I spent the whole week feeling pretty burnt out and not too motivated, with the exception of Wednesday during which I randomly had a great bike ride and did a ton of core. But then I had a short, hilly run on Thursday that tore up my legs. Friday I had no desire to move and Saturday I forced myself to get in a quick easy bike, where I found myself legs feeling like lead, my stomach cramping, and my body generally working against me. So I headed to the pool where I felt a bit better, but a slow 1850 proved this sport wasn't doing too much better.
I drove up to Boulder with my boyfriend to find an expo that indicated I was in store for a VERY well-organized race. As part of the Boulder series, it is backed by Ironman so everything was up to par. We checked out transition and saw once again that I had a pretty sweet spot in the pecking order. My rack (#1-59) was immediately in front of the bike out which meant not too much running with my bike. It was pretty far away from the bike in, but still a relatively straight shot.
I got to the reservoir around 5:15 the next morning and only one girl was set up on the rack, in the best spot...of course - right on the end in front of the bike out, but I racked next to her and called it good enough. She looked at me and said "this doesn't look like this is your first tri." I laughed and said "Nope. I think it's 13." She was there with her boyfriend or brother who was helping her out...he seemed a little more seasoned. In the end, I'm pretty sure she beat me because her bike wasn't there when I came in from the swim and it was there when I returned from the bike.
The swim start was interesting and innovative. They asked us to corral by our best 100y time. I jumped in with the 1:40-1:50 pace group. Maybe a little ambitious as I was once doing 1:47s, but am really more around 1:57s right now, but I figured I'd see if I couldn't hang on their feet. Plus, I didn't mind sticking towards the end of the group. What else would be new?
This DID make the swim WAY crazier than I am used to. It was a huge race and it stuck us all around people of our speed. I've never been around so many people in the swim. It was hard to sight the buoys with all the splashing and heads ahead of me, but I definitely got more drafting in than your average race. I was disappointed to see I came out of the water in 18 min. I was really looking for more like 16, but you do what you can. I felt like I pushed myself really hard and despite the sighting difficulties stayed on-course pretty darn well. The nice thing was that this race was by no means an "A" race for me. So it didn't cramp the rest of my race.
The bike was a 15-miler, cut down from 17.2. Either way, sort of a long bike for a sprint-distance tri. My goal was to finish it in around 48 minutes given I knew most of the course from last time and the nature of the climbing. I had just done 15 miles in a little less than 50 minutes on Wednesday, so I knew I could do it.
Coming into T1, I once again was running over the incredibly painful parking lot. It was nice to not have to run too far on that, though it was still a longer transition run. And apparently because it was wet from the people ahead of me, that made it a little easier on my feet. Unfortunately, all ready to go, I took my bike out and knocked down the one next to me. I grumbled and picked it up. Not too happy about that one.
Running out to the mount line was a TOTAL disaster. I did ok, swinging far out to the right. People were falling over, having serious issues mounting. I forgot how bad that can get. Part of the problem was just that there were SO MANY PEOPLE doing such a short distance race. I really think they over sold it. I got on with no issues, though left my feet out of my shoes for a while solely because there were so many people around me that I didn't have wiggle room to coast and reach down. Some woman was riding out way left and I somewhat sassily said "Coming up on your left" and then thanked her for moving. I'm never amused by people being neglectful in front of me and try not to be mean but I get aggravated never the less.
I really pushed the climbs this time, knowing it would end sooner than last time because we were turning earlier. The route was absolutely crammed. It was nearly impossible to stay 3 bike lengths behind people because there were so many athletes over the course of 15 miles. I tried to just hang out left if I was passing and right if I wasn't. Still we had people passing people passing and I almost took out some people passing me very close on the left because they didn't announce their presence and I was within a bike length of the tire in front of me. It's a mutual fault, but it was a disaster nevertheless.
Coming back in on the bike, we once again had a carpet covering a gravelly area. Unfortunately I got stuck behind "Sandi." Oh Sandi, I will never forget you. She had her bib on her back with her name. Yes well, Sandi on her very expensive tri bike wobbled and braked like crazy. I wanted to scream and there was no getting around her because so many people were passing on the left. Then as we cleared the mats she rode out left. Sandi, oh Sandi. ARRGGGGHHHH!!! I finally got passed her with enough time to get out of my shoes and dismount the bike. Again the line was more crashing and wipe outs. I pulled far right and ran away from the chaos into transition as fast as I could. Total bike time 46:18 - average over 19 mph! Back up to what I've done in the past at sea level on flatter courses. That made me feel pretty fierce again.
In transition I heard them announce the first female finisher. "WOOF, welp see ya in about 30 mins" I thought to myself.
My goal for the run was 9-min miles, but pushing hard to the first marker at 9:04 I knew that probably wasn't happening. My legs hurt, my side ached...I wasn't feeling anything near runner's high. I stopped at the water stop and took a drink and promptly poured it all over my head. It was hotter than last time. Coming back, I walked twice, but only allowed myself 10 seconds. I felt pretty bad, but counted to 10 and told myself to start again. In the end, the run time was reflective of the suffering: over 29 min for a 5k. The whole race was 1:38 and my place, out of 20 girls, was 9th. There was a pretty tough turn out though. Even if I had raced my goals (4 min faster) we still would've been looking at 7th place.
All in all, not my best race but not my worse. Now back to training training training.
No comments:
Post a Comment