[Race Report] Colorado TT Championship

It figures that my first TT of the year would the the state championship, huh? (If you don't include the tri I did a few weeks ago).

Starting off the day I was running behind. It was entirely my fault, but it added to some stress. While I wasn't in any way thinking that I would place, I was hoping to have a good day. I had taken the past two days off because I was super sore. I'm sorry to report that this wasn't from some super impressive amount of swimming, biking, or running but instead (perhaps pathetically) because on bike to work day on Wednesday, I spent from 1-4 pm (or a cumulative of 90min- 2hrs) in a dance rehearsal for a company skit. Here I found myself using my muscles and body in different ways that pathetically left my quads and hip flexors laughably sore for about 60 hours. Yes. I know. I can do a 65-mile bike ride, but please don't ask me to dance. Lame.

I showed up about 35 minutes before my start time. Not ideal, but it is what it is. Setting up I asked Joel what time it was only to hear that I started in less than 10 minutes. I quickly clipped in to get maybe 5 min of warm up time. I found myself rolling up to the starting like 2 min before my start time. A race organizer was yelling "Andrea?" about to cross my name off the list as a DNS. Luckily I pulled into the back of the women's cat 4 line just in time for him to line me up with the rest of the racers - 3rd wheel to start. Great.

Starting out I felt very nervous. I had trouble getting onto my bike with the man behind me holding me up...purely, I think, because I was a little jittery. I went off and could tell that the course was going to be cruising. I had to find a balance between working hard and overdoing it. I knew that if it felt this good going out that it had to be rough riding on the way back. I told myself to use the course to my advantage and take the speed. Soon enough, the woman directly behind me passed me. She had made up 30 seconds in a little over a mile and I'd done my first mile at 27.2 mph (and was onto my second during which I averaged 28.7). GEEZ!

Coming into the first half hour, I was averaging 23.7 mph. My goal having been 19, I knew I was doing well but that it would soon come to its end once I got stuck in the opposite direction. Not sure at the time if it was tail wind or a false flat, I knew it was something.

I trucked along, pushing myself to maintain a hard effort. I was cruising at about 22 and then we turned around. The wind, while I've experienced worse, was pretty trying. At one point it blew me straight across the road and back. Coming into the hour mark, I had dropped down to 21 mph and could tell it was only going to go down from there. Knowing there wasn't much left, I told myself to push as hard as I could. The pain was only temporary, no running afterwards, and so I could just subject myself to it. It felt like almost the entire field had passed me at this point so the other people didn't matter - it was just me and my race.

I finished up in 1:14:28 which is right at the 20 mph mark. I was really happy with this because my goal had been 19, my secret goal had been 20, and if I were below 18, I would've been seriously disappointed.

I still did finish dead last in my category, but someone has to do it. I also noticed the top 2 women in our category beat all the women in the category above us that is supposed to be "harder." In fact, our top 8 women had times that were comparable to those in the category above us.

While in the rankings, my race was only ok and I am glad that I at least kept 20 so as to not totally embarrass myself against women who were holding 25 mph for a 40k race, I'm still pretty happy with the race itself. I was able to hold a pace equal to some of my best triathlon paces (and TT paces, for that matter). If that were a triathlon course, I couldn't have maxed out in quite the same way, but it was still reassuring.

Captured by the race photographer who was all up in our faces

Race Report: Boulder Sunrise

After a serious tri nightmare, I awoke this morning surprisingly calm and composed. I drove North to get Jaclyn, waking her up because her alarm didn't go off, and carting us off to Boulder.

We arrived early, though certainly weren't the first there, we got a pretty good parking spot that meant not a lot of trekking to/from the car in preparation (or after the race!).

Jaclyn accompanied me to transition where they didn't seem too concerned about non-athletes being in transition. I set up while we talked and then I headed out for a warm-up. My run warm-up was good, though a weird twinge/tightness between my outer knee into my calf made me a little concerned. I also noticed I'm starting to get little holes on the outside of my Pure Flows. Maybe I need a new pair. I jumped on the bike for maybe 3 miles, which at least allowed me to adjust my brakes, which were rubbing and settle in to get my spinning under me. I left my bike in a solid starting gear, set-up my shoes, rubber-banded on, and left the bike in transition where I took the rest of my junk back to the car.

It never fails that I find myself minutes from the swim start jumping into the water for 3 minutes just to get the feel in my arms. It kind of blows, actually, but once again, got MAYBE a 150 of swimming in before clearing out of the water, finding Jaclyn, grabbing my gatorade, and getting in line. A few minutes thereafter, before I could think about much, they said "10 seconds until you start" counted "5,4,3,2..." and I found myself bounding into the water.

My swim started out alright, but apparently my definition of "straight ahead" is to the left because as people pushed right, I looked up to sight and found that INDEED was the direction of the buoy. Oops. Sighting these buoys going out was really really hard. I rarely saw them until I was about 100 yards away. Thankfully, hanging with the group was a good idea because I guess someone saw the buoys (hint: it wasn't me).

I thought I was going fast on the way out, but I think the two times I had to stop and look up to orient myself at ALL probably did me in. At least once we hit the turn buoy things got a LOT better. It was easy to sight to the next turn buoy and then I was easily able to see all the buoys and just swim my little self in. This I really pushed through. I think what I'm learning is that I sight too often instead of trusting that I'm swimming in a straight line. Not sure. I think I'll have to get some OWS practice in this year.

Once my hand hit sand, I pushed out, only to see about 50 yards of water ahead of me. Knowing I still had enough depth to swim, I flopped right back into the water and swam until I was scooping sand in my hand, which meant still at least 25 yards of water to run through. I wasn't very happy about this. Also it got gross really fast as I sploshed out through soft muddy seaweed yuckiness. I looked down during this run to see 35:18. Not my best. Not my worst. Pretty on par with every other swim I'd been doing. I guess I should be happy, but I really was hoping I could knock this one out just a hair faster. I have work to do. Hopefully Jaclyn's knee recovering, being able to go to Rocky Mountain Tri Club swim practices, and a little time in lakes will get me swimming paces that I actually should be in the water.

We had a moderately long run, up the beach, across the lot into transition for a final swim time of 36:29. I always get a little aggravated over the runs into transition, but hey, what are you going to do?

My T1 was apparently great and my transition practice with Joel paid off - 1:14. BAM! Wetsuit off, helmet on, ready to go. I had a great position down the 5th aisle but very close to the bike out/in. I jumped on my bike to hearing Jaclyn yelling at me to have a strong bike. Nice reminder... I left the swim behind me and told myself it was time to hammer.

I hadn't forgotten the hills per se, but I'd forgotten just how numerous they were. After a few sizable rollers out of the reservoir, Jay Road is enough of an incline to slow you down, only for you to turn on to 36 which slows you down even more. After about 4.5 miles it finally breaks into more rollers with some sweet descents. Then you turn down a big old descent that almost makes all the freaking climbing worth it. Then more rollers.

My goal for this race was 18.5 mph which, in the midwest would've been a laughable goal for me. Apparently, it was perfect, because I found myself pulling through 1 hour at 18.55 miles. WOOOO.

I actually made a friend on the course with this girl who kept passing me on the uphills while I passed her on the descents (tt bike, what can I say?). We went back and forth like this and started acknowledging it because it was getting hilarious. It was nice to always be looking for her and an extra motivating force.

After a powerful first hour, things slowed down. While I wouldn't say they got "more hilly" the downhill recoveries lessened and it was a lot of low grade climbing or flats. My average dropped to a little over 18.3 by the time I made it in. I was still really happy with this. Given that my previous average on this course (when they cut it down last year and it was a normal distance instead of 26.5m...) was 17.5 (which was also what I held for the Boulder 70.3 course last year), I'm glad to see my pace finally coming back to what I'm used to. While it isn't 19.5-20 mph, it is a BIG step in the right direction.

I came up on the right turn into the reservoir really fast. Thinking "crap, I have to get my shoes off" so I reached down and managed to unvelcro both before the turn. Then I wiggled my feet out with perfect timing to make the left turn, and dismount about 2 feet off the dismount line. Sweet. It's funny how fast this snuck up on me. After so much distance training for 70.3 and half marathons, I found myself pleasantly surprised by how short this race was! Getting off the bike I thought, "wow, only an hour left!"

T2 was apparently pretty good too. 1:06. Man. When it comes to transitions, I've got it down.

Running out, my legs were definitely feeling the beating they took on the bike, but the good news was that I didn't feel the tight twinge from earlier during my run warm up. I clipped on my race belt and was out of there, stuffing my gel in my back pocket. I could feel as I got onto the course that lead-weight leg feeling. My knees didn't want to lift - not one bit. I just kept pushing forward knowing that stopping would only make it worse. I thought about what Kristina said in her blog about smiling. I know smiling often makes me feel better when I'm hurting/running. I tried that. No luck.

I saw Jaclyn and Christina this time, around 2 miles. I wouldn't say I felt strong. My stride length was short, my knees weren't driving and now I could feel the shoes start to rip up the insides of my arches. I came through the 5k point at 29:25 thinking that it wasn't too bad and I just had to maintain. Heading back for the only notable hill on the course, I reached back for my gel. Guess what? Not there. Awesome.

Jaclyn and Christina were there again, cheering me on. This time, I expended a little energy to acknowledge them. I'm really bad at acknowledging people cheering for me because I'm always just spending every ounce I have on the activity. Plodding back out onto the dirty path, I could feel my abs really getting tired/cramping. Coming through the next water stop I let myself walk and drink a good bit of it. I then hit the turn around and said to myself "this is it, you're done, just run it in." Easier said than done, apparently. I hit the water station and again walked but mostly just took a mouthful of water and dumped the rest on my head. Brrrrr

I could really feel my feet ripping apart now. I came to a small hill and let myself walk for 30 seconds before I ran it the rest of the way in. It was definitely not my best run, but definitely not my worst either!!

I ended with a 3:06, which had it been a regular distance course, at my given paces, would be a 2:59. This is of course assuming the additional miles in no way affected my ability to be more speedy. It is only an extra 1.5 miles, so I believe that that is probably a safe assumption (unless of course that means 1.5 miles of less climbing, then I probably could've run 7 min/miles - haha jk).

Overall, pretty satisfied with this race as a season opener and it has given me some drive to continue my training. Also, I have to tell you - Your Cause Sports makes some pretty sweet medals.

Elephant Rock 2014 - NOW TIME FOR TAPER WEEK

This morning I woke up at the crack of dawn (just practice for next week? yeah...) to drive down to Castle Rock for Elephant Rock Cycling Festival.

Now I've been calling this the 5-week back-to-back race weekend marathon. In truth, this one wasn't a race, but a big event for me nevertheless. Still have to wake up early, manage nutrition, etc. I'd signed up for the 62 mile ride and going in, I was determined to not overdo it. My focus was to keep a nice easy pace and make sure I took leisurely breaks at rest stops since I really didn't need distance work just yet this season.

I should explain I did this because the company I work for, DaVita, backed Team Transplant and so they requested some riders from DaVita to come represent their team.

I was so incredibly unspeakably tired waking up and despite the fact that I knew I would need food, I could barely eat an entire yogurt. I arrived just after 6, hoping to have some buddies to start with at 6:30, but everyone seemed to just keep rolling out. A few other Team Transplant riders thought it best to just go so I headed out at 6:25.

Starting out, I couldn't find anyone going a good pace. Most people were pretty slow rollers, and while I didn't want to hammer, just sitting around sounded awful. I decided to just push my own pace, high cadence, but not doing a ton of work. Then we came to a hill. Probably one of the biggest, steepest hills on the course (that or I just got used to the climbing after doing it all day). Once I got that one under my belt, most climbing felt pretty good.

I felt a twinging/tightness feeling in my hamstring really gnawing at me. Around mile 10 I thought, "wow, this is going to be a long day with that aggravating me." Pulling into the rest stop at 16, I had somehow managed to average ~14 mph even with all the insane climbing, so I was pretty happy. That and I was so hungry at this point, I could've eaten anything. I stuffed down some fruit and a mini muffin, tried some stretching, then headed out.

The next stop wasn't until 33 miles and man, the hills continued to be unrelenting. Our next stop was at Palmer Lake and by now all the snacks hadn't cut it. Here I had an entire bagel with peanut butter (well, that said, being from New Jersey, it was "small" for my definition of a bagel), a whole banana, more grapes, two little cookies - man I was eating the whole rest stop! After a decently long food break, I headed out up a hill to a finally very forgiving descent that, save a few rollers, gently pushed us into the last rest stop.

On my way there, I met Arturo, from Peru, who was drafting off me and playing the "pass-pass back" game. His friend rolled into the rest stop and we all introduced ourselves. Arturo said I was a "very good" rider. This meant a lot coming from someone from Peru, watching me, a Colorado transplant, suffer through rolling hills. Arturo told me Peru's terrain was much like Colorado's only hotter and more humid (which was my understanding). He said he grew up at 11,000 ft! CRAZY!

My hamstring was really annoying me at this point, but not hurting. I grabbed more water, a mini muffin and an Oreo. Finally I wasn't starving. Arturo, and his friend, whom I now knew to be Dave, headed out with me. We talked for a bit, until coming up to another climb, where I dropped them both. I wanted to be social, but climbing at an easy effort with my twitchy hamstring was getting irritating. In fact, I found it felt better to actually put some effort into climbing that just spin out.

Right before the final rest stop. ~mile 40

But the climb was long this time. Though I'd made it through the steepest grade, there was still more. The sun was coming out and it was getting humid. I was really glad I'd taken the extra precaution to fill my water bottle, even though I had a second totally full and there were only 19-miles to go. Arturo came up to ride with me, but eventually passed me as I began to feel weighed-down by the sweat and heat.

Reaching the top of the hill, I saw two people pulled over changing a flat. One with a severed piece of tubing in his hand. I asked if they were ok and he said he needed an extra tube. With only 12 miles to go, I pulled over and handed him mind. "I hope this gives me good karma to the end and I don't flat!" They thanked me, offering to pay me for the tube, but in the cycling world - tubes are cheap and flats suck.

I then was treated to an amazing huge descent. I looked down at one point when I was brave enough - I was going 45 mph :D Tucked in in my drops, knees to top tube, too scared to try to supertuck my butt under my saddle (slash, idk if my saddle is high enough to fit my big ol' butt under it). Shortly thereafter we fought 6 miles into the wind. Though the terrain was flat, the blowing wind was pushing me to 11 mph. No good :( I tried to jump on a group that rolled by, but my legs were starting to feel it and I couldn't deal with the inconsistent speed (swerving around other riders) and then trying to respond to power jumps from the front when the road was finally clear. I backed off.

We turned again, a full U-turn. Now with the wind at our backs, rolling a steady pace. I was happy to have about 9 miles to go. I ran into another DaVita teammate who said it was only his second ride this year! Couldn't believe it! We came to a hill and I needed to maintain speed (hamstring...annoying). He asked if I was leaving and I said "No, I'll be around" but I zipped up the hill and didn't see him again. I didn't anticipate acceleration but I think it was more consistency trumping exhaustion.

A few minor hills later, and a little suffering - I was very happy the ride was over. I still managed to average a little over 15 mph, which I'm pleased with considering hills and slowing for rest-stops. I definitely felt (and still feel) wiped out. I think overall, it was a strong showing and I'm feeling like a pretty strong cyclist this year!

But guess what...NOW IT IS TIME FOR TAPER WEEK!
And all the food. I don't think I've truly stopped eating since I got home, unless you count my 2-hr nap.