login
 Swim
Comments: You stand on the shore while waiting for your wave to go off. I used that time to put my hands in the water and scoop water into my wetsuit and on my face. When the horn sounded I walked into the water instead of running in. When it was deep enough to swim, I tried to stick my face in the water, but I started to hyperventilate and I couldn't do it. So instead I sort of doggy paddled and figured teh elevated HR would dissapate soon. But that didn't happen! I tried to backstroke instead, but when I did that the waves just knocked me right back to vertical, but facing in the wrong direction. This swim was pretty demoralizing, already, and I hadn't even made it to the first buoy. I ended up swimming to the first kayak to catch my breath. While I was there the other people hanging on were talking about how they were just going to give up. That snapped me out of my funk. I thought "I am not one of you! I'm not giving up!" and so I left the kayak and started to swim again.I was on the kayak for maybe 30 secs. THe rest of the swim was still difficult for me. Once you start heading south, it wasn't as rough, but the waves were still tall,do I had a lot of trouble sighting. I would swim and have to pop up vertically to sight bc sighting while stroking was just not happending with the wave height. That used a lot of time. What would you do differently?: In perspective, when I swam this course last year I did it in 38ish minutes and I'm faster this year. I'm surprised by how much the swim conditions affected me, but I think that after struggling in the beginning, I may have given up some.  Transition 1
Comments: Used the wetsuit strippers on the shore. Ran up to transition and found my spot. My teammate who racked next to me was gone already (curses!)  Bike
Comments: I had glanced at my Garmin when I left the swim so I had an idea of what my time was. But on the bike I kept telling myself to take it one leg at a time, the swim was done, just see what I could do on the bike. Don't try to make up time and then blow up later. Felt great to be on the bike! There was a 10mi or so wind coming out of the East so first half was slightly faster than the second. Roads pretty bumpy (I call it "sidewalk street"). I had nuun water up front and 20 oz each of plain water and Gatorade on the tubes. I ran into a lot of my teammates on the course and it was fun to chat wtih them for a sec before moving on. I had set the alarm on my Garmin to beep every 20 mins as a reminder to eat. I ate a third of a Clif bar each time in the first hour, a waffle and half Gu in the second hour, and then a half waffle adn the rest of the Gu in the third. The nuun ended up being too sweet and so after dilulating it w/water I just stopped the nuun and instead used a salt tab (ended up taking in 3). Not much really to say on the bike. It was a lot of fun. The temperature was lovely. I kept my focus on just the bike and what I could be doing in that moment until about mile 45 and then I was ready to be off of it so I started thinking of the run. My left leg started to feel a little crampy/stiff so I shifted into a lower gear and tried to spin it out. What would you do differently?: My HR was just barely in Z3 for the ride. I wonder if I could have slightly pushed it a little more? I don't know. I'm pretty happy wtih this - I ended up taking 13 minutes off from last year. Transition 2
Comments: Shoes off, shoes on, grabbed visor and race belt and off I went. What would you do differently?: Nothing!  Run
Comments: I settled into a good pace and stole a look at my watch - it said 8:20s, which is too fast. Slowed down to about 8:50 and settled in. The course has two "hills" (in quotes bc it's hills to Chicagoans) and ran up those. Bc of the nature of the course, where it is an out and back you do 2x, I saw tons of teammates. It was awesome to know that I would see a friendly face soon! Ran through the first two aid stations but walked the third and on. Grabbed water from the first two, and after the third grabbed ice, Perform and water. Took in 1/2 Gu at miles 3, 7 and 10. Saw my family at mile 5 and 8. Around mile 6 I could hear the announcer and I just got SO happy - so grateful that I could be outside, exercising & racing. Thankful that I am able to do this. I swore to myself that I would only look at run splits for the course, but not my total time until mile 10, which at that point I figured I would have to average 11 min miles to beat a 6hr time. I knew I could do that, so pretty excited at that point of the race. Legs got pretty sore around mile 10 and I had to stay focused mentally and tell myself I could walk at the next aid station. At mile 12 when I could hear the announcer I kept waiting for that grateful feeling to hit, but it never did. Maybe bc I was pretty worn down by that point. No matter, the finish line chute was still magical. What would you do differently?: Nothing. Took off about 10 mins from last year. I stuck to my pace like clockwork. Post race
Warm down: Walked around. Found my family. Ate 1/2 PB sandwich and drank some beer at the CES tent. Halfheartedly used the Stick on my legs. Watched teammates come in. What limited your ability to perform faster: The swim!! Event comments: Racine seems to throw something at you - whether it's the heat, lake, wind or road conditions. This year it was the lake. Volunteers are great and it's really well run and so much fun. Profile Album Last updated: 2013-02-10 12:00 AM
|
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
View profile
Add to friends
Go to training log
Go to race log
Send a message
View album
CONNECT WITH FACEBOOK
United States
World Triathlon Corporation
77F / 25C
Sunny
Overall Rank = 847/2111
Age Group = W30-34
Age Group Rank = 34/143
My husband and I rented a car and after he picked it up Saturday morning, we packed up and rolled into Racine around 1:30. Went straight to the expo and checked in. Ran into a few teammates (Chicago Endurance Sports). Went to transition dropped off my bike. Checked into the hotel around 3p and chilled for a few hours before meeting my teammates for dinner at 6p. Got back to the hotel around 8:30p and had some quiet time. Went to bed around 10:30p.
I set my alarm for 4:30a with the goal of leaving around 5a, but instead woke up at 2:30a and couldn't fall back asleep. I felt fine, not tired at all, but hoped that it wouldn't come back to haunt me later in the day. Around 4a I played aroudn on the iPad and got up around 4:20 or so. Ate oatmeal with PB & B and got dressed and sunscreened. Packed up our stuff and left for transition around 5:10a.
Got to transition and set up the spot: added nutrition and tools to bike, pumped tires, laid out shoes, visor & race belt. One of my teammates and I alphabetically are next to each other and in the same wave, so it was kind of fun to set up next to someone I knew. We took a team photo at 6:15a and then I walked down to the swim start. From our spot in transition, the lake looked pretty angry that day and I wanted to maximize the warmup before my wave went off (7:24).
You walk about a mile down to the swim start. Got there and the lake looked even worse. Waves had whitecaps (height probably 4' or higher ) Got into my wetsuit and into the water. It was harder than I thought trying to swim in this mess. The waves were pretty powerful and I just kept getting flipped over. Swimming really wasn't happening so instead I just stood in the water and tried to get used to just being hit. Pros went off at 7a and I lined up in my wave around 7:10a.