Less than 3 weeks out from IMTX, and as you know, I did not do San Juan as my prep race due to illness. I feel it’s important to do a prep race
before the big day, and Coachie suggested I do West Point, and follow it up the
next day with a long bike. I’ve never
done West Point before, shocking I know, since it really is a southern GA
staple in our tri community, so it seemed like a good plan.
So certainly I wasn’t tapered for this race. This was just another training day for
me. And if you race much, you know that
racing an oly is actually a pretty tough workout. Plus, I’m 3 weeks out from IM, so pretty
freaking tired – there are a lot of miles in these legs already this year. I had no real instructions for this race – “Redline
the f’er. It’s an Olympic.” ‘nuff said.
I stayed with the Daly’s on Saturday night – still an hour
drive to the race, but closer than from my house with the added benefit of
visiting my girl Janet and her boys. I hope
I didn’t wake them up when I left the house at 430 am J
Got to the race site, and started setting up. And see this is why you do a prep race – I had
no race belt, I didn’t even think about my goggles until late Saturday night, I
left my license in the car (how many of these have you done? I got asked at reg
desk – thankfully they knew me enough to let it slide) and so on and so on. Now granted, the short races are different,
and I haven’t done many of those in several years, but still... Good to work out the cobwebs. Saw lots of friendly faces, and thankfully
Shanks was there, and although he didn’t have an extra race belt he did sort me
out. Hope he doesn't need to go hiking soon...
Swim
It was a time trial start, which is good from a spacing perspective,
although the competitive side of me would prefer to know exactly where I sit
relative to my competitors. Also a wetsuit legal race with water temps around
69, I believe. As I went diving into the
water, I saw Luis at the edge of the lake with his handy camera – “nice smooth
strokes Kat, nice smooth strokes”. And I
was off. First leg was fine. A little off course at the start, but then I found
my way, and it was looking good. Made
the 1st turn right at the buoy.
Second leg was great – I was right on the line. I pushed myself hard, and unfortunately I
never felt the strong confidence that I’ve been feeling in the pool
lately. I felt out of breath for most of
it, and did have those panicky thoughts of yesteryear, though they were much
quieter. I’m sure this was in part due
to a combination of the cumulative fatigue from being so close to IM taper,
being in a wetsuit (yuck), and the first time in OW since September. (and does that even count with it being
downriver??) I also didn’t feel like the
great technique I’ve been developing translated to the open water. At any rate,
I was actually doing pretty well I think.
And then I made the 2nd turn, into the final leg. I literally did not know where I was going when
I turned. It’s partly because I don’t
have glasses on in the water, but I also think they could’ve used another big
bright buoy. I wasn’t the only one. The field was so spread out in that leg – it was
crazy. Someone told me later that from
the shore it looked weird too – everyone just fanned out as soon as the made
the turn. I bet I stopped 5 times to try
to figure out where to go. I believe Klafter's question to me was "you have raced in open water before, yes?" ... Oh ya, and it
was choppy. Actually quite choppy, and
possibly one of the choppiest races I’ve done (tho Kansas being by far the
worst). So that didn’t help. Way way way off course were a couple of
volunteers on a paddle board or something, and bright neon yellow shirts, and that’s
where I’d started to go (no glasses, remember).
I soon realized that wasn’t right, but between not being certain of the
direction, and the wind which was pushing me off course, I swam waaaaaaayyyyyy
off course. It was kind of too bad. I did eventually find my way out of the lake,
though it really felt like I wasn’t going to, and got myself into
transition. Swim was an official, and abysmal,
28:39. I’m still not fast in the water,
but it should have been a 25-26’ swim for me.
Bike
Transition was fine at 1’05.
It felt slow and I was going to start complaining about how I’ve lost my
transition quickness because I’ve been racing long, but turns out now that I’m
actually looking,i order for me to tell you just how slow it was, that it was the 2nd
fastest time. Hmm. It felt awkward – even started running the
wrong way. But only for a second ;) I guess it’s all in my head. (get out of your head Kat!)
Although my direction was to simply ‘redline it’, we did
have an average NP in mind – and that was 190.
So I got myself going right away.
Felt not so hot the first 20’.
The same tight-leg uncomfortable feeling I had in every race last
year. In a full, or even half, 20’ isn’t
much to worry about – in an oly it’s kind of a big deal. I pretty much ignored it – no other choice – and
eventually things just felt fine. I
guess it’s just old, tired legs that need some time to warm up, and swimming
simply isn’t enough. Thanks to the TT
start in the water, there was lots of space on this course. I rarely had a worry about drafting, and
those that I passed, I pretty much zoomed right by them. In the latter half of the course, I did trade
places a few times with one 34 year old guy, who I finally passed for good
about 5 miles or so from the end. I also
really liked the course. Nice rolling
hills, nothing to get too worked up about, and enough descent usually to kick
you up the next one. Road surfaces were
also reasonably good. Although don’t
hold me to that – I was more focused on ‘cmon Katie girl – get it going’. I knew my swim had been bad, and most likely
put me out of contention for a podium spot.
But I also knew that didn’t matter – this was not my race, it was a
training day, and I knew that every watt I put in would pay me back in spades
on May 16. So I kept pushing. I never quite made it to 190, but I came very
close. (legs were tired, what can I
say). I came racing into T2, and didn’t
quite realize that there was a hard 90 degree turn to the dismount. I hopped off early to avoid a crash and ran a
little farther than I should’ve. No big
deal. Total bike time 1:13’38, for 20.3
mph. 4th fastest female bike split of the day. Not too bad given all
the miles in these legs. Pleased with
that, and my 184 NP.
Run
T2 was okay too. Fast
T2 at 46”, although not the fastest (5th). Out on the run, tied my shoelace (aka race
belt) around my waist while running (yes I am THAT talented, lol), and just
started givin’ er. I knew from running
Publix the way I did that I simply had no reason not to be in Z4 this whole run,
and that I would NOT BLOW UP. This I am
certain about now. Z4 on this run should’ve
looked like 7-7’10 miles. I have learned not to make too much assessment in the
first mile. And so even though things
were slower than I wanted, I didn’t worry. Plus, I had done something to my right big toe in transition. A quarter mile in, it literally felt like I might've ripped my entire toenail off. Hurt really bad. I really did look down a few times and expect to see blood oozing out of my shoe. And I had a real conversation in my head that went something like "did i rip the thing right off?...no you couldn't have...but it feels like it - it really hurts...if you had ripped the whole nail off you would have been screaming in pain, and you wouldn't be able to run at all...stop being a baby and RUN..." By mile 2 however, although I think I'd forgotten about the pain in my toe (the pain everywhere else was taking over), I still couldn’t get my hr up over the low 160’s.
Pace was mid 7’s. I was just simply having a hard time getting my hr up. Shanks was right there about 2 miles in, and
he just shouted “you just keep your focus on your cadence”. Saw Luis shortly after that, and how he
managed to capture a smile on my face, I still don’t know. Not only a smile, but possibly the best race
pic I’ve ever had. (you are the best Luis!!)
So hr still not going
up, but at least pace not slowing. Wasn’t
feeling great, that’s for sure, but I was also determined to keep giving as
hard as I could. As I stepped onto the
dam, nightmarish recollections of Beast of the East came to me, and I had to
squash them quickly. It was so dejavu. Except that this was flat. And cool.
Phew. Felt a little better at the
turnaround, and found myself able to pick up just a little. About mile 3.5 the 34 year old bike dude
caught up to me. He had a terrific
cadence, and I fell in step with him for a minute, and thought, ya, I can do this. Then, admittedly, I got scared. Felt a bit like mile 20 in Choo when I picked
up my cadence going over the bridge the 2nd time – MR was there
yelling to pick up my cadence, which I did, and shortly after that the wheels
came off. I think I felt the same thing
(slightly increased hr, more laboured breathing) and panicked a bit. And plus I practically choked to death as the
now present cloud of gnats flew down my windpipe. And so although I kept him in my sights for
almost the rest of the race, I did not recatch him. In retrospect, that was bullshit, and I
totally could have caught him. Lesson
learned, and better now than in TX. At
any rate, it was good to have the cadence meter in front of me, because it did
help to keep my own going. Found Luis on the back half, taking more pics. This one in particular is a fave J
And also thankfully had Shanks on that one damn little hill, making sure we
didn’t walk it! And he captured this
truly awesome shot:
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With a mile and a
half to go, once I recovered slightly from the spike in HR coming off that
hill, I was able to pick it up and bring it home. Lesson there too – if I can just get the hr
up, I can keep it up. Managed to pull in
a 45’14 run, and while slower than I wanted, at this stage of the game I’ll
take 7’17s with a smile. Sooo close to a
10k PR there though, and man that would’ve been sweet. 7th fastest female run split of
the day though, and that’s ok with me.
Even with the terrible swim, I snagged 3rd
overall Masters, thanks to a good bike and run. Happy to share the podium with 2 pretty awesome ladies, and some of the strongest in the country frankly - Kris Kester and Laura Sophiea.
Gonna seriously have to do something about the OWS. Dangit.
Good thing is TX is hard to sight poorly. Really enjoyed this course, and we were definitely blessed
by the weather gods on Sunday with great racing weather. It hurts like hell to race an Olympic, but it
was fun. And Luis’ pics prove it. ;) I also loved racing in my #smashfest #HCkit. Perfect for a short race like this. And a final cherry to top of this Sundae of a day was getting to see my beautiful stepdaughter who I haven't seen in about 3 years. Warmed my heart to look in her eyes again.
As planned, I followed the race up on Monday with an 80 mile ride. First 5 were hellish, next 5 were better, and
next 40 were great. Miles 55-65 were
really really really awful. I sent a
text to Coach. And then actually things
got better, and I finished my last 15 strong.
These guys definitely helped. Came over and said hello, and gave me a few kisses. As Carmen said, they came out for the last long ride to wish me luck.
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Here we go. Just a
few more hard sessions, and it’s taper time.
Hangin in there.
Happy Training
Kat
