Race Report: Scoggins Valley Olympic Triathlon

I bet you've never read a race report that starts like this: I was awakened at 3:00 am by a screaming chicken...

But oh, I'm getting ahead of myself. First off, this race was a last-minute entry to my race calendar. The Olympic race that I had planned on doing (my all-time favorite Black Hills Triathlon) was cancelled due to some bonehead type-A triathlete cussing out some poor old couple in the park that it's held in. So I had to scramble to find another Oly that fit into my shrinking September timeframe. I already have a half-Iron in the last week of the month, so I couldn't put anything too close to that. The Scoggins Valley is a course I've done before (in the sprint and Enduro distances only though, never an Oly distance) so I thought it would be a good one. It's a very hilly and challenging course, but one that suits me. And I've done a LOT of hills this year in training.

Goals for this race: Mostly train through, no taper, use race to dial in transitions, nutrition, pacing, etc. for half-Iron. BUT, I was hoping to do fairly well (I know, conflicting goals there), thinking that a top-5 women's finish was within the realms of possibility. However, in the week before the race, I did a 60 mile bike and a 3-hour trail run, so I knew I would not be on fresh legs.

Okay, back to the screaming chicken. I was camping the week before the race, and we had so much fun up at the lake that we didn't roll back into town until about 8:30 Friday night. Uh Oh. I haven't packed for my Saturday triathlon yet, and it's 120 miles away so I have to leave at 4:30 am. I hurriedly throw my tri gear together and sling it in the car. Since I was home late, I assumed that hubby put the chickens up (it was dark when I got home). Since I was coming home, I guess he thought that I would do it when I got there. That explains why at 3:00 am the chickens were screaming - a raccoon was in the henhouse! Wow, there's nothing like a big shot of adrenaline to boost you out of a deep sleep. After scaring off the raccoon (and sadly dispatching the one chicken he managed to get ahold of), there was no point in going back to bed. So it was eat some breakfast, make tea, and off to the race. In the craziness, I left my Accelerade bottles in the fridge. Luckily I always pack along a ziploc baggie of extra powder, so I just mixed some up at the race course.

SWIM: 21:31
Beautiful day. Promises to be sunny, yet not too hot. The lake is warm, mid-70s. I decide on full-sleeve suit anyways, for speed. One of my goals this year is to lose my trepidation about getting out right in front of the swim pack so I positioned myself front and center, not my usual to-the-side approach. Two women that were fast broke away from the pack and I went with them. Damn, these gals are smokin! I decided to go for it and try for a good swim split, was feeling very froggy. VERY happy with my swim time: 21:31. I think that's a PKPR (post kids PR). The other two women came in just ahead of me and believe it or not the three of us turned in the three fastest swim splits of the day (faster than ALL of the men in the race!)

T1 2:29
Went as planned. Well executed.. Tied for fastest women's T1 split. I'm getting my game down. However, several men went under 2:00. Clearly I could improve!

BIKE  1:19:33
This course is hilly. Nothing but hills. Up. Down. Up. Down. Most of them are rolling so you don't notice a lot of extra effort, but there are a couple of sustained climbs. Two-loop course lets you see it all a second time. My second loop was slightly faster than my first as I became more confident of the course. My goal was not to use my brakes at all. When I did this course in a sprint race, I braked down too many of the hills, making me use more energy going up the next one. Mission accomplished, I hit a tuck on the hills and roared along. I kept it very aerobic and felt strong. My split put me about at a 19 mph average. A bit slower than I want to go at the Half-Iron, but a much hillier course. Also, legs did not feel fresh, which I expected with no taper. I used the course to practice my race nutrition. One gel every half an hour plus Accelerade. Stomach felt great.

During the bike loops, the duathlon and sprint races disgorged all of their athletes onto the course, so there was no real way to tell where I was at in the race. The only data point I had was that no women had passed me, so I knew at a minimum I was in 3rd overall.

T2  1:22

A little slower than I wanted. I had trouble with my right shoelace which popped out of where I had it tucked. Could've saved 15 - 20 seconds here.

RUN  57:25

What can I say, the run is never my strong point. This was however a VERY hilly run. Most of the women's run times were over 50 minutes. So my time is not as slow as it looks :-)  Mostly I just kept it aerobic, wanting to feel like I was training for more of a half-Iron pace. I thought I was well within my goal of still finishing top 5 in the women's race, so I stayed mellow.

That is, until I got to the aid station just before the run turn-around and the volunteers yelled "First Place Woman!!!!" at me. SAY WHAT?? I think I might've run just a teeny bit faster if I'd known that. Cripes! Now all of a sudden I was interested in pace. One gal caught me just after that, a seventeen year old who went on to win the race. She was also the fastest swimmer, a great all-around athlete! After the turnaround, I took a hard look at who was behind me. Looked like five women within 2 - 4 minutes, all within striking range. I picked up the pace for a negative run split and tried to hold them off. One caught me in the last two miles, and I kept the rest at bay for an overall 3rd place women's finish.

BOTTOM LINE

I'm very happy with my race as I accomplished both of my goals. I feel like I set myself up to have a good half-Iron by practicing my nutrition and pacing. And I turned in a top-3 finish on a hard course.I was 3:40 behind 1st place and 1:50 behind 2nd place.  I think I could decide to go back to this course in another year and really nail it. My training on the hills payed off as I felt strong and confident, especially on the bike. I've run a lot of hill repeats this year too. That doesn't really look very evident in my run split, but given the fact that my legs were not all tapered and fresh, I'm pretty happy with even my run performance.

Off to Paradise

The rains here have stopped, delaying us only a day. We're off to my favorite place on earth for a few days of camping in heaven. Mountain pine forests, wilderness trails, endless stars at night, and one of the world's clearest lakes to swim in. I've packed my trail running shoes and my wetsuit. The visibility is 100 feet, when you're swimming there it's like swimming in glass.

I wish you all a wonderful week in these last days of summer. Doesn't it seem like you enjoy them more at this time of the year? They're coming to a close, it's bittersweet. You can hear the cricket's mournful song, and feel a tang in the air in the mornings that wasn't there a week or so ago. My heart always pulls me out into nature in September. I know the rains are coming and the seasons will go 'round again.

Addendum to Know Your Course: Run Down Hills

If you're training for a hilly course, it's sometimes not the uphills that hurt, believe it or not it's the downhills! The worst after-race pain I've ever had is when I drew a downhill leg on a running relay that lost over a 1000 feet of elevation in a couple of miles. I could barely walk for a day or two afterwards.

Many athletes train using hill repeats, but when they do they run up the hill but walk back down. Downhill running uses different muscles than either flat or uphill running, and those muscles need training too. So if you're training for a hilly course, don't forget to run down hill!

As a side note, a couple of years ago we biked through Umbria and Tuscany in Italy with the kids. One of the things we loved were these signs "warning" us of hills ahead. As you can see, the signs were usually not necessary (could you actually miss the fact that there's a hill looming ahead of you?). We called these signs "boobs ahead" just because of the image on the sign and the kids got a kick out of spotting them. Since pretty much all of Tuscany is hilly, we saw them frequently (and grew to fear them at times when we were getting tired!)

Yesterday I ran almost 3 hours of hilly trails around town (our area resembles Tuscany in more ways than one - lots of hills, lots of wineries, ah if we only had more gelato) and am happy to report that I'm barely sore at all this morning. Hooray for hill training!

Tri Coach: Know Your Course, Train For Your Course

How often have you been lounging around the food tables after a triathlon and heard the following:
"Wow, I couldn't believe the course was so hilly!"
"I didn't expect the swim to be so cold"
"Can you believe that one hill on the run? It was so steep!"
"The wind on the bike course was unbelievable."

Now, way back in the stone ages when I started doing triathlons, this was excusable. You see, there was no internet. Those of you who are younger can gasp now. I repeat: There Was No Internet. If we signed up for a triathlon, it was sight-unseen. There were no course profiles online, no Google Earth, no MapMyRide.com to give you an elevation profile. No Garmins, GPS, no blogs to read of other athletes who had done the course. If you didn't personally know someone who had done it, you went in blind. Sometimes, the race director would put a little blurb in the photocopied race brochure that described the course. Of course, these were always done in the most optimistic of ways (my favorite was a race brochure that described the bike course as a "mostly downhill circular course" - WTF? perhaps designed by MC Escher??.) Some courses, like the infamous Whisky Dick triathlon, became reknowned among triathletes for their challenging and difficult courses, but I went in to many races not knowing what to expect.

These days, there is no excuse for this. Which brings up to step one when you sign up for a triathlon and begin training for that specific race:

1) Read the Course Description

These are usually online on the race's website. Often they will give you a specific map, and even an elevation profile. Even if they only give you street directions, take that to mapmyride.com, enter it in (or search on it first, chances are someone may have already done this work for you) and check the little box that allows you to see the elevation profile. Do a google search for "race reports" and the name of the triathlon and read what other people have said about the course. Is it typically windy? hot? cold? Sometimes the name of the race gives it away. In our neck of the woods, the early season "Duck Bill Chill" and "Beaver Freezer" triathlons are unlikely to be warm and balmy. There have been years when these races were run with snow falling. I once did a race in The Dalles, Oregon, a place that regularly holds world windsurfing championships. What do you think the odds are that the course would be windy (I watched a guy who unwisely used a disk wheel get picked up and blown halfway across the road).  Find out exactly what you're in for and your race day will go a whole lot smoother.

2) If Possible, Train on the Course

If it's a local enough race, go and train on the actual course a couple of times. Especially if it's hilly or technical, get an idea of where you can go fast, where you need to be cautious. Keep an eye out for 90-degree turns at the bottom of a steep hill, or areas that are exposed to the wind. For races that are too far away, this option may not be possible, although many of the IM courses are now available if you have a Computrainer at home (I only dream of this!)

3) Train in Similar Conditions

If the course is hilly, train on hills. If it's windy, train in wind. Hot? Train in the heat. If you can, train in harder or worse conditions. I did a half-Ironman once where the course description said there would be a hill with a 15% grade. So I looked online until I found a local hill steep enough to have a 15% grade, and I went on my bike and took a look at it. Holy Crap! Good thing the first time I saw a hill like that was not in the race! The bike course was a two-lap course, so I made it my business to set up a training course that hit my 15% hill three times in 45 miles. By the time I got to the race, I was, well... not exactly zooming up the hill. But it didn't kill me or intimidate me any more. I wasn't the one crying by the side of the road at least. Make sure you have met the course conditions before you get to the course and you will be more prepared than many triathletes.

4) Drive the Course

If you can get to the race venue at least the afternoon before the race, drive the course. Even if you've ridden the course, this is a good idea. Make sure you know where any turns are. Pick out landmarks that will warn  you of upcoming course turns ("I'll turn right after the big oak tree and the windmill"). You would be surprised how many athletes get lost on courses every season. Don't be one of them! Also look at the course for specific hazards - gravel or glass on the shoulder or on turns, bumpy pavement or holes in the pavement, signifigant roadkill, things like that. Make sure you know what you can expect to encounter on race day.

Now you're prepared to race the course, not just survive it. You won't be one of those athletes telling your friends how stunned you were by the challenges that the course presented, you'll be the one who met those challenges head on, aimed with your knowledge, planning, and training.

Olympic Tuesdays - All in an Ironmom Day

A few years back, I posted how on some days I was doing basically a sprint triathlon just in training, including biking the kids around on the tandem. All in an Ironmom Day. Now I realized that my Tuesdays have turned into an Olympic triathlon plus some when I add in my biking with the kids and bike commute to two different coaching/teaching jobs.

In the morning, I bike down to the pool, swim for about an hour or 3400 yards, then get out and swim coach on the deck for an hour. After a quick trip to the hot tub to re-warm up, I head out to the running trail that is right next to the pool and put in a warmup and some intervals, usually about 45 minutes to an hour. Bike home. By noon, it's time to bike down to the pool with Asa since she's in the water polo and swim team program there. Gone are my days of shlepping the kids around in bike trailers, tag-alongs, or the tandem for the most part (unless we need to go quite a distance or get someplace more quickly than kid speed). Both of my kids are bike independent now, with Asa asking if she can bike to the pool by herself next summer, and Mackenzie already biking down there with friends by himself (yes, I'm a big fan of having free-range kids who are transportation independent!). An intersection re-structuring near our house has made the kids' commute to the pool MUCH safer, and eased my mind about them biking in that direction (it used to be quite hazardous for bikes there).

After coming home from the pool, it's time to do some gardening and get dinner on. Then at 6:30 I'm off on my bike again for a 22-mile round trip to commute to the karate dojo where I teach kickboxing for an hour. I'm home by 9:30. Whew! Tuesdays are crazy. But somewhere in all that craziness is 2.5 hours of biking, and about an hour each of swimming and running, for about 4.5 hours total (not to mention the kickboxing, LOL). That's way more than my sprint-distance days of a few years ago, and to me really points out the power of incremental change. Our bodies are such amazing miraculous machines. They gradually adapt to all the stresses we can throw at them (physically) and become so much stronger and more able. Pretty soon we can do more than we imagined, and on a regular basis, without even noticing the extra effort.

Last Tuesday, Asa didn't have swim team, so Mackenzie and I took the kayaks to the lake and kayaked for an hour down these beautiful waterways through the wetlands. We spent a lot of time watching grebes, which I had never observed up close before. Then we took an hour hike. So my total day was more like six hours of exercise, plus gardening and housework. I feel so grateful to have a body at 44 years old that can absorb a day of activity like this as if it was nothing. THIS is really the payback for the training, to have a body that can do what you ask it, when you ask it. Even if you haven't held a kayak paddle in awhile, or hiked recently. You can just go and do it. Like it's nothing. At 44. I don't take that for granted AT ALL. It's a gift. All in an Ironmom day.

G-ROSS!!!!

Note to self: Check water bottles that kids have used before filling them to take on ride. That way you won't be out on your bike, take a big ol' gulp only to discover someone had mixed chocolate milk in the water bottle, but not cleaned it thoroughly. Soured-milk flavored gatorade anyone???

Meet the New Kickboxing Instructor ..... Um...... Me???

So I was asked to fill in as a sub for the kickboxing instructor at our dojo, and now it seems she is leaving for good and I'm the permanent kickboxing teacher! I love how I keep falling into these kinds of things. I guess the universe is trying to tell me that my future career lies in coaching/teaching.

So far it's been a real learning curve, but lots of fun. It's all heavy bag work, plus I'm incorporating some Crossfit-like metabolic conditioning routines and core work. And like everything you teach, you learn more than the students once you start trying to instruct someone else. I'm looking at different technique and teaching videos and trying to incorporate the best of what I find into the class, keep it challenging and interesting for everyone.

In other martial arts news, my arm is about 90% healed now and I can do almost everything in karate again. So I'll be re-joining the brown/black belt class and start earnestly working toward testing for my black belt again. Mackenzie will be testing for his brown belt in a couple of weeks, which means that he and I can start training together on the black belt test material. I am aiming for a June timeframe to hopefully be prepared to test. I have watched Mackenzie really grow in confidence and ability in karate and it's exciting to see him getting so close too!

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?

Yarg. Four Hour Trainer Rides Stink But Good Conversation Rules

Biking home from kickboxing the other night, I stood up on the pedals to go up and over a bridge and whammo! I got a cramp on my instep that stopped me cold. It went away, thought nothing of it, but it's been plaguing me ever since. Damned aging body.

So the weekend long ride/long run was down the toilet. Can't run at all, foot hurts too much. Couldn't really ride as hills hurt too much and there are NO flat rides here. So yeah. Four hours on the trainer. Suckaroo! I don't know how people train for early season IMs by doing all their long rides indoors. Really, this is seppuku territory here.

Luckily, I watched In the Valley of Elah with Mackenzie while I was riding the second half. That was a damned fine movie with some very subtle themes that provided good discussion fodder. I've wanted to see it for quite awhile now. Having a very thoughtful and interesting almost-14 year old is pretty cool. He is very introspective and likes to think about how things work (not just mechanical or computery things, but plots, stories, people, etc.) which makes him an excellent movie-watching and discussion companion. We're also book buddies, currently both reading The Boy in the Striped Pajamas right now and discussing. We've been delving pretty heavily into the Holocaust in recent months. I wondered when that might come up in our homeschooling, and apparently this is the appropriate age. But that's probably a whole book-length post for my homeschooling blog on another day!

As for me, I'll be darned happy if I can get off this trainer this week, and actually run as well. One of these years, I might have to give up these dangerous sports ;-)

Tri-ing It Old School

I had the opportunity to do a little bit of time travel this last weekend, back into the days when triathlons were not so much about who had the best carbon fiber frame or multi-thousand-dollar wheels or 24-hour coach or whatever, but just about swimming, biking, running, hanging out with other athletes and having a great time. It was not serious, but it was tough and it was fun!

A local triathlete puts on a small race every year at a nearby lake nestled in a valley in the foothills of the coast range. The transition area is on a church lawn. There's a hand-painted finish sign, and some signs along the course to tell you where to go. The bike course is on local roads, the run course winds along a logging road that turns into a rutted dirt track and climbs a crazy grade. For a sprint tri, the course was quite challenging, with a big downhill out of T1 that portended a good climb at the end of the bike, and that up-and-over hill on the run course. You can see the logging road winding over the hill in the clearcut in this photo, that's where the run course goes!

The swim went by all too fast. Supposed to be 600 meters, but I think it can't have been more than about 450 as my swim time was 5:47. That would've been a truly smokin' 600 time, probably out of my league. Still, the lake was gorgeous and I felt like I was flying along. It was warm enough to wear my sleeveless wetsuit and it always feels like I swim WAY faster in that than in my full-sleeve. Out of the water in 1st place overall (from a very small field, LOL!) Onto the bike which followed the road away from the lake, mostly rolling hills and forests on either side, very pretty. Hitting 30 mph out of T1, I realized I'd have about a two mile hill coming back at the end of the bike course. It's weird, this race was so casual, I almost always drive the course if I'm racing, but I was flying blind, so that was actually kind of fun! The turnaround came up quickly, but not before Chad (the race director) flew past me on his bike.

I only got semi-lost once on the run course, when a fork in the logging road had a sign that was slightly ambiguous. I second-guessed myself as the road turned into more of a rutted track, and so I backtracked to check the sign. Yep, I was going in the right direction. After awhile, racer #2 Greg passed me, so at that point I figured I was probably on the right road. The run was a 3.6 mile, a little bit longer than the average sprint (great, a short swim and a long run, that is not to my advantage!). I calculated that I had a 4 minute head start going into the run on the next fastest female triathlete. I had no idea if it was going to be enough. A lot of triathletes can run a minute per mile faster than I can. But being a trail run helps as I'm strong on hills. As it turned out, she caught me a couple hundred yards from the finish and flew past. yep, she's a really fast runner (she confided after the race that she'd recently run a sub-20:00 5k - with her dog!!! at one of those dog-and-owner fun runs, yikes!) But all in good fun, it was nice to be out on a course with a bunch of other dedicated athletes having a great time at a beautiful location.

After the race it was time for a big post-race feast put on by Chad's family. Wow, talk about the royal treatment! Elk burgers and gorgeous fruit salad and oatmeal cookies. You KNOW no food on earth tastes as good as post-race food, but this was truly delicious.

Bottom line: Swim: 5:47, T1: 2:01, Bike: 38:18, T2: 1:05, Run: 33:09 Total: 1:20:18, plus one pair of VERY dusty shoes and a lot of fun! 

Too Cool Not To Share

Vibram FiveFingers new website "You Are the Technology" is simply too cool not to share. Click on it and explore around, it's really pretty neat. Of course it doesn't hurt that I LOVE their shoes! These people just keep doing everything right.

Once More Unto the Beach Dear Friends

Two lake swims in one summer week? How do I sum up the joy?? Our regularly scheduled Master's lake swim was on Saturday and the morning was very misty with air was so still that any tiny sound was magnified as if in an amphitheater. From the surface of the lake, I could hear the river rushing far away and the tiniest breeze in the trees.

Then my mom came through town yesterday, and as she often does she had her kayak with her. So our Tuesday morning pool swim migrated to the lake while my mom and daughter kayaked around. Again the water was so smooth it was like glass. Trees and sky reflected like a mirror that I could see every time I took a breath, and pairs of osprey circled above and called to each other. Asa caught a small catfish in her hands, and followed around a larger trout just to see what it was doing. I spoke with a fisherman on Saturday who said he pulled a 28 pound salmon out of the lake!

Monday is my day of rest for the week, so Tuesday morning's swim always feels so much smoother and easier with my body well rested. Today I was gliding through the water as if it was air and I was flying, getting such an endorphin rush I was crying in my goggles (note: this makes them fog) and smiling with joy (note: this makes you swallow lake water).

An Open Water Swimmer's Pool Workout

Here's the set I left on the board today for my pool swimmers, just before heading up to the lake with the open-water swimmers. This is a great set for preparing for open-water swimming, including triathlon
swimming. Tough main set!

Skill of the Day: Vertical Arm Catch (high elbow)
Drill: Vertical Arm Scull (great video of this drill here)

Warmup:
250 Swim
4 x 50 Vertical Arm Scull/Catchup by 25s
250 Pull, focus on high elbow catch
4 x 50 Vertical Arm Scull/Swim by 25s
6 x 50 Kick, IM order no flutter


Main Set:

36 x 75:

1 - 12 @ 1:15 interval
13 - 24 @ 1:10 interval
25 - 36 @ 1:05 interval

You can adjust these intervals as needed, the ideal is to have your first twelve 75s with about 15 seconds rest, 2nd twelve with 10 seconds rest, and 3rd set of twelve with only 5 seconds rest. You should keep your pace consistent throughout, with no rounders after each subset.

Workout Total: 4000 yards

Dumber Than a Sheep

Picture a pasture full of grass with dozens of sheep. A set of power lines marches across the field, with tall poles throwing shadows onto the dry brown grass. It's so hot that the sheep are standing nose to tail in the thin shadow of the power line poles. Across the pasture, there are lines of sheep standing, head down, not moving in the heat, just keeping their bodies as still as possible in the only bit of shade in their entire field. That's what I saw as I was biking by in the heat. So I guess that makes me dumber than a sheep!

What I would love to see would be a time lapse video of the sheep in that field as the power pole shadows move with the sun. I wonder if the sheep just keep shuffling to stay in the shadows? It would be an amazing image.

What Doesn't Kill You.... Makes You Cry??

It didn't seem like it was going to be that hard of a bike ride today: 42 miles, a lot of hills (but what bike ride around here doesn't have hills??) not a ton of wind (the usual 12 mph afternoon perpetual headwind, no matter which direction you're biking it's there). I knew it was going to be warm, temps have been in the low 90s all week. Who knew it would be almost 100 today? I guess that serves me right for not looking at the weather forecast.

We set out at 12:30, and hit the first hill at 12:35, the second at 1:15, and by 1:45 we were on the biggest ascent: a 700 foot climb of exposed piece of blacktop that was baking under our wheels. This is the point where I should point out that I don't sweat. Also that hubby in his kindness got both of our bikes ready this morning while I was coaching, and he happened to fill both of my bottles with Gatorade. I usually keep one with water to douse myself with since.... I don't sweat. Somewhere along the switchbacking broiler rack of a road, I went from just plain hot to truly hot, then ridiculously hot then dangerously hot. By the time hubby looked back and noticed me struggling and pulled into some shade, I was close to dropping over. Once in the shade, I proceeded to break out in big sobbing ridiculous tears, and then hyperventilate. Good thing hubby keeps a cool head on his shoulders and got me breathing right and poured some water on me.

A long shade break later and I was ready to keep rolling. A stop at a little store later and I had a stock of water to dump on myself. The rest of the climbs (all 1700 feet of them) seemed easy by comparison. It's funny, but I remembered that the only time I've ever cried in a triathlon was (no, not getting my toe dislocated at Ironman Florida) when I did this race in a hellishly hot and windy location in the Columbia River gorge. It was 104 degrees with winds up to 30 mph. The 38 mile bike course took me three hours instead of my planned two, and when I hit the run in that blowdrier I just started crying uncontrollably. Then some lady rescued me with a lawn sprinkler and I managed to finish. I have never DNF'd a race, but that was the closest I've ever come. And I've never not finished a bike ride but I came damn close today. I wonder why I cry when I'm overcome with heat? Panic maybe? I'm not usually a crybaby, but that sure got to me!

Reminder to self: you don't sweat. Take water (plain water) and dump on self repeatedly until normal temperatures have been achieved. Also, don't go out on a hilly ride on the hottest day of the summer in the middle of the afternoon! As I write this at 11:30 at night, it's still 78 degrees outside according to weather.com. I think tomorrow's long run better be at 6:00 am, so I should be going to bed now...

Tri Coach: Transition Area

One of the most confusing things for new triathletes is the transition area. Since this question came up this week, I thought I'd break down a typical transition area here and give some pointers.

The first thing to know about transition areas is that the space you have will be small. It's best not to make it look like a garage sale with gear and clothing sprawling all over the place. Even if you get to the transition area early and set up with plenty of room, chances are that the racks will get progressively more crowded as the start of the race nears, and your spacious area will shrink to about the size of a decent hand towel. So just bring what you need, and leave the rest in your gear bag. Apply your sunscreen and your glide, your lip balm, hair tyes, and anything else you might need, put them away and just bring the basics to transition.

This is a photo of how I set up my own transition area at most races. I bring my nice bright green towel, and fold it until it's just about as wide as my bike's handlebars. This ensures that it takes up the same amount of space as the bike racked on the opposite side of the bike rack from me. If everyone racks their bikes on alternating sides of the rack, that's as much space as you will probably get.

My cap and goggles obviously go with me to the swim start, so I lay them out right in front. Next are my biking shoes, with velcro straps opened and loose. Note that bike shoes can also be clipped onto your pedals, but new triathletes probably don't need to worry about giving that a try right off the bat. If I choose to wear socks in a longer race, I will scrunch them all the way up until they are very compressed, and lay each one carefully inside a shoe. That way when I get to the shoes I can just stick my toes inside the sock and pull it up quickly over the foot.My helmet is beside the shoes, and I like to keep my sunglasses inside the helmet with the earpieces open and pointing up. That way I grab the sunglasses and put them on, smash the helmet on my head, buckle the strap and I'm off.

In the back of the transition towel is the running gear. My shoes have lace locks on them, and they are pulled open and ready to jam my feet into. On top of the shoes is my running hat, with the bill facing toward me, ready to just pop onto my head. On top of that I've placed a race number belt with my race number already clipped into it. Note that in some races (not very many any more) you may be required to wear a race number on the bike. In that case, I lay this on top of my bike shoes, and put it on with the number on my back. When I get to the run, the number is required to be in front so I just spin it around. In most races though you only need the number for the run. So you can pin it to your shirt or singlet, or you can use a number belt and just put it on for the run. My number belt happens to have some little elastic loops for sticking gels into, so for a longer race I can load it up with a couple of gels ahead of time.

That's it! There's not a lot of stuff in this transition area, which means no fumbling around when I'm in a hurry in T1 and T2 of the race. Before I go to the start line in my wetsuit, I stop and look at the transition area. I go to the chute where I'll be entering from the water and walk towards my rack, noting where it is in the area (it's five racks to the right from the entrance, or it's seven racks on the left). Though you will see it recommended frequently, please resist the notion of bringing a helium balloon and tying it to your rack so that you can find your bike. I was at a windy race this June where several people on my rack had done this. The balloons where all blowing horizontally, getting tangled in other peoples' bikes and gear, and bopping other triathletes in the face as they tried to transition. Trust me, you can remember that you are five racks on the left without a balloon.

As I do my run-through, I mentally see myself running in from the swim. I see myself unzipping my wetsuit as I run (not taking off my cap and goggles first, as that ties up your hands). Once the wetsuit is unzipped and stripped down to the waist, then I take off my cap and goggles and have them in hand as I approach the transition area. Now I approach my own area, and I see myself stripping off my wetsuit, putting on my bike shoes, my sunglasses and helmet, and unracking my bike and taking off.

This is a good time to practice taking your bike off of the rack and make sure that all goes smoothly. Make sure you don't have any brake levers or shift levers that will catch on the rack, make sure you've racked it in such a way that you can get it off easily. I was at a race recently where the woman on the rack next to me had racked her bike by rolling it under the rack and hanging her seat on the rack, but facing the wrong way (away from her own transition area). So she would have to roll it out backwards, catching her handlebars on the rack to get it out. Unfortunately, she could only get it off the rack by turning it almost sideways, a feat that was not possible once everyone else's bikes were racked. I pointed this out to her in the transition area before the race and thankfully she had time to change it. But she would've had an unpleasant surprise if she'd run up from the swim only to find she couldn't get her bike out without knocking over everyone else's!

After I take my bike off the rack, I make sure I know which direction I'm going out of the transition area to get to the bike course. Then I come back and re-rack the bike. I visualize myself making the bike to run transition. I mentally put on my race belt, my hat, and my running shoes. Again, I make sure I know which way I'm running out of the transition area to get to the run course. Learning these things ahead of time saves confusion in the middle of the race (you will almost always see race volunteers having to re-direct some hapless athlete who has tried to bike onto the run course or run the wrong way out of transition).

Phew! That seems like a lot, but by laying out a simple transition area, by making sure your bike is racked safely in a position that you can easily remove it from the rack, and by mentally practicing your transition and knowing where you'll be going, you will be on your way to having smooth and effective transitions in your race with a minimum of panic and confusion.

My Fashionista

I have to admit, my taste in clothing typically runs to the latest in swimwear (I love Tyr's plaid two-pieces, Must. Have.!!!) and biking shorts. Dressing up is not something I do often, and I'm sure my fashion-conscious daughter rolls her eyes behind my back more than I'd care to notice.

So I let her pick my outfits, and she loves to do us up as "matchies", do my hair, and paint my nails too. All the girly-girl stuff I don't always have time for. Lucky me!

The Rake Mystery Solved

So the woman with the rake on the running path was my friend Carrie. We ran down to the local sand volleyball courts in the morning to do some technique work. After raking a swath of sand smooth, we ran down the smooth part so that we could take a look at our footprints and analyze our foot strike patterns and running gait. This technique of evaluation is suggested in the book Chi Running, and I've done it before and found it very useful. I think it would've been more helpful if the sand had been damp as you get a better footprint impression, so maybe next time we decide to do this, we'll wait for the morning after a light sprinkling of rain.

One thing I noticed from the last time I did this is that I have definitely moved to a mid-foot strike. I can thank Chi Running and my years of running in the Vibram Five Fingers for that I guess.

So here is what we were looking for in evaluating our footprints:

This is a midfoot strike. Thankfully most of our footprints looked like this!

Then, we deliberately tried to run with a heel strike for comparison's sake. This was surprisingly difficult now that I've trained myself out of doing it. It's hard to believe I used to run this way all the time, it feels so clunky and heavy now. You can definitely see where the heel leaves a much deeper impression and a push-off on the back end of the heel.

We also looked at whether our feet were tracking straight, and discovered that each of us has a foot that points slightly out, which spells future knee trouble if you don't address it. All in all, it's a good diagnostic tool to use!

Why Is This Woman Running With a Rake??

No, it's not just another crazy person on the bike paths of Eugene! When the kids were younger, I kept a small notebook with me that contained our "List Of Silly Things". Whenever the kids saw something they thought was silly, we'd write it in the notebook: shoes hanging over power lines, a porta-potty going down the road on the back of a truck, a man skateboarding with a cat on his shoulder. It was just one of our fun little things we did whenever we were out, and it also served as a reminder to me that the world is fresh and new to kids. They don't have pre-conceived notions of what is ordinary or not, so while we might see a port-a-potty on the back of a truck and know instantly it's being transported somewhere (maybe to a long line of port-a-potties at a triathlon!), to a kid it's just downright funny to see a potty driving down the road.

But the woman running with the rake doesn't belong on that list of silly things. Wanna know why? Stay tuned!

Hint: It has something to do with this:

Those Cute Little 650 Wheels

A friend of mine sent me this great link on 650 vs. 700 wheels. It seems like I'm one of the few triathletes out there still riding 650 wheels, and it's true that sometimes it's harder to find tubes and tires for them. For me, it's a real bonus because I have almost no torso whatsoever. No really, I'm not kidding. I look so ridiculous in my white karate gi because the belt is about an inch below my boobs. I have to tug the belt down to my hips just to look normal. And you're supposed to chamber your non-punching hand several inches above your belt, which puts mine somewhere in the vicinity of my armpit. When I was pregnant with each of the kids, I looked like I was carrying a torpedo because my torso is so short. I'm 5/7" and have a 34 inch inseam. All legs. Buying jeans is a nightmare too, but that's another story.

So anyways, I had to buy a bike with a top tube sized for a 10 year old, and then I had to get the absolute shortest possible stem ever made. This is all so that I can reach my aerobars. This is most easily facilitated with 650 wheels, and then I just have to put my seat up ridiculously high because of those legs. In any case, it was cool to read this article, which gives a good techie description of the differences in wheel sizes, why tri bikes were originally switched to mostly 650 and why many of them have switched back to 700. Just thought I'd share.

Violating the Ten Percent Rule

Normally I try to follow that tried and true rule of thumb: don't increase your long workout by more than ten percent each week. Although I don't follow a specific triathlon training plan most of the time, I know that by this time of year I'm building up my mileage toward a fall half-Ironman, and that means for three weeks I build up my longest bike and run distance, and then every fourth week I cut my volume in half for a rest week. By August, I'll be ready to fine-tune everything and will have a good base of endurance built up.

This year I got a late start with the broken arm and didn't really start building up my bike mileage until May. Then it rained all of June, not just rained but poured buckets of water from the sky. It only stopped at moments when I couldn't possibly get out on my bike. The net result is that my longest ride so far has been a measly 38 miles.

So when hubby asked me on Saturday if I'd do a sixty-five miler with him, I of course said no. Really? No, silly of course I said yes. On the hottest day of a heat wave, and throw in some hills to boot. Surprisingly, I can actually walk today and dare I say I feel just fine? I was definitely fatigued by the end of it, but that was offset by getting to spend four hours with my hubby doing something we both love in such a beautiful part of the world. This ride goes through forested hills, winds by a river, heads out into the broad valley past wheat fields and pastoral sheep, through quaint towns and rolling countryside. Though it violated my ten percent rule, it was one-hundred percent worth it.

Gigantic Swimmer Boy

I took my 13 y.o. son with me to the pool today to swim some laps. Gosh I wish this kid had a competitive bone in his body because he can swim like a fish. No like a dolphin. Like his mama, he was born to be an aquatic mammal. Gosh he's good! And he hasn't swam since last year, yet I had to work to keep up with him. Some of it is that, like me, he has enormous hands and feet (size 13 and counting). Great paddles and flippers. And he's grown an inch in less than a month, making him even with me at 5'7", a fact he is very excited about. All that growing of course makes for a very clumsy land mammal and about every time he moves around the house he knocks something over, breaks something, stubs a toe or knocks a knee or elbow (many of you taller guys can probably remember the awkwardness of the teenage growth spurts).

Since he's hoping to get into a great college and go to med school (I about faint if I allow myself to think about what that will cost), I am encouraging him to think of the word Scholarship. Swimming or water polo would be good, and with hands the size of small snow shovels, I think he'd be great at water polo, a sport I wish had been around when I was a teen (much more fun than just swimming boring laps). If there's one thing I regret I think it's that I didn't start swimming competitively before college. I really struggled my way financially through college, working more than one job at a time and cobbling together whatever academic scholarships I could get my hands on. But those don't touch the kind of scholarships that athletes can land, and I probably would've been better set if I'd focused on swimming in high school. Unfortunately, the swimming coach was a Jerk with a capital J (you hear that Mr. Freeman???) who once famously told me just how "unathletic"  he thought I was. If there's one thing I've done in my life, maybe it's that I proved that one wrong, LOL.

In any case, my real goal with the kids is that they're both proficient swimmers and that they both love the water. I think that should be every parents' goal. As a coach who frequently works with adults who have traumatic experiences with water (sometimes at the hand of well-meaning adults when they were children), I know that the most important thing is that kids are comfortable and safe in and around the water. In my family, not swimming is not an option (my son calls this part of my "tough shit" policy). So whether or not he swims for his supper, at least he'll swim for fun.

Independence

Happy Independence Day tomorrow, to those of you who are Americans. I wore this suit swimming to the lake this morning, just for fun. It was a gorgeous day, the water was smooth as silk. And though I've had a major knot in my shoulder this week that kept me from swimming on Tuesday and Thursday, the wetsuit provided enough extra support that I could cruise along through the open water without any discomfort whatsoever, a pleasant surprise for the morning.

This afternoon we went to a BBQ at some friends' house and I had one of those "small world" experiences. I met a triathlete that lives not a mile from my house, we have tons of mutual friends, we've been apparently swimming in the lane next to each other at the outdoor pool on Tuesday mornings, but we'd never met. We chatted about races, trails, rides, and the Ironman. One thing about having done the Ironman is that when you meet another Ironman it's like you both just know what the other is made of. To have done that distance, that says something about a person, about their ability to dig deep and to persevere. I guess I'd never really thought of that before.

Speaking of digging deep, I did a ride yesterday with my hubby, about 40 miles of hills that he kicked my booty up and down and all over town. I can make an excuse for some of that, I had done a really killer Crossfit track workout that morning that absolutely blew me up for the day (see below for details) but the other half of the equation is that hubby has gotten to be a killer cyclist. He's been mountain biking like crazy, training for some nutty 55 mile mountain bike race with like a million feet of elevation gain. So his pedal stroke has gotten very efficient and smooth. He's also lost 10 pounds since starting the Paleo eating plan, and is now at 10% body fat, which is pretty lean. This means he climbs hills like a madman and while I can still take a turn letting him draft me into the headwind, he pretty much dropped me on every hill. Still, after eighteen years of being together, it's just plain awesome that we can go out and do stuff like this. Our relationship has always been glued together by mutual interests and just enjoying each other's company.

So here's the killer workout I devised for Friday morning. Any old time that you feel like you haven't beaten yourself up enough for the week, give this one a try. This is done for total time at a track:

1600 meter run
40 squats (quads below parallel)
1200 meter run
30 situps (arms folded across chest, no kipping with arms, shoulders to ground and then breaking vertical plane)
800 meter run
20 pushups (chest to ground and full extension)
400 meter run
10 Burpees (including jump to full hip extension)

This took me 23:52 and like I said, it was a killer workout. After the first round of squats, you can really feel your legs on the run. After the round of situps, it makes you very aware of your core on the run. After the pushups, you even get a good feel for how engaged your arms are on the run. So it really lets you zero in on all of your major muscle groupings as you run.

Herding Cats

I got to try my hand today at something new: coaching kids! I have worked with a few younger swimmers before, mostly teens who want one-on-one stroke instruction. But I've never tried to give stroke instruction to an entire kids' swim team before. Let me just say that I have a whole NEW level of respect for kids' coaches in general, and my daughter's swim coaches in particular. That is some hard work. It's difficult to explain complicated stroke mechanics in a way that kids can understand, and more importantly will want to try to do. It's actually hard enough just to be heard with 30 or 40 kids, many of whom are bobbing up and down in the water and some of whom are chattering. My voice is very hoarse now.

The one thing that went over well was having them count strokes and try to reduce their stroke count. After doing the catch-up drill, most of them were able to reduce their stroke count and they were all excited to tell me their numbers. Coaching them is not something I'll be doing on a regular basis (this was just a one-hour stroke clinic), but it was cool to have the opportunity to work with them today. More than anything, I love how excited they are to be swimming and how hard they're willing to work at it. In a way, I can picture them as the Master's swimmers of the future, decades from now I hope they'll still be loving it the way I do.

Drowning Doesn't Look Like Drowning: What to Watch Out For

Since so many of us are going to be open-water swimming this summer, often with others who may be new to the open water, and since so many of us are parents who will be in and around water with our kids and with other kids, please take a moment to read this webpage on Why Drowning Doesn't Look Like Drowning and how to identify someone who is truly drowning.

The statistics given are eye-opening:

Drowning does not look like most people expect.  There is very little splashing, no waving, and no yelling or calls for help of any kind.  To get an idea of just how quiet and undramatic from the surface drowning can be, consider this:  It is the number two cause of accidental death in children, age 15 and under (just behind vehicle accidents) – of the approximately 750 children who will drown next year, about 375 of them will do so within 25 yards of a parent or other adult.  In ten percent of those drownings, the adult will actually watch them do it, having no idea it is happening

 Take a moment and read the article. It could save a friend's life, a child's life, a stranger's life. I have pulled one drowning child from a river, he was on an inner tube yet could not swim. He was wearing cut-off jean shorts that became very heavy when he tipped into the water. Many other adults were present yet none recognized that the child was in trouble. It's not always easy, and always best to err on the side of caution (especially with a child). Be safe!

Running With Giants

One of the best things about being a triathlete is that wherever you go, you interact with the local environment. You're out running at dawn when the shopkeepers are opening up, or you're biking through the fields and waving to farmers, swimming in a pristine mountain lake, or trotting through a grove of enormous trees that may have been standing since Julius Caesar walked the earth. You're never just a tourist when you're an athlete, because when you're out there doing your sport, you're part of the everyday life of a place. In some places you may stick out like a sore thumb, places where running or biking for fun and exercise just aren't common. But in other places, being in your running shoes or on your bike lets you see the scenery from a completely different angle.

On my camping trip with my son last week, I got to do some amazing trail runs. My favorite was an hour and a half run on the Hiouchi trail and Mill Creek trail in the Jedediah Smith Redwoods on the California coast. You really can't ask for a more awe-inspiring place to move your feet. The trail winds along the Smith river, turning away to meander through groves of giant redwoods. At one point you even run right through the middle of a burnt-out redwood tree, big enough you could make a small home inside. It was one of those runs where you never want to turn around, never want to stop. As my watch read :45 minutes, I reluctantly slowed and made my feet point back in the direction of camp. Luckily Mackenzie had a thoroughly engrossing novel to read and was happily ensconced in a camp chair while I enjoyed my traipse through the ancient forest.

Quick Update

I spent the last week starting at my Mom's house in Southern Oregon and then on a week long camping trip with my teenage son. Lots of fun and lots of opportunities to get out in new places, especially some great trail runs (can you beat trail running among the giants of the coast Redwoods? I think not!). Photos to come!

Things You Don't Expect To See on the Bike Path

There are things I've more or less come to expect to see on the bike path around here. Like gaggles of geese (which can actually be a pretty big hazard), and the occasional snake. When it's a rattler, it's a bit more disconcerting...I'm pretty sure this big guy was a gopher snake, but I wasn't about to get any closer to make sure. He was about four feet long!

Once I even saw a strange parade of big orange crawdads walking down the bike path with their claws in the air (wish I had a photo of that one). But what I didn't expect to see last night as I bombed down the bike path on my way home was an ancient Deadhead-driven bright orange VW van! Kind of like this one, driving straight down the bike path! I told the driver that he was on a bike path (gee, maybe the fact that the path is only as wide as your vehicle and there are no street markings might've been a clue), and he kept insisting that he had read the sign and it didn't say it was a bike path. I think a little bit of ganja might've gone a long way toward that conclusion as well.

I have no idea if or how he get himself off of the path, but I continued on my merry way home. Less than a mile later I came around a corner and almost ran into a cop car, also driving down the path. The officer warned me of a drunk and disorderly transient ahead of me who had passed out across the path and somebody had taken a magic marker to his face and tied his shoelaces together. Apparently he was combative enough that the officer couldn't get him to let him help untie the shoes. So he warned me that he might still be in the path. Luckily he was off to the side by the time I cruised cautiously by. Luckily there were no more strange encounters for the rest of my ride!

Stronger Bike = Stronger Run

I was talking to a triathlon friend and amazing athlete yesterday who has put up some very impressive times this year (and PRs even), especially on the triathlon run. He was talking about everything he did to improve his run, on the bike. Yep, on the bike. More biking, more intense biking, more biking with fast people. And when you can bike strong and still have legs left, you can run fast. That's the bottom line, your bike controls your run.

So I was thinking about my triathlon this weekend, how disappointed I was in my run performance. Yeah yeah, I know I had a pretty good race overall and was pleased with my results, but after every race I'm really looking for the take-aways, what can I do to get better? Especially when one segment falls short like my run did this time. I mean I'm never a very fast runner, but 27:27 for the 5k run segment is 2.5 minutes off of my normal sprint distance run time. That's almost a minute per mile. So clearly I did something wrong. Part of it was definitely that my left glute/hamstring was locking up on me, but I've run through stuff like that before and still performed decently.

So after talking with Andy yesterday, it dawned on me: part of the reason I'm running slow is that I have no biking base. And of course I have no biking base because I broke my arm in February and wasn't on the bike for a couple of months. Who would've thought a broken arm would mess up my run? But clearly, I don't have the biking legs right now to put forth a strong run in a triathlon, even though my standalone 5k time right now is faster than it was last year when I ran a faster sprint triathlon 5k. That's one thing I love about this sport, no matter how long you've been doing it, there's always more to learn. I'm grateful that I have some awesome athletes around who are endeavoring to take their performance to the next level, and I can learn so much from them.

Now, before I tackle an Oly distance this year, I clearly have get my biking back up to par. Onwards!

Blue Lake Triathlon: Day in Pictures

Race Report: Blue Lake Sprint

The short version: Lots of fun, great friends, awesome weather (in a month marked with horrible drenching rains), a muddy course with long transitions, and a fairly well executed race for me (except for a surprisingly slow run). 2nd place in AG, 5th overall woman. Woohoo!

This was the first race of the season for me, due to breaking my arm earlier this year. Normally I'd do a spring sprint, one of the many in this area that are usually an indoor pool swim. I haven't done a sprint with an open water swim in a few years, so this was fun. Two of our folks from our garage gym were going to do this race as their first triathlon, as well as one of my Master's swimmers. So we've been going up to the lake (mostly in the cold, rain, and wind) in the last couple of weeks to make sure everyone was comfortable with wet suits, open water, and to do some transition practice and brick workouts. I think that really paid off as everyone had a terrific and relaxed swim (and if you read first-timer race reports, the open water swim is usually the worst part).

Three of us went up to Portland the night before in our VW camper van and camped out in some friends' backyard who live a few miles from the race start. We had dinner and played a fairly complex board game called HansA Teutonica (if watching this video about how to play doesn't make your head spin, I'm not sure what will!). That definitely took our minds off of getting nervous about race day (probably mine more than anyone else's because they are all much more into gaming than I am, and probably didn't find the game as overwhelming to keep track of as I did)

Race Day was a little crazy because we have had SO MUCH RAIN here (I'm not kidding, I went to take my dogs for a hike on a local trail and the ENTIRE FOREST was underwater and looked like a bayou) that the grassy field where they normally have race day parking was a mud bog. So they had to set up an alternative parking area at the very last minute and have shuttle busses bring us in on race day morning. Also, the grassy areas you run through in transition were also muddy boggy slicks, which led to a lot of discussion about which is worse: keeping your bike shoes on your bike, running through transition in bare feet and then trying to stuff your completely mud-covered feet into your bike shoes; or running in your bike shoes and filling your cleats with mud and grass. Tough Choice.

Still, although it has rained non-stop for a fortnight or so, race day dawned clear and absolutely beautiful. Lucky lucky us! We set our alarms for 4:45 and got up early enough to get to the shuttle parking at 6:00 am in time for the first busses. That left us with a very relaxed pace for our pre-race preparations. Unfortunately, athletes were still arriving and trying to get shuttles right up until race start time and the race was delayed. But not by too much and from that point on most of the race went as planned.

The waves were small, about 50 people each, with 3 minutes in between each. Carrie went first and I actually cried as I watched her start swimming with her wave. This time last year she could barely swim, and not with her head in the water. She has worked so very hard and has become a very proficient swimmer. Mastering the open water swim was a huge achievement and it was cool to see her passing people!

I didn't get to see Devlin start as I couldn't pick him out in his wave once all of the black wetsuited folks were in the water with the same caps on. But I was hoping he was off to as good a start as Carrie was, then it was my turn to start getting warmed up.

Compared to what we've been swimming in, the lake was warm (about 67 degrees I think) and pleasant. I had taken my bike out for a warmup and gotten some running strides in. My left hamstring/glute still felt very tight from the car ride up from Eugene. The VW van has the WORST seats of any vehicle and for some reason the driver's seat always bothers my left hip. I was hoping the leg would relax during the swim.

They called my wave and it was into the water for a swimming start. In the front of the wave, the horn goes off and we start swimming. There was one other gal who went out fast, and in retrospect I should've gotten right on her toes because she just kept getting faster. Usually people who start fast peter out quick but she never did. Still, I was going out smooth and with all of the slower people in the water from the waves ahead of us, I lost track of her. At one point, some woman swimming double-arm backstroke (no kidding!) swam right in front of me going completely perpendicular to the swim course! It took me by surprise as she just appeared out of nowhere and I swam completely over the top of her. Tons of people were swimming backstroke, sidestroke, stopping and treading water in place. Wow, lots of unprepared swimmers out there.

In retrospect I should've taken the swim a little faster. My last few open-water triathlons have been Olys or Half-Irons and I think that was what was in my mind for pacing. As I rounded the final buoy and looked toward the arch, I said a mental "Shit! It's over already? I feel way too fresh!" I definitely wasn't swimming hard enough for a sprint. My watch said 11:50 as I got out of the water. Not as fast as I would've liked.

The race officials had warned us over and over not to try running into transition because it was a mud/grass slick and so not wanting to fall on my ass I tried to just walk pretty fast and run where it looked dry enough. Uneventful transition, everything went smooth. I decided to opt for putting my shoes on in transition and taking my chances with the mud in the cleats. It was a long chute through the grass/mud to run with the bike. As I mounted my bike I looked at my watch: 14:50. Almost a three minute transition, shit! Much longer than I've done at this course before, but I think everybody's T1 was slow due to the mud.

Luckily, the mud didn't throw my cleats off as I was able to easily clip in and pedal away. One more thing that I have not been used to is biking on a crowded course with so many beginner triathletes. This race is heavily peppered with beginners, so the course was a bit like playing Frogger on a bicycle. Still, it was sunny, most of the athletes were doing a good job of keeping out of each other's way as much as possible, and I picked up the pace to about 21.5 or so and started cruising toward the turnaround. The only eventful thing that happened on the bike was a small altercation with a local roadie. This road cyclist entered the course, and then decided to pedal along way over to the left, essentially creating a situation where you would have to pass him on his right in order to get by him. Unfortunately, if the race officials see you doing that, it's an automatic DQ. Not good. So I got near enough to him and hollered out "Hey, can you please move to the right so I can pass?" Well, if there's one thing a snobby roadie hates worse than a triathlete, it's apparently a female triathlete trying to pass him. So he sped up and said "I'm not in the race, just go around me". I hollered out that I couldn't, the race rules state that you can't pass anyone on the right. He could care less, he was going to hang out there and said so. I had to squeeze past him on the left, being careful not to cross the center line (another DQ-able offense). What a jerk. Other than that, the last half of the bike course went pretty smoothly. I downed a chocolate Accel Gel about 15 minutes from T2, which I had picked up just the day before and never tried. I have to say it was darned tasty! Probably the best gel I've had. Normally I hate the things, but that was okay.

Into T2 at somewhere around 49:00 (I think, I forgot to look at my watch), for a 34:00 to 35:00 bike. Right in my usual ballpark. Uneventful T2, managed to avoid slipping in mud. Into my lovely purple Nike Frees and off through the slip-n-slide and onto the run course. It was about 51:00 when I went through the timing mats and onto the run. I was hoping it would be under 50:00 at that point, but the extra transition time was adding up. I like the run course at this race since it just winds through the park and is very pretty. Some of it is out and back so you get a look at the other runners as well. I finally spotted Carrie coming towards me on the run and she looked like she was running well and smiling big. I knew she was just about a mile from finishing and having a great time, so I was really happy about that. I never spotted Devlin on either the out-and-back bike or on the run, but we must've gone past each other somewhere out there. Too many people made it hard to tell.. As for me, my run wasn't going so hot, my left hamstring was really locking up and the left leg felt kind of numb. So it was just about picking them up and putting them down and trying to finish it out. Fortunately, a sprint is short, but I didn't feel like I was able to get any running speed (well, not that I usually have much in the way of running speed, but I usually have more than that!)

The last bit of the run goes along the lake, very scenic. Then you turn into the chute and it's done. I forgot to stop my watch, but it was somewhere around 1:18. A very slow run, 27:30 - almost a 9 minute mile pace, yuk! I was a bit disappointed, I was definitely thinking I'd need under 1:18 to place in my age group, just based on past years' results. Fortunately, the muddy transitions slowed everyone down and I think the times this year were a bit slower overall as a result. So when I went to the results tent to look up my finishing time, I was really shocked to see that my name was pretty close up to the top of the list. Looking closer, only four women finished ahead of me, one of them in my age group. So that gave me a 2nd AG, 5th place overall women's finish. Wow, all of a sudden my race looked a lot better! I still wish I could've avoided the poor showing on the run, although to be honest it wouldn't have given me the age group win. I think the woman who out-swam me just kept getting faster and beat me by a few minutes. Three of the four women ahead of me in the race were over 40 - one in my AG and two in the 45 - 49! Damn, these women just keep getting faster, it's harder to place in the 45 - 49 than it is in the 25 - 29 AG in most races. Tough!

Overall, my peeps had terrific races. Mitch picked up 3rd in his AG, Devlin came in 6th in his, and Carrie 15th in hers. For first-time triathletes, that's a very impressive showing! They were all trained up, well-prepared, and confident. They put in the time to really get themselves ready for this race and it showed. Best of all, they really enjoyed themselves out there. I love seeing the excitement when people finish their first race, and this one definitely had lots of happy first-time triathletes hanging out at the finish. Overall, it's a terrific and well-organized race. The race directors did a great job of dealing with a potential snafu (parking suddenly not available) and getting it all taking care of. The shuttles got everyone back to the parking lots and it was time to head for home (with a side trip to Red Robin for a burger and a chocolate malt.)

Shoe Problem: Solved! Nike Free Shoe Review

Remember my shoe dilemma? Solved! I was worrying that I run much better in my Vibram FiveFingers shoes but that they're too hard to deal with in transitions. So I decided to go check out the Nike Frees that I've been hearing about. As soon as I put them on, I loved them. Okay, that's a lie. As soon as I SAW them I loved them because they are PURPLE BABY! PURPLE! Purple is my fave-o color and these are way way purple. But aesthetics aside, when I put them on they felt light as a feather and very very flexible, you can literally bend them in half. These are the Nike Free Run version, which is about a 2.9 on their scale (2.0 being the most flexible, most barefoot-like, 9.0 being the least). I bought them on the spot (luckily, a gift certificate to the running store went a long way to offsetting the cost, although they are not expensive in the way that the Newtons are, they're in line with most running shoes price-wise).

One run in these babies and I was SOLD. They're not quite like the barefoot-feeling FiveFingers, but they are as close as you can come in something you don't have to squeeze over each individual toe. Some transition practice confirmed that they are not only simple to get in and out of (no tongue, for one thing), but the way the interior is designed with no decorative stitching means that they are the most comfortable shoe I've encountered for going sockless in. Perfect for the sprint triathlon! I've done everything from track work to an 11-mile hilly trail run in them and these shoes are solid gold. Light, comfortable, bendable, breatheable, and as close to barefoot as you can get in a running shoe.

The only caveat would be that if you're used to standard cushioned running shoes, take it easy getting used to these babies. You may need to build up foot and calf strength to handle a big mileage load.

Now I'm off to stuff my gear in the van, hope everyone has a wonderful weekend. It's racing time!

Trunk Transitions

Let's say you need to practice transitions, but you don't have someone to stand guard over your precious bike while you run. You could do it in your garage but it's too crowded (or like me, you live on a big hill and don't feel like doing hill repeats!). One solution is the Trunk Transition. Drive to a location where you can easily bike/run (I choose a parking lot that's adjacent to the bike path), and lay out your transition gear in your trunk or the back of your minivan, SUV or truck. For me, I just fold the back seat of the van flat and then I can even roll the bike right in there while I'm out running. Then I do a set of three reps of 10 minutes on the bike and 5 minutes running. When I'm done, I've gotten a quick 45 minute workout with 5 transitions. This is a great workout to throw into the beginning of your taper!

Speaking of which, I'm packing up for the first Sprint of the season this weekend. The thing I'm most excited about is the fact that our unending unceasing ridiculous dumpings of torrential rain are actually supposed to stop for a couple days and the weather will be nice. Hallelujah! We have gotten more rain the 1st three days of June than we normally get all month. No kidding! I went to take the dogs for a walk in the forest down by the river today and THE ENTIRE FOREST IS UNDER WATER. I wish I'd had my camera. It looked like a bayou with trees sticking out of the water. Wild.

In any case, I've got my checklist out, and am packing things up and checking them off as I go. I feel really really good about this race. I feel rested, tapered, trained, like everything feels just right. So I'm very excited! And I have some first-time triathletes to cheer on and I'm even more excited for them. I think I've decided to wear the Pointy Helmet of Speed even though I feel like a dork wearing it and it's a sprint race. But sometimes it's a windy course, so it might help me out just a little bit. Oh well, if you don't look like a dork sometimes in life, you're not really living.