Race report: Raise the Bar

Soooooo...the last 3 weeks were pretty dang busy...work, dog sitting stuff, Storm games and lots of social stuff...lots of plates spinning. Obviously, I didn't blog anything about the recovery of the last race or anything resembling a race plan...and suddenly yesterday morning I was out there with a timing chip on my ankle again.

I appear to have a little black race weather cloud following me this summer...as usual, the weather was crap yesterday (today, of course, stellar). For the last few days, I was watching the forecast and, as predicted, it was raining when I got up at 4:40 a.m. AUUGGHHH...I must admit, that had I not paid for this race in advance and picked up my packet on Saturday, I likely would have bailed. I cut short 2 super fun social outings Saturday to get prepared (read: limit alcohol consumption and prioritize sleep) for this race, so it was more of a "have to" than a "want to" when I saw that drizzle. Fortunately, however, the race site was dry and it never rained on the actual race...

This race included a super sprint, a sprint, and an Olympic Tri...the Olympic was a the smallest with only about 140 racers. However, the other races had a few hundred and they were all starting later than us, but that seemed not to matter in the early competition for parking...I shoulda coulda woulda gotten up a little earlier to get a good space, but didn't and had to hike. Then...I went into the transition area and promptly racked my bike on the wrong rack. I was almost all nested into my little zone when I realized it and had to move to the rack where I was supposed to be...I was not loving the fact that I'd committed 2 rookie mistakes before the race even started. Oh, well...still had time to wander around and wait in the porto line.

Swim: Deep water start and the men's wave was 5 minutes ahead of ours...spint and super sprint a few minutes behind us. The lake was really warm and comfortable...as usual, the swim felt fast and fun. I was head to head with another person right away...we both were passing a lot of the men by the halfway buoy (love that)...and thought I dropped her...but then saw her again at the end out to my left. I thought I had a better angle to the finish, but she edged me out by about 6 seconds. I was probably 2 yards behind her as we hit the chip pad...dangit, I wanted to win the swim.

Swim time: 25:07

T1: Not too bad...though I did put my 2nd sock on upside down and thought that it might pay off later if I put the heel back under my foot...so that wasted a little time. Otherwise, it wasn't too awful this time. T1 time: 1:25

Bike: As usual this summer, I was not as warm on the bike as I prefer...but I must say, it was warmer than the other 2 races this summer. The course was fun...some rollers and some fast short descents. Good, smooth, clean pavement. Also, Ann Sloan was volunteering on the bike course, and it was great to see her...the only familiar face of the day out there today. About halfway through the bike, though, I was just not really feeling it...although my legs felt better (better taper week) than the last race, I just didn't feel like riding hard. The left side of my low back was cranky and I was distracted here and there... had quite a few thoughts about this being my last race of the season. I just didn't feel like cycling redline hard and had to buck up to hang in there. I wasn't physically miserable by any means, but just didn't feel hard core on the bike...mental hunger and edge was lacking, for sure. I also was a little demoralized by the usual 2-3 women in my age group who dropped me like I was standing still on the bike. I was looking forward to running by mile 15.

Bike time: 1:20:21

T2: I wasn't as cold as the last race, so I had a little dexterity in my hands...only took 2 tries to get my helmet off and I was off and running in a decent amount of time. T2 time: :49

Run: I had been looking forward to the run for a good hour, but again here I wasn't feeling like busting it. I managed "comfortably uncomfortable," though, and I did enjoy running on the Soos Creek Trail. I'd read the course description and knew it was an out-and-back with a short, steep descent in the first mile...which, of course, meant dreading the climb in the last mile and no real chance for any kind of negative split. There were 2 guys on the hill in blue body paint who were cheering for people all day...they were pretty funny and were yelling "Raise the bar!" since that was the team sponsoring the race...I made them laugh when I yelled, "Raise the BARF" back at them. I also chatted with another volunteer guy who was out on the course on a bike...he was cool and it was fun to chat with someone a little.

On the run, too, I found myself thinking that I'd rather not be "racing" at the moment and, note to self, this really should be my last race of the season. But the 2nd half of the run actually felt better than the first half and it went by pretty quickly.

Run time: 48:21

Total time: 2:36

This race was so small that they were only doing awards for the top 3 female and male finishers...and this time it was cash. I'd counted 3 women ahead of me on the run (out and back makes this painfully possible)...I was hoping that one of them may have been on a relay team, but no such luck. Turns out I was actually the 5th woman. Always the bridesmaid....

I was really glad I'd done the race and I would highly recommend this race (well organized, great volunteer support, etc.), but I think I'm done racing for a while...I'm going to do the Aquathon on Sept. 1 (thank god, a race with no biking), but otherwise, I'm gonna work a few more this summer and let others wear the bibs for a while. Junk miles on the bike, here I come!

Federal Escape Race Report

PO-DEE-UM!

Yesterday was the Federal Escape Tri...and my friend, Stacey, and I both had a good race and a lot of fun...it was great to go with her to do this race. Stace is not a morning person (um, understatement), but she agreed to let me pick her up at 5:30 a.m. to get to the race...and I must say she was totally ready to roll when I got there to scoop her. It was such a small race that we had plenty of time to park and get things set up before the race meeting at 7:15 (which included complete set up in the Sprint area and subsequently moving all our crap to the Olympic area and getting not-so-great transition area real estate, but whatever, it killed time and I only visited the porto once before the, um, last pee in the lake before the start, don't act surprised everyone does it).

The race went off in 2 waves...and what was great (other than the lake being very small and WARM, as in warmer than the air), was that they sent off the women 5 minutes before the men...and the Olympic race an hour before the sprint. So we got out there before everyone else.

I pushed up to the front for the swim start and recognized Alicia, the rocket fast swimmer who is 22 and swam with us at Seattle U last year...and who, I know, is a really good and really serious triathlete (guess who won the whole race...yup, Alicia). I knew she'd go off the front of the swim, but who knew that I'd be 2nd behind her! I took off fast to get swim space and after someone touched my foot at the first buoy, nobody was close to me. Alicia was pretty far in front, but I was second and I have to say it was quite the rush coming through the first lap (2 lap course), and seeing a lot of people watching ME. I thought, "dang, this must be how it feels to be Macca or Chrissie Wellington and in front of the WHOLE field...I could really get used to this!" By the second lap I was picking off men who were in their first lap (HA) and I did come out of the water in 2nd place. Pretty cool. Swim time: 26:40

T1: It was a cool morning and I'd put out a zip-up jacket to wear on the bike. After the internal "calm and efficient" internal mantra which resulted in a cumbersome yard sale just like 2 weeks ago (time for a new mantra? more practice? something...I'm a mess here), I gave a short attempt at putting on the jacket...first sleeve, totally tangled. Pretty sure I said "fuck it" out loud, threw the jacket down, and decided to buck up and face the cold. T1: 1:22

Bike: As I hit the mount line, the volunteer told me "you're 3 minutes behind the leader..." Kind of nice to have that rush again of being at the front of the race for a little while (needless to say, the thundering disk wheels started coming by soon as the fast dudes started dropping me).

The bike course was 4 laps of the same course and I thought I'd hate that, but...I really liked it! There were a few rollers, but overall it was a fast course and it was kind of fun to do it 4x. I never wrote up a race plan, but as I started, I came up with a nutrition plan. I'd done a PowerBar fillet (ode to Seujan) and had a PowerBar cut into 5 pieces in the bento box. I took piece 1 right away and then decided to do another piece every 5 miles. This turned out to be an excellent plan and I will do it again (i.e. eat a scooby snack at at 0, 5, 10, 15, 19ish miles). My legs were tired and burning a bit by lap 3...the taper was off a day due to my schedule last week, and I felt like I did during that last brick...I would have liked to feel stronger and have more power in my legs. Note to self, the next race will include another day to rest up/taper down.

On the 4th lap, I sped up to pass one of the sprint course racers (on her first lap, I think, in caged pedals on a crappy bike) as we were going around a corner and up a slight hill. Just as I was about to go around her, I shifted too fast and dropped my chain....sshhhhiiittt....had to stop and throw it back on. I still buried her within a half mile, but I was cranky about having to stop as I was holding a good pace. Turns out it didn't cost me in placement, but still.... Right about that time, I was realizing that my body was really warm, but my hands were numb. I wondered about my dexterity for T2 and getting my race belt on. Well, it wasn't the race belt that turned out to be the problem....Bike time: 1:14:14

T2: Got into T2 and tried the "calm and efficient" thought again...and it tanked again (how about a mantra of "I'm crazy and making a mess," I mean it couldn't be much worse of a result than the old one). My fingers were not working and I could not get my friggin' helmet clipped off. I kept trying, kept swearing, attempted to pull it off with total force, thought about running with the damn thing still on (um, no way, that is the nerdiest thing possible), tried to wrangle with it more, swore AGAIN, and finally, a spectator outside the fence yelled, "Do you need help?" I thought about the possibility of DNF'ing for assistance, but this was a really small unpoliced race and I'd already wasted so much time, I had to risk it. I ran over to the fence, she unclipped me, and I'm eternally grateful. I was still clunky getting out (race belt was also not smooth), had to use my teeth to adjust my hat before putting it on, too...but got out. Shew. T2 time: 1:19

Run: The run course was 2 laps of the same course, some of which was the same as the bike. This meant that I saw some of the same volunteers 6 times total...felt like we were old friends by the end of the morning. I managed to make a few volunteers laugh as I went by and thanked several of them, which made the run more fun.

I also felt my legs on the run, but not quite as bad as on the bike. I didn't feel that I was super-pushing it, but I was comfortably uncomfortable...and happy it wasn't any more than a 10k. I'd have needed nutrition I didn't have with me if it had been longer, all they had on the course was one water/electrolyte station. I had nothing left to push a sprint at the end and "last mile, fast mile" didn't feel so possible, but when I saw my time, I realized why: 48:44 (um, that's a 7:50 mile pace, which is damn good for me if I say so myself). Only one woman passed me on the run...and of course, some dudes...but that's OK.

Total time: 2:32:17

I ended up the 7th woman overall (out of 65) and 2nd in my age group (out of 12). Stacey also rocked her race and was 3rd in her age group, whoop! The food afterwards was pretty good (pancakes and sausages and some other good stuff), so we stuck around, chatted with some people from Stacey's Tri club, and waited a riduculous amount of time for the awards ceremony to get our plastic trophies! :) Hey, it's the little things, right?

Today I did a "recovery" ride...I love how junk miles = recovery ride the day after a race. Lord knows I love me some junk miles. I went around Mercer Island, just 23 miles, light and fun. I ran into my friend, Ann, about halfway through so we stopped and chatted for a while. Nice to have a fun, relaxing ride and to see her.

My friend, the bike racer, had a bad crash yesterday on a descent on a training ride...which included a trip to the ER and some fractured pieces of vertebrae (oh, and the imprint of a guardrail on her back). I saw her last night and today and, despite her feeling that it's all part of the game (for her), I've reaffirmed my desire NOT to be a bike racer...regardless of the potential vicodin supply. Yikes.