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 Swim
Comments: Still raining... Positioned myself outer edge on the line & in line with first sighting buoy. This position worked well for me last year and worked for me again this year. No contact during entire race. Started out sluggishly to the first buoy drafting off one girl, she swung wide and I ended up taking off after getting a better line around the first buoy. The rest of the race couldn't find anyone to draft off of so I started picking people off from the wave ahead. New & clear goggles meant I was sighting perfectly and swimming straight from buoy to buoy. Decent swim poured it on as much as possible, improvement pace wise from hagg swim even with no swimming this past week. Stopped swimming a little too early and had to muck out of the water - maybe 10 seconds wasted here, no biggie. Goal: 29-30 minutes - SMASHED! What would you do differently?: Actually swim 3x a week! I'd really like to be in the 1:30's pace wise by Black Diamond. Swim a little closer into shore before standing up. My left ear plug came out after the 3rd buoy which was kinda annoying and led to some dizziness on exit which I don't normally have... Turn on Garmin before going down to swim so it's ready to roll...  Transition 1
Comments: Long path up really muddy and slippery slope out of the water. I was kinda dizzy from the ear plug falling out and took a slow really easy jog into transition. Got to rack and wetsuit came off well except for right ankle. Sat down to put socks on (considered ditching them altogether but glad I put them on anyway), helmet on, lever/tube in back pocket, garmin on wrist, ditched the sunglasses after putting them on and couldn't see a thing (fog/rain), ditched the biking gloves couldn't get them on (soaked). Put shoes on and took off. Slow run out due to mud. What would you do differently?: Hard to say as the conditions were so terrible a lot of things had to be rejiggered on the fly. I was happily taking my time due to the conditions. Didn't have my bento box on the bike where I would normally put the lever/tube, probably should have left that on...  Bike
Comments: Still pouring rain. Goal was to keep a steady pace of around 17mph and to pour it on if I was feeling good - race my own race. The rain was very heavy at times. Managed to pass a few people, but was passed by far more. There were some folx really flying out there. Sipped on the roctane/h20 mix in my aero bottle every 5 mins or so. Then at ~12 miles in I started to feel the urge - bad! There is no place to pull over on marine drive - no trees as it hugs the airport on one side and the river on the other - and i've never peed on the bike, but after the turn around the urge became urgent and uncomfortable, and I was like if ya gotta go these conditions are perfect to try it in. Took a few attempts but I finally managed to pee on the bike! LOL, Ahhhhh relief! Thank gourd it was raining so heavily and there weren't many ppl around me. I don't know if it was the rain, soaked feet, cold, or overhydrating for the conditions that was the culprit, but whatever, that mental hurdle has been breached. Needless to say I finished off the roctane/h20 bottle and only took a few sips of gatorade before the run. The rest of the bike was pretty uneventful - I avoided the lip of doom in the stripped seal that sent a bunch of people crashing during the sprint the day before. I was riding pretty comfortably at a slightly faster pace than I planned. I did start to get lower back ache and hammie pain towards the end which came into play in the beginning of the run. The entrance back into the park you had to go over a mat that was squished down by mud - I don't know why they didn't have us turn in at the sealed drive - that was a bit nerve wracking right before dismount. I wonder if anyone took a fall there, I saw some people unclip and walk through it. Goal Pace: 16-17mph - SMASHED! What would you do differently?: Not much, maybe hydrate differently for the conditions, and make sure I hit the head before racing! I only had a few sips of tea in the morning and a few ounces of h20 before the race, and the one bottle during so who knows... Transition 2
Comments: Ran with shoes as there was no way I was going to run through the mud in socks! Some cyclocross skills might have come in handy during this transition ;) Again, took my time, racked bike, helmet off, out of shoes, into running shoes, grabbed race belt & gu, ditched cap & tube/lever and took off. What would you do differently?: Nothing - entirely dependent on conditions. I probably could put some yankz type laces back on my shoes for races like I had last year to gain a few extra seconds...  Run
Comments: Yes, still raining, let up a bit but still pretty steady. I started out with a fairly high cadence comfortable jog as my left hammie was cramping slightly - only to look down and see that I was running at 11:25-30 which is considerably faster than normal for me. It felt sluggish for the first 1/4 mile off the bike, then fairly comfortable as the hammie cramping eased. I planned to run 1/2 mile then walk 1 minute, but I was feeling strong so ran 1 mile / walk 1 min. Run was going great, legs just kept wanting to run so I did - right to a 1st 5K PR at a pace of 11:51 (about a 3-5 min pr). The trail was filled with muddy puddles and you couldn't go around most of them because of tall vegetation, so shoes were muddy wet lead weights. Are we running xterra race here? Lots of encouraging chatting with other racers. About 3.5 miles in more urge! Yes, slight pee-age while running (another hurdle breached), so crazy! Cold wet feet methinks. Took a roctane and couple sips of h20 at turn around. Then managed to hold a 12 min pace for the first 4 and change miles or so, slowed to 13:49 for the last 1.3 miles which included some really heinous slippery muddy sections that I walked. It looks like I took about 6 walk section so ~6 minutes total. Finished strong with a whoohoo and smile at the end! Goal pace: 13:00-14:00 - SMASHED! What would you do differently?: Keep running more. I knew I had about 4-5 good miles in me and it showed in the last mile - although that's also the toughest section so... I paced the bike perfectly and didn't feel like I was going to blow up at anytime on the run. I have a ways to go before HIM - gaining endurance on long rides and long runs is going to be the key for me in the coming weeks. Otherwise fantastic amazing run for me even though i'm slow as a turtle. Post race
Warm down: Walked around the mud waiting for results to be posted. Cheered in some finishers. Drank a muscle milk sample - didnt want food, packed up my stuff, changed into some warm clothes. Hit the head for some amazing and total relief :) They never did get my results up so I took off. Rode back down marine drive/205 bike path to parkrose sumner and caught the max and a bus back to the house (was utterly fed up with the rain at this point). What limited your ability to perform faster: Rain / Mud / Run endurance. Otherwise I think I raced an excellent race for my first Olympic distance event. YAY! Event comments: Running continues to be my biggest hurdle, but I have put it in perspective... No running ever to 5k's in sprints last year 12:40 / 12:55 / 12:58 to 1st 5k of 10k this year ~11:51 and then I ran another 5k and my final pace was 12:23, so that's doubling the distance and decreasing pace by >30 seconds/mile in a year. I still need to lose 15-25 more pounds so who knows what I can achieve over the course of this year! I do think that switching to running as much as possible and every other day has helped quite a bit recently - hopefully i'll be ready for a solid run come HIM time. I like Oly distance way better than sprint - can't wait to race again! Oh yah - 1st in my division - do I get hardware if i'm the only one?! ;) I didn't stick around to find out. Last updated: 2010-03-10 12:00 AM
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57F / 14C
Precipitation
Overall Rank = 364/404
Age Group = A>40
Age Group Rank = 1/1
5.30 wake up, 55 degrees and pouring rain. Didn't get more than 3 hours of sleep - one day I'm going to talk someone who is better at waking up in the morning into getting me up rather than having to nervously sleep hoping that my alarm will go off and i'll hear it. Ate a packet of organic pop-tarts and sipped some hot green tea. Prepped my gu/gatorade-bottles put on the rain gear and headed out to the MAX. I packed everything the night before so I was all ready to roll. Boy people sure are talkative on the first train of Sunday morning - talked to a graveyard shifter from Lloyd Center about regional politics, then talked to a MTBer who was coming off an all night bender with his biking buddies about all the trails in the area. He suggested Larch Mtn's 23 mile climb (http://pdxcyclingonline.com/larch-madness-0023/) which is on my to-do list once it gets nice out - app if you ride slow enough the black flies will swarm around you and bite! LOL.
Total ride in down to max and from max to site is about 6 miles - mostly downhill so just enough to get the heart pumping. Arrived about 45 mins before race. Still pouring rain. Lots of puddles in street and when I arrived at the race site - MUD. Transition area was a mess (see pics in my blog). Fortunately I brought another pair of socks because by the time I got to the site my socks were soaked - and then muddy! Put wetsuit on - a bit challenging in the rain, took gu, grabbed a cup of water and headed down to get in the lake for quick dip. Yay for new goggles!