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.