Kinetic 1/2 Ironman Race Report

And again, because I am too lazy to write a brand-new original race report for my blog, I am copying and pasting the one I sent to my coach Jen Harrison:

OK, here is my race report for Kinetic. Because I had issues with my chip staying on (I managed to rip it off when simultaneously ripping off my wetsuit), I don't have a super detailed de

scription of my transition times or splits.

Pre-race: I went down to the race site the night before with some friends, picked up my race packet, managed to find a restaurant (and ice cream) in East-Nowhere Virginia, ate relatively early, went to bed relatively early, didn't sleep well, but what can you do.

I got to the race site over an hour before race start. I ate two powerbars for breakfast (couldn't find any bagels), set up transition, got on my wetsuit, and got into the water for a little while. Things were a little windy (OK, alot windy), so I wasn't too sure how feasible my 2:55 goal on the bike was going to be.

The Swim:

I started off to the side, like usual, wearing my sleeveless wetsuit (71 degree water - awesome!). I felt like I was being passed left and right, but I think perception is always a little off when on the swim. I had vowed to myself that I was going to RACE the swim, not just float it. I wanted a sub-35 time. I kept an OK line, I was a little off, but I made the turns relatively close to the buoys. On the way back in from the final turn buoy, I couldn't see any of the guiding buoys to the finish area, so I just followed the pack. And then I got separated from the pack and swam a bit off-course. So, by the time I finished, I felt a little frustrated, because I figured I had totally shot my sub-35 swim goal. But, while I was swimming, I felt good and strong, and when I got out I felt like I had raced the swim.

Time: 30:00 (apparently the swim course was a bit short with the wind blowing the buoys everywhere, but since I swam waaayyy off course, I'm still counting it as a 1.2 mile swim) Yessss, the 3xweek swim sessions are WORKING!

The Bike: Rolling and WINDY! I tried to take in the majority of my calories through liquid (520 calories through perpetuem) and gels (two gels, 100 calories apiece). I also ate part of a PowerBar. It actually felt pretty good, no bloating, and I felt satiated. Later on the run I will have wished I had drank more water, b

ut overall I was pretty pleased with how this whole "non-buffet, mostly-liquid" diet on the bike is going. I haven't had any GI issues at all. Anyways, the first few miles of the bike I felt pretty slow, but then I settled in, and my speed slowly picked up. Then I made a right-hand turn, right into the wind, and my speed slowly went back down. Fortunately, that part of the course only lasted 7 miles and then we made another right-hand turn and we were no longer going right into the wind. We did the loop twice, so it was rather nice to know what to expect on the second loop in terms of the wind. By the end of the first loop, my overall average speed was 18.7. Both loops were relatively uneventful, I stayed aero most of the time, and I wasn't feeling fatigued. I was especially happy that I was able to keep my speed above 18.5 mph - a year ago, I never would've been keeping that speed for 56 miles on a hilly, windy course. So, all of the bike drills and training this season have REALLY paid off.

Time: 3:02, 18.5 mph average speed. Not quite my sub-3 hour goal, but I was pleased overall because it was really windy and rather hilly.

The Run: Total crap. The first few miles felt OK, I was keeping my speed around 8:30s, my stomach felt pretty good, and my legs weren't tired. Annndddd then my allergies kicked in, and I felt the same way I did during Rumpass. Coughing, spitting, bleck. It was a long 13 miles and I watched my speed slowly creep up. Towards the end of the first (of three) loops, I started taking walk breaks. It was hard to stay mentally focused because all I wanted was to stop running, drink Gatorade, and sit in the lake and cool off. And that's basically how it went for the rest of the run. It was frustrating because my legs felt fine, my stomach felt fine, I was just having some serious issues with stuff dripping

down the back of my throat. My 1:50 run goal was completely gone by the end of the first loop and then it was just damage control. For future races, I want to become more mentally strong during the run and try to suck it up a bit more when I'm not feeling great on the run.

Time: 2:08 - one of my slowest run times in a 1/2.

I had hoped to PR at Kinetic, going at least sub-5:40, preferably faster. I did PR, by 2

seconds, finishing overall in 5:47:06. My AG place was 8th and overall place was 39th. There were some fast people out there!

I'm a little nervous about Florida because feeling crappy like this on the run is becoming a trend and I hope it is attributable to allergies. I don't ever feel that bad on my training sessions. But I'm really happy with my swim and my bike, which makes me feel a little less crummy about the run.

Annnndddd that's the race report. Besides the wind, it was a beautiful day. Mark and I rushed home from the race because I had graduation for my Masters at 4:30pm (technically I was supposed to be at school by 3:45 to line up, but I figured if I showed up by 4:30 before they paraded in, they'd have to let me participate). We got home from the race at 4. It's about a 20 minute ride up to school. I took the fastest shower ever, changed out of my stinky tri clothes and into a black dress in heels in 13 minutes flat. Still had my race numbers on my arms and leg, but who cares! Grabbed the graduation gown, took off for school... and arrived at 4:35. Without my graduat

ion cap. Truth be told, though, I wasn't very disappointed. I was rather relieved I wouldn't have to sit through a boring commencement speech talking about "new beginnings" (life was not going to change much after my Masters) and "entering the Real World" (I've been living in the real world for quite some time now, thank you very much). In fact, I didn't even know who was supposed to be our commencement speaker (later found out it was the Chilean president). So, I donned the graduation gown for all of 5 minutes, snagged some nice guy wandering off campus to take the obligatory pictures of Mark and myself, disrobed (from the graduation gown) and then went to the swanky bar at Chef Geoffs down the street for some Shirley Temples, duck pizza, and homemade potato chips. Best graduation ever.

Nashville 1/2 Marathon - A Race, A Best Friend, A Beautiful Goddaughter... And an Almost Tornado!

In April I went down to Nashville to see my best friend Erin, her husband Ashley, and their beee-yooootiful daughter Reagan, who also happens to be my goddaughter. I hadn't seen Reagan since Thanksgiving when she was barely two months old. Now she's seven months old, super cute, and SO BIG compared to when I last saw her. And she was such an easygoing baby too - as Erin said, "This is how they trick you into having another one."

I was also down in Nashville for the Country Music 1/2 Marathon. I didn't realize Nashville was so hilly! I had spent alot of time over the weeks prior on travel for work, participating in pre-wedding festivities for one of our good friends who was getting married i

n May, not getting alot of sleep, and my head wasn't completely in the game. Because it was a hilly race, I set a goal for myself that wasn't really a time goal but more of a goal to go faster as the race went on and finish strong, which is totally opposite of what happened during the Shamrock 1/2. So, here are my mile splits:

1: 7:13, 161 bpm average HR

2: 7:25, 163 bpm

3: 7:38, 167 bpm

4: 7:38, 169 bpm

5: 7:46, 170 bpm

6: 7:09, 170 bpm

7: 7:11, 172 bpm

8: 7:45, 174 bpm

9: 6:53, 173 bpm

10: 7:12, 174 bpm

11: 7:02, 173 bpm

12: 7:25, 176 bpm

13: 7:22, 179 bpm

0.1 - 1:08, 183 bpm

The race was on a Saturday, which was great because that gave us Saturday night to just relax. Erin was a trooper and she got up at O-Dark 30 to drive me 45 minutes into Nashville. It was great to catch up with her during the ride. Traffic was ridiculous getting off the exit ramp - I ended up just getting out of the car and I luckily found a bus right away. Luck was on my side again and I found a short porta-potty line. I figured I had plenty of time to get to the start, but as I was trying to get up to my corral, the gun went off 15 minutes early. There was some bad weather expected and they wanted to do what they could to get the race started as early as possible. So, I started at the tail end of my corral, which was rather nice because I was basically running on my own until the fast people from the corral behind me caught up.

My overall time was 1:37:00, which isn't my best time, but I was still pleased with it overall. I had a mile under 7:00 and I didn't fall apart at the end. I felt good and felt like I was getting faster towards the end. I also had a kick at the end, something I haven't had in awhile. I was 16th in my AG (out of 3,515) and the 40th girl overall (out of 15,254). And I kept it together mentally to keep on pace during the whole race. It was alot hillier than I had anticipated - fortunately, most of the hills were all before mile 8 and then there were some nice downhills. This is the first race that Erin had watched me run, and I knew she was at the finish, so I wanted to kick it in as best as possible.

Erin and I stayed and watched the first marathoners come in. And as they came across the finish line, the clouds started rolling in. We had a great afternoon of watching movies, eating ice cream and candy, and chatting. Until the tornado alarms started up. The power went off and this is where we ended up:

In the closet - four people and two dogs. The wind was like nothing we'd ever heard and when we went outside into the backyard after the storm passed, there were leaves strewn all over every side of the fence and their house - shows that the wind was swirling - kind of freaky.

Anyway, the visit to Tennessee was fantastic. I've missed Erin ever since we moved away from Saint Mike's after senior year. I've basically been in DC since 2004, but Erin has been living in Korea, Washington State, Iraq... Tennessee is the closest she has lived to me since we lived down the hall from each other in college. And Reagan was such a super easy baby - just happy and smiley and giggly all of the time. Erin and Ashley have their daily routine down to a science. I was very impressed. Makes my morning routine seem like a mess. It was a great weekend of just catching up, hanging out, and spending time together. I can't wait to go down there and visit again - but there is a great possibility they will be stopping through DC in July on their was back to Tennessee after being up in NH, which will be great.

More posts to come - up next: the Kinetic 1/2 Ironman Race Report.

Rumpass in Bumpass Oly distance tri

I'm too lazy to write a blog-specific race report, so I've posted the e-mail I sent my coach after the race. First triathlon of the season!! And a good start overall.

Overall I am happy with the race and the results. I tried to get some extra sleep in the nights leading up to the race, and I had no problem waking up at 4:45am to drive to the race site. When we arrived at 8am, it was SUPER windy - the kayaker trying to bring the inflatable buoys out provided much fodder for us as we waited in line to pick up our race packets. It took him about 20 minutes to go 30 feet. Awesome. Fortunately, the race had a late morning start (10am) and the wind and chop had died down significantly by that time. And the sun came out. And it got pleasantly warm.

Swim:
I opted for the sleeveless wetsuit - I brought both with me, thinking that I would wear the full sleeve, but the water didn't feel that bad (the race site is on the nuclear reactor side of Lake Anna - sounds worse than it is, nobody was glowing by the end of the race, just the water on that side of the lake is used to cool the reactor so this side of the lake is about 4 degrees warmer than the rest of the lake - a toasty 66 degrees). And I was really glad I went with the sleeveless, it was perfect. It was an in-water start, my wave was pretty small (waves were going off 4 minutes apart). We were to keep the buoys on our right, so I opted to go towards the middle of the pack to a bit to the left so I could avoid the initial washing machine. We spread out quickly and I was actually swimming on my own for much of the swim, but I kept a good line and didn't find myself off track at all. The water was choppy and I defintely drank my fair share of the lake, but it really wasn't bad. I felt like my stroke was strong, I was sighting every 5 strokes or so, and I think we swam a bit against the current, but I never felt like I was struggling or not making progress. It was a good swim, I was really pleased with it. Other people on my team said they thought it was a super hard swim, with the conditions and all, but I like the chop and the waves, it makes it fun. I was also just a few meters away from the finish and I was thinking to myself "wow, I didn't see any caps from the wave behind me pass me - that is a FIRST!" No sooner did I have that thought and then a purple cap from the next wave blew by me. Oh well, I was close.
1500m swim, 28:57, 36th fastest female swim time out of 142 (12 out of 31 in my AG).

T1: 2:23. I don't know what I was doing, probably having brunch.

Bike:
I had a goal of doing under 1:20 for the bike - most of my past bike times for the Oly distance have been in the 1:24-1:26 range, usually in the 17mph category. Okay, but not spectacular. I usually made myself feel better about my poor biking skills with the fact that I was a runner, not an uber-biker. I felt good on race day though and thought that a sub-1:20 was a possibility. The bike was two loops, and as you rode out of transition, there was a nice hill to greet you as you clipped in at the bottom. But I didn't fall - the bike was off to a successful start! The first few miles of the bike felt slow, slow, slow. I wasn't sure exactly why. It was hard to get into a comfortable rhythm and it was rather windy. But after a few miles, my pace picked up, my mph crept up, and things felt pretty easy. It was a rolling course, some of the pavement was rough, and some was really nice. There were some sections on smooth pavement that were a slight downhill and it was fun to just open up and go. At one point, towards the end of the first loop, my average speed was 20.2mph - my average speed is NEVER over 20mph in a race, so I was pretty happy. I ate one gel on the first loop (110 calories, watermelon carb boom) and I was sipping on a few servings of the CarboPro 1200 that was mixed with a bit of water. I felt like I did fine with my nutrition, didn't feel fatigued or depleted of necessary calories, stomach felt fine, no bloating either. My HR was in high Z2/low Z3 for the whole ride, with a few spikes. I knew what to expect on the second loop, so I wasn't surprised that the first few miles felt harder than the rest (I think there was a false flat and some headwind). As I was looking at my average speed and my time, I realized during the second loop that the 1:20 goal would definitely be met, barring any mechanicals. I then decided I wanted to have my average overall speed be at least 20mph - the best I have ever done in a race was 19mph and that was a ridiculously short 8 mile sprint. I've never done better than 17.7 in an Oly. So, I went hard on the bike, made sure to keep taking in my nutrition, and I had the 20mph speed showing on my Garmin until they made me slow down as we entered into transition. When I clicked the Garmin off, it showed 19.9, not 20, but still very satisfying. And I was only passed by 2 girls. I caught up to many of the girls who were stronger swimmers than me.
24 mile bike, 1:12:40, 24th fastest female bike time out of 142 (4th out of 31 in my AG)

T2: 2:14, again, I must've gone out for a meal or something. Or taken a nap.

Run:
Well, I hadn't given the run much thought on the bike, except towards the end when I thought, "I'm not really in the mood to run." I guess that's not a great attitude to have, and my head wasn't really in the run, and I was just so pleased with how the bike turned out, I guess I almost didn't care how the run went because I knew I could run 6.2 miles, even if it wasn't fun or pretty. And it wasn't pretty (the run course was pretty, I was not pretty). I've never had allergies, but I think I may have developed some on the run course. Right from the start (Warning, this is kind of gross), I had so much mucus in my throat and mouth, it was hard to catch my breath. I was spitting every few minutes (I'll spare you the gory details) and at one point on the second loop, I made a valiant attempt to get rid of some of this crap that was in my throat, ended up gurgling and gagging, almost throwing up, until I hocked a loogie the size of Iowa up onto the pavement. And felt much better for about 5 minutes until I started spitting again and had more buildup. My legs felt fine, my stomach felt fine, I didn't feel depleted of energy, but the whole mucus-buildup was really wrecking my run goal. I also felt like I had a huge air bubble just sitting on my chest - I've had that happen in a few races and I think it's from taking in too much air when drinking water. I'm also incapable of burping on command, so the air bubble just sat there. Blah. Either way, I survived the run. The course was rolling with some nice uphills and downhills. It was out in farm country, lots of pollen and dust in the air. I didn't eat or drink anything on the run, I just didn't feel like it. I didn't kick it in the end, I was just feeling so crappy with the air bubble and mucus.
6.2 miles, 50:49, 22nd fastest female run time out of 142 (8th in AG out of 31). I am disappointed in my run time, I've never had a 10K over 50 minutes, but I guess there's a first for everything.

Overall: 2:37:02, 22nd overall out of 142 (8th in AG out of 31). A good start to the season. And I'm especially happy with my bike - I placed better on the bike than on the run in my AG! I think all of the biking and biking drills you have me doing have helped SO MUCH! 19.9mph was not a struggle AT ALL!

Not one but FOUR pints of ice cream!

I realized while I was at work today that it was "Race Day Eve." And tradition calls for ice cream on Race Day Eve. I was stuck at the office late, but fortunately Mark is a wonderful husband who indulges my strange rituals and gladly offered to pick up some ice cream on his way home from work. I had learned today that Ben and Jerry's had come out with some new flavors that sounded SO GOOD (Peanut Brittle... Mud Pie... Boston Creme Pie...), so I gave him a few hints... And came home to not one but FOUR pints of Ben and Jerry's Ice Cream! Taste-testing was in order. They were all good, but S'mores won, simply on the amount of chocolate packed into that pint. It also kept me away from the Mini Eggs. Looks like I win the bet too, there's still at least a half a bag left, so Mark owes me a dinner next week.

Training has been going well. Fast repeats on the track on Wednesday turned out to go much better than I thought they would - I only missed one time goal and it was only by two seconds. Swimming has been good this week - I'm eager to see if my 3x/week visits to the pool will pay off in the Rumpass in Bumpass Oly triathlon tomorrow. And biking has been fine - I took my bike to Contes yesterday because my back tire has flatted on every ride I've taken outside (a whopping two rides, but hey, it's not a good omen). Turns out that my rim tape had slipped. The fixed it right up for me and I took the bike out for a short spin this morning and no flats. Soooo, let's hope I have that same good luck tomorrow!

I took the puppy out for a quick 15 minute jog this morning after the bike. He actually did rather well, even though he still throws down the brakes every now and then when we head away from the house. But turning around and coming home, Zone 5 all of the way!

And with that, time for bed - early morning tomorrow! Yaaay for the first triathlon of 2010!

Hi, my name is Caroline and I'm an addict...

I had to travel to NJ today for work and for the whole train ride home, I kept thinking about getting my next fix. I went on a binge a few weeks ago, vowing that never again would I do such a thing, and swearing off my addiction. But last night, I gave in a little bit. And then today, I fully caved... I mean, who can resist when it's 75% off Easter candy and you can get a GINORMOUS bag of MINI EGGS for $1.49. And the little bags for just 19 cents? I mean, you'd have to have the self control of steel to resist. Especially with a CVS sitting in your backyard, calling you as you walked home from the bus stop.

But, I'm going to ration out the Mini Eggs into reasonable portions. Mark bets that won't even make it to the weekend. I beg to differ. And if I win, I get a really yummy dinner of my choice cooked by Mark!

Shamrock 1/2 Marathon Race Report

Better late than never, huh? Yeah, the race was like 3 weeks ago and I've never been very good at writing up race reports. But, that is going to change this year. I will write a race report for every race. And what better way to start than with my first race of 2010 - the Shamrock 1/2 Marathon.

I had a chance to see my college friend Tricia and meet her husband the day before the race. Tricia and I haven't seen each other in 7 years, but we've kept up with each other on facebook and blogs, so it really didn't feel like 7 years. But she and Sean live in Williamsburg, not too far from me, and they are both very involved in the running and tri scene so it's definitely not going to be another 7 years before I see them again! I stayed with my friend Leighton and a group of her friends in a big house right on the beach. Fell asleep listening to the ocean waves - wonderful. Race morning came, ate on the way to the race site, found parking, and jogged towards the start, hoping to see the Team Z tent on my way. Once I dropped my stuff off, I made it to the start line (even having enough time for two bathroom breaks!) My coach and I had talked race strategy and I wasn't terribly confident I could keep the pace I wanted to - 6:50/mile for the majority of the race. My fastest average pace in a 10 mile race was 7:06, so it was kind of silly to think I could suddenly drop 16 seconds/mile for a race that was three miles longer. But we can dream, right?

I started off conservatively - 7:20's for the first couple miles and then knocking it down to 7:15 and sub 7:10's. I hadn't figured out how to make my Garmin display my heart rate while it was displaying my lap pace, so I was running this race completely not knowing what my HR was and only trying to stick to a certain pace - a new race strategy. I think it worked okay, but I do feel safer knowing what my HR is. However, it was nice to take a risk and go for a certain pace, heart rate be damned! Maybe a mix of both strategies will be magic in the future. Anyways, the first six miles felt pretty good and I was able to drop my pace with every mile. And then it became hard to maintain that pace and my average pace slowly creeped upward. I felt like I was working so hard, but just going slower. Finally, around mile 10, I just stopped looking at my average pace and just ran on feel. Mentally, I felt much better. I knew I wasn't going to get a PR (sub 1:33) or get my reach goal of sub-1:30. But it wasn't bad for the first race of the season. And I've done alot more biking than running this year. I've been so busy with things that I almost forgot about the race coming up. Thus, I wasn't as prepared mentally for the race as I would've liked.

So, here's the breakdown:

Mile 1: 7:26, 158 bpm

Mile 2: 7:24, 165 bpm

Mile 3: 7:11, 166 bpm

Mile 4: 7:08, 168 bpm

Mile 5: 7:04, 167 bpm

Mile 6: 7:11, 167 bpm

Mile 7: 7:05, 168 bpm

Mile 8: 7:13, 168 bpm

Mile 9: 7:11, 168 bpm

Mile 10: 7:23, 169 bpm

Mile 11: 7:27, 169 bpm

Mile 12: 7:19, 170 bpm

Mile 13.1: 7:06 average pace, 173 bpm

TOTAL: 1:34:58

I was totally in Z4 for all but the first mile of the race. Maybe that's why the wheels came off at the end, haha!

But, it was a gorgeous weekend, a good start to the 2010 race season, and I'm less than two weeks away from the first TRIATHLON of the year!

Nothing in particular

My friend Tricia called me out - I've totally been slacking in updating my blog. Who knew a puppy could be so much work :) It has been a busy few weeks and I'll post pictures soon, I'm just too lazy to try and find my camera cord at the moment. I should also write a race report for the Shamrock 1/2 marathon - first race of 2010 - and maybe I'll eventually get to it. So, here is just a compilation of random observations I've made over the past few weeks:

- The wonders of the guest bedroom. Not only convenient for when you have guests, but serves as a great alternative sleeping spot when your puppy is loud and cranky at 2am and you have a race in two days. (also a great excuse to get a bed ALLLLL to yourself... but shhhh, don't tell Mark I said that). I've slept in the guest room three times in the last 2 weeks and it has been ahhhh-mazing.

- There are NO SHOPS in NoVa that sell Carbo Pro 1200. My coach was slightly horrified when I listed off to her one day the food I typically eat during an IM bike (fritos, PowerBars, sweet potatoes, PB&J sandwiches, pita chips, granola bars, etc) and gently suggested that perhaps I should look into some "lighter on the gut" options. I've heard about Carbo Pro 1200 - a 16oz drink that has 1200 calories - and I've been curious about trying it. I bet it's like super thick cough syrup, but the less amount of liquid I need to drink, the better, I don't like all of it sloshing around in my stomach. I discovered tonight that my only option for buying the stupid bottles is online. And shipping costs are almost as much as one bottle. I bought one of each flavor (fingers crossed that they come in before this weekend, seeing as I went with the cheapest shipping option) and I can try them out on my ride. If things work out well, this drink may be replacing my bike buffet.

- It's cherry blossom season in DC - my most favorite time of the year! I went for a run down by the Potomac and all of the blossoms last weekend - it was great. And this weekend's weather is going to be perfect for enjoying the blooms.

- Puppies are time consuming. But they are cute, so that makes up for it.

- I realized that IM France is less than three months away. I have alot of work to do between now and then! And IM Wisconsin is a little more than five months away! IM season is going to go by so fast and it hasn't even started yet!

- I used to have sympathy for Bissell when the dog would hump him and nip at him. Now I've realized that Bissell is constantly egging the dog on and is totally asking for it. No more sympathy. He even tries to steal the dog's food while the dog is in the middle of eating. I'd bite the cat too if he did that to me.

There, Tricia! No more blogger-slacking!