Crash Landing - Again

So, the Steamboat Tri did not turn out how I had hoped. I new that there was a chance I could podium at this event, so I was going for it. I felt like my swim was great. The time was 22:15, and that was good for 8th overall and 2nd for the women. I was only beat out by about 10 seconds by that woman because we were swimming side by side from the last buoy. In fact, she had apparently been drafting off of me until we hit that last buoy, when she decided she'd try to pass me. I refused to let her. Bam.

T1 was good (1:24), probably because I wanted to keep my good position and because my new coach had me actually spend 10 minutes practicing my transitions! I need to do this more often. That way I won't forget things like leaving my shoes untied....anyways, I was off to a good start on the bike. It felt good, aside from the awful chip seal they had put on a good portion of the road 5 days prior to the race which made it incredibly bumpy. Then, right at about mile 9, I hit a huge manhole and crashed. Hard. I didn't see it at all due to the nice concrete lip covering it, and there was probably a 3 inch drop onto the actual cover. I had no chance. I was so mad. It really should have been marked as an obstacle. Fortunately, the sheriff who came to help me after he had helped another woman who fell on a similar obstacle right before this one completely agreed. He said he couldn't believe they weren't marked and then went to his car to grab some cones to place on them.

I was so, so upset. How could this happen again?? At least I wasn't the only one. There was a guy ahead of me who crashed, broke HIS COLLARBONE, and still completed the race. Another guy after the race told me that his arm rest had snapped in half after taking on that manhole. Crazy! It really was the race organizer's responsibility to mark those things, and they had failed. I took about 10 minutes to get over the nausea and decide that I would still be finishing the race. I had been in a great position - only one girl in my age group had passed me, so I was in second place prior to the crash as far as I knew. After the crash I was pretty far back, but I was determined to not have another DNF by crash again this season.

The aftermath. Not really sure how I landed so that I bruised my tailbone AND have a huge raspberry on my shoulder...

The rest of the race was just a blur of trying to block out the pain I was feeling in my tailbone area. The run did not feel great, and was significantly slower than my other runs this season. I was being pretty hard on myself during the remainder of the race, but I shouldn't have been. I was hurting. I also had a nice rip in my shorts - it wasn't attractive, but it made me look bada**, especially with my brand new road rash and blood dripping down my leg. I finished. I toughed it out, mentally. I suppose I can be proud of that.

Now, time to heal up before Harvest Moon on September 11. Fingers crossed!!

Racing this weekend...

Tomorrow morning I will be leaving with a couple of my friends to head up to Steamboat Springs for an Olympic-distance tri on Sunday. It's a gorgeous venue, and I'm really looking forward to it. I'm also looking forward to hitting up the hot springs post-race! This week there's been this tiny little event going on throughout Colorado, the USA Pro Cycling Championships. Tomorrow's stage actually starts in Steamboat and continues on to Breckenridge. We'll have to take some detours to get there, but we're hoping that we'll be able to stop and catch the riders as the go through Kremmling. While I'm sad that I will be missing the race in Golden and Denver on all of the routes I typically ride, I'm happy I'll be able to catch a little bit of the excitement. There's also the DVR, since it will be on NBC on Sunday afternoon!

The past couple of weeks have been fairly intense with our new CTS coach, Lindsay. I've done several sets of Under/Overs on the bike. For those you basically spend some time right under your threshold, then some time over, then more time just under. And do it three times. They're tough! I know it's making me stronger, though, and teaching me to be better about maintaining specific power zones. We also did a killer track workout on Wednesday night, and a pretty tough swim Wednesday morning. Hopefully I'll be rested and feeling strong on Sunday!

All almond butters are not created equal...

I just had this random epiphany while I was eating a banana with a pack of Justin's almond butter. It just tasted so, so much better than the store brand I've been buying in a jar. I think next time I'm splurging and it'll be worth it. That is all!

Open Water Swim Workout

Swimming with my sister in the Comal River (I'm in the green cap).

Sorry it's been a little quiet recently on this blog. I've been in real need of a recharge, both in my PhD work and in life in general for the past month or so. I finally got it when I was on vacation with my family in New Braunfels, Texas last week. It was hot, but I loved every second of it. I truly treasure my family, and any time I get to spend with them is really happy for me. My sister is also a triathlete. She's super duper speedy (in fact she actually just got her pro card), but swimming is one area where our ability levels are about equal. We swam in the river together a few times last week, and the picture above was from us doing a set that her coach recommended. I thought it was great because too often we just get in the water and swim when it comes to not being in a pool. This was a great way to break it up a little and add some speedier efforts.

After a 15 minute warmup (upstream, though with the drought and subsequent low-water levels, the current was pretty tame this year), we did this set:
5x{2 min kick, 2 min build, 2 min fast}.
It was good enough to tire me out, for sure! I just set my watch timer to 2 minutes and when it beeped, I would stop, get her attention, and we'd switch. I highly recommend trying this out. Another good thing to do is something like 50 strokes fast/50 steady, 40 fast/ 40 steady, etc. until you get to 10, then ladder back up.

Happy swimming!

Race Report: Boulder Peak Olympic

Last Sunday was the Boulder Peak Olympic tri. This is the largest Olympic-distance race around here and brought in about 1,300 athletes this year. It has been taken over by WTC and is now a 5150 series event. The organization of it was fantastic and I must say that I enjoyed this race experience. The race itself was really tough for me due to a few things that were kind of out of my control. First, I really haven't been sleeping well. There were a few nights in the weeks leading up to this event that I was lucky to get three hours of sleep, including the night before the race. I think it caught up to me. My stomach had also been a little iffy since the night before, and I couldn't eat too much going into it. It also started rebelling a lot around mile 3 of the race. Dehydration, maybe? Who knows. Enough excuses. I still had a great race and was pleased with my time.

1500 m swim: 22:03

A full :06 faster than my swim at the Boulder Sunrise. Though the course is the same, there's always some variability. Hopefully it was a little faster since I didn't veer off course, but it was also warmer and I got kicked more. Who knows. The swim felt decent despite my stomach not really being there. I tried to hang on to Katy Blakemore's feet, but lost them in the mix pretty quick. She went FAST. Not having to worry about the rest of the race will do that, I suppose.  

T1: 2:36 I think the run to T1 was longer, but this could be improved, for sure.

42K bike: 1:26:08

Holy hill! Olde Stage Road was tough. At least all the climbing was over within the first half an hour or so. My legs felt pretty good on the bike, and my stomach was feeling better. Managed to take in all 3 GUs. I did wish that I had put plain water in my Speedfil, though, rather than the GU electrolyte tabs. I was dreaming of plain, cold water out there! Dehydration? Yes, most definitely.

T2: 2:01 Ugh!!! So, so, so slow. I was a little disoriented coming off of the bike and to top it all off, I had forgotten to leave my shoes untied! Big mistake. Cost me a top 10 AG finish. Live and learn. Remember the speed laces.

6.2 mile run: 48:23 (7:47/mile pace)

The run felt surprisingly good for the first 3.5 miles. Then it hit me. Stomach cramps - bad. On top of that, I could feel water just sloshing around. Not good. Somehow I hung on, though. When Katy saw me she started yelling at me to catch the girl up ahead, which I did, but I should have waited. She had way more left in the tank than I did. Oh, well. Another lesson learned! 

Total time: 2:41:11 12/73 in age group, 52/461 women

I was absolutely, completely zonked after this one. I gave it my all under the circumstances and came up with some decent results. Everybody has an off day! Next up: Steamboat Springs Olympic Tri on August 28th. Can't wait!

A date with Old Stage Road...

Tomorrow's the Boulder Peak Olympic Tri, and I'm just getting myself physically and mentally ready to race again! I'm really looking forward to it, but I'm a little nervous about a particular hill on the course. Old Stage Road climbs 600' in 2/3 of a mile, according to the website. It's infamous, and I've never ridden it. Oh, well, all I can do is my best!

Looking forward to racing tomorrow!

Dreading/Looking Forward to Workouts...

In order to get stronger and faster, or to just test ourselves, sometimes we have to put ourselves through a lot of pain.  A LOT.  It always generates a mixed bag of feelings for me when I open up TrainingPeaks and see one of those workouts on my schedule.  We all know them – they have names like “Over-Unders” and “Tempo Intervals”.   We should actually start calling them by more true-to-meaning names such as “Hopping on the Pain Train” and “Blood, Sweat, and Tears.”  I’m kidding, well, kind of.  I do tend to dread some of these workouts for a couple of days leading up to it, but at the same time I look forward to being able to put in some really, really good work.  One that I’ve recently had on my schedule a couple of times is a run including 4x5 minute tempo intervals.  It’s a classic gut buster.  The first interval is okay. The second one usually feels the best (relative term here) after I’ve sufficiently warmed up.  I generally start seeing some faint stars toward the end of the third one, and if I’ve done my job correctly, I will fall off pace toward the end of the fourth. When I’m able to nail this workout, I feel on top of the world.  When I don’t, I still give it my best shot and feel satisfied that I’ve done a lot to improve my run, both physically and mentally.  Because of the benefits, I guess I dread it and look forward to it at the same time.

When it comes to open water swimming, however, I look forward to these workouts for a different reason. I actually do enjoy them. It’s nice to be out on a smooth lake in the early morning hours and just listen to my arms moving through the water. It’s oddly comforting to me, but maybe that’s because a lot of times I’m more comfortable in the water than on land. Unless there are fish I can see. Then I hate it.

Are there certain workouts you either dread or look forward to? Maybe both?

Happy training, everyone!

Amy