Located in North Carolina, it was about a 3.5 hour drive from Atlanta. Tuesday night I'd driven my car home from Richmond, and then Friday afternoon headed out to Lake Logan. I left later than I'd wanted, for all kinds of reasons, and so didn't quite get in all the things I would've liked, but it all worked out (as it almost always does of course). I did my pre-race workouts at home before I left, worked a bit, forgot about a dozen things and had to keep going back - including my bike shoes btw, though thankfully I was running my last in-town errand when I realized, that while they were in fact on the bike where I always leave them for exactly this reason, they were on the WRONG bike. Gawd. What a disaster that would have been.
I'd been feeling not so great all week. And actually told Coach on Thursday that I thought I was getting sick and was a little worried about being able to race, and if I did, that I'd make it worse, and then what would happen to IM training. Janet happened to text to see if I was ready for Saturday and when I told her mentally I was there, but physically not so hot, she ordered me to go get Wheatgrass and Zicam NOW. I did, and went to bed at 830 that night. Slept about 11 hours. Woke up feeling better, and by Friday evening felt good. I guess wheatgrass really does cure everything...??? ;) Also interesting was my severe grumpiness on Wednesday and Thursday. It's often hard to tell when you live alone, but I'd say I was definitely grumpy :) Just didn't feel right. I don't normally get the recovery week blues, so that was kinda different. And so maybe because of all that, or in spite of it, I really was not stressed at all about this race. Instead, I found myself actually super excited to race it, and see what happened. My own little laboratory of hypothesize, test, analyze. So much fun.
I arrived at the race site which was BEAUTIFUL. I mean just gorgeous. Reminded me of Canada actually. The line to pick up race numbers was a little long - worse than an Ironman (Capital I) race to be honest. But, got it done, and found some Dynamo teammates along the way. Once I picked up my stuff, I drove the 45 mins back to my hotel so I could eat and get to bed. I ate a little later than I normally like on a night before a race, but nothing to be done about that. Got to bed at 9, although didn't sleep till 11, and then was up a few times through the night, and awake at 3:20 before my alarm. So not a lot of sleep Friday night but I'd slept well the rest of the week thankfully.
I normally am not an early to transition kind of girl, as I don't like to stand around long before a race starts. However, I knew there was a potential for a long wait line given the single long road into the race site. I'd already planned on leaving early because of that, and since I'd woken early to boot, I headed out even earlier than planned, leaving my hotel about 4:40. I arrived at the race site about 5:30 and parked on the airstrip, already a fair way down. I took my time at the car, and did some of the things I would normally have done before getting to transition. I was glad I had, since by the time I made my way up to the transition area, I could see the long snake of headlights trying to get to the parking area. Little to note really about transition itself, except for the fact that they did not have us racking by age group. I was mixed in with all ages and men as well.
My race plan could basically be boiled down to two things:
1) execute the plan as written, but with confidence to freelance the power a bit on the back half of the bike within the hr zones, based on data and feel
2) find my pain cave and figure out how to deal with it
THE SWIM
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| race morning - swim start |
That said, I will tell you that this is the most comfortable I have ever felt in the swim portion of a race. I felt strong and had a rhythm like I've never felt before. And I ran through transition like I had not just swam my ass off for 32 minutes. I'm a quick runner out of the water but it's never been easy to do that. Not so this time. (which yes, I know Coach, means I am DEFINITELY not swimming as hard as you want me to)...but my efficiency is clearing making gains, even if not my time. Although still not very fast, and definitely not translating the gains in the pool to the open water in a linear fashion, I am improving from an overall race approach. My time put me 45th woman (of 189) which is top 24%, which is a helluva lot better than I've been in the past; and 3rd in my AG (27 women in total), which is what really counts.
Unfortunately, my reaction to open water continues to plague me, and allergies have just taken over again for the 2nd time this summer. When I saw my heart rate strap after getting home it was no surprise - literally covered in dried yellow pollen from the lake. There will be no more OWS practice for this ironman. Unless I head to the ocean.
THE BIKE
I went through T1 in the lightning fashion I am proud of (gotta be great at something!), and actually had the 5th fastest T1 - and you know as I look through the results, although it didn't make a difference for my placement or age group, it did make a difference for some others, so it's nothing to be scoffed at. And that was with sitting on the ground to take off my wetsuit too. Dang thing. And no strippers. Note to race directors - strippers would be nice. :)
Target for the bike was 170W, with specific hr targets for 1st half and 2nd half. Potentially more power would be okay if hr was acceptable and RPE allowed it. We know I've made gains on the bike, and I expected 170W to be very doable. The gist of this bike course was downhill trend on the way out, and uphill on the way back. Lots and lots, and LOTS, of hills. Some bigger climbs, and tons of rollers. I'd set a power alarm on my bike for 197W, since I wasn't supposed to go over 200. Recall in Knox that I spent an alarming 30+ minutes over my threshold. I've practiced a lot more discipline on the bike since May, however, I still wanted the alarm to keep me in check, especially on those hills, and especially in race mode where it is so much easier to go too hard. So mapmyride pegged this at about 4500' of climbing, in an advertised short ride of 52 miles. My garmin actually puts it at 5400'. Now neither of them are ever right, as we all know, but also mmr tends to be conservative in my experience, so let's say the 52 miles covered somewhere between 45 and 5400'. Either way, that is a legit bike course, I don't care if it is short or not. Here is the profile from my garmin on Saturday:
Damn power alarm felt like it was going off every time I went up a hill. It was a good thing though, and it helped keep me even. Felt very very good, and very very fast on my new beauty. My hips were stiff for the first 40 mins, just like in Knox. I haven't had this in training, and don't know what it is about, but it has been there for both races this year so far.
The course itself was very pretty, and most of the roads were very rideable. There were a few areas through town with lots of traffic that just did not feel good at all from a safety perspective, and I saw one guy in front of me almost get nailed. Traffic control could have been better, and it cost me some time for sure. Lots of twisty street turns over a mile or two I'd say, combined with traffic, and being in one of the last waves so lots of riders on the course, definitely slowed me down some. Still averaged over 20mph on the first half. I was very true to my HR ceiling though, both on the way out and the way back, although I think I was not as successful at keeping above the lower limit. It was hard on some of the downhills, even though I am very aggressive on the descents. At the halfway mark, I was feeling very good, and knew I'd be able to give a bit more. For some odd reason though, my power just wasn't there. At least not on the garmin. Average normalized power was hovering around 157-158W. Didn't really understand it at all, but I knew I had to honour the HR targets, and that was my main focus, especially knowing what was coming on the run.
As is often the case, I played cat and mouse with athletes who don't understand the concept of steady output. I can't tell you how many athletes I saw, especially the girls, who just powered up the hills, many of them standing out of the saddle and mashing their way up. And not a single one of them maintained that lead on a single one of those hills. I just looked at them all, shook my head, and thought go for it, I will not only pass you on the way down, I will crush you on the run. The problem is they just got in my way and impeded my progress. If you want to be stupid in your race execution, that's fine by me, but make sure you know the rules. Pass if you want but then get back into the right side of the lane. I had one girl go hammering up one of the bigger hills, and then of course fade to nothing at the crest, and as I came with my steady power output up and over the hill I tried to pass her but she stayed in the left lane. And I yelled out 'on your left' 4 - FOUR - times. It was a steep twisty descent, and as some of you know, my specialty :) I am a Flying Foreigner (I share the title with Mo) and I can handle my bike. I literally had to brake down the entire hill because she was in my way. This did not make me happy! When I finally passed her, I told her she was blocking and needed to be in the right lane - that she'd get a penalty if the officials saw her. On the next hill of course, she hammered up again and said to me that she wasn't trying to block me, but she was just trying not to skid out. Seriously? I wasn't about to get in a debate with her so I just told her to have a great race. But look. If you don't have the bike skills to handle that kind of descent at that speed, then you should be going slower and you sure as HELL should not be doing it in the left side of the lane where you can take someone else down with you. Honestly people - know the rules, and learn the skills. And also, learn that steady power output is the goal. This is a triathlon, not a bike race. You have to run after. A variability index of less than 1.05 is the goal. That means you can't hammer up those hills at 2-3 times your average power output. Every single one of those girls in the last 20ish miles, who caused me to go slower as I made my way around them and tried to avoid a drafting penalty, finished behind me, both in the bike and in the race. Go ahead and outclimb me - I will outrace you. And please, stay out of my way on the bike.
Anyway. Back to our regularly scheduled race report. Something else of note, and something I worried about when I saw the road on Friday - had a few cars in the second half that just wouldn't get out of the way, and these roads are very narrow. Me and another guy were stuck behind this one driver for a good mile where we were just going so slow. We couldn't get around her - no shoulder or space to speak of, and she wouldn't move over a touch to the left. Not much to be done about that really. There are a number of good climbs on the back 12 miles of that course, that is for sure. Understated on mapmyride in my opinion. The climb at mile 40 was a bitch, and combined with the nasty chip seal, didn't make for a good section of the ride. But, in truth, not all that much different from the rides I do regularly from my house, so definitely manageable, especially if you are disciplined and manage your output wisely. The last 5 miles were tough only because there were suddenly so many people I couldn't really get around them at times.
Total time for my 52 miles was 2:45:13. Not too bad I guess at 18.8 mph on a course with somewhere in the 5k feet of climbing. My output was steady steady steady the whole course, on all levels, from power to heart rate, to cadence. VI was 1.03, which is pretty awesome really for such a hilly course. Power alarm definitely helped with that one. NP was a disappointing 158, and there really isn't much to explain why it was so low. Fastest speed to date this year, with average hr of 150...again, on a hilly course, that's pretty good. Only thing we can think is maybe I didn't properly calibrate the power meter. Who knows. I can't worry about the numbers - DON'T CHASE METRICS KATRINA. We'll test for power again in a few weeks. Bottom line is I had the 23rd fastest female bike split (12th percentile), and 2nd in my AG. Can't complain too much about that. And it set me up well for the run to come.
THE RUN
Blazed through T2 with the third fastest split, and headed out onto the run course to find my pain cave. This was an up and down course. No flat. 3.2 miles up, 3.2 miles down, run around a field, and repeat. A double out and back. Turns out the run course was short too. Not exactly sure by how much. Most are saying .5 miles short, my watch would say just a tad more than that. I clocked only 12.4, although my watch went in and out a few times. Having said that, I was sure this time to run the shortest possible course since in Knox I ran way long (.2 long), so I was right on the pylons at every turn with nothing to spare.
Plan was steady out, slight uptick back, and then at the turnaround for the second lap, HAMMER. Go deep, push hard, make it hurt. And then manage it.
And that's basically what I did. I stayed within the target heart rate zones from Coach, on the top end for each section on the first loop. I really really hated the field. It was uneven, and it just felt yucky. I really had to labour through it. Did not make me happy at all. But as soon as I hit what felt like the halfway point, I just turned it up. And kept going. Any time my heart rate dropped below 164 (target for the uphill on second loop was 159-168) I pushed again. And then the final turnaround, with the final 3 miles to the finish, with no hr target at all - Just Go. And I did. I just went, as hard as I could. And when I hit the 12 mile marker, I went even harder. Shame it was short because I normally don't turn on the after burners till mile 12.5, so I was trying to do it earlier this time to see what I had. Oh well. And man, let me tell you, I did find a pain cave. I hurt bad for that whole last 6 miles. Wanted to stop, slow down, just for a minute, but I just didn't. Firm hips. Strong core. You got this. Push. Pacman...gobble gobble. Firm hips. Strong core. Glutes. Pacman...gobble gobble. Firm Hips. Go. Pacman...gobble gobble. And I just kept picking them off one by one. I did have one moment of 'I don't know how I do a marathon right now', but I quickly put that back in the file cabinet to examine later. Firm hips. Strong core. Pacman. And then I was done. And I never hurt so bad after a race in my life.
Time was 1:41:39. We figure that's a 1:45 high on a full course. Which is another run PR off the
bike. And a challenging bike at that. Pretty stoked about it to be honest. My garmin boasts a total of 1314' of gain for the run. On the run, I finished with the 16th fastest split for the women, and 1st in my AG. I'm not sure exactly how it happened, but it seems I have become a good runner. Now when my bike really comes back, that will be fun.
I definitely had a hard time moving after this race. It took me a while to make my way over to the swim exit, but when I finally got there I followed Coach's orders and soaked the legs in the creek. One of the guys sitting there told me before I was even fully immersed, 'uuhhh, your lips just turned blue...". Yep, that's me. Visual thermometer. Happens every time. My final time for the race was 5:03:18. I won my Age Group, and finished 11/189 for the women. Although it wasn't a full 70.3, we all raced the same course. Just as you can't compare one 70.3 to another, you can't compare this to another. Full distance or not, it was a legit course.
All in all, I am really pretty pleased overall, and feeling really good about where I am, going into the next 8 weeks. I can't say enough great things about my Coach. Matthew is just doing all the right things with me, and somehow keeps managing to pull more out of this old girl. Who would have thought. I have pr'd everything so far this year, and won my age group in both of the halfs I've raced, not to mention placed very well from an overall perspective. I couldn't be happier with my progress, or with how he is managing my training plan.
I had such a fun time watching all my amazing teammates at this race. Massive congrats to Erin, Lindsey, George, Thomas, Mike and Joseph for their lightning fast times and wins. So Much Fun being a GREENie. Go Dynamo! And also awesome to see Jim and Rod out there this weekend too.
T-8 and counting. Here comes the next build block. I say Bring IT.
Happy Training!
Kat
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