Annnd we are back.
I find that sports are so mental. I completely burned out by the end of last year's season and I was in a tricky point in life that just left me exhausted.
This year, I've made a change which has led to a decision to cater to my strengths as a cyclist. I'll be racing for Thump Cycling p/b Turin Bicycles on their women's category 4 team.
I hadn't intended to jump in until, well tomorrow, but I found myself in two criteriums in March. Here are abridged race reports:
Oredigger Criterium (Colorado School of Mines) SW PRO-OPEN
This race was a pro-open race which means all categories were in it and it was scored as just one big category. I probably shouldn't have done this race anyway but it was a good way to get the "first race" out of the way. This was tricky with a big old 6.5% grade hill and a tricky corner. I made a mistake on this one from the get go - couldn't get my foot clipped in and scared of the corner, I didn't get up front. Then diving into the first corner (the tricky one) EVERYONE slammed on their brakes. That was a little...daunting. But then I had no one's wheel and no one to help me up the hill (since I'm not a climber). Then they said they weren't going to pull anyone but they pulled 4-5 of us. Yep, including me. Not sure if they meant to do it. In the end, they gave those of us they pulled DNPs instead of DNFs which is sort of nice because it just means they didn't rank us as opposed to we didn't race.
CSU Oval Criterium SW 4
This race actually went pretty well for me. I mean, I finished second to last, but let me explain why I still consider that "going well." I clipped in quick and hung on the pack. The pack was very inconsistent in pacing which immediately is a weakness of mine - which makes sense, coming from a tri background. I just want to go hard the whole time. The back/forth will continue to be a challenge for me. Anyway, I held on to the pack for about 15 min of the 40 min criterium, trying to stay close to the front. My first mistake was being a chicken and not getting closer to the front. I had this "well I'm not going to win" mindset that kept me from getting really close up to the front which was stupid. Anyway, I ended up being towards the back and getting boxed out of a corner by a woman who ultimately DNF'd this race. I was the closest woman chasing the pack for another 3 laps and this effort I was proud of. I basically opened a gap and held that distance by myself for a good 10-or so min. As far as I'm concerned, I showed a little time trialing power on that one. Finally three girls who had dropped behind me, caught up to me which was good because I was burning out. I worked with two of them and the other quickly dropped off us. Being in the chase pack allowed me to learn a little bit about dynamics. I was frustrated because it was mostly me and another woman alternating pulls. When the third woman was told to pull she took really short ones. I gave my all but burnt out with about 2 laps to go. These two pulled away from me and I lost them entirely b/c I'd blown up, having spent too much time working hard for them (for really no reason, other than to pull my weight). In the end, I finished with the one girl we dropped behind me and the girl who DNF'd obviously off the course. While not a great standings result, definitely a good learning experience.
Tomorrow is when I intended to start the season at a Wednesday night time trial series. I just changed my tires on my tt bike to be ready. I'll also be racing a criterium on Saturday, so I'll probably report back on those two in a collective race report similar to above. I'm not optimistic about the crit on Saturday because it has a moderate hill that might chew me up and spit me out, but my goal for this race is to practice sitting in and drafting better and hopefully do a hair better in the standings.
Tuesday, March 31, 2015
Sunday, August 31, 2014
[Race Report] Boulder Sunset
From the minute I returned from vacation I felt weird about this race. It didn't feel like a normal race. I made it to packet pick-up on Friday, where I normally at least feel some excited nervous energy but...nothing. I know I hadn't trained enough. I knew I wasn't ready for some stellar performance and quite frankly, so much had been going on in my life and stellar multisport training wasn't exactly on the forefront of my mind. For the past few weeks, I mostly I just wanted to get on my road bike and ride long, steady, endless distances.
I woke up that morning at 5:30. Thrown off because my race wasn't until 10. I didn't even need to leave the house until 7. I dawdled around, getting my act together, but much more slowly than I ever prep for race day. Normally I'm high energy, nervous, excited...yeah, none of it.
I drove to Boulder and set up transition in about 8 minutes flat. My rubberbands for my aero-bottle snapped so I gave up on that. I did ask the Kompetitive Edge tent if they had the things to secure aero-bottles, but no such luck. I'd brought an extra bottle of water so instead I just threw the bottles in the normal holders and though it meant about 10 oz. less of water, it was still close enough.
Starting my run warm-up my knee felt a little off. "Great," I thought, "just what I need." But after some drills it seemed to loosen up. Who knows. The bike warm-up went all right, but I could feel that my lack of practice on my tri bike was going to wear on me because I could feel the tension between my shoulder blades.
By the time I was done, it was barely 9 am. Race didn't start until 10:10. Cool. So I stood in transition, downing water. I remembered I usually try to drink a ton of Gatorade so... -1 pt Andrea. I started milling around and also remember I'd left my timing chip at home. Awesome. -2 pts Andrea. They were luckily able to give me a new one (so I guess, +1 pt?) and by that time it was around 9:20 and I went to get in my wetsuit.
The water was VERY VERY cold. I did two laps of the mini swim area thinking that it was probably the coldest water I've ever swam in. I was surprised because I thought it was going to be around 74-degrees and I know I've swam in the mid-60s.
Still, no jitters. My stomach felt pretty empty though. When you're used to being ready to race at 7 am, but now you have to wait until 10, fueling is kind of...hard. I thought back to Nationals in 2012, when I raced the open division and just sat around eating pretzels all morning. Pretzels probably would've been a good decision. Or, ya know, GATORADE. Oops.
I met two guys in the water and we started just chatting about the race and gels and such nonsense.
Ok so fast forward through me standing around to the actual swim.
The swim felt pretty great for the first half. I focused on using the back half of my stroke. I felt like I was flying. 1 buoy, 2 buoys, boom boom boom. I couldn't believe how fast I got to the first turn buoy. I thought "well maybe something good will come of today!" As I neared the second buoy my left goggle starting filling up with water. Boooo. But it was a departure from the salt water in my eyes I'd been dealing with while diving on vacation and so even though I had water splashing around my eye, it didn't seem all that irritating.
As I made the second turn, I felt that I went too wide. As always with this course, siting on the way in was nearly impossible. I kept trying to site the big red finish arch, but it always resulted in me going out way too far left. I finally got back on course thinking "ok, maybe my little out-left detour won't be too awful." Finally I started seeing the orange siting buoys and then all of a sudden - woosh - our course intersected with the sprinter course and the fast male sprinters swam straight over me. "Well, at least I guess that means I'm on course pretty well if they're all smacking into me," I thought. However, this was a little jarring and continually happened for a good 200 meters as more and more came barreling through the end of their course.
Now normally, a little kicking and hitting doesn't faze me, but this was just... a lot all at once. I didn't panic or stick my head up but I knew it was severely breaking down any sort of form to be getting hit so often. Plus I knew I'd slowed down with my (a) detour, (b) difficulty siting and (c) I was getting tired!
I came out of the water in the high 35s. I watched my watch hit 36 mins as I ran to transition up the hill of sand. Apparently I finally hit the transition mat around 37 mins. *sigh* It could be way worse but I'd just really like to break 34 mins in the swim. Then again, I need to actually do work when training if I want to do that so... my own fault. I probably should be glad I got as close to normal as I did.
I got on my bike without any problems, headed out of the reservoir and man it felt like people were speeding past me. That is not usually my experience on the bike, but then I saw it was the 30-something and collegiate male sprinters. Alright well - ok then. I chugged along over the rollers, not feeling great. Definitely really really hungry. Oops. I could feel the pit in my stomach full of water...and nothing else.
At about 35 mins I took my first Gu and was happy to get in some calories and wash it down with some water. I could tell I was drinking less water than I normally would because I had to think, reach down for the bottle, and actively drink (as opposed to the straw smacking me in the nose as if to say "DRINK ME, STUPID"). I also could tell this was slowing me down, because even though I kept pedaling while drinking, I wasn't able to lay down as much power with a bottle in my hand - I was focusing more on stabilizing than power output.
I came through an hour at 17.54 miles. Eesh. NOT what I expected. In June, I'd come through at 18.55 so I was a full mile per hour behind my time. My hamstrings felt awful, my abs felt awful, the hills seemed so much larger than I remembered. At least it was almost time for another Gu! It was around then that I realized "Oh. My abs feel awful because it's the cramps. My hamstrings feel awful because they haven't sat on my TT bike since the end of July. Oh yeah." I still was bummed because I'm training most of my rides faster than or around 17.5 for much longer, hillier rides so... no excuses.
Coming back in through transition I honestly had no idea of my average. I think I'd given up on my race at that point. I believe I came through with an average of 16.7 mph. A pathetic performance, really. Dismounting I felt the all too familiar abdominal cramps that told me "Seriously, Andrea? You know better than this." That's what I get for being an idiot about nutrition and hydration. I winced through T2 and stood there and drank more water out of my bottle. I never run in socks, but knowing it was going to be a long run with these cramps, I was thankful I'd listened to my Grandma who on the phone the night before said "you should pack some socks - just in case!" They were stashed in the side pocket of my transition bag, so I grabbed them and put them on.
I walked out of transition, squeezing my stomach, trying to get the cramps to release. I stopped my Garmin, but let my race clock on my left wrist keep ticking as I pulled into the first water stop, maybe .2 miles into the run. I bent over and asked for salt. The volunteers looked at me bewildered, so I just grabbed some water and lemon-lime gatorade (gross, but I needed it) and stood there trying to get my muscles to release. I'd been here before, so many times. Workouts, races, you name it - with my damn abs cramping. I was feeling pretty calm, honestly. Debating if I should even continue. I thought to myself "if you can get them to release, you may as well finish, because DNFs blow...but so does walking 6.2 miles... that's really long." A race official who was less bewildered for my request for salt, had dashed over somewhere and brought me back six packets. I thanked him and immediately poured one into my mouth. SO DRY. I washed it down with LOTS of water.
"Are you going to be able to make it?" He asked.
"Yeah, if I can get this to release I can probably bang this run out in about an hour," I said.
"Well, you have two hours until the time cut off, so you're good."
"Honestly, I've done so many of these at this point, I'm kind of wondering if it's even worth it. We'll see," I replied.
After 5 cups of water, 2 salt packets, about 2 oz of Gatorade (because I was choking it down as I could), and about 15 mins at the rest stop, I felt the pain start to ease up. One of the volunteers really wanted me to finish. It was sweet, actually. It reminded me that so many people do these things just to finish. This sport is really hard. Not everyone can max out at it.
I set out to try one lap and see how it went.
Funny that within seconds I ran up on one of the guys I had been talking to earlier that morning. "I thought you said you were a runner?" I said, jokingly (and knowingly because...this stuff ain't easy). Brett told me a similar story of cramping and I sympathized. He only had one lap left to his run though (LUCKY!) and we agreed to run it together.
We spent about 25 mins distracting each other from the utter hell that triathlon can unleash upon your body. He ran ahead with about .5 miles to go as I felt myself starting to break down again. It was amusing as always that when I was running, I was usually holding between an 8:50 and a 9:10 min/mile but then my chest hurt, my heart rate went up...and I just needed a break. Kids, don't try this at home.
Coming through my first lap, the volunteer who I'd spent so much time doubled-over next to handed me 3 cups of water (lol) and said "Look at you! You were going to quit and now you're almost done!" Then I made the loop and he handed me 3 more cups. I must've looked like crap (understandably so).
I honestly didn't feel all that bad. I mean, yes, it was super hot and every time I ran my heart rate went through the roof, but my muscles weren't anywhere near their limits. I was much much stronger than anything I'd done that day but I just hadn't fueled myself to prove it.
Walking/running the last 5k I met a woman doing the duathlon, and we agreed that rain would be nice. I met another girl my age, named Lauren, doing her first sprint. I assured her that as you do more you get better - and that while I was having a bad day, experience usually makes it easier. I met an older man who congratulated me - and I felt like such a poser. I should be congratulating him - there was nothing to congratulate me about yesterday. There were a few other exchanges along the way and even though I couldn't get my body to do what I knew I was capable of, I actually had....FUN?!
I didn't let a bad attitude get the best of me. I didn't pay attention to time or even feel like a failure. I was kind of glad I kept going. I finished in 3:40 (probably more like 3:25 of actual moving time without my long "abs stop cramping" stop), which is 3 mins faster than my first Olympic distance during which I almost blacked out. See, I've come so far! -sarcasm-
I think yesterday served as a reminder that, hey, guess what Andrea, triathlon is actually really difficult. It's pretty impressive that you can race it and post times that are fairly decent in all three sports on a regular basis because... that's not easy. You can't just not train, and not have the right nutrition and...do something like that. It gave me a sense of respect for the sport that I'd had and lost.
In the interest of being candid I am totally burnt out on tri at the moment. I've stopped feeling excited and driven and so I think it's time for a break. I'm going to spend the fall and winter just doing whatever workouts I want to do (which probably means riding my bike all the time) and then when March comes around I'll evaluate whether there is a multisport season in store for me or if 2015 is going to be the year I take a break.
...the funny thing is I am fairly sure I will be doing a sprint in September so, maybe that will change my mind.
I woke up that morning at 5:30. Thrown off because my race wasn't until 10. I didn't even need to leave the house until 7. I dawdled around, getting my act together, but much more slowly than I ever prep for race day. Normally I'm high energy, nervous, excited...yeah, none of it.
I drove to Boulder and set up transition in about 8 minutes flat. My rubberbands for my aero-bottle snapped so I gave up on that. I did ask the Kompetitive Edge tent if they had the things to secure aero-bottles, but no such luck. I'd brought an extra bottle of water so instead I just threw the bottles in the normal holders and though it meant about 10 oz. less of water, it was still close enough.
Starting my run warm-up my knee felt a little off. "Great," I thought, "just what I need." But after some drills it seemed to loosen up. Who knows. The bike warm-up went all right, but I could feel that my lack of practice on my tri bike was going to wear on me because I could feel the tension between my shoulder blades.
By the time I was done, it was barely 9 am. Race didn't start until 10:10. Cool. So I stood in transition, downing water. I remembered I usually try to drink a ton of Gatorade so... -1 pt Andrea. I started milling around and also remember I'd left my timing chip at home. Awesome. -2 pts Andrea. They were luckily able to give me a new one (so I guess, +1 pt?) and by that time it was around 9:20 and I went to get in my wetsuit.
The water was VERY VERY cold. I did two laps of the mini swim area thinking that it was probably the coldest water I've ever swam in. I was surprised because I thought it was going to be around 74-degrees and I know I've swam in the mid-60s.
Still, no jitters. My stomach felt pretty empty though. When you're used to being ready to race at 7 am, but now you have to wait until 10, fueling is kind of...hard. I thought back to Nationals in 2012, when I raced the open division and just sat around eating pretzels all morning. Pretzels probably would've been a good decision. Or, ya know, GATORADE. Oops.
I met two guys in the water and we started just chatting about the race and gels and such nonsense.
Ok so fast forward through me standing around to the actual swim.
The swim felt pretty great for the first half. I focused on using the back half of my stroke. I felt like I was flying. 1 buoy, 2 buoys, boom boom boom. I couldn't believe how fast I got to the first turn buoy. I thought "well maybe something good will come of today!" As I neared the second buoy my left goggle starting filling up with water. Boooo. But it was a departure from the salt water in my eyes I'd been dealing with while diving on vacation and so even though I had water splashing around my eye, it didn't seem all that irritating.
As I made the second turn, I felt that I went too wide. As always with this course, siting on the way in was nearly impossible. I kept trying to site the big red finish arch, but it always resulted in me going out way too far left. I finally got back on course thinking "ok, maybe my little out-left detour won't be too awful." Finally I started seeing the orange siting buoys and then all of a sudden - woosh - our course intersected with the sprinter course and the fast male sprinters swam straight over me. "Well, at least I guess that means I'm on course pretty well if they're all smacking into me," I thought. However, this was a little jarring and continually happened for a good 200 meters as more and more came barreling through the end of their course.
Now normally, a little kicking and hitting doesn't faze me, but this was just... a lot all at once. I didn't panic or stick my head up but I knew it was severely breaking down any sort of form to be getting hit so often. Plus I knew I'd slowed down with my (a) detour, (b) difficulty siting and (c) I was getting tired!
I came out of the water in the high 35s. I watched my watch hit 36 mins as I ran to transition up the hill of sand. Apparently I finally hit the transition mat around 37 mins. *sigh* It could be way worse but I'd just really like to break 34 mins in the swim. Then again, I need to actually do work when training if I want to do that so... my own fault. I probably should be glad I got as close to normal as I did.
I got on my bike without any problems, headed out of the reservoir and man it felt like people were speeding past me. That is not usually my experience on the bike, but then I saw it was the 30-something and collegiate male sprinters. Alright well - ok then. I chugged along over the rollers, not feeling great. Definitely really really hungry. Oops. I could feel the pit in my stomach full of water...and nothing else.
At about 35 mins I took my first Gu and was happy to get in some calories and wash it down with some water. I could tell I was drinking less water than I normally would because I had to think, reach down for the bottle, and actively drink (as opposed to the straw smacking me in the nose as if to say "DRINK ME, STUPID"). I also could tell this was slowing me down, because even though I kept pedaling while drinking, I wasn't able to lay down as much power with a bottle in my hand - I was focusing more on stabilizing than power output.
I came through an hour at 17.54 miles. Eesh. NOT what I expected. In June, I'd come through at 18.55 so I was a full mile per hour behind my time. My hamstrings felt awful, my abs felt awful, the hills seemed so much larger than I remembered. At least it was almost time for another Gu! It was around then that I realized "Oh. My abs feel awful because it's the cramps. My hamstrings feel awful because they haven't sat on my TT bike since the end of July. Oh yeah." I still was bummed because I'm training most of my rides faster than or around 17.5 for much longer, hillier rides so... no excuses.
Coming back in through transition I honestly had no idea of my average. I think I'd given up on my race at that point. I believe I came through with an average of 16.7 mph. A pathetic performance, really. Dismounting I felt the all too familiar abdominal cramps that told me "Seriously, Andrea? You know better than this." That's what I get for being an idiot about nutrition and hydration. I winced through T2 and stood there and drank more water out of my bottle. I never run in socks, but knowing it was going to be a long run with these cramps, I was thankful I'd listened to my Grandma who on the phone the night before said "you should pack some socks - just in case!" They were stashed in the side pocket of my transition bag, so I grabbed them and put them on.
I walked out of transition, squeezing my stomach, trying to get the cramps to release. I stopped my Garmin, but let my race clock on my left wrist keep ticking as I pulled into the first water stop, maybe .2 miles into the run. I bent over and asked for salt. The volunteers looked at me bewildered, so I just grabbed some water and lemon-lime gatorade (gross, but I needed it) and stood there trying to get my muscles to release. I'd been here before, so many times. Workouts, races, you name it - with my damn abs cramping. I was feeling pretty calm, honestly. Debating if I should even continue. I thought to myself "if you can get them to release, you may as well finish, because DNFs blow...but so does walking 6.2 miles... that's really long." A race official who was less bewildered for my request for salt, had dashed over somewhere and brought me back six packets. I thanked him and immediately poured one into my mouth. SO DRY. I washed it down with LOTS of water.
"Are you going to be able to make it?" He asked.
"Yeah, if I can get this to release I can probably bang this run out in about an hour," I said.
"Well, you have two hours until the time cut off, so you're good."
"Honestly, I've done so many of these at this point, I'm kind of wondering if it's even worth it. We'll see," I replied.
After 5 cups of water, 2 salt packets, about 2 oz of Gatorade (because I was choking it down as I could), and about 15 mins at the rest stop, I felt the pain start to ease up. One of the volunteers really wanted me to finish. It was sweet, actually. It reminded me that so many people do these things just to finish. This sport is really hard. Not everyone can max out at it.
I set out to try one lap and see how it went.
Funny that within seconds I ran up on one of the guys I had been talking to earlier that morning. "I thought you said you were a runner?" I said, jokingly (and knowingly because...this stuff ain't easy). Brett told me a similar story of cramping and I sympathized. He only had one lap left to his run though (LUCKY!) and we agreed to run it together.
We spent about 25 mins distracting each other from the utter hell that triathlon can unleash upon your body. He ran ahead with about .5 miles to go as I felt myself starting to break down again. It was amusing as always that when I was running, I was usually holding between an 8:50 and a 9:10 min/mile but then my chest hurt, my heart rate went up...and I just needed a break. Kids, don't try this at home.
Coming through my first lap, the volunteer who I'd spent so much time doubled-over next to handed me 3 cups of water (lol) and said "Look at you! You were going to quit and now you're almost done!" Then I made the loop and he handed me 3 more cups. I must've looked like crap (understandably so).
I honestly didn't feel all that bad. I mean, yes, it was super hot and every time I ran my heart rate went through the roof, but my muscles weren't anywhere near their limits. I was much much stronger than anything I'd done that day but I just hadn't fueled myself to prove it.
Walking/running the last 5k I met a woman doing the duathlon, and we agreed that rain would be nice. I met another girl my age, named Lauren, doing her first sprint. I assured her that as you do more you get better - and that while I was having a bad day, experience usually makes it easier. I met an older man who congratulated me - and I felt like such a poser. I should be congratulating him - there was nothing to congratulate me about yesterday. There were a few other exchanges along the way and even though I couldn't get my body to do what I knew I was capable of, I actually had....FUN?!
I didn't let a bad attitude get the best of me. I didn't pay attention to time or even feel like a failure. I was kind of glad I kept going. I finished in 3:40 (probably more like 3:25 of actual moving time without my long "abs stop cramping" stop), which is 3 mins faster than my first Olympic distance during which I almost blacked out. See, I've come so far! -sarcasm-
I think yesterday served as a reminder that, hey, guess what Andrea, triathlon is actually really difficult. It's pretty impressive that you can race it and post times that are fairly decent in all three sports on a regular basis because... that's not easy. You can't just not train, and not have the right nutrition and...do something like that. It gave me a sense of respect for the sport that I'd had and lost.
In the interest of being candid I am totally burnt out on tri at the moment. I've stopped feeling excited and driven and so I think it's time for a break. I'm going to spend the fall and winter just doing whatever workouts I want to do (which probably means riding my bike all the time) and then when March comes around I'll evaluate whether there is a multisport season in store for me or if 2015 is going to be the year I take a break.
...the funny thing is I am fairly sure I will be doing a sprint in September so, maybe that will change my mind.
Saturday, August 16, 2014
[Race Report] South Table Mountain Criterium
See what happens when you take a whole month off racing (nothing really, except apparently my training gets a little ...spotty).
I actually did do a 4-mile race on July 4. My chip time says 9:40s on that one, but my Garmin said 9:25s. Everyone else's Garmin said the course was long AND I had to tie my shoe so... we're going with Garmin because I like it better.
ANYWAY that is NOT what this report is about. This report is about my very stressful, but ultimately successful morning at the South Table Mountain/Boulder Orthopedics Criterium.
I signed up for this race because I was originally going to do the one last week in Littleton, until I saw how tame this course looked in terms of technical turns. It is on a closed course "track" that the Colorado State Police uses for training and other things.. I suppose.
However, two nights ago I had this awful dream that there were only two women in my category and so they made a big "mixed" category where they threw a whole bunch of people in together and she was always chasing me and she looked super fierce and aero and... anxiety. Then I woke up the next morning, told my friend about the dream, looked at the registrants and saw there were only two women registered (including me)! Well, I about lost it. I've been having a really tough few weeks and this was just another thing to throw me over the tipping point. By the end of online registration that evening, we were a field of 4 women. If nothing else, this was going to be interesting.
I woke up naturally this morning at 5:07, 8 minutes before my alarm. I decided that instead of trying to close my eyes for a few min, I would allow myself to wake up just a touch more slowly. It was so early :( but I got my butt up and for ONCE was ahead of schedule (good thing too). On my drive up, I was being stupid - or maybe just half asleep - and turned too early to get on the freeway. I ended up arriving at the track only 30 min before my race. NOT ideal.
I hustled over to pick up my race bib, but because it was so early the volunteers were still sort of figuring out their process AND the porto-potties hadn't arrived yet so there was only one and a sizable line. Well, I decided that having the urge the WHOLE RACE would be worse than not getting as much of a warm-up so I waited in line.
(I know, this is a 40-min race and I haven't even gotten to the race part yet. I promise, exposition almost done.)
Pulling my bike out of my car, I'd just put new pedals and cleats on my shoes and they were making a bit of a rattling noise. So after tightening those down (thankfully, my brain was sort of functioning at 5:20 to realize I'd probably want to bring some tools), I headed off on a warm up lap.
The course was, as I suspected, not very technical. I think the toughest part was dealing with some loose gravel, which had been largely cleaned up. That and figuring out how best to set up the chicane on the back side of the course to navigate gravel, take the shortest path, and not - ya know - crash.
I came through one lap at 6:55. I considered starting out on one more, but another woman turned around and 3 were riding up to the line so I thought "welp, that is just going to have to do!" I ran back to my car to take in a little more water, and then came up to the line. At least half of the field was already there, so I was glad I made that decision. One more rider came up and the official said "ok, well that is everyone." *phew* We were 8 cat 4 women and one junior woman (let me tell you, she was one fierce junior woman too, but that is for later in the report). While making announcement, the race director kind of looked at me like "are you a junior woman too?" I mean, I get I'm not all kitted out in team gear and look at least 5 years younger than most of the women on the starting line (because, well, I am) but... 18, really?
I was also having some bizarre issue with my new cleats. My right foot...which I push off on would NOT clip in. Awesome. I was worried I was going to make it through one lap and have to pull off for a mechanical. Damn new clips.
At the line, I know you're supposed to start on it to start in a good position. I mean, I guess I should've... but with such a small group, I didn't know what to expect and certainly am not capable of pulling these ladies for very long. In fact, I'd probably piss them off trying to figure out how to take the corners for the first few laps. So, as we went off, I secured a place... pretty much dead last in the group. *sigh* That wasn't what I wanted and I knew this would leave me vying for places for the entire race. Hey, at least my cleat had gone in the pedal so... small victory. I was next to the junior woman, who made a push to change up the pack, another girl went behind her and I went with her, but on the first corner she got so aggressive one woman was like "hey, I'm on your right" as she veered into her and then she basically just shoved me out of the second corner. I thought to myself "ok, whatever hot shot. I'm not crashing my brand new bike just because you have a power complex about these corners." So she made it up to second or third wheel, which is actually a really good position...but almost took some of us out along the way. I wasn't interested. The rest of us dropped back after her shenanigans.
Shortly after that, around the third lap, I started to get dropped off the back. My insufficient warm-up definitely didn't help the fact that (a) I wasn't quite ready to ride at this effort and (b) I hadn't analyzed how to knock out the corners. They never got too far ahead of me and I knew they tended to take the slightly uphill straight-away pretty easily. So I worked. I worked really. freaking. hard. They were not so much better that I couldn't hold on. Gasping for air, I gassed it to grab the wheel. God, this is why I hate being in the back. Playing yo-yo is no fun. But, sure enough, we hit the straight away and they eased up as they did up the hill and I grabbed the woman's wheel in front of me. It was so demoralizing coming through and seeing the spectators. I knew what they were thinking "oh, here we go, they're gonna weed the weak ones out - there, she's falling off." I wasn't weak. I just wasn't ready. I needed to get my head in the game.
Back in the pack, I had flashbacks to sucking wind at my last crit. (My last crit I was dropped three times, largely due to the crashes that strung us out.) "I'm not doing that again," I told myself. So I didn't. I held the heck on and soon enough we were at 5 laps to go. For you non-bike racers, this is when the race turns from a "timed" race into a distance race. I half expected the women to start gunning it. They didn't though. As we came up the slight hill, I thought I felt a surge, but they backed off. That, or I held on alright. We just kept cruising. Around 4 laps to go I started vying for position. I was done riding in the freaking back. I came up on the right to see if I could get some girls to chicken out of riding that tight against the road with someone next to them. I almost did until one woman said "I'm holding her wheel," meaning "I'm not freaking moving." I responded with "Ok" but didn't ease up. Luckily the two women behind me did back off and I managed to grab 7th wheel. SUCCESS.
We came around with 2 laps to go. Still not much in the way of aggression. I also realized this one girl had been pulling almost the entire time. Seriously? I mean, (a) that makes her so fierce, (b) none of you hot-shot wannabe cat 3s wanted to help a sister out?...where was the junior girl who was so into slamming us all into crappy situations? Oh, right...second wheel. Wheelsucker.
Finally as we came into the final lap, I could feel the tension. We wanted to go. There were some small moves. We did end up breaking into two-lines and shuffling around. Even I had more power, so as we entered the chicane and I was finally taking my corners like a baller, I followed this woman who was easing up the left. She backed off but I thought... "Well, I mean, I'm not going to get anything great out of the sprint..." so as we hit the last corner, I went and a few girls went with me! "Haha, look at me, making an attack like a baller" until we reached the 200m sign and I realized I was third wheel. Uh oh... here we go. Pretty much as I realized that and started "sprinting" I watched as a few girls gassed it and just TOOK OFF. Geeeeezz. I wish I could sprint like that but, the life of triathlon training is 75% steady state so let me tell you about my sprint muscles... oh yeah, I don't have any :D
I finished around 5 or 6 in the end. NOT LAST AND I DIDN'T GET DROPPED (read: what I most care about)! Not bad at all for my second crit ever. During the cool down lap I was next to the girl who pulled the whole way. I introduced myself and told her that I thought she was really strong and that I was super impressed. I could tell she was a little sad she didn't win. I would be too if I pulled the whole group for 40 min! She was really disappointed no one bothered to come share in the suffering. I felt a little guilty I never did, but truly I would've pulled one lap and then probably compromised the whole rest of my race. I mean, really, I was sitting at the back the whole time. She told me she wasn't much of a sprinter either, so I shared in her pain. Still, she's first in my book because any girl who can pull a pack of women for 40 minutes at about 23 mph must be pretty tough and tired.
I pulled off and put my bike in my car. A woman from the cycling team who was holding the event stopped me and said "I was really glad to see you get back on the group out there." I felt proud. People noticed me getting dropped and then coming back from behind and having a pretty solid mid-pack performance. ;) #don'tcallitacomeback
This was a big break through race for me because I learned so much about cornering - even if they were tame, and got over some of my fears. During the last few laps I was taking the corners nice and tight and not being a lame-o scaredy cat or sliding off the group. It definitely makes me feel like this really is something I can do. I'm hanging in there with women who ride for teams, train with teams, practice this stuff all the time...and all I do is ride 2-4 times a week on my own or in small groups. This makes me think that being on a team would be endlessly helpful for my growth as a racer...and maybe I'll even learn how to sprint! :)
See ya back here, same time, same place, in two weeks after the Boulder Sunset Triathlon!
Saturday, June 28, 2014
[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.
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 |
Saturday, June 7, 2014
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 mylittle 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.
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
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.
Sunday, June 1, 2014
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.
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.
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 |
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.
Wednesday, May 28, 2014
[Race Report] Bolder Boulder
Man. I realized I didn't post anything about my race yet. At least I'm only two days late.
This will be short and sweet because... it was a pretty "smooth" and middle-of-the-road performance.
I headed up to Boulder to start the race with some close family friends/cycling buddies/my aunt & uncle of cycling. They were starting only one qualifier wave ahead of me so I thought it a perfect situation.
We walked/jogged to the start from their house which offered a nice warm up. I had just enough time to get to the bathroom and stand around in my wave for a little bit.
As we approached the start line, the announcer said we were the last "under an hour" 10k qualifier wave. The last of the "real runners." A) I feel bad for those over an hour, because you can do a 10k over an hour and still be under a 10 min/mile (which I generally regard as the jogging/running threshold). B) LAWL.
We started off and because there was open road people gunned it off the start line. I was like "for real people? you qualified in just under and hour and you're doing a 6 min/mile off the start line? stupid." So I settled in to what my watch said was about a 9:05 pace.
My watch has been chronically showing the distance of my races to be over the actual distance (lovely) so my watch splits and race splits were different. Please forgive me if I am off a few seconds in recounting time. While my chip time and watch time were both 59:23 to finish, my watch showed 6.33 miles, so a 9:23 pace, whereas for a 10k - that is 9:33. Important nuance.
Anyway, so my first mile was pretty good. I believe my chip time was 9:15 or something like that. I was happy with this. It wasn't a particularly hard mile and I didn't feel like I blew it up. My second mile included a large hill, so I believe my chip time on that was 9:44 or something like that. 3rd mile was solid middle-of-the-road at around 9:30.
This whole time, my friends had started about 1 min ahead of me so I was looking for them to chase them down. They guessed they would run it pretty slowly so they thought I would pass them sooner than I had. Finally I spotted them at mile 2. It was kind of fun to play the chasing game. Just before the 5k point (I believe) I passed them, swung into a water stop and went up another BIG OL hill. Mile 4, with said "big ol' hill" again was slower, in the 9:40s. Mile 5 was fast and flat again. We hit some sun, but it was the first part of the course where I'd really felt like I was combating anything but perfect weather and some hills. I believe that was my fastest mile, around 9:13 or something like that. Mile 6 was pretty mediocre. A little hilly, until I got to the big hill at the bottom of the stadium and it dropped my pace drastically. Oh well, it happens. Once I was done telling myself to "keep running" up the hill, I bounded into the stadium.
I was pretty happy with my time. It certainly wasn't my best 10k but it sure could've been worse. A solid performance given where I am with running and the course.
This will be short and sweet because... it was a pretty "smooth" and middle-of-the-road performance.
I headed up to Boulder to start the race with some close family friends/cycling buddies/my aunt & uncle of cycling. They were starting only one qualifier wave ahead of me so I thought it a perfect situation.
We walked/jogged to the start from their house which offered a nice warm up. I had just enough time to get to the bathroom and stand around in my wave for a little bit.
As we approached the start line, the announcer said we were the last "under an hour" 10k qualifier wave. The last of the "real runners." A) I feel bad for those over an hour, because you can do a 10k over an hour and still be under a 10 min/mile (which I generally regard as the jogging/running threshold). B) LAWL.
We started off and because there was open road people gunned it off the start line. I was like "for real people? you qualified in just under and hour and you're doing a 6 min/mile off the start line? stupid." So I settled in to what my watch said was about a 9:05 pace.
My watch has been chronically showing the distance of my races to be over the actual distance (lovely) so my watch splits and race splits were different. Please forgive me if I am off a few seconds in recounting time. While my chip time and watch time were both 59:23 to finish, my watch showed 6.33 miles, so a 9:23 pace, whereas for a 10k - that is 9:33. Important nuance.
Anyway, so my first mile was pretty good. I believe my chip time was 9:15 or something like that. I was happy with this. It wasn't a particularly hard mile and I didn't feel like I blew it up. My second mile included a large hill, so I believe my chip time on that was 9:44 or something like that. 3rd mile was solid middle-of-the-road at around 9:30.
This whole time, my friends had started about 1 min ahead of me so I was looking for them to chase them down. They guessed they would run it pretty slowly so they thought I would pass them sooner than I had. Finally I spotted them at mile 2. It was kind of fun to play the chasing game. Just before the 5k point (I believe) I passed them, swung into a water stop and went up another BIG OL hill. Mile 4, with said "big ol' hill" again was slower, in the 9:40s. Mile 5 was fast and flat again. We hit some sun, but it was the first part of the course where I'd really felt like I was combating anything but perfect weather and some hills. I believe that was my fastest mile, around 9:13 or something like that. Mile 6 was pretty mediocre. A little hilly, until I got to the big hill at the bottom of the stadium and it dropped my pace drastically. Oh well, it happens. Once I was done telling myself to "keep running" up the hill, I bounded into the stadium.
I was pretty happy with my time. It certainly wasn't my best 10k but it sure could've been worse. A solid performance given where I am with running and the course.
Now for Elephant Rock Ride this weekend (only 2300 ft of gain...PHEW) and Boulder Sunrise on June 7! I'm not..ya know, panicking or anything, but I will say I'm practicing transitions tonight and trying to get in open water this weekend.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)