Ironman Muncie 70.3

Okie dokie, the short version:

I came in worried how I would do here because I've just been feeling blah, that and the fact that Muncie's bike is "flat and fast" meant that I could potentially end up screwed on the bike portion.  Anyway:

Swim info: very slow, 38:38, 17th/58 in my age group out of the water

Bike info: 2:54:57, average speed 19.2mph, moved up to 11th in my age group off the bike (that's new)

Run info: 2:02:18, 9:20/mile, finished 13th in my age group

Overall time: 5:42:07, T1: 3:30, T2: 2:44

Longer version:

Pre-race shenanigans

The swim:

I've been working on siting while swimming, and I think I've got it figured out, but what I haven't figured out is how to get around people in the water.  I also need to figure out how to get my wetsuit to stop eating my neck.  I positioned myself closer to the front of the swim start (good move) because I figured out that leaves me with fewer people I need to fight with during the swim.  The first few hundred yards were a bit on the ridiculous side, this is where sighting could be useful.  We were sprinting and running into each other like crazy.  I had to tell myself to calm down because there was one girl who was insistent on trying to swim on top of me instead of beside me.  After a while everything started to calm down, and we started closing in on the orange caps (Men age groups 18-24 and 25-29).  They started 5 minutes before we did and we had caught a good number of them before the first turn.  By the time we were done with the swim, there was a good number of us that had also caught the first age group wave which was men over 55 and women over 50.  I need to figure out how to swim when I can't see.  I keep dropping time in the pool like crazy, but when I get into open water I may as well just float because I'm not dropping time there at all.  I'm not tired after the swim either because I feel like I'm resting by swimming breaststroke in an attempt to go around people that I catch and also keep checking to make sure I'm swimming in a straight-ish line.

I'm the wee one in the sleeveless next to the full wetsuit girl

The crazy swim start, I'm close to the front

Coming out of the water, hoping I'm not dizzy, and locating the wetsuit strippers.

T1:

I ran up the beach just fine, there were a lot of guys ahead of me but Red let me know that I was about the 50th purple cap out of the water, my wave had women ages 18-34 (3 age groups), so the number didn't sound that promising, but it wasn't terrible either.  I hurried up and migrated out onto the bike.

Bike:

I normally suck at the bike, there's no other way around it.  I've been working on it, but I think I need to work quite a bit more.  I don't know if I've been lazy, not pushing enough, skipping workouts, or what, but I still suck at the bike.  I felt better coming off the bike this year than I did last, but I was only .2mph faster this year than last year.  This year they changed the bike course because it was so rough last year.  Now we migrated through a couple of neighborhoods with really bumpy roads to get to a high way.  It was a two loop out and back and was fairly flat.  There were a couple of places that people tried to say there were "hills", they were just mild inclines, not really enough to say it was a hill.  On the way out though the road did seem to be a false flat and be inclined, and it had a headwind, but on the way back all of that was reversed so it worked out well.  I was able to average about 17-18mph on the way out, and then 22ish on the way back.  The clouds kept us covered and fairly cool until the last 15 miles.  By this point I ran into a guy who also had a Felt like mine and we started to literally play tag.  I would pass him on those "inclines"/"hills", then he would pass me on the flats and downhills.  He first passed me and said "Leap Frog!", then I said "Tag, you're it", we ended up going back and forth like that for the last 15-20 miles and we got to where we were actually smacking each other as we passed.  We were bored and tired and found a way to entertain ourselves when most people were starting to struggle before the run.  Right before the last aid station I noticed I was starting to get a little warm (the sun finally came out and immediately started baking us), so I grabbed a water bottle and doused myself with the majority of it and drank the rest, probably one of the best decisions ever!

Getting off my bike at the dismount line.

T2:

I hurried up and jogged/ran into transition, it's hard to run in bike shoes, and as I was putting my bike up Red came over and told me to hurry it up because I was 10th.  I double checked that he said 10th and tried to hurry it up a bit.  Turns out that I was 11th, but that's ok.  My legs were a bit cranky, but I thought they were ready to go.

I'm behind the dude as I drop my helmet and grab my run shoes and visor.

Run:

Red had been texting Miller and apparently they concocted this idea that I could run 10.5 miles "all out" and give myself the first 2.5 miles to "calm down and settle into a pace", yeah, ok.  Well I didn't feel horrible on the way out for the run, but it quickly became apparent that "all out" was going to be between an 8:30-9:00 minute pace, so much for the 7:30 pace I had imagined.  I knew right away that I was going to need to cool down so I immediately started drinking water and pouring ice down my shirt and shorts.  Since I had a rough idea as to where I was in the girls, I made a note to check out their calves so I could figure out how many girls I passed or who passed me.  There was one girl who looked way to peppy and dry who passed me within the first 3 miles, that was annoying.  After her though there were a couple that I kind of played leap frog with all the way to the finish. They would pass me until aid stations, then they would walk and I would take whatever I wanted while running and keep running.  Then they would pass me again, rinse and repeat for the entire run.  Finally, there were a couple that stayed in front of me, but there was one girl who was particularly annoying because she did the annoying "hurry to get in front of you, then walk" nonsense.  I guess she finally got tired because the last time I passed her she decided to stay behind me.  There was another girl who was in my age group that I didn't realize was in my age group until later.  She was coming up behind me in the last couple of miles but she was making dying cow noises like I did, so I kind of decided to cheer/yell at her.  There were a couple of hills towards the end of the run that I beat her up, but I kept telling her to get back up next to me.  Yelling at her to keep going and move worked for me as well, it was kind of like I was yelling at myself as well as at her.  Either way, I still beat her.  The finish line felt like it took FOREVER to get to once I got to the top of the hill.  Yeesh.

Coming into the finish!

Feeling like absolute death

After everything:

Happy that I now have food in front of me again :)

I was hungry, sore, and tired.  My legs were shaking for a little bit and I really just wanted to eat/drink and sit down.  I was able to do all three!  This is also when I realized how many places were chafed, or so I thought.  I some how magically have straight lines the entire way around my legs from some unknown thing in my tri short legs.  I have never had that happen before and I've worn them all season. They're my Betty Designs tri shorts, which I just wore to the Mason Sprint tri a couple of weeks ago without an issue.  Hmm...meh.  It wasn't until I got into the shower that afternoon that I truly understood how badly my body was going to hate me.  My neck, thighs, bikini line, ankle from the time chip, somehow my shoulder blades, spots on my ribs from my hear rate strap, then a few random spots on my back that I think can only be from my bars that I had in my pockets.  Either way, when I took my shower I was making some awful noises as the water first hit places that I was only semi prepared for, then hit places I wasn't prepared to hurt.  Then the soap didn't help the pain either. OUCH.

Today I'm hanging out, catching up on the tour, wearing compression socks, and doing some laundry.  Dear sweet Lord do my clothes stink from yesterday, blech.

Ok, well after that PR and better finish from last year it is now time to officially switch gears and get ready for Ironman Wisconsin.  I have about 8 weeks until my race, and between now and then I have A LOT of training to get in.  I have multiple rides that are over 90 miles, lots of running miles to get in, swimming, and strength training.  I want to feel better during Wisconsin than I did yesterday during Muncie.  By the time I was done yesterday I felt like it was a true struggle just to maintain anything close to 9:00 minute miles, gah.

Toodles!

Rev3 Knoxville 70.3 (a couple months late)

**I kind of started this months ago and completely forgot to post it, oops**

I could also name this post "So much biking I wanted to break up with Triathlon", or "Ever Changing Terrain, Tennessee must hate its roads because they're terrible".  With the road conditions aside, this course was rough.  There was a lot of climbing, which was fine, but there were a lot more flats and twisty-turny shenanigans than I remembered driving when we checked out the course.  So let's get this started:

Packet Pick-up/Expo:

Rev3 has a lot of cool things to look at, but they are way over priced and not that spectacular in the long run.  I did almost buy a pair of bike shoes but they only had 4 pairs there and they were all too big for me, sooo no bike shoes.  The goodie bag left much to be desired, and it's kind of disappointing since they're trying to compete with the Ironman brand and cost the same.  They are a lot more efficient in getting you your items and making the pick up process nice and smooth.  The volunteers are all really awesome and nice as well, that's a big bonus.

Race Day:

Nice pre race photo

Swim:

Hopping like penguins into the river.

We had to swim upstream in the Tennessee River for about a quarter to a third of a mile, I didn't really notice a current so it wasn't that bad.  Then we turned down stream for the rest of our swim and had to jump like penguins onto a low dock and attempt to run up the ramp.  The swim was uneventful outside of I thought a guy died about 500 yards into the race.  I saw him floating as I was swimming past and I actually stopped to check on him because his face was barely above water, but when I checked on him he was fine just a really bad swimmer and decided to float/swim on his back the whole way.  Awkward.  It was kind of hard to sight since there were no real landmarks to go off of, but the water wasn't freezing and my new full wetsuit kept me nice and toasty!  The whole jumping onto the low dock was mildly entertaining.  I fell back into the water twice before the volunteers realized they needed to help push us forward after we jumped up.  Oh!  And our swim time didn't stop until we were off the dock and almost all the way back to transition, so I was grumpy my swim time said 39 minutes, which is stupid slow, considering I forever trying to get out of the water and head up the transition ramp.  Meh.

Post penguin hop onto the dock

Bike:

Finally over the "mount here" line

The temperature was quite chilly, I think mid 50s, by the time we got onto our bikes.  I brought arm warmers and debated about putting them on, but I wasn't so cold that I was going to miserable without them.  I decided to save time and just go without them and after the first 5 miles of the bike I was plenty warm and didn't need them.  My hands were really cold, but the rest of me was fine.  Now, holy climbing.  I can climb really well, I like climbing, and I kind of wish the entire thing was climbing because I would win :P.  There were a lot of rough roads getting us to the first climb, and those were less than stellar to navigate when you're still getting feeling in your body.  There was one unfortunate soul who decided to start walking her bike up the hills about a quarter mile up the first hill.  I was joking with a guy who was also riding a Felt B16 (my bike), about how if we combined our powers we would be completely unstoppable.  I zoomed past him going up hills, but he decimated me going down hill and on flats.  That's pretty much how the entire race went for all 56 miles.  People would fly past me on downhills and flats, then come to almost a complete stop on hills which is where I would catch them and pass them again.  Rinse and repeat the whole bike portion of the race.  There was one hill at the very end of the bike (incredibly rude) that was more like a wall than a hill.  It was only about 20-30 yards long but it felt as if it was straight up.  The Police officer who was directing traffic for us was doing her best to coax and cheer us up this hill because we were all dying.  There were a lot of weird sounds coming from people as we grunted and groaned heading back into T2.

Showing Red my timing chip because he couldn't find me on the course at all, so he thought I lost it.

Run:

Coming into the finish!

Umm...death.  That's pretty much how I felt for the first 4 miles of the run.  I knew I was mildly dehydrated from the bike because even though I drank 2 bottles of my water/skratch mix, the roads were hard to navigate and drink properly so I was in a mini-hole.  I was also in a nutritional hole because the hills required a lot more energy than I originally planned for, so I ate all of my nutrition, including my back up, and was still out.  But it was ok.  I plodded along the first few miles and as the water, ice, gels, and coke migrated into my system to cool me down and fuel me I started to feel much better.  My shins still did this weird crampy thing where they didn't want to cooperate and my feet were slapping the pavement something fierce, but after walking the first aid station they started to get better.  My legs felt a lot better when I would walk each aid station instead of try to push through each one.  The run course was really pretty, we ran through their green way system of bike paths and into a neighborhood for Sequoyah park (sp) where there are some very fancy houses and beautiful cottage looking houses.  The volunteers were all really nice in the run, but they were a little confused.  They had loads of ice bags just hanging out at their stations, so I assumed I could ask for some ice and they would be like "oh sure! We already have a few cups of ice waiting", that wasn't the case but they were quick to fill a cup for me so it worked out in the end.  One poor guy didn't realize that I didn't want to eat the ice and about had a heart attack when I started pouring it down my shirt and down my shorts.  That is the fastest and most effective way to cool off when you're over heating.  I've done it for nearly every tri I've raced in the last 2 years and I am positive it is why my runs are stronger as I go instead of getting worse as I go.  By mile 5/6 I was feeling MUCH better and was more worried about getting the guy in front of me who CLEARLY didn't want to be chicked than I was in the beginning of the race.  In the beginning of the run I sincerely debated about stopping and go "nope, I quit", but my body was on autopilot and I'm stubborn, so I kept going.  I started chasing this guy who didn't mind if other guys passed him, but whenever I would catch up to him he would start going faster only to have to walk after a little ways.  Fortunately for me I was feeling better as the run went on and I eventually passed him and he couldn't keep up.

I ended up 4th in my age group with a 6:31 for a 70.3.  To put this into perspective, in Muncie last year I ended up 17th with a 5:45 for the same distance but a flat course.  I need to work on my flat speed and cornering, but I'm getting there.  It was quite annoying to look down and see that I was going 23mph on a flat road and not gain on ANYONE.  It's only May and my main half is in July (Muncie) and my BIG race is in September.  We'll see how everything goes!

Back to my rest day then I get going again tomorrow! :D