Test Week

This week ended up being a test week for NU triathlon, which for some reason I found to be totally unexpected. We're racing in 2 weeks and just raced 3 weeks ago. I guess it makes perfect sense to be smack dab in the middle, but when I saw our training drop from 12-ish hours/week to 7, I immediately knew that meant it was time for a test set.

I had already planned to finish off this week with a TT in Harvard, IL - that's tomorrow. One of my friends on the team was awesome and lent me her car so I can drive down. It's a 33.3k course and I had the option to register twice, at a discount for the second race, which I am pretty excited about. I wanted the experience of racing all out (the first 20 miles) and then racing when I was tired, like, oh you know after a swim :) (which is how I plan to use the second 20 miles). I think I haven't been pushing myself as hard as I can in the bike course because it's always in the context of "I have to get off and run." Even in my last TT, our coach had us get off and run. Well tomorrow I ain't runnin' nowhere.... so this will be fun...

Test weeks always start well because we have an easy swim Monday and then Tuesday off. When we train at VQ, we usually have our power test that day, but since we haven't had power data in over 3 months, we had a brick which finished with 2 miles all-out on the run. I was pretty happy to run those 2 miles at 8:25 pace. I felt very relaxed and like I was flying. I definitely think I have trained my body to fall into pace off the bike, which I suppose is a good thing for a triathlete.

When Thursday rolled around (swim test day) I had spent my whole day focusing on my nutrition and hydration, ready for performance, but nothing went right. I got to the pool to find I didn't have a cap. In the process of trying to buy a new swim cap from the gym, someone stole my goggles off the table where I had left my stuff next to the pool. While this was all going on, I was informed the pool was closing at 8:30 (when our team normally has practice) and ultimately, I didn't get to do the test. Geared up for a workout, I was debating going out and doing the run that wasn't scheduled until Friday, despite the fact that it was 9:30 pm. Upon leaving the house for my 10 min warm-up run, I immediately felt the food I had eaten 2 hours before stabbing in my stomach. That wasn't happening. Instead I relented and went to bed early.

I woke early the next morning for what would now (with my coach's permission) be a two-test day. Having gone to be early, I naturally woke at the the crack of dawn: 5:55 am. I fed myself some carbs, and about 50 mins later, hit the road for my 30 min run test. My goal for this in January - when we last had a run test in this format - was 8:20 pace for 30 min. It didn't happen amidst the wind and cold. In fact, I believe it was 8:40 pace - a HUGE difference. I set the bar lower on Friday knowing that a 20 sec drop/mile would be a lot, even in 5 months. I hadn't set my focus on working on the run. My goal was to at least make it past 3.5 miles. I was happy to find at the end of a very hard 30 min run, that I had. I ran 8:33-34 pace, which is not too bad. I'm fairly happy with 6-7 sec off every mile.

I think I'm coming at my running with unrealistic goals. I started this sport last year and watched my run pace drop drastically solely because I didn't know anything. I trained my body to be much stronger and a bit more efficient, but now I'm stuck. I don't think I'll be seeing any crazy improvements anytime soon. I'm learning to become happy with little chunks of seconds off my pace, like some of the more elite athletes on this team. More importantly, I have to remember it all adds up. 6-7 secs/mile in a 10k, is 37-43 sec off that time, which matters in a triathlon. I take a few seconds off here, a few off there - and suddenly I've got a couple minutes, and THAT is huge.

I was also comforted by the fact that I was truly unable to jog again after the run test. After our 30 minutes hard, and a bit of walking, our coach instructed us to jog a bit, but I couldn't hold it for more than a minute. I ended up calmly walk/jogging the whole way home, but I was ok with that, knowing it was a sign I worked close to capacity.

10 hours later, after a long day of work, sitting, and eating, I headed back to the pool, NOW aware that they closed at 8:30. *grumble* I was feeling pretty calm which I knew was important and told myself to focus on form and not speed. I have noticed, especially in swimming, when I focus on how difficult it is, or how fast I'm going, I mentally and physically crash. I did my 200 warm up in 3:55 and was pretty shocked. Breaking 2 min/100 that significantly is not something I was aware I had been doing. Then I did a 50 of backstroke felt strong. I thought, "All right, let's just do the test." I set a goal of 16 min for myself. My previous best being 16:04, and my previous test being disappointingly slow. I just wanted to hold 2min/100 for a significant amount of time.

It has been my goal this year to finally stop swimming 100s in the 2 min range. I just wanted a 1:XX. I didn't care if it was 1:59, it wasn't 2. I have struggled painfully with swimming since I started. No talent for it, what so ever. If swimming has taught me anything, it's taking baby steps. Most importantly, I would just like to get out of the water for an olympic triathlon in 33 minutes.

I recently got a new swim watch and decided I would take laps every 200y. As I finished through the first 100, I saw that I was quite a bit under 2min/100 which made me nervous. I didn't want to crash. As I came through the 200 and hit my watch, I saw that the first digit on my watch was still a 3, which meant I had held under 2min/100 for my first two. As I continued, I just tried to say focused and relaxed. As I came through again on the 400, my first digit was a 7 - still holding under the mark. At the 600, I hit my watch and thought I saw a 12, and I began to panic. I told myself not to and just keep swimming. By the time I was swimming my last 100, I caught a glimpse of the clock: I had 2:30 to swim my last 100 to reach my goal of 16 minutes. It felt awesome to be 30 seconds down but I also knew I have a tendency to miscalculate while exercising because my mind isn't entirely on the math. I looked up at the last 25 and knew I had a lot of time left, the question was how fast I could be done. When I hit my watch to stop the clock I had swam it in 15:28 - 1:56/100y. No great feat for any real swimmer, but a total accomplishment for me this week, this year, and in my career in this sport. This has certainly encouraged me to get the heck out of the water in 33 minutes.

Let's hope that 2 good tests bode well for my race tomorrow. Biking is supposedly "my leg." Let's see if I can keep it that way over 40 miles of racing. Update to come early next week!