Here's my Longhorn post-race post. If you're looking for something exciting and interesting to read, sorry.
Going into the race I accepted that no matter how good I felt in the training leading up to the race, it was very late in the season for me, and I had that dreaded burnt-out feeling. Option 'A' was I could pace myself in the race, maintain consistency, and hope to hold it all day. OR, I could go with option 'B' and acknowledge the fact that I might fall apart at any point in the race and I should go as hard as I could until I blow up. Option A was smart, logical, and the training I had done was optimal for it. I took option B. Everything went as planned...
The swim went well despite going into the race with a separated shoulder (AC joint, courtesy of Marty). Some pain on the bike lead to doing alot of the ride with one arm in the aerobars, bad arm in my lap. 8:30's on the run, 'nuff said. I finished, I was happy, I'm done for the season.
Winter plans include alot of running due to a long triathlon season of not feeling comfortable on the run, maybe a marathon or something. And I don't ride or swim in cold (sub 60) weather.
Tuesday, November 3, 2009
Monday, October 19, 2009
Longhorn 70.3
Yeah, it's time to start the annoying race-day count down again. Not really.
It's the end of Monday, race is Sunday, and I'm trying to convince myself I'm not ready so I have my ritualistic pre-race anxiety. Which isn't all that hard to do considering I'm not ready. (So far) My swim training is the same it always is, 8-10 weeks behind. Since school started- 2 months ago- I haven't had nearly enough time on the bike but all my long rides have been solidly reassuring, and the short stuff has all felt pretty good. Run wise I think I'm more prepared than I've been for previous 1/2 IM's. So we'll see. Unless it's cold and raining, then I know exactly how sunday is going to go :) I plan on getting a post-race up here mon/tues.
Aside from triathlon, I'm STILL a student getting my ass kicked by long commutes, early classes, and work overloads of stuff I usually don't understand. Nothing new.
This may seem like "George's complaint blog" but truth is I enjoy doing everything I do. Wether it's then and there, or what I get to walk away with . Let's hope Longhorn is one of those "then and there" experiences!
It's the end of Monday, race is Sunday, and I'm trying to convince myself I'm not ready so I have my ritualistic pre-race anxiety. Which isn't all that hard to do considering I'm not ready. (So far) My swim training is the same it always is, 8-10 weeks behind. Since school started- 2 months ago- I haven't had nearly enough time on the bike but all my long rides have been solidly reassuring, and the short stuff has all felt pretty good. Run wise I think I'm more prepared than I've been for previous 1/2 IM's. So we'll see. Unless it's cold and raining, then I know exactly how sunday is going to go :) I plan on getting a post-race up here mon/tues.
Aside from triathlon, I'm STILL a student getting my ass kicked by long commutes, early classes, and work overloads of stuff I usually don't understand. Nothing new.
This may seem like "George's complaint blog" but truth is I enjoy doing everything I do. Wether it's then and there, or what I get to walk away with . Let's hope Longhorn is one of those "then and there" experiences!
Tuesday, September 15, 2009
School, training, and Ironman champions
First things first, this past weekend was Ironman Wisconsin and Austin's own Brandon and Amy Marsh went up to rock the course. Brandon came in 9th pro (10th OA) and Amy WON! I wish I was capable of putting as much hardwork and dedication into training as they did and it was great to see it pay off for them.
Onto my less-eventful ramblings:
Baaaaack to school! Damnit. The past four weeks training hours have been almost entirely replaced by school hours, and I still hate it. The bright side is I'm pretty much done with the basic courses and the workload is alot less busy-work, but alot more real work. And I found out I'm not all that great in biology too. I've been squeezing in training in the evenings lately because of this new schedule and am threatening to start doing 5:45am swim workouts. We're even having a little cold front in Austin and I actually got cold during the long Sunday ride with T3-Suzanne, and I made sure to let her know by complaining a little....
This weekend is the Burnet Triathlon which I heard was full, but whoever's doing it I may see you out there! Also Red Licorice Events' "Dude Girl" triathlon at Pace Bend park is sunday, I won't be there.
Onto my less-eventful ramblings:
Baaaaack to school! Damnit. The past four weeks training hours have been almost entirely replaced by school hours, and I still hate it. The bright side is I'm pretty much done with the basic courses and the workload is alot less busy-work, but alot more real work. And I found out I'm not all that great in biology too. I've been squeezing in training in the evenings lately because of this new schedule and am threatening to start doing 5:45am swim workouts. We're even having a little cold front in Austin and I actually got cold during the long Sunday ride with T3-Suzanne, and I made sure to let her know by complaining a little....
This weekend is the Burnet Triathlon which I heard was full, but whoever's doing it I may see you out there! Also Red Licorice Events' "Dude Girl" triathlon at Pace Bend park is sunday, I won't be there.
Tuesday, August 11, 2009
My eventful weekend
Saturday morning I was up early for the ATC saturday ride. Feeling good and nothing else going on that weekend I went all out and A-Packed with Grant and Carlos to the point where I was waiting my my legs to explode. I got back to the shop feeling the wasy I usually do after the ride- wobbly, overheated, and immensely dehydrated. Then I got a call from C-May asking if we would get up at 4am the next day and go to San Antonio for the State TTT Championship. That sucked. I said yes, that sucked more. Had a few beers that night, got to sleep not early enough. Up at 3:30 sunday and couldn't wake up. I tried a redbull, that didn't do much so I jumped in the shower... with the redbull, that helped. Threw on the ATC Racing kit, loaded my stuff, and met everyone at Corey's by 5. We parked, did the regular pre-race runthrough, and left for the start-line to avoid pulling a "Darragh" (show up 2-3 minutes late). With no warm-up, atrocious caloric intake, and a complete lack of TTT practice we rolled into the start tent and waited for the gun. The first couple miles we stuck to the premeditated plan of rollout order and rotation until I felt the pace lose momentum and I came off the back to take an out-of-turn pull for our just-got-back-from-honeymmoon-and-haven't-been-on-a-bike-in-2-weeks teammate Adam. Or in his words, when I attacked off the back. Sorry. Grant, Corey and I tried to keep the pace steady and deliver Corey a TTT to avenge his ITT the day before and we all suffered in the process. We rolled across the finish line under 56 minutes with a new skill of TTT'ing, sweaty, cross-eyed and as champions. That's right. The four of us are cat4 State Team Time Trial Champions. It might not sound like an actual accomplishment, but.... it sort of kind of is. And for once we didn't completely sandbag in the 5-category.
So in one weekend I learned warm-up, redbull, aero-helmets = good, and 3:30am, ATC saturday ride, beer, and no warm-up = bad.
So in one weekend I learned warm-up, redbull, aero-helmets = good, and 3:30am, ATC saturday ride, beer, and no warm-up = bad.
Monday, July 20, 2009
Marble Falls
I'm not usually very big about race reports on smaller races, but I think it was a good one.
First and foremost, Marble Falls is a great race and any triathlete who's never done it is missing out. It's smaller (500) but has flawless support.
The first wave was scheduled to go at 7am which makes for an early morning for Austinites commuting the morning of. I was in the first wave (35 & Under) and think it's important to mention I did not realize James Bayles was in my AG. The gun goes off and from the start 2 people got ahead of me in the water. I came out slightly overheated from 85 degree water with 3 others, got ahead of them in transition, passed another on the climb out of transition, and tried to keep the remaining guy (Bayles) in site through the constant hills. That only lasted the first half of the bike. I was 2nd into transition with Terranova and Dietsch quickly closing the 3 minute gap from the wave behind me. I left T2 hoping to get the leader back in sight. The course was mostly flat but had a couple very short, very steep hills. Terranova passed me at the 2-mile mark right before we saw the leader heading back in on the out-and-back. I simultaneously realized it was Bayles and we weren't catching him. At mile ~3 Vince Dietsch flew by me and I held the rest off for the rest of the race. Trowbridge closed about a minute on me so he didn't pass me but beat me overall. I was happy to take 5th behind that respectable crowd and walk away with season-best splits (and an AG win!).
First and foremost, Marble Falls is a great race and any triathlete who's never done it is missing out. It's smaller (500) but has flawless support.
The first wave was scheduled to go at 7am which makes for an early morning for Austinites commuting the morning of. I was in the first wave (35 & Under) and think it's important to mention I did not realize James Bayles was in my AG. The gun goes off and from the start 2 people got ahead of me in the water. I came out slightly overheated from 85 degree water with 3 others, got ahead of them in transition, passed another on the climb out of transition, and tried to keep the remaining guy (Bayles) in site through the constant hills. That only lasted the first half of the bike. I was 2nd into transition with Terranova and Dietsch quickly closing the 3 minute gap from the wave behind me. I left T2 hoping to get the leader back in sight. The course was mostly flat but had a couple very short, very steep hills. Terranova passed me at the 2-mile mark right before we saw the leader heading back in on the out-and-back. I simultaneously realized it was Bayles and we weren't catching him. At mile ~3 Vince Dietsch flew by me and I held the rest off for the rest of the race. Trowbridge closed about a minute on me so he didn't pass me but beat me overall. I was happy to take 5th behind that respectable crowd and walk away with season-best splits (and an AG win!).
Saturday, June 27, 2009
Ironman CDA Race Report
This is almost a week after-the-fact because I wrote a RR, clicked Publish Post and my computer lost everything and gave me the "page expired" screen. Awesome.
Round Two:
We flew into Spokane Thursday morning, did the baggage claim/rental car/hotel check-in routine then headed to the race-site. I was shocked at how green Coeur D'Alene is! I almost felt bad walking on the grass at transition. Got checked in, picked up my race-packet and got an easy run in before dinner. Friday morning I did a practice swim to set expectations for the cold, choppy swim but opted against swimming Saturday due to discouragingly cold weather, wind and rain, and did an easy spin on the bike when it cleared up in the afternoon. Both Friday and Saturday consisted of.... nothing. Low activity, alot of snacking, and early to bed.
I got my first pre-race panic at 1am race morning. A pounding headache woke me up and in my groggy-mind this was going to ruin my whole race. It kept me up for about 30 minutes before the NSAID's kicked in and I woke up again as planned at 4am. Ate breakfast, had half a small cup of crappy coffee, grabbed my stuff and got to the race site 5 minutes before it opened. I ran through the setup routine, got my swim stuff, and hung out with some T3'ers before the start.
Apparently my watch is 1:30 slow because the gun went off at 6:58:something. Threw on my goggles and sprinted into the Tsunami to fight through the masses. The water was a perfect temperature but the waves were unbelievable. If you had a strategy in the water it went out the window and you struggled to the turnaround and body-surfed back in. The worst part of my day was either getting lifted up by a wave and thrown into the turnaround buoy or when I got lifted up by a wave, then dropped back into the trough of the wave, took a stroke, a breath, then looked down to be face-to-face with a scuba diver. I shrieked and flailed like a drowning 6 year-old girl. Good thing nobody saw that! In swim was more chaotic than anything I'd ever done and the conditions worsened it, so a quarter through I decided just to get through it but managed to stay in the main pack.
T1 went smoothly, opted against arm-warmers since the sun was out and the wind died. Idaho is a beautifully scenic area with some ridiculous hills. The ride was a fair balance of good steady climbs, rollers, and some flats to the push the pace inbetween. The second (of 2) lap was miserable because I knew what I was in for.
T2 went better than T1. I remembered to take my aero-helmet off, I got to put dry socks on, and I could almost feel my feet at the start.
The first 2 miles were trying to get into a rythm rather than feeling like I was stomping the ground in every stride. Miles 3-7 were on achey legs, miles 8-12 felt fast, 13-21 were steady, and the end was... well you know. It got miserably cold and some light rain on the run so I was fighting to stay warm enough to keep moving. i was good about nutrition on the bike and just felt full on the run so I ditched my gel flask and relied on handups. I grabbed water at the first aid-station, ran through the next 4-5, then grabbed something at every other stop for the rest of the race alternating between water and gatorade, and a cola at every stop from mile 21-25. After a whole day of nothing but powerbars, gels, gatorade, water/nuun, and carbo-pro I was craving real, dry food. Pretzels on the run have never been better. I ended up 10:44:42- which I'm happy with but going faster wouldn't have been bad.
The swim was a UFC-style 1:07, T1-5:02, the bike was a thought-I-went-faster 5:27:08, T2-2:17, and the run was an I-didn't-break-4-hours 4:03:16.
All-in-all I had a great race and spent the whole time looking forward to my next IM, which I can't say about AZ last year...
Round Two:
We flew into Spokane Thursday morning, did the baggage claim/rental car/hotel check-in routine then headed to the race-site. I was shocked at how green Coeur D'Alene is! I almost felt bad walking on the grass at transition. Got checked in, picked up my race-packet and got an easy run in before dinner. Friday morning I did a practice swim to set expectations for the cold, choppy swim but opted against swimming Saturday due to discouragingly cold weather, wind and rain, and did an easy spin on the bike when it cleared up in the afternoon. Both Friday and Saturday consisted of.... nothing. Low activity, alot of snacking, and early to bed.
I got my first pre-race panic at 1am race morning. A pounding headache woke me up and in my groggy-mind this was going to ruin my whole race. It kept me up for about 30 minutes before the NSAID's kicked in and I woke up again as planned at 4am. Ate breakfast, had half a small cup of crappy coffee, grabbed my stuff and got to the race site 5 minutes before it opened. I ran through the setup routine, got my swim stuff, and hung out with some T3'ers before the start.
Apparently my watch is 1:30 slow because the gun went off at 6:58:something. Threw on my goggles and sprinted into the Tsunami to fight through the masses. The water was a perfect temperature but the waves were unbelievable. If you had a strategy in the water it went out the window and you struggled to the turnaround and body-surfed back in. The worst part of my day was either getting lifted up by a wave and thrown into the turnaround buoy or when I got lifted up by a wave, then dropped back into the trough of the wave, took a stroke, a breath, then looked down to be face-to-face with a scuba diver. I shrieked and flailed like a drowning 6 year-old girl. Good thing nobody saw that! In swim was more chaotic than anything I'd ever done and the conditions worsened it, so a quarter through I decided just to get through it but managed to stay in the main pack.
T1 went smoothly, opted against arm-warmers since the sun was out and the wind died. Idaho is a beautifully scenic area with some ridiculous hills. The ride was a fair balance of good steady climbs, rollers, and some flats to the push the pace inbetween. The second (of 2) lap was miserable because I knew what I was in for.
T2 went better than T1. I remembered to take my aero-helmet off, I got to put dry socks on, and I could almost feel my feet at the start.
The first 2 miles were trying to get into a rythm rather than feeling like I was stomping the ground in every stride. Miles 3-7 were on achey legs, miles 8-12 felt fast, 13-21 were steady, and the end was... well you know. It got miserably cold and some light rain on the run so I was fighting to stay warm enough to keep moving. i was good about nutrition on the bike and just felt full on the run so I ditched my gel flask and relied on handups. I grabbed water at the first aid-station, ran through the next 4-5, then grabbed something at every other stop for the rest of the race alternating between water and gatorade, and a cola at every stop from mile 21-25. After a whole day of nothing but powerbars, gels, gatorade, water/nuun, and carbo-pro I was craving real, dry food. Pretzels on the run have never been better. I ended up 10:44:42- which I'm happy with but going faster wouldn't have been bad.
The swim was a UFC-style 1:07, T1-5:02, the bike was a thought-I-went-faster 5:27:08, T2-2:17, and the run was an I-didn't-break-4-hours 4:03:16.
All-in-all I had a great race and spent the whole time looking forward to my next IM, which I can't say about AZ last year...
Saturday, June 20, 2009
12 hours...
The good news is the countdown is over after this post, the bad news is I have to do an Ironman first thing in the morning. It's really not bad news, just a pretty heavy thing to have on your shoulders. The weather here has been perfect for most of the time we've been here. I've been in a sweatshirt mornings and nights and barely getting away with shorts and a t-shirt in the afternoon. I rode briefly this morning and after about 5 minutes I broke out of the uncomfortable cold feeling and could effortlessly ease into a rythm on the bike. The forecast tomorrow is supposed to be 65-69 with possible rain/thunderstorms around 1-2, about when I plan on finishing the bike. The only thing stressing me out is how choppy the water has been...
As always the support from everyone keeps me going, so thanks for that.
Aside from the race, Coeur D'Alene is beautiful. The summers here are alot like the winters in Austin, and low humidity. After the race we're road-tripping to Montana until Thursday, then back to Spokane, Wa. for our Friday morning flight home. I'm already homesick though... Post-race update monday!
As always the support from everyone keeps me going, so thanks for that.
Aside from the race, Coeur D'Alene is beautiful. The summers here are alot like the winters in Austin, and low humidity. After the race we're road-tripping to Montana until Thursday, then back to Spokane, Wa. for our Friday morning flight home. I'm already homesick though... Post-race update monday!
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