Capital View Triathlon--6/10/12

I have several ways I mentally approach an upcoming race--usually it's "PR would be great", sometimes "Do better than last year", maybe even "Get through it" or "Don't fall down".  I allowed myself for this one to be sucked into a new and quite dangerous thought--"I have an outside chance of pulling off some AG hardware here."

It all started when I was shopping around for races this season.  Proximity to home and participant number prompted a closer look at Cap View.  I checked out the results from last year.  Hm.  Not a very big AG.  That bodes well for me.  I look closer.  Hey, I could pull off 2nd or 3rd place with my bike time.  My run time would fit around 4th place.  Swim?  Who knows.  But my transitions are okay.  And so it began.  I trained in earnest with the goal/miracle wish of getting in the Top Three.

We arrived that morning bright and early.  The girls wanted nothing more than to frolic.  Way too much energy for bright and early.

I took one look at Transition and started to adjust my goal.  With a T area this large, how on earth could I place in the Top 3?  There's a lot more people here than I thought.  *Sigh*

No matter.  The weather and my spirits were good as I prepped for what I imagined to be a fairly quick and perfectly lovely race.

The wetsuit doesn't fit as well as it did two years ago.

With my wave starting over an hour after transition closed, we had plenty of time for sunscreen all around.

Finally, time to get the party started.  The swim was a very shallow rectangle--dolphin dives all the way out and back.  I kept my standards low from not being in a pool (or a lake) in ten months.  Luckily it turned out to be a FOP (Front Of the Pack) swim finish.  More importantly I still know how to swim.

Onto the bike.  I had practiced to near perfection the shoeless mount and here was my chance to show it off.  My goodness, feet are much stickier when they're wet.  Slow start.

And wow...these hills are steeper than I thought.  I envisioned similar grades to the ones I practice on, maybe a bit steeper but also shorter.  "Yes" to the steeper, "Doesn't feel like it" to the shorter, and to top it all off a fair number of the downhills ended in a 90 degree turn on the road, thereby requiring brakes and losing the full effect of the downhill.  Frustrated.  The MPH average I was hoping for on the bike--the one I can pull off in training rides--didn't come.  Still FOP, barely.

Off to run.  The first half was compacted dirt trails with tiny but steep up- and downhills in (mostly) shade.  Tolerable.  Second half:  It's getting much warmer now, and the novelty of the trail has worn off.  All grass, glaring sun.  No. Way. I will pull off a run split to write home about.  Thankfully (but not in a heartless way) the others are suffering too.

In the end I'm in 6th place for the AG out of 20.  No hardware, but a good start to the season.  Next up:  WI Triterium.

Devil's Lake Triathlon--9/18/11

You wouldn't know it from reading here, but I've done Devil's Lake twice.  The first was in 2010, the Fall after the girls had arrived.  Training had dwindled to one or two short workouts per week and sleep was still in fits and starts.  But I'd signed up for it long ago and damned if I would DNS.  So we spent the night before with friends Nancy and Superstar Chris, whom I believe rolled out of bed that morning, registered for the race and finished in half the time.  Good thing he's a nice guy or I'd be really jealous.  

My abysmal performance in this race wasn't all my fault.  The course is a challenge.  That lake was super hilly.  Or so I tell everyone.

The reason there are no other triathletes in sight in this photo is because I am most likely dead last.

Onto the bike.  No kidding, this leg actually does kick one's ass.  I had prepared for this.  (And by "prepared", I mean mentally.  I mapped out the bike course online to view the grade of hills.  It's the closest I could get.)  But it wasn't enough.  Two or three times I did the unspeakable:  I dismounted and walked up parts of the hill.  The end result was a second-to-last-in-my-division bike time and an embarrassing MPH-average barely in double digits.  I think my athletic supporters had assumed I got lost out there.

The run was redeeming, but only slightly.  I maintained a pace I could live with, but unfortunately so did everyone else.  End result:  17th in my AG.  Out of nineteen.  But I finished, dammit.  I never got around to writing the post however; it fell by the wayside along with my training.

The next year I was back, ready to reclaim some pride.  I knew what to expect this time and was relieved that it was literally impossible to do worse than 2010.  We began the day with a contender for the website "Awkward Family Photos".

Is that me, with an actual smile and a wave as I dash to T1?

T1 time was lengthened to add a layer--it was a chilly drizzly day--but not enough to offset the bike ride nominated for Most Improved.  Not once did I dismount, already a bonus.  Better mental strength and more experienced strategy resulted in shaving a full 15 minutes off the bike split.

And this run meant more than just "do better than last year".  For a few years I've wanted to break 9' miles in a race and this run course provided the best opportunity to get it.  I gave it everything.  My face here shows it:

The run was nearly a 3 1/2 minute improvement and clocked in at 8:37 per mile.  

I'll take it.

I'm not planning on Devil's Lake in 2012.  I wouldn't want to push my luck.  I'll just let this one sit for a while and bask in the glory.