IM Texas 70.3 Race Report

Ironman.com posted this great shot!

I went into the 70.3 in Galveston feeling confident about my preparation and ready to find out exactly where I am at. The field was surprisingly deep for a 500-point race, but I find deep fields motivating and am encouraged by the number of fast girls in our sport these days!

 

I was glad to have friends Sonja and Jim from Vic there to keep me company a little bit. Jim did a great job of handing out splits on the race course, he was only off a little bit and only a couple times... ;)

 

I woke up race morning in a good mood and ready to go. I wanted to test myself. I went out hard at the beginning of the swim but just couldn't keep the pace of the front 3 or 4 girls, including Kelly Williamson and Cait Snow. I knew I was in my usual position of pulling the second group, but I felt good. About half way through the swim another girl came by swimming well, so I got on her feet, happy to not do all the work. The two of us then overtook a girl who had dropped back from the first group.

Before leaving Vic, I had a record-breaking swim during my taper week, so I think I am swimming a little faster than last year. Its difficult to find the right feet at the swim start. I told Clint afterwards that instead of finding feet, I think I should improve my 400m time and treat the first part of the race like a 400m tt. I'll let you know if this theory works....

 

On the bike, I put my head down and rode hard. The course is pancake flat and windy! We had cross winds the whole time, so there was no fast, tailwind section. I focused on staying aero and keeping an efficient pedal stroke. To my surprise, I actually started overtaking people on the bike! In the second half, I could see that I was catching up to most of the girls. I kinda got excited with the idea that I might be able to get close to the front of the race.... on the bike (!). This is new territory for me. With about 7-8 miles to go I started to cramp up a little. I know I was riding harder than my body was trained to ride. I slowed a little, then Jessica Jacobs and Heather Leiggi came by, but I was still making good progress. I came off the bike in 10th, but 8 of the girls in front were in view when I hit the transition area.

 

T2 was a bit of a struggle since I couldn't run at first (cramping thing again) and was left to walk/hobble to my shoes. Eventually I was (of course) ready to run again, but from the times it looks like I lost about 45 seconds maybe...not a big deal.

 

I started running and felt a little flat right from the start. This is normal so I just thought, ok, i'll warm up into it. I knew I wasn't running as fast as I had hoped, but I also wasn't running slowly either, so I settled in for the 13 miles. I overtook a few girls and was pleased to finish 6th. I had to up the tempo for the last 400m or so because there was a fleet-footed girl running fast behind me. I think her name was Jennie. We hugged at the finish line. Its not often you have to sprint to the line in a 70.3!

 

All in all, I felt satisfied with the improvements I saw in my cycling especially but also in my attitude towards my cycling. Turns out its kinda fun to race bikes. Who knew? ;)

 

Big thanks to my sponsors Zoot Sports, Rudy Project, Trek Pro City, Synergy Health Management, RUMBLE, and Sportexcel. And always thanks to hubby and coach Clint. The best guy ever.

 

Looking forward to the rest of the season.

S.

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My preparation for Texas 70.3

 

Its hard to believe that it has only been a month since I came home from Tucson/Palm Springs. Since then my training has been strong and consistent with a few noteworthy highlights.
 

Our Mercury Rising swim group, coached by my very own Clinty, is growing and gaining momentum. We now have a strong group of pro girls who help keep me moving forward, including Magali Tisseyre, Karen Thibodeau, Mel McQuaid, Katie Button, myself and newcomer Tenille Hoogland. By working together the Canadian gals are gathering forces!!! Additionally, we have some decent men to keep us on our toes (ie. Not being lapped by Simon Whitfield is a reasonable goal for some sessions)

Three weeks ago, I attended a 4-day cycling camp with Houshang Amiri from the Pacific Sport Cycling Centre here in Vic. The March camp is the final, and most intense camp in a series of 5 since the riders are preparing for their race seasons. I had been warned that a good group of strong guys had been attending all the camps, so I was ready to be put through my paces.

On the first day of every camp, Houshang does 2 time trials to assess our fitness. The first is a hill climb, and the second is rolling. I was pleased to improve my times from what I did at the last camp in January 2012. Also, I went into last year’s camp rested, and this time I was at the end of a long build, so my legs were pretty smashed before we even started. The second day of the camp was a highlight for me. We did a simulated road race in which the main group kept a certain base pace while we took turns doing 30s sprints. While this is not very race-specific for Ironman, it was really fun. On the third day we did an “easy” 5h ride… easy for those boys was a fairly strong ride for me. And on the final day we did a 170km hilly ride “up island” (which is what Victorians say when we leave our little peninsula and ride up the highway to the rest of the Island). I started the day feeling completely wrecked, but after a couple hours I started to feel good and put in some good climbs. At the end of the 6h, I felt stronger than at the beginning, so my Ironman fitness must be coming together.

All in all, I felt like a different rider to the girl who did a similar camp last winter. My skills, fitness and confidence are all at a higher level this year.

Last weekend I did the Westshore triathlon here in town. It’s a sprint race with a pool swim and a fun hilly course. The bike ride is basically down a big hill and back up x2 and the run is on hilly chip trails. Having trained quite hard last week, I was a bit bleary-eyed on Sunday morning, but luckily, my heat wasn’t until 9.40am, so I got up, had a casual breakfast and rode over to the race site. My heat consisted of a bunch of fast kids from the junior development squad. I felt like a wrinkled-old interloper amongst those kids! All in all, I was pleased with my efforts, I was not the last one out of the water in our heat, and I finished just a few paces behind the young gazelles. It was a successful outing and most of all, a chance for me to practice transition before my upcoming races. Which BTW are Texas 70.3 (April 7^th), St Croix 70.3 (May 5^th) and Ironman Brazil (May 25^th).

Additionally, in the last month I’ve done a couple sessions aimed at improving my leg speed on the run. As I am an old lady now, this has come with a slew of new aches and pains, tight hamstrings, sore calves, pelvis out-of-whack. I would not be able to continue without my growing injury-prevention team (yes, it takes a team now!). At Synergy Health management, I have been seeing Katie Button (who is also a hard-core Xterra chick, so she understands my aches and pains), Jamie Grimes (who will leave you bruised but injury-free) and I just started seeing Kernby Chu, the massage therapist. This is in addition to the chiro I have been seeing since Rosalee was born, Rob Hasagawa. My injury-prevention plan is a bit like training for a fourth sport.

Last week I had a meeting, the first in a while, with my mental coach Bob from Sportexcel. Bob. What can I say about Bob? He requested the meeting because he felt my last blog was depressing and I could use a mental tune-up! Haha! Not a guy to mince his words. During the course of our discussion, he did find some “holes” in my mental preparation and helped me clean up some of the areas that I was not feeling confident about.

Lastly, I just want to write a bit about Rosalee and the ongoing challenges of being a mom, an athlete and a coach. Rosalee is 2 & 1/3 now, and she is constantly changing, which means I can’t count on certain things, like her bedtime, her ability to sleep through the night, her interest in playing alone or with others etc… The only times I can actually “plan” are when she is at daycare or with Grandma Pearl. And even then, I often need an unanticipated nap. I used to do my coaching work whenever it fit in, if I found an hour here or there, but lately, “found” hours have been few and far between so I’ve had to plan certain days to write programs during daycare hours. This has actually reduced my stress a lot knowing that this time has been set aside for this reason. It also means that I have less flexibility in my training, so if I am too tired or sore on a Thursday to do my planned ride, I can’t move it to Friday since that’s my program writing day. My training has become a lot more like a normal working person’s. Many of my daily hours are spoken for, so I have to make the most of the hours I have. I think in the bigger picture this makes me mentally tougher. I can no longer wait for the rain to pass before heading out on my bike. I can’t take extra recovery time when I think I need it, and I have to be savvy with my time management. (I know any age-grouper reading this is thinking, yeah Sara, welcome to my world!)

Rosalee is also old enough now to understand when I am leaving for a race. The day before I left, she said to Clint “Mommy going airplane.” We still have no idea how she knew this since I hadn’t started packing yet. This of course, makes it harder for me to leave. Even though she (thankfully) doesn’t throw a fit or anything, she still recognizes that I will be gone for days rather than hours and no doubt will be asking after me from time to time. This motivates me to make my time away worthwhile, an extra pressure that I welcome and that makes my racing feel worthwhile.

Texas 70.3 race report coming soon!

 

 

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