Going into this race my goal was to be realistic with my expectations. Training has happened over the past few months, but not to the extent which would lead me to believe I am in peak race-shape. Work and life have taken a priority and it's been an adjustment period in my life in general. The longer stuff has been the focus, building a base to have a solid day at Lake Placid.
Realistic expectations = I thought around a 2:30-ish was possible. I try not to define my results based on time because every course and day is different, but based on last year's results and my current fitness, I figured:
25ish swim [predicting a swim time in triathlon always a total crap shoot bc every swim course is different and conditions vary so much - This was just a nice round number]
1:10ish bike
50ish run
5ish for transitions.
What I learned this weekend? Mind over matter. Despite a tough bike and a hillier run than I had expected, I crossed the line in 2:29:45. Spot on my pre-race prediction. Perhaps I should be a bit more aggressive with my goal in my next few races.
I was very pleasantly surprised with my swim. I'm so glad I got in the water the day before and also warmed up/swam around for about 5 minutes before our wave went off. The water was low 60s, which is just about perfect for open water racing in my opinion, but it's definitely a shock to the arms/face if you're not able to warm up. I got out strong and was around about 4-5 other pink caps (women 39 and under), but as we turned around the first buoy, many of the girls I was swimming with started swimming towards a smaller sighting-buoy [which had drifted way off course], and I made the decision to jump off the feet I was on and swim towards the next large turn buoy. I could see one pink swim cap up ahead, and one to my left - we swam side by side for a few stroke, and she dropped back and swam the last leg back of the swim on my feet. Seb yelled out I came out of the water 2nd female and I was so happy. My swimming motivation has been severely lacking this season, and I definitely have some work to do before Ironman, but I was very happy with this swim.
I came into transition and had grand plans to take my time in T1 to put on gloves, socks and arm warmers, but who was I kidding? No way could I let this girl beat me out of transition after swimming on my feet for 10+ minutes. So threw on my helmet and shoes, decided to ignore the cold and potentially frozen feet, and was onto the bike. She still beat me out of T1 (whomp whomp) and I never saw her again.
I focused on securing my shoes and getting my breathing under control the first few miles of the bike. I was passed almost immediately by the eventual overall female winner, and didn't see another OLY female for the rest of the bike. I went back and forth with a few men, and overall I have to say the men in this race were a very nice and supportive group! Never before in a race have I had so many men passing me on the bike saying things like "Great swim!" "Nice bike" "Go get it girl" etc. It was really nice motivation. I had a tough time finding a rhythm - there were punchy hills (nothing too long or steep, just lots of up and downs) and there was a constant headwind almost the ENTIRE ride. It was a 1 loop course, so I just kept thinking, we must eventually get a tailwind, but really, it felt like headwind the entire way. I tried to keep my intensity up, but felt like my legs just weren't responding and I couldn't keep my heart rate up.
I focused on taking in my full 280 calories bottle (Carbo Pro + Skratch) plus water but felt burp-y and on the edge of throwing up the entire ride. This is the second race in the past few weeks [including a DISASTROUS trail race with multiple bathroom stops and walk breaks due to stomach pain] where my stomach has been uncomfortable [I also had to pee so badly the ENTIRE run]. After NO stomach problems last year, it's time to revisit what I have changed and go back to whatever I was doing last year.
Off the bike in 4th overall, time for the true test. My running off the bike over the past few years in OLY has just not been where I wanted it to be. I had a long talk with my coach and mentally prepared myself for this to happen again. He has asked for me to remember that I am training for an IM marathon, not a fast 10k, and they are two very different things. He reminded me how great I felt during IM and that a rough 10k isn't indicative of how IM will go. I know all these things in the back of my mind, but after getting passed over and over again in OLY races in the past few years, it's hard to stay positive.
However, this race, my legs and head were in the race. I wore my garmin to keep check of my splits, but didn't obsess over pace. I felt strong and focused on keeping my HR in check running uphill and really working the downhills. It was a lollipop-type out and back and saw 1 and 2 out ahead, but never saw 3. I also never saw 5 running me down. She came up FLYING past around mile 4.5 or 5. My body felt good and I tried to respond for about 10 seconds, but I laughed and realized it wasn't happening (turns out she was running about a minute per mile faster than me). I didn't get discouraged and focused on finishing up strong.
Based on my watch, I knew I had come in right around 2:30 and was DONE when I finished. It's been a long time since I did an OLY when I really felt like I left it all out on the course and I was happy with the results. My swim time was around what I predicted, but I felt WAY better than I expected, my bike was a few minutes off and my run made me really happy.
I'm excited to have a short recovery week, lay it all out next weekend at the Kinetic Aquabike, then it's head down for a solid 8 weeks of strong training up to Lake Placid!
Realistic expectations = I thought around a 2:30-ish was possible. I try not to define my results based on time because every course and day is different, but based on last year's results and my current fitness, I figured:
25ish swim [predicting a swim time in triathlon always a total crap shoot bc every swim course is different and conditions vary so much - This was just a nice round number]
1:10ish bike
50ish run
5ish for transitions.
What I learned this weekend? Mind over matter. Despite a tough bike and a hillier run than I had expected, I crossed the line in 2:29:45. Spot on my pre-race prediction. Perhaps I should be a bit more aggressive with my goal in my next few races.
I was very pleasantly surprised with my swim. I'm so glad I got in the water the day before and also warmed up/swam around for about 5 minutes before our wave went off. The water was low 60s, which is just about perfect for open water racing in my opinion, but it's definitely a shock to the arms/face if you're not able to warm up. I got out strong and was around about 4-5 other pink caps (women 39 and under), but as we turned around the first buoy, many of the girls I was swimming with started swimming towards a smaller sighting-buoy [which had drifted way off course], and I made the decision to jump off the feet I was on and swim towards the next large turn buoy. I could see one pink swim cap up ahead, and one to my left - we swam side by side for a few stroke, and she dropped back and swam the last leg back of the swim on my feet. Seb yelled out I came out of the water 2nd female and I was so happy. My swimming motivation has been severely lacking this season, and I definitely have some work to do before Ironman, but I was very happy with this swim.
I came into transition and had grand plans to take my time in T1 to put on gloves, socks and arm warmers, but who was I kidding? No way could I let this girl beat me out of transition after swimming on my feet for 10+ minutes. So threw on my helmet and shoes, decided to ignore the cold and potentially frozen feet, and was onto the bike. She still beat me out of T1 (whomp whomp) and I never saw her again.
I focused on securing my shoes and getting my breathing under control the first few miles of the bike. I was passed almost immediately by the eventual overall female winner, and didn't see another OLY female for the rest of the bike. I went back and forth with a few men, and overall I have to say the men in this race were a very nice and supportive group! Never before in a race have I had so many men passing me on the bike saying things like "Great swim!" "Nice bike" "Go get it girl" etc. It was really nice motivation. I had a tough time finding a rhythm - there were punchy hills (nothing too long or steep, just lots of up and downs) and there was a constant headwind almost the ENTIRE ride. It was a 1 loop course, so I just kept thinking, we must eventually get a tailwind, but really, it felt like headwind the entire way. I tried to keep my intensity up, but felt like my legs just weren't responding and I couldn't keep my heart rate up.
I focused on taking in my full 280 calories bottle (Carbo Pro + Skratch) plus water but felt burp-y and on the edge of throwing up the entire ride. This is the second race in the past few weeks [including a DISASTROUS trail race with multiple bathroom stops and walk breaks due to stomach pain] where my stomach has been uncomfortable [I also had to pee so badly the ENTIRE run]. After NO stomach problems last year, it's time to revisit what I have changed and go back to whatever I was doing last year.
Off the bike in 4th overall, time for the true test. My running off the bike over the past few years in OLY has just not been where I wanted it to be. I had a long talk with my coach and mentally prepared myself for this to happen again. He has asked for me to remember that I am training for an IM marathon, not a fast 10k, and they are two very different things. He reminded me how great I felt during IM and that a rough 10k isn't indicative of how IM will go. I know all these things in the back of my mind, but after getting passed over and over again in OLY races in the past few years, it's hard to stay positive.
However, this race, my legs and head were in the race. I wore my garmin to keep check of my splits, but didn't obsess over pace. I felt strong and focused on keeping my HR in check running uphill and really working the downhills. It was a lollipop-type out and back and saw 1 and 2 out ahead, but never saw 3. I also never saw 5 running me down. She came up FLYING past around mile 4.5 or 5. My body felt good and I tried to respond for about 10 seconds, but I laughed and realized it wasn't happening (turns out she was running about a minute per mile faster than me). I didn't get discouraged and focused on finishing up strong.
Based on my watch, I knew I had come in right around 2:30 and was DONE when I finished. It's been a long time since I did an OLY when I really felt like I left it all out on the course and I was happy with the results. My swim time was around what I predicted, but I felt WAY better than I expected, my bike was a few minutes off and my run made me really happy.
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I'm excited to have a short recovery week, lay it all out next weekend at the Kinetic Aquabike, then it's head down for a solid 8 weeks of strong training up to Lake Placid!
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