Sprint to the Finish - on two counts

So, I am way overdue on posting this post, no doubt.  Last week I was in St Louis for work and it was a crazy busy week ... so busy it feels like the week didn't even happen.  'Cra-cra' to quote my buds April & Janet.

Ok.  Count 1.  Peachtree Supersprint - I did indeed sprint to the finish.  And sprinted into 2nd place overall female, much to my pleasure.  It was a fun race, and I had a blast.  Well, at least as much fun as you can have racing for about 52 minutes in zone 4-5.  :)  Tons of SF teammates racing, and I enjoyed cheering them on as much as I did racing myself.  Turns out though that the folks running the race don't know how to either a) measure distances accurately or b) advertise distances honestly.  When I exited the water and saw 9:xx on my watch, I was mightily confused to say the least.  No matter how slow I claim to be on the swim, I would have had to swim backwards to take that long to swim 300 yards.  For pete's sake, my t-pace the thursday before the race on my last 100 of the set was 1:40.  do the math.  And yes, it's true I wasn't "quite" on course ..hehe.. my right goggle flooded on entry, and so it was hard to see, but still...  After the single buoy turn, I simply couldn't see the flags, swam to the yellow 'end buoy', which turned out *not* to be the right direction, exactly.  Oops.  I eventually made the course correction, but still, even that could not have doubled my time.  As I headed out on the bike, I admit I did start to get a little worried...but saw Klafter within the first 2 miles. This was about where I expected to pass him (we started together), so I figured I was fine.  Turns out the consensus is that the swim was almost double.  Klafter took 7.5 minutes, instead of the 4.5 he should have spent.  We figure the course was really a 500 yard swim.  Still a short course - but on both ends of the spectrum, kind of a problem.  On the one end, we have Beginners, of which there were many, probably freaking about how long it was taking and not really prepared, and on the other end, those of us trying to win, our pacing was thrown way off.  At any rate, it was what it was.  The bike was fine, only frustrating part was the prohibition of passing in the first section - which was actually quite long.  Bike was slightly longer than advertised.  And I almost missed the entrance back into transition.  (can you tell I wasn't taking this race very seriously...need to fix that).  Run was also fine.  Though, Tracy Palmer, not what I would call 'flat as a pancake'.  But, per my agreement with Degan, I was not a 'ho', and pulled out 7:30's in the first two miles, and a 6:30 in the last (unadvertised) quarter mile.  ;)  let me tell you, when your heart rate is 180+, a quarter mile is a LOOOOONG way.  But I busted it out (don't be a ho, don't be a ho, don't be a ho was my mantra).  My goal of 47ish minutes was not achieved, obviously because it was a longer course than I expected.  So 52 and change was the final tally.  Didn't quite make it to 22mph on the bike, though I think that would have been achieved without the 'no pass zone'.  And I pulled out better than I hoped for on the run.  Congrats to all the other SF athletes that represented so well on the podium, including 1st and 2nd OA female, and all the SF team members who raced, especially those for whom it was their first triathlon!

Now.  Count 2.  10 days is all that is left to get to Kansas 70.3, my only A race this season.  All the long workouts - Done.  My body will get it's promised rest starting about noon on June 10.  Just hang on a little longer hip flexor, ankle, rotator cuff, and whatever else is lurking in the shadows ready to pop out.  Thanks to Dr Sadri, as always and my new massage therapist Tiffany, for keeping me able to do anything for the last month. 10 more short days, 1 super 5 hour effort, and we are there.  To the land of doing what I feel like for a few months, and maybe racing a few more supersprints.  :)

Happy Training!
Kat

Love me a good Sprint!!

Nothing like a Sprint race really - and a Super Sprint even better.  They hurt like hell, if you do them right, but they are so much fun!!  I haven't done a sprint race in two years, and I sure miss them.  They're all about pure adrenaline and getting to the finish line as fast as you can.  Not that every race isn't about that, but this is different.  There's no pacing, there's no nutrition, there's no holding anything in reserve.  It's just balls-to-the-wall, lay it all on the line, bust your ass for - in this case - 47ish minutes.

Tomorrow I race the Peachtree City Supersprint.  Most athletes tomorrow will be racing the Oly.  But me and a couple of my buddies - Klafter, Kev, and Vallee - and maybe a few I don't know about yet, will be out there with me going as fast as we can for under an hour for the sprint.  Well, Klafter will be hobbling along in his skinned knees, but the rest of us will be busting it out.  ;)  Sorry dude, I couldn't resist!!

It will take me longer to drive there than it will to race but man, I can't wait!  Good luck to everyone, and especially my TSF teammates!!

Happy Racing!
Kat

Target to the rescue, again ;)

Okay.  Every once in a while, when you have to get ready for work at the pool, you leave things, important things, at home.  by mistake.  Once, back in the days when I lived in Smyrna and worked in Alpharetta, (aka a helluva long way), I left my entire outfit at home.  It was either show up at the office in spandex, drive all the way home again and be way late, or go to Target and buy some new clothes - literally everything including shoes.  Obviously, I chose Target, and yes, certain co-workers still find this to be one of the funniest stories from PMO row.  I took quite a ribbing for this 'incident'.

Today, Target once again came to my rescue.  All I had to buy this time was underwear.  At 8am.  hmm.  Not sure that is better than having to buy the whole outfit.  Yes, I got quite an odd look from the cashier.  But hey - the good news is I swam today!  1500 yards!  And my shoulder is still not hurting!  Hooray!!

I'm sure she was thinking 'oh she probably is coming from the pool and just forget them at home'...

Happy Training!
Kat

Waterlogged

Been a few weeks since I posted...though in my mind I've posted a lot.  lol.  Sometimes I just don't quite sit down and type all the posts I think about.

Four weeks to go till my last scheduled race for the season - I've decided that Kansas needs to be it for me, and then I need to rest and recover my body.  I may do some races, short ones - aka sprints only - but I am not going to plan any, and I'm not going to do any structured training.  I'll do whatever, have fun, work on my weak spots, and recover my body fully so that I am ready to take on a full again next year.

This weekend we have had a lot of rain.  To say the least.  Yesterday I headed out for a 3.5 hr ride from SF.  Brett was supposed to lead with me, but he ended up sick.  I too was sick earlier this week, sick as a dog on Monday night.  Seems it has been going around the city, I'm told.  At any rate, I showed up since others may have been planning to join.  As it turns out it was only me and Jason, a 22 yr old elite athlete who has just graduated and heading home to Manhattan this week to take on the real world.  We had a great ride, chatting on the way out.  It started to rain lightly about an hour in.  By the time we turned around it was raining pretty heavily.  But what can ya do?  Ride through it of course!  And although I'm sure he could have gone faster I don't think I held him up too much.  Not bad for a 44 yr old woman.  :)  We averaged 18.6 mph, which is not too shabby for an endurance ride.  And my normalized power was way WAY better than I would have expected, which is quite encouraging.  Maybe things are starting to come back.

Today, I had a long brick on the schedule.  The forecast called for rain all day.  I woke up, and sure enough it was raining.  I also needed to do this workout on my own, since it was a pretty targeted race-specific workout. 15 minute run, 3 hr bike at race power, 30 minute run at race pace.  At 730 I headed down to the clubhouse - still won't run up or down that hill on a brick.  Sat in the car for a few minutes, wondering just how crazy I was, and finally just decided I needed to get on with it.  So, out I went.  It actually was pretty good.  The rain did get quite heavy at times, and I cut it a few minutes short because I really was just TIRED of the rain.  All told, I did 3:30.  It actually reminded me of playing soccer in grade 9/10.  I always did better in the games we played in the rain.

It felt good to get out and do my long rides this weekend, rain or not.  Made me feel committed!  I've been off swimming all week, with some rotator cuff issues, hoping to get back in this week.  Between massage and Dr Sadri, things feel okay.  I really want to show up at the race as ready as I can possibly be and end the season strong.

Happy Training
Kat