it. It’s crazy, all my other 5 mile splits are 14 and 15-something mph, and then there’s this one that’s 17.8. I found some flat (or more flat, we still gained over 100 feet), and I was pushing us.

Then, after about 55, we found those rolling hills that Zliten really likes, and he pulled me until we hit the main road again. The last 25 miles, we averaged almost 16 mph while still doing a decent amount of climbing. I may have sent some psychic cuss words at him, but I stayed with it and then all of a sudden we were back on the home stretch (which was a LOT less nice without our motorcycle escorts) and then the ride was done. It was advertised at 79, we hit about 75, and I totally did not mind.

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And then, after a distance and climbing PR, how do you celebrate? By running, of course. We changed into running shoes and at first my legs felt like lead, but after a minute or two they loosened up and actually felt really good! I would have been happy to complete a mile at any pace after 5 hours on the bike, but one at 10:10/mile? Super stoked.

I really wanted to get a good, over-distance ride in this half training session. It was nice to ride 75 miles, and then run, and realize that I could definitely have done more on both if I was pushing to exhaustion. I’d say I’m feeling it not in body soreness, but in a tiredness I can’t seem to sleep away (it’s the last peak week, this is normal for me, as long as I’m not stupid it will go away) and my appetite turned up to 11. I have eaten ALL THE THINGS.

Two more feats of strength coming up this week, and then it’s time to start tapering! Wheee!

Kerrville Olympic-ish Triathlon – Dollars and Change

By Quix

On September 26, 2016

In Uncategorized

I have a whole lot of thoughts on and around this one, but I’ll stick to the race details here. Kerrville Quarter Distance Triathlon race report GO!

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Sunday morning:

After a few issues including LEAVING MY GOGGLES AND EARPLUGS at the gym in Austin and not noticing until after the expo closed (more of this later), we awoke to rain overnight, and lightning arcing through the sky. I fully expected the race to get cancelled and was already debating the contingency plans (really long trainer ride? just go home and drink mimosas?), but the lightning part went away so the race went on.

I felt like I had been eating non stop since earlier in the week (more on this later also), which meant I was fueled pretty well. I also hadn’t, erm, emptied for a bit, so at one point in the porta potty line I told Zliten I was about to poop my pants or puke, I felt so full. Not the greatest way to come to race morning, but after a few visits to my friend (Porta) John, it was all sorted. Morning nutrition: cliff peanut butter filled bar, parts of a gatorade and nuun that didn’t fit in other bottles, a caff gel, and two electrolyte pills about 30 mins before the start.

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Random foods, schwag, the pool, the swedish goggles and CVS earplugs, and the Texas pool.

Swim:

Kerrville is a time trial start, which means you’re in a line like cattle, and then all of a sudden you hear your own personal GO. Which, in this case, means you’re diving into the water and hoping to all that’s good and fishy that your new Swedish style goggles hold tight. You’re trying not to think about the fact that Zliten just built them last night after an online tutorial, you only tested with about 50m of laps in the hotel pool, and you’re really hoping they do not fall apart or leak or fully burrow into you’re eye sockets or fill your head holes with lake. This is not the case with every swim, probably never again, but this is the start of your Kerrville swim.

Oddly enough, after the initial 100m, I didn’t think about them much. Though, I can still feel the bones around my eyes a little sore in some places today. This lovely, glamorous sport we do, right?

I started out with the pass pass pass pass and then we joined with the half ironman swimmers, which was annoying, but I found some space and mostly avoided trading blows with people. The very dark goggles + a super grey day + the murky lake = couldn’t see my Garmin for anything. So it was swim by feel.

My goal was to pace this like the Splash and Dash, but I think I got caught up in the fact that I usually do a half ironman here, and paced it more accordingly. I also have to remember it was not wetsuit legal, in fact, it was 82 degrees, so that also slows the swim times down. The quarter (what they called it, half of the half distance race) let the ladies go first, which was nice, until I got beat up by the first two dudes from the guys wave after me about 100m from the shore. Seriously? Swim around me. There’s plenty of space. Sigh. Dudes.

That may have harshed my mellow a little, but I got out, saw that I swam ~22 minutes and filed that away under “that could have been a lot worse”. Whatever the race clock says, my garmin clocked me at 2:00/100m moving time, so I’ll take it.

Swim: 22:40 (2:16/100m), 8/18 AG.

Transition 1:

T1 has this really steep hill. Some years, I’ve walked it. This year, I actually came out of the water feeling great, so I jogged up it and actually passed some people. Yeah! I did all the normal things, plus decided on bike gloves for comfort, shoved my shit in the T1 bag and ran off. I know this is my fastest time, I think by a LOT, though no wetsuit to deal with helped, I was also racked in the back of T1, so I had to deal with my bike for a lot longer. Hooray for avoiding transition gravity!

T1: 3 minutes flat, tied for 7/18 AG

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Dropping off death star for a an overnight sleepaway camp for bikes.

Bike:

Warning: gross triathlete stuff ahead. I had to pee the entire swim, but couldn’t. I figured, no time like the present. No one was around, and I went ahead and let it go. Baby’s first pee off the bike. Major (long distance) triathlete milestone! I had a brief thought about the shoe stench and then all of a sudden the sky opened up and started pouring, and I was like, “that takes care of that”.

However triumphant I was with peeing, and however thankful I was for the bath, it really wrecked my bike mojo. I’d never ridden the death star in the rain, so I had no idea how it handled. I still probably don’t, because I took all the turns at 5 mph and rode so incredibly cautiously I was probably making little old grannies look reckless. I felt very uncomfortable in aero, so I’d say I spent MAYBE 25% of the race there (and that may be generous).

The course is a generally a gradual downhill on one half, followed by a generally gradual uphill. The bad is that I took the downhill super conservatively, and I probably rode it slower than I ever have, and lost a LOT of free speed. The good is that the uphill parts felt a lot less uphill than ever. Since I’d never taken them before on the Death Star, I got prepared, plopped down into little ring and prepared for the worst… and then all of a sudden I was up them, no muss, no fuss. My 5 mile splits ranged from 16.5 at the worst and 19.2 at the best, so if nothing else, I was totally consistent.

It wasn’t raining the entire time, but wet roads are slippery, and some parts of the course were not blocked off, and you had to ride a small shoulder. Fucked if I’m going to be swerving out into traffic in the wetness in aero to pass people. I did it a few times (not in aero), but I definitely got stuck behind people more often than I should have. Also, I realized that my aero helmet wasn’t tightened down around mile 20, which made it slip all over so I couldn’t see well. I thought it was just a tragic hair choice with a higher than normal ponytail I could never figure out how to fix. Sigh. I will be reviewing that move in transition practice at least 10 times before the next race.

I was happy on the out and back section I didn’t see Zliten. I know that sounds mean, but he is just unbeatable this year and I always win Kerrville. Looking at the times, later we were actually surprised and then did a Strava flyby… I was maybe 100 feet up the road when he got there. Heh.

I suppose, subconsciously, I was a little fearful of that hill I wrecked on last year, even though I didn’t want to admit it. But, again, I was prepared for the worst, and then up it like I climb that kind of shit every week (oh wait, I do…). I rode the last 6 miles so thankful I has stayed rubber side down and had a functioning bike, unlike last year. I probably spent more time in aero at the end than any other section and then all of a sudden there was the sharp turn into the park and lots of coasting and there I was at T2.

Am I a little disappointed in my bike split? Sure. However, I would have been more disappointed with myself if I crashed and spent the night in a hospital or wrecked my new bike or even had a minor injury plaguing me this week due to a low speed crash. Safety first, kiddos!

Bike: 1:39:25 for 29 miles (17.5 mph). 7/18 AG.

Transition 2:

I ran my bike in and racked and dumped my bag. I made the conscious decision to use my hokas with regular laces and take a few extra seconds to actually tie them, and with how WET my feet were, I was actually super happy I did. No blisters! Since it was cooler, I left my handheld bottle, but I grabbed the gels in it and headed out.

T2: 2:25. 7/18 AG

Run:

This is usually the bane of my triathlon existence, but today I felt weirdly set up for success. It was cooler, I was not coming off the bike overheated like normal. I was feeling… rather great, actually. I got out on the course and let my legs dig in to the pace, and all of a sudden the first mile ticked in at 9:46… and I was like, ok, let’s keep this up!

I also realized that while I had fueled appropriately for the weather, I was only one gatorade and one gel into the day at 2 hours and change. I felt fine then, but I knew I wouldn’t by the end. I let the universe decide my fate – caff gel in one pocket, non caff in the other, and I got the non-caff. Probably for the best because I actually fell asleep before 3am, though the caff gel probably would have helped me finish a little faster. Tradeoffs. I also made sure to take in a gatorade and a water at each aide station because cool and wet doesn’t mean I’m impervious to dehydration.

Just before mile 3, I did the calculations. If I didn’t see Zliten until mile 3.5, I was beating him. Then I looked up and immediately saw Zliten, running strong. I felt happy for him but also checked in with myself to see what I had left and see if I could at least give good chase. Survey says: I was not really to spend all my cash. I wanted to keep some of the change. In my head was the training I still have left to do for my A race. Six days until a long hilly 80 mile ride. Thirteen out from my long brick on the Austin 70.3 route. That is the race where I throw all the dollars at the course and say “keep the change”. Not this one. Patience.

Also, I was already having a pretty phenomenal run split for me. I debatably did better at Cap Tex last year (slightly better official time, but this course was long and that one was a little short), but I was in much better run shape then. This was a pretty great victory. I kept plugging away, fading to low 10 minute miles in the last half, but still very pleased with what my garmin was telling me.

We had some friends and BSS teammates on the course, and closing in on mile 5, I kept hearing Zliten behind me giving them encouragement as they passed (I give hi 5s, less talking/breathing). I knew it was only a moment of time until I saw him and then… yep… decisive pass. I did pick it up a little and kept him in my sights for the rest of the race, but there was no way I wanted to do what needed to be done to my legs right then to go with him.

I know there was some rain at points, but I don’t remember it. I love rain when running. I just kept plugging away and telling myself “10 more minutes of running, “5 more minutes of running” “3 more minutes of running” and then there was the finish and I ran across and it was 0 more minutes of running.

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Ganked from teammate Larry’s facebook. Hopefully he doesn’t mind… Before the rain and the sweat!

Run: 1:07:26 for 6.4 miles (registered 6.64). 10:32 official pace. 10/18 AG.

Without really meaning to, I kind of paced this race like my ideal half ironman. I definitely had another loop of the bike course at that speed. If it was the race where I spent all my dollars (and also, had maybe done more than one 10 miler :P), I think I could have done another loop of the run approaching that pace. It was just getting cooler and cooler as it started raining harder, but as I said, I love running in the rain so I don’t think it would have bothered me.

I post race fooded pretty well, got a taco and some chips and some fruit, and a beer. We sat around for a while and chatted, but got really cold and it started to pour. The first time it let up a bit, we got our stuff, and got the heck out of dodge. We had planned to stay and cheer and enjoy a few more beers and float in the lake. Sorry half finishers!

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Only slightly resembling a drowned rat.

Total time: 3:14:57. 6/18th AG. You’ll notice that I never placed above 7th in any individual discipline, but I ended up top 1/3rd anyway. Consistency is key!

Immediately after the race, I wasn’t sure whether to be happy or disappointed with it. There were high points and low points. I had no mystical “third place” to chase down on the run (5th was wayyyy ahead of me). I was motivated by Zliten chasing me, but not enough to not get caught. However, I had a really solid day altogether, pretty good age group placement, and one of my best longer distance runs off a bike yet. After 24 hours, I think I’m ready to mark this one down in the WIN column.

What’s next? Two more recovery days, and then we jump back into peak training for a while. In the next two weeks, I have a lot of running and riding to do, and I’m ready for the final push to Austin 70.3.

Splash and Dash

By Quix

On September 21, 2016

In Uncategorized

I haven’t done a Splash and Dash in over four years. Tuesday nights are typically for Endurance Cycle (Pain Cave) Class or offseason during the April through October time frame. However, they were doing an awards thingee for our distance swim challenge with the awards for the race, and asked us to come. Well, if I’m there, I might as well race it, right?

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I has a number. I race now.

My goal was to treat it like a short speed session, which is not something out of the ordinary for me to do on Tuesday of a race week. However, that meant going about 80-90% and holding some back. I think I did alright at that. I’m a little sore today but not any more sore than I’d normally be after a speed workout.

We sent the men folk off at the top of the hour and then got in place for our start 2 minutes later. I haven’t done a mass wave start since Pflugerville, but I swam up to the line… and then I looked back… and there were about 50 million people behind me. I halfway considered dropping back and then I was like, wait, don’t you usually come in top 1/4 or 1/3 in the swim leg? Nope. Stay there, woman.

It was a good decision. Besides the initial rush of all the pointy edge front of the pack swimmers taking the hell off like a shark swimming down it’s prey, I didn’t get passed at all. Weirdly enough, the first half of the swim, I had my own little bubble, no one in front of me and no one on my feet.

Also, right as I lined up for the swim, my garmin died, so this was all by the feels. I found that pace, the one in the long intervals and swim tests, the one where I think I can hold it but I’m not entirely sure, and stayed with it for a while. In the second half of the race, I was no longer alone, and luckily, I was finding THEIR feet and not the other way around.

Since my juiceless garmin gave me no insights into time elapsed, and I don’t have huge hope for official results since they haven’t even posted AUGUST yet, I can’t really judge my swim time. The only thing I know is my time overall, probably, and I was told I was the next person out of the water after Zliten (who had a bad swim day issue with his goggles). Unfortunately HE didn’t start his garmin right away so I just have no idea.

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I love lake. How could you not enjoy a swim here?

I had a good swim, didn’t get passed, passed a lot of people on the second half, and paced it appropriately for me. My goal was to swim pretty hard, since lately all my open water swims are sorta la-de-da-de-da, and I remembered how to do that. Once that was done with, however, I really didn’t care about racing the rest of the race. I talked to Matt and Peri in transition and took my time. I even took the time to put my fitbit on so I got the 3k steps. The race-y part, for me, was over.

First loop, I settled into a tempo pace. Comfortably hard. Quite certain I was not going to blow up but not able to hold a full sentence conversation. Normally from there, my goal is to speed up, but yesterday, it was to just stick with it.

It took some conversations with myself not to go with people who were passing me, which is a good sign, but it was hard. Some people were obviously wayyyy faster than me, but then there was the girl who used me as a pacer the first lap and slingshotted ahead (and thanked me for the pull) and I wanted to follow her, but she was running my race pace. Not my tempo. So I told myself, “Sunday, you will go with her, today, you stay within yourself”.

The run was fairly unremarkable, nothing tragic or heroic, just a comfortably hard 2.05 miles in the high 90s and in the kitty litter. I let my stride open up the last tenth of a mile and I crossed and found Matt, who had been cheering for us all race and Zliten mumbling about gatorade, stat. It was weird just being all “ok, workout’s done” at the end of a race and not shelled, but I know I’ll thank myself this weekend.

I’m pretty sure I finished around 37:40-something, if we were indeed 2 minutes behind the boys (the clock said 39:40-something when I crossed). Looks like about a 30 second PR from 4 years ago. Yay! I know I didn’t make top 3, I know I didn’t finish last. I’m pretty sure I was top third out of the water, maybe top quarter for females, and then got passed passed passed on the run. Someday maybe I’ll suck equally at all the sports? 🙂

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Seriously. This dumb expensive hard and awesome sport we love. Sigh.

We did all the post race things. I got my first tiny acai bowl and why did no one tell me that it’s healthy ice cream with yummy things in it? I had a beer. We hung out with our triathlon friends and met some new ones. We got our awards for the distance challenge and made tentative plans to continue it with a 7 loop swim sometime soon. I ate a hot dog because I was finally hungry and I was super stoked because it was charred and they had dill relish. And then… it was getting dark and everyone was packing up and we got busted by Reed for missing cycle class on the way to our car (d’oh!) and went home and drank some whiskey. The end.

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Baywatch, flat tire ghosts, and run sex – the Jack’s Generic Triathlon race report.

By Quix

On August 14, 2016

In Uncategorized

It’s been a very good (busy, but good) week. I’ll get to the rest of what’s going on soon, but it’s time for an overdue race report.

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Spoiler alert: I finished.

A week ago, I raced Jack’s Generic Triathlon (the sprint version). I’ve done this the last three years. 2013 I raced the Intermediate distance and realized that a longer triathlon ending with a 6 mile run with no shade in August is not exactly my cup of tea. So, we race the sprint version now, typically to kick off the end of offseason. This year, I’m about 6 weeks into a very gradual build (but still a build), which means I’m going in with more fitness but also more fatigue. What condition would win?

Turns out, the fitness. Who knew, right?

I tried a new thing with recovery week on race week – I split it over two actual weeks (Thursday – Wednesday). Due to life getting in the way, I ended up taking this whole week lighter, but on a normal week, I can see how it would work out better. Physically, I think it was perfect for a B race and I’ll do it again. Mentally, it was a little weird not having a Mon-Sun week of recovery, but I’m looking forward to giving it another go for the next B race.

The swim challenge ended up falling the day before the race, so I swam 5 easy laps (3750m) in open water less than 24 hours before toeing the line. That’s not actually something I would have chosen to do, but I think it might have actually worked out. Between the long swim and the few days of recovery before, I think I came to form on the right day. Instead of being twitchy or oddly fatigued the day before, I had this nice tiredness about me that made sense, and it meant I stayed calmer than normal and actually slept really well.

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Before caffeine sleepy “why am I up so early” smile.

The morning of, I had one of those new cliff nut butter bars and it was a perfect breakfast. Pure carbs seem to make my stomach icky in the morning, but carb + fat is the best combo. Plus, it’s a bar, takes no preparation, and I can easily pack it for an out of town race. Three more nutrition successes: I had a caffeinated gel about 45 minutes before the race, I brought a water bottle to continue to drink up until the race start, and I took two electrolye caps. I think all three did good things for me.

I was in the last wave, so I had a lot of waiting around (female triathletes end up having to wait… a lot… so I’m used to it). Finally, once it was time to go, I got *kind of* in the right position and the volunteer that was manning the time trial start told me to run like Baywatch, so I did my best impression on the way to the water. I hope there ~~aren’t~~ are pictures. 🙂

Swim:

The long swim the day before was either going to make this awesome, or suck. I started out paddling my way through loose hydrilla (which thankfully they had spent the week cutting and harvesting, the swim course was REALLY NICE compared to the grabby plant monsters that normally are around in August), and just worked the swim course.

I have zero bad things to say about this swim. I feel like I nailed the pace right away and kept my effort strong but not over the line. I got out of the water feeling like I had done some work but not shelled. I don’t think I got passed once and I passed a lot of people. I clocked my best time on this course I’ve been swimming in races since 2011. If I had to throw out a negative, I placed further down in my age group than normal, but we ended up having some fasties, so it had nothing to do with my performance.

Swim time: 10:59 for 500m. 8/29 AG.

T1:

Not much to note here, except I ended up having to race incredibly close to swim in, which is my least favorite. And… I still beat Zliten, who was racked right in front (jerk! :D). It was my worst T1 in years, but I don’t think I’ve ever had to rack this far back.

T1 time: 3:01

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Working with the pictures I have of this race. So you get a lot of selfies. That’s why you’re here, right?

Bike:

I’m definitely still getting used to this bike, so it’s a little awkward, but it rides like butter. Awkward butter? I mounted and got going without incident since I actually remembered to put myself in the right gear. I pushed the effort really hard on the first half of the course and when I took a gel I checked my garmin. I was at 20.6 mph average! RAD! Then we hit a bunch of hills into the wind and my happy little balloon deflated.

After that, I let off the gas a little because I was really ripping my legs off keeping that pace. One of these days I’ll have the confidence just to go all out on the bike and see what happens on the run. Practice might be a good place to do that, but I’ve just never been able to simulate that high of an effort not in a race. I almost ALWAYS run very well off the bike in training and it’s a toss up in racing. *shrug* If I had it figured out completely it wouldn’t be any fun, right?

During a portion of chipseal uphill into the wind, I was convinced my tire was flat. I actually asked the guy next to me and he told me it wasn’t. Brain ghosts. Weird. Thankful it wasn’t, but again, still getting used to the feel of the Death Star. On the way back in, I ping ponged back and forth between some dudes and had to do a whole lot of “on your left” and probably had to double pass about 20 times and hop the yellow line at least 10 because of course crowding. #lastwaveprobs

While I have some improvements to make, I’m pretty happy with how I rode at this point in time. I was almost going to get grumpy about not being able to hold 19 mph, let alone 20, but this is my best bike split here by far, by almost 1 mph. Some (maybe all) of this is purchased speed. I think I’m still ok with that. The awesome thing is this stuff will be even speedier once I really learn how to ride this bike and get comfortable with the new position.

Bike time: 41:34 for 13 miles. 5/29 AG.

T2:

Again, nothing really to note but my terrible rack position. My time was pretty average. I made the choice, as I typically do in August, to run with a frozen hand held that I stored in a cooler, so that took an extra second or two to navigate.

T2 time: 1:31

Run:

After a pretty great swim and bike, I get onto the run course and ugghhhhh my legs. They did not want to turn over quickly AT ALL. I’m looking at my garmin seeing 11 minute miles, which felt like 9 minute miles. No bueno. I’m starting to see people pass me who I passed on the bike and I’m like… no no no no… crap… not this again.

A few dudes passed me, girls not in my age group, girls in my age group but doing the intermediate distance, and then finally, a girl with a 35 on her leg and a race number close to mine ran past. This was my cue to go, since that was the plan.

It’s easy to say sitting in the chair in front of my computer that my goal is to try to go with anyone who passed me. Of course you want to do that. But in the moment, when you’re sweaty, hot, tired, sore… and then someone changes the pace on you? Your mind fucking rebels. But my goal was to run down third. In my head, she was third and I told myself to remember her race number, if she came in third and I was fourth (not how it went down, but whatevs), I would remember this moment where I let it go and I’d have to face that.

I couldn’t get my legs to speed up enough yet to match her pace, but I put a big freakin’ bullseye on her back and kept her in my sights and tried to find another gear I could maintain. I don’t really remember much of the first two miles except sticking to her like glue, reeling her in, and then finally at the last water stop, I passed her. Decisively. And I ran for my life for about a quarter of a mile until I realized she wasn’t trying to pass me back.

The last half mile, I was running about the same pace as a guy who was breathing about as heavy as I was. More random race thoughts: if someone just heard our soundtrack, they would think we were having very vigorous sex. I saw the end, found another gear to kick and pass one more person right near the finish, and I crossed the line feeling strong and happy.

Run: 29:21 for 3 miles, 12/29 AG.

jacks1

Team Tri – Zliten atop the podium because he kicked some serious ass and had a 6 minute PR.

Total time: 1:26:33. 6/29 AG.

Let’s talk about outcome goals first, since this year I’m really trying to figure out how to start placing in my age group (or at least finishing closer to the top). Cycling really pays off. You wouldn’t normally put together an 8th, a 4th, and a 12th and get a 6th… unless that 4th is on the bike. I beat girlfriend that I passed on the run by over 2 minutes. I needed 1.5 minutes (which would have been possible, if I had a real banner day) to move into 5th. I needed 5 more minutes to move into 4th and almost 8 more to move into 3rd. I don’t have that yet – but considering my first Jack’s Generic Sprint was 1:40-something, it’s not to say I can’t keep improving and get there. But on August 7th 2016, ranking almost top 20% of my age group, top 15% of my gender, and alllllmost top 33% overall is a pretty good place to start to trying to chase down a podium.

In terms of process – I swam better than expected, faltered a little on the end of the bike but still did pretty well, and took some rough feeling legs through a fairly strong run for me, especially at this point in training, and my transitions were solid.

You can’t ask for much more six weeks away from a long offseason. I now have six solid weeks of training ahead of me, wherein the weather should transition at some point from scortching to almost pleasant, before my next race. It’s an Olympic. The times from last year are pretty fast, so I don’t love my chances at getting on the podium, but after seeing how it affected both the outcome of my run and my self talk during it, I think I’ll continue with the goal to run down third even if I’m actually running down, like, eighth.

jacks5

Also, can we talk about how I look slightly less ridiculous in wet spandex at this point in time? I’ve still got some work to do, but this picture summarizes how I feel about progress.

Lake Pflugerville Triathlon

By Quix

On June 22, 2016

In Uncategorized

The last few years, I’ve ended offseason with a race. While I’m not *quite* there yet, this was definitely what you would call a “rust buster” as in I haven’t raced a triathlon in about 9 months, since my disastrous Kerrville Tri cramps-n-crash-n-burn. It’s always exciting to toe the line (or the beach in this case) with more questions than answers. How is my base fitness (aka – what’s left after slacking for 3 months)? How is my mental game? Am I healed or is there still residual ick in there? Can I handle my new bike well? Do I remember how to pee anywhere else besides a porta potty?

June22-3

Spoiler alert: I peed in the lake.

Saturday was an epic family cookout. Normally, I’d be worried about being on my feet so much, but I am used to the 10k++ steps per day and don’t have a lot of residual fatigue, so it was fine. I slept well this week, but I slept terribly before the triathlon. Not for any real reason, I just kept waking up because Zliten was fidgeting (usually I sleep through any of that like a rock) and my book was interesting and I’m not used to an 8:30pm bedtime.

Race morning alarms are what they are, so at 5am, I was up and at ’em. I had a belvita with some almond butter and grabbed some caff chews for later. We puttered around all morning, I didn’t get a warmup run but I did get a warmup swim, and I porta pottied like a champ and peed in the lake. I went from wheee, we’re doing a race… to WHEEEEEEEEEE! RACE!!! over the course of consuming my caff chews, so all was well with the enthusiasm. I sent Zliten and Matt off to race, cheered them into T1, and then five thousand minutes later, I tucked into my wave and got going.

Jun22-1

I call this one Sunrise over Expensive Bicycles.

Swim:

I sized up my wave and thought… ok… I can take most of these ladies on the swim and bike at least. I lined up close to the front and found a lane and swam. I intentionally kept it about 3 gears below redline. I’m not swim trained right now, and I had no idea how taxing a the full race would be on my endurance at this point in time, and the last thing I wanted to do was blow up. I concentrated on smooth long strokes, avoiding ALL THE FUCKING PRICKLY PLANTLIFE (and failing), and staying at the decent-effort-but-not-gasping pace.

I’d say I did well. I ended up getting out of the water 5th in my age group, and besides a slight rookie mistake of not swimming in far enough, I’m happy. It’s an average time for me for this race, about 15 seconds off my best, and that’s all I can ask for at this moment in time.

Swim: 11:28/500m (it was long – I came out with 600 yards). 5/21 AG

T1:

I navigated the barefoot rocky run with reasonable fearlessness. My new aero bottle FELL off my bike when I unracked, I fumbled with one of my socks for too long, and my bike was not in the best position in transition (longer run in cleats than normal), but all in all it didn’t suck too, too badly. I’ve had way worse first transitions of the year.

T1: 2:53

Bike:

leahbike

Coming in smiling on the Death Star, so you know it can’t have gone THAT badly… thank you Pat McCord for photographing us all!

I got out and had some n00b moments with my clips (my new cleats just aren’t playing nice with my pedals, or I’m just bad at clips, or both), and then got going and ahhhhhhh. When you don’t have to stop or dodge traffic or anything, this bike is like BUTTER. Pass, pass, pass, pass, pass. Since I swam well, I only got one or maybe two people in my age group here, but being in one of the last waves means (glass half empty) dodging around EVERYONE and (glass half full) getting the rush of passing so many people.

Everything went well except for a few things. One – this girl and I were going about the same pace, and I could tell she was a newbie (a very fit newbie but a newbie). I would try to pass her, get a little ahead, but she would stay on my wheel and not fall back. Typically, you leapfrog with someone your same pace, they pass you, you recover a bit, pass them back, then later they pass you, etc. It’s nice. This was not.

Second – new bike had me all kerfuffled. I totally forgot how to eat even though I have this sexy aero bento box full of gels. I meant to take one around halfway and I didn’t. I thought I drank my full bottle of Scratch because I couldn’t get a sip and I drank less than half. No matter how I adjust, the aero position hurts my arms (all over this time, not just the delts like when I rode on the trainer) after 10 or so minutes and that was even with playing with all sorts of position changes.

Lastly, the traffic closures were a joke. There was a good few miles in the middle where the cars were ducking into our lane and forcing the cyclist either on the very edge of a rough country road with lots of potholes and bumps or crusing slowly behind them. It was a huge buzzkill when all I wanted to do was FLY on the Death Star. If I was smart, I would have used that time to take a gel but… hindsight is 20/20 and it’s hard to remember to be smart when you’re angry.

I hammered the last few miles in and when I looked at my garmin for the first time, I was actually rocking some really great speed. I stayed in aero A LOT more than I did on the other bike, and I played with all my shifters, and while my quads and my arms ached, the rest of my legs felt way fresher than normal.

Best bike split on this course ever. This year of bikes is starting off well and going to be the best! Fourth in my age group and I was REALLY close to catching third.

Bike: 45:25 (garmin said moving time was 44:48 for 18.8 mph) for 14 miles 4/21 AG

T2:

Everything went according to plan except the jerkhole next to me had racked his bike right on top of my shit (and he had plennnnnnty of room) and my stuff was all in disarray. Not my best T2 ever because of that, but this is pretty decent considering what I was working with.

T2: 1:42

Run:

Here is where it shows I have not been training. With the swim and the bike, I don’t lose fitness really quickly and can almost pick up my training right where I leave off. With the run, if I take more than a week or two off, my running paces significantly fall off and take a while to come back. I haven’t run much in 3 months. I knew this, and while I was hoping for magic race day miracles, I was planning for reality.

When I got going, I saw my pace was about 30-60 sec off what I would expect if I was trained. No big deal. I ignored it and kept trying to reel people in and keep my head positive. After a mile, I checked in and yep, pace still the same, effort still feels about what I’d expect racing a sprint tri in the deathly heat (feels like upper 90s at that point), so I switched over to heart rate to monitor that instead.

It was a little on the low side (171), so I worked on shoving it up to where I know I can maintain without redlining (175) and then put on my cruise control. It was maybe one quarter of a gear harder than I was going previously. I didn’t have much else to give. My pain cave is shallow right now.

The run was kind of a blur. I remember dumping all the water over my head to stay cool and catching Raul about half a mile in and chatting for a sec, and kind of zoning out in the middle watching the little number on my watch, and then switching over to total time near the end and seeing if I could will myself to catch my PR of 1:30:30. I sped up a little, I passed a few people, and then last year’s time ticked by, and I threw my bottle at Zliten when I saw him because I was done with it and then there was the finish.

Run time: 30:32 for 3 miles (garmin showed it a little short with a 10:29 pace) 9/21 AG

Overall time: 1:32:01, for 5/21 (top quarter) in my age group. Top 30% of all females. Solid top half overall because dudes are stupid fast.

June22-4

All done! Time to go drink beer!

Do I wish I could have pulled out a PR? Always. But I had no business expecting it and I’m not disappointed finishing with my second best time in six years completely untrained. I love the bike PR and how I felt out there. I’ll take the swim. I know I have to work for the run and I haven’t been doing that. I’ve ran 36 miles total since the marathon. Yes. My mental game’s on point – I kept my head on my shoulders and didn’t blow up mentally or physically. I made mistakes in transition (or had them made for me) but I remembered how to do all the things. All in all, I am THRILLED with the day I had.

What’s next? One last week of doing whatever, and then we start some actual intentional sessions with some work spiced in. Nothing drastic, but it starts looking like a training plan instead of a social calendar. My next race is on this course in August, and I’d love to annihilate all my paces here.

Footnote: there’s a reason I’ve been avoiding these hard efforts for months. Y’all, I was SO HUNGRY. I could not stop eating for 2 days. If I’m going to try to continue to pursue this #projectraceweight thing a little further, I need to be REALLY smart about what I eat on days when I have long or hard efforts.

Adjusted Reality

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

Tag: racereports Page 8 of 13

Rip Roaring Ride

Kerrville Olympic-ish Triathlon – Dollars and Change

Splash and Dash

Baywatch, flat tire ghosts, and run sex – the Jack’s Generic Triathlon race report.

Lake Pflugerville Triathlon

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