Sac Intl Tri

The past few days have been hectic/tiring/long with flying to LA and back, moving, etc (plus I was a little convinced I had carpal tunnel, my right arm has been going all pinched nerve wierd), so here is my race report from this weekend.

Although the Sacramento International Triathlon was not a high-priority race for me, it was also the first real race of the season (due to all those other circumstances with those other races) and I hadn't done an Olympic in a year, hadn't really done a triathlon in a year (except for Bearathlon back in February) so I was really excited to see how my training is coming along and where I was at right now.

I had three goals:
1. Break 2:20. (Really, I wanted to break 2:15 but I figured I'd have some kinks to work out of the system)
2. Win. Obviously, dependant on who showed up.
3. Work out said kinks.

Short Report:
1. I did it in 2:11:40.
2. I actually got 3rd overall (contrary to reports that I got 2nd) and the first two women were FAST.
3. No real kinks right now. I need to not cry during the swim.

Long Report:
I don't like 2 transitions. Even the announcer was confused. At one point, while I was standing around getting ready, he says 'I don't know what's going on. Don't ask me.' That made me feel good.

I got to meet Loren and Chris, other ZteaM members and bloggers, while I was searching for somewhere to set my bike. Then, while I was walking down to the swim, Sarah said hi too. Lots of people to meet! The race was running about 15 minutes late, and I had already warmed up running, so I just stood around in my wetsuit for awhile and made sarcastic comments to strangers. (It's kind of a specialty of mine.)

Swim:
The swim was actually measured from the bank of the river and then you were suppose to swim across the river, turn and head all the way down the river, turn and come back. BUT, BUT, while Sarah and I are standing watching the start of the Sprint swim, we realize that they're letting people line up all the way across the river, so that if you start all the way on the other side, you save yourself a decent amount of swimming in the race. This turned out to be some good thinking.

The swim also started with ALL men and women together. It was about 150-160 people. I get a little spastic in swim starts in general. I have been known to panic/asthma attack. So I was happy when at first the swim was just bad, not awful. I had some space around me. Then I got hit on the left. Then I got hit on the right. Then the two guys started veering into each other and squishing me in the middle. Somehow, I got stuck in the middle of all these guys, most of whom were just flailing, and I got punched and kicked and pulled. At one point I was accidentally hitting the feet of the guy in front of me just because i couldn't see and, you know, it's swimming, things happen, and he started kicking me. Not like he started kicking to swim, he started deliberately trying to kick me. Hard. Then I tried to pass him and I had to swim over his legs some, so he turned and hit me. Literally. It was bad. And I started to panic. All I could see was all these guys in front of me and all these guys around me. At one point, someone wacked me and I almost started to cry.

By the time we got to the turnaround I was in a complete panic. I was convinced this was the slowest anyone had ever swum ever, that I had never been in the water for this long, that this was the worst I had ever swum. I started trying to calm myself down, saying it's ok, it's your first swim of the year, if you come out of the water and see a really slow time, don't panic, it's ok, you can just come back on the bike. I even started doing that thing where you 'sight' just to see how much fucking farther this swim is.

So, when I stumbled up out of the water and run up the little walkway (passing people who were putting their shoes on, hah), I look at my watch. 19:40!!!!!! Yes, ok, it was a tiny bit short, and also I managed to save myself a decent amount of official time by starting in a strategic location. It was probably more like a 21:00 minute 1500m, but I was 3rd woman out of the water and I've never been 3rd out of the water and I've never swum that fast, so I'm going to be happy with my sub-20 1500, ok?

And, the interesting thing to note is, I never ever ever would have swum that fast if it was just 2 women in front of me and me by myself in the water. I'd have freaked out and thought I was swimming too fast and that I couldn't do it. Instead, all I saw was lots of guys and I thought I was doing awful. There's something about the power of perception here.

Bike:
As I was running to my bike I saw another girl who had gotten out of the water before me. So I rushed and got on my bike right behind her and I passed her as she was putting on her shoes from her flying mount. Hah. This is when I looked down at my power meter and saw 375W. Um, shit, I forgot to calibrate it, so it was reading a bit off. I had to use speed, since it was very very flat, and other people to judge my consistent effort. The girl ended up passing me back shortly after and I tried to stay with. Oh, I tried. But slowly the mandatory 15 feet of no drafting turned into 20, 25, then she was 30 seconds ahead of me and I was all 'just keep her in range'. Right. She ended up winning.

The rest of the bike was uneventful. Flat. Fast. I passed the other girl who must have gotten out of the water a minute before me. I drank ALOT of Gu2O and water, which was good because it was getting warm and, of course, I handle heat really well. Lots of guys who swam slower passed me. I passed some guys.

At the turn around, I made the turn and there, right behind me, were two other woman. Shit. They passed me, kinda *cough* drafting. And they looked good, fast. I picked it up a little to keep up and ended up passing the woman in back. I'm trying to hang with this other woman in front and I'm staring at her legs and they're huge and ripped and I'm just like fuck. I keep thinking 'just keep her in range, you can get her on the run.' And, then, I'm like 'oh yeah, no you can't, you don't run fast anymore.' Eventually she drops me. And I bike the rest of the thing pretty by myself. That woman, according to the official results, did the bike in 1:03 including the time for T1. That's just nuts. She got 2nd.

I stayed pretty consistent. Stayed hydrated. And did the bike in 1:06.

I never saw the woman who passed me at the beginning on her way back from the turn around, so I started to think maybe she had been doing the sprint and not the olympic. I was a little dissappointed to hear I was in 3rd, then, when I came in off the bike.

Run:
I saw Steve once on the bike cheering me on. But when I came in to start the run, he was on his fixed gear and rode out with me for the first almost mile. As he's riding next, he's yelling things. And I'm feeling good, strong, soo good that I start talking to him. He's like what the fuck.

I divided the run up in my head. It was 3 miles there and 3 miles back. And 3 miles is easy. I hit the first mile at 6:50, slowed down a little after that. At every water station I grabbed a cup, drank a sip and poured it on myself. I just really wanted to make sure there was no blowing up. Things past 4 miles have not gone well lately. Lots of not knowing if my hip will give out or my knee or if I just won't be able to run because I haven't been able to do alot of training/base. So it's always a concern.

Eventually, I see the girl in front on the way back. But I can't even see the turnaround yet she's so far ahead. She had 4 minutes at least on me then and was picking up speed. A little after the turn around I see the woman behind me, maybe a minute back, and we see each other and I think we both picked it up then at exactly the same time. She was running strong and if I blew up she was going to pass me. I really wasn't sure how things would hold together, but I was feeling good.

I had one brief flash of my hip stabbing pain around mile 4 but it went away. The last 2 miles were rough, my calves and quads cramped up, my legs hurt alot. But I kept up the pace. And by the time I got back to where Steve was waiting I felt good. I came in strong over the bridge to the finish. I think I even managed to smile for one of the photographers.

I got 3rd. The first two women won by like 5 minutes. That's really not even close. The woman who won was 29 though (bleh) and so I got 2nd in my age group, which is just annoying.

Sac Tri This Weekend

Here are some awesome excerpts from the letter the Sacramento Triace directors sent out about the race this weekend:

"If you wake up at 7AM, don't even try to make it to the venue. Sleep in and do a long training ride at 11AM."

"This is not the local 5k fun run at your neighborhood super market."

And for the spectators, don't bother trying to watch the swim or bike:
"Stay at Raley Field lot F2, listen to music and watch the spectacular run and views of the downtown."

Nice.

I was suppose to meet Loren for a ride this morning. But we planned badly and someone got a little lost. I ended up heading out with the 9am ZteaM ride.

Which was GREAT. I haven't felt that strong on the bike in awhile. It was hard but not that hard. Course the only problem with feeling really strong on the bike right now is that it may not translate into results in races in the next few months.

Of course, just to keep me in check, when I looked at the clock while swimming the other night, either I've forgotten how to swim or the water is slow.

Running?

Yesterday evening I decided to meet up with the Tam runners. I hate running by myself (actually i hate doing most things by myself but i hate doing them with people who aren't the right speed even more) and I need to ball up and get some running in, so.

We ended up running up Mount Baldy (which I couldn't find a picture of). Since they were all training for the Dipsea or running it next year or thinking about it or generally being obsessed with the Dipsea, running up and down seemed like a good idea to them.

I thought it seemed kinda dumb. But I'm new, so what do I know. Actually, I'm fine with running up, it hurts but it's fine; i think running downhill is stupid.

So I did a lot of careful plodding downhill instead.

I don't know why trail running = running uphill/downhill.

Today, is going to be a swim day just to let my legs recover. I'll be joining Tam Masters hopefully, even if they only accept certain people into certain workouts at certain times. Marin is wierd.

And this weekend is no racing for me, but driving Steve down to Sea Otter and hanging out at the festival there. Since my drivers' license is a fairly recent development , he's been taking advantage by having me drive to lots of races.

So I'm suppose to be resting. Because the last two weeks were suppose to be hard. But, really, I dunno...

I signed up for 2 races yesterday and it cost me almost $300. Sigh.

Race Report: Madera

The short explanation of how my first stage race went is this: with 5 miles to go in the last stage, the road race, after the crit and the time trial, I flatted. And there was really nothing I could do about it. And it's not like I was in 2nd GC or anything.

Long explanation:
The crit was Saturday morning and it was my first crit ever. I was very nervous. I was made more nervous by the fact that 10 minutes before the start my back tire went flat. I'm not a good tire changer, it takes me a fucking while, so I was like uhhhh...then when I went to change it I realized I didn't have a tire iron. And I'm a moron, I can't change a tire without one. So I stop some random guy and ask him. (This was a theme for the weekend.) It turns out he works at a bike store and he just takes my bike from me and fixes it. So that was good.

The crit itself was uneventful. We had to time trial in the afternoon, so no one wanted to go hard. And I never thought about it, but all those times I bitched about road racing and the whole go fast, go slow, go fast, go slow bullshit, a crit is so much better. It was just one relatively fast speed the whole time. And, it turns out, I'm not bad at cornering or positioning.

I accidentally contested a prime. I was about to get boxed in going into a turn and I was picking up speed already, so I just kinda went and passed all these people and all of a sudden I was in front and stringing out the group without really meaning to and then the next lap was a prime lap, so I just got into 3rd wheel as a couple girls passed me and I was set up so perfectly for the sprint. But I'm not s great sprinter and I tried to be patient, but i went too early and get outleaned by a girl coming up the left. After that I was tired and I didn't contest the sprint finish, just finished about 10th in the pack.

The time trial was in the afternoon in the sun in Madera. It was mid-90s and it was hot! Really awful hot. And being so white, I deal really well with heat. I definitely don't turn bright red or get dizzy or anything.

It went ok. It was like 10.47 miles and I did it in 28:16 (by the official time). The first half was really good and then miles 5 to 8 I felt like I blew up a little. I definitely thought I was going to start throwing up b/c I was so hot and/or fall off my bike. And I felt like my power on my computer was fluctuating alot. I couldn't seem to get it to stay at 200W. Which didn't make any sense, because I totally know I can hold 200 for a half hour. The last 2 miles, I just kinda picked it back up, looked at the girl in front of me and balls out to the finish. It was good enough for 2nd, back by 5 seconds, ahead of 3rd by 5 seconds.

Looking at my data later I realized I didn't die as much as I thought I did. I held 190W for the 28 minutes. AND, AND I found out (I geuss I should have known) that in very aero positions it's harder to hold higher power! And I feel like I just had an epiphany.

Saturday evening I wanted to get the data off my Powertap, so it didn't start deleting, but I had forgotten my cradle/USB port, so I wandered the hotel asking people if they had a powertap. Then I needed to get my aerobars back off, but I didn't have a tool and I couldn't find Steve's tool, so I knocked on some random guy's door and borrowed his tools. Then Steve needed to change his brake pads and casette (because he had flatted one wheel and knocked the other out of true during his crit -- keep count of how many wheels we messed up). So I knock on some other random guy's door and ask to borrow a wrench and an allen key. But, it turns out, both Steve and I were so out of it we couldn't figure out how to get the casette off, so then I had to go back to the guy and ask him to help me get it off. Yes, it was sad.

Going into the RR I was 2nd in GC. 1st was 5 seconds ahead, 3rd was 5 seconds back, 4th and 5th were 6 seconds back. Basically I needed to be in top 3 and get time bonus in order to win and if I finished in the pack I would probably stay 2nd or 3rd. It was a wierd RR. It started at 11:30 for me, after standing around in the sun waiting for half an hour, and with the blinding sun and the heat, it just made you feel kind of dizzy and out of it, like you might just swerve your bike into someone.

The first 2 laps were slow, really really slow. On the second half of the lap there's a few miles of really bad pavement and it's rough and then the last 2 miles before the finish is 4 or 5 rolling, relatively short hills. There was some feeling out other people in those spots, but nothing hard. Then the last lap was when people started making half-hearted efforts to breakaway. They'd put out like a decent effort for 30 seconds and then everyone would speed up to catch them and they'd give up. It was kinda sad.

But as we turned onto the bad pavement I was having a hard time making some of those accelerations, and my bike was feeling wierd. I look down about halfway through the rough section and yes, there's a flat tire on my front wheel.

I was so angry. I was about to cry. I was swearing at cows. I had quite a bit of a walk back to where there might be an official or a car, and I couldn't fix the flat because it was a tubular, so I had a while to yell about it.

With 5 miles to go to the finish, I was just so excited about finishing the race good. And I knew I'd be able to at least make an effort at contesting the uphill sprint finish. I wanted my fucking t-shirt.

Also, it turns out if you have a mechanical in the last 3k you get the pack time. SO that was even more annoying.

And Steve didn't finish. He gave his wheel to a teammate who flatted and then the teammate flatted Steve's wheel.

So that's a lot of flat wheels and alot of them were tubulars. The ratio of money spent to results achieved is not good.

The Torch and the Stage Race

So I went to S.F to see the torch yesterday. I wrote about it on my actual regular website.

But chasing around looking for the torch wore me out. (Also the 3 and half hours of working out.) And now my throat hurts alittle bit, so I'm resting up.

Because I have to be on for this weekend.

More Bike Racing

Apparently, I'm going to be missing the party at Icebreaker. Good luck! (And watch out for people who are just learning how to ride their bikes on those windy little park roads, especially on that 2nd lap when you try to pass them and they swerve in front of you.)

But, I signed up for Madera instead. Yay first stage race and first crit! Unfortunately, the crit is the first stage, so I think we're not going to try anything crazy but mostly try not to crash.

Hmm

Bike Racing...

...is hard.

I did Wards Ferry Saturday and it was hard. Like really, really hard. The whole course was uphill, downhill, uphill, downhill and, of course, everyone sprints up every uphill, which makes me feel like my heart's going to explode

I did the 3/4 race (which is totally not fair, because I shouldn't have to race with 3's when I am not really even a 4) and it was suppose to be 4 laps of this horrible, horrible course. There were about 15-20 people in my race and it starts on this windy, pothole-filled, long downhill and then the second half of the lap is lots of steep uphills. By the end of the first lap we were down to 10 people. 2 people got flats in that first lap, a couple mechanicals, one girl I don't even know what happened to her bike, she just went skidding across the road in front of me and was gone.

And I thought I was going to pass out and fall off my bike as we're sprinting up every hill trying to drop people. But I hung in there and then the second lap was a little more mellow (a little) because we'd shed a decent number of people so everyone left mellowed out for a little bit.

And then we got to the hilly part on the second lap and we're going hard up and down and up and down and I'm kinda hanging in the middle of this group. And we're near the end of the second lap, going down and back up and I shift into my big ring to stay with the people on the downhill then I try to shift into my little ring and I did something wrong because suddenly my chain is flapping on the outside of my crank. I try to shift and it gets tangled around my derailleur. I think that I can just pop it right back on and get back with the back of the group (there were like 3 or 4 girls right behind me at the time), but when I stop the chain is wrapped up in knots, doing that looping up on itself thing. And I can't get it untangled. I'm sitting there for like 5 minutes trying to get it back on my bike. Eventually this guy on a motorcycle has to stop and help me. It was sad. And by then I was never going to catch back up.

I'm not sure I would have been able to hang in there another 2 laps anyway, but I was doing a decent job of holding my own. And it turns out for all that I'm supposedly a 'climber', I'm definitely comparatively better at descending then climbing in these kind of races.

Next up, Sacramento Triathlon.

Awww

Battle of the Bay is cancelled.

It's sad. From the best of my understanding, the SF Police changed how much they wanted to charge and it was no longer affordable.

I was just pretty excited about my first Olympic distance of the season. And I was pretty excited about trying my new shoes and kicking awhole lot of little collegiate ass.

Now, I dunno, maybe do Wards Ferry instead. But I kinda dislike bike racing. Also, I'm not as good at it.

Moving?

Monday night was my last night of Masters and we did 500s. I don't think it was a good-bye present just for me, but it was a little!

Yesterday, I did intervals on the bike (they were eh) and went to the Physical Therapist. He said I should be good for the race this weekend. But I'm still really worried about the hip.

Tonight we're heading to San Rafael and tomorrow's my FIRST day of work for real at CFAC.

I'm excited. And I'm hoping that it doesn't stress me out too much for my races.