2014 Vineman 70.3 Race Report

Back in July, I did a little race called Vineman 70.3. This race was a repeat from last year. When I planned the race last year, I had a goal to better my 2013 performance by an hour. Based on my previous post (Time for a Break), you know it didn't turn out that way.

This post will just lay out what went on during the race. I have lots of exciting things planned for the future and I don't feel I can move past this with out writing the gory details down. So here goes.

Very competitive to even get in. Sold out in less than 5 minutes. However, they take a waiting list and most years, every one gets in. I was registered in the first minute. Awesome.

Fast forward to race morning. Grumpy got me to transition early and I managed to find the correct rack on the second try. Since T1 and T2 are in different locations, it was pretty easy to get set up. Plenty of time to hit the porta potty and then sit around with nervous first timers. I wasn't nervous. I just wanted to get this over with. I was just so done with this race already.

Eventually, it was time to get into my wetsuit (love Love LOVE the new wetsuit) and then we were off.

To the left just above Grumpy's finger, I'm facing toward the camera

During the swim, I tried to keep it steady but below the huffing and puffing level. I was passing men from 2 waves ahead of me (waves went off every 6 minutes). I HAD to be doing great. I got to the turn around. Every one had said that it was faster to walk because the water is so low that your hands scratch the bottom. I got up and tried to walk. Based on the people that kept swimming, it was NOT faster to walk so, I dove back in. I clawed the bottom and kept going. I had expected the fast swimmers in the wave behind me to already be passing me by now. Not yet. I HAD to be doing great. Finally, a couple red caps started to pass. Still I was passing men in the waves ahead of me. I finally reached the shore and did my best to jog out on the rocks.

I was bummed when I saw my time.

Swim: 43:55 (2013 42:06)

It was WAY off the 40:00 I'd hoped for. My guess is I need to work on pacing in OWS.
Wetsuit a little hard to pull the zipper down, should work itself out with more use.

Oh well, into transition. Found my bike and changed without too much issue. The wetsuit caught on the timing chip a bit but, eventually popped loose.

T1: 4:33 (2013 4:36)

 

Sure enough. All those male waves that took off after me were going out T1 with me. Vineman's T1 has a very short steep hill just past the mount line. Lots of people try riding up it but, frankly, it would take too much out of me. So, I sprinted up and the mounted the bike at the top of the hill. Not sure it costs me much time in the long run.

So, off I went on the bike. I was tenacious about drinking, eating, and keeping the pressure on the peddles. Soon, I was rolling through the hills that border the many wineries. They recently paved a couple miles of it so, I wasn't worried about losing a bottle... or my teeth!. Next, we dropped out of the hills along a frontage road to get the first water exchange. I had already tried the type of bottle they were handing out so, I knew it wouldn't stay in the cages. I drank a bunch and then stuck the bottle in my pants. Then, it was back to the hills and up the first of the longest hills. I'd practiced on Bull Hill almost weekly, this was NO problem. Just like Bull Hill, as soon as you hit the peak, you zip down and a couple quick turns and you're heading up to the second water exchange. Off with the first bottle and got another bottle. Now it was a long, flat ride through the country side until at mile 40, we started to climb again. This is Chalk Hill. Mile 45 is where it officially starts. It's a little longer than Bull Hill and the last 10th of a mile is quite a bit steeper. If you've trained for this, then it's just a mental game. Zipping down Chalk Hill is a little scary since there are lots of pot holes and what not. A few more rollers and a couple zig zags and then you're riding into T2. 

I never let up. I got ahead on my fluid and stayed ahead. I was right on target with salt tabs and gels except for 1. Some how I missed counted or lost a gel so, I was a gel behind when I got into T2. 

Bike: 3:24:07 (2013 3:33:13)

Found my stuff but, some one had basically parked her bike in my spot. So, I wrested my bike in, put my shoes on, sprayed on some more sunscreen, grabbed the rest of my stuff and left. 

T2: 5:17 (2013 4:24)

Now I'm running. Ate a gel immediately to make up for the gel I was behind on. We'd been working on me not going out fast off the bike. I looked at my watch and I was speeding along at 11: 30ish.. perfect. I had relented to walk all of the hills. But, if I was going to walk, I was going to POWER walk. I pumped my arms up each and every hill. Unfortunately, I wasn't pushing on the down or the flat like I should have been. I was a little behind last year's time but, not bad. It was hot and I grabbed ice at every station. I made it into the winery where they had set up a mister. That mister was so wonderful last year. This year, my shoes got wet. From then on, they stayed wet. The miles continued to tick away and all I thought about was in 2 hours, I don't have to do this any more. In 1 hour, I don't have to do this any more. My left knee started to hurt at mile 9. I power walked to the top of the hill at mile 10 and suddenly, BOTH knees locked. So, I threw my legs side-to-side moving forward. Eventually, they unlocked. I jogged to the aide station at mile 11 and called for ice as I was coming. They needed to open the bag, so I kept moving on. I grabbed a GU from the aide station at mile 12 and power walked for awhile. 1/2 mile from the finish line, I started jogging again. It was brutal on my knees but, I didn't have to do it any more.

Run: 2:39:22 (2013 2:34:53)

Overall: 6:57:14 (2013 6:59:12)

I found Grumpy and told him to go back to the bar, get me food, and I'd meet him at the car. I didn't want to hang around. I wanted to be with him, get home to my dogs and be done with the whole thing. 

It's been a month since the race and a lot of things have become clear. Coach has been great in giving me the space I need to sort through the jumble of emotions and thoughts that have clogged up over the year. I've already talked about taking a break from long course. I realize now that I'm burned out from long course, the stress of my current job, and the loss of my grrl Tazzy. I don't regret plowing threw the training for Vineman. To have quit before I had tried would have felt like failure and I wouldn't have been able to work through the various issues. While I didn't have the 1 hour PR I had hoped for, I still feel good about what I achieved this year.

As I left the race, I had decided NO MORE RUNNING. All of my negative feelings have been directed at running. Taking the break from running has let me start to miss it... a little. But, it will not and cannot be as big as an activity in my life. Given all the things that I have in my life, I cannot devote this much time to racing. Somethings will need to go on maintenance mode to be picked up later in life or not.

In the mean time, I working hard on the bike and loving every single workout. I think Coach is trying to dream up something to make me cry. Bring it on coach. Bring it on.

Time for a break

My racing season is over and while I'm not crazy about year end reviews, I need to do this one. So, here goes.

From the very beginning of the 2014 training season, I struggled. Over the break, I lost 30 watts on the bike. 30 watts!!! Coming back to training with high hopes of a fantastic PR for this year's Vineman 70.3 to find I had lost 2 years worth of work was like a punch to the stomach. But, coach was upbeat and though I might not got the PR I wanted on the bike, I'd work my ass off to do the best I could.

Over the months, the bike power slowly came back. But, there were other struggles. My asthma was a constant irritant. Every run required huffs off of the rescue inhaler. Even when not exercising, I had little lung capacity. My early races were close to what I'd done last year. Although I'm old enough that peak performance will never be what it was in my 20's, the fact that I've only been doing this for 5 years means I still have some improvement left in this body before I need to start thinking about PRs  at a particular age. After the Morgan Hill Sprint, I got to work on resolving this. Happy to say, you'd barely notice I have asthma ... I didn't need my rescue inhaler at all at Vineman 70.3.

One of the areas I was to work on was losing a few extra pounds. I didn't work on this hard enough during the early months and trying to lose weight when training for long course is just absurd. I lost 5lbs of the 10+ I'd hoped and then hung on to that during long course training. I'm ok with this. If the weight trend year over year is 3-5lbs loss, woo-hoo!

Through this whole season, I've struggled to go hard when I was supposed to on the run. My long runs were not filled with the pleasure I've had in the past. The whole thing was a big chore. Chatting with friends Molly and Tea, I realized that I needed to walk away from doing long course next year. Since 2009, I've done 1-2 half marathons and l long course HIM or Aquabike per year. That helped me get through the training for Vineman 70.3. But, there was no joy in it. It became mechanical. It's no surprise that there was no joy on the race either.

So, I'm taking a break from long course. How long? I don't know. What do I mean by short course? I don't know. Here's what I DO know:

• I don't want to go back to infrequently exercising. 
• If I don't have a race, I won't exercise
• I don't like running... not to mention my knees don't like it.
• I LOVE swimming.
• I LOVE biking
• I miss going to dog agility and obedience trials. 
• I don't want to lose all of my running gains.
• I miss hanging out with non-triathlete friends.
• I want to return to long course with joy and excitement.
• I would like running better if I was faster.
• I like open runs better than the run at the end of the triathlon. 
• I like duathlons.  

I still have the Gran Fondo in October and I'm getting excited about nailing that. I'm talking with coach about some 5k's at the end of the year. AND, I'm talking to my master's coach about learning flip turns and going off the block so I can do some pool racing next year.

Life is a journey. While I didn't achieve the results I had dreamed of, I learned a lot this year. It's all good.

2014 Tri For Fun #1

I hadn't planned on doing a sprint after the Morgan Hill Sprint but, my planned Splash and Dashes were canceled due to the drought. I had also done some work on getting my out of control asthma under control and I needed to see what that did to my performance.

Tri For Fun is a series of low key sprint triathlons put on for people just entering the sport. 400 yards swim, 10 mile bike, and ~5k run. That's where I started in 2010. Because I just needed a place to pull everything together, I chose this over a women's only tri or a bigger race both of which were a lot farther of a drive.

Grumpy had a dog show so, I was off to the race by myself. I was grumbling on my way how I didn't want to do this race and then, I remembered how Molly had made herself get over herself and get infused by the new people.

I pulled in early, registered, and set up my spot. The new people were every where and they had lots of questions. I answered a few and then, I plugged into my ipod - I played  AC/DC Thunderstruck... over and over to get my mojo on. Soon, it was time to do my warm up but, first, remind myself of what I was going to do out there.

To help me really pull it together, printed my top goals/objectives for each sport putting specifics:

Swim: Ease into the first couple of minutes and then push and KEEP pushing.
Bike: Starting watts, build watts, hill watts, and the final back to transition.
Run: Keep my HR into the > low zone 3.

And thanks to Tea,

"We are as slow or as fast as we give ourselves permission to be."

Following my race plan, I jogged around for a few minutes and then got into my wetsuit. The water was very warm. I paddled around trying to get my HR up. The briefing went seemingly for ever. Then the first of the 4 waves went off. My wave was last but, eventually, the horn sounded and off we went.

People were zig zagging every which way until the first buoy. As soon as I rounded the buoy, it started to thin out. I kicked up the pressure on the water and my turnover. Soon, I was rounding the final buoy and heading to shore.


(Pictures from 2010)

Swim: 7:21 (2010- 10:55)

T1: 1:48 (2010- 3:00)

.

Time to jump on my ridiculously over swank bike and ride hard. No sooner did I get up the steep hill out of transition then I started picking off people. "ON YOUR LEFT!".

Earlier this year, I had done a couple of time trials to concentrate on the feel of cycle racing. It's a little like doing 5/10ks. You focus on just one sport and do what is needed for that one sport.

I passed people on cruisers and mountain bikes. I passed one guy decked out in tri gear in aero position (that happens - NEVER). 10 minutes in I kicked up the watts. It was all good. Finally, I hit what used to seem like a huge hill and it was nothing to even speak of.

Bike: 32:59 (2010- 38:00)

Dump the bike & helmet. On with the shoes and grab my fuel belt, running belt, and hat. I'm out of here.

T2: 1:02 (2010- 2:00)

So now, the run. My plan was to try to up the pace from the Morgan Hill Sprint. In 2010, I had had to walk a lot of this hilly trail run. As I drove up the first hill, I wasn't sure that attacking the hills was the right thing to do. I decided that I would power walk the top, steepest parts of the hills and run the rest. I came down out of the final hill and I had leg. I had lungs. I had plenty in the tank for the first time in a VERY long time. I just have to learn what that means. I think this time, it means I should have run the entire hill.

My wave went off 20 minutes in.

Run   33:49 (2010- 38:00)

Overall 1:17.01  (2010- 1:31minutes)

2014 Morgan Hill Sprint -- Oyster Point Version

This race report is very over due and after you read it, you'll understand why I wasn't excited about writing it.

I signed up for the 2014 Morgan Hill Sprint as a way to gauge my fitness level before going into the big push of training for Vineman 70.3. The race was intended to be done at Uvas reservoir in Morgan Hill but, it had to be moved. Turns out USA Productions found a really fabulous place to hold the race. Oyster Point Marina is located in between San Francisco airport to the south and Candlestick Park to the north.

Oyster Point Marina

Grumpy and I got up at the butt-crack of dawn and head up to the race site. Parking was a breeze. We had driven up the day before to scout the bike course (although some was blocked by road construction) so, we knew our way around. A-typical for that area of the Bay Area, there was little fog at the start of the race. I set up my transition spot with other SVTC club members. 

Time to do my warm up and after a bit, I was entering the water. As I walked into the water, I noticed how WARM the water was and then, I noticed I was sinking into the silt. I had worn my full sleeved wetsuit and immediately regretted it. As usual, I was in the second to last wave so, we were able to see the first swimmers return just as we were taking off.

I swam what I thought was the same effort that I did in Half Moon Bay the month before. Lots of women short forward. I passed several women. Just as I was passing a woman kicking very loudly, she sped up. I kept going and came up to her again. She sped up. This went on a couple more times and then, I just tucked in behind her. What I SHOULD have done, is just powered past her and I would have had free waters ahead. But, we're taught to only expend so much on the swim and that might have really drained the tank.

That's her. In my club AND my transition spot is right next to hers!!!

Swim (3/4 mile): 30:05  -- pretty sucky

We ran together into transition. I have NO idea what took me so long in transition. I let her get away. Not my usual focused self.

T1: 2:31 (NO. It was NOT a long run between the timing mats.)

Off on the bike. I wasn't able to see part of the course the day before due to road construction. That was the part of the course that had a couple short/steep hills. Blissfully ignorant I went. By then, some fog had come in so it misted a little. 4 laps around the course. First lap was cool because it was something new. I had to pass an odd guy on the bike as a referee looked on... must have done it right since I didn't get penalized. Up through the Genetech parking lot and then a VERY sharp uphill to the road going out. Hard to remember to keep the pressure on the peddles after going up. As I started the next loop, there was a 17 year old riding in the middle of the lane. I yelled "On your left" and SHE MOVED LEFT!!! I screamed "LEFT LEFT LEFT" and she finally moved right before I was going to have to take defensive measures. (felt bad yelling at a kid) Next time around was ok.  Third time around, I was out of the saddle on the sharp uphill and tired of going around in circles. Finally, the fourth time around was done and I turned back into the road to transition. 

Genetech buildings in the background

As I went into transition, I blew pulling my foot out of my shoe only to discover, I don't have to actually pull it out. Just loosen it all the way and my foot easily slips out. Score!

Bike (16 miles): 57:47

Into transition and already feeling raw airways, I managed to do a decent transition.

T2: 1:05

For most of this year, I've hated running. Even when not working out, the asthma has really caused problems. I stopped singing with Grumpy and his friends because my voice was always rough and hoarse. I'd go into coughing fits. But, I would muster through this because I was having fun wasn't I?

The run course was a simple out and back along the bay trail. I saw 2 more women in my age group breeze by me. I beat my swim/club mate off the bike slightly but, she trotted past me early in the run. All I could muster was basically a tempo run. Eventually, I made it back. 

Run (5 miles): 50:02 

Overall: 2:21:48

4th AG

Afterwards, coach debriefed me. I wasn't interested in thinking about it yet. She kept poking (as she does). What was holding me back? At one point, she said if the asthma is the thing holding me back she can't help with that.... Well DUH!!! LIGHT BULB MOMENT!!! HELLO?! MCFLY!!!

It was time to wake up and do something thinking....