KC Tri - A Mixed Bag

The weather was absolutely beautiful for this race. The rain that threatened in the early hours passed by leaving the lake fairly calm and sky an azure blue.

The race started off without incident, the Olympic swimmers getting in the water first. My swim wave for the sprint distance was the second one to go, which didn't thrill me as I knew the faster swimmers from the younger age groups would be passing me. The water temp was a purported 72 degrees. Nice!

My swim wave started off uneventfully. I felt pretty good as I went around both the first and second turn buoys. I deliberately made myself go very slow to  not bump up my heart rate and left my wetsuit unzipped but fastened at the neck.

As predicted, both the girls and guys from the following two waves caught up with me in earnest by the time I turned around the last buoy. I'm not really sure happened--I was bumped a lot but that didn't really scare me, but maybe it just threw off my rhythm. I was 100 meters from the shore, and I started to struggle a bit. I wouldn't say I was scared, but seemed to be tired and not making much forward momentum. What the heck? Didn't just do a 2500-yard and a 2000-yard workout the previous week? Didn't I just do my fastest 2000 on Thursday, 4 x 500, with each of those being under 12 minutes? <sigh>

I dog paddled, swam and backstroked my way toward shore. I finally realized that people were standing up around me, so I put my feet down and found that I could indeed, touch the bottom. Where I would have "normally" swam until my hand touched the bottom, I just stood up and waded to shore. 500 meters in 17:02....woo hoo!!! Boo hoo! At least I survived it.

My bike segment went really well. The new course had some decent hills on it, as well as three fairly tight turns. My Garmin measured the course at 12.7 miles with an average of 19.2 mph (yes!) but the official results was 12.4 miles with an average of 18.6 (still not bad). Since it was a short course and I only had to run a 5K, I went as hard as I could. I was able to pass quite a few people, even a couple of guys who passed me. :)

The run felt really hard. By this point I had messed up my Forerunner Garmin and I had no idea of the pace I was running. It seemed like a really long three miles. Unfortunately, I missed the finisher's chute (I was looking for clock) and ended up running all the way past transition to the first water stop. It added almost a half mile to my run, which put my total pace at 9:26. Arg! Of course, I did measure the extra segment that I ran and came up with about four tenths of a mile.

Overall, I left Longview Lake feeling like I had not had a great race. I'm finding that while I'm not starting from scratch on the open water swim, I am have moved a few steps back. At least I did manage to finish the swim this time. However, I keep comparing my time to the WIN race I did last year, which is not rational. That race was the end of July. I had had two months of twice weekly open water swim practice to that point. I keep telling myself that it was the first race of the season and by no means the bell weather of how my season will go.

The swim experience definitely left me feeling down and doubts are creeping in as to whether I will be able to do the KS 70.3 distance, much less Louisville! I  have a lot of work to do. I'm still struggling with the wetsuit. I love the buoyancy and security it gives me, but hate the restrictiveness I feel in it. I've yet to have a successful wetsuit race yet.

The really fast 50-year-old women did the Olympic distance, so I still managed to win my age group.  Ironic. But, I'll take it.

Kansas City Triathlon - First Race of the Season

Tomorrow is the KC Tri.  I am signed up for the sprint distance, 500m swim, 20K bike, 5K run. I really like the Olympic distance, but was wise enough to not sign up for a 1500m swim this early in the season. I've managed to get out into open water three times now, and the last time was the best confidence builder.
Liz intended for the IMLV ladies to "train through" this race, meaning no taper. Hannah, Mary J and I did a hard 50-mile ride yesterday. The wind was brutal. Ugh...I was hurting big time by the time I finally rolled into my driveway. I will have a good excuse for having a sucky race tomorrow. :)

As for the swim, I think I am ready. The game may totally change if it is very choppy tomorrow. Of course, when we did our practice swim on Tuesday, the lake was like glass. But, I keep telling myself it is only 500 meters. Just get through 500 meters!

Kansas 70.3 Camp

I attended the Midwest Triathlon Coaching Kansas 70.3 training camp this weekend. It felt a little grueling as I hadn't gotten much sleep after getting back from California, but it was a good barometer of where I am right now, I think.





KS 70.3 Training Camp



Friday night, we did a "master's" format swim workout at the Lee's Summit Aquatic Center. It took me a bit to find it, but my, it was a super nice facility. One would think that swimming in a 50 meter lane would not be that big a transition from a 25 yard pool. I had just done 2300 yards the night before, so it wasn't like I couldn't do the distance. But, I felt a little winded after each length.



Saturday, we headed to Lawrence to do a short open water swim in Clinton Lake and ride the 70.3 bike course. While the OWS was not a raging success for me, I would not call it a failure, either. But, I still had some anxiety and breathing issues. I really am a head case... and I really do not like the constricting feeling of my wetsuit. I was hoping that I would feel more comfortable than I did when I was in the water. I will be getting back in the lakes a couple more times before the Kansas City Triathlon, so I'm hoping my comfort level will grow. Thank goodness that I'm only signed up for the sprint at KC Tri!

My legs felt a little tired on the ride, but they weren't too bad. I rode with my fellow Red Lady teammate, who had also gone to Big Sur. We ended up cutting the course short as she wasn't feeling very good. The day was unseasonably hot (low 90's) and typically humid which we really haven't had time to acclimate to. I averaged 15.6 mph, which I wasn't too unhappy with, considering I was really taking it easy. Kansas is a hilly course. Assuming I can get myself through the swim at that race. My swim experience earlier that day was not a confidence builder. 

The run was today. I ended up going 8.5 miles, which is further than I would have gone on my own. (I take recovery seriously, LOL). While I didn't do the intensity that I thought I would have, it was still a good training weekend, and I learned more. The coach had some very different advice on nutrition, which was encouraging for me as I was worried about how I was going to get solids down in the heat on the bike.

The season is quickly upon me. I'm not sure I'm ready. I've got that slightly sick feeling in my stomach that I carried most of last year; that niggling of doubt now that the abstract is becoming the reality. It's been a two steps forward, one step back kind of week for me. I hope that means that I'm still making forward progress.

Big Sur International Marathon

I just got back from doing Big Sur International Marathon with a few of my "best-y" triathlon and running friends. What a great race!

It was everything it was hyped to be: breathtakingly beautiful and extremely challenging. I didn't really feel ready for it when I left Kansas City last Friday morning. My longest run had only been 17 miles and it hadn't gone that well. I knew I would be falling back on my triathlon training and my marathon experience. When we picked up the race information guide at the Expo, it promised to be a long day.


When race day finally dawned, I started feeling a bit excited and ready to go. We bussed to the start line, leaving our hotel at 4:15 a.m. It was a long ride. At one point we caught a glimpse of the long line of busses snaking out behind us and we understood why we had to leave so early.


The weather couldn't have been predicted to be more perfect: 60's, clear and sunny. My long-time running buddy and friend, Julie,  took off together, clicking off the first five miles at a great pace. As promised, those were the easiest miles of the race. Around six miles, we made our first major ascent and experienced the first of famous headwinds. The weather changed abruptly to foggy and gray.


Julie and I found three Brits ahead and tucked in behind them, listening to one good-naturedly berating his mates about choosing a "lovely, warm race in California" to do. At that moment, lovely was a apt adjective; warm was absolutely not. After going a short ways, the guys noticed us running behind them and teased us about drafting off them. I told them that they had such great butts that we just couldn't pull away. They let us stay behind them. :-)  And, their asses weren't half bad.

Julie and I pose with the pianist by Bixby Bridge.

The coolest part of the race was coming up on the Bixby Bridge at the halfway point. It is the iconic bridge that represents Big Sur to me. The legendary grand piano is parked there attached to loud speakers that allowed us to hear the music long before we got to the bridge.


At mile 15, I lost Julie due to a miscommunication at a portapotty stop. I spent some time trying to find her, but finally had to accept that we had missed each other somehow and took off. At this point, I pushed to the finish line. Around mile 20, I was thrilled to see that based on my Garmin, I was on track to run a 4:10, much better than I expected on this course. Woo hoo! Much to my chagrin, the official posted time was 4:22. What?? How could it have been so far off? Then, I realized that I had my watch set to auto pause when I stopped. Ha! Twelve minutes of photo opportunities and potty breaks.

This race was everything I expected it to be! It is definitely up among my top 10 favorites.