As I sat down to write this I was searching for my blog about my sprint triathlon in April so I had some comparisons and more meat for the blog. I suddenly realized I had not blogged about the previous sprint, only my olympic distance in Tempe. Shame on me. What a great event that sprint was and I failed to capture the days events.
Oh well... I do remember it was my first official triathlon event since 2012. I remember the very nervous feeling I had about being cold on the bike after the swim. I remember thinking I felt very prepared. I had swam a lot leading up to it, I had ridden the course several times I had run the course and I had done the bricks necessary to let my body know when it was time to make the various changes and to adapt from one to the other. I was ready. The event went well. My husband also participated in the event and as always he is waiting for me at the finish. I suppose that is the bonus in being slower than him. He is there to greet me with open arms and a big hug and a "'ata girl!". This time was going to be a bit different. I had great intentions of riding the course a few times and running the route again, after all it was a wee bit warmer and a wee bit more humid. Monsoon season has rolled in. This has hindered some of the training I wanted to get in but not much. My training was mostly put on the back burner due to long work hours and a last minute trip to Austin to take our son to his new job. I packed run gear and swim gear just in case I could fit in a workout but they didn't happen. I did some stair workouts taking his things to his new apartment and we kayaked Lady Bird Lake. By the end of the weekend my calves, quads, laterals, triceps and biceps got in a few good reps. I hoped that would help. When we got home the sprint was only 6 days away.
I had done some swimming and cycling since my last event but the run was pretty non-existant over the last few months. I did have a couple track workouts that were off the chart fast for me so I was hoping this would help improve my run.
July's sprint triathlon came up pretty quickly. I had held off registering for it until I knew if my hubs was going to be able to participate in it as well. I was hoping to register us together. I was fully prepared to sign us both up or as like to refer to it: buy us flowers. He has recently had some skin cancer removed from his temple area and the doctor told him to not get in the water until it healed. Well it wasn't healing and finally the doctor said "no swimming" so I was left to sign up myself. While it is awesome having him cheer for me on the side of the road, I know he has a tough time being a cheerleader and not a participant. I would feel the same way. Once you do a triathlon it is so hard to just watch one.
Packet pick-up came up before I knew it. I was mentally not ready for it to be here already. The one thing that helped get me pumped up about the event was that I had 4 other co-workers who were also doing the event. I love seeing my co-workers embrace SBR. It makes for fun chatter around the office. 3 of us gathered together and went to pick up our race packets during our lunch. When we arrived another of our co-workers had just arrived to pick up his packet. What a fun moment to pep talk with everyone.
I decide at that time that I would ride my bike to the start. It seemed like the sensible thing to do.I had done a few bike swim bikes from the house to the pool so I knew it was a short route. This would help me also in providing a warm up. I always say I am going to warm up but then I get so lost in the morning gathering of athletes I forget to warm up. Riding to the event was the perfect warm up but... ...it was early!
I had to wake at 3:30 am in order to get up in time to eat, get dressed and get to the transition area in time.
The event started at 5:30. We had to "beat the heat". They start the swim based on the slowest swimmer to the fastest allowing some spacing in between. There were around 170 participants. I was #50 in the water. They marked my arms and my left leg with #50 and my right calf said 47, my birth year age. This has been put on my leg 3 times this year now I feel like I am already 47 and I won't be until September. After a pre -race meeting and the National Anthem, we headed to the pool. My Garmin had died so I was not going to be able to time my event myself. I watched the clock a few times in the water hoping to gauge my swim time. I had registered with a 18.5 swim time. I was in the water at 6:08. I felt great. I did not dive in like had the previous time. I remember that not boding well for me. I slowly got in and pushed off. My stroke felt good and before I knew it I was near the end of the lane with the person after me nearly at the other end. I thought I would have loads of space between me and swimmers the entire time. That didn't happen. I had to pass a few and I believe I was also passed a few times. The serpentine swim can be a bit nerve racking but thankfully it was on the long course and not the short. Finally I was out of the water. I thought I was close to 18.5 when I got out based on my average pace. I was a bit off. My swim time was: 19:50 almost 1.5 minutes slower than planned. This was, however, better than the April event when I had a 20:40 swim time. My transition went well. It was about 12 seconds faster than before. The bike is always my favorite part and despite the warmer weather it felt better. I had adjusted my clips since the last event. I passed several people and was definitely passed. Once by my friend Kristen Lodge. She is my idol. I want to ride fast like her. Maybe it is her awesome tri bike or her aerodynamic helmet. It could be that she is taller than me and most importantly just finished training for and completing Ironman Texas. Whatever is, I want to be like her. My husband was along the road at the part I find to be the toughest. It was great having him there cheering me on, both loops. Everyone else loved it too. The one thing we love as triathletes is cheering spectators. I hope this course gets more of them as it gains popularity. The route is great, The race director's are awesome. The sponsors and volunteer are outstanding. We just need more spectators! I round the corner and made it into transition and surprisingly my bike time was about 30 seconds slower than before. So odd since it felt much faster. My T2 was a tad slower than before as well. again by about 30 seconds. I remember the run from the previous event feeling very hard in the transition even after the bricks I had done. Not this time. I didn't even walk as much as last time. I thought that the track workouts were going to pay off. My husband made it over to the run course to cheer me through it. Since I didn't have my Garmin I had asked him what time it was and was running and calculating in my head. I hoped to do better than the sprint before had been. On the run, I passed my co-workers and RACE Tucson team members up and down the run, both laps. Many high fives were shared by all. It was such a great run. My run time ended up at 36:39.90 and that is just a wee better than the previous 36:58.6....crazy. I swore I had kicked it in the teeth. My friend reminded me that although I had not had a large difference in time I had to remember that it was much hotter than before so 30 second is still faster and that, I will gladly take. As I came around the corner I kicked in my finishing stride as I always do and always thinking "why can't I do this on the run?".
I was done. I finished.
At the time I had no idea what my finishing times were. We waited for them to be posted. We took pictures with my co-workers which happened the same time my RACE Tucson teammates were gathering. Darn, second event, second missed team photo. Oh well. They looked great! We had about 21 participants many of whom placed in the top three of their age group. My friend Kristen was one of them. She took second in our age group. I can boastfully say that I did beat her on the swim, so I have that little mental trophy. My teammates are all amazing. I hope to learn lots from them. I am glad to call them friends. What a great community of people. A couple of my co-workers are also on my team. How extra fun is that? Race resultes were in. Much to my surprise it said i had PR'd by 12 minutes and that my T2 was 47 seconds. I was on cloud 9. I couldn't believe it. I knew I had felt faster. I thought I had just done something amazing but it was all too good to be true. The timing program had thrown a few errors and they had to see where the issue was in the timing. Apparently it was before my time and my time wasn't my time after all.
Our official time were finally in that afternoon. Not as exciting as originally posted.
I still PR'd ....by 7 seconds. I'll take it! That night our RACE Team gathered downtown for a bit of food and camaraderie. It was an evening of good conversation and food. The best part was the ride home when my husband surprised me that he signed us up for Oceanside 70.3! A race I wanted to do but it had sold out very quickly. I wrote it off as race to do until 2017.
I am so excited to do this event. Oceanside is the location of the first triathlon and this event is the original 70.3 distance triathlon. I will be doing it with my hubs. We are working on training plans and nutrition changes.
My friend Kristen would like me to blog about the journey so I will do my best to post as I go along. My daughter did kindly remind me. "Two halves don't make a whole" referring to my Boulder 70.3 in 2012 and comparing it to her dad's Ironman AZ finish in 2011. She is right but I have to eat this elephant one bite at at time. The countdown begins to April 2nd, 2016!
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Victoria "Torie" GrammarJust your average Mom and Friend who found a love for the swim, bike, and run. Archives
January 2023
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