One week of apparent insanity

Remember how about umm four days ago I said I wasn't sure if I was even going to race an olympic in July?

Yeah.
Woke up in the morning, registered for that olympic.

Then, in searching for races in August and September after I move to Colorado - I found a sign. All this year I have wanted to do a half ironman, but none of them fit too well into my training schedule or knowing where I'd be when. Then I found this one: Sept 9 (one month after I move to CO) just outside of Denver. Accessible from Boulder or Colorado Springs and at least $100 less than all 70.3 races.

Registered.

Then I texted about 20 of my closest friends.

Am I out of my mind? Why yes! yes I am.

Scarlet & Grey... err Columbus Triathlon?

Yet again, it was a race weekend. Though it CERTAINLY didn't feel that way. Regardless, I somehow figured it out.

Kendyl and I laughed as we waded in the water, realizing our bodies were definitely NOT in race mode. The swim looked like a short out-and-back, thought I tried pushing hard, on the way out I was definitely zig-zagging QUITE a bit. As I came out of the water to see 31:09 I KNEW something was wrong with the course. 33 minutes would be an excellent day, 31:09... no way.

The run to the mount line from the transition area was RIDICULOUSLY long, but there isn't much you can do about that but run faster. I knew the bike would be fast as I set out feeling the wind at my back. The bike was generally flat - a mild incline here and there, but all in all it seemed like a pretty easy course. I took the first lap very fast, to find out we had to bike back down to the mount line and make a tight 180 to start the course over. I sucked it up, did ok with executing my 180 degree turn, only to have the kid in front of me end up too far right and in the grass. I quickly unclipped and came to a stop. Grrr. My second lap was definitely slower than my first, but not by much. I came in feeling pretty good off the bike but certainly not in the mindset to run.

I mentally prepared myself for heading out to the last leg: the run. We started on pavement but quickly ended up on a trail. I hoped it would end soon, and it did, but then we were on grass, in heat, and it was awful. 2 miles on grass, then back to the short path of pavement, then back on trail, then back on pavement and made a loop to a trail I had done a run workout on the day before. Until mile 5, I was on pace to run 8:55 pace for my 10k... and then it hit and I walked. I began to feel the blisters killing on the bottom of my feet. The trail was just miserable. My breathing was labored while walking. I ended up finishing the run in just under an hour... not exactly ideal. When I took my shoes off, I had two of the largest blisters I've ever had in my life on either arch.

In the end, short swim and tough run, I came in at 2:46:30, though if it had been a normal 10k, I was on course to go 2:43 high. That being said... the swim was epically short so maybe the tough run made up for it. It was nice to come in second in my age group behind Kendyl - seeing that clearly all the girls had suffered like we did. As I usually do the night after a race, I think I may need a little break from triathlon racing. We'll see what I decide to do for July.

Truly Treacherous Time Trial

I had high hopes for this weekend. I was scheduled to complete two back-to-back 20.6 mile races.

Well, I arrived at the race and looked around to see a handful of fellow racers, all of whom looked pretty legit - expensive bikes, race wheels, aero-helmets. I was very overwhelmed, but the best part of TTs is that they truly are your own race. As I got ready, I heard a few people muttering about the wind, but isn't that always the case on flat open roads?

I didn't have a ton of time to warm up, but I hoped to get in a little quality spinning. I ended up starting 10 min later than my preliminary start time, but I suppose that's why it's called "preliminary." While waiting in line I heard number 18 (two in front of me) mention that the first two and last two miles would be covered with pot holes. I mentally envisioned Sheridan Road, where I bike all the time... which is pretty choppy. As I started, I didn't noticed too many pot holes, but I did notice a seam in the road every 25 yards or so. I was clunking along when I saw orange cones lining the left side of the road... there was no one there, but I assumed it meant to take a left turn... which I did.

There were no cyclists ahead of me. I looked back: none behind. I kept glancing back to see if number 21 would make the turn. He didn't. AWESOME. Took the wrong course about 1 min in. Good job.

I turned around, got back on course - a little bummed that I messed up in my first race. I continued on, waiting for the seams in the road to stop. They didn't. The whole way I went over a bump every 25 yards, which KILLED my wrists in my aero position. I tried to not even hold on to my bars and just sort of let my hands dangle there to be sure I wasn't pulling up on the bars or putting too much pressure on my hands. Didn't matter. With every bump, my wrist jostled and killed. There was a cross wind and my speed was kind of low, but I thought back to Memphis  - it would probably be to my advantage on the way back, so I gave it all the strength I had, hoping it would pay off when I turned around.

When not focusing on my wrists, the bumps, or the wind, I was also focusing on how badly I had to pee. I thought it was just a nerves thing.... apparently not as it lasted all 22 miles.

After a long straight stretch, the course became a series of left turns, each turning harder into the wind, each making my speed a little slower and my hurt a little worse. I hoped we would finally make enough lefts that I would be heading away with the wind at my back. It never really happened and for about 75% of the ride I was really fighting the wind.

As I began the straight shot back to the finish, I kept looking out for when I knew I was almost done. There were about 4 times in which I was totally convinced it was almost over. I ramped up my power and pushed harder... only to realize there was more. It was incredibly difficult to have 4 hard "finish" effort moments in succession. Not to mention, drinking water from my aero bottle was incredibly difficult, because every time I'd dip down to get the straw in my mouth, I'd hit a bump that sent the straw into my gum. ouch.

Once I finally shot through the finish line, 5 minutes over my goal finish time, I just kept biking. I wasn't kidding when I said I needed to pee. I biked straight back to the car, trying to remember to spin-out my legs on the way there, then ran to the bathroom. All the while, debating whether or not I wanted to go through that again.

As I walked back to my bike I saw I was 3 minutes away from my next start time, but I needed water and fuel. I took my time eating a banana and some sports beans as well as drinking some water. Then I got myself together and got back on my bike... My quads were in excruciating pain. I biked to the end of the parking lot before realizing I had forgot to put my helmet back on. WOW. Maybe I shouldn't do this again...

I got back to the start and heard the man managing the start line say "and that was 199" (which was my second number). I said "oh, that was me..." He asked if I wanted to go again, I said no thanks, and pedaled back to the lot.

When talking to my teammate Nick, he reminded me that experiences like these are what we can call on later to remember that, this moment we are racing through may suck, but at least it isn't as bad as that one time I raced a tt into the wind, feeling like I might die, and made the course longer than it had to be.

Test Week

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Evelyn Stevens - the coolest

This woman is my new hero.

http://espn.go.com/espnw/olympics/8018151/2012-london-olympics-hollywood-script-continues-cyclist-evelyn-stevens

Memphis in May: race report #2 and closure

I spent the rest of the day after the sprint icing my legs like crazy. Kendyl and I bought bags of ice at a local gas station store and just sort of sat on them in various positions, or laid them on our body for the next few... hours. What I like to consider intensive icing.

What I neglected to mention was that our team has this tradition of camping for this race, so I spent the night before and the night after the sprint race sleeping in a tent. Save last year's triathlon, I haven't camped all that much in my life, so that was interesting. I don't imagine anyone sleeps that well when camping, but well enough I suppose. I realized that I'm definitely a side-sleeper because I kept waking up to roll on to my back or stomach so I could sleep. Mind you the tent was set up on a pile of pebbles so side-sleeping was not ideal.

I woke up the next morning sort of in disbelief that I would have to do another, longer triathlon. Then our car (no thanks to me) got lost on our way to the race site so we were a little later in arrival than we had hoped to be. Because I usually like to hook myself up to my iPod in pre-race preparation, I was glad that I had charged my phone. My trusty iPod, which has spent 7 years getting me through races and workouts recently potted out on me. I only have about 10 songs on my phone, so I linked to Pandora and let the dance music play.  Having just set up transition the day before, it was pretty easy to do it all over again. I felt okay about helping some teammates and one clueless kid who didn't know how to attach a flat-bag to his seat/seatpost. To those of you who may be thinking "you're so mean, why wouldn't you help out your teammates?!" Let me explain pre-race and give you an idea of what this feels like: Before a triathlon there is a LOT going on in your head. You have to set up your transition area and make sure everything is there/ready as it needs to be. If you aren't focused pre-race you can really screw things up - like at nationals when I didn't unvelcro my shoes. Something THAT small can cause you to stop on the bike or maybe you forget to tape on your nutrition or fill up a water bottle - then you can't finish because you didn't have enough nutrition or water. Meanwhile, during this you have to be taking in your pre-race nutrition and making sure you are hydrated enough and have enough carbs in your body to sustain. I ate a bunch of fig bars in the car and I always walk around trying to down about 32 oz. liquid (some combination of gatorade and water) before hand. Then you have your warm-up to worry about, which you should do backwards (run, bike, swim) but transition closes at a certain time so you have to be sure to have your bike and running shoes back and your warm up done before tht happens. Pre-race is the time when you have to think of EVERYTHING, so that when the race comes you can just go into auto-pilot and keep pushing forward.

I was incredibly successful in my pre-race prep. I switched the order of the bike and run warm up solely due to the fact that I only had 45 min until race start. I was still pretty happy to get them both in. For the sprint I could only do a run and swim warm-up. I drank a ton of fluid and felt pretty good starting out on the swim.

So we lined up and they called my number, so I ran and jumped into the water. I can't really dive - literally 0 swim talent - so I just kinda... jump and hope. haha First buoy was easy to get out to. On my way to the second I saw that my teammate who started 6 people after me was going stroke-for-stroke with me so that was pretty cool. I tried to stay with her for a while because I knew she was a better swimmer, but I quickly lost her. After the second buoy I had some SERIOUS problems finding the big green triangular turn-buoy. It was simply to far away and the field of swimmers was too wide-spread and splashing to be able to spot it. I think it was simply too small and green was an awful color. For the first time in a while, I had to stop and tread water to spot where I was going, which was a bummer. Normally I'd just follow the group, but in sighting I knew that people were EVERYWHERE. No one was a trustworthy leader.

Once I finally got around that green buoy I really started pushing the swim. I didn't have too hard of a time sighting so I was pretty disappointed when I saw my watch said over 35 minutes as I excited the water. It would be about 2:11 pace for 100yd which isn't the worst ever, but I'm still looking to come in soon around 33:30 because I believe that is attainable based on what I can do in a pool. However, in the end I do believe it was actually a PR... or at least on pace with the best swim I've had. It definitely could've and should've been better though.

My T1 was smooth, but as I got a few miles into the bike course, I watched my speed drop lower than I wanted. I began compromising my goal of breaking 20 mph. I told myself "all right, but you have to perform better than nationals but really aim for a PR - faster than 19.1." The wind got rough and I began to find that the power I was getting on the hoods of my bike actually boosted my speed despite the aerodynamic gain I had in my aero position. I knew theoretically it was a bad idea but I wasn't sure if I was just tired from the race before and so couldn't lay down the strength I needed to in my aero position, so I got out of it and started pushing. I worked on my passing technique of spending the first half of the legal 15 seconds we had pushing up to draft of the person I passed before I overtook them. My only goal was to be as efficient as humanly possible but also give the best performance. I overtook one guy (which is defined in the rules as having my front wheel pass his) and he started to speed up. I couldn't BELIEVE he was playing dirty. I wanted to say something like "hey dude, my wheel is ahead of yours, you have to back off" but instead I sped up and cut him off. Then he proceeded to sit in my draft. Again I was tempted to nicely point out that he was breaking the rules. I decided it wasn't worth it. I secretly hoped the big white SUV for the officials would come give him a penalty. Jerk.

I started seeing signs for the bottle exchange and knew I was almost half way through the bike. Soon we took a turn into trees and I remembered Kendyl saying that the fast part of the course was in a scenic wooded area. Slowly my speed started climbing - 21.5, 22.7, 23.4. I got excited. I knew I had the wind at my back and that I could make up for my losses. I began pushing as hard as I could, taking every opportunity to pass. I felt incredibly strong as my speed started to push 25 mph. I was passing tri bikes with aero wheels. This one girl on a pink Trek speed concept and I passed/passed back a few times. I was again tempted to make a snide comment about how my bike cost 1/4 of the price of hers. :) Of course, I didn't. As we approached the downhill to the dismount line she came up on my left and I looked over and said "good ride" as I reached down to unvelcro my shoe. She said nothing. Well, her wheel wasn't in front of mine yet, so I took off and let her eat my dust :P

I looked down at my watch and saw that I did indeed get my goal of 20 mph. My watch said 1:11 though I knew I had started it late. I also realized in transition, that my overall time watch saying 1:51 meant that I was going to destroy my PR, even if I ran a 60 min 10k (which would be conservatively slow for me). I felt a little like crying just because I had so much adrenaline pumping through my veins and I was watching things come together. I was convinced this olympic distance was not going to be too good because I had raced the day before, but things were turning out. I told myself "C'mon Andrea, no time for crying. Focus." I bit my lower lip and though "Right. Time to run."

The run was rough. I did not feel nearly as strong as I had the day before. Again, up the hill, down the hill, back up the hill, and over the dirt/rock/sand path. I was pretty bummed to see the run started the same way it had yesterday. The hill, however, seemed a bit easier to get through, as did the path. As I passed mile 1, an older man decided to keep pace with me and talk to me. I was working and EXHAUSTED and not about to spend an ounce of extra energy on him. I politely made noises in response to his comments, but was glad to lose him before mile 3.

It was incredibly hot on the run, but I knew I had hydrated enough due to the fact that I felt like I had to pee SO BADLY on the bike. I knew people theoretically did this, but I could not IMAGINE logistically how. Between miles 2 and 3 I considered stopping to pee in the bushes because it was pretty bad, but I kept looking down at my watch and realizing by just HOW MUCH I could beat my personal record. I had yet to crack 2:55, yet alone 2:50 and stopping to pee could've compromised the finish time of 2:50. The heat became agonizing and even though I knew it didn't do much I sipped water a few times at the aid stations - then poured the rest of it on my chest and head. After mile 3, I was disappointed to find that the turn around was much further away then I hoped it would be. Approaching mile 5, I felt confident I could push it in. Upon receiving water with about 6 ice cubes in it, I felt GREAT. I sipped a little, grabbed a handful of ice cubes and stuck them in my sports bra, put one in my mouth and BOOKED IT. Though the run had felt incredibly difficult up until that point, I felt strong on my way to mile 6. I kept looking down at my watch and knew I could crack 2:50 if I just kept going. As I finished the mile and started approaching behind the hotel, I began to wonder if 2:48 was possible. I knew there would be no sprinting to the finish because I was simply too tired, but there was probably a little 7:50 pace to the finish :) As I approached the finish line, my watch said 2:48:48 and I was pretty sure I was not going to get there in under 12 seconds. Still I pushed myself and as I crossed and stopped my watch at 2:49:05 I was still pretty happy. It was a 6:51 PR and my run, despite the agony was still 9:11 pace - which is neither fabulous nor terrible.

When I got my finishing slip, I saw my bike was 1:14:01, which if the course was 24.8 miles would equate to 20.1 mph. We think it was short by about .4, so more like 19.7, but I'm still pretty happy with it. I placed 5th in my age group of 15 girls, just behind 3 of my teammates in 2nd, 3rd, and 4th. I couldn't think of anyone better to beat me :)

Not only did many of us place, but most of our team walked away with impressive PRs. I was incredibly excited and proud to hear everyone talk about having experiences like mine during their race. Newer athletes were completely exceeding their expectations and older athletes were scraping minutes away to reach their ultimate goal time. Awards aside it was a very impressive and rewarding experience and while I spent the entire ride home thinking "Man, I hurt. Why in the world do I do this? I need a break." I'm sure I'll be registering for my next race again soon.

In the meantime... Go 'Cats!

Memphis in May: introduction & race report #1

Somewhere along the lines I thought it would be an excellent 22nd birthday present to pay to allow myself to race in two triathlons back to back. I'm not sure at what point I thought this sounded excellent, but I did. Memphis in May hosts two very nice but also very expensive races every year during the festival. The Northwestern team always goes down and it's the one non-conference race we do as a team. I was originally debating racing at all, and then I thought "Well, it's my 22nd birthday. I want to race - it can be a present to myself." They also host an event called the amateur challenge. About 20-30 people of each gender sign up to do this each year and the top-15 ranked men and women get prize money. I thought, well, if I'm going to spend a ton to race, I might as well go all out. Happy Birthday! I knew I had the training and would be able to do it, so I signed up to compete in the amateur challenge.

Saturday was the sprint race. This is a shorter distance: 500-ish meter swim (they really messed up the measurement on that one), 20k bike, 5k run. Going in to this, I set a few goals. Because of how short the swim is, I really just wanted to push through it as hard as I could. The distance was sort of up in the air, so I just wanted to come through at an ok time comparative to my teammates who are better swimmers. The bike I just wanted to hammer. I hoped to break 20 mph because I think I am capable of holding that in a longer distance, and needed to prove it to myself in a shorter one. The run I just wanted to at least come in around 26-27 min. 

Originally, we thought the swim was about 400m, so I set a "reasonable" goal of 8:30 seconds. Then during warm up, much faster members of my team were doing it around 8:15. I knew quickly that I had to adjust my goal. I stopped caring about time, though secretly considered about 10 min. I worked VERY hard on that swim. I focused on my form (which is usually what I do during practice when we have fast sets) and was nervous that my labored breathing would make me freak out. Thankfully it didn't, but I was bummed when I came out of the water at 11:52. I left it behind me and ran into transition. Looking back, is the swim really WAS 525-550m, this is right on for me for pace.

I almost missed my row coming into t1, but thankfully didn't. I did, however, notice that my garmin which I left on so it would have found satellites and been ready to tell me my speed, had automatically turned off while I was warming up and swimming. I quickly pushed the on button and ran out. It finally came back about 1/2 mile into the bike. I DIDN'T leave my velcro done and was able to pretty successfully get in my shoes... and out of them.

The bike course, though flat, was a bit windy at times. I definitely felt some resistance and ultimately was a bit disappointed by my performance. I believe I only kept about 19.5, so that was a bit of a bummer, but I felt pretty excellent heading out on to the run. The course started up a hill, then back down a hill. I didn't find any of this challenging, until I had to turn around and run back up that hill - definitely had to mentally talk myself through that one. Immediately after the hill we went on a sand/dirt/rock path that was incredibly uneven. I saw a number of people fall. I'm sure that terrain really slowed us down before the end of mile 1. Miles 2 & 3 were just on concrete. Around half way there was a rain tent, which was pretty refreshing. The whole run is honestly a blur. I knew I was working hard and felt strong for a lot of it.

I ended up finishing the run at 25:44. It's debatable as to whether or not it was .1 miles short. If it wasn't that was a pretty excellent 5k PR for me at 8:17 pace. If not, we're looking at 8:35 pace which is right on par with how I have been running 5ks lately. 

My finish time was 1:19:20 and earned me 3rd in my age group, just after my friend Kendyl who came in at 1:15. We were both competing in the amateur challenge. Rich (also doing AC) also placed in his age group with a time of 1:01 - unbelievable. We also had a first time triathlete finish her first sprint, which was awesome and a second time sprinter set a new PR.