By this time of the year, I usually have 3 or so triathlons under my belt already. It was an odd feeling coming into this weekend having volunteered at more events than I raced. Watching my friends race (and podium!) weekend after weekend made me want to pull my hair out because I wanted to be there at the local races, representing my teams and bringing home the hardware. But it was an itch to not be scratched. It was like poison ivy rash!
Besides wanting to race alongside friends and show how dangerous having a coach and consistent purposeful training has made me, I wanted to podium so Team Zoot, Bike Barn, and Pacific Health Labs won't regret having me represent them. I also needed to 'pad my resume' in case I have to (re)apply to triathlon teams for 2015. In what has been a very quiet year for me, local triathlons would give me the best shots at podiums, hence why I was itching like crazy to race. But I held back because I had other plans in mind. Bigger plans.
With a schedule full of 70.3s, Ironman, and Nationals, top finishes are not expected. It's more of a PR race for me. Until I'm good enough, that is. But that's what this entire year is about. Bigger races. Bigger dreams. Bigger risks.
Shadow Creek Ranch Triathlon was a tune-up race for Age Group Nationals in 27 days. I had recently retested with coach (which I finally passed!), and I needed to get used to my new zones, especially the higher zones since my next few races are short and fast. So the past two weeks, my training plan included a few sessions of Zone 3 and Zone 4 on the bike and swim and Zone 2 on the run. These were a HUGE difference from my base training Zone 1 that was prepping me for Ironman Texas next year. Nevertheless, I took on the challenge and enjoyed the break from the monotonous Zone 1 :)
The enjoyment ended soon as I forgot how much it hurt to go fast. You have to become comfortable with being uncomfortable. Feel the burn, and find the fuel within yourself to keep the fire ablaze. The race plan set by coach was to 'redline' it the entire way. What does he mean by that?
"Race like you stole something."
"But I've never stolen anything."
"Pretend the cops are after you."
"But.."
"Just push hard every leg. Be prepared to hurt the entire race. Zone 4 all way, you'll be redlining it. Save nothing."
Hurt, I understood. Redlining, I feared. Save nothing, I what!? But challenge accepted.
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| I should've known better than to ask Tim to mark me with race numbers :P |
Swim (500m)
I had an excellent pre-race swim Friday and was ready to drop a few minutes off my previous swim time. Warm-up went well, and I was roaring to go. Once the race started, I immediately began to motor my way through the water, and it. felt. freaking. great. Smooth and effortless. Okay, not that effortless just yet, but it was significantly easier! Once I got clear of packs and the racers were strung out, I got into a good rhythm and was starting to reel competitors in. Three quarters through the swim, I noticed my heart rate was pretty high, and despite supposedly racing by redlining, I didn't want to redline in the swim and not make it to T1, so I took it down a notch. After getting out of the water, I glanced at my watch and saw that I had slowed down too much. Argh!
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| Upset and on a mission to make up time. Grrrr! PC: Nicole Lamb |
T1: I zoomed through T1. By zoom, I mean, I freaking blazed through there. I was out by 32.9 seconds! This was by far my proudest moment of the entire race because I practiced my bike transitions Saturday afternoon until I got it right. Tim even sat out in the humid heat to make sure I didn't crash and get hurt.
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| Moments later, I was down the street while some were still clipping in :) PC: Brenna Matejka |
My cycling shoes were already clipped in, and all I had to do was run my bike out of transition, hop on, and go! Next up is learning how to superman the bike - jump/fly on while running. :) I'd love to get my T1 time well below 30 seconds.
Bike (17 miles)
My favorite leg of every race :) Redlining wasn't so bad on the bike. My breathing was better, so I was able to handle the hard effort. It was difficult to hold 200 watts consistently due to the nature of the course (2 turn arounds, 3 turns) and the wind. Every time I got into a good rhythm, it was time to slow down and change directions again. Boo. But I still managed to pull out an awesome bike split.
17 miles, 44:52.8, 22.7 mph
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| No caption needed ;) I'm just going to keep looking even better and faster on the bike! PC: Philip Shama |
Midway through the bike, which is where I usually tell myself to hold back and save something for the run, I told myself to keep pushing. This was a learning race, and I needed to learn to redline and save absolutely nothing. I needed to suffer. For some reason, the only competitor's calf I looked at was on the back stretch of the second lap, and I saw that she was in my age group. I blew by her with an extra boost of watts to try to mess with her mentally.
Keep pushing. Make her fear you. Create a big gap now, and she'll have to work hard to hunt you down on the run. You got this. She can't catch you. Maybe she's not even a runner.
But I'm not a runner eith-
Shut up! You are today.
Oh, the race thoughts that go inside my head.. I managed to average 190W comfortably. I will definitely need to put in more work before Nationals so it'll feel even easier.
T2: I'm pretty proud of this one too since the last time I tried a shoeless ejection, my right little toe got caught between tire spokes and ripped, making the run a bloody mess. My timing chip didn't register my T2 time (too fast!!?) but I'm sure it was a PR! Not only that, the other first was that there were absolutely no bikes on my rack or any of the racks in my vicinity. WHAT?! I left T2 with a huge grin on my face.
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| No toes were harmed with this smooth and quick T2! PC: Tim Miller |
Run (3.2 miles)
I was in high spirits. I had pushed hard on the bike, and my legs were still feeling great coming into the run. Coach said redlining the run was a sub 7:00 pace. Yeah, I gave him that same look you have right now when he said that to me O_o. I had a hard time holding a sub 9 pace during the week due to illness, so I came in with very little confidence to hold a sub 7 pace, but I had to just give it a shot.
Redlining on the run lasted only 0.2 miles. Goodness gracious. The legs felt good, it was the lungs. That doesn't mean my cardio sucks, it's that I use my lungs poorly at higher efforts (shallow breathing). Coach and I have known this for a while, and I now have a device to help me utilize my entire lung capacity while training and racing at higher intensities, so I can get enough oxygen delivered for the effort at hand and not fatigue as fast. Just like any other muscle, the lung needs to be trained too!
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| Pace drop says it all. Ouch. Need lung training! |
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| Redlining hurts. This is precisely why I prefer 70.3s and Ironmans! |
I had to slow down so I could get my bearings back, and once I found the most uncomfortable pace that I could sustain safely, I locked into that cadence and just hoped that the finish line would appear soon. Any competitor ahead of me probably felt like they were at a bull fight, because it definitely sounded like a snorting toro was behind them. Goodness gracious, I cannot wait to get my deeper breathing down so I can attack silently!
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| So spent. Was counting down the 0.01 miles to the finish. PC: Tim Miller |
3.2 miles, 25:55, 7:51min/mile, AVG HR: 198bpm!
Finish
After two consecutive years of coming in second at this race, I got first in my age group! I also managed to cut another few minutes off my time, but the most shocking result of the day was winning my age group by 6 minutes. That's a massive margin for a sprint race. Crazy!
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| Winner winner got a nice fried chicken dinner! (I really did.) |
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| KT making a reference to Karen's Half Ironman T1 earlier this year.. :) |
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