Tyranena Beer Run (Half Marathon)--11/8/14

I love this race. The people are friendly, the course is varied and interesting, the post-race food and drink highly motivating, the weather is...weather. I've done Tyranena in bitter cold and bitter colder. I've shed and re-applied and shed layers again. You just never know.

This one was mid-high 30s and partly sunny, which is darn close to my optimal running weather. And the elusive PR was the only thing on my mind. Nutrition dialed in, save a bonus cup of coffee on the drive there. How much damage can it do?

Mile One: 8:45 pace. A little fast, but it'll be fine.

Miles 2-6: Comfortable 9:00-9:15 miles. I'll get this PR if it kills me.

Miles 7-11: Hanging around 9:15--not enough for the Golden sub-2 hours, but plenty of PR cushion.

Mile 11: Cramp. Not a run-through-it cramp. Not a Start-to-limp-a-little cramp. Not even a Stop-to-stretch-it-out-for-a-few-seconds cramp. This was a You're-not-running-anymore-for-awhile cramp. Stretching didn't help. Walking didn't help. The PR was slipping away.

An angel of a spectator offered me her water bottle when she saw my pain. I slammed it and it was just enough to hobble through the final two miles.

I missed the PR by a minute and a half. Bitch.

The spaghetti wasn't even as good as I remember.

On my car was a flyer for Last Call Half Marathon in Waukesha a month later. You better believe I signed up for it.

AG Nationals (Sprint)--8/10/14

The recurring lesson of the summer came to a head at this race--my feelings of competency in the sport are currently based on the company I keep. During the school year (off-season) I'm with my friends and colleagues at work, where I can claim best triathlete, second-best cyclist and top-3 runner status. I don't mind this status one bit.

My ego started its beating this season with the Aquathon series, where I repeatedly exited the water in the bottom third of the pack. It continued at the Masters swim classes where four lanes of swimmers do 100s on 1:50 or better. And it culminated at AG Nationals, where the hard-core and the gifted converge to remind me that I have plenty of work to do.

I kept expectations low. While many participants were aiming for a spot at the World Championships I would be satisfied to finish in the top half. I set up transition as always and wandered like a fish out of water waiting for my wave to warm up.

I had a few acquaintances racing as well but didn't feel close enough to them to "hang out" pre-race. There are many benefits to having a strong support system in the tri community and passing time together before a race is one of them. For whatever reason I've stayed on the fringes of tri communities. I'm not sure how I feel about that.

Finally it came time to warm up. I had heard the Lake Michigan water temp was in the 60s and we all know my dislike for cold water. It turned out to be quite pleasant (thank you wetsuit).

The horn was off and I gave it what I had. At one point I felt a bit flooded but eventually settled into a groove. I checked my watch upon exit and it was still at zero so I'd have to wait to see how it went but it felt strong and somewhat fast.

Wetsuit removal was just okay. I think I want a new wetsuit. My old one doesn't fit well and has some tears in it. Or maybe all wetsuits are hard to get off. The real frustration was buckling the helmet. For some reason I couldn't line it up and I lost at least 30 seconds on it. Boo.

Mount was uneventful and I was off on the bike. It was now cloudy and breezy but I was already feeling fatigue. After all, it was the first time I biked after swimming all season. I kept up a race pace throughout the mostly flat course but my 18.4 MPH final average was disappointing.

T2 went well thank goodness, and the run began. Wow, do my legs feel heavy. And plodding. Cumbersome. Slow. I was doing 9-minute miles and not feeling like I had anything left. These were not the times I was putting out last year--further evidence of plateaued fitness.

Disappointment rose when I checked online results a few hours later. Swim time was acceptable, but the other times (not to mention the soreness the rest of the day) wasn't what I had hoped, and the top half of my division didn't happen.

But I have a plan. I'll consult with a coach to get a strength training regimen started in the off-season. I'll read up on Ironman training and nutrition. I'll scale back on bike-run workouts to give my body a break.

As for my sense of competency, I figure I have three choices:

-Compare myself only to the people in my life who don't do what I do

-Compare myself only to the people in my life who do what I do

-Compare myself only to myself

I'm working on Option #3.

Tri-ing for Children's--7/28/13

I had done Tri-ing for Children's once before.  I signed up for the Olympic distance in 2010 and a few weeks later my two biggest fans arrived at my doorstep and training came to a screeching halt.  Darned if I would DNS though, so we showed up and I came in about as close to dead last as one can come.

While "only" the Sprint this time, I came to Ottawa State Park this year with one word in mind:  Redemption.  In a new age group and the best shape of my life, I wasn't planning hardware like I'd managed the past few races but I did expect FOP (Front of the Pack) and maybe even a 20 MPH bike or a run PR.  Plenty to shoot for.

My athletic supporters stayed home again.  My Brave Bear was getting her tonsils and adenoids removed the next morning and we valued her sleep more than her presence.  I arrived, checked in, set up and waited the hour or so for my wave, shivering violently with chattering teeth.  Was it really the end of July?!  Cloudy, 55 degrees and breezy made waiting for the start the most difficult part of this race.

And then we were off.  The water is warmer than the air and my drafting is exquisite.  I'm sighting like a maniac (lesson learned from Rock Roll n Run) and even passing people.  This wasn't expected--my time in the pool this summer has been embarrassing and I'm surprised to say the swim has become my weakest leg.  But the stars aligned that morning and I finished a reputable swim.

Quick transition--I'm getting pretty good at those things--and I'm off.  Damn, I can't feel my toes. Why won't they go into those shoes?  Eventually we worked things out and I settled in for the bittersweet ambivalence of a mostly-flat course with a headwind.  I did what I could but settled for a 19 MPH average in the end.

Ready to run, but can't feel my feet.  The first half-mile was like running with rubber brick-feet, a most bizarre sensation.  But thanks to the looping run course I'm now seeing few if any females my age ahead of me.  Could I place after all?  Suddenly a runner with "41" (her age) whizzed past--guess not.  I was passed again by a "43" so with dwindling chances to place I focused on my best race.  Here I am getting the crowd riled up for my finish:

No idea why my face looks like this, and I really have to do something about those chicken arms.

When results were posted I took a gander:

3

Third in my (new) age group after all, which made up for the no-PR run and 19 MPH bike.




Next up, Waterloo Fit City.  

Wisconsin Triterium Triathlon--6/30/12

I signed up for this one a week or so in advance, drawn by the small size (only seven in my AG last year!  Hardware, maybe?), and only slightly daunted by the bike route's sell (On the Ironman Madison route!  That means hills.  Steep and frequent ones.).

Waiting in line to body mark and set up transition...scoping out the competition.  Looks like a lot more than seven in my AG.  Hardware, unlikely.

The announcement is made...water temp is 80 degrees.  That's like bath water, folks.  Ditched the wetsuit.

Hmm...I need to pee.  Can I find a spot in this lake or do I have to trek all the way up to the port-a-potty line?

I think we can all tell which option I chose.

Of course the girls want to be part of the action.  Crocs (the shoes, not the reptiles) are by law a horrible fashion statement, but they do serve one function:  facilitation of wading in lakes.

While mama's off swimming and biking, the girls found something much more interesting.

I'm back!  And to make up for a smooth-as-butter shoeless mount, I biffed the dismount.  I only got my foot out of one shoe before hitting the dismount line.  I unclipped the other shoe, whipped it off, and threw it to my athletic supporters.  I looked like a royal idiot.

Coming in for the finish, arms out like a chicken, ready for this one to be done.  The hills on the bike and run were overshadowed by the threat of extremely hot temperatures.  Luckily the clouds lingered enough to keep it in the 80s until ten minutes before my finish.

FINISH TIMES


1/3 mi. swim--9:26
T1--2:10
11 mi. bike--38:25
T2--1:04
5K run--29:06
TOTAL--1:20:09
6/17 in AG


With the bug returned and firmly planted, I decided this was not to be my last tri of the season.  Next up:  Waterloo Tri--pool swim!

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.

Camp Whitcomb Mason Triathlon--8/14/11

The First Year was a whirlwind, chaos.

The girls arrived and we spent most of our brain- and bodypower trying to figure out how to fill and feed bottles, bathe, diaper, play, put to bed (them and us), put to nap, keep children out of dishwashers, and teach how to sit, crawl, stand, talk, walk, climb, potty, dress, eat...it takes a lot.

We bought the house, the first house either of us had owned and operated since childhoods. We spent any spare brain- and bodypower learning how and taking care of the lawn, gutters, carpets, air conditioning, water softener, tub, cracked door, backyard playground, drains....the house is by no means a money pit but still, it takes a lot.

Needless to say, 2010's training and race performance faltered. A lot.

I'm not in The First Year anymore. The girls are delightful and grow more independent each day (well, each month at least). The house is under control. I had a sanctuary for the winter months and some good time this summer to get out and train. So when my lobster asked what I wanted for my birthday, there was no question--Camp Whitcomb-Mason triathlon.

CWM is a small race to begin with and for whatever reason was even smaller this year. We drove right in and parked immediately about 20 yards from T2 with half an hour before transitions closed. Unheard of. I set up, got marked and chipped, and awaited the start.









I had decided not to use a wetsuit for this one; the water temps didn't require it and the swim had been shortened to 1/4 mile, lessening any advantage it may have provided. Frankly, I remembered how difficult it was to put on in Pewaukee and didn't look forward to that embarrassment again. Not until the baby weight was gone.

Wave 4 (a tiny wave of maybe 20) departed 12 minutes after the start. I got into a great drafting groove and kept right on target with good sighting. My split after the swim was a bit slower than I expected, though; perhaps the wetsuit could've helped with buoyancy after all.

As long as I've known this race I'd had a mental block about the bike route. Oh my goodness those hills. Just get through it. Try not to die.

Not this time. I had the opportunity a couple of weeks prior to bike the route and you know what? They weren't that bad. I even broke 17 MPH average on the training ride. I went into this bike with a smile on my face, feeling confident that I could do this.

And I did. 22 miles, 4 major hills, 2 gels and one lost water bottle later I pulled into T2 proud of my sub-1:15:00 bike time. A quick shoe switch and I'm running out of transition to the faces of my smiling family jogging alongside for a few yards. I began this race hoping to break 2 hours for the first time ever and I was on par to do it.

Not much to say about the run. I was on a mission and I stuck with it. I ended up besting my previous CWM times by 14 minutes and 6 minutes.

Just the boost I needed. Onto Devil's Challenge.

Jitters.

The other night at a gathering of friends I was talking shop with Matt, an experienced distance triathlete and a person I secretly despise because he's 3% body fat and he rolls out of bed ready to race on any given day whether he's been training or not. Matt suggested a new strategy for pre-race nutrition. (Difference #1 between devoted athletes and the normal world: What athletes call "nutrition", regular people call "food". Athletes literally plan ahead their nutrition intake for the crucial 48-hour window before a race. This is really just a fancy way of saying they watch what they eat.) Matt tells me that two days before the race, I should eat no carbs at all, then the day before the race eat as many carbs as possible. He backed up the claim with some bit I've already forgotten about the muscles' access to energy stores, or something like that. It made sense at the time, so I'm going to try it. No carbs at all tomorrow.



The point here is that my anxiety level about this race has risen to new levels. A list of anxieties I've been quietly harboring the past few days:



-The lake temperature last year was a face-numbing 55 degrees. This year it's currently mid-60s (quite manageable), but I worry anyway. You never know when Lake Michigan will plummet to its frozen depths again.



-The current forecast for the day is partly cloudy, high of 72 degrees, wind at 7 MPH. In other words, quite nice. But that could change at any moment. What if a hot front comes down from...Canada?



-My congestion has cleared, so I'm healthy as a horse. My taper week included 15-30 minute workouts per day, so I'm vibrating with excess energy. I'm guessing I'll either catch swine flu or pull something.



-My Lobster sent out an email inviting spectators to the race and five friends, two family, two toddlers and an infant are coming to cheer me on. That's a lot of athletic supporters. Or witnesses to my athletic demise. One of the two.



-I've been training for this thing for five months. That's a long time. Long enough? I've done all three distances separately but never together, one after the other, on the same day. It's gonna be a looooong day.



-And on top of it all, I emailed Matt tonight to remind me what foods are carb-less, because I'm pretty sure we don't have any.



It's amazing what the brain can make up to worry about when it faces a challenge.

Feelin' fine in '09.

I haven't written in a while.

This is not for lack of news in our household, but I leave that to the eloquent stylin's of my Lobster. This is a blog about triathlon, and truth be told, the off season isn't very interesting. To prove it, I will sum up the last 3 months in one sentence.

A recumbent bike proves you can work out while sitting and a treadmill is boring no matter what bad 90s Saturday morning movie is playing but when your workouts are all either biking or running but no swimming because it's cold out and the pool is only open at 5:00 AM (forget that) it makes for really solid base-building in the legs but slow deterioration in the core and arms so it's a wonder I don't flop over at the waist sometimes but a new era starts tomorrow.

I've set my '09 race schedule. In the serious (obsessed) tri world some athletes have "A" races (the ones they focus their training around for which to achieve the optimal peak of fitness), "B" races (important enough but no "A" race) and even "C" races (expensive workouts with a T-shirt at the end). This season I proudly announce to all: I have an "A" race.

Here's the layout:

May 24th--Madison Half-Marathon. I learned from Tyranena that the half-marathon distance is a nice blend of "enough challenge to warrant a few months of training" and "offers bragging rights the next day" with "won't be stuck on the couch in pain for a week afterward". Madison is one of my favorite places in the world, so it made sense to do their race.

June 7th--Lake Mills Sprint Triathlon. Within a half-hour driving distance, we won't have to wake up at Oh-My-God-It's-Dark-Thirty for this one. The distances and course are reasonable and I've heard good reviews so it should be a nice way to kick off the tri season.

June 28th--Bigfoot Sprint Triathlon. This is the race I missed last year from the bike accident, but the race director kindly transferred my registration so I'm back in '09--single vision, scars healed, helmet replaced, and ready to go.

July 19th--Spirit of Racine Half Ironman. This is it. This is the "A" race. A HIM (Half Ironman) nearly doubles my previous long race and brings me halfway to the ultimate goal--the Madison Ironman. A HIM is a 1.2 mile swim (in this case, a parallel-to-the-shore swim in Lake Michigan), a 56-mile bike ride, and a 13.1 (half marathon) run. I'm familiar with the area and the event's organization from doing last year's Spirit of Racine Sprint. It seemed like a good venue to attempt the HIM distance. Never mind that last year's water was a frigid 59 degrees. That won't happen again (right?). Never mind that 56 miles is from our apartment to Illinois. Never mind that the race will take me the better part of 7 hours to complete. This is my "A" race, and tomorrow starts the 20-week training plan to complete it. My base is built and I'm ready to go.

August 9th--Camp Whitcomb-Mason Sprint Triathlon. This is the first race I will repeat. It's easy to say you've improved when every lake, every hill, every transition area is different from race to race. Last year I was 5 minutes short of my goal (sub-2 hours) in this race, and I'm back to try again.

October 4th--Lakefront Marathon. Since college I wanted to complete a marathon--(certainly) not to change my lifestyle, but rather to say I did one and be done with it. While still a smoker and with no knowledge of proper training techniques (or shoes), I met the goal in 2003 at the Chicago Marathon in just under 5 hours. I thought, never again. I couldn't walk very well for days after and it impeded my smoking. My life is very different now--I know more things, I have better shoes, and I'm trying again--this time in Milwaukee. An Ironman closes with a marathon run, so if IM Madison 2010 is the goal I sure as shootin' better be able to run one.

The off-season continues, but the end is near.