Race Report: 2011 New England Season Opener

It's 8:30 PM as I begin to write this blog, and I still don't know how I feel about the race that I finished hours ago. (For a story from someone who knows how she feels about the race, read Rachelle's race report. But read mine first, because well, you're already here).

A year ago, on a gloomy, cold, and overcast morning Rachelle and I (and a few dozen other triathletes) ventured into the frigid waters of the Hopkinton Reservoir for what was to be quite the adventure. This year, the sun shone brightly for most of the day; though the water was still really cold as we've only had a couple weeks of good weather to warm it.

A few weeks ago I set some fairly aggressive goals for this race, thinking my months of training would allow me to meet them. I've reached each of those goals in previous races, but not all in the same race before. They're goals that would allow me to advance from the back of the pack to the back of the middle of the pack at short races smaller races like todays. 

Sadly, I didn't reach those goals today. Of the 6 goals I set, I didn't reach any of them. 

Swim

Goal: 12:00

Last Year: 18:59

This Year: 15:17

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Last year, the conditions were pretty dreadful for the swim. The race directors prepared for that possibility by moving the swim from an out and back format to a straight line along the shoreline. One of the things I thought I had in my favor was that I've lost enough weight to fit into the new XTERRA Vortex 3 wetsuit I got for Christmas last year. Rach and I went for an easy swim in the Upper Mystic Lake to get some acclimation to the cold water in preparation for the race even, and I thought I was ready for this morning. 

For some reason while I did ok with last years swim considering the terrible conditions, this year I simply couldn't control my breathing and had to take some breaks to catch my breath. I had been so busy talking Rach through getting through the cold swim, I didn't expect at all to be dealing with the breathing issues myself. It wasn't any kind of panic, just an inability to breathe deeply and evenly. On the plus side, I was 3 minutes faster than last year, I didn't feel overly tired when I left the water, and I managed to let only 4 or 5 of the ladies in the wave behind me to pass me. I still need to lose some more weight to feel like I can really use the new wetsuit; it felt a bit constricting in the chest which probably didn't help with the breathing.

Transition 1:

Goal: 3:00

Last Year: 6:32

This Year: 6:31

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I don't know if it's nerves, confusion, being tired from the swim, or the fact that I have to take off a wetsuit, put on clothes and bike shoes, gloves, and helmet, but I really seem to have problems with the first transition at this race. I think some of it stems from my wanting to be so diligent to ensure I haven't forgotten anything important (which I managed to do anyways). It could also be that it's the first transition of the year, and I'm a bit out of practice. Either way, a 6 minute transition is stupid long, and it shouldn't take more than 3 minutes to do all that. A one second improvement over last year is just sad.

Bike

Goal: 40:00

Last Year: 56:50

This Year: 52:43

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 Biking is my favorite part of racing and what got me into it in the first place. In my mind, a bad day of biking is still better than a good day of running (not that I'd know what that's like). We had rollers and a trainer this winter, and I was determined that even if I didn't get better at anything else, I was going to make this my best season of riding. I forgot just one thing; hills are the devil, and for a short race this course has quite a few of them. I was better prepared this year, but still not "gooder" (shout out to Gain and Tropicana commercials) enough. 

At the top of two climbs, I had to stop and catch my breath for about a minute each time, and I wound up walking part of the biggest hill. On the plus side I only walked for about a minute and I gutted through some of the climbs I was quick to dismount and walk last year, and my low gear spinning is a lot better. The fact that I still weigh about 12 pounds more than when I did the race last year isn't helpful, but the fact that I performed 4 minutes better in spite of that tells me I'm at least moving the right direction. (Shout out to the nice guy working the bike service who made this ride possible; I banged my derailleur with a heavy door earlier in the week and need a new derailleur hanger. He used skill and some brute force to get it to shift smoothly this morning.)

Oh, and I wasted a minute after dropping my Garmin because I was trying to put it on while riding, which was the important thing I forgot to do in T1.

Transition 2:

Goal 1:30

Last Year: 3:22

This Year: 3:08

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Bricks. I need to do more bricks. My transition from bike to run is a little bit because I wear normal bike shoes instead of triathlon specific shoes, and far more that I'm simply not an accomplished enough runner to do much more than walk as fast as I can from the bike rack to the transition exit. There's a lot of easy things I can do to speed this up, some of them are even free (take the zip laces I already own and stick them in my freaking shoes!). Still being a little faster when I blew up some on the bike says progress is being made.

Run (Walk):

Goal: 39:00

Last Year: 45:33

This Year: 43:35

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I'm gonna be honest, this goal was ridiculously ambitious. My best ever 5k in a triathlon was 42:39 on a pancake flat course in South Carolina. I've been working on my run, but with a hilly course that has some off-road running mixed in, I was shooting for the moon with this one. Usually, I'm either most disappointed in my run, or accepting of the fact that I'm still not much of a runner, so I sort of shrug and say "oh well". This time, I actually am kinda stoked. On a hilly course, at the end of a hard swim and bike, I put in a pretty good effort for my current skill level. I was able to run for stretches of time picking random goals for where I'd stop. I need to push my way through the rest of my Couch to 5k, especially with the half-iron now just over a month away. I did manage a negative split on my second mile, of which I am pretty proud.

Overall, I was 2:01:13. I had really hoped if nothing else to be under two hours, so I missed out there too. It's 10 minutes better than last year, so I'll take it, but I wanted a lot more. 

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Rest

Being a larger athlete comes with some issues, but it also comes with some perks, too. For example, when I say "On your left" when I'm passing someone, they almost always are pretty quick to get out of the way when they see me coming. And while I'm not the strongest of swimmers, A guy my size isn't exactly the easiest thing in the world to swim over. 

It's no sob story, but when it comes to training us bigger folks have it tough; training progress comes more slowly, and post race party food needs to be looked at with one eye on the calorie deficit from racing and the other on the scale. That's why while a lot of athletes don't enjoy their taper weeks, I've come to really depend on them to get some much needed rest as I continue to build my training towards Rev3 Cedar Point. 

We've been averaging about 12 hours a week. This week, I think maybe I'll hit 6 hours, including the race. I've taken 2 days completely off, and now that I feel well rested, I'll do a hard swim and run tonight, an easy bike tomorrow with a few accelerations and small climbs just to make sure the derailleur is working ok after I whacked it with the door last week, and a really easy outdoor swim either tomorrow or Saturday to get used to the cool water.

I looked back at the goals I made a couple weeks ago, and other than the goal for the run, I'm feeling pretty confident I'll be able to meet them. The run goal is aggressive, but I think the only way I'm going to see the run times go down is to really start to push myself. 39 minutes would be a PR in the 5k by 6 seconds, so I'm hopeful to be able to really have something left for the run.

Fear

I am afraid I'll never be a regular sized person. I am afraid that I'll always have to shop in the section with sizes 2X, 3X, or more. I'm afraid that running 10 minute miles will never be easy for me. I'm afraid that I'll never podium in a race again, or that my times just won't improve. I'm afraid that no matter how much I train I won't be able to move fast enough to finish Rev3 Cedar Point. I'm afraid of a lot of things really, both in sports and out.  But I don't let that stop me from getting past those fears and neither should you.

I know someone who is afraid of open water swims. This is REALLY common in triathlon, and this person has had experiences with both good and bad open water, but is mostly afraid of COLD open water swims. With the New England Season Opener coming up, I can completely relate. Last year it took me 19 minutes to swim 400 yards of cold choppy water. I'm basically like a polar bear, so I shouldn't be bothered by cold water, but it still affects me the same as it does many others. The body is trying to keep your important bits warm so your lungs constrict your arms and legs get less blood flow and it's just in general a strange feeling.

I think it still comes down to preparation; making the right choices to prepare will help you get past your fears. I'm preparing myself to lose weight by exercising, and eating less volume of food, and making healthier food choices. I'm preparing myself to run faster by running a few days each week, building in volume and intensity of training. I'm preparing myself for Rev3 by looking for places to attach rockets to the back of my bike... oh wait, I mean doing really long bike rides.

To prepare for a cold swim, you try to get some practice at it before the race, and you prepare for how you'll feel after. You bring an extra towel or extra layers of clothing for the race, as well as little things like a hand warmer to keep with you on the bike and run. There are a lot of little ways where preparation can really be of value to help stave off and overcome fear.

Notes:

- I'm still losing weight, which is all kinds of awesome. I weight a little more than I did last year when I did this race, but not dramatically so.

Bad day

So, yesterday morning, we found out that we had been hit by financial theft of our account information. Someone decided to place a rather large transaction against my account from Barbados of all places. Rach said she'd be happy to just trade places with the person who did this, as Barbados sounds like a nice place to be. This threw a kink in my entire day, and broke me out of my training and blogging plans. Thankfully, we'd already paid most of our bills and bought our groceries and have some cash on hand to get through it.

This serves as a reminder as to where you want to use your payment information online. Even though the bank is working with us to solve this problem, in the long run, I've taken some precautions so as not to ever experience this again. prepaid debit cards not linked to your account are the only safe way to ensure you don't risk more losing a lot more than the purchase you've made.

I took yesterday off to rest, and still didn't sleep well. I did however keep my eating mostly in line. I took a small bump up in response to my post long ride hunger, but I'm still down quite a bit and continue to head in the right direction.

We're not staying over in Hopkinton this year, so we'll be driving out to the race on Sunday morning. This gives us a chance to practice our race prep and packing the night before. I need to take a picture of our current race nutrition stockpile as other than a couple of 5 hour energys, we have way more than we'll need for the foreseeable future.

Softball, Swimming, and Suffering (Oh My!)

I've had a lot of long weekends lately, and this was the first weekend in a while which lasted the normal length. I have to say sitting here on Sunday night that it felt like a lot longer than the normal weekend. We packed a TON into 2 1/2 days!

Friday night, I played softball for the first time in at least 10 years. My family has a long tradition of softball; my grandfather played and ran teams for years, my oldest uncle was a star player for a team that was successful at the national level, and I even subbed for my uncles teams from my late teens up until I moved to Columbus. Some of my fondest memories from my youth were sitting at a softball game next to my grandma, watching the game and helping her do the score keeping. I got the chance to play for the team fielded by my work, and boy was it fun; a close 7-6 win. I had 2 singles, a run batted in, and played first base, which is the busiest position in softball. I made an error, but once I got myself going I made a couple plays and most importantly had a really good time while getting a decent workout. Best of all, I got to do the score keeping for a couple of innings I wasn't playing (we did some alternating so everyone could play) and that really brought back some memories.

I'm not going to play all the time because we have a lot of players, and most importantly because I need to be careful in the weeks leading up to races like this week.

Saturday was a day full of triathlon. I started with a run, and for the first time in a while I felt really good while running, so I extended my run by an extra 5 minutes, and I feel like I have something extra for the run split of the race next Sunday. Then our triathlon team Wheelworks Multisport, had its annual swimming clinic, where our instructors/teammates put us through our paces. I need to work on having high elbows and not just slapping my hand into the water. We probably put in around 1500 yards of total swimming along with treading water and listening.

Saturday night was the teams annual fundraiser for CYCLE Kids and the team. I was in charge of finding a speaker and was able to get Cait Snow to come speak to us and spend some time taking our questions. She did a marvelous job, Belmont Wheelworks was as usual a fantastic host and sponsor, and we were able to donate $1000 to CYCLE Kids. There were some fantastic prizes, including some $500 gift cards to the bike shop and it might shock some of you, but I didn't win a single thing. In fact, this is the second year in a row that I didnt win anything in this raffle. So, it does happen that I don't win.

Rachelle, Cait Snow, Tim Snow, and yours truly

Sunday morning, Rach and I went for a 40 mile bike ride. I don't want to get too into the details, but I banged up my derailleur on the way out of the house, and it cost my legs a lot. On the second half of the ride, the roads turned up, and I got tired fast. I wound up having to walk part of all of about 3 hills and I was slow on some others. I finally made an adjustment to the derailleur and it did seem to make a difference. I'm going to see if I can get it in for a check this week without spending too much on it. We were going to get in an outdoor swim, but we were just spent after the ride, and stayed home.

Notes:

- For the folks that have been kind enough to support my fundraising thus far, I want to give you some confidence that I'm doing the work you've paid for; I'm going to start posting my weekly training snapshot each Sunday. I've been building up my weekly training to the 10-12 hours per week; and this week was right about that period. For those of you who haven't yet donated, other than this coming week while I'm tapering a bit before the race on Sunday, the numbers are just going to go up.

Training Peaks makes some nice pictures!