You might recall that this was the race I did last year as
my re-entry into racing after almost a year off. So I knew the course. The plan was for Janet to swim, me to bike,
and her friend Bridgette to run. We were
gonna be a fast team, in a small race, and it was gonna be a blast. And ya.
Janet. How badass is she. I mean seriously. 8 months pregnant and kicking ass. I’m so impressed with her.
Race day started nice and hot, of course, in Columbus Georgia,
and super humid. Still shocking to me
that a mere 2 hours away it can be so much hotter. Of course, I’m still training to go long, so
my training plan called for basically a TT in the race, and another 3.5 later
on the bike. We were in the last swim
wave, so I knew I’d be passing a lot of people.
And that’s always fun J
Janet, such a trooper, not only had to do the swim, but this
particular course calls for a double swim with a long run in between – swim
down river, get out, run back, and swim down river again. I waited at the swim exit for her on the
first lap, just to make sure all went well, ran back with her to the swim
start, which was a great warmup for me, and then went to wait in transition.
When she came running in, I grabbed the time chip off her ankle, and was off on
the bike like a bat outta hell – it was a 24 second transition in fact, and we
were at the back of transition! I’m
usually fast running with the bike in T1, because I just can’t turn off that
type-A competitiveness no matter what I feel like after the swim, but this was
a totally different feeling, running fresh.
I’d debated whether I really needed to have my shoes already clipped in
as I usually do, and had decided that I ought to do what I’m used to. This race has a bit of a hairy entrance onto
the race path, with a couple quick downhill curves around a fountain, so I
actually pedaled for a good half mile before I put my feet in my shoes. Mental note: I don’t really have to worry
about how long it takes me to get my feet in the shoes. My orders from Coach: HAMMER.
Short and sweet. I’d told him to
‘go ahead, give me a target wattage, you’ll get it’. 180-183W.
That was my rabbit, and I was determined to give it to him. 
I had expected to have to climb out of a power deficit given
that the first few miles are on the river path.
Not so. My HR went immediately to
Z4, and my power was in the low 200’s.
In part this was due to the short quick climbs on the pathway, and my
aggressive nature to just get going. I started
freaking out a little as I watched my HR stay in the low 170’s, and thought to
myself, I need to bring that down at least into the mid 160’s. It did creep down to 168 I think, but I just
couldn’t keep it there. After about 10
mins, I figured I was just fine in the 170’s, and had in mind to not let it get
above 174 for the first half. And
naturally, of course, as more miles passed, my power dropped as well to planned
levels, as it all averaged out. As
expected, pretty much all I did was yell ‘on your left’. It was an interesting mental experience
actually to contradict what I have taught myself over the last 5 years, which
is that I have to save some for the run, and particularly to countermand the
discipline I have learned on the bike this year in that regard. Steady going however, regardless of the level
of steady, was still the name of the game for me. I kept looking at the numbers thinking I
needed to hold back a bit more. Finally
around 30 minutes in I was able to convince myself that I didn’t need to hold
back at all. Recollections of the few
bike TT’s I’ve done started to creep back into my consciousness, and I just
started to give even more. At 45 minutes
in, I was balls to the wall, and no holding back. I continued to pass people, many of them the
faster men, right up till T2. I just
felt really good this whole race, and particularly pleased with that coming off
the Lake Logan Half last weekend, where I was also instructed to ‘HAMMER’ the
last half of that run, and coming off some weird thing that was going on with
my chest on the treadie speed workout from Thursday morning. It was SO MUCH FUN playing Pacman on the bike
for a change. Just kept picking them
off. Normalized power was at 183 the
last I looked, although it did drop down to 182 in the overall file due to the
slowdown coming into transition. I was
literally “done” when I pulled in. Just
stuck out my leg for Bridgette to retrieve the time chip, and then almost
collapsed! Bridgette took off for her run, and I took off for my brick run.
Bridgette pulled in an awesome run, taking the lead quickly
and never relinquishing it. We were the
last wave to start the swim, and the first female to cross the finish line. We
pulled away with the overall win on the relay, which includes both sexes,
beating the boys be a full 8 minutes. It
was even better when we got up to get our trophy with Janet at 8 months
pregnant. We finished with a total time
of 2:10:57, breaking down into 19’45/1:06’53/43’37, with 24” and 20”
transitions. Happy to say I had the 10th
overall fastest bike split, including the men, and the fastest female split by
5 minutes.
Later that afternoon I headed out in the crazy heat and
humidity with Ross joining in for the first 90 minutes. I felt great while he was out with me, and
it’s a good thing he hadn’t told me before that his longest ride ever was 30
miles or I’d have made sure he was out there longer ;). After he left I just felt like crap. Had a terrible cramp in my gut that made it
hard to breathe. Matthew confirmed later
that it was most likely due to the combination of the intensity of the morning
and the heat of the afternoon. I
literally had to stop and lay down to stretch out my core. I did that for about 10 minutes, and honestly
felt fine after that. I chose to make
the remaining 90+ minutes an SRS workout (small ring special), given the 22
miles I still had to run that weekend.
We had a really nice dinner out that night. So much fun spending time with these two
really good people. I headed out bright
and early for my first Sunday run of 14 miles.
Thankfully the temp was only in the 70’s, however the humidity was
listed as 100%. Seriously? I thought 100% humidity was swimming…WTF?
First mile was pretty rough.
So rough, in fact, that I ran right by the pathway entrance. So did a little out and back 2 mile loop and
then went back again to find the path, and sure enough, it wasn’t hiding on me
after all. I’m still not sure how I ran
right by it...I guess that’s focus.
;) I was definitely cursing Janet
on the way out, running down the hill that I knew I would have to run back up
at the end. But truly after the first
mile it all went just fine. Got into a
rhythm, and just kept going. Lots of good opps to fill water bottle, and good
thing too since I drank 4 of them.
Didn’t take long to become completely drenched thanks to the
humidity. Had very little company on the
trail, especially in the first half.
Managed to do the math wrong in my head, and ended up running long, but
thankfully by the time I got back I recognized the area well enough that I was
able to cut off a half mile, so it ended up being only a tiny bit long. I literally wrung out my shirt on the front
path, leaving a massive puddle. I was
almost afraid to walk into the house with my shorts literally dripping water as
if I’d just climbed out of a pool.
Second run was back in ATL, where the humidity was only
84%. I think I may have become a little
more southern with that ‘ONLY’. It was
definitely hotter though, so I’m still not sure which was worse to be
honest. This was only an 8-mile run
though, and the intensity wasn’t as much as some of the other 2nd
runs have been to date. Got it done, and
actually felt pretty good afterwards, all things considered. Of course, the scales
were not my friend, and despite drinking over 260 oz of water on Sunday, I was
still down several pounds, weighing in at 122 lbs after two shirt wringers on
the same day. Yikes.
In every aspect, this was such a fun, fantastic
weekend. It was just really nice having
a chance to visit with Janet, and just hang out with people in the same house
on the weekend. Come October, I’ll
definitely be heading back to Columbus to see the new baby and have Janet give
me some lessons on proper strength training technique. Can’t wait ;)
Happy Training ya’ll
Kat
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