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Longleaf Sprint - Race Report October 20, 2008

Posted by boardgrl Uncategorized Digg! this story! Digg! this story. , 1 comment so far

Longleaf Triathlon - October 19, 2008

The day before the race we picked up our packets and went down to check out the lake. This will be my first lake swim triathlon and of course, being in Florida, the usual worries of snakes and gators plagued us a bit. The race was a time trial race where each racer individually enters the water at 5 second intervals. My number was 373, so I figured if 372 people go into the water and 372 people come out of the water ahead of me, all should be fine. Had an awesome chicken and pasta pre-race dinner.

Race day I wake up just before the alarm at 5:15am, but I forgot to turn if off — so for that I apologize to my husband. I had everything packed the night before and so I was ready to take off once maggie may rolled up. I head outside and realize it is FREEZING cold!!! In Tampa, anything less than 60 degrees is officially freezing and it was 59 out. I wear a sweatshirt but failed to put on sweatpants (big mistake) and so froze until the sun came up 2 and a half hours later and about 10 minutes before I entered the water. I spent a lot of energy jumping up and down to keep warm and chattering my teeth before the race.

The swim in the lake wasn’t as bad as I had anticipated, and even though they declared it wetsuit legal, I was not one bit cold once I got in the water. There was a bit of confusion with the buoys and the course markings so after stopping to find out what the heck was going on, I decided to just follow the majority of the swimmers around the one buoy then head into shore - definitely lost some time there. I thought I did well on my swim - my form was good and I felt less tired than in other races, but my time spoke otherwise and I came in 16 seconds behind my last quarter mile swim race. Oh, well, I can deal with that. What I could not deal with was the run to transition which was up a hill and across a field and then through a parking lot - it was at least a quarter mile - probably more like a third mile. I now know the sorrow of a 5 minute transition - utterly defeative and frustrating!

The bike ride was nice along and through Starkey Park, but I realized that I truly need aerobars - the head wind was cranking and I felt “held back” and everytime I tried to get low, my shoulders would ache. On the Christmas wish list they go! Bike time was on par with my last race which is fine.

So far, no breaking news in the “improvement” department - until I get to my run. Now, this is my third sprint tri, each a 5K run. In my first race, my run time was 33:53, at my second race it was 33:29. At Longleaf it was 29:43 - WOO HOO! I was sooo not expecting a 3:46 improvement, but I WILL take it considering I didn’t improve anywhere else. The body moves first - those who know, will know.

I was very excited to see my overall time at 1:19:02, though I did miss placing third in my age class by 2 mins - not sure where I could have picked that up (maybe a minute or so at transition) so I have to just be happy that I finished and made some sort of improvement. Thank you to my husband for getting there before the race start and for keeping me warm, thank you to Emma my 6 year old who makes the most brilliant cheering posters and who I can hear a mile away cheering me on, and thank you to Sydney my 9 year old daughter who ran along the sidewalk for the last half a block of this race with me and who will someday be my training/racing buddy.

My first Tri season is over for me and I am a happier, healthier person for it. I’m definitely proceeding with off season training and plan to do some 5Ks this fall/winter.

See you outside!

Maybe we were tired…or September 22, 2008

Posted by boardgrl Swim Digg! this story! Digg! this story. , 1 comment so far

maybe we were just too chatty, but MM and I were feeling lazy on our swim today. Last Friday we kicked butt at 5:30am, but after the weekend and working all day Monday, we just weren’t in the mood to swim hard. We did put in about 1050 yards (over the course of an hour!) On the other hand, we did laugh a lot — according to USA Today, American researchers have found that 10-15 minutes of genuine giggling can burn off the number of calories found in a medium square of chocolate. I’d say that we probably burned off about 2 squares worth.

Workout:

My mini me races her first Tri September 8, 2008

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For me, the only thing more exciting than racing in my first Tri, is to watch my 8 year old daughter Sydney race in hers - which she did yesterday! She raced in the fifth race of the Youth Tri Series, here in Pinellas county-Florida. The distance was a 100 yard swim, 2 mile bike and 1/2 mile run. I could see the nervousness in her eyes and the way she paced back and forth before the swim start I knew she was thinking — am I ready? After eight weeks of training, I knew she was ready and could -at the very least -finish the race. As the bull horn sounded for her group, she took off in the pool and swam strong. Her father, little sister, uncle and I cheered her on with homemade signs her little sister made. We were perfectly positioned at the pool exit toward bike transition and I’m sure the video tape will show our excitement as it was bouncing up and down throughout my jumping and cheering. She stopped at the end of her swim in the pool to remove her goggles instead of pulling them off while running into transition, just a minor point to remind her on for next race.

She transitioned perfectly and ran her bike out of what was a pretty large transition area, down a hill to the street. She biked the two miles on her little “glamour girl” bike, which we did our best to “race up” - ripped all the handlebar streamers and the padded bumpers off, and added a water bottle cage. Found out later, she enjoyed the bike portion best, so maybe there’s a road bike for Christmas in her future.

Transition to run went well and, much to my surprise, she actually took heed to my tips and had great form on the run and paced herself nicely. As she came in off the run she sprinted in to the finish like a pro finishing the race at 23:48.4. I was one proud mom!

She was exhausted, but so excited to have finished and is looking forward to her next race on October 4.

Come on in, the water’s…….bloody cold! August 20, 2008

Posted by boardgrl Swim Digg! this story! Digg! this story. , 1 comment so far

Woke up at 5am to get to the 5:30am swim training. I am not a “very early” morning person, so I show up rather disheveled, eyes half shut, but I’m there and willing to swim and keep practicing my form and breathing. Didn’t touch the water before jumping in - holy hannah bananas - it was cold - shocked me right awake! With storm Fay brushing by it has apparently cooled the pool quite a bit since last Friday. Did 150yd warm up, 150 drills, swam for 10mins straight but didn’t count (others say it was about 450, sounded right), then swam for 5mins straight for 200yds, then did a 200 cool down. Overall it was a relatively easy swim - I should have stayed for another 15mins and pushed myself, but it was a nice way to wake up on a dreary day :)

Workout:

Swimming with a masters instructor August 15, 2008

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Coach was on vacation today so he had a masters swim instructor fill in for the swim training. She was very helpful in terms of making assessments and giving us some good tips. There were only 5 of us at training today so it was a good day to pick the instructor’s brain. She told me I have an excellent swim stroke/form, but should finish my stroke out the back (instead of at my hip, which I tend to do). We did a good warm up and then a LOT of drills and some good distance swimming, we finished up by having everyone pick their favorite stroke and we did 50 yards each of those. Overall a very enjoyable swim and she had us work out for a full hour (with a couple of breaks) which was very beneficial. I put tje210’s swim tips to work and I felt a significant difference - esp. in the back of my arms and I definitely improved my rotation by keeping my shoulder close to my ear (thank you!!). I think if I can get my left side breathing down, I’ll be in pretty good shape.

Workout:

Back to pool school August 13, 2008

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Yay, I’m back from vacation and back to Tri training. Tonite was a nice swim with some drills totalling a little over 1000 yards. I’m a right side breather, but we had to use both sides tonight in one of the drills and I definitely drank a bit of water doing that. I’m going to try to work toward being an ambidexterous breather as it would help to be able to direct my breathing away from waves/splashing during the tri swim. I’m definitely an average paced swimmer - I want to be a “fast” swimmer and need to figure out what I’m doing that’s holding me back - gotta get coach to assess.

Workout:

Getting the leg back August 11, 2008

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Tendonitis hurts, plain and simple - and mine started right after my last tri where the road was pitched - apparently differentiations in “leg length” can contribute to tendonitis. I’ve been resting and massaging it for a week and a half now and it’s feeling much much better. Also, running slowly and with shortened paces every three days (instead of every other day) has helped quite a bit too. Maybe I can pick up the pace a little now.

Workout:

My leg hurts today August 6, 2008

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I ran a slow 3 miles with shortened steps as my left leg has been hurting. I picked up a case of iliotibial tendonitis and should be resting it but I’m on vacation and actually WANT to run. We’ll see how it feels tomorrow.

Workout:

July 26th Crystal River - Twilight Tri August 4, 2008

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Fun without the sun was the theme for this event — and it definitely was!  Got to the absolutely beautiful pristine beach location early and secured a good parking spot for my hubby and kids to cheer me on from as it was right on the bike and run route.  It was a very casual event, I didn’t know any of the other racers, but met some really terrific people and the whole event had a very positive/upbeat feel to it. 

 This was my first evening Tri and so I was a bit at odds with how to fuel for this event.  I ate some sliced chicken for lunch and about 2.5 hrs before the event I ate a bagel with organic peanut butter.  Although I was well hydrated, I drank probably too much water prior to the race - sloshing stomach syndrome really stinks.

Swim starts began at 7:30pm and were basically men (all) age groups first, followed by women (all) age groups at 7:34pm, then I believe the relay teams followed.  I definitely did not train as hard for this, my second event (some of it due to illness, some of it due to laziness) but I hadn’t been slacking either - my goal was to focus on my run, which I had been doing for about 5 weeks - probably at the expense of my swim which I’ll write about in a minute. 

 Swim .25mi time –  9:18 (phooey!)

I felt good right before going in on this swim, a little nervous, but positioned myself in front and to the right of the pack - but well in line with the first boueys.  The horn sounded and we were off.  There was a decent current, a few waves and the water was over my head at the first bouey turn.  The super swimmers pulled out ahead and somehow at the first bouey a bunch of us bottlenecked and I got stuck behind a line of slower swimmers and could not find a way past them - I had definitely slipped to the “middle of the pack” and the struggle to find a clear lane was frustrating and tiring.  I knew I was losing time, but I just plugged along and figured I should just pace myself and make up for it on the bike.  As I rounded the third bouey and started to head in to shore, someone grabbed my right ankle and pulled me under and back so they could use the momentum to pull themselves ahead of me.  I’m no expert, but that seems a bit like dirty pool to me.  Maybe I’m just naive, but does this happen often?  I know we’re in a race, but heck, I was shocked that a “fellow athlete” would do this sort of thing, but that was the only negative moment I had during the race, and I got over it before my heels hit the sand.   Lesson learned: when someone grabs your ankle quickly close mouth to avoid inflow of salt water.

Transition 1 –  2:10 - decided this Tri around to take a little more time in T1 to catch my breath after the swim and stretch legs for a minute 

Bike 10mi –  34:06

I was okay with my bike time, even though I could swear it felt like my back brake was rubbing - it may have been the rough and grooved pavement, not sure.  It was a straight 5mi out and back.  This was NOT a closed street event, so there was a small amount of car dodging, but for the most part, the motorists were very respectful and kept their speed low.  My last Tri I did 12 miles in 44 mins so if I average my time/mile, I did a little better on my time here (though there weren’t any bridges to deal with). Note to self: before the race check and set bike gears and adjust brakes if they get messed up on way to race.

Transition2 – 2:01 - again, took my time, stretched my legs so I could actually run.

Run 3.1mi –  33:29

When I left for the run segment, my legs felt much better than they had during my first Tri - stopping to stretch in transition was key for me. I cannot express how nice it was, in July in Florida, to not have the sun beating down on me during the run. The sunset was phenonmenal as I ran along the road past the marshes. The only negatives on the run were that the road was pitched very noticeably on the right sides, the “open” roads with car and truck exhausts going by slooowwwlyyy forcing the run to the pitched side of the road, and the green flies were biting like mad - definitely need to add bug spray to the list of items to bring to the next twilight tri. I put my chirunning into motion and focused on form and pace and was actually passing people! I was pleased that my run felt as good as it did since I had focused for weeks on form and pace. I was feeling good until just before mile 2 water stop when I realized the bagel I ate a few hours back and the accompanying water were saying they were not in any way digested and wanted out. So, I have had my first official in-race puke session (it was actually embarrassing and felt really lame that this happened to me on a sprint) but what the hey, it happened and I felt sooo much better for it. I lost maybe 90 seconds between the excavation and stopping at the water table. I really need to figure out my fuel situation for late day/evening races because I plan to do more of these. Running back into the beach area I passed my family, cheering me on, I high fived my eight and five year old girls and heard my hubby shouting “sprint it in, sprint it in!!!” So, I left it all on the road and sprinted the last half mile in. I improved my run over last sprint race by about 30 seconds, even with the stop at mile 2.

Overall time - 1:21:04

Awesome post race party - some athletes even had enough left in them to engage in a push up contest!
Overall, I figured I improved my race time by about 3 mins between my first and second sprint races. I lost time on the swim, but made up for it on the bike and run times. Another group Tri training session has started up and I’m back in it - I love the routine, motivation and comraderie. Next race is Longleaf sprint in October and I DO plan to kick butt on my times.

Apologies to those of you who I lead on about this race then made wait for this write up! - but thanks for pushing me to finish this post (being on vacation makes a person lazy!)

My mini me July 29, 2008

Posted by boardgrl Swim Digg! this story! Digg! this story. , add a comment

My daughter Sydney, 8, signed up for youth triathlon training because apparently I’ve inspired her to do so! She’s a good swimmer and a fast runner and I think with some training she’ll do well if she trains right and sticks with it. While she was training, I took advantage of the free 45mins and swam 900 yards focusing on form.

Workout: