Vancouver Sprint Triathlon

Bad Blogger Alert! I’m back with a race report though. Now, I know what you’re thinking: race report? But Brian, you’re not even training! Yeah … about that …

A friend of ours has convinced me to race the Self-Transcendence Olympic distance in Victoria at the end of July. Foolishly, I thought that sounded like a really good idea. After all, it’s a fun event with a good spread of food afterward (leave it to me to be convinced by food). Then the opportunity came up to do a “dry-run” with the Vancouver Sprint last weekend, so I decided to give it a go.

My prep was interesting. I’ve been riding the new road bike all spring, so hadn’t been on the tri-bike at all. The weekend before the race, I thought it would make good sense to try the Guru and try running off the bike for the first time all year. I drove down to the course start and did the bike course pretty hard and ran most of the run course, suffering immensely. It would appear that “speed work” might have benefited me this season, but what the heck – I can wing it, right?

With Amy away on a girls’ weekend (I think the title she gave it was marginally less delicate), it was the first race I’ve done where I was on my own. Race morning dawned too early as always, and I headed down. One of the nice things about the Vancouver race is that the Half Iron wave goes off way before the sprint wave, so even though I had to be there early just to get parking, I had tons of time to settle in and do a good warmup. As it turns out, I also had time to change a flat for the guy parked across from me in transition when he was panicking 10 minutes before his swim start in the ½ IM. I told him to just put his wetsuit on and get ready – I’d take care of it for him. I wish I had caught his name to check how his day went, but happily, he at least made the start in time and had air in both tires when he got into T1.

The race was quite a bit larger than the first time I raced Vancouver in ’08. The nearly 150 men were in the first wave. While that number isn't huge, it's cramped into a pretty small area and with just 150 meters to the first turn, the start was very hectic. The ocean current didn’t help either as several people missed the target and had to backtrack a little to get around the first turn. I got tangled up with a few others coming around the buoy and was even caught in the rope anchoring it to the bottom leading to a brief moment of panic. Released from this though, we were down-current for the next leg, which flew by. I made the turn for home and swam hard in some open space to finish it off. Swim: 07:58 for 500 meters (1:36 / 100 m)

T1 was pretty smooth. I didn’t get stuck in my wetsuit or do anything too stupid despite not having practiced at all this year. It wasn’t incredibly fast (ranked 45^th), but it was efficient enough. T1: 2:10

The bike course is one we ride all the time. Most of it happens to be the Leading Edge time trial course, so I’m even used to pushing hard on it. I managed to take in a little bit of food near the beginning before climbing up Spanish Banks and then just fought to stay close to the red line for as much of the ride as I could. I had a few people to work off of and leap-frogged with a few others in the sprint as we blew by the racers going at a far more sensible pace in the ½ IM. Most importantly, I felt that I had to lay myself out there on the bike course because I didn’t expect much from my run, and in that effort, I was successful. Ride: 44:55 for 26 km (35.4 km/hr)

T2 was fantastic. I had gone past Dominic from Leading Edge on the road in to transition, but then he passed me back as I was trying to get out of my shoes while still on the bike (apparently, he has practiced that part this year – he made it look far too easy). Once off the bike though, I got through transition really quickly. Just threw my bike on the rack, slipped into the shoes, and played with my visor while I was already running out. My transition time was tied for the fourth best in the field. T2: 0:32

Starting the run was painful. It is obvious to me now that practicing transitions on a weekly basis with LE in years past was a really good idea. I spent the first 2 km of the run sluggish and suffering as I watched half a dozen guys (and one woman) run by me. Once I hit the 2 km mark though, I started to feel a little better. Still didn’t have a lot left in the legs, but was able to fight through and keep turning them over. I managed to run a solid negative split and hold off most of the charge of people coming from behind. Run: 22:35 for 5 km (4:31 / km)

Final result was 1:18:09 against my goal time of 1:20:00. I placed 29^th out of 233 overall and 11^th out of 60 in my age group. Best of all, I only got chicked by two women, and since they were Suzanne and Stephanie, I knew it was inevitable. I’m pretty proud to have held off the rest of the women's field!

I learned from this race that I really should try to get out to a few run practices and push myself into more suffering each week if I want to be prepared for the race at the end of this month. It’s probably too late now, but I’ll get out to a couple anyway. More than anything though, the race was a huge reminder of what I’ve missed out on this year by going back to school. There was a huge turnout by Leading Edge both racing and cheering and it felt amazing to be a part of it. I can’t wait to get through October this year and be able to come back to that group of people that have been such a huge part of our lives for the last six years.

A window into my head

So I've started many posts (in my head) but then have an epic fail getting to a keyboard and getting them on to the interwebs. To summarize what's been on my mind since I got mud in my tutu I thought I'd put it out in list form.

1. Peanut butter in oatmeal is awesome. Not a lot just about a teaspoon. Alison told me to try nutella. Which I did. But I perfer peanut butter.

2. Laziness has been the source of my new oatmeal obsession. For lunch. It's easy to take to work.

3. I'm getting jealous of other people's meals at work.

4. I tried crit racing and had my ass handed to me. But to be fair I was the smallest (all I could see was spandex clad butts and seat posts) and the only girl. And I wasn't aggressive enough in the turns. I know better now and next time will hang on a little longer. I'm also planning to start doing the Tuesday nighters where there is a race for girls like me.

5. I have gotten stronger on my bike in the last month. Biking almost every day (except Sundays and the 2 or 3 days where I haven't been working at the office) has been awesome. Especially with a big hill in between here and there. Without workouts I'm putting in 150k a week. Add in Tuesday and Thursday night workouts and Saturday rides and that's another 150+. Not too shabby! And toughing it out with the boys on Thursday will only make me stronger.

6. I haven't been running.

7. Fastlane Swim and Social Club Summer Session starts on Wednesday. I'm stoked. LE (we've dropped the TC) has been at Kits pool a few times on Sundays and it's been incredible. With less than 40 people in a giant 137.5m pool it's a slice of paradise. I'm also looking forward to Wednesdays at Viva and Fridays at Cafe Zen. Because it's all about the social and the eating after a tough swim. I swim for bacon.

8. I cycle for pie.

9. Brian's not going to be impressed with this one but I have a confession: I do know where the peanut butter has been going. My treat after my hard rides on Tuesday and Thursday is peanut butter on a rice cake. With milk chocolate chips. (Which reminds me: honey, we need chocolate chips).

Flaming Tutus

The Spartan Race series FINALLY came to Vancouver. And it was awesome. I joined Frik and Frak (aka Vanity Spice and Kiwi Spice) to run as an unofficial team. We had signed up separately but ran together. In costume. Tutus. Pink tutus. And acted a bit like princesses the entire way. From "graceful" leaps across the fire to having someone carry your tutu while you crawl through the mud (for the record that wasn't me - that was Kiwi Spice. Vanity Spice covered her tutu with a clear plastic garbage bag. I dove in, tutu and all.).
 

And the forth member of our tutu'd elegance: Miss Thang. Brian didn't wear a tutu. He just cheered and snapped photos. And refused to hug me after when I was all dirty. Because he's a dirt-a-phobe.

Sonoma... I want to go back

After it hailed this weekend and looking into the forecast of more freakin' rain this week I have this to say about Sonoma:

I WANNA GO BACK.

It was warm and sunny and there was wine.

 

And from our ride up and over the ridge:

 
Well it was sunny. Then we hit Golden Gate and The Fog.

And for those of you in the know, someone got up to their usual shenanigans and tried to steal a tractor.

Top of the world... ok not really but still...

Here are a few shots from snow shoeing the other week. A perfect clear sunny day at the top of a mountain.

(If you click on the photo you'll get a pretty big version of it - the hiker in the first shot is pretty cool looking)

 

It's been a busy two weekends for me. This anti-snow bunny went snowshoeing. Which is epic. As was the burn that I got. But it was worth it. Laying in the snow on the top of a mountain under a cloudless sky. Amazing. A week later and my forehead is still on the red side and shedding.

Because I'm an idiot and didn't think of sport sunscreen let alone reapplying and thus sweat off the sum screen I had applied within a few minutes of being out there. But it was still amazing.

And this weekend. Team Pink is on the road in Sonoma. Drinking. Riding. And cruising around in our convertible. So cliche but AWESOME. And I'm THAT girl who waves her hands in the air like she just don't care in her convertible.

We did sneak in some training during this trip. It started with a humbling climb over the ridge separating the napa and Sonoma valleys. I know. It was a challenging chewed up single lane road of 16k of climbing. But it was worth it. The rest of the ride was spectacular and fast with few cars and beautiful scenery. Riding around here is definitely a must do.

But the focus of this trip has been wine. And the question still remains of how we will get 15 bottles of wine over the border. Hoping for a cool border guard tomorrow. Come on lady luck.

So any how pictures etc to follow. I got a new camera and this was the first week d I've had to get it out and put it through its paces. I will post again soon. Promise.

And another thing....

Related to what Alison said in her comment. Communication is hard. Esspecially when one or both of the parties are stressed or tired or frustrated. And as a coach trying to work with several people at once it is hard to keep everything straight. Some days we get into a rhythm and everything just works. Other days it's like feeding time at the zoo - everyone wants their meal NOW.

And please don't forget an athlete as a voice too. Feedback from an athlete is important. I would rather you speak up and let me try to help you work out the issue. And if you need to be left alone because you are saturated or overwelmed or something then let us know too. Communication is a two way street. Sometimes we don't know how to help. Sometimes we don't say the right thing. But 99% of the time it is coming from a place of good intentions.

I have learned that when my head is busy from work related stresses or a day where I have been exposed to some emotionally draining stuff I can't do a track workout. I just need to run in my own head. Or with music. Or with a friend. Or with Duke.

Another pointer I'd like to offer is that when you ask for feedback, pick something relatively specific that you want to work on or want feed back on. It is really hard to answer the questions "what do I need to work on".

Oh and sometimes hearing the same thing from someone else in a different way is exactly what you need. It took 4 or more people working on it before Brian got his head around not swimming like a polo player. It's taken 3 people working on me to get my head around climbing hills.