No Rest for the Weary

I want to be a faster runner.  I’ve never really thought that I could run fast, it just never crossed my mind.  My 8K results lit a fire in me, so to speak, and now I want to be faster, and more importantly, I am convinced that I can be.  I have no idea what my goal pace should be for any given distance.  I don’t know how much it is reasonable to expect to improve over X number of days, weeks, months or years.  And I don’t care.  I’m arbitrarily choosing the Charlottesville half-marathon as my first checkpoint.  I want to finish it in under two hours. Is that realistic considering my time last year was 2:25:28?  Maybe not.  I’m going to try anyways.  According to the Race Time Predictor, I should be able to run a 5K in 26:07, which is an 8:24 pace, and run a 10K in 54:21, which is an 8:45 pace.  My only 5K race (not attached to a triathlon) was 29:54, so I just need to shave 4 minutes….I know I can do it.  Not entirely sure when I’ll do it, but I know I can.

Training starts tomorrow.  I’ve posted my training plan on the “Training Plan -2011” page.  I’m going to focus on running again through this winter, just like last year.  This time, though, I am going to place my focus on running fast, rather than running far.  I’m starting with one day of speed work each week and add a second day of speed work in the last 12 weeks or so of training.  I’m going to try to do some interim races to track my progress, or at least do “home” races every few weeks.  I’m also adding two days of weight training back to my training.  Adding muscle can’t hurt and I know that I’ve lost a lot of strength since I stopped lifting in favor of HIM training.  Something new I’m going to try is doing yoga once a week too.  I’m hoping that placing an emphasis on stretching at least once a week will prevent any encounters with IT band issues or any other injuries that can crop up.  As you’ll see in my schedule, I’ll be running significantly more (miles and days) every week than I have in the past, so I want to make sure to stay healthy!  I’m hoping yoga helps in that.  I’m not planning on taking any yoga classes right now, just doing videos or on-demand at home.  I think it would be a bit ambitious for me to actually go somewhere to do yoga right now.  It will be much easier to fit into my schedule if I can do it right here.  My alarm is set to start tomorrow at 6AM, and I’ve already chosen a program from the on-demand menu.  I need to pick up some yoga DVDs to try.  I have one, but it has gone missing, and I’m afraid I may have let someone borrow it and will never see it again.

My planned training for this week is:

Monday – Yoga AM, NROLW Stage 1 A1 PM

Tuesday  - Run 3 miles

Wednesday – Run 5 x 400 m @ 5K pace

Thursday – Run 3 miles AM, NROLW Stage 1 A2 PM

Friday – Rest

Saturday – Run 3 miles

Sunday – Run 5 miles

Monday and Thursday may be tough to get everything done because I have dog agility training classes both evenings, but I’m going to do my best to do the lifting.  If I have to miss one of the days, I will do the second day on Saturday.

By the way, if you reading from an RSS reader, I did some work updating the look of my blog today.  I’m not 100% it is going to stay like this.  I’m not in love with the new layout/theme yet.  I did change the main title of my blog- “Triathlon Training Blog” was just too boring.  This is my journey of becoming stronger and faster and going longer.  It’s only taken me a year and a half to be a little more interesting, but better late than never!  Let me know what you think of the new look!

8K Race Report

After a very laid back training period, this morning was the 8K race in Arlington.  Curtis and I woke up at 5:15 AM to get ready.  I let the dog out, had an English muffin with peanut butter for breakfast, fed both the cat and dog, and got dressed to leave at 6:15 AM.  We arrived nice and early, found a parking spot on the street and went to pick up our race numbers, chips and t-shirts.  I must admit, I didn’t really prepare for this race mentally.  After doing mostly tris, it’s been hard for me to get into a race mindset before a running race.  I think the hustle and bustle of setting up transition, pumping bicycle tires and quietly rehearsing the day in my brain is much more preparative than just showing up on race morning, shoes and number on and ready to go.  I can’t quite explain exactly what it is, but there’s just something about the morning of a tri that fills me with anticipation and readiness that I don’t get out of running race morning.

The start was scheduled for 8:00 AM, and we had quite a bit of time to kill before then, so we headed back to the car to sit in the heat since it was a bit chilly in the low 50s this morning.  Around 7:30, we headed back to the race start to use the porta-potty, meet up with our friends who were doing the race, C, J and D, and do a quick warm-up.  I also had to finagle a method of attaching the timing chip to my shoe.  Please understand, the timing chip was shaped like a small card with four holes punched out.  It was perfect for attaching to shoelaces, if you were actually wearing shoelaces.  I was not.  I had my elastic speed laces in my shoes that had taken many runs to get adjusted exactly right.  I don’t even know how many times it took me to try and find a way to attach that stupid timing chip without driving me crazy from it bouncing against my ankle or messing up my perfectly adjusted laces.  I couldn’t even use safety pins because the holes were to far into the center of the chip for them to fit through!  Finally, though I did get it attached and adjusted so that it didn’t drive me crazy.

At 8:00AM, we all lined up together, despite the fact that I knew that was a mistake for me!  I do not like being lined up quite so close to the front of the pack and everyone else was aiming for faster paces than me (D’s goal was 7min/miles, Curtis was aiming for 8 something, J for 8:30, C for under 9 and me for 9:30).  I just hate that initial rush when everyone surges past me at the beginning of a race.  I’ve made that mistake before and gone out way too fast only to regret the move later.  I’m also not used to all the chatting going on before running races.  I much prefer the quiet or silent reflection of tris for mental prep before the race.  Plus, I couldn’t hear any of the pre-race announcements, so I had no idea what was going on.  Then, all of a sudden, everyone started moving forward (I think I might have heard someone yell, Go!), so I started my watch and took off.

As all my friends pulled ahead of me, I didn’t try to keep up as I knew they were all shooting for faster times than I was.  When I reached the first mile marker, I couldn’t believe my eyes when I looked at my watch and saw 8:35.  What?!  I was either going out way too fast or the course was marked poorly.  When I reached the second mile marker in 17 something, I realized that it must have been the former.  By this time it was too late to make any changes and I had to just keep pushing.  My heart rate was consistently in the 180s, but I was ok with that for such a short race (relatively).  Soon after the 2 mile marker, I started seeing our friends run by on the way back to the finish- first D, then Curtis, J and I wasn’t too far behind C.  Unfortunately, the turnaround also marked a change from a gently sloping downhill to a gently sloping uphill.  While it wasn’t too bad and no worse than anything I train on, I had gone out much harder than normal and those hills really felt like work.  Mile three came and went and I knew I had slowed down significantly.  I tried to pick it up when I hit the 4 mile marker, but I just didn’t have a whole lot left to give.  When I finally rounded the last corner to the straightaway to the finish, Curtis and D were there to cheer me in and I managed to “sprint” to the finish line, passing a few people in the process.  My chip time was 46:49.9, which is about a 9:25 min/mile pace.

I should be ecstatic about my results.  Though I’ve never raced this distance before, it’s definitely a PR for pace at any distance (including 5K!) and ahead of my goal pace at 9:30.  Unfortunately, I’ve just had a bad attitude about this race and kind of disappointed that I haven’t managed to increase my speed more over the last year.  I hated being the slowest of our group today and felt really terrible afterward.  I don’t think I’ve ever had a race before when I haven’t felt good about finishing, today was the first and it was and is a horrible feeling.  I wish I could just be happy about it.

Sorry for the downer post, just trying to be honest here.

I Feel Fantastic!

First, my confession- I didn’t run yesterday.  I ended up grabbing dinner with a friend and watching our dogs zoom around in the yard.  Maybe I should feel guilty, but I really don’t.  :)

Now, I had a fantastic run today.  There was nothing really special about it, I just felt fast and fit.  And as I farther into the run, the faster I felt.  By the end of my 3 miles, I knew I could keep going at that pace for at least another couple of miles.  I don’t know what gave me such a good run today, but I really hope I have the same confidence during my race on Sunday.

Pondering Goals

For the past couple of years, I have had very specific goals for my race season.  Last year it was to finish my first Olympic distance race, which I did at Nation’s Triathlon.  This year it was to finish my first half-Ironman distance race, which I did at Timberman 70.3.  I have no idea what my goal for next season should be.

I’ve tossed around the idea of doing a marathon, but I’m not sure that’s really what I want to do.  I feel that it is the next logical step in my fitness journey, but do I really want to commit to the training for it?  By the end of this training season, I was so burnt out from the volume of training for Timberman that I couldn’t even think about doing another HIM any time soon.  I think the time commitment to marathon training would be comparable and I’m not sure I can commit to that.

My other thought is to continue racing tris at the Sprint and Olympic distance next year, aiming for PRs at all the races I’ve done in the past and add a couple of new races.  This is the “easier” route.  Training for these requires no more than 1-2 hours per day and I know I would aim for that with any workouts anyhow.

The one thing that I know I will not be doing is a full Ironman.  I am definitely not ready to devote my time to training for an event of that distance.  I will complete a full Ironman at some point in my life, but it is not going to be next year.  The funny thing is, I no longer question whether I can do an Ironman distance event.  I KNOW that I can with the proper training.  I think it was during the Timberman run that my perspective of what I can do completely changed and I realized that my body was capable of anything I could throw at it as long as I put in the time and effort to train for it.  My self-motivation is my only limiter.

I will be thinking about my goals for next year a lot over the next few weeks/months.  I’m going to try and come up with a plan that is still challenging, despite not increasing my distances across the board.  Maybe I’ll do a bunch of Sprint/Oly tris AND a marathon.  Maybe I’ll do just tris.  Maybe I’ll do nothing and go a different route entirely.  Sorry for the ramblings…just trying to sort through my thoughts.  What are your plans for next year?

In other news, I was terrible about running last week.  In fact, the only time I ran was when I last posted, for shame!  I had big plans to do a local 5K on Saturday, but after a busy week including tons of studying for two midterms, I just didn’t have it in me.  And when we found out that the entry fee was $40, Curtis and I decided we’d rather take that $80 and do something else another time.  I did manage to convince myself to run yesterday, and took the dog for about 6 miles.  Considering the overall lack of running lately, I felt pretty good for the whole run.  Neither my lungs nor my legs were a limiter even if I was going very slowly.  I did have a bit of a fight with myself about whether to keep going at several points along the route.  Somehow I managed to convince myself to just keep moving my legs, one step at a time.  This week I am supposed to taper for the 8K on Sunday.  I’m not sure how much of a taper it will be if I actually put in more days than I have been.  Here’s the schedule:

Monday – Off

Tuesday – 3 mile run

Wednesday – 3 mile run

Thursday – 4x400m with 400m walk/jog recovery

Friday – Rest

Saturday – 1-3 mile run easy

Sunday – Race Day!

New Plan

I’m going to pull a fast one on you and do a workout switch for this week (and the next few weeks).  Curtis signed us up to run an 8K on October 16 with some friends in Arlington, so I decided I should actually do some training for it.  I found Hal Higdon’s Intermediate 8k training plan and thought it would be a good option, or at least the last four weeks of it.  I think my base running fitness is sufficient to make up for the first 4 weeks of the 8 week plan and I can just start at week 5.

So tonight, I ran 4 miles with dog, Curtis and my father-in-law who is in town in tow.  We set a pretty quick pace for me, and ran my typical 4 mile loop around town.  We didn’t start till after 7PM, so it was already dark out and as I’ve mentioned I haven’t got any reflective gear yet.  I came up with a great solution though!  I attached a small LED flashlight to Tara’s collar so that it hung down and pointed at the ground.  It worked perfectly to light the pathway! And it didn’t seem to bother her one bit!  We were a bit worried that it would be too bright and she wouldn’t be able to see and that it would be uncomfortable, but I think since it pointed straight at the ground it wasn’t in her eyes at all and her running stride seemed to keep it pretty steady so it didn’t seem to bother her either.  I will feel much safer with this solution on the dark, unlit paths around here and add a little reflective gear and we will be good to go for the paths through the woods or near the roads.

By the way, 4 miles isn’t exactly on the plan for today, but it was a happy medium since it’s already Tuesday.  The plan has rest days on Friday, but I know that realistically I need my rest days to be Mondays, so my schedule will look something like this:

M: Rest

T: Easy 3 mile run

W: Moderate 5-6 mile run

R: Intervals or Tempo run

F: 3-4 mile run

S: Cross training

S: Long run
I would like to get in some weight training.  I still haven’t committed to starting NROLW again and I would really like to get back into it.  I originally wanted to lift 3 days a week, but I think that it is unreasonable right now to go from 0 gym days to 3+ gym days a week.  I need to gradually ease myself into it.  So, I’m going to start with doing what I can during the next four weeks then try to ease myself into the lifting program with two days a week of good heavy lifting.

Race Report: Nation’s Triathlon

Woohoo!  I am now an Olympic distance Triathlete!  Today’s race could not have gone better!  I’ll get to it soon, but want to start where I left off last week.  I have not been training much at all in the past two weeks, which I am going to partially chalk up to “tapering” and partially blame on the dog.  She’s been keeping me busy and we’re still trying to learn a routine that works, so it’s been hard to go and do my workout right after work, because she needs to go out.  On Thursday, I was feeling a little stressed and out of sorts, and I think it has to do with the decreased training.  My body loves its endorphins and when it doesn’t get it’s fill, believe you me, it lets me know!  I have especially let my swimming go by the wayside, so I decided to go for a short swim that night.  I did 1600 yards total, with a 50 yard warm-up and a 50 yard cool down.  I wanted to swim a straight 1500 set to boost my confidence for the race.  It worked!  I finished the 1500 yards in about 24 minutes (I forgot my HRM, so I don’t have exact data).  More importantly, I felt fantastic in the water.  I felt strong and smooth, and significantly more confident about the race.

Friday was my planned day off before the race.  I don’t know the reason why, but I’ve seen multiple sources recommending taking completely off two days before your race.  My trainer had also recommended this, so I’ve been doing it.  Does anyone know why this is supposed to help with your tapering?  I had planned to do a short workout on Saturday, but we had a pretty lazy morning instead and the extent of my workout was walking the dog and taking her to a nearby field to play fetch.  She doesn’t quite understand the concept of bringing the ball back, but we’ll get there.  We took her on a 30ft lead so she could run without us having to keep up with her too much.

Around 4:00PM, Curtis and I drove into the city so I could check-in, attend the race briefing and rack my bike.  Wow! What a madhouse.  We don’t usually drive into DC because it’s a huge pain in the you know what.  If we’re going to go into DC, we typically take the metro, but bikes aren’t allowed, so we had to suck it up and drive.  When we finally got to the Washington Hilton, where the race expo was being held, we had just missed the 5:00PM race briefing, so we wandered around until 5:30 and looked at race belts and sunglasses.  I ended up getting both, because I lost my sunglasses not too long ago and needed a race belt for my tri kit.  At the race briefing we learned that there were 6000 athletes registered for the race!  After the race briefing we were allowed to pick up our packets and goody bags.  I learned I was number 4650 and going to be in the 26th swim wave starting at 8:15AM.  The first swim wave would start at 7:00AM.  We then drove down to the transition area and I went and racked my bike and mapped out my path to and from my row for transitions.

I was in row 41, so I made sure to memorize that and fix in my brain that when I came in from the swim I had to pass 41 and run down to my bike, which luckily, was very close to the end of the rack and easy to find.  On the way in from the bike, I would be coming from the opposite direction so I would enter the row before passing the 41.  After I had done all that, we headed home, finished packing up for the next morning, showered, and went to bed by 9:45PM.

We had an early morning this morning, getting up at 4:45AM in order to get to transition before 6AM.  As soon as I got up, I took the dog out and fed her and Suli (our cat).  Then I made myself my oatmeal in the microwave and added a little hazelnut butter to take in the car, finished filling my water bottles (I had started the night before), and got dressed.  I got a new tri singlet and tri shorts recently that I wore today.  They are the ZOOT Women’s ULTRA Tri Tank and Short.  They are fantastically comfortable and were perfect for all three legs of the race.  It was a great improvement on wearing any old tech shorts and shirt.  We left the house at 5:30, a little later than planned, but still made it into the city in plenty of time.  Curtis dropped me off at transition, and I got set up while he went to park the car.  He also took some great pictures of the day, so I have those to share too!  After setting up, the sun started to rise, revealing an absolutely perfect September day.  We had clear skies, a slight breeze and the perfect temperature for a race, IMHO.  It was awesome to see the sun come up behind the Washington Monument.

The shear size of the race was also pretty incredible.  I haven’t been at any races that were larger than a couple of hundred before, so this was quite eye-opening.  It turned out that only about 4300 and some odd people started the race, but it still seemed like a lot.  You can just begin to get an idea of the size from looking at the bikes in transition.

This is only one small area of bike racks, to the right of this is a huge field of racks 4 wide and probably about 60 long.

Sorry for the low quality picture–I took this one on Saturday evening on my phone.  This is the very back corner of the transition area.  I didn’t manage to get anything interesting, like the run in/out or bike in/out.  Just lots and lots of bikes!

After setting up, I picked up my timing chip and went to meet up with Curtis before the race started, so he could wish me luck.  I then went to the “swim pen” where we were supposed to be gathering since transition was closing.  As soon as I got into the swim pen, I realized I had my CatEye cycling computer in my jersey pocket, which was definitely not the best place for it since I would be jumping into the Potomac river in a little over an hour.  I ran back to my transition area and attached it to my bike, then returned to the swim pen to wait until my wave was up.  As I mentioned, I was in the 26th wave, starting at 8:15AM, so I had almost an hour and a half to wait since it was only 6:45.  At 7:00AM the elites began, and a little before 7:20, the first swimmer was out of the water.  I talked with some folks who were in even later waves, and we were marveling at the fact that the elites would start finishing before all of us were even out of the water.

The swim was an in-water start off a dock and began up-stream toward Memorial bridge.  The course was counter-clockwise, and ended with a run up a ramp.  That boat is sitting in the water right where we started from.  You can just see the orange buoy out to the right, I think that’s one of the last buoys on the in-bound leg of the swim.

Curtis got a picture of the elites in the water waiting for the start.  You can just see all the little white caps bobbing out of the water in front of the dock.

And they’re off!

The other end of the course is on the other side of Memorial bridge.  In the picture, you can see several swim waves have already started.  At this point, I’m still milling around the swim pen.

Finally, they called the yellow caps, females 24 and under into the line-up.  We gathered in behind fluorescent green and fluorescent orange (I think).

I ran into a couple people from my high school before the race started.  I found Bridget when we lined up.  This was her first triathlon, and I’m really anxious to find out how she did.  After the swim start, I lost track of her and never saw her again.  Curtis got a picture of the two of us talking.  I’m the angry-looking one with my arms crossed.  I wasn’t really angry though, just really cold.  Even with the wetsuit on, it was quite chilly standing around for over an hour before the race.

After wishing me good luck, Curtis ran off to the bridge to try and spot me from above.  I can’t believe it, but he found me!

I’m the swimmer on the right in the picture.  He says he managed to spot me because I was one of the only ones in my wave wearing a full sleeve wetsuit.  I actually really enjoyed the in-water start.  It definitely helped with getting my bearing before the swim.  I was able to acclimate to the water temperature and slow my breathing and heart rate before the horn went off, which allowed me to swim at my pace from the beginning.  I lined up to the left and the back  (third row of swimmers) in the water as we were treading.  It seemed to be a good spot.  I didn’t want to be close to the shore because I could see that I could end up swimming a significantly longer distance if I did that.  I tried to stay close to the sight line to the bridge.  We could just barely see the first orange turn buoy on the other side of the bridge.  There weren’t any buoys before the bridge, which was somewhat disconcerting, because they’re nice to break up the swim distance.  Once I crossed under the bridge, there were two left hand turns and we were heading back to the swim exit.

I couldn’t see anything on the in bound leg.  The sun was directly in our sight line to the buoys and it took several hundred meters before I could see any buoys at all.  I decided to use the light from the sun as my directional, because it seemed the best option.  On the swim back, I started overtaking swimmers from the previous waves.  It was a little difficult to pass some of them because they weren’t doing a great job of swimming in a line and there were a number of times when they were in a big pack and tough to get through.  There were also a few girls in yellow caps who I kept bumping into throughout the swim.  I did manage to draft off one of them for awhile, but I picked up the pace and passed her after a bit.  I was never completely alone during this swim.  There were just too many people!  The orange buoys finally came into sight, and we were in the home stretch!

I ran up the ramp out of the water and back into transition.  I felt great out of the water, but had no idea where I was time-wise.  I had forgot to start my watch prior to the swim, so I don’t have heart rate data till after I get out of the water.  It turns out I was a little slower on the swim than my goal (28 minutes), with a swim time of 31:38.  I think it was partially due to the number of people I had to pass, and the lack of swim training I’ve done lately.  I don’t think I added on too much distance, but as you can tell from the pictures, you can add on at least 25 to 50 meters of distance if you veered too far from the buoys.

As I was running, I took the top half of my wetsuit off and pulled off my cap and goggles.  I took my time in transition in order to catch my breath, and put on my cycling shoes, socks, sunglasses, helmet and gloves.  I almost went without the gloves, but decided I’d rather not risk being miserable because my hands hurt.  I grabbed my GU, Clif shot blocks and stuffed them in my pockets and away I went with my bike.  Transition took me a very slow 3:34.  Even with the distance between the swim exit and the bike start, it was a slow time.

I got to the mount line and had no problems clipping in and was off.  The bike course was fast!  It was mostly straightaways and very very little climbing and hills.  I think the total elevation change was 582 feet or close to that.  Curtis didn’t manage to find me on the bike (I was too fast!), but here’s picture of some other random cyclists.

It was really incredible to ride through the streets of DC when they were all closed.  There aren’t many times you can have an opportunity like that to take in so much of the city on such a beautiful day.  My bike split was 1:27:51, which is quite a bit faster than my goal of 1:45.  It works out to about 17.1 mph on average.  I did have an exact average, as calculated by my CatEye, but unfortunately I think someone stole it off my bike in transition.    I’m really bummed about it, and can’t believe someone would do something like that!  I know it was on my bike when I racked it because I remember looking at it, and since it clips in, I think it’s nearly impossible for it to have fallen off.  Oh well!  I guess it’s time for a new one…even though it only had 300 miles of rides on it.  I ate a GU gel at about the 9 mile mark and my Clif shot blocks at about 15 miles or so.  I also drank 3/4 a bottle of water and half a bottle of PowerAde throughout the ride.  I felt great the whole time, and never felt like I was low on energy or really got that tired.  After our 40K bike ride, we were back to the transition area and dismount line.

T2 was marginally faster than T1 at 2:56.  I racked my bike and then had to retrieve all my stuff from under my neighbor’s bike.  Apparently, my running shoes and race belt made the perfect wheel rest for her bike.  It was an annoyance, to be sure.  There was plenty of room, and it was really quite uncalled for to put her bike directly on top of my stuff.  After I retrieved my things, I put on my shoes and race belt and headed out for the run.

The run course was really well marked with mile markers and had aid stations at miles 1-5 of the course.  I got water at every aid station except mile 5.  It took me about two miles to get my run legs and get into a groove.  Curtis and my parents found me again on the run course and cheered me on at mile 2 and mile 4.

I think I always look really silly running, but I’m impressed with how happy and upbeat I look in this picture.  Although my race belt pocket makes it look like I’m wearing a fanny pack.  So, I guess I still look a little silly.  I’m really proud of myself on the run, I managed to keep running for the entire race.  This is the longest distance I’ve run in a race to date and I actually felt really great.  My knee had been bothering me a bit on the bike, but there were no problems at all during the run.

Here I am again, with the huge line of people still coming.  More than half of the racers have probably already finished at this point.

My run time was 1:04:59, which is about a 10:30 minute mile pace (5.7 mph).  I’m happy with that, as my goal was to finish the run in 1:10.  But, I think the run is the area I have the most room for improvement.  So, that will be my focus through the winter for next season.

My overall time was 3:10:55.  This is 34 minutes faster than my goal time of 3:45 and faster than my “stretch” goal time of 3:30, so I am ecstatic about how well it went.  I finished 46 in my division, but I have no idea how many people were in my division.

After I came through the finish line (there were still people just starting the run and still people coming in off the bike!), I headed over to transition to get my stuff and meet up with my family.  This is when I found out my CatEye was gone.  I also picked up some water, Powerade, and food to refuel.

Curtis was kind enough to carry all my stuff for me after the race.

The aftermath of transition, with the monument in the background.  There were still tons of bikes when we left.

My heart rate data from the bike and run was:

Duration: 2:41:34

Average heart rate: 173

Max heart rate: 191

Calories: 1834

Overall, it was a really fun race, which I would definitely consider doing again.  The only drawbacks were the lack of buoys during the swim and the difficulty of driving into and out of the city on the weekends.

Have a great week!

UPDATE: The results are posted and I found out that I was 46/96 in the Females under 24 division, and 663/1453 in all women and 2626/3933 overall.  Not a bad showing!  Top 50% in my division and of all women.

70.3 Miles

That’s a lot of miles!  I am trying to find the perfect race for my first attempt at swimming, biking and running a half-Ironman race.  The top two contenders right now are polar opposite races.  The first is the Patriot’s Half in Williamsburg, VA (http://www.setupevents.com/?fuseaction=event_detail&eventID=1138).  The second is SavageMan in Deep Creek Lake, MD (http://www.savagemantri.org/).  Patriot’s will likely be on 9/11 next year and SavageMan will probably be 9/19.  Curtis’s birthday is 9/12, so I’m hesitant about Patriot’s since I’m comandeering his bday this year for Nation’s.  However, like I said, the two races are polar opposites- Patriot’s is really flat and fast, while SavageMan has one of the steepest (if not the steepest) climbs in triathlon.  The WesternPort wall has a maximum of 31% grade.  Granted, it’s an optional part of the race, but the rest is pretty much par for the course with a lot of hills.

I also just saw that Ironman has announced a race in Syracuse, NY on 9/19/2010.  It’s intriguing to me.  I guess it’s brand new, so I have no idea what any of the courses would be like.  I’ll be watching chatter on this with interest.

I’m going to wait on my decision for a couple of months I think.  Since 2009 races are still wrapping up, I don’t think that all the 2010 dates and races have been announced yet.  I was thinking I’d want to stay local, but who knows?  Maybe we’ll turn it into a vacation.

Have a fantastic long weekend!

Boring blogs

My posts have been pretty boring of late.  I’ve been writing nothing but a blow by blow account of each training exercise I do, and I know it can’t be terribly exciting reading.  I’m going to try and start blogging about the experience more than the facts and stats, although I must admit, it is a whole lot easier to do the usual.  I’ll still record my workouts, but it will be a much shorter and quicker review and any tech-y info I’ve got for the session.  For today, I did a 4 mile run mapped out on Gmaps pedometer.  It was pretty hot, but cloudy so no blaring sun the whole time, which was a nice treat.

Stats…

Duration: 42.54 (10:43 pace)

Average heart rate: 174

Maximum heart rate: 188

Calories: 492

Today was supposed to be a biking day, but I have dinner plans tonight and I just didn’t want to bike.  I don’t know why lately, but I’ve not been wanting to do anything other than run.  There was a time when I absolutely loathed running, and now I can’t get enough!  I’ve been looking into some possible running races after the tri and in the spring.  There’s a 5K the weekend after the tri at my high school that I’d like to do.  I was reading up about it today, and apparently it draws a pretty interesting crowd of elite runners from Kenya.  This year will be the 10th anniversary of the first race…I don’t think I even knew about it when I was in high school, but apparently it’s a pretty big deal.  I might just sign up even if I don’t feel up to running it a week after the Oly.  It benefits the program in place there for mentally challenged students to help them through a mainstream high school.  The other race I’m considering is the Charlottesville half marathon in April.  It’s supposed to be a beautiful and really challenging course.  And I try to take every opportunity I can to get down to my alma mater!

I love multi-sport, but I really feel the need to mix it up a little bit and try some new things.  I’ve gotten a little bored with my training schedule lately, particularly the long bike rides as I mentioned before.  I think a big problem is that I just don’t like to ride by myself because with the higher mileage, I end up so far from home and alone.  I love riding with Curtis on the weekends, but he doesn’t usually get home early enough on weekdays to ride with me before it gets dark.  Especially now that the days are getting shorter again.  (Side note- I am SO excited for fall and cooler weather to come!!).  I’m beginning to wonder if I have the mental determination to stick with training long enough to do an Ironman, which is my eventual goal.  I guess I’ll just take it one stepping stone at a time and see how things go.  Speaking of goals and stepping stones, I don’t think I’ve ever shared my long-term racing goals, so here they are:

1. Complete an Olympic distance triathlon in Fall 2009

2. Complete a half marathon in Spring 2010

3. Complete a half Ironman in Fall 2010

4. Complete a marathon in Fall 2011

5. Complete an Ironman in 2012

I’m not trying to rush things on distance progressions, clearly!  I do eventually want to complete an Ironman, and I think three years gives me plenty of time to attain that goal.

What are your long term fitness goals?

Thoughtful Thursdays: The Open Water Swim

In this edition of Thoughtful Thursdays, I thought it might be helpful to talk about the open water swim a bit.  It seems to be the most daunting event for many triathletes.  And in fact, I’d guess that many prefer the relative safety of a pool swim.  There is a lot more to think about with an open water swim; rather than just worrying that you seeded yourself correctly and making sure to touch the wall at both ends, there are weather conditions, water conditions, sighting, and wearing a wetsuit to consider- just to name a few!

In my opinion, the single-most important thing to a successful open water swim is simple- RELAX.  I must admit I have been very lucky in this arena, since I grew up swimming on a swim team and taking many trips to lakes and beaches.  These experiences instilled a great level of comfort in water, which usually keeps me from going into panic mode if and when something goes wrong.  I know that thrashing and flailing about will not solve my problems, but almost always, relaxing my muscles and floating for a moment is going to re-orient me and eliminate some of the initial stressful thoughts.  The biggest hurdle of the open water swim is the mental aspect.  After you have trained in a pool for a certain distance, whether Sprint or longer, you know you can swim that distance.  But for many reasons, it just seems different in open water- it is no longer nice and neatly broken into clear swimming pools with sets broken into specific distances.  In open water, it is a some-what defined route you have to follow through often murky and sometimes tumultuous water.  In a race, you add in the other swimmers you have to worry about, and it can seem to be an overwhelming task.  But let me stop before I psych you out, that is not the goal of this post.  I want to share the things I’ve learned to be helpful in making the open water swim a success.

First things first, determine whether you are going to wear a wetsuit.  USAT rules say that you can wear a wetsuit when water temperature is 78°F or lower.  Between 78.1° and 83.9° wetsuits are allowed, however competitors will not be elligible for any awards.  At 84° or above, wetsuits are not allowed.  The reason wetsuits make competitors ineligible at higher temperatures is buoyancy, which is exactly the same reason I would highly recommend anyone to wear a wetsuit when it’s allowed (74° or under).  The wetsuit is going to keep your body more level in the water, particularly if you have trouble balancing or keeping your body horizontal.  Also, if you get in a pickle and get tired or cramped or have some other issue preventing you from continuing, the wetsuit is going to keep you afloat.  Very strong swimmers may not see the same performance enhancements as weaker swimmers, but they still do offer warmth in cold water.  The real drawback to wetsuits is the cost, at $200+ they’re not cheap, and for beginner triathletes buying a new wetsuit may not be a viable option.  There are options to rent, and you could always try and borrow one first or buy one used.  Just make sure it fits well and you have good range of motion in your shoulder area.  And like anything else, don’t try it out for the first time on race day.  Of course, I’ve broken this rule in just about all of my races, so I’m not one to talk.  For a wetsuit, though, you don’t want to be learning how to get it on and off on race day.  Try it out ahead of time, in open water if possible, but a pool is fine too (remember to rinse thoroughly with cold water if you take it in a chlorinated pool).  Ok, now that you’ve determined whether your race is wetsuit legal and decided whether or not to wear one, you’re heading to the race to set up.  Always bring two pairs of goggles, you do not want to swim in open water without them.  Usually the colorful caps indicating what wave you’re in are handed out at the beginning of the race, so you don’t need to worry about that as much.  I’d still bring one to be on the safe side.

Equipment? Check.

When you go to line up with your wave, consider the course and your expected strength compared with the other swimmers.  If you are a strong swimmer, you may want to line up toward the front.  Weaker swimmers will want to line up toward the back.  The swim start is going to be chaotic, and you are going to get kicked, pulled, shoved and swum over (or you might be the one kicking, pulling, shoving and swimming over people!), so you want to carefully consider where you want this to take place.  In my (not so vast) experience, I think in the future I will try to line up near the front toward the outside (farther from the buoy markers).  I may initially add a little bit of distance to my swim, but in the end I believe it will be worth it to avoid as much as the inside thrashing as possible and get into a rhythm quickly.  Once to the first turn buoy, I would want to be right on it.  I think that if I were expecting to be one of the weaker swimmers in the group, I would still line up on the outside, but toward the back of the group.  Since in that case I wouldn’t be as concerned about keeping up with the group as setting my own time, I’d definitely want to get into my rhythm without worrying too much about other people around me.

Chaotic start? Check.

The swim is by far the loneliest part of a triathlon for me.  Not that that’s a bad thing!  But it can be unnerving when you are swimming along and have no idea who’s close to you or where the pack is.  Particularly when the visibility is poor in and out of the water, you can find yourself wondering where the heck you are and whether you’ll ever get to the next buoy!  Relax. Practice sighting ahead of time in the pool so you are prepared to look for the buoy yourself.  Don’t rely on following other people.  I’ve heard horror stories of whole packs veering off-course and adding a lot of distance to their swims.  Even if you are drafting on someone, make sure you continue to sight for yourself.  (Side note- I have never been successful at finding someone to draft, and usually end up swimming up between their legs.  If you are good at this and have tips for finding a “draft buddy” please comment and share!).  In my last race, I planned to sight every 6 strokes, but I think that was a bit too often.  My plan for my next race is to practice sighting once per length of the pool, so in the OWS, I’ll sight every 10 strokes.  This is a personal thing, you just need to figure out what works for you.  If for some reason you lose sight of the buoys or can’t find it on a sighting, don’t panic.  Again, just relax, take a couple more strokes and try again.  It’s all downhill from the first turn buoy!

Swim? Check.

You did it!  Now that we’ve reached the shore, it’s time to get out of that pesky wetsuit.  Don’t get too ambitious and try and take it off all at once- you’ll end up waddling with it stuck around your ankles!  I don’t know how other people change this up, but what I do works pretty well for me.  As soon as I exit the water and start running toward transition, I move my goggles to my forehead.  As I’m running, I unzip the wetsuit and pull the top half off.  Then I take off my cap and goggles and continue running to my transition station.  Once there I discard the cap and goggles and immediately take off the bottom part of the wetsuit.  It’s easiest if you let it go inside out and just pull over the ankles that way (same goes for getting your arms out earlier).  There will be plenty of time after the race to straighten it out.  Now you’re out of the wetsuit and ready for the rest of your transition into the bike!

Transition? Half-check (since we didn’t talk about getting into bike gear- that’s a post for another time).

The absolute best thing you can do to prepare for an OWS is to actually get into open water and swim.  Even if it’s just to get comfortable, every chance you have to convince yourself that you are calm and comfortable in the water is going to help you on race day.  So, when the winds kick up some waves in an ocean swim, or the lake you’re in has zero visibility with the added plus of a rather dark and cloudy day, you will be relaxed and ready!  Just keep swimming!

Race Report!

What a weekend!  The race was awesome, I am really happy with my performance, but there is still plenty of room for improvement.  I am even more excited for my fall Oly now, because I know what I really need to focus on in the next few months.  Anyways, on to the report.

My mom and I drove down to the lake together on Friday, arriving around 8:30.  Packet pick-up ended at 7, so I missed that and would need to take care of it in the morning.  No big deal, I was planning on getting to the race site pretty early anyways.  Once we had unloaded the car, I went for a short 20 minute run to move my legs a bit after driving for four and a half hours.  I would have liked to go for a quick bike ride as well, but it was too dark and I don’t have lamps for my bike.  After my run, I took a quick shower and then organized all my gear so that I could set up my transition area easily in the morning.  I went to bed about 10:00PM, but didn’t sleep very well at all.  I tossed and turned all night long!

I woke up at 6:30AM, and checked to see what the weather was looking like.  It was very overcast and looked like it might rain, but I was hopeful that it might clear up with the sun.  I made myself a bowl of oatmeal with walnuts and raisins, and ate a hard-boiled egg for breakfast.  I left for the race site at 7:00AM to check-in and pick up my race packet, number, and timing chip since I missed packet pick up the night before.  I also had my body marking done right away while there was no line.  After all the administrative stuff was taken care of, I put my race number on my bike and helmet, and attached it to my shirt.  Then I took all my stuff over to rack my bike and set up my transition.  The one thing I had been really worried about for this race was the mount/dismount of the bike.  Last time, it was at the bottom of a fairly steep hill, which meant attempting to clip-in while climbing!  Luckily, I found out that they had moved the mount line to the top of the hill, so I no longer had to worry about it.

I unfortunately didn’t get in a good warm-up because I was worried about the timing, just  a quick jog around the transition area in the parking lot.  By this time, the sun had come out and it was getting pretty hot and humid.  They also announced that the water temperature was 66°F (up from 62 on Thursday).  Everyone was really excited about the warmer temp.  I hadn’t planned on getting in the water before the race because I was afraid it would be too cold, but I decided to start getting into my wetsuit at 8:20.  There was a race meeting at 8:45, and the race was supposed to start at 9:00 with my wave leaving at 9:03 (five waves total, with one leaving every 3 minutes).  Once I got into my wetsuit, I HAD to get in the water because I was HOT.  The water felt amazing!  I swam a quick 50 meters or so, and discovered that the water visibility was nonexistent.  I located the buoys marking the course, and noted where the yellow turn buoys were.  I got out of the water and waited a few minutes for the race meeting.

Then it was time for the first wave (red caps) to be corraled.  After they left, my wave (pink caps for women under 35) entered the corral and lined up for entry.  I ended up lining up on the inside in the front.  I know in my race plan I had said that I would line up on the outside, but after checking out the course, I realized that it could add at least an extra 15 meters to my swim and probably wasn’t worth it.  I got a prime spot on the inside.  At 9:03AM we were off (I made sure to start my stop watch on my heart rate monitor so I could track my time throughout the race).

The first 200m were tough.  I was having a really hard time sighting the buoy because my goggles fogged up really badly.  I need to remember to use anti-fog gel prior to my next race.  As expected, I got kicked a fair amount (I probably did my fair share of kicking others as well).  I would have liked to find someone to draft, but I kept overtaking people in front of me.  I actually even swam up between someone’s legs before I realized what I was doing.  Oops!  After the first turn, things got a little better and I got into a better rhythm.  I also started seeing red caps when I was coming up to sight, so I knew I was doing ok.  I had no clue how many pink caps were in front of me or behind me.  The visibility was terrible.  On the second and final turn, I was heading toward the shore at a pretty good pace.  Unfortunately, I didn’t have a good point to sight on, so I was having a little trouble keeping focused.  I think a big yellow buoy at the exit point would have been really helpful for me.  The last 25 meters were tough because I was also trying to keep track of when I would be able to touch the bottom and run in.  When I came out of the water, I glanced at my watch and saw my time of 13:00.  Whew! 2 minutes faster than my goal time of 15:00.  Curtis told me later that I was probably 12th or 13th out of the water out of the pink caps.

The run out of the water to the transition area is up a hill, which I ran about halfway and then walked halfway.  I didn’t want my heartrate shooting up before getting on the bike.  While I was running, I unzipped and pulled my wetsuit down halfway and then took off my cap and goggles.  When I got to my transition area, I pulled the rest of the wetsuit off, pulled on my shirt and shorts, slipped on my cycling shoes (no socks!).  I put on my helmet and sunglasses and unracked my bike to run to the mount line (at the top of the hill).  I got on and clipped my shoes in in record time!  I couldn’t believe it.  I had to fix my right shoe, because I apparently hadn’t gotten it velcroed all the way in transition.  The first half of the bike ride was mostly downhill with some small climbs.  At about mile 10.5, there was a massive hill to climb.  It was actually kind of amusing to watch as all the cyclists in a line got slower and slower and then disappeared over the top of the hill.  On the bike, I got passed by a lot of people, mostly men.  The first few were likely some of the “red caps” I had passed in the swim.  I didn’t see any women in my age group pass me, so I wasn’t too sure how I was doing relative to the field at this point.  By the way, they mark our legs with our race age, so that’s how I knew who was passing me.  Once I got past the hill, I cruised back into the park and tried to pick up the cadence.  I’m still pushing too high a gear during my riding and wearing out my legs too much.  I really need to work on that.

I got back to the line and dismounted with ease.  Ran into the transition area to re-rack my bike, remove my helmet, and change my shoes.  I put on socks too.  I’m glad I ended up using the elastic laces, tying would have been such a hassle.  I should have road-tested them a bit more because they did cause my feet to go a little tingly.  My legs were tired when I started my run, but I was breathing ok.  I had forgotten to eat anything on the bike, so I took a couple bites of a Luna bar, but it wasn’t sitting very well so I threw it out.  I got to the end of the first mile and took a short walking break.  I’m a little mad at myself now for doing this, I really didn’t HAVE to, but it’s done now.  I also walked a bit at the turnaround point- this time mostly so I could get some water in my mouth instead of all over my front.  When the finish line was in sight, I was able to pick up the speed a lot, so I know I could have pushed it a bit harder.  Finally, I raced into the finish and looked at my watch- 1:40:07.  Yes!  I had made my goal time plus a few seconds.  I was really excited about it, even though that was just the unofficial time on my watch.  I found out later it was only off by a second.  My official race time was 1:40:06.

Here are my splits:

Swim: 13:00, 2/10 in Age group

T1: 2:47, 4/10

Bike: 48:16, 5/10

T2: 1:35, 6/10

Run: 34:29, 9/10

Overall place in age group: 6/10

Overall place in all women: 80/142

In terms of my goals, two out of three is not bad.  My first goal was to beat my previous time of 2:07:40, which I did by 27 minutes.  My second goal was to finish in under 1:40.  Now, I didn’t quite make this, but I’m considering it a goal met because my time was SO close.  I definitely surpassed my swim goal time of 15 minutes, and the bike split was really close to my goal of 48 minutes.  One transition was faster and one slower than my 2 minute goal for each.  My run was definitely my weakest leg, I missed my goal by 4.5 minutes.  I really need to work on run endurance and speed.   Finally, I didn’t come close to my goal of finishing in the top 30% of women, but that’s ok.  I shouldn’t really be setting goals that are dependent on other people’s performances anyways.  Overall I’m very very happy with my time.

Of course, I’ve already started thinking about next year and how fast I need to be to place in my age group.  I will race in the next age group next year, and it looks like the top times are 1:17:23, 1:20:56, and 1:24:20.  I’ll need to take 20 minutes off of this year’s time to place.  I know I can do the run faster.  I would also need to drop significant time in the bike.  I think I can do it.

My game plan for the next few months is going to be really focusing on bike strength and running speed.  Hopefully I will see a noticeable improvement by the time the Oly comes around in September.