Rhode Island 70.3 Race Report July 13, 2008

I signed up for this race back when they announced its inception (6 months ago) excited that they brought another 70.3 to the Northeast. No routes were announced, no logistics about the race, just a promise of an “Ironman” brand race. I decided this would be a good prep (one and only distance race) leading up to IM Wisconsin in September. About 6 weeks ago the courses were announced- a point to point race with two different transition areas, beginning at Narragansett Bay ending in Downtown Providence. As the details began to unfold and the Athlete Guide was published, I became worried about “clean” transitions and transition bags, 4:00am buses, oh my! But I embraced change. Decided it might be fun to try1011
something different! The only half irons I had done before now were Timberman and Mooseman..both great races, but was a little excited to branch out and see what else was out there.

Day before race was filled with LOTS of standing in lines, running around to transition areas, driving, sitting in traffic and witnessing a car accident (a fellow racer) it was the opposite of what a day before a race should be. It was rushed and chaotic. I don’t even think the race organizers could have predicted the two hour line for packet pickup or the hour and a half drive to T1 to drop our bikes (b/c of beach traffic) it was crazy, but again, I tried to embrace it and see it as a new opportunity. Once we got done running around (with a couple bike tire changes and a quick loosen up the legs ride) we headed back to Providence to find our hotel was literally across the street from the State House (also the finish area!) sweet! A late checkout insured us a post-race shower! We had dinner on Federal Hill with my in-laws (who thought they were coming to Providence to see a marathon!! Obviously their first triathlon experience!) then off to bed before 9pm.

Race Day started with a 3:15am wake up call, a 4am bus (another line) down to the start (where our bus’s engine began to overheat part way down there, we pulled over and the driver did a “fix” that got us there with plenty of time to spare! Phew!) We arrived at T1/start and saw Amanda’s husband right away, thankfully he had a bike pump (they would not transport them for you, so we had to find one the morning of!) but no worries, we got the tires pumped up and T1 was all set (part of the reason I wasn’t complaining too much about getting everything down there the day before) I spent 5mins with my bike before the race, tires pumped-check, bento box full- check, water bottles in place- check, brakes rubbing the tires- negative. I was all set. Grabbed wetsuit, goggles and cap and down to the beach for the start.

Swim- 34:43 (pace-1:39/100)
The beach was packed, and beautiful. You would never know it was 6am. Thousands of people crowded the beach and the national anthem filled the air, lots of excitement about the race. 6am cannon sent the pros out to start. Ugh! Running beach start, AGAIN! I hate that, but learned my lesson in Cohasset- I started up farther in the group as to avoid having to swim around slower swimmers (I’m no speedster, but I’m average I wanted to have a good swim.) Waves went off every 5mins or so, Greg was off in Wave 5 and I stuck around until Wave 7, a 6:30 cannon. Off we went W30-39 all in one pack. It was wavy, choppy, salty water…I had a hard time finding a rhythm of breathing at appropriate times to avoid a wave of water in my face! I eventually worked it out after a couple of mouthfuls of salt water. It was hard to sight at times (again b/c of the waves) but I tried to keep the swimmers around me in sight so I knew I was sortof on course! It was an out and back, once I made the turn I found a groove (a little to the right of the pack) and felt like I was swimming in my own lane. Fine by me. Got out of the water in 34:43, my best 1.2mi swim time (by over two minutes, and pace was faster than my sprint earlier this year…so maybe my positioning did help me- less weaving and dodging to do!)
T1: 3:51Pretty uneventful…had a long beach run up to transition where I took advantage of the wetsuit strippers (mostly b/c they were there and no one was using them) walked in the kiddie pools to get the sand off my feet (that’s a nice detail) and on to my bike where we had bags filled with our gear. I liked this concept. Dump the bag, put gear on and put the used gear in the bag. Loved the “clean” transition area idea! Left the wetsuit bag to be transported up to Providence


Bike 3:01:37 (pace-18.5mph)
Crossed the mat and had to run with our bikes another couple minutes to the mounting line, bummer. But mounted and was on my way. Have been having ergomo problems for a couple months now but decided to still have it on my bike to at least tell me my speed, well…I guess when I changed my back tire the day before I forgot to align my magnet…so no power, no speed, no rpms. Doh! Thankfully I had my Garmin, so I had an idea of what pace I was going. The first 15mi were VERY flat and fast (averaged 20.5mph taking it easy!) by Mile 18 we hit a couple hills and it seemed to be relentless after that, up and up and up, passing people, having them pass me back. The hills went on for about 15-20miles, but after that I could not find a groove. I was distracted and bored…wanting the bike ride to be over. My bike felt alien to me like it was someone else’s, I can’t explain it but was pretty lost the entire time (not like me at all, biking is my favorite of the three sports) so I struggled to hold a decent pace, but I was mentally gone. I passed lost of people fixing flats, and plenty of intersections that looked like vehicles had been held up for hours! One intersection there was a fire truck in the middle and a tri bike in pieces all over the ground. It was after seeing that (and I never like to see that) I just became complacent about my overall bike time. The last 5 miles or so into Providence where ghetto neighborhoods with choppy roads, lots of intersections and enough left hand turns crossing traffic to make you want to scream! I launched water bottles twice out of my rear hydration system and both times stopped my bike, set it down, ran back to get the water bottle and get going again. Did I mention this happened twice? What was I thinking? Hoped to break 3:00 on the bike, expected to be in the 2:50-2:55 range, total bike time 3:01:37 (a HIM PR of ~2min, but I had higher expectations, so I was down on my time.) Nutrition was 2 bottles of Infinit (280cals/bottle) and a package of Clif Bloks (2 every 45mins)

T2 2:34
Typical Transition, made a decision to grab my Fuel Belt and see ho I liked running a race with it (never did that before) a decision I would later regret…but other than that, things went smoothly. Saw my Inlaws and said hello took in a Chocolate Gu and headed out on the run.

Run 2:14:09 (yikes!! 10:15/mile pace)
Run started out ok, but quickly became tough….if you know Providence at all you might be aware of a “small” incline in town referred to as College Hill (takes you up to Brown University) we were presented with this hill at about Mile 1 (of a two loop course, so again later in the run also) it was here that I slowed initially and began to walk (ugh!) after cresting the hill, I saw my husband about to finish his first loop, we high-fived and I continued on my way. By Mile 3 I was beginning to have stomach issues and lots of bloating (a first for me) I stopped and actually waited in line at a porto-john thinking that might help me fell better…to no avail. Funny story, I was so bloated in my stomach that my Fuel Belt POPPED open while I was in line and I could not get it to Velcro back on (I was too fat!) UGH! How uncomfortable! The rest of the run was a mix of running, walking, drinking, dumping water over my head and hoping for the finishline. This might be my worst HIM run ever (best being 1:50+ at Mooseman last year) I was so bloated and uncomfortable that even walking sucked…anyway. Got to the finishline and felt sick for ~30mins after…eventually the bloat dissipated and I felt normal again, I will share my “finishing picture” just for you to see how uncomfortable I was (see facial expression) and how bloated I was (no I’m NOT 6mo pregnant!!) In hind sight I suspect the salt water swim negatively affected my stomach. I have never had those issues (been using the same nutrition on all my IM training rides far longer than 56mi!) and never had the “bloat” that I experienced here. It sucked. No more salt water swims for me!!


Total Time: 5:56:52
Overall- not a PR, not the time I hoped for and not the “run” I expect out of myself. I have a LOT of work to do before IM Wisconsin.

Cohasset Sprint Triathlon at Sandy Beach June 29, 2008

First race of the season, coming off a month-long rehab for a partial torn soleus (calf) muscle. Month of June was mostly sporadic training, day to day depending on how leg was feeling. I was able to maintain fitness through elliptical and swimming, then after two weeks added in biking and minimal (read: 15min) of running here and there. So I didn’t have expectations here for this race, just wanted to see where I was. Also, did this same race last year so I have a means of comparison (I will include those numbers along the way!)

No taper for this race, as a matter of fact did a time trial earlier in the week and an ~80mi ride day prior with friends (we climbed 4400feet averaging +/- 19mph that ride)….so you can get a sense of how I was feeling!

Overall Stats:
1/4mi swim, 12.5mi bike and a 3.2mi run (conclusion was run distance was longer, more on that later)

Final Time: 1:10:35, good for 5/34 in my AG (F30-34)
For comparison I was also 5th in my AG last year! With a 1:17:41, so I improved 7:06 at the sprint distance, but the competition

Swim: 6:49 or ~1:42/100 (last year was 8:27)
T1: 1:49 (last year was 1:57)
Bike: 34:12 or ~22mph (last year was 36:35)
T2: 1:50 (last year was 1:31) my only blip on the day! Could not find my hat!!
Run: 25:57 or ~ 8:10/mi pace (last year was 29:13)

Swim: An ocean “C” swim..out to the buoy, turn swim parallel to shore, turn again and swim into the beach…you will see from the pictures it was REALLY foggy so the buoys were pulled in and the long swim leg was made longer…I think you could walk out to the first buoy ~20’ from shore! My wave was #4 with ~100 of my closest women competitors..it was a salty washing machine type swim where I never found space, feet to draft or a rhythm to swim…I survived and came out in 6:49 a huge improvement on last year (8:27.)

T1: was uneventful, said hi to a friend/coworker who was racked across from me…we wished each other well and I set off on my bike.

Bike: As mentioned previously I rode 80mi the day before and have been having saddle issues (rubbing/cutting/discomfort) so the morning of the race (dumb, I know) I changed to a different saddle that is narrower thinking “this will be more comfortable” HA… so bike got underway, my first race this year on my new P2C (purchased over the winter with ergomo, which has been malfunctioning…I won’t even get into that) so I was getting used to a few things like my hoods being wet from me after the swim (which obviously doesn’t happen on a normal ride) and my ergomo was reading funny watts and mph (says I was going 11mph!! See my average!) So I was riding uncomfortably blind..when I noticed my saddle was dipping front to back…guess I didn’t tighten enough! Turns out it slid all the way back on the rails too…I can laugh about it now, but I’m lucky I didn’t land on the side of the road with my saddle coming off!
Lesson: no matter what hurts…don’t change things on race day (I should know better!) just grin and bear it. Ouch. Oh well, improved on last years time, so no complaints!

T2: The ONLY slower part of my day! All b/c I could not find my hat :( It got tossed back in bag…I eventually found it but it cost me prob. 30 seconds!

Run: This was what my whole day was about…I had not been running much (if at all) in the past couple weeks with the calf injury…but I knew I was on the mend and was hoping to be able to run the entire distance, whatever the pace. So I set out of T2 with my avg. pace was at 7:55s, a little fast to start, so I eased up and the course became hilly so I was able to slow to 8:05s without issue…but at the 2mi marker I let go and allowed myself to run hard till the end and according to my garmin I did a 7:40 last mile…averaging 7:55s overall. But if you look at my official time it reads 25:57 or 8:10s. I thought that was slow. After talking to others we all concluded the course must have been a tad long. Oh well, I don’t really care…I improved on last year and ran (hard) the entire time with no pain!!

Some other highlights:
My husband placing 2nd in his AG (M30-34) with a 1:02:26 (he smoked that course!)
Seeing my friend (the same one I was talking to in T1) place 3rd Female (non-pro) overall
Two other guys who swim in our Master’s lane place 2nd and 3rd in their AGs.
Watching my best friend (non triathlete) borrow my road bike and ride the bike leg of a relay..gave her a glimpse into our lives and she loved every minute of it, maybe she’ll race an entire tri someday!
Seeing Jarrod Shoemaker (USA Olympic Triathete) easily win and signing Wheaties boxes after the race for everyone who wanted them,

Things to fix:
More open water swimming, especially ocean if I’m going to race ocean swims…it was salty and cold. I didn’t put my head under until about 200yds into the race!
Get a new saddle/fitting something to fix my saddle woes
Make sure my Transition area is properly set up before heading down to the water (when I couldn’t find my hat)
Work on getting faster on the run without re-injuring my leg :) I need to strengthen that muscle to get it back to where it was.

"You look like a runner"

So I was talking to a co-worker yesterday (someone I had not met before, in an office of 250 people, there are STILL people I don’t know!) So…I was deep in a conversation with him unrelated to anything athletic when he says “You look like a runner” do you run?

Random

Should I take that as a compliment??

Speed Work…it’s hard, but it works!

So in years past I have not focused on speed. I was always worried about distance, just surviving the 26.2. Well, this year I have a new lease on life (and training) it’s about speed…pushing my body. What can I sustain? In the fall I did a half marathon at what I thought was the top of my game. Finished in 1:46:01, a PR by approx. 5mins. I was on cloud nine!! A week later I pulled my hamstring and took some time off. After that injury I built back to where I thought I was and set my sights on the Boston Marathon (in April.)

In January, I began to do some indoor track workouts with Team Envision on Wednesdays at MIT. Despite the tight radius (8 laps=1 mile) I did a few workouts there and saw good results at 1 mile repeats. I was averaging 7:41min/mile pace. That pace was comfortably hard and I would go home and sleep like a baby!!

In February, I did quite a bit of fartlek running. I method of speed+recovery where you are running hard constantly and then a short rest period between efforts. I was doing these LT (Lactate Threshold) efforts at approx. 7:35 pace (note, improvement from 7:41 in January.)

In early March, I did a few weeks of Yasso 800s (an 800meter repeat where you build up to 10x and take the average pace and that number should *closely* equate to your marathon pace, eg. If you want to run a 3 hour marathon, you should be able to do 10x800 with an average pace of 3:00mins.) So I did these at the outdoor MIT track by myself yielding 3:36/800 one week, and 3:31/800 the next. Great results.

Now here we are at the end of March (one month out from the Boston Marathon) and I did another (outdoor) track workout last night. The workout was 1.5mi w/u, 6x1mi @LT pace (400m recovery), and 1mi c/d. I head off to the first Team Envision outdoor track session this spring in Watertown. I did the w/u with the group and then headed off to do my 6x1mi workout (w/ 400m recovery) My splits were as follows:
7:26
7:23
7:23
7:23
7:22
7:14
AVG: 7:21:50
I am excited about TWO things here…
1.) my consistency. To hit 7:23s for three straight and then 7:22 for the next one. I thrive on consistency.
2.) The speed of my last mile. WOW…I *hoped* for a 7:20 effort…and mostly just wanted to prove to myself that I would not fade at the end. To do the last effort at :08 faster than the first 5 has me speechless!

Speed Works.
Still not sure what to expect at Boston next month, but I still believe that I have a lot of work to do before then. Mostly, I need to decide on a race day game plan and stick to it.

A week of tests…

Wow, it’s been a long week!! I had a bike FTP test on Tuesday…I do this test once/month to see if my bike power is improving. When I first got my powermeter (beginning of Dec) I tested my ftp power at 203watts. In January I retested at 211watts…a great improvement..so this week was my February test. This test includes a nice w/u with a 2x20’ interval with a 2’ recovery (easy) in between…you take the whole 42minutes and use the power over that entire time. So I rode hard (not too hard) for the 1st 20mins, averaged 217watts, for the recovery I was at 136watts and then for the 2nd 20min interval I held a whopping 228watts!! So (drumroll please….) my FTP is now 220watts!! A 10% improvement over two shorts months with only riding 2x/week!! So I am very happy with my test and I KNOW I am riding harder this winter than I ever have before. One other important statistic is my watts/weight ratio. With my latest ftp test I’m currently riding 3.28w/kg. Which is pretty average for a female rider. My goal is to get to 3.6w/kg…which would raise my ftp up to 240watts…I have a lot of work to do!!

So, test #2 this week was last night…a 1000yd swim time trial. We went over to the new BSC in Medford (nice facility!) with a brand new pool. We were TOLD it’s a “junior Olympic” pool, which puts it at 25m long (not 25yds) this will come into play later. So we warmed up some (not very much!) and started the TT, the goal was to swim at race effort (read: not a sprint!) you don’t sprint the swim in triathlon…it’s supposed to be a fairly relaxed pace. So the test went quickly (I’m used to swimming ~60mins or so at Masters) so this test flew by! I did the 1000m in 16:34. To convert it to 1000yds, the math is 1000yds in 15:05. WOW…I have seen some improvement since last season!! According to swim pace charts this puts my mile at approx. 26-27mins and an IM distance swim at 1:06-1:10 pace. I would be VERY pleased if that were the outcome in Sept!!

All roads lead to Madison!

Ever have a day where everything just clicks?

I went out to do this week’s long run (14miles) with the TNT team on the Boston course in Wellesley…we ran 7mi towards Hopkinton and then 7mi back. I have been doing the 10min run/1min walk method to prepare for Boston. I have seen some VERY nice results from this method and will continue to use it leading up to April 21, 2008. So most of my long runs have yielded a gross per mile pace of 8:39/mile (including the walks) which puts my actual running times at 8:15/mile pace. Not too shabby, but can I hold this pace for longer than a couple miles?? That is the question! So I decided to challenge myself a little this particular week and see what I’m made of! I wanted to do 8:00/mile pace for the run, with 1min walks in between. I started out a little fast (which I knew) but wanted to see if I could hold it. Here were my results:

1: 7:52 pace (AVG HR-174)
2: 7:45 pace (AVG HR-163)
3: 7:44 pace (AVG HR-171)
4: 7:44 pace (AVG HR-167)
5: 7:47 pace (AVG HR-169)
6: 7:44 pace (AVG HR-165)
7: 8:04 pace (AVG HR-167)
8: 7:52 pace (AVG HR-168)
9: 7:58 pace (AVG HR-166)
10: 7:57 pace (AVG HR-169)
11: 8:06 pace (AVG HR-170)

So these were 10min intervals with 1min walk in between to add up to 14 total miles. Today was a great day…I never *really* thought that I could hold the 8min/mile pace for that long, but sometimes when you challenge yourself you achieve remarkable things. I was on cloud nine after this particular run! I was in a zone. Everything just seemed to click.

Mother Nature is Evil

Well, well, well…I guess this is what winter in New England is all about. See my previous posts about running in the snow, I guess the training runs in the snow are worthwhile when it snows on race day. The 2008 Derry Boston Prep 16 miler was held on Jan. 27, and guess what? It snowed!! Nothing like an inch or so of freshly fallen snow to make a challenging course more challenging!

I battled through and still managed to beat last year’s time by 4mins or so, despite the weather conditions. It was a tough race and definitely one that took a lot out of me. I woke up the Monday after feeling like I’d run a marathon. My legs were sore, my back was sore, I took a couple days off until my muscles recovered.

Next up: Martha’s Vineyard 20 Miler, next Saturday Feb. 16, that is one of my favorite races!