Adjusted Reality

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Tour of my Head

On September 8, 2014

I’ve spent a lot of the last few weeks head down, nose to the grindstone, so I don’t have a lot of exciting news, but I figured I should come blather on for posterity about how things are going. And share some pictures of skies and food and my face, because that is what we do.

In three weeks, I will be getting ready race a 70.3. Six weeks ago, I was on vacation, ending a glorious off season. Five weeks before that, I was FINALLY having a tri where I felt I put it all together. A week before that, I was having one where I didn’t. My head has been a lot of places recently.

I hit some major funk right around April and May which was decidedly burnout, but since I had races on the schedule, I just had to power through as best I could without going insane. My season was just about 2 months too long (and sadly those two months contained all the triathlons). I knew I was grumpy and unenthused with training and racing at that point, it was just like “ok, you signed up for this shit, put in the work, so you can not be disappointed in yourself after”. If that sounds pessimistic as fuck, it is. That’s just where my head was this spring.

Five weeks off did EVERYTHING I needed. While I didn’t really feel it while it was happening, once I got back to training, I realized that I had unloaded all the fatigue, all the negativity, all the mental exhaustion. I didn’t realize how much it sucks to drag myself through training now that I’m on the other side of it – after a few weeks of acclimation, I’m happily bopping through the weeks and checking the boxes and finding myself not completely smashed into submission. Feels good, man.

It’s happy to have my head, heart, and body all back in alignment again.

It shows how mental this shit is. Lots of base + specific training + taper + bad attitude = the same as 5 weeks off + no base + no specific training + good attitude in the results. There is NO WAY I should have done what I did on that Jack’s Generic course in August.

Since then, I’ve made some progress into continuing the STRONG and just making it LONGER.

Swim:

I’m swimming more (generally about 3 times a week) because I love the spaces I have to swim. It’s so refreshing to get into a nice clean outdoor pool and swim sets in real lanes. These times are coming down nicely.

Much more often though, I’m swimming in the lake. I’m pretty sure this is all mental but I swim SO MUCH SLOWER open water. I thought maybe it was just my calculations, but now that I have a watch, it shows it as well. I’m regularly 2:20-2:25/100m in the lake, but I’m more like just under 2:00 to 2:10/100m in the pool. And where I need the speed is the lake. I suppose it’s time to really push it in the lake the next few weeks. I don’t think I have much more time to really train my body to be much faster, but I can train my mind to push a little harder and not consider open water = always easy pace.

Bike:

I’ve been maintaining at least 4 hours a week of cycling (6 on bike heavy weeks), which I’m decently happy with. Would I like to ride more? Sure. However, since I have about 10 hours a week to play with, this is probably about the proper ratio considering the proportions of the race.

I am making sure to get good quality rides in when I am riding. I’ve done three long rides outdoors (and I feel like I really nailed the last 51 miler), and I’ve got at least one more planned before the race. I’m riding on more difficult terrain and conditions outside than the race, so I’m ready for it.

When I’m inside I’ve attempted to keep the stupid easy TV trainer sessions to once a week. Of the nine sessions I’ve done in the last few weeks, only 3 of them were those easy steady state rides. The rest have been videos or spin classes and they’re definitely getting me a better bang for the buck. I’ve established that I can get my heart rate up to approximately a brisk walk and sit there for hours watching TV and eating junk food for an insane amount of time. Yeah, there is something to time in the saddle, but I think shorter time amounts and more ass kicking workouts is helping me with this particular race block.

Run:

Ugh. Running in August. Enough said. I remember 6 months ago when I knew there would be a point where I would hate running this year, but I couldn’t fathom it when every day was super pretty. Well, it’s here!

I’m surviving this time by liberal use of the treadmill. I’m banking on the fact that I feel pretty heat acclimated when I HAVE to go out in it, but it’s mentally nice not to have to brave that every time I want to get any sort of run in. I feel like I’m not running enough at all with a total of 71 miles last month, but I checked last year and I didn’t even get in 50 last August. So, in my least favorite running month, I’ve done a little better this year.

I’ve also spread my running out a bit. This time last year, I was running about twice a week, one long run every week, and one less-than-long-run. I remember dreading every one of those and feeling flattened by the heat and the effort and discouraged at how slow I was going.

This year I’m squeezing in more, shorter runs, which crush my soul and my body a lot less (and I can push myself a little more and add a dash of speedwork), and stretching the time out between double digit long runs (every 2 weeks). I think this will pay off. At least, I hope. My goals with my runs have been to a) maintain as many miles as I can without going insane b) run some of those miles faster than slog pace so my feet remember how to turn over and c) run miles off difficult bike rides to prove to myself that my legs will hold up in the race.

Weights… let’s just move on. I do need to incorporate some core and continue to stretch, but the constant fatigue in my arms and legs tell me I think I’m doing ok kicking my own ass in other ways.

Overall – things are going well. I’m pleased with my progress. I’m pleased with how my body seems to need less time to recover, and my mind, generally, is really into the run/bike/swim stuff lately. It’s nice to really and truly love it again, instead of just going through the motions.

Feeling good about training again may also be a product of “garbage in, garbage out”. I usually start seasons with the attempt to eat clean (whatever version of healthy diet is my flavor of the season), and by the end, I’ve deteriorated to crap because a) during offseason I better not eat like an asshole or I’ll gain weight so I’ll get it out of my system now and b) the only way I can get through some training is to promise myself a treat.

I’m not above it yet, I really look forward to my once a week splurge meal. I’d be in the depths of despair if I couldn’t have pizza, ice cream, mexican combos, sandwiches, or burgers and fries ever again. It’s nice to have something easy, something delicious, something I can just order whatever I want and enjoy instead of making sure I’m somewhere that I can get things sans grains.

However, I’m really noticing a difference in my energy, my recovery, my attitude, and definitely how I feel when I stay away from junk the vast majority of the time, and it’s sort of amazing. So that is keeping me on what I’m doing.

It’s been a freeing experience – I figured giving up pasta, bread, and rice was going to literally kill me. I figured that I wouldn’t find anything worth eating. I couldn’t be more wrong – I found most of these items are really tasteless vehicles for sauce and toppings that really taste just fine on their own, thanks. And if I’m skeeved out of eating a burger with no bun, I should probably rethink eating it WITH the bun, that means the quality of beef is not worthy of my ~~cake~~fruit hole.

Also, corn tortillas literally save my life. Potatoes definitely support my training. Once you cut out other sugars, fruit tastes SO GOOD. Another secret is making sure I have a lot of healthy things around that I like to eat that are easily accessible, and I have less desire to get crazy with the junk. Like below, I got a bunch of yummy things from the store and put together an appetizer plate to munch on, it was so, so, so good.

I’m also back at that point where I’m considering a nutritionist again, but someone particularly specializing in endurance athletes. This is proving to me that I need a little help. I’m eating cleaner than I ever have, and I’m seeing some change in my shape, but my weight just won’t budge, and there is plenty that I have to lose. I’m pretty broken when it comes to food. I could eat myself into a calorie surplus with only a giant pile of carrots.

I’m not quite ready (financially and mentally) to hand the reigns over to someone else. However, there is part of me that just wants to hand the problem over to someone else and say “tell me what to do and I’ll do anything just fix me fix me FIX ME!!!”. I need rules. I need some assurance that I’m not wasting my time trying to follow said rules.

And, welcome to a tour of my head, circa early September 2014. Please visit the gift shop on the way out.

I Said Hey, What’s Goin’ On

By Quix

On August 20, 2014

In Uncategorized

There’s an order to things, sometimes. Have to unload the dishes to load the dishwasher so you can clean the counter. Have to plan the key workouts to plan the other workouts so I can plan the meals so I can write out the grocery list.

One of those order of operations things is that I need to look through and edit almost 1000 pictures and choose which ones I want to display and upload to facebook, and then I can finish my vacation post. But I have not had those few hours of concentration since… vacation. And these are worth doing right when you have some awesome shots like this.

So, what else, besides procrastinating photo editing, has been up in the hizzy?

New Stomping Grounds:

We finally ended our time at Body Business and started at Pure Fitness three weeks ago. It has been… a breath of fresh air. It’s weird, I don’t know how to express the joy I feel changing to a new gym. I should have done it long ago but whatever. Five minutes away from work (or, 10 mins away from home) I have at my disposal: a real lake to swim in, a heated outdoor pool, spin classes that kick my ass, lots of treadmills, and a huge weights floor.

There are also things I haven’t taken advantage of yet – like all sorts of strength classes, free sups and kayak rentals on the lake whenever I want, sup yoga classes (and regular yoga), and rock climbing. It’s really helping us enjoy loading up training these last few weeks, but I also kinda can’t wait to have some offseason time to PLAY and just take a different class every day.

Hell hath frozen over:

On the vacation, I read Beyond Training, and his book was finally the nail in the coffin. There are all sorts of athletes around doing things like Whole 30 and going lower carb and minding inflammation and all that, and they seem to be kicking ass and taking names doing it.

So, I decided to give it a month. I’m three weeks plus into it. For the most part (let’s say 80% of my meals), I’ve cut out all grains, rice, and beans, and relying on (mostly organic) corn and potatoes and fruit when I need carbs. I’m finding new ways to incorporate different veggies in my life, like using zucchini and carrots as noodles, cauliflower rice, and roasting every veggie in the oven with olive oil, garlic, and parmesan. I’ve been drinking (decaf) butter coffee and a piece of fruit for breakfast most days. Lots of cheese and guac as snackies. The calories have to come from somewhere to support training.

I’m actually surprised at how EASY it is. There are so many awesome things to eat, I have not been too bummed about what I am trying to not eat. I’ve given myself one splurge meal per week, and neither one made me want to stuff myself with bread. Actually, the opposite – I felt yucky after and realized that most refined carbs are kinda tasteless. Now – a great sourdough bread with some garlic butter? Still calls to me. Crappy white dinner roll? Not so much. Not worth it.

Why? Well, I’ve been feeling pretty great otherwise. I was worried it would completely zap my energy for workouts but that’s not the case at all. I’m plenty fueled, getting about 100g carbs per day and about 2000 calories. My face feels incredibly unpuffy (jawbones, I have them again!), and my stomach has been more even tempered.

I am a little pissed that I haven’t lost weight, but I’m pretty sure dragging myself from zero to full training is definitely inflaming me a bit and my body is in shock, so hopefully as I settle in, that settles as well.

Last Train to Kerrville:

6 more weeks until Kerrville. That’s sort of terrifying, but it will be an interesting experiment.

Swimming is coming along… swimmingly. I pretty much picked up where I left off in June and have been building on it. My pool times are coming down when I swim sets, and while I have to work for it, I’m seeing 1:xx in front of average 100m times and that’s good. My open water swimming has been slow, but I haven’t done any intentional work on sharpening that knife yet, just logging lake time. Soon.

Also, since it’s both convenient and pleasing to swim now, I will be doing it more often. Have I mentioned I love my new gym?

Cycling was another thing I put aside for 5 weeks. It did NOT exactly pick up from where it left off, or I neglected cycling earlier this year, or probably a little bit of both. 30-40 miles (outdoors) is a long ride for me. The endurance didn’t just reappear. I’m going to have to work for that. Hills are my enemies. Evilbike and I are just getting back into the swing of things. This is probably the sport I’m most nervous about coming back around in 6 weeks but we’re going to make that happen.

I’ve also been triathlet-ing up and riding outside. I did 2 hours at the veloway with the sun and the heat and the wind and I even did a 2h40m ride on a real road with real cars (and a lot of hills). I know that there is just something about riding outside that I’m not going to be able to replicate by riding on the trainer. I wanted to disprove that earlier this year and my biking suffered. So, once a week, I will hit the streets.

Also, as much as I sickly and sadly love nothing more than a trainer, some tri videos or a movie, and my ~~feed bag~~ bento box, these rides can’t be the majority of my sessions. So, what’s a time-crunched triathlete that lives nowhere near good places to ride do? Enter the spin classes at my new gym. Every Tuesday, there is a long 1h15m+ of ass kicking sport focused spin. I’m trying to make that one each week. 6am, noon, and 6:15pm most every day, there is a 45min spin class and the one last week might have well been one constant hill climb. So painful, so good, so hopefully will make me a better cyclist.

Running… is coming back at a pace somewhere between the two. The heat and humidity make it a little harder to judge, but I have had two longer runs (seems silly to say but, it’s the truth) at 7 and 8.5 miles, and on the latter, I would have happily kept going if I had more time. It’s really and truly just hot as balls, even at sunrise, so I’m just simply trying to get through these at around 11-ish min/mile summer slog pace.

I am taking some miles inside. On the treadmill, I’m able to remind myself that I know how to run faster if it wasn’t for the oppressive death star in the sky. Since it’s almost utterly impossible for me to run super slow on a treadmill, I’ve done some nice progression runs as a gentle re-entry to speedwork and plan on continuing that trend of at least one run a week that reminds my legs how to turn over faster, so they remember that 11 min/miles are not the norm once the temps come back into the reasonable range.

I’m also running a lot without music. Not inside, because that’s torture. Sometimes on long runs, but not always. Definitely not every little run I do. I think it’s going to help me not feel like I’m at such a disadvantage on tri runs when I always have been training with phat beats. We’ll see.

If you have 5 mins and want to check out our Sunday Funday, Zliten made a mooooovie.

Trying to get a little something strength-ish in each week. Weights, or like Sunday, ripping it up at the adventure park for an hour and a half (literally, I ripped up my hands like I was back on the bars in gymnastics), etc. Also, trying to emphasize hill workouts, rough interval stuff, hard swim sets, and other force workouts. Lifting heavy things in the gym is not the only way to gain strength but I’m still trying to do that once a week if I’m not 100% zapped. Last week I was, this week I think I’m ok.

Work has been interesting as well. A little soap-opera-y right now, but nothing tragic. Lots of people and things changing around. Lots of *last day* happy hours and welcome to the company announcements. It’s a little weird, though where I’m at is pretty stable, thankfully. Could actually be awesome. We’ll see! Hello vagueblogging!

In the attempt to cram every bit of fun I can into life and not go into a 70.3 hole, I got to play the first campaign of a dungeons and dragons game. My friend, who has created the story, has been working on the setting (story and painting EVERY INCH OF IT) for two years. We all stepped up our game to actually roleplay, and I’ve been doing this “valley elf” magic user that is pretty much like Alicia Silverstone in Clueless and having a lot of fun. I’ve got a secret though… it should be fun to reveal later.

Also, I finally got to see the Lego Movie with friends. Everything is Awesome is totally going around mile 17 of my marathon playlist.

…and, that’s sort of life. Training, eating clean-ish, trying to keep myself out of sleep debt, maintaining social obligations, and hoping I can whip myself into good shape for a 70.3 in 6 weeks while still maintaining my sanity, my relationships, and my job. Y’know, no big deal. Just a few plates to spin. I’m used to it.

A vacation post will come soon with some awesome aquarium pics. Pinkie swear.

Jack’s Generic Sprint Triathlon – A Breath of Fresh Air

By Quix

On August 5, 2014

In Uncategorized

Sometimes it feels like coming home.

This triathlon was a breath of fresh air. At the end of the season, I had trouble getting really excited or inspired for races. I had all these expectations, heavy with a season of training and fatigue, and even when I had a pretty darn decent race, I felt disappointed. I was lucky to end my season on a real high note, and go into offseason feeling blissful, redeemed, satisfied…

…but then there is a whole uncertainty about taking 5 weeks off. I mean, I ran 6 miles a week and did some weights (that was my one offseason homework assignment to myself). I biked ONCE because I wanted to watch the tour de France and it felt wrong to do so from my couch. I did a lot of laps around the lazy river at the water park and splashed around in the ocean a lot on vacation, but I didn’t swim a yard in a pool or a lake.

I felt like an idiot signing up for this one, the week I came back to training. Why would I do this when I’m obviously not at my full potential? I’ll probably be exhausted from trying to get back in the swing of things. I’ll probably just be overwhelmed after this at all the work I have left to do in 8 weeks to put in a good effort at Kerrville. And… this race and I do not have a great history.

But, yesterday, I got all excited. It didn’t matter that I hadn’t biked outside since June 21st (and 3 times inside, less than 3 hours total over 6 weeks). It didn’t matter that I’ve swam less than 2 miles (and all open water, but still). It didn’t matter that I’ve just pittered around doing lazy 5ks whatever pace I felt like. I had some race enthusiasm! It was really nice! I wasn’t just faking it until I got going!

The goal of last week’s training was to just do enough to feel like we were back into it, but stay fresh for the race. Ran 10 miles, did 45 easy miles on the trainer, and swam twice in the lake, for about 1.5 miles. I felt good, my legs felt fresh, but I was really uncertain about what I had to give.

Swim:

The swim was changed to an out and back because of major hydrilla overgrowth (they had gone in with snorkels and machetes and cleared a path for us, how nice). It was a time trial start, so when it was my chance I ran in, dolphin dived (sorta), and started passing people. Sighting was a challenge, and it was harrowing being worried about getting in a head on collision. A sprint swim always feels like I’m just getting started when I get out. Swam until I touched fingers (almost ran into a volunteer), swam a little further, then up, out, and across the beach I went.

Swim time: 12:43 for 500m – 13/29 AG, 65/183 Gender

I felt like I was swimming decently, and while this time in and of itself is really, really slow for me, this also includes a fairly long beach run. There was a question of whether it was a little long too. Whatever. I’m happy with it.

T1:

The normal Pfluger run from beach, around the path, down the stairs, to transition. The difference is that this time it was NOT open racking, and I was pretty much on the opposite side I like to be on (very close to swim in, far from bike out). I did my thing and clip clip clip clomped out, mounted, and was on my way.

T1 time: 2:46 12/29 AG, 60/183 Gender.

A little longer than I’d like, but the whole clomp clomp thing across a whole parking lot. Someday… I’ll do the shoes in like a pro. Someday…

Bike:

I had ZERO expectations for this. But, I got riding, I was feeling good, keeping high cadence, and I just decided to smash myself as best I could. I just wanted to see what was in these legs, and damn the run, I’d get to that when I got to it. And I actually had more than I expected! I maintained over 20 mph the first 2 miles, over 19 the first 4, and then I hit the wind. I spent miles 4-10 fighting the wind, the hills, and dodging the noobs on the mountain bikes riding in the middle, and trying to stay out of the way of the dudeholes on their zipp wheelies, I slowed to 18s and then 17s. The miles ticked past quickly even though I was pushing myself, I did my best just to hammer.

I lost pace all the way to 17.1 mph but knew I’d get some love soon. While Pflugerville wind sometimes blows at you from all directions, this was not one of those days. Once we turned and got the tailwind I breathed a sigh of relief to not be fighting the wind (and got some nice flat miles), so I saw awesome paces like 23 mph, and I just kept cranking.

I did make the mistake of tucking in behind a slow guy too early, and had to stay there so I didn’t make a dick move to dart out in front of him right before rolling into transition. While I wasted a few seconds there, I was hoping it would help my legs on the run, having a quick little break.

Bike time: 43:54 – 7/29 AG, 40/183 Gender

I kept the exact same pace as the last race on this course – when I was primed for racing, and even specifically training for shorter courses. I can’t even… I’m just thrilled. I did the BEST overall in the bike course when I expected to do the worst. Rested legs for the win!

…and I beat this guy on the bike. He normally eeks out a few MPH more than me (at least short course, longer courses it’s a toss up) but I beat him by about 1.5 minutes.

He had a really good race though and beat me over a minute on the run, so there’s that.

T2:

Dismounted as normal, had an close encounter of the T2 kind with another guy cutting in front of me going to the other side of the lot, but found my way to the rack in one piece. I had a few issues, I was a little shell shocked from hammering the bike, also the run all the way back down the parking lot in the clip clip clips took a while, but I was off and running pretty quick.

Transition 2: 1:47 – 13/29 AG, 85/183 Not my best, but not my worst. My worst placement of the day, oddly enough.

Run:

I was REALLY shelled from the bike but I just kept willing my legs to turn over as quickly as I could make them. I don’t think Hokas were doing me a service here on the slippy trail but they also probably helped my legs not fall over. Honestly – I made the call to wear them because they already had my quick laces. That is how seriously I was taking this triathlon yesterday.

Stayed just about 10 minute miles for the first two – the leggies just wouldn’t go faster. I ran behind, and then eventually passed a really fit looking guy (looked like he should have been running 7 min miles but he was just clipping along at my pace). I just worked on keeping him in my sights and I finally found a gear that was slightly faster. I thought he would see himself getting chicked and pass me right back, but I kept the lead in our unofficial, undocumented competition of two. Solid.

Then, I saw my friend Brian up ahead and just reeled him in over about half a mile. After the last turn onto the home stretch, I caught him and grunted a hello, and passed him. He found HIS next gear and said he would try to hang on, then passed ME back. I tried to hang to his pace, but I had nothing left. The legs were at max capacity. I let him go and he finished about 10 seconds before I crossed the finish.

Run Time: 28:48 12/29 AG, 70/183 Gender

Exact same split as Pfluger. When I was really trying to push my 5k pace in training. Again, I can’t even. I’m incredibly happy.

Total time: 1:29:56. I have nothing to compare it against. 2012 was a different course but same distances – I beat that time by over 10 minutes today. It’s my best total time in a regular sprint to date, so I’ll celebrate a PR. Why not? Wheeee!

I’m so excited to finally break 1:30, and jazzed to have placed in the top 1/3 (almost top quarter) of my AG and Gender (7/29 and 48/183 respectively). It’s also nice to break the curse of JGT. If I had a bad race this year I may have packed it in on this one (even if it’s at my fave venue).

I don’t race again until my 70.3 in Kerrville in 8 weeks, but this is a nice little boost of confidence to keep me motivated to get back there. Even though I’m happy with my sprint distance performance and didn’t lose any speed at the short course – I definitely have some endurance to recover. Cheers to the next 8 weeks! Nose, meet grindstone. Break’s over, it’s time to put in the work!

Gatorbait Tri

By Quix

On June 25, 2014

In Uncategorized

Maybe it’s a lot more about what goes on in the noggin’ than you realize.

I went into this race with just about the opposite outlook of last weekend. I didn’t have any goal times. Truly and honestly. Sometimes I say that when I actually do have secret goals, but for this day I simply didn’t. I just wanted to have a fun day. I knew that I was definitely past my prime this season, and I just wanted to have a positive last day of being a triathlete for a while.

I slept an average of 10 hours per day this week and did one hour on the trainer, 30 mins in the pool, and a 30 min run. I was trying to save every ounce of juice/motivation/oomph I had left. Finally the day before the race I finally started feeling a little “oomph” again and excited for the race, which was a good sign. I hadn’t felt anything like that since the X-50, so there’s that.

We drove up the afternoon before, got our packets (cool shirt – I have named it Gatorboobs), ate dinner at Denny’s (club sandwich, with whole grain rice and a salad – asked for no mayo, got extra mayo, was too hungry to send it back and ate it anyway), located the race site, drove the bike course (gorgeous! scary hill!), and then settled into the hotel to try and sleep.

I kinda had the shittiest night of sleep ever (the freeway was SO LOUD for some reason), but I still woke up feeling ready to rock (thank the dear fluffy lord for all that sleep I got this week). Normal bathrooming, purple stuff for caffeine, a cliff mojo pb pretzel bar, and the show was on the road.

Transition opened at 5 and it was open racking, so while Zliten wanted to be there by 4:30am at the latest, we compromised and ended up there at 5:10. Now, at 5:10 at Pflugerville, the place is frikkin’ hopping. 5:10 here – we were the fifth car parked and actually ended up as the FIRST TWO people in transition.

Well, considering we podiumed in overall transition punctuality, the rest of the race was gravy, right?

All the normal things followed – it’s sort of become an involuntary rhythm now.

Bring most things to transition, rack bike.
Bathroom
Lay out transition stuff.
Run warmup, take some pictures
Bathroom
Finish set up, dork around a bit
NEW: test water to determine if I want to wear wetsuit. Decide to go without.*
At last possible moment, go back into transition and fill bottles (try to save as much ice as possible) and turn on garmin.
Usually at the lost possible moment – this time, right before seeding – bathroom again.

*The water temp was 77, and it was the first time in the history of the race it was wetsuit legal. I waffled back and forth and decided to go without it. I never get hot in my wetsuit, but I don’t think I’ve ever swam in over 75 degree water, and they weren’t providing help out of the suit, so I figured the time I’d save would probably be eaten up getting the suit off. Not a lot of people wore them so I think I made the right choice.

Soon we were lining up and trying to seed ourselves and I tried to find around 2:15/100m (there was no signs). I saw two other people in my age group in front of me, so I knew there were at least three of us, and knew who to look out for… Soon, it was my turn and they took down my number and said “Ready, Set, Go”. The lack of airhorn was kinda anticlimactic but I’m sure we would have gotten sick of airhorns every 10 seconds or so.

Swim:

Time trial starts are the bomb diggety. Besides the running start into a very rocky lake (ouch ouch ouch), it was so nice and not washing-machiney even if they didn’t get the seeding right.

I felt very strong, though I spaced out during part of it and realized I was just going cruising pace during the middle. Oops. Passed a lot of people though. The only annoying part was the last ~200m, I was finishing the same time as the last sprinters, who were doing things like backstroke and breaststroke and swimming two wide talking to each other (???).

I thought I was closer to 32-33, but heard from people the swim was long. I’m ok with it. I left the water feeling warmed up and refreshed.

Swim time: 35:50 (2:23/100m) 3/5 AG

T1:

Did the big girl thing without my sandals (3 for 3 this year), and only regretted it a little once we got to the pavement. Rolled only with my bike shoes, socks, helmet, sunglasses, and garmin – yeah, I took the time this time to put it on my wrist in transition. I asked for the 910 for Christmas this year, which means probably end of the year tris I’ll chance taking this one in the water, I just don’t want to have to replace it right now. Totally uneventful and quick.

T1 time: 2:03. 2/5 AG

Bike:

This bike course was definitely not for being super fast. Quite a few decent hills, and one killer hill (called heartbreak hill). It was an out and back, so I figured what I have to struggle up, I get to bomb down later, right?

First 3 miles was really for spinning out the legs, then some good climbing miles 4-6, got up said evilevilevil hill (owowowow) without having to dismount and walk up (though I really wanted to – and I saw lots of people doing it), but I wasn’t prepared for just how shredded my legs would be after that. It took me the next mile or two to be able to handle shifting out of granny gears. The hill repeats I’ve done on the trainer definitely helped here, but I just can’t simulate 50% grade (not really) or whatever this crap was.

On the map and driving the course, the back half seemed easy, but I was flying a little less than I expected (probably due to shredded legs). I finished the killer hill at 13.3mph average (yeah…) and made a goal to get to at least 15 by the turn around. I only made it to 14.5. And then… the headwind. Oops. Yeah, guess that super happy fun time bomb-the-second-half party was not going to happen to the magnitude I wanted. Ah, well.

I alternated between head down and working and just in sheer awe of how damn pretty the scenery was on the way back. Stupid, stupid gorgeous. It was impossible to do anything but smile on that course even going up and down crazy hills.

When I finally got to the downhill, THREE cars pulled out in front of me, so I freaked out and rode the breaks down the first half until they were gone. I still got enough speed to scream like a little girl. I have yet to turn on my garmin again, but Zliten clocked 36.2 mph down it. Yikes.

I found myself really dehydrated through the bike. I drank my full aero bottle by mile 9, and finished my downtube bottle before 20. I ate half a pack of chews and just couldn’t fathom anything else that wasn’t liquid, so that’s the end of calories. Definitely not enough. I really need to remember to go for jelly beans when I can’t stomach anything else (since thats what I use as indoor bike fuel, I’m pretty sure I can get those down when nothing else works).

I was ready to be off the bike once I got to transition, but I was pretty happy with the ride. ~16 mph on a hilly course is not too bad for right now, I’ll take it.

Bike time: 1:32:27. Official results clock me at 15.6 mph, but for 24.5 miles (as the race advertised, and my garmin got AT LEAST that much), it was 15.9. Counting it. 4/5 AG

T2:

I’m not sure what wizardry happened here, because I actually had a fail – the bike racks were a little short, and had issues getting my bike back on it and ended up having to fiddle with that a bit. Everything else went super quick though and I was out and running in no time flat. No gravity there!

T2 time: 37 seconds!!! 1/5 AG

Run:

Got on the run and I had some legs, but not super fast ones. I decided not to freak out about what the watch was saying (high 10s) and just run. We started up a huge hill, then two dam loops.

Out was a flat but extremely rocky for the first half of the loop, down a steep hill, and then a long, gradual uphill to the turn around, and the the opposite on the way back – a gradual downhill which was a nice relief, but a steep uphill I walked both times. There was no point not to, I got winded power walking it, and then the relief of the flat again.

The scenery there didn’t disappoint. To one side was this gorgeous greenbelt, to the other, the gorgeous lake. When I could take my eyes off the rocks for fear of tripping, it made me happy to be running there.

I finished up two loops, holding a consistent pace. I couldn’t get my leggies turning over any faster, but I wasn’t dying to slow down. I was hoping I could do the last part a little faster and gain some ground there, so I just maintained. I kept looking for the girls I had seen earlier in my age group – one was a little less than half a lap ahead of me, and I saw someone with a 39 on their calf blow by me the first lap and I couldn’t hang. I figured at that point I was out of podiuming because if I saw two people in my AG that close, there had to be someone who had, like, already finished before I got off the bike.

Nutrition note: Had a half strength gatorade in my handheld and probably put down 3-4 cups of cytomax on the course (between my mouth and on my head). Cytomax is nasty but it kept me going. I was super thirsty off the bike and finished my handheld by mile 1.25 and lost time because I filled up every aid station, but it kept me vertical and running consistent pace, so, it was worth it. I had chews but couldn’t even. Again, I should get this figured but I don’t think it was much of a factor unless I could get my stomach to tolerate a dose of caffeine early on the run, I didn’t feel HUNGRY or unfueled.

I thought the last mile was a loop around the parking lot, but it was a loop around the PARK – through grassy areas where we had to follow cones since there was no path. My poor little brain was so confused it was all I could do to not get lost, playing the game – where’s the cone, where’s the cone, where’s the cone? It was marked well – it was just the end of a 3 hour effort, y’know. Once I hit the sweet pavement again I accelerated a bit and then I could see the finish and I passed a few people on the way and then we turned in and the finish line was there and I crossed and was SO HAPPY.

Run time: 1:02:28, 10:35/mile, 4/5 AG

They let me sit for a second (I couldn’t quite brain how to get my safety pin holding my timing chip on) and gave me a water and then another and then I went and cheered other people in until Zliten finished and we checked results and OMG I got my first podium in a triathlon in which I was not 3rd of 3 by like, an hour.

Total time: 3:13:23, 3/5 AG

Transitions count people!!! Also, it was definitely a close one for my AG placing. 1st beat me by 10 mins, 2nd beat me by 3 mins, and I beat 4th by 1 min (5th was like me at my first Olympic tri – over 4 hours). I could have fathomed being in any one of those spots depending on what sort of day I had, and I’m very happy with 3rd. Love these tiny little races where I get to feel like I have a chance to actually race for a medal, heh!

Really, really happy with this. My goal was to go out and have fun, and I so did. Plus, I had a pretty dang good race result and even got a 3rd place to boot. This was the perfect way to slide into offseason, feeling like I was completely and totally happy with the last race result, and no regrets about the day (or need for immediate vengence). I kinda liked racing back to back weekends, and I’d consider doing it again.

And now… offseason. I’ve been not-an-athlete for about 3.5 days now and I’m loving it. The most strenuous thing I’ve done in the last few days is walk the aisles at Costco. I know the hunger will come back, but for now, I’m enjoying being a normal human.

Plugerville Triathlon: A Little Bite of Unicorn

By Quix

On June 16, 2014

In Uncategorized

3 seconds.

That’s not a whole lot of time. I mean, there’s the 5 second rule for food (which I know is not really a thing but it totally is when I drop something on the floor that I really want). You might say “gimme 3 seconds” when you want someone to hold on. Glad I didn’t give anyone 3 seconds today or I’d not be talking about a new PR.

All the other pictures besides this one of me waiting for the porta potties are on a realm which is named Notmyphone so excuse the wall-o-text for now.

I was not feeling all that great this morning. My bar didn’t sit well in my stomach, the caffeine didn’t really get me up and pumped, and I just wasn’t with it and feeling excited. I’ve turned around my mojo in the last few weeks with some rest and a little more speed, but I guess it’s not still recovered.

We got to transition super early and got an awesome spot right by bike out (yay open racking). There was the normal dinking around setting up transition, hanging out in the car listening to music, potties, warm up run, more potties, warmup swim, national anthem, running into a bunch of friends, and then I was sending Zliten off in his wave.

I just couldn’t get excited. I was yawning. My stomach wasn’t awful, but definitely off. I couldn’t stomach the idea of any pre-race nutrition like I try to do, so I skipped it. I cheered Zliten out the swim, and then went and centered myself and tried to get jazzed about being at one of my favorite races of the year. Finally, after forever, it was my wave’s turn. I unintentionally positioned myself in the middle of the washing machine and decided it was fine and then it was time to swim.

Swim:

Short swims are not my strength. It takes me a while to get going in the water, but after about 200-300 meters, I do well. For a sprint, that’s like half the swim. So, my goal was to just try to put some hurt on the first half until it gets better.

I think I did alright at it, there was some touching feets and bodies and jostling for position but nothing obnoxious, and then all of a sudden we were halfway there and I felt pretty good. I did have to avoid some breaststrokers and backstrokers, but felt pretty long and lean. There was some chop, but I’ve been through way worse, so I just made sure to get my breaths when I could.

I could have probably pushed the second half more but I was having some sighting issues into the sun, but nothing too bad. I swam into shore until I touched, high knee’d out of the water, and was vertical and running before I knew it. Sprint swims are weird and so short, it never feels worth even going into the water.

Swim time: 11:33 (17/41).

3 seconds better than 2012, 13 seconds better than 2012. Thought I might have a better swim in me, but I haven’t really been focusing on the swim so a few seconds better is a-ok with me. I’m convinced this is long – this clocks me at 2:19/100m, which is pretty much cruise pace for me and this didn’t feel like a cruise, and the best time in my age group was 1:51/100m pace. Yeah, pretty sure it’s long.

T1:

Did the big girl thing and went sans sandals. It was mostly fine except a short rocky stretch that was thinly covered by astro turf, which I gingerly walk/ran.

I tried to go minimal this year. No gloves, no sleeves (didn’t need them since it was in the 80s), and decided to try leaving my garmin in my bento box instead of taking the time to put it on. Felt pretty expedient and got out and mounted without incident and got biking quickly.

T1 time: 2:15. (15/41)

Both 2012 and 2013 was 2:53. Really, really happy to take almost 40 seconds off my transition time, and I didn’t find that gravity in transition the way I did at the x-50.

Bike:

Got going, hit start on my garmin in the bento box, and tried to get it on my wrist. Fail. Wasn’t going to happen on the bike. I swear I’ve done this before but haven’t practiced it for a while so… whatevs. I tried a few times and it was just too crowded and too much going on, and I knew it was going to cost me some speed to tinker with it, so I just left it in the box.

So, yet again, I was biking blind. I can honestly say this time I think it hurt me without question. This race is challenging to bike – my wave goes off so late there are so many people to pass. Somehow, this year it wasn’t as bad – the people around me seemed decently polite and being in the third to last wave instead of second meant less people to dodge, I guess, but still – on your left about 100 times at least.

The wind was unfortunate – the longest stretch had the headwind. I didn’t feel like it was killing me, but it did definitely slow me down a little bit. I leapfrogged with some gals – attempting to be as legal as possible, but the course was so crowded it was hard. I never tucked right in behind someone with the intent to draft, but sometimes going around a corner or a car was coming, or a super fastie was coming through, and I had to get over and I definitely did not have enough bike lengths between me and other people, but it was impossible to do so.

I peeked at my garmin about 2 miles to go and it said 17.7. I was a little bummed because I wanted to hold 18s, but… it was not to be. I tried to resist the urge to hammer the last two miles and just tried to keep it steady – I didn’t want to kill my run.

Here was the worst part of the bike – I felt like I had to pee the ENTIRE time, and while I’m sure it’s a point of pride to pee off the bike in an Ironman, it’s probably inappropriate to do so in a little local sprint. Also, chews still sounded AWFUL and gatorade was turning my stomach (plus, putting fluid in on top of a full bladder was not working).

I wasn’t sure what to do, but since it was just a sprint, I figured the best bet was to just forgo any nutrition and just get to transition where I had a nice cold water bottle. THAT sounded pretty good.

Dismount went without note and I was over the line and going.

Bike: 47:58. (21/41)

2012 was 48:16, so that was better, but 2013 was 46:27. 2013, my garmin decided to fuck up and show me around a 15 mph speed, which made me rage bike and smash it. I wish I could have done a little more on the bike yesterday. Besides the fact that I just haven’t done a lot of outdoor riding this, I’ll also say that not having the garmin data didn’t help (could I have pushed more seeing my pace? probably?) and stomach issues were not helping. Excuses, yes, but they are my excuses and I own them.

T2:

I stopped my garmin and shoved it in my tri top. I racked my bike, got my shoes on, and our friend R that runs the transitions yelled at me and said “action shot!” so I gave him a thumbs up. So, that probably cost me a few seconds but totally worth it (says the girl who was 3 second on the right side of the PR, might have been a different story otherwise).

This is the first Pfluger I decided to use my handheld (mostly for cooling purposes), so that took a few extra seconds and some time fucking with my garmin, but I got out pretty quick.

T2 time: 1:33. (19/41)

Both 2012 and 13 were 1:19, so I lost 14 seconds. However, I saved 38 seconds in T1 so it was a net 24 seconds in both transitions so I’ll take it. If I could have ditched the handheld I could have saved time, but I felt like I needed the ice.

Run:

This was where I wanted to kill it. I got up the hill, onto the path, and found that my fast legs had stayed at home. I was struggling to stay around 10 minutes/mile. I didn’t freak out at first, I know I take some time to get going, but when I passed the first mile at about 10 mins exactly, I knew it was not going to be the day to run my best.

However, I wasn’t running AWFULLY. I didn’t feel like death, but I just couldn’t get my legs to turn over the way I know they can. The second mile was better, but then we turned into the wind, and I leapfrogged some girls in my age group, and I found myself just… lacking in the oomph department.

I finally came back to life closer to the finish line after someone in my age group passed me and I could see the finish, and I saw the time of day and knew I had to lay it down to PR. I found a little oomph I didn’t know I had, passing four people (two I believe were in my age group) and rolled into the finish and actually dry heaved into my finisher’s towel (all the chunks stayed down though, thankfully).

Run: 28:48. (21/41)

2012 was 28:07, and 2013 was 30:10 (but that was definitely due to my knee injury). I had figured a run PR was a no brainer with the way I’ve been running lately, but it just wasn’t in the cards. Pretty sure just a few calories of nutrition here could have made the difference, but I just couldn’t do it.

Finish time: 1:32:09. (19/41)

My best at Pflugerville in 2012 was 1:32:12, and I beat it by 3 seconds this year. No question, if I hadn’t turned on the sprint about 200m from the finish, or even I had taken the time to put on my biking gloves, I would have been telling a different story about how I just missed my PR. Today, I get to tell you about how I PR’d even on a not-so-great body day.

Did I want a better time? Yeah. I really was hoping for a sub 1:30, and I have the fitness to do so. I’m kind of sad about that run, and a little grumpy about the bike. However – I pulled out a PR. I can never be upset about that, especially when my PR here 2 years ago was probably my shining crown jewel of a race that year for execution.

So, kids, this is a lesson: practice your transitions for speed and minimize when you can. Some days, it will be the absolute difference between a good story and a bummer.

This week is just damage control – keeping the legs fresh and body rested, and I race again in 6 days to end the season. Honestly, this one is just the icing on the cake. I’ve never done it before, I have no time goals (yet), I just want to go out and have fun doing an Olympic that a lot of people have told me is awesomesauce. If there is no fire that day to pound myself into the ground, I’ll be ok with that.

Adjusted Reality

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

Tag: triathlon Page 34 of 37

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I Said Hey, What’s Goin’ On

Jack’s Generic Sprint Triathlon – A Breath of Fresh Air

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Plugerville Triathlon: A Little Bite of Unicorn

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