Kicking Off: 8 Weeks to Iron Girl Lake Tahoe Triathlon

I'm very excited to be racing at Iron Girl's beautiful Sprint triathlon at Lake Tahoe, Ca on September 18. Want to join me? I'm giving away a race entry on this blog, so comment and tell me why you would love to do this race! Doesn't this look like an amazing place to race?

Think you can't do your first triathlon? I've got a plan for you. Ironmom's Eight Weeks To Your First Triathlon plan is here for free. And here's the plan in an easily printable table format for your refrigerator door. Getting in the best shape of your life can happen by the end of the summer, and all you need to start off with is a bike (any old bike will do), some running shoes, and a swim suit and a plan.

If you're nowhere near Lake Tahoe, pick a September Triathlon near you and train with me. There's nothing like starting off the cold weather season having just challenged yourself to keep you encouraged through the winter months.

Back from the Black Diamond Triathlon

I'll post a full race report later, but I'm back at home from the Black Diamond half-Iron distance tri, and had a terrific time. It rained the day before and the day after, but it was beautiful weather for the race day. How lucky is that? I posted my fastest half-Iron time in the last fifteen years at 5:36:50, so I'm very happy with that!

What If???

What if I am training my ass off for this half-Ironman and hoping for a PR but I'm actually slower than last year? What if I'll never have a PR again? What if I've reached that age where all I have to look forward to is getting slower and slower? What if I've had my last top-10 overall finish ever? What if I'm just having a pity party?

I know, the world won't crack and come apart at the seams, I know the sky won't fall, birds won't stop singing, the planets won't stop rotating around the sun. But as an athlete, these are tough questions to face. Somewhere around age 45, we know that we have passed the zenith of our athletic abilities and, as the saying goes, it's all downhill from there. Many athletes start later in life, and are just beginning in triathlons at this age. For them, they may look forward to many years of increasing fitness and speed. Other athletes start young and by the time they're my age they're too injured or burnt out to continue. For me, this is my 24th year in the sport and so by now I know exactly what my body can do with what amount of training. Or do I? Will this September half-Iron be the bell that tolls for me?  What if?

Race Report: Black Diamond Half-Iron

Okay, I'm finally ready to write this up. Since doing the race, life has been just crazy. Unfortunately the day after we got back, I had to put my 17 year old cat Noggin to sleep, the last of our two "first babies" to go (our 14 year old dog died 2 years ago). Then it was a whirlwind getting ready to have my two step-sons and their wives here for the weekend, a very exciting visit for everyone in the family - the first time we've all been together under one roof. Wow! We all went to the Ducks-Cougars game together, which was great fun. Then just after they all headed back for Washington it was time for the robotics team practice and then boom! it was right into Asa's 10th birthday yesterday. On top of that, we unexpectedly fell in love with and adopted a 9 week old Australian Cattle Dog - Australian Shepherd puppy that we've named Sophie. Of course, life never settles down around here like I think it's going to. Just when one thing smooths out, we seem to add something else to add to the craziness.

So anyways, on to the race report.

If you've been reading the saga of my summer's experimental triathlon training, you'll know that I went into this race with a big question mark hanging over my head about how it would turn out. Half-Iron is just not a distance you can bluff your way through. Undertrain and it hurts. Bad. Overtrain and it hurts. Bad. Nail it just right and you can have a great day.

Very short recap: Did my normal base training through winter and early spring. In late spring, decided to take a detour and try and experimental triathlon training protocol called Crossfit Endurance that focuses solely on intensity with no slower-paced long endurance efforts in the swim, bike, or run. After several months of this training, I raced an Olympic distance event at the Portland Triathlon. It did not go so well from an endurance standpoint. At that point I decided to jettison the Crossfit Endurance protocol as I was sincerely worried about using it to train for the half-Ironman and having enough endurance to compete at that distance. Then embarked on a totally experimental and crazy self-devised and self-inflicted program to bring myself back up to HIM endurance levels in 5 weeks or less. At the beginning of this time period, just a simple 45 mile bike ride felt overwhelming. But toward the end of the training, I could start to feel my old endurance flowing back, giving me some hope that the race would be doable.

So it was that with 4 weeks of training and a way-too-short 6-day taper, I stood on the lakeshore at Black Diamond and contemplated the day ahead of me. Complicating matters was a nagging left hamstring injury I picked up when I tripped while trail running with my sister. What would the day hold??

Swim: 30:06

For starters, the swim in this lake is always beautiful. The race directors kindly start us off at 9:00 am, a lovely time of day to be standing on a lake shore in the autumn sunlight (as opposed to the cold and almost dark of a 7:00 am start). The weather would be as near perfect a day as God hands out in the Fall in Washington: 70 and sunny. The race is extremely well-organized and the volunteers are plentiful. All is well. The men go first, women and relay swimmers 5 minutes later. I take off at a comfortable pace, the HIM swim is always so nice. You don't have to kill yourself with speed like in a sprint, yet you don't have to swim for an hour like in an Ironman. I felt like I hit my groove like I had done in Portland and swam strong and smooth. Out of the water in 30.06, about a 1:25 pace per 100y, which is reasonable.

T1: 2:55

T1 went well, although I don't care for the long u-turn chute you have to run through with your bike (on grass and mud). A couple of years ago my cleats jammed up with mud in this transition area, but this year's dry weather made for much easier going. Out onto the course in 2:55, which sounds slow for T1 but was one of the faster T1 times (it's a long T1 area to traverse). All is smooth. Practice has made good work when it comes to transitions today. Still, I see in the race results that a couple of folks manage to have sub-2:00 transitions, so there's room still for improvement there.

Bike 2:53:14

I love this bike course. They've changed it up from a couple of years ago, but it's still a very nice course. Course description says its 57 miles instead of the standard 56, don't know what's up with that. Lots of long rolling hills (which I like!), very smooth pavement, very good course marshalling (no drafting going on that I could see due to plentiful marshalls doing their job), wide shoulders for a lot of the course. There are a couple of strange out-n-backs with turnarounds that you hit twice, and this slows you down when you're in the groove. Early on in the bike, I go by the campground where we were staying and Wayne and the kids (and dog) are all out cheering. That was a big boost to start the bike with.

For the most part, the bike is uneventful but not optimal. I can tell starting out that I haven't tapered for anywhere near long enough and my muscles are still feeling flat and a little tired. Nothing to be done about that as it was a limitation of my shortened training timeframe. Still, I manage to hold a 19.7 pace, which is reasonable for the day. My one regret is that as I pulled a gel out of my Bento box on my bike, another one went flying out. Being the nice little competitor that I am, I slowed to a stop, waited for cars to go past, circled back to get it, and carried on. Cost me about 2 minutes on the bike course though. I spend a ridiculous amount of time beating myself up mentally for taking the time out of my game plan to get it, alternating with being aghast that I would even consider leaving litter on the course in order to gain a minute or two. What can I say, you have lots of time to argue with yourself about such trivialities out on the HIM bike course. Eventually, I come around a bend and see the sun hitting the hills and turning the fields to gold and all is forgotten as I enjoy the sheer beauty around me and the fact that I'm still out here able to do this awesome thing. My head is back straightened on again for loop two of the bike.

In loop 2, the old hip starts giving me hell with the hamstring injury. I make a big promise to my hamstring that if it will hold together for the next couple of hours, I will give it a couple months off from all biking and running and let it truly heal up. All of the looping and out-n-back on the course lets me see where the other women are at. There's a bunch in front of me, but many of them are relay riders that I start reeling in. I can see a few really smokin' fast ladies out in front and I imagine there are a few behind me that either will or won't catch me until the run. It all makes for fun headgames on the course. I pass two women in the last mile of the bike course that passed me earlier, just for fun.

T2: 1:50

My cheering section was there again, giving me some great energy. I could've been faster in T2. I changed socks. Then forgot my hat and went back for it. Oh well.


Run: 2:12:19

Well, what can you say with a sucky run time like that? I just didn't have the endurance to run at the kind of pace I would've liked to. Only one run over 10 miles in the last 5 months is probably what I'd lay that at the feet of. But on the bright side, the weather was gorgeous, the course is very very pretty, and I had the extremely pleasant company of a relay runner (and Ironman) from Canby, Washington who kept my mind off it all with some nice chatter about various HIM and IM races.

Unlike my HIM of a couple of years ago, I executed my nutrition plan flawlessly and had no bonk to contend with. In the last mile or so, I left whatever I had left in my legs on the course, and broke into a sprint when I saw Wayne and the kiddos at the finish line.

Finish: 5:40:37. Very very close to my last HIM time - 55 seconds off. 3rd in my AG, 3rd overall Master's Female, 15th woman overall.

With what I had going into the race and all of those question marks, it felt like a respectable time to turn in. Doing this time now with so little preparation jammed into a few weeks makes me feel like I need to come hit this course again in full form and see what I can do with it. I continue to feel like my Crossfit training has been a real asset to my triathlon training this season, and I can't wait to see what I can do with another year of that under my belt as well. As always, I'm grateful to be out here, to feel strong and have this body that can do such an amazing thing, that's the real gift of the day.

And We're Off...

I've trained as much as I could, given the circumstances. I've tapered for the last week (not enough I know, but it will have to do). I'm packed and ready to go. So cross those fingers for me that the half-Iron feels doable on this amount of training and that all goes as smoothly as possible on race day.

Also keep 'em crossed for hubby on Sunday who is doing his first Olympic distance triathlon. I think I'm more excited for him than I am for myself!

Race Report: Lebanon Sprint Triathlon

Remembering last year's heat-fest, with similar projected temps for this year, I decided to take proactive action and bring along a little neck cooler. By the way, many of the links with directions to make these also mention that soldiers serving in desert regions need them, so if you're a person who likes to sew, make a few extra and help keep some soldiers cool! They really work, and I had a much, much more enjoyable run this year than last.

But I'm getting ahead of myself in the race report. This is a small local race that nevertheless draws a really fast crowd, including a lot of the local university's triathlon team, so it's fun and competitive at the same time. I felt pretty good about my training going into the race, I've been averaging about 8 hours a week of tri-specific training, and 5 - 7 hours a week of extra stuff like Crossfit and Karate. I thought I had a good taper this week (more on that later, hah!), although the weather was so beautiful (after so much rain!) that I inadvertantly rode a little bit further on Thursday's supposedly "easy, short" ride than I should've (the beautiful road beckoned and I answered).

The race started at 8:00, but since it had a pool swim, my wave wasn't until 10:00, I had plenty of time to ramble around. After racking my bike, I got settled in to warming up, and satisfied Section 1.0 of Robin's Race Code, which goes something like this:

1.0 Always find at least one first-timer and encourage them
2.0 Give verbal encouragement to everyone on the course that you have breath for
3.0 Thank every volunteer and police officer on the course
4.0 Congratulate fellow athletes (especially first-timers) after the race

I got to chat with Tri-newbie Will, a first-timer who had a great time in his inaugural triathlon. Also, my daughter's piano teacher Becky was doing her first race with her husband and son also in their first triathlon, and they all finished with smiles to go around. Since there were so many heats, I had plenty of time to cheer the folks in the earlier waves. My own cheering section was absent since Asa had another dance performance back at home and Wayne was on costuming and transport duty.


Here's my goals, from an email to my Crossfit coach:

Last year I did the same race in 1:14:23. Splits were:

7:30 Swim
36:30 Bike
27:45 Run
2:40 Transitions (total T1 & T2)


Ideally this year I'd like to be:

<7:10 Swim
36:30 Bike
<27:00 Run
2:30 Transitions (total T1 & T2)
For somewhere around 1:13

Onto the race: My wave of the pool swim was the fastest swimmers. I was 2nd in my lane, the guy who was in front of me had estimated 6:40 for his swim, I estimated 6:55 for mine. He was a big guy so I was hoping for a great draft! No such luck, he petered out quick and kindly let me pass in the first couple of laps. I had to lap the girl who was swimming behind me as well, and felt strong and smooth in my swimming. As I climbed out of the water and glanced at my watch, I was really really happy to see 6:44. Then I remembered that I started my watch when the first wave went, which gave me a time of 6:39. Niiiiiiice..... As far as I could tell, there were only a couple of guys who got out of the pool before me.

T1 was about 1:20, so far so good. Out onto the bike course. This course is so pretty, I really love it. All intersections well monitored by local police (thanked them as I zoomed past, taking care of RRC 2.0) Out into rolling countryside with beautiful pastoral views. Normally the bike is kind of a no-brainer for me, I just pedal away like mad and enjoy. It wasn't going so smooth this time. Big-time quadriceps cramping going on. Has never happend to me before, very confusing. So I had to back my gear off a notch and take a bit faster cadence, dropping my speed slightly. A little bit of worry about what this means for my run, but other than that I just tried to enjoy the course. Out and back course means I get to see everybody else. Confirm no women from my wave in front of me, two guys from my wave smoke past me but that's it! A couple of women about 3 - 4 minutes behind me, must try to put some more room behind me. Although quad cramps a mystery, I cruise into T2 in 37:30, a bit slower than I wanted to be but at least legs feel okay.

T2 is just under 1:00, I remember to take my neck cooler with me and I'm off on the run. Quads feel wooden, but miraculously start to feel better. Still don't know what's up there. Had a nice run, but my left foot starts to hurt, look down and see I'm running kind of funny I think still due to the quad cramping, I'm turning my left foot slightly out. It will probably hurt tomorrow but it's only 3 miles so I just carry on. Only one woman passes me, but she's on a relay team, so no women from the my wave have passed me, yay! Forget to get my run split on the watch, but cruise in with a total time of 1:12:39. Doing the math gives me a run time of 26:09, which is an 8:25 run split. Not too bad for this early in the season.

After I got home, I took a look at my training log to see if I could pin down the mystery quad cramps, and I think I have the culprit. Although I tapered off well on all of my workouts (no Crossfit last week, reduced volume in tri workouts, etc.), because the weather got nice I was doing all of my running around town on my commuter bike instead of the car, and I used the tandem to take Asa to her dance and theatre rehearsals. So though my tri training tapered off, my bike volume actually DOUBLED last week. Commuter miles and especially tandem miles are very quad-heavy because there's a lot of stopping and starting with heavier loads (plus I live on a hill, so doing the hill every time I come home). That's not a good way to taper! I'm making a mental note to taper not only my tri training but to make sure I don't overdo the bike commuting before a race. I rolled out the quads last night and they feel just fine this morning, no knots just a little tired.

All in all I'm happy because I beat my time from last year AND my goal time for this race. Not a PR, but a good time for an early season sprint!

And We're Off To Pacific Crest

My tri team has done our last brick, our last swim, our pre-race briefings and all of that jazz. We head out tomorrow morning for Sunriver, Oregon and the Pacific Crest Tri. We'll have a whole weekend of prepping, watching the kid's race (my daughter Asa is going to do that), attending the Pasta Party for Team in Training, cheering on our Tri team doing the Half-Ironman on Saturday, and then setting up T1 and getting ready for the Olympic day on Sunday. Everyone on my team is ready, they're well-trained and I have every confidence that they'll not only finish the race, but have an amazing experience along the way.

GO TEAM!!

Triathlon Checklist

Google Docs now has the ability to post spreadsheets, doc files, and presentations online, so I thought I'd share my basic triathlon checklist. I print this list out and go over it the week before a race, leaving me plenty of time to buy anything I'm missing from the list. Then I use it to pack my gear bag up the night before, and I check everything off as it goes in the bag or the car. That way when I get up in the morning, I don't have the urge to go plowing through my bag to make sure I haven't forgotten anything. For some reason, some of the formatting got messed up when I imported it, but all the basic data is there. I give this list out to anyone I coach as well. Hopefully it may be useful to someone here.

A Summer Without Racing

So with that first and last hurrah, my racing season is officially done for the year. I haven't gone a summer without racing since I was pregnant with my almost-9 year old. I've promised my hubby that we'll take this summer and focus on bike touring with the kids, gardening, building a front porch onto our house, and getting everything ready for our bike trip in Italy in the fall. It's not like I'm complaining or anything, but I'm not quite sure I'm going to know what to do with myself. It's one thing not to race when you're pregnant, big as a beachball and too uncomfortable to run ten paces, it's another thing altogether when you're feeling froggy and full of energy.

I definitely have no plans to stop swimming, biking, and running. But I've always used my races as a focal point for my training. I'm not the kind of person who can go to a gym and hit the treadmill and exercise just for some nebulous goal like "staying in shape" or "having a good body". Good health, good shape, and great fitness are all side-effects of the triathlon lifestyle in my book. Hubby has started running with a running group, which is great for Mr. Talkative, who really loves having the company out there on the road, but it's not my thing. Still, his group is doing one of those 200-mile relay thingies and I'm going to be on their team for that. Which means I'll have to at least keep enough running fitness to go three 6-mile legs in the altitude (it starts at 7,000 feet) and heat of August. And swimming is never a problem because I so love swimming outdoors in the summer. My parents had to drag me by both feet out of any body of water larger than a puddle when I was a kid and I haven't changed much since then. And of course, we'll be on the tandem bikes all summer. So I guess I can make it through.

But you know, when I'm reading all of the triathlon blogs I love to follow, I'll be jealous of those race reports rolling in through the summer months. There's something so beautiful about testing your body out against a course and the other athletes out there. I don't know what it is, because there are many times when it doesn't feel all that terrific in the moment, and you're asking yourself why the heck you're not still in bed, but in the end I'm always grinning when I cross that finish line. I'll let you know how my withdrawals go...

Black Diamond Half-Iron Race Report: Nutrition Lessons

Black Diamond Half-Iron Distance: First up, the good news: I set a PKPR (post-kids PR) for this distance at 5:39:42, and an all-time PR at this distance on the bike course at 2:52:11. I also had the 2nd fastest women's swim split. Given that I had very low expectations going in, with only two bike rides over 50 miles this summer, and one long run of 12 miles or over, I am extremely happy with my overall performance. I'm especially excited about my continued improvement on the bike in every race this year. The bad news: other than my lack of training, I was really held back by poor race day execution (transitions and details) which led to a nutritional crisis and almost my first DNF ever. You would think after 21 years in the sport, I'd be above these stupid little mistakes, but you would be wrong on that one.

So, on to the race. It was very cold on race day morning. I had expected it to be cold, but somehow it felt a lot colder to me than I had even expected. So after heading out on the bike to warm up before the race, I second-guessed my original plan of wearing my cycling jersey and arm warmers and instead decided to wear a jacket. I don't have any really good tight-fitting cycling jackets, so this was a painful decision for me, knowing I was sacrificing aerodynamics for comfort. I definitely think I need to get some cold-weather gear if I'm going to race longer distances this late in the season again, especially in the fickle Northwest. This jacket decision had consequences that rippled out later in the day. Since I was wearing a jacket and not my jersey on the bike, I decided to pin my race number onto my running shirt and not wear the race belt to hold my number. I've always raced with a race belt, so this was a departure for me (mistake #1). It would also mean I'd have to grab some gels for the run and hold them in my hand instead of having them in my belt. I made sure to put them by my running shoes so I wouldn't forget them.

I was worried about the swim being too cold, as the lake was 61 degrees on race morning. That turned out to be a non-issue though, and my new Blue70 long-sleeved wetsuit worked like a charm. I added a neoprene cap and was toasty and felt smooth and fast. With only one woman out ahead of me, I wove through the slower men from the preceding heat to a very nice swim split. It was slower than I estimated (30:47, when I predicted :28), but since everyone's splits were slow I think that was a swim course issue and not my personal speed. I was the 2nd woman and 13th overall swimmer.

On to the transition. Pulling on my jacket proved to be ridiculously difficult. Should've practiced it with wet arms, I had practiced arm warmers over and over, but again it was a last-minute decision to change. This left me with a very slow T1 of 3:37. On the other hand, I felt toasty warm and comfortable on the bike, even if I looked ridiculous in floppy jacket and aero helmet. However, the helmet kept my ears nice and warm as I had hoped. The bike course was really lovely. Smooth roads over most of the course, and the rolling hills that make me feel right at home. I felt powerful and kept a nice steady pace, rolling into a 2:52 bike split, which was 3 minutes faster than my estimated time. My nutrition felt spot on, and I was well hydrated and (here comes some TMI) even managed to pee on the bike, eliminating the bothersome porta-potty stops that slowed down my Ironman and last HIM bike splits.

T2 was not especially fast as I did change socks, but 2:11 was reasonable given the distance through the transition area that I had to run my bike. It was worth it to have comfortable feet on the run. I started out the run by keeping to my goal pace of 9:30. I didn't overamp the first couple of miles like I did last time at this distance, and was very happy with how my run course was going. There were some short, steep hills that were definitely a bitch, but I felt okay. At 30 minutes into the run however, I reached for my first gel and realized I forgot to grab them and I wasn't wearing a belt. There were no gels on the run course at the aid stations, only Heed (made by Hammer) and water. I decided to walk through the aid stations and try and drink more Heed than I normally would to keep my carbs up and blood sugar stable. This worked really well through mile 8, and I was having a pretty nice run. My first 6 miles was spot on a 9:30 pace at 57:03. After mile 8 however, the aid station (you pass it multiple times on this course) ran out of Heed and only had water. I still had almost 50 minutes to go and this worried me. Mile 9 went okay, but by mile 10 I was feeling slightly queasy and shaky. After that, I could definitely feel the low blood sugar taking hold and I hit the wall hard. I felt so shaky and my heart was hammering very hard, so I walked for awhile and tried to determine whether or not it was healthy to keep on or whether I should quit.

I've never DNF'd in a triathlon once in over two decades. But my pounding heartbeat and headache worried me. Passing out after the Ironman last year with such low blood pressure and dehydration had given me a good scare and worried me that I was able to push on for so long in that race with my body obviously failing. This is what was going through my mind on the Half-Iron course. Should I go on? I finally came to the conclusion that I was experiencing low blood sugar and not dehydration or anything life-threatening. So I started running again. Although the last two miles were very scenic, ending up on a lovely trail around the lake, they seemed to stretch out in a sort of miserable haze. I passed a couple of people who were experiencing very similar things and were walking, so I know I wasn't the only one caught by surprise when the aid stations ran out of carb drink.

In the end, I finished with a run split (2:10:56) only a bit faster than my last HIM run (2:12). I know I'm faster overall now, so this was pretty disappointing, and although I didn't have a lot of mileage under my belt, I think I could've done better if I hadn't messed up my nutrition. It's a good lesson to re-learn though, don't change things up on race day. If you remember nothing else, keeping your nutrition going in a long race is paramount.

Overall, I'm happy with my race. As always, the longer courses teach you a lot about racing, the importance of strong strategy and consistancy, and how tough you can really be. This one hurt worse than it should've, and I know I won't forget those lessons anytime soon! But on the bright side, I'm faster at 41 than I was at 38 and that's nothing to sneeze at. I'm also only a few minutes away from my all-time PR at this distance that I set at age 25. Maybe next time...

Must Title This: I Qualified For Nationals, Woohoo!

Since Nationals will be in Oregon next year, I've been really hoping to qualify. I missed by one slot in a tri earlier this year, as I mentioned in May. Having my local triathlon get cancelled was maybe a bit of a blessing in disguise, since it allowed me to get to the NW Regional Championships instead. The Regionals qualify top 5 or top 33% in each age group, which is a bit easier to hit than the number 1 spot (or so I thought), so it was a great opportunity to try.

Though I felt a bit unprepared for this race, I had a really good time. I had trained for a bit longer race (the Tri-America series), so I hadn't trained for as much speed as I would've for an Olympic distance, and with a week of camping just before leaving for Washington, I was a bit behind the eight-ball going in (especially since, due to traffic, the drive up to Washington took us 7 1/2 hours!!! ugh). But race morning promised perfect Robin Triathlon weather (overcast, slightly cool, no rain) and the race was well organized and very friendly and fun.

When I got to the transition area, that was my first clue that qualifying might be a bit tough. No mountain bikes or scruffy road bikes here, all the bikes looked serious and the athletes equally so. Apparently this race was also a direct qualifier for Worlds, not just Nationals and some of the athletes were aiming for that . Wow, no wonder they looked so fast! Trying not to be intimidated, I got my gear out and saw plenty of familiar faces from other Northwest races. I had decided to wear my new Helix wetsuit (so new, I haven't even blogged about it yet - I just got it last week). I had been having some trouble with arm fatigue in the two times I managed to get in the lake with it last week, so I was a bit worried but decided to give it a go in a race. A woman in the transition area with the same suit gave me a good tip on how to get the shoulders aligned and that seemed to help a lot, my arms felt fine after the swim.

It's a good thing my suit felt fine as the swim was longer than usual by about five minutes (or nearly a quarter mile). This is always in my favor, so I don't mind if I look out and see the buoys looking unusually far in the distance. Unfortunately, they started the men's wave first and then the women, so after the second buoy I was swimming through the swarms of slower males, like an aquatic obstacle course, but the water was calm and I felt happy to be out there gliding along. I had great transition times at 1:11 for T1 and :43 for T2. For once, I didn't feel like I was fumbling with anything, and the full-sleeved suit came off easier than I had hoped (love that upside-down zipper!).

The bike course in this race was....welll...interesting, for lack of a better word. A four-lap course, which was a new one on me in the world of Olympic distance, and I was a bit worried about the course getting crowded after the first loop. As it turns out, that wasn't the hardest thing about this course. I guess when the race description says things like "the course meanders to 28th street", what that really means is lots of turns. I think I counted fourteen turns (as in 90-degree turns) per lap, for a record-breaking 48 - 50 turns over the entire bike course. Wow! So when you add in the little up-and-down rolling hills, it was kind of a technical course. Ordinarily, this isn't to my benefit, since as I've posted earlier I am a bit of a cornering scaredy-cat. But I discovered that this kind of course takes a lot of strength as you keep decelerating for the turns and then you have to quickly accelerate to speed again. Athletes with good endurance but little power were really suffering by the last couple of laps because there were no sections where you could get your speed up to a steady pace and keep it there. It didn't look that tough in terms of the hill profile, but it was a bit of a punishing course leg-wise for this reason. Still, I pulled in a 1:08 for the bike course which is a PKPR (post-kids PR, that is) for me! Also, although there were a lot of cyclists on the course, due to the multiple laps, the USAT officials kept everyone separated nicely, and I saw them many times on the course (and thanked them afterwards). The multiple loops also gave everyone a chance to see everyone else, and I cheered on all the triathletes I passed, which is my little race-day custom if I'm not too winded!

On to the run, those little up-and-downish hills all of a sudden loomed a bit larger. Hills are especially punishing to this athena-class runner, and I knew that I already had at least two, maybe three people from my age group in front of me (two of the three women who passed me on the bike were in my age group - wah!). Fortunately, the bike course was the same as the run course for the first mile, and all those cyclists I had cheered on earlier were now cheering me. The instant karma and good wishes buoyed me up and my second running lap was even faster than my first. All of the hard work I've been putting into my run this season paid off with a 10k time of :50, another PKPR by five minutes! And a good thing too, because a couple more F40-44 ladies passed me on the run and I ended up snagging the last qualifying spot for Nationals in my age group. Whew!

Overall, my finish time was 1:27:06. That doesn't seem too fast for an Oly time for me, but when I take into account that my normal swim time is :21 - :22 and this one was almost :27 (and I checked, all the athlete's swim times were about 5 minutes slow, so it wasn't just me or my new wetsuit!), that puts me into more into the pace for a 1:22 Oly in the future some time. Maybe at Nationals, if I'm lucky.

Cancelled. Disappointed.

So I got this email: "The TriAmerica National Series Tour announces the cancellation of the event originally scheduled for July 21-22, 2007. The cancellation is the result of low advance registration numbers.

It is with great disappointment....blahdey blah blah blah..."

So, the race I've been training toward, with a distance of 1.2 m S, 38 m B, 9 m R has been cancelled. Of course, I can just go out and find another race with comparable distances within driving distance of my house to go out and do in a little over a week, right? Right? Thanks a lot, TriAmerica.

F___!

Makes me wonder what would've happened if the first Ironman was cancelled due to "low registration numbers". Fifteen people stood on the beach at the first Ironman, and now they sell out 2,500 slots for each race in a day.

Did I say F____?? And me, having some kids and a husband and a job and other responsibilities and a summer that's all planned out with kids' activities and camps and vacations and trips, well it's not so easy to just find another race that's A) not full, B) is the distance I want to be doing and C) fits in with everything else I've got going on right now.


Did I say F____?? F_____!