Black Diamond Olympic Triathlon 2008

Race morning we headed out nice and early - I always prefer to be early and have plenty of time to warm up and get my stuff ready - I also tend to forget thing and it is good to have time just in case. I think we left around 6:15 am. I drove since Kyle is not a morning person and was not really awake. I had printed the directions out from the race website but though they seemed detailed they also seemed kind of weird they were missing things like right and left directions. After a much needed stop at Starbucks we managed to get her ok after seeing a sign for the bike course.
The parking situation was kind of crazy so Kyle dropped me off and he dealt with find a parking spot. While I went and picked up my race packet and get set up. By the time I had walked my bike over to registration my hands were frozen... Luckily I met up with some other Pauole Sport team mates who gave me a hand warmer. I got my stuff all set up and Kyle came by and pumped up my tires.
About 20 min before the start I went for a 10 min warm up run on the the last mile of the run course - which I always like to do so I know the finish. The run was good also so I could warm up and take at least one of the 3 layers I had on. I got back and put my run stuff back and got my wetsuit on before heading over to the beach.

My wave was the last one in the water so it took a while while gave me plenty of time to forget to put some dr jacks nut butter in my running shoes, loose my ear plugs twice, try to figure out the swim course with all there different courses and go over stuff with Kainoa one last time.

I am always apprehensive about the swim and I never get in for a warm up swim even though I know I should so I was pleasantly surprised that by the time I lined up the water was really not that bad. It was chilly waiting to go but once in it felt fine.
The beginning of the swim was not to bad but all the people that lined up on the right started to push everyone further left and for a brief moment I was on the verge on panic - which is very unlike me. My wetsuit neck felt tight and I got kicked a bunch but I just kept swimming and was ok. I did move further left than I should have probably adding some unneeded distance and no draft. Around the end of the second lap the turn buoy was in the shade and I could not see where to go at all so it took me a second to see other heads and find something to sight on. I started to feel tired already - I just did not feel very peppy and all I wanted to do was get out of the water. My left foot decided to cramp up most of teh 2nd loop and it felt like it took forever to finish the second loop.
As I ran out of the water I remember giving Kyle a look of disappointment. T1 went smoothly until just after un-racking my bike my garmin fell off - it was a good thing Kyle yelled at me so I had to stop and pick it up and then get going again.

Once on the bike it took me about 5-10 min before I could get my cadence up - I felt tired and my legs felt heavy. I started drinking my acceleraid and slowly forced my legs to spin faster and managed to get it up around 85 rpm or so. The bike course was relatively flat with at the most rolling hills. I was glad that I was at least able to still climb pretty well. So I would pass people on the uphill and hold them off for a little while but on he flats I would get caught again. I just kept at it and stayed focused the entire ride not letting my lack of energy to effect me mentally. I smiled and thanks all teh volunteers and cheered other people on and attacked the hills as best I could.


T2 went much better and I was out on the run in no time. All I really knew about the run course was the the last 1.5 mi was on trail around the lake. As in all triathlons my legs felt a bit heavy the first mile but nothing worse then how they felt on the bike so I just went for it. Within the first mile I passed one girl in my age group but then half a mile after that a different girl passed me. I tried to stay with her but after a mile or two I just let myself fall back - I could not maintain it. My body was telling me to lay down and take a nap not run harder..
Part of the run course is almost like one long pot hole - it was dry, dusty and just plain nasty. Luckily there was an water station at the end of it. I dumped the water on my head instead of drinking it and the volunteer looked at me very strangely but it felt great (I repeated this every time I went past them). It was also nice to run on pavement for a little while - until after 2 out and backs the coursed went back on the pothole road. I took my gel at about mile 4.5 so that I had some hope to have some energy for the last mile or so. I was happy that even with tired legs I was able to keep my pace around 8 m/mi.
As I turned onto the trail around the lake I saw a bunch of Pauole sport people cheering and of course my mom with her camera.
I felt ok so I pushed a bit harder to pick up my pace for the last 1.5 mi till I would be done. I'm glad I ran the end of the course so I knew where I could start really pushing my pace. I also remembered to tip my hat up so my hat would not be covering my eyes as my mom took a million pictures.



swim 0:33:54 | t1 2:43 | bike 1:18:06 | t2 1:33 122 | run 0:51:25 | Overall time 2:47:41
7/20 in age group | 101/215 overall


In the end I had fun doing my first olympic distance triathlon. I wish I could have had a little more pep in me but it was more for training than anything else. I feel like I did well with what I had and I managed to pull off a fairly good run even though I was temped to take a nap during it. I'm also happy with finishing 7th in my age group esp since some fast girls showed up.

Finally I want to say thanks to everyone that was their cheering me on -specifically Kyle (the best sherpa biatch around), my Mom, Jerry, Colleen, Bryan (even as he raced), Kainoa and the Pauole Sport crew it really helped motivate me when I felt so tired.

a new first tomorrow

After almost 2 weeks of recovery/taper from being so tired tomorrow I will do my first olympic distance triathlon - Black Diamond. I actually have signed up for this race before in 2006 after i decided to do Ironman Canada but I wound up not being able to do it due to an injury. So now after doing every other distance I will finally do an olympic.
I'm feeling pretty good - the usual aches and pains that show up during a taper but nothing huge. Even though I had to go kind of light the last couple weeks training has been going well and I feel strong. I feel a little uneasy since I don't really know the course and I don't know the distance. I walked though a race plan with Kainoa yesterday and have just been focusing on that. My main goal for this race is to just to get some more race experience and not holding back. I ned to get out of the habit of sandbagging and just see what I am actually capable of.
Kyle gets to be my shirpa biatch because he race last weekend and my Mom and Jerry are also going to come and take pictures and I'm sure have a huge sign of some sort :) It sounds like Kainoa and a bunch of people from the Paulo Sport team will be there and Mr Bryan will also be racing so it should be fun race.
Today I get to take it easy and continue to rest up. Luckily we are going to the Husky football game so I wont have time to be tempted to go for a bike ride in the nice sunny weather.

ran myself into the ground

It started on Friday morning I did a 45 min run with my friend Cynthia that I never get to see. It was a nice casual run that was more just for fun and an excuse to hang out and catch up. We ran from Vasa park on west lake samm road - it was great, a few little rollers but mostly flat. We started pretty early in the morning and I did not even think about grabbing my heart rate monitor or garmin until I got to our meeting spot. Not a big deal but it was weird running with out knowing all that data.

Then Saturday Kyle wanted to run instead of bike so we ran. We ran down the hill for a good warm up and the headed out on west lake sammamish road. As planned I ran the 1st 30 min at an easy zone 2 pace/effort just focused on loosening up and finding a rhythm. At the turn around point - 4 miles or so I picked up the pace and pushed up to zone 3 for 30 min. It was tuff but I was able to run sub 8 min miles consistently even up a couple small hills. I gave myself a 15 min to cool down before having to run back up the mile long steep hill. I felt great afterwards and was happy with my pace mid run when I picked up the intensity.

Sunday morning nike, Starbucks, Road Runners and Seattle Parks did a mini/free version of the human race at green lake. Completely low key we got there around 8 am and registered after getting some warm caffeine. I was able to talk Lincoln - one of the guys I work into showing up as well - it was his first ever run event. I think only like 50 or so people showed up for the event so it was very low key - so low key we did not even do a warm up jog The race started and Kyle was off with the leaders. Lincoln tried to hold his pace for the first mile or so. As usual I went off the line a little more moderate since I did not do a warm up or anything. I kept Lincoln and Kyle in my sights for a little over a mile or so then Kyle started to pull away - he felt good. I just continued to pick up the pace as I went.
The course went once around the inner trail then a second time half on the outer trail and half on the inner. I kept Lincoln in my sights until a little over 3 miles I passed him. I tried to cheer him on to stay with me but he did not seem to interested. So I kept going. With a mile to go I tried to pick the pace up again. I felt pretty good but a little fatigued from the day before. In teh end I finished in about 46 min which I am happy with and it was good prep mentally for the 10k of my upcoming Olympic distance triathlon.
Instead of heading straight home for the ice bath I should have taken we wandered around the shops at green lake. Then by the evening my calves were already starting to feel sore and i was asleep by 9 pm or so.

Monday I slept in a bit while Kyle got a ride in then headed off to help Fisher skis out at a ski show. Once up it hurt to walk my calves were so sore - especially barefoot. Buy hey if it hurts to walk then why not go for a hilly bike ride... I headed out on a ride planning to ride anywhere between 2 - 3 hours depending on how I felt. I did not feel sore but my legs had no pep well actually I had no pep - it was not just my legs. I could not get my cadance over 76 rpm when usually I'm up around 80-90 rpm. But still I kept with my planned hilly route - figured I just needed to warm up or something. I climbed up Inglewood hill over the plateau and it has never been soo difficult or slow (well in a long time). I had to stand almost the entire way. It sucked. I continued on and I had to stand up to get up most of the rollers. At this point all I can think about is getting to my mom's house and hoping she is home so I can take a rest.
Luckily after climbing another hill I reached my mom's house and Jerry and her were home. She hooked me up with a wonderful piece of warm blueberry pie and some vanilla ice cream. It was exactly what I needed.
I decided to cut my ride short and just ride home from my mom's house via hwy 202 straight home - at least it does not have any crazy climbs. It was still a struggle to make it home - I just felt warn down. Once home I took a hot shower and immediately laid down for a 2 hour nap and I was back asleep in bed by 9 pm.

I woke up Tueday morning and still felt wiped out so all I did was pilates to help stretch out and even came home and took a nap after work.

Today (Thursday) I am starting to feel back to normal - I went for an hour run with Marissa and by mile 5 my calves started feel sore again. So now I'm sitting on the couch with my feet up and ice packs under each calf.. All I can think is it is a good thing tomorrow is a swim day.

keep moving

Last night Marissa and I went down to green lake for a swim. For the first time in a long time I was actually glad to get in my wetsuit because I was cold just getting ready. The water was calm and there were bits of blue sky but the temperature is getting cooler everyday. I was a bit jealous of Marissa's full sleeve wetsuit. I stuck my toe in the water and it was cool to the touch - which made it a mental challenge to get in the water but of course I did.
Once I got swimming I had to keep moving or I would get cold. It was really pretty on the way out - or maybe it was my blue tinted googles or the evening lighting - either way I wished I had a camera. As we turned to go back the clouds came in with some wind to rough up the water a little bit. It was not to bad but I got a lot more water up my nose on the way back. The coldest part was taking the wetsuit off on the dock - I was standing there shivering till I got a jacket on at the car.

Needless to say I miss the summer weather... but it is time to get over it. I figure I have 2 more weeks till Black Diamond Olympic then I can at least move my swims indoor.

were not in summer anymore

We slept in on Sunday since both Kyle and I were tired from racing on Saturday but Kyle checked the weather and saw that it was supposed to start raining (I never check teh weather I just go and do what I can). So anyway eventually we got up and got on our bikes for a ride. I had to do 2 hours with 2 x 30 min at Olympic Distance race pace with 15 min recovery in between. We both wanted to stay away from to many hills and just focus on spinning in the aero position.
The warm up went well - it is mostly down hill so it is easy to keep your heart rate down. We headed east on hwy 202 from Redmond and rode out for about an hour to Fall City. Kyle lead the entire way - he said he felt tired but was still averaging 20 mph so it was still a challenge for me to stay on his wheel.
Kyle declared he needed something to eat so we stopped at Small Fried to share a burger, fries, a thing of mac & cheese and a coke. Since we felt a few little rain drops so we ate quickly and got back on teh road. Check out my new baby blue tires.. I'm very coordinated now, baby blue, red & white :)
After our snack in Fall City we headed back the same way be came out. Kyle seemed to pick up the pace or it just felt like it went by faster. There were a few section of light rain but nothing to bad. We made it home just before the rain really started to come down.
We both got ready to head out on a run but as we started to head out the sky seemed to just open up and down pour with some lightening and thunder for good measure so we decided not to run. I know I should have sucked it up and ran but it was raining soo hard and I was tired so I just could not myself to go out to get completely soaked. I am not ready for this fall weather - it seems to be in full swing already and it is Still August. Time to pull out all the rain gear, lights, and reflective stuff.
Luckily Monday was the start of my recovery week so I get 2 days off this week instead of just one.