Monday, September 13, 2010

Austin tri Race report and other stuff







I will try to make this easy to read so i am going to try a bullet point blog write up about my race :


Days leading up to the race i was not as rested as i would like to be going into any race :


· Have Branson 70.3 which is a more important race to me so didnt want to taper too much.
· We had our Tri Team transport trailer our at the Expo the day before the race, so was back and forth with getting all that set up
· Did my first pro panel which was awesome . But unfortunately it was from 2-3:30 the day before, which is usually feet up time for me.
· I have had trouble sleeping lately and the last few days before the race was no different (will get more into that later)
· The last 5 weeks i have really been working hard with not having missed one training session. Usually i get about 80% of my sessions on my plan done, but the last 5 weeks my schedule,my body and my mind allowed me to show up and train hard almost every day ( usually starting at 5;30am )

Race Day :
· I woke up pretty tired, and i would say a little moody which is very unusual. My body wasn’t feeling great but worse than that my mind was not ready to race at all. Usually i am so excited and cannot wait to get to the race and give it my all, but today i was just blah...
· Once i got there my energy and excitement levels picked up. How could it not with all the energy and people an event like this brings.
· Pre race i knew i needed to change my attitude. So i went off on my warm up run, and instead of doing a full warm up that i usually do, i just walked slowly trying to quiet my mind and pray to God that i would snap out of it and just go out and have a ton of fun and appreciate the fact that i am able to race today. It really helped !! and it was Go Time..

Swim:
· Had a great swim. Even though it was a pretty large open wave, i was able to find a spot in the front. Even though i am slower swimmer amongst the group i hate starting behind someone, because i usually start out pretty strong for about 150 meters with the lead swimmers, and i didnt want to lose that good start by getting jammed up behind someone.
· Today was no different. i started strong and felt great. About 150 m in i got dropped by the main pack but was able to find some feet for about half the swim.
· My swim Stroke, which Maurice at T3 has been working with me on , was feeling really good. And it was the smoothest and most efficient i had ever felt in the water. Yay – for progress….

Swim Time 23.45 ( this is a swim PR for me 1:35/100m - so i was stoked coming out of the water and smiling through T1

Bike:
· For some reason the first loop of the downtown bike course is always so hard and i always just feel terrible. Legs hurt more than normal, and i am sure my heart rate was well in the high 170's.
· I knew to hang in there and i would settle in, which i did about mid way through the 2nd loop.
· I felt like i got stronger with every loop, but wanted to keep my effort controlled the rest of the way in because i really wanted to have a good run on this downtown course ( which for some reason has not happened yet )
· It started pouring with rain for the last mile of the bike. Steve was on the corner telling me to slow down coming in, and that i did, since i had no front brake on. My front brake was rubbing for some reason so when coasting down a hill on the first loop I opened the brake pad ( do not try that at home ) , unfortunately me doing that made riding in the rain a little terrifying at the end there.

Bike time 1:04 (23.2 pace ) i would say a decent effort, but i am still wondering if i had put the hammer down with no regard to the run, what i might have done.


Run :
· The run started on the pouring rain, as well as on the grass and gravel on the trail. So you can't really get good footing going.
· I started out pushing it out the gate, but immediately felt like i was working way too hard to simply pick my legs up. Usually I try to run up on my toes, almost bouncy like, but there was no bounce today, just a pitiful shuffle. I thought it was maybe because my hamstring has been hurting lately , so what was happening was a functional . still not sure..
· I got overheated pretty quickly and after the first 3 miles, i was looking for a shady area to sit down. i was feeling all the heatstroke symptoms one gets and knew that i would be lucky to finish.
· i saw Steve right at the mile 3 and while i wanted to stop at that point , at my safe place in Steve’s arms, he encouraged me to finish out no matter what. And so I continued the shuffle.
· I think what got me through in the end was putting my mind to the 70.3 that i am doing this weekend, knowing that i am going to hurt there to so this was my preparation for that.

Above photo - With Randy post race (good friend from Puresport, my hydration sponsor ) and his new wife. Congratulations to you both !!

Run time 45 ( 7:20 pace ) seeing this i was a little surprised since i felt like i was running 9m/m. so it was a little encouraging knowing that my crappy run is a 7:20 pace at this point.

Overall Time 2:16 ( Olympic Distance PR if you dont count the 2:15 i did when we were able to run in the water because the water was so shallow at the Dude Girl Tri in 2009 )

Trying to evaluate it all :

I think i had overtrained myself going into this race. The unfortunate thing of not having someone looking over your training every day or not listening to my husband, who is so far proving that he knows me better than I know myself when it comes time to rest and train. This would explain why i was having and am still having those "blah" emotions.

Here are Reasons for overtraining, don’t follow in my footsteps..
· I did too many hard workouts in one week. i have been guilty of this for a long time..
· With the heat and humidity in Austin, every workout was taking a lot more out of me than i realized and it finally took its toll. I should have changed the length and intensity of my training the last few weeks.
· I had been feeling great, and was improving a ton weekly through my hard work, so i thought that was a signal to work out even more and harder. Please tell me we all do that…

Sings of overtraining :
· My heart rate gets elevated when brushing my teeth. And that normal chore is just exhausting.
· i have random aches and pains all over the place.
· I am having trouble sleeping
· i am irritable and emotional - my poor husband was the first to point out that something was wrong.
· Not wanting to train or training without any excitement ( this should have stood out in itself because I always love training and the challenge every workout brings )
· Lack on self confidence. I feel like I am doubting my training since my last week or so I have been slower than normal.

Well, Since realizing this I have taken succumbed to taking it really easy, thanks to my husband’s insistence. On Sunday I woke up and instead of doing my usual long run I slept in with Steve and when we finally got up I suggested we run to the coffee shop down the road, have some coffee and bfast taco’s and play cards and read the paper. I think I saw a tear roll down his cheek. This was probably the first Sunday morning we had done this in a long time, and we will now be adding it as a biweekly routine because we had so much fun. Monday I cycled to get the mail and again to the coffee shop to read the paper and cycled back and that was it. I know, for me this is huge. I even missed my daily swim workout to take a massive nap. Today is Tues , and I do my usual race prep workout , which is a short speed workout that really is a mental boost more than anything. And I am proud to say, I couldn’t wait to do it and I felt physically and mentally better than I had in the last 3 weeks. Yay for REST !!
I know have 4 days till Branson 70.3 and I am going to try to do as little as possible between now and then, and just let the excitement and fire to race build in “m-y bel-ly “( said like the guy from Austin Powers – “get in m-y bel’ly )

So to end this, if any of you are feeling the above symptoms, and you are worried about taking a break and the fitness you might lose. I am learning that it takes a while for that to happen, and it has been assured to me by different coaches that if I have to do half the amount I usually do for a few weeks , that it wouldn’t negatively effect me. Yes, I wouldn’t get any faster, but at this point I just want to be able to race well at the end of the season with the work I have put in this year, which is a lot… and I would be totally happy with.

Lastly, thanks to all my support out there. My husband,Steve, for understanding me so well and always encouraging me and believing in me. Maurice, for patiently helping me with my swim day in and out. Jack and Adams, the friendliest bike/triathlon shop in town. Tri4Him , my Christian triathlon community. Red Licorice events for all your support. Advanced rehab for keeping me healthy enough to be able to start and finish another race. Under armour for my awesome clothing. T3 – all the great friends I have met in the group that are so supportive. Puresport – for my workout and recovery drink that keeps me going everyday.