Today I raced my second and probably final triathlon of the season.
I went home on Saturday night so that I'd be ready to leave (with my dad and fellow racers Jack and Rob) bright and early on Sunday morning. I almost forgot my helmet. I also almost forgot good socks for racing. Oh, almost forgot goggles. It was a good thing I was late in getting picked up or else I'd have basically been running naked.
My stomach gets upset really easily. I try to treat it right, but with ice cream as delicious as is it, I sometimes over do it. All last week I was really making sure I was eating things that were both nutritious and fiber-licious. Then Lin helped me decide what to eat and, more importantly, when to eat it on race day. My race was at 3pm so we decided on a big 11:30 lunch with a snack like a granola bar around 1:30.
My stomach ("Dominique," if you will) is basically my pacer, especially when running. If Dominique doesn't feel like being good, she'll just let stuff slosh around, or make me burp, leaving an acid taste in my mouth. Dominique is a bitch, really.
So hopefully you'll understand that my minor freak out this morning was totally justified. I should have known to bring my own cereal, but I guess I just assumed that a house with seven people living in it might have a larger selection of cereal than just Corn Flakes and Cheerios. Under the best of conditions, those things give me diarrhea more immediately than a laxative would. No way was I eating either of those on race day. I foraged the food storage room and discovered an expired box of Muslix. This would have to do.
My mom was sort of, "Oh, grow up and just eat whatever cereal we have" and I was all, "It's not so much epicurean preference as it is that I don't want to throw away months of really good training all because I eat an awful breakfast on race day." Fair, right?
Anyway, so we finally get the show on the road. Jack's duathlon (500m run, 3km bike, 500m run) was at 12 and Rob's duathlon (1km run, 6km bike, 1km run) was at 12:45. As we headed out further from the city, radio stations became sparse. While scanning for some good pump up music, I found a station that was playing a whole bunch of live Green Day songs. Jack and Rob LOOOOVE Green Day. We blasted it with the windows open and air drummed our hearts out. It was the perfect pump up.
Jack and Rob both did pretty well. (Jack finished 2nd in his age group!) I was really excited watching them get really excited.
I had my 1:30 snack, but at around 2 I realized I was still sort of hungry. I ate a handful of nuts and some dried mangoes, but knew that if I ate too much I'd cramp badly during the swim. I didn't know what to do! What's worse: being full when you swim? Or being hungry when you bike and run? I figured I'd rather be hungry. I blame the darned Muslix... not nearly as filling as you'd think. Darn it.
I did a great running warm up and really gave my back a good stretch. Then I took 2 Advils for good measure. I think it's sort of cheating, isn't it? Taking Advil before a painful race? But really I just wanted to keep my back in line. Then I took an Immodium to show Dominique who is boss, too.
SWIM
The water was a really great temperature. I did the warm up swim that I had practiced (25m where I breathe on every 5th stroke, then 100m normal swimming.) Then I peed in the water because Steve said you're not a real triathlete until you do that. It was actually pretty fun. And judging by the number of warm spots I encountered, I think it's a pretty common practice.
However... about 5 minutes before start time, the wind picked up. And I mean, the wind. It picked up. The start was 100m out from shore, and 750m swim course was sort of a C shape, so in total we spent most of our swim time about 300m from shore. The waves were MASSIVE. On the way out, the waves were coming from my right, so I just only breathed on my left and it was okay. But then we rounded the corner and HOLY SMOKES. And not just the waves but the current as well. I felt like I wasn't moving at all. Waves, nay, baby-tsunamis, were crashing over my head.
I had no chance with the front crawl. I'd spin to the side to breathe but discover that I was several inches below water. I started to breaststroke (as the frontrunners of the wave behind me started passing me) but felt frustrated. The next buoy was not getting ANY closer. I've been swim training SO hard! Often four times a week! Of all 3 portions of this race, I wanted swimming to be my best.
I made up a stroke that involved breast stroke arms with flutter kick (let's face the facts: I'm a terrific flutter kicker. One time at the pool, I passed a friend while kicking. He said, "who are you, an X-Man?" It was the best compliment I've ever gotten, basically). But I still couldn't manage the waves. Were other people around me still living? Doubtful.
If I could just make it to the next buoy, we'd turn in and head for shore. I flipped onto my back, hoping that I'd just ride up and down with the waves, and still be able to breathe normally. Yes, here we go. Almost at the buoy. HUGE WAVE. I breathed it, I swallowed it, and somehow my goggles got pushed. Treading water while choking, I put my hand up for the kayak. You're allowed to hold on without being disqualified, so I took a breather.
There were a few other people holding onto the kayak. I've never seen anybody ever holding onto a kayak... so you can tell this was a bad race. We were all snorting and coughing and wishing we were anywhere else. After about 30 seconds, I emptied my goggles, took a few really deep breaths, and kept going.
And I did it! As I rounded the corner, the shore started to protect me more. The waves subsided and I broke out my strongest front crawl. Hips high. Catch the water with your hand. Turn from your hip. High elbows. Straight knees. Everything we practiced. Swimming is fun! Too bad the whole race couldn't have been like that.
My goal time was 20 minutes... but I kind of had secret dreams of being even faster than that. As in, I'd already composed a race report blog post in my head where I was all "16 minutes? I never dreaaaaaamed I could be that fast!"
In the last triathlon I did, the swim took me 24 minutes. This time, all I could do was doubt the clock's accuracy when I saw 28:13 had passed since the gun. That is SO SLOW. However, I'm looking at the results and finding people who did both the same races as me, and everybody seemed to have been a few minutes slower today due to the waves and the current, I guess.
Still, when I felt good, I felt good. I didn't dread it beforehand, and coming out of it I still had energy for the rest of the race. I just need to practice more open water. My swim time was 15/16 for my age group.
T1
Flawless, girlfriend. 1:52, and I think next time don't bother with the bike gloves.
BIKE
I don't know. I had just gotten my (Laura's) bike all checked out and I could totally notice/feel the increase in the efficiency of each pedal stroke. It was 20km, and the first 10 were mostly uphill and against the wind.
A bit before the 5km mark my legs were whining and feeling sort of sore. I sternly informed them that that point of triathlons is to have sore legs. Nevertheless, I gave them a little stretch out on a downhill and we were good to go from there.
I finished the bike in 47:20 (25.4km/hr) (compare that with last race's 45:16 19km, or 25.2km/hr). I'm pretty happy with this time, but I'd like to see it go down more, because I know it can. This bike time was 13/16 fastest for my age group.
T2
Good work. 50 seconds and feeling ready to rock.
RUN
Okay, lower back. Please don't start hurting.
As much as I'm starting to love swimming, running is my favourite of the three. My legs were stiff and heavy coming off the bike, and usually in triathlons they are absolutely crying for a good calf stretch. But this time I felt like at the start of the run my legs were like "Hey Lise? Let's just do it."
I kept a fast and steady turnover rate. The run course has a few dips and tiny hills, but is flat over all. Sometimes when running I really let my mind wander (commonly I let play whatever song is in my head, but sometimes I just get reflective and think about whatever in my life is giving me grief) but today I was entirely in the moment. I felt like I was running deliberately, if that makes any sense.
I passed all sorts of people. Around the 2km mark I realized that my back was fine, my stomach was fine... what more can a girl ask for? I was nervous to pick it up too early, because this summer has taught me that too quick an increase in speed can really agitate my lower back. I was feeling hungry, too. But tolerably so.
At around 3.5km I picked up the pace. I passed the 4km sign and in retrospect should have really picked it up there. I've forgotten how short kilometers are! A mile is still a fair distance to pace yourself for, but with only a km left I should have started giving her. Instead, I held off for a bit too long. I finished strong, but had a bit left in me. I wish I had picked my pace up sooner.
My run time was 29:58 (my goal was to sneak in under 30) which put me 8/16 for my age group. In my last race, the run took me 34:01! Nice improvement!
Final time: 1:48:12 (13/16 for Women aged 20-29)
It was really great to have a cheering squad. We had practiced some good cheers beforehand. My dad was going to shout "TIME TO DROP THE HAMMER", Robbie was going to shout, "PUNISH THE PAVEMENT" and Jack was going to shout, "KICK SOME ASS, LISE!" but the boys got distracted with my digital camera (they like taking pictures of bugs and their muscles) so it was mostly just my dad cheering. It's rare that he's able to make it out to one of my races, and he kept saying the nicest things as I passed ("looking strong," "you're doing awesome," "I'm really proud of you" etc)
Last race took me 1:47 and I felt awful about it. This race, about 45 seconds slower, felt really great. I think I put a bit less pressure on myself, and just enjoyed the race.
Things to work on for next time
- Open water swimming, especially with waves
- Biking on a higher gear
- Pacing myself properly for running
Anyway that is the world's largest glacier deposit lake (or something) right there, folks. Camp is in the valley of the Canadian Prairies. The Prairies are CRAZY. The days would reach the mid thirties, and the night winds would drop the temperature to 10 or lower. We'd be wishing for more time in the pool during the day, then wearing three sweaters and two pairs of pants trying to fall asleep at night.
And they all joined in (instead of getting a bit of extra sleep) the forward-forward-back-back. It was pretty hilarious times, let me tell you.
