This morning I woke up at 3:45, left the house at 4:15, dropped off shoes at the downtown transition area then headed to Alum Creek for the start of the event. However, I forgot my banana and the pre-race gel…so I made an unplanned stop at Giant Eagle (chosen over Meijer or Walmart because they were a race sponsor) for a banana and some PowerBar Power Blas Gels. With that sorted away, I headed toward transition to set things up. Once setup, I got my pre-race run in and time was tight. I really wanted to do the Swim with Tracy warm-up, but needed to get my run in. I then slipped into my wetsuit and got in a prerace swim. Not the swim I wanted to get in, but I was able to get in, acclimate to the water temp (72 degrees and warmer than the air temp), and get some good fatleks in before the race.
I saw some friends, teammates, and my previous swim coach before getting my stuff in a bag and leaving it by a flag for Tricia and the kids to pick up. By this time the Pro Men were in the water and I would be racing within 10-15 min. I hadn’t seen Tricia and the kids, but I enjoyed the atmosphere of the race and stayed focused. This year…This year would be DIFFERENT. I knew I would own the swim. Before I started, I saw another friend/teammate and we talked about no matter what this would be a PR for me. I’ve never completed an Olympic distance triathlon (1500m swim, 40k bike, and a 10k run).
Swim:
I was on deck! A quick look around and I still didn’t see the family. I learned later that they were running to the beach at this time and would see me enter the water. 10…9…8…7…6…5…4…3…2…GO! The 30-35, Cydesdales (That’s me) and another group were off. I didn’t toe the line…hanging back a bit since I was looking for my support team, but I also wanted to pass people and have practice in the mass swim start. I was supposed to go out with a 200m sprint, and while I went out with focus…I’m not sure I’d call it a sprint. Before we got to the first buoy I was full on in the mass start and passing people as soon as I caught them. I was actually disappointed that we all had the same color cap, no colors to count. Heading north, I found my pace and tried to remember to kick, but at this point I kept the kick light. I wanted to pick up speed on the second lap. When I got to the first turn buoy, I was smack in the middle of 2 other people with one really trying to get the inside position. I kept up the pace and was determined to keep my spot and press forward. I made one more turn and was heading south. By this time, by wave had thinned out and I was catching people from a previous wave. I kept my sights on the turn buoy and just kept swimming smooth. Then I saw them, there was a wave starting and they would be in my space when I hit the turn buoy. I already had the inside position, so I was determined to keep it, and I did. As I met the wave, I found out it was a female wave and there was a pretty strong swimmer next to me. I kept my position and started to kick a bit stronger, as it was time to cut some time off this swim. Heading north I realized that the distance between 5 min alerts on my watch was growing and I THOUGHT if I push like I planned, I might only hear 3 alerts and finish this swim in less than 20 min. I focused on my kick and getting the most out of my body roll as well as swimming faster than the girl next to me. I watched her stroke and she was taking 1.5-2 strokes for every one of mine. We got to the turn and I kept my inside position and that’s the last time I saw her. I was focused now on the buoys and getting to the beach before my 4th time alert. I got to the final turn buoy, turned in and focused on the body roll and getting as far inland as possible…and I wondered if the beach would ever come. Finally my hands touched the bottom, and I popped up out of the water, knee deep, and ran toward transition. I heard my family, said something to them, and looked at my watch. I forget if it was 19:10 or 19:30…but either way…I just finished an Olympic swim in less than 20 min. Last year…I never completed the sprint swim. What a difference a year makes!
Swim Time: 20:13 (1/5 in Clydesdale)
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| Amazing feeling coming out of the water and MOST of the bikes are still there! |
Transition seemed slow, but I was methodical and purposeful. Got my socks on, shoes on, dried off a bit, grabbed everything and threw it in the bag, and put my glasses on…the instantly fogged. I took them off and put them on one of my bike cables. I put on my helmet and took off running. All the while I hear Chase in the background…Go Dad, Go Dad. I really wanted to turn around and say…”I’m going!”
Transition Time: 3:00
The Bike:
This is where my race really began, where my big experiment started. My goals, push the bike, but do it differently than I did last month. This month, I wanted to finish the bike segment with a high cadence, and I wanted to drink and drink often. Once I got on the bike, I worked to put my sunglasses on before we made the left turn out of Alum. I was kind of disappointed with the course change, as I wouldn’t be able to ride out the hill on Lewis Center drive since we had to turn half way down the hill. I’m not going to get into a lot of specifics on the bike, but it was fun and fast. The first 6 miles I think were harder than last year, but that is just from viewing the course differences from a car, as I didn’t have to ride those 6 miles last year. I used my gears on the hills....small gears on the ascents, big gears on the descents and kept the pedals moving. I ended the bike with an average cadence of 92 rpm. This was a stark contrast to the sprint last month where I averaged 80 rpm. I also set my watch to alert me every 4 min rather than every 5 min. This allowed me to take the same size of of drinks but more often and get the calories in that I needed to. I felt like I was pushing the bike, but a push that was sustainable.
I used Roctane/CarboPro for my nutrition. I originally planned to go with 340 calories per hour, BUT I messed up my bottle and put in 2 scoops of CarboPro first (200 calories) then my Roctane (240 calories). I wanted a flavor consistent with what I would experience at Rev3 so I went with 8 ounces of water. 440 Calories in 8oz of water. I froze this over night so it would be melted but cold for the ride. I also froze a half of a bottle of water. In the morning I added the rest of the water to the water bottle, about 22 oz. Then added about 10oz to the nutrition bottle to get me 30oz of water. This also diluted the Roctane a bit, but saved me from adding another bottle to the bike for 10oz.
I thought my nutrition plan would work...it was just making it my job on the bike to get the fluid into my body. This was the prep, for the BIG experiment on the run! I measured the remaining liquid in the bottles, I had 4oz of Roctane/CarboPro come back. With 440 calories in 18oz of water (after I added water in the morning), that comes up with 24 calories per ounce. About 97 calories was not drank, and that put me right at the originally planned 340 calories per hour. Of the 22oz of water, 7 ounces was not drank, I got in 15 ounces of water in my body, and if you add the extra 10 ounces that I added to the nutrition bottle, then I probably got around 20-22 ounces.
Bike Time: 1:07.56 (21.9 mph) (3/5 in Clydesdale -- 2nd place as a relay member maybe)
Bike-to-Run Transition:
Last year this was tougher, but since I was at the T2 area earlier in the morning, by shoes were not in a bag, but out and ready. I put my back tire into the rack, put the helmet and glasses down, slipped on my shoes and grabbed my race belt, my visor, and I as off. Running out of T2 I saw some very familiar faces and that was GREAT!
T2 Time: 1:22 -- A minute faster than my closest Clydesdale
The Run:
This is where everything I had done to this point was going to prove to pay off or if I had made mistakes in my first 2 disciplines. My goal was to run as fast or faster than my pace that I ran at the sprint last month. Last month I ran a 9:18/mi 5k...this race day I wanted to run a faster pace for twice the distance. The weather was cooler, and I had set myself up great for the run. I high cadence on the bike as well as more appropriate nutrition and water intake. I was feeling good immediately after the bike. Well except that I forgot to tighten my lock laces in T2, so I stopped quickly to do that!
I planned out my run nutrition with AdvoCare Rehydrate (120 Calories) and CarboPro (100 Calories)...I froze half that in an INSULATED bottle and added the rest of it in the morning. That insulated bottle might have been a mistake. My nutrition was a slushy, a thick slushy. Not what I was planning on, but I could get some out of the bottle and I figured it would melt at a faster pace now that I was holding it.
I normally run by HR, but the night before the race, I took off all HR information from he display screen on my watch. I simply had current pace and average pace. I ran by feel and looked at the watch every once in a while to make sure I was still on track to reach my goal. At times 8:45/mi pace felt great, then I’d get to a small rolling hill and that would slow me down, and I’d have to pick it up again on the way back down the hill. I’d look down and I would be doing 10:00/mi and I would push it harder. I wasn’t going to miss my goal!
I got to the 10k turn around and Lauren Updyke was heading into the turn around, and as she came up on me she gave me some encouraging words. I used those words to remind me to find my limits and push through them. Then I started seeing teammates on the way to meet up with the 5k route, I think I saw 5-7 teammates and that made it so much better and at that time I was GLAD that I chose Rev3 over Deer Creek for my 1/2 Ironman title race. Seeing my teammates there would be great.
With only 5k to go, I wanted to pick things up and try to negative split this run; however, the second part of this course has some long inclines and at one point, I think near mile 4.5 I started to feel like the slushy nutrition was not working with me. At this point I figured I only has 15 minutes left in the run and I didn’t need the nutrition. It was better NOT to puke than to puke. I started throwing water on my head at the water stops. I figured this would keep my body heat down and it would be something I’ll do at Rev3.
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| Turning to give my family a sweaty high 5! |
As I crossed the finish line, I jumped in excitement. I had just finished my first Olympic triathlon, not as a finisher, but as a competitor. I felt like I had a great shot at placing in the clydesdale division, and more importantly I achieved my goal and averaged a 9:08 on the run. I also found a nutrition plan that should work at Rev3, at least for the bike...the run plan still needs some help!
Run Time: 56:36 (2/5 in Clydesdale)
Total Time: 2:29.06 (2nd Place Clydesdale 1)
I originally wrote the swim part of this recap as I was watching many people including my coach and some teammates finish Ironman Lake Placid, then I finished up the recap on the way to Cedar Point as Tricia drove. While at Cedar Point standing in line, I thought more about this race. I thought I needed to jot down some overall thoughts...not just the thoughts around each discipline. My coach speaks of owning your time, and having no regrets. I went into this event not knowing what to expect, small changes have BIG consequences in this sport, and I was changing some small things with my nutrition, and this was the first time I had gone this distance. I expected a strong swim, I expected a strong bike, I hoped for a strong run. After my swim, and bike, while I was running out to the first turn around, I saw some athletes absolutely killing the run. I could see their determination, their drive, the discomfort, the pain...I didn’t feel like I looked like that. At the time, I was OK with that...I was OK with where I was. Looking back on the race, it was successful, and I do own my time. I don’t have any regrets. However, when I read my schedule and it mentions running at OLY race pace, it’s not 9:08 pace...It needs to be more like a 8:45 pace. I need to work on the run, I need to get faster, I want to get faster. I won’t stop working on the swim or bike, but over the last 8 months...I’ve been focused on getting better on the swim, and getting better on the bike. I’ve been complacent with the run. Now that I have confidence that I can get to the run and be strong, it’s time to work with coach and focus on the run. It may wait till the season is over, but next year I want to be competitive in my run.
