IM Hawaii

10:27

I'm not sure what to make of it. Somewhere deep inside of me I thought I'd be closer to ten flat. A few weeks prior to the race I was out on a run with Matt and we were just flying. Running sub 7 wasn't a problem. So when I got on the run and plugged along at 7:45-8:00 pace I thought I would hold up. It didn't happen.  I suffered a bunch and made a few mistakes like walking the aid stations to find myself crossing the finish with a 3:46. That might seem fast but when you're in Kona with all the other local heroes it's average. 

The week after the race was disorientating. Even though I got 23rd in my age group, a significant improvement over my prior Kona race plus a ironman finishing time PR, knowing that it wasn't a "nearly perfect" race gave me a sour stomach -- literally. After a week on the beach, I came to grips with reality.  

See you at the races!

National Age Group Championships

This was a fun race.  I was very impressed with the race venu and how well the race was run.  Especially for the number of participants entered.  For me, this race was like asking a marathoner to do a 5k.  I had a lot of fun, but had trouble accessing the top end of my speed zones. 

I started near the front of the swim pack.  I wanted to have a good swim race and work on my speed/drafting/swimming in the pack.  I had a side stitch a couple times during the swim and had to back off on the speed a bit.  I also drank a good gulp of water 1-2 times, but managed to come out of the water ok. 

Transition was slow for an olympic race, but fairly good for me.  I got on my bike and started do so some work.  The bike course was fast and mostly flat, so I was done before I knew it and running back into transition.  T2 was also not fast for an olympic distance race, but I got it done and ran onto the run course. 

I ran to the best of my abilities, but it was clear that I had not done a lot of speed work.  I huffed and puffed my way through the run (and yet another side stitch) to the finish line.  Boy, was I happy to be done!

Those shorter distances are shorter in time, but man are they hard when you try to push the pace!  All in all, it was a great race and I look forward to doing it again in the future.

Racine 70.3

I had my sights set high on this race as I had done well here in the past.  I was looking forward to a nice hot day; as has been typical for this race in the past.  Race day ended up being much cooler than normal--low to mid 70s.  There was no reason not to have a good race, but....

The swim was fairly choppy.  I watched the pro men and women start off and made note of what they were doing to handle the conditions.  The men ran into the water and over the waves before starting the swim.  The women dolphin dived.  I decided to dolphin dive as well thinking that I was shorter than the men and wouldn't be able to lift my legs that high. 

I lined up on the inside (closest to the buoy) and in the front row.  When they started our wave, I went to dolphin dive right away and found that the water was much too shallow.  I stumbled around several times, turned right too early (at the 1st buoy rather than the 2nd buoy),  and had to backtrack to correct, swam off course a few times, and then finally made it in towards the finish line.  The water was so shallow there, that people were walking in through the water to the beach.  I tried to swim as far as I could, but eventually had to stand and walk/run onto the beach.  This proved to be somewhat challenging as I weaved quite a bit. 

Once out of the water, I ran up the beach and through transition.  I noticed my stomach felt bloated and a bit funny.  I ignored it and focused on the bike.  The first thing I noticed was that my bike computer was frozen.  It was not displaying time elapsed, power, or cadence.  I tried multiple times to reset it without success.  Finally I just resolved that I would have to just bike without it and do the best I could.  I felt that I was biking ok because not too many people were passing me.  This was deceiving though, as I had started in the 1st of 2 waves of my age-group, and early on in the race.  My stomach continued to be troublesome and got fairly painful for a while.  It was difficult to ride in the aero position because of it at times.  Around mile 25 I started belching.  My first thought was, "Gee, that feels pretty good" and I was relieved because my stomach felt a bit better.  Then another one came and this time vomit came with it.  YUCK.  After that I lost motivation to push on the bike and tried to just ride and stay on top of my nutrition.  I really didn't feel like eating much and had to really force down my gels and water.  The stomach felt better eventually, but by then it was too late; I had just given up mentally. 

When I got to transition, I racked my bike and decided to go run (although I had seriously contemplated not running many times).  I didn't feel too bad.  I ran around my goal pace for the first 5-6 miles and then just seemed to run out of gas.  Again, it was hard to stay motivated and I really had to try hard to distract myself from "dark mental spots".  Support from friends and family was very much appreciated during this time and kept me running.  I ended up running shoulder to shoulder with another guy from Chicago for much of the 2nd 1/2 of the run. We didn't talk or anything, but it was nice to have someone to run with.  I seemed to get a bit more energy in the last 2 miles of the run.  I think it was just pure excitement and adrenaline because I knew the race was close to being over, and I was going to finish. 

I crossed the finish line and was so happy to be done.  This was not an especially fast race for me, but it was definitely a good challenging race; both mentally and physically.  It has taken a couple of days for me to get past my frustration of not achieving the results that I wanted, but looking back there are many things that I can learn from my race and my mistakes.  Also, I have learned to appreciate the mental strength that I had to use just to continue as well as complete the race.

From now until Kona, I am focusing on swim technique specific to open water and ways to modify for choppy water.

Kansas 70.3



My Cheering Squad!

Kansas 70.3 is one of my favorite races.  I get to visit some family and race in warm weather on a fair and challenging course.  What could be better?

We arrived at my uncle's house on Friday night and the rest of the cheering crowd (my 3 aunts) showed up the next day.  We were all set!

Race morning I woke up around 3:30am and ate a Luna bar and a Clif bar for breakfast.  I took 4 salt tablets (in addition to the 4 I had taken the night before).  I dressed, packed up my few remaining items and sipped a bottle of Gatorate and First Endurance Pre-Race as we headed out to the park.  The line was long getting into the park, so I had less time that I would have liked to set up my transitions.  After some rushing around, I was ready to go.

I headed into the water with the other girls and made sure to start at the front of the line in the middle of the pack.  My goal was to get out better than the last week and try to hang with the group vs. going out on my own.  Mission partially accomplished.  I got out ok, but ended up swimming alone as I lost track of the other girls.  I ended up swimming through people from waves ahead of me and having to dodge some traffic.  All in all, I swam a pretty straight line.  I came into the finish and got stuck in a bunch of traffic that caused me to go to the outside of the boat ramp.  I slowly stumbled through some rocks before reaching the ramp and running out.  I got to my bike fairly cleanly and headed out to the bike course.  My goal was to remain aero on all down hills and not break (as I had done in the past because of nerves).  I was a little nervous going down the first hill, but after that it was a piece of cake!  I felt strong and rode well until I started to feel a little tired on the last 10 miles.  I had to pee pretty badly, but was unable to do so without stopping pedaling, so I opted to wait.  This caused me to have a bit of a stomach ache, so I just did the best I could and kept going.  Once I re-entered the park, I got stuck in a bit of traffic coming into transition.  The bike area was narrowed to a single-file area because the run also came out about a mile on to the bike course.  I was unable to pass and had to ride slowly behind other riders. 

I got in and out of T2 ok and then started to run.  It was starting to heat up a bit.  I reminded myself to run easy the first 2-3 miles as it was mostly flat and/or downhill.  I had to actively encourage myself to keep running as it was warm and I felt tired.  The splits on my watch weren't too bad though, so I kept pushing on.  Around mile 3-4 a woman ran past me in the 40-44 age group.  She was running really well, so I pushed to hang with her.  She was really strong and just kept building into the run.  After about a mile or so, I decided to let her go as I knew I had a long way to run yet and didn't want to blow up.  I focused on running and had to ease off a bit at times, but my goal was to just keep running.  I faded a little bit on the last couple of miles (even though my effort felt stronger), and was pleasantly surprised with my run split. 

Overall, I had a great early season race and I was pleased with my performance.  I enjoyed the course, seeing my extended family (who even managed to make the front page of the sports section the next day!--see the link below), and the nice warm weather.

Thanks to my Uncle Ed for letting us stay at his house and taking care of us!  Thank you to my Aunt Mary Lou, Aunt Nancy, and Aunt Donna for driving from IA to watch the race and cheer!  We had an excellent time and I will always remember the fun I had that weekend with you guys!

http://www2.ljworld.com/news/2013/jun/09/ironman-703-kansas-triathlon-attracts-thousands-cl/

Leon's Olympic

This race was a warm-up for the Kansas 70.3.  Conditions were quite chilly for June.  The temperature while setting up for the race was 61 degrees and by the time we got to the run the temperature had fallen to 49 with a misty rain. 

It was good to get out and race again and dust off some of the mental cobwebs.  I remembered to bring all of my gear, but somehow left my common sense at home...

The race was a "Best of the U.S." (BOUS) race, so there were a lot of fast athletes there.  They combined the BOUS and the elite wave for the swim start.  Somehow, at the time, to me, it made sense to line up near the far buoy as it appeared that I had a straight shot out onto the swim course.  Never mind the fact that everyone else (except the other 2-3 guys who lined up with me), were starting closer to the other buoy.  They started the race and I worked at swimming fast.  Somehow, I swam to the right a bit, hit a sandbar, and had to dolphin dive 4-5 times and then angle to the left to get back on course.  It was terrible!  Lesson learned: start in the pack and stay in the pack.  I ended up swimming the entire race alone and exciting the water quite a ways from the lead women. 

According to my race plan, I rode HIM watts on the bike course, which felt pretty hard to me.  I had a difficult time catching my breath and pushing that hard, but I achieved my goal watts.  It was really cold and by the time I got into transition, I couldn't feel my hands.  I tried to take off my helmet, but really had a hard time given the frozen fingers.  I asked a volunteer if they were allowed to help me, but they said they weren't sure, so we didn't risk it.  I contemplated running with my aero helmet on, but figured that would not be too cool.  Eventually something clicked and I was able to get my helmet off.  PHEW!  I headed out on the run course.

I ran the first mile with another woman and both of us remarked how we couldn't feel our feet.  She seemed fairly distressed about it.  I encouraged her to keep going and told her that after 2-3 miles I thought the feeling would come back.  I cheered her on a bit and then dropped back as I needed to stay to my "training" pace for 4 of the 6 miles of the run.  It was quite weird to sit back and not race the run.  I enjoyed the scenery and cheered people on.  Even the spectators commented on how I was one of the only athletes smiling on the course.  I finally reached the 4 mile mark where I was allowed to "let 'er rip" for the last 2 miles of the run.  I picked it up, but had a hard time "letting 'er rip" like I thought I could. 

I finished the race 9th OA, which was ok considering my disasterous swim, my HIM paced bike, and my relaxing run.  I was not a fan of the weather and would take 98 degrees, sunshine, and humidity any day over 49 and misty rain!

Zoot Advertising Piece

Giving Swimming New Meaning...

In February I got to take an amazing trip to Florida. What made the trip so amazing is that I got to meet a childhood hero, Gary Hall Sr. Gary was kind enough to spend a couple of hours with me at the pool and give me some valuable swimming tips. It was a truly amazing experience that I will never forget and rekindled my childhood love for swimming. Thanks Gary!