Belews Lake International Race Recap

I didn't think this race all the way through when I signed up.  I just knew I wanted to get some good open water racing experience in at least once this season before collegiate national championships.  I left Friday afternoon right after finishing my internship on the long drive to Greensboro, NC.  I am not positively sure spending 6 hours in the car 12 hours before your race starts is not a good plan, but I had to do what I had to do.  I treated my self to dinner at Olive Garden when I was about 30 minutes from my hotel.  Though the Garden was packed I sat myself at the bar and got served immediately.  I continued onto my hotel (affordable thanks to USAT discount) satisfied with my meal but feeling stiff car legs and beginning to have doubts about this idea.

SATURDAY AM PRE-RACE

I woke up at 5:00 had Red Berries with banana and almond milk before reloading up the car and heading out to the race site in Stokesdale, NC.  Once at the site I went through packet pick-up, chip pick-up, and TA set up before taking a few minutes to look over the maps of the race course.  I had been so busy completing my internship and all the paperwork to go with it during the week leading up to the race that I didn't have a chance to look over the course before hand.  A triangle swim, a two loop bike, and a Lollipop 2 loop run.  Interesting.  Elevation - I had no clue.  The air temperature was cold about 50* most of the morning so I spent a good amount of time just trying to stay warm.

THE SWIM - 33:40
With the unusual style of an open water time trial start I had to wait 33:40 into the race before I started the swim.  This means I stood in my wetsuit, barefoot, and cold for about 35 minutes.  I chose not to do a swim warm-up as I would have had to get out of the water at 7:50 and stand around soaking wet for 44 minutes.  The water temperature was 66* - warmer than the air which felt nice when first getting in but once into the swim it began to feel cold.  I started next to another lady - as 2 athletes began every 10 seconds.  I did not like the time trial start approach.  I felt like I was swimming by myself the entire time, well I kind of was. I did not have a pack to try and keep up with.  Just me and the open water.  My sighting for the first 800 m was good.  I stayed tight to the bouy's and wasted no time or energy going off course.  The last 700m is a different story.  The bouy's were not in a direct line to the finish so it was in one's best interest to sight the finish and swim a straight line to the finish rather than hug the bouy's.  I caught myself swimming off course 2x - basically perpendicular to the course.  This could be a reason for the dismal time but I know that I need to push myself in the water.  I have the fitness, I need to be comfortable with a strong effort and get my time down to 27ish mintues.  Nothing great but enough not to keep me off the podium as most races.  Had I hit even 29 minutes in this swim I would have podiumed.    Interesting that my swim took 33:40 and I started 33:40 into the race - I hope there wasn't a timing mishap.

T1 - 2:30
I chose to wear my wetsuit in this swim.  The westuit came off easily for the most part, except my right ankle. I had to sit down to get the darn thing off the right ankle - it had gotten all folded over itself as I was trying to pull it off apparently.  This was the first time I ever had to sit down.  Other than that transition went smoothly. No wetsuit and I could probably know 1:00 off this transition time.

THE BIKE - 27 miles - 1:20:41
Just a bit longer than your standard Olympic distance course.  I did not know what to expect with the bike course as I had no time to drive the course.  Well mounting the bike was on an incline and the course started with a steep short climb.  You then continued to climb a long and steady ascent for the first 5-7 miles.  I didn't like this either - it felt so slow and it was hard to get the legs going.  After getting the legs spinning I finally found my rhythm around mile 10.  The back side of the loop was some rolling hills but on back, gritty, rough pavement.  The time trial start and the two loop bike made it really hard to judge where you were in relation to the competition.  I chose not to put my magnet on my race wheel and try racing without knowing my pace. Never again.  I like to know.  On loop one during a speedy section a man passed me on the left and just as he let me know he was passing there was a pothole in front of me.  I couldn't go around the pothole thanks to the passer and going off road didn't sound great either so I took the pothole like a champ and said some silent prayers that everything stayed in working order.  During the 2nd loop I chose to participate in the water bottle hand off for some pre IM practice.  It went smoothly and I put a little more water in my aerobottle.  I only rode with 1/2 a bottle of Gu Brew in my X-wing and water in my aerobottle to decrease necessary weight.  This was my best event of the day.  Considering the course and all the other factors I am proud of the bike.

T2 - 1:25
T2 went smooth for the most part.  The bike racks that were used were midget sized and even my midget bike would not fit under the bar so re-racking was a little difficult.

THE RUN - 10k - 52:29
Considering the less than optimal lead up to this race and the course this time wasn't bad.  5th in my AG which surprised because I felt like I was sucking it up.  The course was very hilly, painfully hilly.  Long steady climbs, steep climbs, and an odd setup which mentally was not cool.  Each time you passed the turn around point you had to collect a little rubber bracelet.  No one ever really checked that you had received 2 of the bracelets - people could have easily cheated.  One a nice course and in an A race this time needs to be below 47:00, but I am fully confident that it will be.  The aid stations were stocked with water and heed at about every mile.  Knowing what mile you were on was not easy there were signs every where stating mile 2, 3, 4, 5 and some weird mile sign with duct tape on it at some point between mile 2 and 3.  That one through me off because I thought I was at mile 3 when I passed it, but then later I passed another mile 3 sign.  Who knows.  At least the last 1/2 mile was all down hill into the finishing chute.  That felt good.

FINISH TIME: 2:50:43

POST RACE THOUGHTS

My initial thought was "wow, that was absolutely horrible".  I took some time to look over everything and all in all it wasn't that bad.  The swim needs to be better, the bike was good, and the run is fine for now.  There were no steller run times - I'd say all about 4-5 minutes slower the optimal due to the course.  I missed the podium by less than 4 minutes in my first race the more competitive 25-29 age group.  I am going to work on my swimming every day this week leading up to Collegiate National Championships and at least get comfortable pushing myself and "racing" the 1500m swim instead of just swimming comfortably.  I compared my time to my Luray Intl time from last year and saw that I bested that time by about 4 minutes on a similar style and distance course (and I took 1st at Luray).  Though Luray's run was not as harsh.  I stuck around for awards and ate some recovery food before subjecting myself to a 5 hour drive.  I am looking forward to Collegiate National Championships.  It will be a good experience with great competition and an awesome course to see what I can do on.

 Triathlon Saturday.  Duathlon Sunday.  Marathon Monday.  I'm not partaking in the marathon but other than that what a weekend to kick off multisport season.

Did you have any races this weekend?  How did they go?

Race Ready...Or Not

Friday the 13th is a big day.  I will walk out of my 3rd and final full time internship of PT school and shortly after hit the road to kick off my multisport season.  Saturday I will race at Belews Lake International Triathlon outside of Greensboro, NC and Sunday I will be back in GA for the PT Solutions Cartersville Duathlon.  Am I ready?

Mentally:  I am ready to race.  I've logged the miles, I've hit the track, the hills, the long rides, the lactate threshold workouts, pool swims, group rides, etc.  I will race myself into better fitness for the next 2 weeks and see where I can end up at USAT Collegiate National Championships.

Physically:  My bike is ready, my swim is as ready as it could be without training in open water or with a master's group.  I've logged 99.9% of my swim miles by myself so far this year.  I will join back up with the DC Tri Master's Swim program in just a couple weeks.  My swimming will get even better.  My Saturday race will be wetsuit legal with a time trial start.  The time trial start should help as long as people posted accurate times, but I'm started to think maybe they didn't.  I'm still nervous about the run but I will trust in the plan and learn from this first weekend of racing.

Everything Else:  The bike is ready to go.  It looks hot.  Really there's no other way to describe it.  Lee, from PTS Sports was an absolute gem with helping me get it race ready.  If I had the money I would hire him as a personal mechanic.  My wetsuit is in good condition.  I'm excited to try out the racing helmet and the Yankz are in the shoes.  

I am starting out the season with a double.  I'm probably crazy, but it's going to be an absolute blast and a great way to celebrate the end of student life.

Are you gearing up for any races this weekend or next?

Century Club

I've been getting in some quality long rides with short brick runs on Saturday's at the the Budweiser Plant in Cartersville, GA.  This weekend was my last chance to go long out there in the foreseeable future so you better believe I went long.  Even better I convinced Mary, 2-time IM and in training for IM Canada 2012, to join me in the suffer fest.  I wanted to get a 100 miler in before I really cut back and spend a few weeks focusing on Olympic distance racing in preparation for USAT Collegiate National Championships on April 21st.

Saturday was an early and long day.  We rolled out of the parking lot at 7:45 am - it was chilly creating a wardrobe catch 22 - we didn't want to freeze but we also knew we wouldn't be stopping by the cars to drop clothes off anytime during the ride so we would have to hold on to them or trash them if we brought them along.  We both started out in riding shorts and long sleeves.  After 15 or so miles I had mostly warmed up - except my feet.  Darn it toe covers, I always underestimate your importance.  I can't put into words how pretty and peaceful riding around this area is.  There is very light traffic, gorgeous horse farms, and beautiful views of the Blue Ridge Mountains.  There are also wonderful smells of chicken farms, a few long steady climbs, a couple short steep climbs, and lots of rolling hills.  This was my first attempt at 100 miles, my farthest ride had previously been 86 miles that I did out at the Bud Plant a few weeks earlier.

I didn't know what to expect with trying to ride 100 miles.  When most people find out I rode my bicycle (yes, 2 wheels, pedals, powered by my legs) 100 miles the response is, "I don't even like driving my car that far, let alone riding a bike, you must be crazy."  Well I am crazy, we all know that, but riding a bicycle 100 miles is awesome.  It's therapeutic, it's calming, it's a celebration of life, it's quality time getting to know your riding partner.  This was my first ride out of the Bud Plant with a partner - on previous rides I have met people on the route and ridden 20 or so miles with them before going our own ways.  Having a riding partner was great, I know in an Ironman I will be riding "alone" but not really, there will be 2500 other athletes on the same course.  We pushed each other, we encouraged each other, we laughed, we reminded each other to get nutrition in, and we had a good time.  One of the reasons for riding 100 miles was to really start to nail down my nutrition plan.  I started the ride off with a gel at hour 1 and hour 2, a had a peanut butter and honey Uncrustable at hour 3 and a Powerbar at hour 4.5.  I used water split with minimal powerade during the first part of the ride, then water, and then a bottle of Gu Brew for my liquids.  My stomach did well, I did not have any GI issues during the ride or after during my brick run.  I could have probably done 2 Uncrustables as it was tasty and easy to manage but so tiny, the fun was over too quickly.  To make our 100 mile ride we rode the 66 mile loop, the 31 mile loop and a short out and back to get the odometer to 100 before heading back to the cars.  There is a 100 mile route marked out but we have not heard great things about the roads so we thought the 2 shorter loops would be a wise decision.

Any liquid nutrition tips?  Have you tried Gu Brew?

Dad would have loved the Bud Plant rides.

Following the ride I took in some more fluids, packed the bike back into the car, and got into my running shoes.  I set out on my slightly over 4 mile brick run.  The first mile was hard, at least the weather was perfect.   The one thing I enjoy about brick workouts is my ability to hit my pace and keep it from the start of the run.  When I only run I tend to go out way too fast and have to reel myself in before I completely blow up.  After mile 1 my legs started to feel good and before I knew it I was at the turn around point and headed back toward the plant.  The run route I use is along the straight away that the cyclists are coming in on at the end of all the routes.  There is a steady flow of cyclists to motivate and encourage you along the way and the occasional 1 or 2 other runners enjoying a brick as well.  All in all the run was great - it was actually my fastest on this route out of the 3 brick workouts I have done there.

I wasted no time when I got back to my car and just drove home.  I stopped at the corner gas station to pick up two bags of ice so I could promptly begin an ice bath once home.  I drank chocolate milk, ice bathed, opened my thoracic spine up with my tennis ball trick, and all out recovered on Saturday afternoon.  Recovery did involve some school work - but never again - as I will no longer be a student in a very short time :)

Do you recover well after a long effort on the bike or run?  Do you ever have trouble sleeping after a long training day?

To my surprise I felt great on Sunday.  I wasn't sore at all and needed to get some energy out so I set up a practice area to go through my transitions.  With 100 miles behind my I will focus on Olympic distance for the next 2 weeks, and then drop my length of my rides a bit and build the length of my brick runs to be prepared for the Kinetic 1/2 in May.  Racing season is upon us and it kicks off this weekend for me with in Oly Tri on Saturday and a duathlon on Sunday.  My group ride this evening did show me that my legs are tired and I need more recovery and taper to perform my best this weekend.  But I have had a couple great run workouts both yesterday and today.

"I don't quit when I'm tired, I quit when I'm done."

Have you done any tri's or du's yet this year?  When does your multisport season kick-off?