Lake to Lake wrap up

Saturday was the Lake to Lake Olympic distance triathlon (.9 mile swim, 30 mile bike, 6.2 mile run). This was my 10th triathlon and yet I ran a pretty good clinic of what not to do in a few ways - here is my list of errors:

1. Didn't get around to putting my aero bars on the bike until Thurs night and never did a practice ride in them.
2. Moved my seat forward but didn't sufficiently tighten the screw on the saddle, so it started wobbling after about 8 miles - scary! Ultimately I think it forced me to smooth out my pedaling, which I guess is good, especially since I didn't die.
3. Forgot my timing chip at home so Chris had to wake up at 5:30 AM and bring it to me. THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU CHRIS!!! I owe him big time.
4. Put my timing chip on too close to the bottom of my ankle (it goes into a hospital band-type anklet) so it dug into my skin every time I flexed my foot. Thought I could just deal with it until halfway through the run, by which time my ankle was rubbed pretty raw in some spots. Ouch.
5. Decided to go to grad school. More specifically, (and this is really just coincidental timing and not my fault) I scheduled my defense such that I had to finish most of my thesis last week. I have somehow gotten used to less than 6 hours of sleep a night (4 hours - no problem), which is not really a good thing. Also having raced a tri the week before added to my fatigue.
6. Got too attached to my finishing time goal and was too rough on myself - during the run, when I realized I wasn't going to achieve my goal, I got pretty upset and had a terrible time almost the whole run. (Although the terribleness was due to physical pain as well as the disappointment).

So that is all the bad things that happened on and leading up to Saturday. That being said, I feel like I had a good race overall. I improved from my 2005 time by two minutes (of course I wish it had been by more, but I should be proud of the improvement). I had a really good time ... until the run. Even that was enjoyable in that sick 'i like to suffer' way. Haha.

So to summarize. I had my favorite oatmeal w/ peanut butter and coffee at 4:15 with Rachel. We got to the race not too long after 5. I did a 10 minute warm-up on the bike and had a gu 10 minutes before starting at 6:34.

The swim went well. I thought I could do it in 27-30 minutes, and I got out of the water in 26:30. :) Woohoo! The official time was 28:46 b/c it was a decent run to the transition zone from the beach (vs 31:08 when I did this race in 2005).

The bike was fun! I passed a lot of women, especially on the hill going up to horsetooth. I had two gu's during the ride, one right at the beginning and one with about 3-4 miles to go. I felt really good in the aero bars (aside from the whole wobbling saddle thing). It is so much fun to ride fast! I hit 44+ on the hill coming down from horsetooth and took a 180 degree turn/switchback on the final descent at 35 mph. :) :)

I think my effort went down the last 10 miles, although my speed went up. So maybe I could have pushed more at the end. Although given how my legs felt in the run it is maybe good that I didn't go harder on the bike. Chris, Laurie, and Stuart were at the top of the second hill cheering me on and that was awesome!! In 2005, I averaged 18.7 mph. This year it was 19.5 (I was hoping for 20), and my total time was 1:31:56.

The run ... I don't remember feeling terrible until 2 or 3 miles in. I'm not sure why it felt so bad, I can't really pinpoint except I just felt tired and bad. Maybe part of my emotional problems were spilling into how I was doing physically. I learned a lot from bike racing about how much your physical game is affected by your mental state. In 2005, I ran my 10K PR of 52:14 (an 8:25 pace). This year I finished in 55:07 (9:02 pace). This is a respectable time, to be honest. I am not much of a runner, although I would like to be!

So I finished in 2:58:58 (vs 3:00:41 in 2005). This year was a more competitive race for sure. I finished farther back in the overall and in my age group, despite having better times.

Here is what I learned and need to remember for the Boulder Peak olympic race on July 20:
1. HAVE FUN, DON'T GET SO DOWN ON MYSELF!!! What I am doing in these races is pretty cool, so I shouldn't take myself so seriously that I don't have fun.
2. Work on transitions because I seem to be getting slower. Especially w/ the freaking wetsuit - I need to put bodyglide around my ankles for one thing.
3. Keep up the work on my Masters. This hobby of mine is important to me, but school is more important so if all the work I have to do interferes with my performance in a tri that is just the way it has to be. I should be proud that I turned in most of my thesis AND competed in two tri's this week.
4. Keep working on running. Especially bike to run workouts. Not enough time to greatly improve for boulder peak but I should run more this winter ...

That is it. I am tired. My legs are still sore from the race, especially my quads and hip flexors. I wonder if they will ever feel better ... Hopefully by Friday b/c I am doing the Peachtree Road race (10k) with 100,000 of my closest friends!! Tomorrow I'm going to the beach in L.A. (lower Alabama) with my mom, aunt, and cousin. It should be wonderful! Ciao.

Buffalo Creek XTerra Short Course Triathlon

The XTerra race went much better than I was expecting. Sat morning I got up with Chris at 6:05 (he was volunteering at 6:30), had some coffee, set up my transition area, and then ate a breakfast of banana, oatmeal w/ a little peanut butter at 7:30. Then I had some time to kill so I actually worked on my thesis at our campsite - lame!!



I ran for about 10 minutes as a warmup, and then my group got started at about 10:00. I was starting with about 65 women. The swim felt really great. I think all the open water practicing has paid off. I felt really confident in my sighting and was in the front 10 of my group most of the time. For a bit I found a girl to draft off, and then we were running into the men (who started about 5 minutes before us!), so I went around her. I got out of the water at 14:16 (a little over 800 m so I guess that is around 1:45 per 100 m which is fine with me!).

Trying to find the cord to get this darned thing off.

Heading out on the bike - the scenery was great!

The transition went pretty well except 1. it is hard to get the wetsuit off, and 2. it was hard to get my bike out from under the rack. The mountain bike course was almost all on dirt roads but that didn't make it easy! After about a mile we went down a decent sized hill for 1 mile that was filled with ruts and potholes. It was tricky and you definitely had to watch your speed. A little bit after the hill I passed a girl in my age group. Then we went onto a single track that was sandy and steadily uphill. It was tough but not technical. I passed a decent amount of people here and also got passed by some folks. Didn't see anyone else in my age group here. Then it was back to that hill and it was killer on the way up!! I mostly got passed on the hill, including by a few women in different age groups, except one guy who was walking his bike and I was really tempted to join him. I got back to the transition zone in about 1:06. I was exhausted!

I forgot to take off my gloves and camelback leaving the transition zone, so I ditched them at a trail junction. It was hot but there were kids along the run with water guns - that was really nice! At this point I had caught back up to two women and we were running close together for the first part of the run - which was on a trail w/ some pretty steep sections. There was a lot of walking! My legs were really tired. Even the downhills felt hard b/c I was worried my legs might give out. I passed one of the other women and the other one got pretty far ahead of me. Also another woman came flying by and I was really impressed! It's nice because most of the time the women I passed/who passed me are really encouraging of each other. Finally we got onto level ground for the last mile or so of the run. There was a woman not too far in front of me but I didn't have it in me and didn't see the point in chasing her down.

Smiling at the finish line - that's a good sign.

I crossed the finish line in 1:45 and felt very good about my race. The 2.5 mile run took me 20:43, which is a little over 8 minute miles. Not bad considering all the walking. I think this might be the hardest triathlon I've done (maybe with the exception of my first). Amazingly my heart rate monitor said I burned 1415 calories! I was definitely pushing it a lot of the time, especially on the bike. But it was also pretty fun, and nice to be by myself in the woods every now and then instead of just on the side of a road. I might have to do more of these XTerra races :). The first place woman finished in 1:32 - her bike time was 52 minutes. Wow! I was the 9th woman and actually won my age group (out of 11 women)! I've never won in a tri, so that was really exciting! Plus I definitely wasn't expecting it. Chris took some credit because he threatened me to not lose before the race ;).

There was also a full length race that was twice as long as mine - I am really glad I didn't do that one! It would have been extremely hard. There were a few pro triathletes racing and so it was cool to watch them fly by me (I got passed by the two leading men on the hill from hell and they made it look easy). Anyway, I won a 3 month personalized coaching deal from an endurance sports group in Denver, so that's pretty exciting. I'm not sure when I'll use it - maybe it will be good to put toward a half-ironman training?? Part of the package is VO2 max/lactate threshold testing, which I've always wanted to have done so I hope it works out!

Oh, the other big accomplishment of the day is I didn't crash!! :)
Perfect way to recover - a beer and a hammock.

IT'S RACE TIME!!!

Well after about 6 months of training I finally get to do a triathlon tomorrow! I am pretty excited, although a bit more sleep deprived than would be ideal. It will also be really nice to hang out with Chris all weekend and camp. The race is tomorrow, I start at 9:50. It's a .5 mile swim, 10 mile mountain bike (mostly forest service roads although I read something about a 1.5 mile singletrack with a bit of slikrock!? :), and a 2.5 mile trail run. I think it will be fun, especially since the bike part doesn't sound too technical or scary. The trails where the triathlon are supposed to be pretty nice, so we are mountain biking on Sunday (if I have energy).

Here's where we are headed:
www.youtriit.com
& on Sunday, we are doing the Buffalo Creek mountain bike trails, find info here:
http://trails.mtbr.com/

Now I need to squeeze in another hr 20 minutes of work, and then we're off! :)

I should have known when I was 15 ...

I remember one day complaining to my mom about how busy and tired I was when I was about 15. I was swimming 4-5 days a week, plus meets on the weekends. I usually stayed up until about midnight doing homework. It was a rough life ;). Anyway, I just felt like I could never relax, like I never had enough down time, and of course my mom was forcing me to keep with my Saturday morning chores. I was pretty upset about not getting to sleep in on Saturdays, and my mom (single mom and overworked teacher) didn't really have any sympathy. She pretty much told me "welcome to the real world".

I should have known then that down time is extremely elusive. I cannot tell you how much I am looking forward to finishing my thesis and being able to relax. But, even with a date set, I feel like the more I work, the more work there is to do, and the less likely it becomes that I might be able to relax at some point. It's pretty disappointing.

On the bright side, I am enjoying what I'm doing. I really like this part of my research, I think it's pretty interesting. I just might not get to relax as much as I would like between now and Aug 4. (Although a $415 plane ticket to work on my thesis in a beach house instead of in my office just doesn't seem worth it, though, so I really don't want to work that week I'm in Georgia!!)

Oh well. I've been working about 60 hours a week the last few weeks but at least there is an end in sight. And no one's forcing me to clean the house on Saturday mornings, which as it turns out is both a blessing and a curse.

a disappointing day

Today was kind of blah. I have been calculating and recalculating moisture convergence for over a week and it still is several orders of magnitude too large. It's really hard because the model I use has hexagon-shaped grid cells arranged all willy-nilly. I am actually glad that I took the modeling class last semester because it has come in handy. But I wish I could get my moisture budgets to balance!

Also, I have a lot of work to do still on Part 1 of my thesis. It is probably at least two days worth of work. This is disappointing and overwhelming, since I still haven't really written anything for the results of Part 2. I also feel overwhelmed because keeping up with CMMAP gets harder every week. And for some reason I decided I should write an article on the Beijing air pollution during the Summer Olympics for the AGU newsletter. Very interesting but it will take a bit of work and a few interviews because I definitely know very little about the topic.

One bright light for the week is that I finally set a defense date - Aug 4! But this is kind of a double-edged sword because it means that I HAVE to get everything done now. I am going to be busy/out of town starting about June 26 (until July 6), so I really really want to have things done by the 26th. Yeah, that is only 15 days away. Not sure how that is going to work out. It will probably involve very little sleep. I think it is realistic to have the first draft of Part 2 and final of Part 1 done by then. Then I can work on finishing Part 2 when I get back from Georgia and my committee would still get my thesis 3 weeks in advance.

Also a disappointment is that I haven't been training since my hike on Saturday (I should post a trip report, it was amazing!!) because I got massively sunburned and so am avoiding the sun and sweating. I was going to swim and bike on the Lake to Lake course tonight and I was really really looking forward to it. But, when I got to the lake I ran over a curb and got a flat tire on my car. :( So instead of swimming Chris and I changed the tire (it took several tries with the car jack), and then I was too tired and upset to ride.

Chris felt equally disappointed because he was going to ride for the first time in several weeks but it was just too windy. So we went out to dinner and it was really nice to relax and not have to cook or wash dishes.

Now I'm not sure why I'm blogging instead of going to bed because I want to get up early to go running. I think since today was so frustrating I am just going to run for however long I want and just have fun. I have been really enjoying trail running lately. It is so nice and a great challenge! Anyway, I think I just needed to vent a little. Now I can get some rest.

19 days to xterra!

And I've only ridden my mountain bike 3 times this year!! Oh well, the road tri's are my focus this year, xterra is just for fun!

Quick update, some good things have happened in the past week -
1. Tiger is eating a little more and seems to have a little more life in his eyes. The 'roids are doing their job! He did the crap'n'dash again yesterday, but once again had separation issues, if you know what I mean. Hope he can work on that.
2. I turned in half of my thesis last Friday to Scott! Yay!
Also some bad -
Chris has bronchitis and has been sick with a fever since last Tuesday. I feel terrible for him!

So ... on to what I really want to talk about. I've gotten in some pretty nice training the last few days. I'm trying to do more bricks (bike/run or swim/bike combos). Saturday I rode with Kim. We headed out around 10 and it was a gorgeous day! We rode past Horsetooth Park and met this crazy but awesome old Peruvian Italian man when we stopped for water. He was probably close to 70 but was out for a tough 50 mile ride. Anyway, then we wound through Masonville and past the Eden Valley commune, hit up 34 east to Glade Rode and then back the way we came over Horsetooth. It was nice and Kim kept my pace up when I was in the mood to slack.

My ride was 37 miles and it took about 2:15. When I got home, I put on my running shoes and headed back out for a run. I ended up going for 40 minutes and it was really nice except I got stung twice by something. I never saw what it was but it hurt! It was also really hot, so when I got home I hosed myself down and it felt sooo good! It was a really good workout especially because the last half of the ride was on the Lake to Lake course, but the first half was way hillier than the rest of the course.

Today I rode 13 miles each way to an open water swim out near Wellington. It was another beautiful day, and temps got into the 80's, so I figured the water would be warm - but it was freezing! I didn't have my wetsuit and the water definitely took some getting used to. But it was a really nice venue for a swim - a pretty big reservoir with awesome views of the front range. The course was a 200 meter out-and-back, and one time I just tread water at the far point and just enjoyed the view. But I couldn't stop for too long, or I might have lost some feeling! I only had time for 4 laps, so about 1600 meters, but it was really nice. The swim is put on by a husband and wife team. The wife, Wendy Mader, is a really impressive triathlete (top finishes in Ironman Arizona and Kona Ironman), and complemented my swimming. Sweet. :) I felt pretty good overall but I must say that open-water swimming is way easier when there aren't people swimming over you, kicking you, and frothing up the water. The only bad thing was on my 3rd lap both of my feet started cramping, and cramps started moving up my right leg before I stopped and took it easy for a bit. Need more electrolytes!!

So, in the last 3 days I've ridden 80 miles, ran for 40 minutes, swam 1600, and played a softball game. Not too shabby! Of course, to put it in perspective, I rode home tonight with Joe, a fellow atmos tri geek. He is doing the Cour d'Alene (Idaho) Ironman in a few weeks and is running 17 miles tomorrow - that is more than I run in a week!

Well I am really excited about the triathlons and glad they are getting close. Tomorrow I am taking a day off from training though and hopefully can get a lot of work done! I need to work a lot in the next few weeks so I won't have to once late June comes around. That's it, thanks for reading and have a great night!