Brineman 70.3 Race Report

Brineman 70.3 was my last race of the season, and my 5th attempt at the distance.  I have been super excited for this race, but also nervous given my run related injury of tendinitis/plantar fascitis that has been an issue since I got back from Alaska.  I simply have not been running anywhere near where I would want to prevent further injury to my dang foot.  This has been an incredible patience tester and very frustrating to say the least.  Leading up to IM StG 70.3 in may I was averaging around 25 miles a week of running.  I was lucky to break 10 a week for Brineman.  

I spoke with Ben, my coach, a couple of nights before the race.  He suggested we try something a little different given the circumstances of the injury.  He wanted me to just roll the dice and have fun.  I was to do the swim like I normally would, but really try to push harder on the bike than I might normally.  We have done tons of biking lately to make up for lack of running and it was essentially a chance to see where we were with it.  The run the main focus was to take walk breaks at the aid stations and to just focus on one station at a time and practice good run form between them.  I liked this idea because I was pretty sure I could do a swim and bike PR if I wasn't too worried about the run, and I kind of like the idea of racing with a "what the hell" attitude and just seeing exactly how much I could push.

Other than the actual race strategy there was a few other cool factors leading up to this race that made me really excited.  One, this is a hometown race.  I could literally bike 3.5 miles from my house to transition if I wanted to.  I train on this course almost daily and have for 8 years.  Two, my parents were in town and staying with us for the weekend.  My Mom came to my first triathlon ever, but my Dad has never been to any of my races.  This was going to be cool to have them there to cheer me on. The third factor was that my swim team were the volunteers for the race.  This was our fundraiser for the year.  We provide 40-50 volunteers and the race director cut us a check.  Awesome!  It also meant that every single aid station I had a built in cheering section yelling GO COACH or WE LOVE YOU COACH each time.  That was amazing!

SWIM:

This was a self seeded rolling start.  I love these!  If people seed themselves well it works so smoothly. I got towards the front of the group.  This turned out to be fine.  Our group had to do a small loop around one buoy and come back, then we had to do a larger loop around the other end of a long narrow lake.  The first small loop was chaos.  Typical of me, I started off too fast like apparently every other swimmer did and it was the whole washing machine effect for that first loop.  We were able to spread out as we made the half mile trek down to the larger island to circle around, and it thinned out and I finally got into a good rhythm,  It seemed to take forever to get to that turn around!  It was cool to pass the water support on kayaks and SUPs because they were all my swimmers serving as lifeguards :).  Once I made that second turn and headed back to the start, it was much easier to sight and seemed to go much faster.  I swear I tend to swim too wide towards the right. I  need to work on that.  I still stayed pretty straight, just too far to the right.  I was second female out of the water with a swim time of 32:01, a 3 minute PR for the 1.2 mile swim.

T1:

There were no wetsuit strippers for this race.  I HATE dealing with my wetsuit but had  sprayed the bottom of my legs with TriSlide prior to putting it on to see if it would  help get it off.  It did!  Why did it take me so long to do this?  Pretty slick.  I still had to dry off some because air temp was 46 at the start of the bike.  It was a longer transition than I would have wanted with a time of 2:54 :/

BIKE:

As I ran with Ivy to the bike mounting area Ken was there with my Mom and Dad.  I swear my Dad cheers louder than anyone!  It was so awesome to hear him yell GO KATE! as I got on my bike and headed out.  I was trying something new this race.  I timed the swim with my watch, but was using my new bike computer, a Wahoo Bolt for the bike portion.  I did this for a few reasons.  One, I am not convinced my watch (Suunto Spartan Sport) would have the battery life to get through a 70.3.  I am sure if I messed with the settings it would, but I didn't want to chance it.  Second, I have wanted a way to have the data from the ride right in front of me on the bike without having to change my position and turn to see what's on my watch.  Our club has a sponsorship with Wahoo, and I picked one up a couple of weeks ago.  It is mounted to my torpedo bottle between my arms and turned out to be pretty slick.  I loved seeing all the data there the whole time. 

The first part of the course is flat and fast though some of the roads have chip seal and that is just a pain.  I was riding much faster on these roads than I normally do (keep in mind, this is practically in my backyard) and but I felt great, so why not push some?  I watched my HR and tried not to let it dip below 150ish.  On the causeway to the Island I played leap frog with several people.  We didn't have much of a wind, which was nice.  My nutrition was all right on, every 15 minutes drinking a few ounces of my Infinit.  I tried a new flavor this time, watermelon, and dialed it down some since I do a concentrated bottle, and it was actually really good!  I came to the first bike aid station at the end of the causeway and my swimmers were there with their arms stretched out with the water or Gatorade.  I yelled WATER at them and they ran over and did a perfect hand off! YES!  The day before How to Be a Great Volunteer 101 lecture had paid off :)  They also had their car stereo blasting and were dancing and having fun.  That made me happy to see and made me smile.  

The ride down to the ranch was going well.  I saw several people with flats (I was praying I wouldn't get one.  I can change a flat, but I hate it,and on my tri bike its even more of a pain).  I made it to the turn around at the ranch and one of my swimmers was there with a Red Bull for me. I laughed and told him to save it for the run course.  I don't usually drink that crap in real life, but on the race course, it's amazing, especially on the run.  The way back from the ranch we had a headwind and the rollers.  Not fun, but I am used to it by now.  The wind is the greatest variable out there.  It either works for you or against you and you never know which it is going to be.  I really wanted a sub 3 hour ride, and was calculating how fast I would have to go or maintain to get it.  I knew I could do it if I really pushed, but it would be close.  I just kept pushing, my quads were yelling "Enough already!" but I really, really wanted a sub 3 bike split.  As I rolled into the last mile of the bike, I saw some weirdos in speedos, suspenders, cowboy boots and a Make America Great Again flag.  Oh my hell, those are some of my swimmers!  I really, really tried to just ride by unnoticed because I wasn't sure I wanted to claim them at the moment, but no such luck.  They saw me, and ran along side my bike yelling GO COACH!!!!!!I'll admit it was pretty funny.

I rolled into the bike dismount area with a bike time of 3:00:39.  My bike computer had it at sub 3, but this was the official time.  Don't care, close enough and still a bike PR by 4-5 minutes.  I knew immediately when I got off the bike that the run was going to be rough, my legs were stiff and completely trashed!

T2:

I was so stiff I suddenly didn't care about my T2 time.  I sat down to change shoes and put on socks. I only use socks in a race for 70.3 and up because of blisters, so I took my time to put them on.  Getting up was humorous at best.  I threw my gels in my back pocket because I couldn't find my favorite race belt the night before and was using another one with no pouch on it.  I hobbled out of T2 with a time of 1:51.

RUN:

As I mentioned, I was really stiff already. I way overcooked that bike, but that was kind of in the plan.  Ben challenged me to walk the first minute or so of the run anyway to just get my bearings and let my HR come down.  As I got walked out of T2, my swimmer had a cold Red Bull for me.  It was the 12 oz and I knew I couldn't have the whole thing then, but I drank about half of it that first minute then left it at the turn around sign (the half had to do 2 loops of this run) and hoped it would be there for the second loop.  I swear that stuff helps!  I then managed a slow jog but my legs were so heavy and already hurting.  I knew this was going to be a sufferfest, and it was!  I just focused on one aid station at a time.  It was so nice to see my kids at each aid station.  They were so encouraging and helpful and they made me laugh when I wanted to quit.  The first 1/4 of this run was quite possibly the hardest I have ever done. I just hurt everywehere.  I got to the turn around and it was less than  mile from my house. I'd be lying if I didn't think about just keep going and head home :)  I then saw a competitor not far behind me and that motivated me to pick up the pace.  My legs had loosened up some by now, and made it easier to run.  My pace was dismal, but I didn't care, I was just happy to be moving.  I walked the aid stations, took the chance to high 5 my swimmers and then go again.  I really had to go to the bathroom, but there weren't any!  I thought for sure the turn around would have one, but nope!  (yet again, another reason I wanted to go home).  I kept seeing  athletes running out of the weeds because nature was calling them too!  Now, here's a little triathlete TMI, but this is a sport with little boundaries anyway, but I REALLY had to go both 1 and 2.  My only concern was my swimmers seeing me drop my 1 piece kit to go.  I couldn't care less about other athletes or random strangers.  I jogged along looking for the perfect place out of sight range of the aid stations and offering some privacy.  There was a giant tree surrounded by weeds just off the trail, so I went for it.  Yeah, it would have been a great idea to notice that giant tree was a Russian Olive with giant thorns.  My butt now looks like it got in a fight with a cat. I took care of business and ran out of there as quick as I could.  Another racer saw me coming out and said he had done the same thing and now had goat heads in his chamois and was trying to dig them out as he ran.  It made for a good laugh for sure!

I finished the first loop and there was my Red Bull still waiting under the sign. I chugged the second half of that and away we went.  It was still painful, but my legs weren't quite as heavy.  My ankle was starting to ache as well, but I knew to expect it.  The motivation to just be done kept me going the second loop and it was more enjoyable than the first.  I cheered for my teammates. I laughed with my swimmers at the aid stations when they had busted out the Eminem songs.  It seemed to go much quicker than the first loop.  

Because I didn't have one device timing the whole race and only roughly knew my splits for bike and swim, I calculated that for a race PR I needed to keep the run under 2:40.  I was well under that. I knew for a run PR I had to keep the run time under 2:24.  I then was thinking I could manage a run PR, but like the bike, it would be close.  I could see the red blow up finish line in the distance and started skipping aid stations to get there.  I came in with a final run time of 2:22:29!

POST RACE:

The final push to the finish line had me in tears.  35-40 of my kids working the finish line stopped what they were doing, lined the finisher's chute and cheered me in with Ken and my parents there as well.  I felt like such a rock star!  It was so very cool!!  I had no clue what my final race time was and just about fell over when I realized it was 5:59:56.  Sub 6 by 4 seconds for a 21 minute PR.  I was also shocked to learn that I had placed 3rd in my Age group and 12 overall female out of 48.  Not bad for a race that felt like death! (In all fairness, I felt really good until I started the run).

I was so proud of my swimmers today.  I got so much positive feedback on how well they did from other athletes and members of my club.  They worked hard and had fun at the same time.  I am pretty sure we will have the opportunity to do this next year as well.  From a coaching stand point, this is an ideal fundraiser because we don't have to sell anything, and one weekend of hard work and we are done!  Winning!  Plus, it exposes the kids to triathlon and maybe will inspire them to enter the sport.  Double win!

Having my parents there was awesome as well.  My father was my inspiration to get into the sport after watching him as a life long runner turned cyclist.  It was so nice to have them there!

I was disappointed to see that some of the distances were shorter (swim was 150 yards short, bike was almost a mile short, and the run was .5 miles short) and that sort of took away from the excitement of such a PR.  However, race distances tend to vary from race to race as do GPS units, and I calculated what my times would have been given my avg pace for each discipline, and I still would have had a PR, so I am satisfied with that.  

I am glad it is the off season.  I have the next week completely off from training (thank you Ben!!) and then let my stupid foot heal and build into a bike focus, build the run up again, then push for Oceanside 70.3 in April.  In the meantime, happy racing and training!

Alcatraz Crossing Swim

 Ever since I first heard of the Escape from Alcatraz triathlon, I have wanted to do just the swim portion.  You swim from the famous Alcatraz Island/former prison, to the shore.  The bike and run held no appeal for me, I just wanted to do the swim.  I heard that they have a swim race of just the swim portion called Sharkfest, but I didn't know much beyond that.  In Ken and I's long standing tradition of working our way down the family line with who picks the vacation every year, Ken picked San Francisco for this year.  I immediately started wondering about doing the swim.  I had heard that there was a local swim club that does monthly organized swims, so I Googled it.  Sure enough, Water World Swim Sports does just that.  I looked at their calendar and they were doing one the week AFTER we were scheduled do be there.  So, I did what any normal person would do and changed the dates of our vacation so that I could be there for their June swim.  Luckily Ken didn't mind me high jacking his vacation :)  I immediately signed up 6 months in advance.

Fast forward to last week.  I had told several people I was doing this swim.  It is on my bucket list of items I want to do in the crazy world of endurance sports. The response I got from most of them was "you know there are sharks in that water, right?" Or, "why would you do that?"  Or "Now we know you've lost it."  I found this funny because I think Ironman and some of the other stuff I've done is way crazier than this.  Yes, I know there are sharks in the water.  I want to do it because I am terrified of oceans swims and I want to overcome that fear.  And yes, I probably have lost it, but this is nothing new :)

As we arrived in San Francisco, I was starting to actually think I was crazy for doing the swim.  I saw Alcatraz from the Bay Bridge and noticed how far it really was from shore.  Then I noticed the chop in the Bay every day we were there.  Then Wednesday we went whale watching on a boat in the same area as the swim.  We saw about a dozen different humpback whales in the same area or not far from where I would be doing the swim.  Cool, but.....

Friday we went to the beach.  The water was FREEZING.  Even though I have done plenty of cold swims, this was way cold.  Oh great, lets just add that to the list of fears and obstacles on Saturday!  I will admit, I was starting to freak out a bit.  But, as this is my 8th season in endurance sports, I have noticed a cycle with me when I freak out or get nervous.  Once I am there, and get going, I do fine.  I kept telling myself that once I attended the briefing and spoke with others doing the swim, heard from the coaches directing and running the swim, I would be fine.

Saturday morning Ken and I got up at 4:45.  We ate a quick breakfast and I gathered my things I would need for the swim.  We left the kids at the hotel because they were more interested in sleeping in.  We grabbed an Uber to take us to Fisherman's Wharf and we were the first ones there.  I met Mike, one of the coaches, and he gave me my waiver.  I love signing stuff that says, "You realize by participating in this swim, injuries could occur including death/drowning."

We had 24 swimmers signed up to swim and about 3/4 of us were doing it for the first time.  They gave us the run down of what to site (the battleship, Fort Mason, the Gold Dome of the Palace of the Performing Arts, then the red brick roof of the Yacht Club), and stressed that this was NOT a race, it was an organized swim.  They would have kayak support and SUPs out on the water with us, as well as 4 swim coaches in the water with hot pink buoys if we needed them.  They stressed not to follow other swimmers, because if they got off course, they didn't want us to follow.  We got on the boat, rode it out to the middle of the bay just a stone's throw from Alcatraz (fun fact, we actually couldn't swim off the beach at Alcatraz because it is a protected wild life refuge, so we jumped from the boat) they then started playing the Rocky Theme song, lowered the back gate of the boat, and said, "See you on the beach!"  It was at this moment I let just about everyone else go in front of me.  I was in my wetsuit, had double capped for the cold, but wasn't quite ready to jump.  Ha!  No time to wallow in it!  The captain pointed at me and said, "You next!"  I didn't even have a chance to think about it and I jumped.  Everyone was staying right there in the water and I took a moment to look around me. It was surreal.  First off, the water wasn't near as cold as I was prepared for.  I have definitely been in worse.  But the view is what truly took my breath away.  I could see both the Bay Bridge and the Golden Gate Bridge, Alcatraz, and the whole city skyline with the fog just over it.  I looked down the shore and spotted what I would need to be sighting.  One coach was near me and said, "Not a bad way to spend your morning, huh?"  She was right!  By then the last person had jumped in the water and everyone started the swim towards the battleship.  Immediately the salt hit me.  No big deal, but not what I am used to.  Then the chop started to get to me.  It was crazy!  I swim in land locked reservoirs and lakes, nothing like this.  I have swam in boat chop and canyon wind kind of chop, but nothing quite like this.  Every time I went to sight, or breath, or just get my bearings, I got smacked in the head with another swell.  I felt like I wasn't moving though I was swimming as hard as I could. A few times I stopped and just went with it trying to see where I was.  With the chop I couldn't really see the other swimmers.  I could see the people standing on the SUPs, but that was it.  I asked them where everyone was, and they just pointed.  I couldn't make out most of what they said, so I gave up trying to.  This kept going and I was getting pretty frustrated, but then I would look over and see I was past what I was sighting, so I knew I was at least moving even though it didn't feel like it.  A giant tanker came through and really stirred it up more.  I remember saying to myself, "You have officially reached the end of your skill set."  Then I remembered to focus on what I could control.  I could control my stroke.  Then I remembered Ben telling me prior to StG that if the water got choppy, shorten my stroke to be more efficient in the water.  Well, that definitely applied here!  That was very helpful information to recall at that time because it gave me something to focus on.  I continued on but it was frustrating that I never at any point felt like I could find a good rhythm like I normally do. On the other hand, the challenge was kind of fun.  I had several flashbacks to playing in the swells along the beach as a kid in Galveston.  The difference was I was close to the shore and could always touch the bottom back then.  I never got scared, but I was frustrated many times because it was unlike anything I've ever done.  I had to just Dory it and "just keep swimming."  Finally I saw the final object they told us to sight, the red roof of the Yacht Club.  I remember them saying we would end at the small beach on the side of that building.  I got around the building and headed into the beach.  The first person I could recognize was Ken, standing there waiting for me. I swam harder because I was just ready to be done!!  I got out and put my head down to catch my breath.  Ken's first response? "Man, you look beat up!"  No kidding!  I felt it!

Then I turned around and saw all the swimmers coming into the beach.  I saw Alcatraz off in the distance and thought, "Yep, I just did that.  Check that box off the list!"  I was probably the 6th or 7th person out of the water out of the 24 who did it.  I finished the approx 2 mile swim in 39 minutes.  I am not completely sure my watch was accurate on the distance, and there is a current in our favor, but I am almost certain I didn't swim the 1:07 pace my watch said I did.  We then swam back to the boat just off the shore and they took us back to the starting point.  Many people who are veterans of this swim said this was the roughest day they had out there in a long time.  One girl mentioned that she was glad they didn't see sharks this time.  Wait, what?  She mentioned that they were getting ready to do a swim once and a great white had attacked a seal about in the spot they normally have people jump in the water, so they cancelled that day.  I am glad I found this out AFTER the fact.  However, it is pretty rare to see sharks in there with it being a major shipping channel.

I can now check that off my list. It was the single most challenging swim I have ever done, but also pretty amazing.  I would do it again, they were talking about how they do another event called the "Bridge to Bridge" swim and it goes from the Bay Bridge to the Golden Gate.  Its about a 10k, so I would have to work up to that, but no hurry for sure!

 I texted Ben about it at the end and his response cracked me up. "You're half nuts, but awesome too :)"

I can't say enough good things about Water World Swim.  They did an excellent job with this, from organization to making it a safe event for us.  They were incredibly encouraging and helpful.  Loved them!  If I was in the Bay Area, I would probably try to get more involved in their activities.

So what's next for me?  I have the Deseret News 10k in just over a month, then the Brineman 70.3 in September.  Training since StG has been pretty chill and nice at the same time as I have had a ton of family stuff going on, and more in the next few weeks.  Onward and upward!

Salt Lake Gran Fondo 100 Miler!

 My triathlon partners in crime, Jason and Cristin, and I, were going to go on a long training ride on Saturday.  Cristin is prepping for Ironman Boulder and Jason is getting ready for Alaskaman.  I was on my tri club page and saw that many of my tri club teammates were doing a Century ride with the Salt Lake Gran Fondo and it wasn't too late to sign up even though it was just 48 hours away.  My training plan in training peaks only called for 1-2 hours of easy riding, but I am not really doing any race specific training for another month or so, so I figured why not?  Plus, if you're going to ride long, you might as well have someone else lay out the aid stations, control traffic, and give you a medal and t-shirt, right?  So, I texted Cristin and Jason about it and we were all signed up!

The course starts and finishes at Saltaire and you literally do a big giant circle around the Oquirrh Mountains down through Tooele County, into Utah County, and then along the west bench of the Salt Lake Valley back to Saltaire.  We had to be there at 6:00 to pick up our packets.  The ride started out and you literally merge onto I-80 for a few miles until you hit the Tooele exit.  This was kind of scary as it is an Interstate, but we had the shoulder and the lane next to us was closed with Highway Patrolmen escorting us.  Still scary!  Within the first 5 miles I saw a semi about take out 4-5 of the cyclists as he was merging onto the freeway.  This was the first of many close calls I saw today on this non-cyclist friendly route.

Not long after we got off the freeway I decided to try to draft.  In the past this has terrified me, but I  figured it would make 100 miles go by easier. I was on my road bike for this event.  I found a pack and quickly  just joined them.  Sweet!  This paid off well for the first 30 miles or so.  We worked together and took turns pulling and I found it wasn't bad at all!  Cristin was in my group and Jason had gone way ahead of us.  Weather was nice and cool, and clear! (We had snow just 48 hours before this event).  Cristin and I stopped at every aid station, and we found the volunteers were so friendly and they had gels, Honeystinger waffles, water, EFS nutrition, and even Hi-Chews!  The first half was literally middle of nowhere.  It was also a long slow grind with what seemed like a false flat but was a gradual climb.  We kept wondering why it felt like we were going so slow but working so hard! And we can't forget about the fact we had a head wind the WHOLE FREAKING TIME!  Don't ask me how that works, but that was the case!

We hit the half way point and we were feeling pretty good.  We refueled, used the restrooms, and were on our way again.  Just shortly after this point Cristin got the first of two flat tires.  We had everything we needed between us to change it, but we aren't very fast at this process :/.  We had someone stop and help us change it then he headed on his way.  We got going again and within a mile she was flat again.  This time we checked and double checked the tire, but couldn't figure out what the issue was.  We had the sag wagon guy get out and help us and found that her tire was literally split about a centimeter wide.  We used a Gu wrapper to patch it (I remember reading this tip somewhere and it worked!) and we were able to get on our way again.  Thank heaven it held for the remaining 44 miles!

Fitness wise for this ride I was fine, though it was by far my longest ride in two years.  I felt great the entire time energy and fitness wise.  My only issues were my shoulder (this is always an issue on long rides) and my saddle was HELLACIOUS!  I finally am comfortable saddle wise on my tri bike for aero, but now need to figure out something else for my roadie.  My legs felt great as well! When the ride was done they were a little heavy, and later that night they were stiff, but next day I was great.  Nutrition wise this ride was no big deal, I had my Infinit in two different bottles, but also added a gel or waffle at the rest stops.  I probably should have taken in more fluids, but it was okay.

Once we hit north Utah County the route put us on Redwood Road.  This is major road that runs through 3 counties.  It was busy AND under construction.  It was scary to navigate turns and even just ride on this road.  We were grateful when this section ended and we turned onto Mountain View Corridor.  This is a busy road, but it has a huge shoulder and bike lane, so it was much better from a safety stand point.  We knew we were on the tail end of riders for the Gran Fondo, but there were several other rides going along the same routes, so we always had other riders within a reasonable distance.  The aid stations got further in between than they had been the first half, but we were still greeted with happy, cheering, and helpful volunteers.  The weather had warmed up and we were able to ditch arm warmers and jackets that they brought to the finish for us.  They were great!

About 15 miles from the Finish Cristin and I stopped at the final aid station and they had peanut butter and jelly Uncrustables.  They were heavenly at that point!  The portion of the course on Mountain View Corridor also ended and we rode up to the Backus Highway.  The remainder of the ride was spent mainly downhill, but there was a lot of swearing, praying and hanging on for dear life as the roads and traffic were just dangerous.  We were on roads with no shoulder or bike lane and heavy traffic.  There was tons of debris that could mean a flat tire at the least, or accident/injury as well.  We actually had to merge onto the 201 (another freeway) where there was nothing but traffic barrels separating us from traffic going by at 75-80mph.  Not safe at all.  We were also the tail end of the riders, so there wasn't exactly a group to ride with.  There should have been a police man directing traffic or something.  I still can't believe how bad and dangerous this was!  We were very grateful to be done and back to Saltaire.

By the time we finished they were out of food.  However,the race director did give us free event jerseys since "you guys suffered longer than anyone else.".  We got our stuff together and hit Taco Bell for our post ride grub!

My thoughts on this race/ride are mixed. For the positives: It is always fun to ride with a friend.  It was great to complete my 5th 100+ ride.  The volunteers were all very good, happy and cheerful, and very helpful.  It was also fun to ride where I hadn't before and see new areas I am not familiar with.  The weather was perfect.  The Cons:  My saddle sucks.  My shoulder is still an issue.  The organization was poor.  The routes they had us on were not safe or rider friendly.  There should have been more controlling of intersections or alternative routes on less busy streets should have been utilized.  I was reminded again why so much of my riding (around 80%) is indoors.  There just isn't enough safe riding around here! And no organized ride should utilize freeways!!!!  Needless to say, this will be the last time I participate in this ride.  Jason, Cristin, and many of my teammates had the same thoughts.

So what's next?  Just easier/transitional training until mid-July where I start the ramp up for my fall 70.3, Brineman.  I do have East Canyon Olympic in three weeks and my Alcatraz swim in a month! in the meantime, happy training and racing!!

80 miles down, 20 to go!!

Ironman 70.3 St George 2017 Race Report

 72 hours post race and I am still on a post race high!  Where do I begin to sum it all up??

PRE-RACE:

I headed down to St. George on Thursday morning and caravaned down with Jason and Cristin, who I talked into signing up for this race with me about 8 months ago.  We got into town, went to the expo, and it was super hot!  I kept hoping that we would not have this heat on race day!  I picked up my packet, went to the merchandise tent and bought the infamous race "name shirt" with all participants names on it.  It was the only thing I bought!  Ken was shocked.  This is my third Ironman branded event, so I just don't feel the need to go crazy on Ironman gear anymore.  It is still cool, but my tradition now is to just buy the name shirt, unless there is something else I just can't live without!

Friday I laid low.  I took the time to pack my gear bags to get them ready for gear and bike check in.  I had a late breakfast and it did not set well with me.  I was almost immediately sick to my stomach and this lasted the rest of the day.  I was not happy about this!  Please don't let me be sick before the race!!I went ahead and headed out to Sand Hollow to check in my bike.  I visited with some friends while there, did a very brief spin on Ivy to make sure the gears were all good and she was ready to roll, then I checked her in.  I was getting ready to leave when was pretty sure I saw Ben, my coach, speed by on his bike.  I have worked remotely with Ben for the past 18 months, but never actually "met" in person as he is in Madison, Wisconsin, and I am in Utah.  I couldn't pass up the chance to meet him.  So, I went over and said hello.  Thank heaven it was him, or that would have been weird!  Ben is just as cool in person!  I've always known he was a great coach, but he is also a cool person!

I wanted to get out of the heat, so I headed back into town, quickly checked my run gear bag and headed back to the condo.  Ken and the kids were in town by this point, and it was good to see them!

Saturday morning I woke up super early and was over the moon excited!  No race nerves, just plain excited!  I was riding to catch the shuttles with Jason and Cristin, so I met them at their hotel for breakfast.  I had listened to my "race inspiration" playlist on the way over and was just ready to get this thing going!  We ate, got on the shuttles, then it was a matter of airing my tires, loading my bike nutrition, and then waiting for the swim start!

SWIM:

I had high hopes of a swim PR for this course. The water was smooth (which is actually unusual for Sand Hollow, this area is known for the wind).  I was in one of the very last swim waves, so it was a hurry up and wait kind of game. I was in Wave #18, with a start time of 7:31.  I got up  and was going to try to hug the inside buoy line, and start near the front of my group.  We swam out to the start buoy, the gun went off, and it was time to get to work!  I stuck to my usual sighting every 8 strokes or 4 breaths, and kept telling myself  "reach long, pull strong".  I found a good rhythm right off the bat and was sighting well.  The first third of this went way fast.  When we went along the west side of the Island, that part lasted longer!  It was all good, but I was starting to catch the slower swimmers from the waves ahead of me and it started to get more congested and harder to stay right with the buoy line as I was trying to avoid the slower swimmers and go around them.  When we made the final turn where we swim into the boat dock, it was CRAZY!  Now you have every breast stroker, back stroker, and hanging-on-for-dear-life-stroker, and it made for just utter chaos. The water got choppy from all the congestion and I started to get nauseous.  Uh!  Can we just be done?  I was relieved to get out of the water and let out a HUGE burp.  My sister Lisa and father would have been impressed!  I immediately felt better though!  I unzipped my wetsuit, took off my cap and goggles, and ran for the strippers!  They had that sucker off faster than a prom dress!  Final swim time was 36:43 (24 out of 116 in my division), only 45 seconds away from a PR!  I blame the chaos at the end for that!  Either way, I was thrilled with this swim.

T1:

As soon as the wetsuit was off, I ran over to Ivy, threw all my swim stuff into the bag, threw on my shoes, helmet, and sunglasses and headed out of there.  I was super thrilled with my T1 time of 3:12. This is over 3 minutes faster than last time I did StG, but I was way happy with it.  Ken caught the pic below as I had exited the water.

 BIKE:

I was both super excited and nervous for this bike.  It was on the bike that my race went so horribly wrong 3 years ago, but I also had a couple of good training rides on this course just a few weeks before, so I was excited to see it all play out on race day.  Ben had told me to make sure I kept constant tension on the chain.  Pressure on the pedals. I get into a habit of just spinning or coasting at times on the "easier" parts of the course.  My training ride here two weeks ago I spent well over an hour of a 2:45 ride in Zone 1!  What the?  Not okay for race day!  I quickly found that by doing this, I was passing lots of people on the flats and descents.  I am not a strong climber, but I found that many people that passed me on the hills, I caught up with or passed right after the hills.  This was just so much fun!  I would just shift into the "hardest" gear on the flats or down hills and just keep tension on the chain as Ben said.  I threw a lot of caution to the wind as well and stayed in aero on these down hills instead of on the breaks.  With the roads closed to traffic, I felt confident doing this. It was just so much fun!  I loved it! I hit some new high speeds of 45 mph on my bike on more than one of these down hills.

My nutrition plan was working well.  I had two concentrated bottles of my Infinit + Base salt.  I found that making more than a two hour bottle the flavor is way too strong, so I went with two 2 hour bottles.  Every 15 minutes I took in a mouth full of it and sipped on water every 5-10 minutes in between. It was warm, but over cast, and I felt like this was the perfect amount for the conditions. I grabbed a water bottle at every aid station as well. I took in about 750-800 calories during this ride and around 100 ounces of fluid.

When we got to the bottom of Snow Canyon, I was starting to feel the anxiety set in.  It was at the bottom of Snow Canyon that I literally sat on the road and cried in the red dirt thinking my race was over 3 years prior.  As I passed that spot, I felt strong and was so grateful to not be there today.  I said a quick prayer of thanks for my good race so far and prayed for continued luck!  I found that it was a pretty ride! I  loved it.  Though technically Snow Canyon is a slow gradual 4 mile climb, it is only the final mile of that is bad.  I enjoyed being there, talking to the other athletes and just settling in and getting ready for the big push at the end.  When we got there, it was the first time during this ride that fatigue set in.  Many were starting to walk their bikes.  I just kept telling myself to keep my legs moving, I was NOT going to walk.  It somehow seemed easier than it had been two weeks ago!  Before I knew it, I was at the top!  This was also the first part I noticed the head winds.  Holy crap, were they bad!  Luckily that last stretch into town is downhill, but still no fun in those head and cross winds. I just got low in aero and kept pressure on the pedals. I didn't break for a single down hill into town.  Just tuck low and let her roll! I had a ton of fun on this part of the course, though it was scary a few times :)

As I was in the final half mile, I heard Ken yell at me.  I was so happy!  I just not only conquered the bike course, but the demons and associations from this same ride 3 years before!  I literally was crying as I ran my bike into T2.  Final Bike Time was 3:28:26 (#38 out of 116 in my division).

T2:

I easily found my stuff and bagged my bike stuff, took time to throw on socks (I usually race sockless sprint and olympics), shoes, visor and my race belt.  I grabbed two cups of ice water leaving T2.  Final time for T2 was 2:36.

RUN:

When I did this run 3 years ago, it was pretty much a walk.  I just wanted to run as much of it as possible. I knew that with the high mid day temps, wind, and hills, it wouldn't be realistic to run the whole thing, but I wanted to try!  As I left T2, I was still crying because I was so thrilled with my bike.  I saw Ken again right out of T2 and just said, "I did it!  I did it!"  He gave me a sweaty hug and said, "Yeah, but you're not done yet!"  I found that as I tried to run, I couldn't because my lungs were all tight from crying!  HA!  There's no crying in triathlon!  I took a minute to walk and calm down and found I could run after that. Ben had told me to stay within certain HR parameters, so I looked down at my watch and saw I had no HR data.  The watch wasn't picking up the HR at all.  Funny, because it had worked fine the entire bike.  Oh well, Plan B is run by feel!  The first 4 miles of this run are uphill.  They are a gradual false flat at first then by mile 2 you are going UP!  I settled into a decent, though slow pace for the first two and when I got to the Turtle Hill climb I had to walk.  I gave myself permission to walk on the uphills for a max of 30 steps at a time, and it worked!  It gave me just enough of a break to want to get going again.  I found that I was in good company on this rough run and saw many teammates along the way.  I was enjoying this run despite the toughness of it.  I made myself run the down hills and the flats, only breaking at the aid stations.  The aid stations were roughly every mile.  At each aid station I took in ice water, a couple of licks of Base Salt, and every 3 miles I had a gel.  There were also a couple of stations I would take in a Gatorade, Coke, or Red Bull based on what sounded good at the moment.  It all seemed to be working because I felt pretty good the whole time.

The second half of the run I was just ready to be done. I was still in good spirits, but I wanted to be done.  I ran most of the last part except for the couple of final uphills.  I ran into several more teammates and one of the newbies to our club Shawn.  We played leap frog from miles 8-11.  It was nice to have a familiar face at this hard part of the course!

The final 3 miles are basically down hill, so I went for it.  I looked at my watch several times during this downhill portion and was sub 10 pace every time. I still stopped at aid stations, but skipped the last one a mile from the finish line.  I just wanted to cross that finish line!  I bolted down the portion after the turn around at Diagonal and Main Street to the finish.  It felt so good!  I heard Ken yelling for me again and crossed the finish line.  Immediately I saw my friends Marianne and Meagan working the finishers chute!  It was perfect!  I completely lost it and Meagan was there to hug me despite me being a hot mess for a moment!  The only thing better than this moment was sharing it with such good friends!!

Final run time was 2:37:03 (#42 out of 116 in my division).  This is only 9 minutes from a run PR for the distance in a 70.3!  And on THIS course?  Heck yeah, I'll take it! Final race time was 6:48:00 (#42 out of 116 in my division). This is not a 70.3 PR, but then this is not the course for a PR!

POST-RACE:

I met up with Ken immediately after the race.  I went and got some athlete food and Ken went for the car.  I went with the kids to get my bike and ran into Ben there. Seriously, I can't thank him enough!  He is a great coach, and has pushed me further than I thought I could go.  I was glad to be able to give him a post race hug!  Then we loaded up in the car, got the kids food and played by the pool the rest of the day.  It was perfect!

I would be lying if I said I didn't have some goals time wise for this race.  I was right on them for both the swim and the bike, but not for the run.  However, when I see that everyone struggled on the run today, and I know that I honestly put forth my best effort, I am genuinely thrilled with the day I had.  This just gets me fired up and wanting more!  I have pretty mellow summer race wise...I have an Oly in a month, my Alcatraz swim, and then my 70.3 in September.  I am so excited to see what I can do on that FLAT course after this race.  It will be fun!

I've also decided 70.3 is my distance.  I love it!  The training is just enough to challenge me, but not overwhelm me or my life, and the distance is the same way.  I loved doing sprints and Olys last year, but this is a good distance for me.  I will probably stick with this distance for awhile.  I really want a sub 6 hour 70.3!

Onward and upward!  Happy training and racing!

Two weeks out plus some updates!

I fully intended to do a race report on Icebreaker this year, but I didn't.  It was something else...the weather was around 40-45 and pouring down rain.  I can honestly say I have never ridden in the rain prior to this, and there was standing water on the course and some slick turns, but it was actually kind of fun.  I walked away with a course PR, and took second in my age group.  Still need to learn to suffer more in general, but I was happy.  I also didn't taper for this, and I had a long trainer ride waiting for me when I got home.  This race is still a must do every year, it's a great way to blow the cobwebs off and get in a race when you're just getting antsy to race after the cold winter off season!

I just got back from Salt Lake Tri Club Camp.  It is really designed for people racing IM StG 70.3 as it is two weeks prior to the race and on the course.  However, many of my house mates and other teammates came down just for the heck of it even though they aren't racing it.  It was just plain fun!

I drove into town and felt immediate anxiety driving the part of the bike course just to get to the house we were staying in.  I was at the house a few hours before my roomies for the weekend got there and it started to mess with me a bit.  For those of you that don't know, my worst experience ever was the last time I did StG.  It was an utter disaster, so going back to this race has brought on race anxiety like I haven't had before.  I knew one of the biggest advantages to me of coming down this weekend would be to ride the course again and gain some confidence as well as build positive associations with the course to over ride the negative ones.  I was able to do both!

Friday morning we were supposed to go swim at Sand Hollow.  Since this was one of two OWS there, I opted to do a pool work out I wasn't able to fit in earlier in the week.  I loved the Washington Community Center!  It's a nice facility and they seem to have been able to manage to let lap swimmers and the pool noodle water aerobics  coexist in peace.  This doesn't happen anywhere up here, but don't get me started!  I swam 3000 yards and felt great.  Then we had a break prior to riding Snow Canyon, we rode just a 21 mile loop that included the Canyon then we had a group run of the course.  Ben didn't want me running the whole thing, just an up and back of 8 miles, but it was enough of the course for me.  He then texted me that I had nailed the run!  Sweet!  I had to say, it felt really good overall and I thoroughly enjoyed it.

Day 2 of camp was an OWS at Sand Hollow and a transition clinic.  I LOVED being back at Sand Hollow and back in open water.  The water was around 61 degrees, and though it was pretty cold the first 50 yards or so, it didn't last.  I loved it!  This is one of my favorite places to swim period, so I was in complete heaven for this part of the camp.  We then set off on a ride of most of the course.  Due to some road closures, we weren't able to ride the part through Hurricane, but still got 41 of the 56 in.  Man, I forgot how hilly this course is.  I ended up riding most of it with a new friend Brian who is new to our club and the sport.  It was great to have a friend and someone to chat with during this ride.  My legs were already fatigued from the day before, so I knew this ride would be hard.  Riding with someone makes it better!  He was talking all crazy like doing the "double loop" and doing Snow Canyon twice, as some were to make up for the lost mileage we missed by not doing Hurricane.  I knew immediately I wouldn't be up for it.  Climbing Snow was much harder the second day, but I did it without needing to stop or walk.  I dialed in nutrition and it worked well.  I have switched to custom Infinit and love it!  However, I found that the flavor is MUCH stronger in a concentrated bottle!  I can't say how much I love having just one bottle to use. The Infinit doesn't have as much sodium as I would like so I add a couple tiny scoops of Base Salt to the bottle, and it is still all one place. That and water and I am good to go.  No more million moving pieces to long course nutrition!I took in a mouthful of the mix every 15 minutes then washed it down with water in my torpedo bottle up front.  So easy!

That night I think our house we were staying at became the designated party house.  We had 15-20 people there and I was up way later than I have been in years.  It was just fun.  I love my tri club team mates!  I have to miss a lot of team stuff due to living an hour away from where most of the group functions and group work outs take place, so it was nice to have time with them this weekend!  I was exhausted coming home and still am today, but it was so worth it!

I am feeling good two weeks out from StG.  There is still some work to do, but after being on the course this weekend, I am feeling much better about it.  I have spent some time thinking, which is never a good thing, and am actively working on being more positive about life, racing, and myself in general.  After being called out on this lately by more than one person (Ken, Ben, Justin, and Nate, thanks for the reality check!).  It's not like me to be negative in general, but I think the anxiety and stress about this race has brought it out of me more than normal.  I am reminded that I don't HAVE to do any of this, I GET to.  It is a great opportunity and the negative self talk doesn't reflect who I am, who I want to be, and what I want to get out of it all.  I am grateful for people willing to call me out on it when I need it!

So, onward and upward!  This is going to be a fun couple of weeks!

I used to be way better at this...

Wow!  It's been almost 6 months since I updated my blog.  I used to be so much better at maintaining it because it really is something I enjoy.  I still read tons of blogs, but have failed to keep my own up to date.

So what's new?  High school swim season came and went.  It was so much better the second year than it was the first.  SO much smoother and a little less "deer in the headlights."  I still have so much to learn, and there are things that I want to change next year, but the kids are amazing, and its a pretty cool way to be involved with them in a sport I love.   I am sure, though I complain about the time commitment, I will be with them for at least a few more years.

I have been training as well!  I have Ironman 70.3 St. George coming up May 6.  When I did it 3 years ago, it was quite possibly the worst race experience to date.  It's a toss up between that and my first marathon, though overall, StG would probably win.  It was just a disaster.  I wanted to immediately go back and do it better, but then IMTX happened and made it impossible for 2015, then 2016 I volunteered, and then got sucked into signing up for this year.  I vacillate between being completely excited and terrified.

I also have a new running partner!  Maggie passed away in November, not that she had been able to run with me in years anyway, and in January we added Murphy to the family.  He's an almost 2 year old husky mix.  He LOVES to run.  Running and going for rides in the car are his very favorite things.  The furthest I have gone with him in one setting was 8.5 miles and he could easily go more.  We did 11 yesterday broken in to two runs, and he was finally sort of worn out last night.  He is great!  I am worried about him as it warms up though because he is a husky with a built in fur coat.  I foresee a lot of very early morning runs when it is cool enough to take him over the summer.

The training is going well, but is so different training with my coach Ben, vs how I would do it on my own.  Ben simply pushes me more, which I can't/don't know how to do on my own without being injured.  More hours, more volume, more intensity, and more consistency. I have come to the conclusion that cookie cutter plans don't do that for me.  Most are pretty generic, at least the ones I found and used previously.  Plus, there was no one to be accountable to.  Having Ben there to tailor it to me, giving me specific workouts, intervals to hit, etc, really challenges me.  I am such a nerd because I love opening Training Peaks on Sunday to see what he's got on tap for me that week.  

I also have the chance to go to Alaska this summer to help play race Sherpa for my friend Jason doing Alaskaman.  It will be so much fun!  I can't wait!  We will also go to San Francisco for a week, and I am checking an item off my bucket list be doing the Alcatraz swim.  I have had people ask if I would do the Escape from Alcatraz triathlon.  It really holds no interest to me, just the epic swim!  It's stupid expensive, and who wants to bike those hills and run them for a ridiculous price?  Not me.  I then heard that a local swim club does monthly swims and when I looked it up, found they were doing it the Saturday we are there.  It's FATE!  I signed up and that awaits me June 24.

I have Icebreaker in two weeks (year 6 going back), East Canyon Oly in June, then Brineman 70.3 at the end of September.  I don't really plan on racing more than that.  I am totally okay with that as well.  It just so happens that other races I've looked at we either will be out of town or have other family stuff going those weekends, so that was the main limiter.  But then again, I raced so much last year trying to get to Nationals, that it was almost too much, so I am happy with what's on the docket for now and don't see it changing.

I go back and forth on my desire to do another Ironman.  I will do another one, that isn't in question.  What is in question is which race and when.  I really thought 2018 would be my year to do it again, but now I am not so sure.  The time, effort, energy, etc that goes into it doesn't really appeal to me right now.  Plus, training for one with Ben just might kill me.  His training is totally different than what I've done on my own (all good) and training for StG is no joke.  Its hard and challenging, but at the right level.  Doing more than this right now would probably max me out more than I can do in the foreseeable future.  I am starting to think 70.3s might just be my favorite distance.  I hate olys.  Love sprints, but like endurance, hence 70.3s being pretty sweet that way.  Enough to challenge you, but not enough to (quite) kill you :)

That's it for now.  I will probably do an update after Icebreaker.  No aspirations there other than to go and have fun.  I am not even tapering for it as it is just a sprint on the road to StG.  In fact, I have a long trainer ride waiting for me post race :)