When September and my Season Ends

With the end of September also comes the end of my triathlon season. I sure wish that I had logged my hours for 2010. It would be fun to compare, but I KNOW this year's numbers would have swamped them. The best way to see this is to compare January's totals with September's:

Compare January's paces to September's and there is improvement across the board. Of course, these are some what rough numbers: .25 mph faster in the swim, almost .25 mph faster in the run, and almost 2mph on bike. I might actually get respectable some day.

One of the things I wanted to do this year was work on strength. As you can see by the year end total for TRX, that hasn't happened yet. I start BootCamp next week so we'll see. I'm determined to drop some weight and build some muscle. Now that I have numbers to compare, I can't wait to blast them apart next year.

Mighty Mermaids - 2011 Race Report

The last of this year's Triathlons is over and done with, but it was fun. The Mighty Mermaids Triathlon is held in Capitola. I was really nervous about this race because it would be the longest of my ocean swims. This is the one that I've been working towards since June.

Grumpy and I drove the bike course yesterday since mapmyride was showing me a really scary course. I mean don't those look like ski slopes?

Any way, between Grumpy's driving and me trying to read the map, I got a major case of car sickness. At this point, everything DID look like a ski slope - ride and run!

I really didn't know how to plan for this race. Go all out on the bike and hold on for the run? Go easy on the bike and save it all for the run? Not that I know how to do that, but I'd try.

I was worried about getting parking, so I had us there before 6am. It was nice to have plenty of time to set up transition, get body marked, find the ride in/out and run out. We then went down to the beach to check out how things were set-up. 

I got in for my warm up around 7:15am. I was surprised at how warm the water was. I mean, it was still cold, but I was able to get my face in the water on the second try. Pacific Grove holds the record for cold this year.

I'd been watching the waves carefully so when something that looked like a wave came towards me, I dove. Ok, so may be a little early, but I wasn't going backward today!

Sighting was tough since often the swells blocked my view. I just kept my eye out for the largest group of women. I was able to find fast feet several times on the way out. On the way in, it hit - my nemesis V-E-R-T-I-G-O. I'm not sure if it is my breathing or the cold water freezing my brain. The cure is a few minutes of swimming doggy style. I got out of the water a little too soon and a very wobbly.

Swim:  34:30   PR! (SV Tri 38:31)

Off to transition. Where is transition you ask? .25 mile up that hill.

 

T1:  9:40 (includes the run up to transition and the run around transition to get to my spot)

Done fooling around in transition, and off on the bike. Hmm. What do you know? There's a hill followed by a hill.

The bike course was hilly, but nothing different that I've ridden all summer. The unfortunate part is that almost every good down hill had to be taken slowly for a variety of reasons: sharp turn at the bottom, speed bumps, giant pot holes. You name it and every time I tried to press for good down hill speed, I was foiled. There was also a MAJOR up hill that we didn't drive yesterday and I'm glad! No one stayed in the saddle for this one and some even walked their bikes up. This was equivalent to the first rise on Sierra Rd.
Bike: 1:45:30
T2: 2:10

The run was 2 loops of which the first loop you had to run almost into the finish shoot before veering off to go back up the hill and through transition. There were more hills in the run and I hate running in sand!

Run: 1:13 (SV Tri was 1:13:09)
Overall: 3:44:30  Total Ascent 1241ft   (SV Tri 725ft)

So, in comparing this Oly with the SV Tri and subtracting 5 minutes for that run from the ocean to transition, I was only 6 minutes over. Given the spotty training I've been doing over the last 6 weeks and the extra 500 ft in ascent, I'm REALLY happy with this race.

What I did right:

• Dove in to the wave at the start.
• Stayed on fast feet.
• Brought and used extra GU.
• Got there early so had a great transition spot.
• Drive the course before hand.

What I did wrong:

• Not doing any race specific training.
• Not doing enough off the bike at pace runs.

Amazing end to peak week

This week has been a week of contemplation. I really want to do a HIM next year. Early in the week, I had convinced myself that any thing less, would mean I'm a failure. I struggled to get in the time needed for an Olympic. How would I do trying to train for a HIM?  The nail in the coffin was when I asked Grumpy if he'd support me doing a HIM and he answered "No". I also looked at my times, and frankly, I don't want to do a 7 hour HIM. 

I was pretty bummed about that and very confused as to what I should plan for next year. I just bought the book Your Best Triathlon by Joe Friel. Since I'm at the end of the season, I jumped ahead and in the last chapter I read:

"Am I Racing the Right Distance?  ... Or perhaps you are racing Olympic distances even though your speed is not great and your endurance is. If this description fits you, maybe you should move up to the half-Ironman distance."

Some how, everything fell into place. No, I won't be doing a HIM in 2012. But now I am actually planning it for in 2013 - as in, I'm doing it. Not afraid to plan it. Confident to plan it. In the mean time, I've got plans for 2012 and a lot of work to do.

Saturday, I did the Jan Lipson Ride For Diabetes which my friend Molly put on. This is a small event that benefits the Diabetes Technology Society. I went into the ride with a new attitude and my goal was to ride those 30 miles as fast and hard as I could. My plan was to leave nothing in reserve.

With in the first 3 miles, I picked up my first drafter and had lost Grumpy. No problem, I'm having a blast. Once I made it over the steep hill and started the rolling hills, I started getting glimpses of Grumpy in the distance. That meant the fast guys had dropped him and my mission was to catch him! It took a few miles and some really hard peddling, but I did catch him. At this point, we picked up 2 more drafters and I was ready to draft off of Grumpy. About the time we reached Old Almaden, Grumpy was spent. So, I pulled again. Some how, I dropped Grumpy going up those little inclines. We reached the turn around point. I waited for Grumpy and the drafters used the trees. The way back was peddle as fast as possible. At the end, Grumpy pulled ahead just so he could said he won -- really???   
30 miles 2:02 not bad for the head wind, hill, wait, and stop lights. Stoked!

This morning, I met up with a group of PinkLadies that are doing the San Jose Rock & Roll Half Marathon. They had 10 miles to run and I had 9. We met at Los Gatos Creek trail for an out and back. There's NO WAY I was going to keep up with them. My goal was to do my run as close to my Big Sur Half Marathon pace as I could -- and honestly, I didn't want them to get back too much before me. Going south, the trail is a slight incline. I worked HARD to keep my pace up. Going north, the trail is a slight decline -- woohoo!
9 miles 1:42:11 AND I BEAT THEM BACK WITH TIME TO SPARE!!  Stoked!

Next week is the Mermaids Mighty Triathlon - I'm ready!

Palo Alto Moonlight 10K & Pacific Grove Sprint Race Reports

No. I'm not an over achiever. No. I'm not crazy. Yes. I did do 2 races on the same weekend. No. I don't have pictures, but it DID happen because there are on-line records!

The Plan: 

1. To spice things up, do the Palo Alto Moonlight 10K on Friday night as my "long" run for the week (i.e., run it very slowly). 
2. Do the Pacific Grove Sprint Triathlon as an all out brick (Note that the swim is 1/4 mile and the run is 2 miles)

Palo Alto Moonlight 10K

The weather reports said chance of lighting in the east bay and in the Sierras. It said nothing about all of the bay area. Grumpy did the 5k walk and then it was my turn to do the run. It was pretty crowded so I stayed toward the back since I was going to run slowly.

The first 2 miles went as planned and there were lots of people around. As soon as we were committed to running the levees, the lightening started and the crowd thinned. The ground was surprisingly secure. I had plenty of light between my headlamp and my little flashlight. So, I was off. At some point out around mile 4, I found my rhythm - that point when your form is correct so you're not expending as much energy. Unfortunately, I don't have the leg to keep that -- but I felt it FINALLY!

It was around the 4.5 mile mark when the rain started. I LOVE running in the rain, but lighting when I'm the tallest thing out on the levee wasn't too appealing. Once back on to the asphalt, the course goes to a stupid little out and back to make the mileage. As I got to the turnaround, this most amazing gust of wind hit me. I was almost at the turnaround so hoped to use it as a tail wind as I turned. Unfortunately, it died as soon as I needed it.

I finished the run at 1:10:36 Garmin said 6.37 miles which wasn't bad for starting really slowly and having to wade through the crowd. But had I done too much? Quick - Protein, E21, Ice Bath. Compression Tights. Bed.

Pacific Grove Sprint Triathlon
Amended Plan - Survive the swim. Bike like hell. Do what you can on the run.

Although I got to bed by 9:30pm, something had me up every 2 hours - Shelby wanted something. I had to pee. Grumpy came home and the grrls had to let me know...  on and on. Finally, 3:45am arrived, things were loaded into the car, and we took off for Pacific Grove (roughly 1 1/2 hour drive). After a little back and forth, we found a great place to park and began unloading my stuff. 


I had Grumpy pump my tires because the last time I did it, I tore the stem off. No sooner had he put the pump on and the air fizzed out that he realized that the pump was broken. CRAP! By the light of the Pilot's hatch and my cell phone, he actually fixed it! I got to transition by 6:20. We had assigned spots. I got set-up, got my body markings, and made a note of where the various ins/outs of transition were before heading down to the water. 


OH MY GOD that water was cold. It was colder than Santa Cruz last month. I made sure to get my face in the water and get over the shock. The swim was only 1/4 mile and you had to crawl over kelp. Turns out all my fretting about the kelp was over nothing. What I should have been concerned about was that people would bunch together to stay in the channels that the previous waves had made. This was the most physical swim I've had yet. I got kicked twice and twacked on my goggles once -- none hard and none hurt. Just enough for me to get out of there.

Swim: 11:22 - I survived


I tottered out of the water and started up to stairs to transition. By the time I reached my bike rack (which was the farthest away from swim entry), I had my legs back. Quick change... oops put my helmet on backwards but fixed it before I left transition. 


T1: 3:53

The bike course was 2 loops of 3 miles out and back along the coast. This is where the lack of recent riding hurt. I concentrated on pumping, pumping, pumping (and not drafting) but I wasn't getting much. This course had a short hill that I lost a lot of speed on, but I made sure that I pumped hard on the way back down to regain what I lost. As I came in to make the turn for my second loop, I made sure to get to the left early -- but no too early. Seemed like there were a lot of people that didn't do their second loop because on this time there wasn't any one out there for a long time. I caught some one at the turn around point and she promptly fell in front of me... YIKES! UNCLIP UNCLIP UNCLIP.  I DID IT!!!! So, off I went back to transition -- making sure to dismount BEFORE the dismount line.

Bike: 46:56 (if you believe their mileage is 15.80 if you believe Garmin 310XT mileage, it is 16.29)

So, off to the other side of transition to change and then back to the other side for the run out.

T2: 3:12 (pretty impressive considering where my spot was!)

The run course was 2 loops 1/2 mile along a trail that follows the coast and then cuts back on Ocean View to Lover's Point. It started off as painful as usual. I thought that it was because my legs were still sore from Friday night's race. My calves were SKA-REEMIN' but I ignored them. I glanced at my Garmin to see my pace was 13.89 -- shit, this is going to be a long 2 miles! I made it around the first loop and I noticed my legs weren't hurting any more. I started to push harder and glanced at my Garmin -- huh? 14.56???? Whatever, it doesn't hurt so just go. At the final turn, I looked at the Garmin again --WTF?! 14.89!!! Then it hit me. That wasn't pace -- it was the total mileage for the WHOLE race! I had no clue how fast I was going!

Run: 21:11

No PRs this weekend. In all, not bad for a training run and a brick. I know the lack of riding mileage in August and early September has hurt me. I hope I can get some of that back for Mermaids.

P.S. Grumpy ran his first ever race - 5k for a whopping 26:04! So proud of him. Imagine what he could do if he trained.