Race Report: USAT Collegiate Club National Championships 2016

[Day 116]

Wow. Where do I start with this one?

I went to nats with my team and it was a blast! I am really happy with how I did. Officially speaking my time was slightly slower than at my last Olympic distance race (Cyman) but given the fact that the transition area was larger/longer and the run wasn't really true to distance (it was a quarter to a half mile too long, kind of hard to tell specifically based on watch GPS data alone) and the fact that the course was tougher (trade wind on the bike at Cyman for hills here and add a bit of terrain on the run), I definitely see my performance as an improvement over the fall.

Pre-race happenings: Thursday was a rest and travel day. Travel went pretty smooth, we ate dinner at an Olive Garden where I had an absolutely atrocious amount of breadsticks and salad. We got to the hotel sort of late but I got a decent night's sleep on account of having nowhere to be in the morning. On Friday, the girls spent the morning getting breakfast, hunting down coffee, hitting up a Walmart for some race day essentials (breakfast foods, sunscreen, shampoo, etc.), and studying at our hotel because we're all still students with school to worry about. We hit the course in the afternoon for packet and bike pick up and did a short shake out run and a warm up swim. It was raining in the afternoon so our swim times got pushed to later in the afternoon and we got to watch the delayed start of the high school race, which was pretty cool. My swim felt particularly fantastic, it was a 750 m on the draft legal course and the temperature and my wetsuit both felt great which was a huge confidence booster. We opted out of the pasta dinner run by USAT and found a nice Thai place instead, where everyone loaded up on noodles and/or rice. Then it was home for some chilling before a nice early bedtime for a 5 am wake up on race morning.

Race morning: We got up at 5 am, ate, prepped, did fun things like put our race tattoos on (Juhi put one of hers on backwards, which was hilarious), and rolled out for the course around 6 am. I didn't get the best sleep overnight, but knowing that I had decent rest in the week leading up to the race meant I didn't worry too much about night before rest. Transition set up was pretty simple, my spot was in a row directly in front of the bike/swim entrances and towards the very back of the row near the bike/run exits so I was prepared to do a lot of running on the swim and bike in. I chose not to get in the water for the early swim warm up because I didn't want to get in and back out again. Breakfast was two whole wheat bagels with cream cheese and a banana. Pre-race nutrition involved a bottle of Nuun, mostly consumed in the car around 6 am with a little bit saved to take with the three Shot Bloks I had around 15 minutes prior to my wave start.

Swim: I was wave two and the girls were allowed in the water after wave one had gone off for an in water start, so I was able to try and get acclimated to the water temperature. I got a spot at the front of the pack and waited for the gun to go off. I was surprised by how many fast girls there were in my heat, I'm used to being in a pretty good place in the swim in most races and the number of girls ahead of me surprised me. Nonetheless, it didn't take very long to get into a good bit of open water and just do my swimming.

On the way out on the single lap loop, I thought I was straying a little too far in because the rest of the pack was a little further out, but my Garmin suggests that the course I took was fine and I believe it. I sort of struggled in the earlier two thirds of the swim. It was cold and I really felt like I couldn't catch my breath. I knew I was drawing in regular and big breaths though and to keep me from freaking out I was breathing 3-2-3-2 instead of every 3. I briefly entertained the notion of turning over onto my back and getting myself calmed down before I continued but I realized that I could deal with the discomfort of mild panic and just push through and finish. I couldn't guarantee how I was doing and how fast I was swimming, but I could focus on making the best of it, so I did. Eventually things settled down and I felt much better on the way back in.

I got out of the water in a decent time, 24:38 which was an improvement over Cyman, although I was in a wetsuit this race (sleeveless BlueSeventy Reaction) which I'm sure made a huge difference. I wasn't too happy with where I was mentally at during the swim, not because of the little bit of panic but more because of the negativity that it sort of led to. Once I calmed down a bit, I was really worried that the swim had gone really poorly and I was disappointed before I even really knew what was going on. I really want to try and curb negative thinking like that during races because it really doesn't help anyone. In any case, once I was through T1 and got a look at the time, I knew the swim hadn't gone as badly as I thought and I was able to redirect my focus and worry about putting in the best bike split I could. I turned it around, but in the future the less turning around I have to do the better.

T1: I'm always surprised by how breathless I am on the T1 run, but that's just something I mentally brace myself for and try to get through as calmly as possible. The run was a short uphill into the transition zone. I feel like I fumbled around a lot more than I typically do in T1, but it wasn't a slow transition compared to a lot of the field so I feel okay about it.

Bike: I got out on the bike course with the goal of hitting an 18-19 mph average. It started out fine but then I found that the rollers on this course were way more than what I was expecting to find. I decided that I wanted to do the best I could and hammered the course harder than I usually would have knowing that there could be consequences down the road on the run. I figured it was worth it to go for it. It was a two lap course that was very scenic through these forested roads with one climb that I had to use my small ring for and a second slightly smaller climb that I could have powered up in my big ring but opted to small ring anyways because I didn't want to blow my legs out. There were also some fun descents on this, I hit 35 mph at one point and it was glorious.

The entire time, I had my eyes peeled for Juhi (in my heat) and Connie (in the heat ahead of me). I never saw Connie but I did catch a glimpse of Juhi on my second lap and knew that she was probably closing on my lead from the swim but couldn't get a great sense of how much ahead I was keeping. I realized though that I might have a chance to finish ahead of her and that gave me a bit of a new push. Also near the turn around and transition area, the boys had set themselves up on course and cheered for me every time I passed, which was really sweet and fun and helped put a little bit of kick into my speed on that particular flat.

I felt like the mental bits of the bike were a little strange. Sometimes people would pass me and it would get me fired up and I would chase them down and sometimes I just settled back behind another girl and decided that whatever pace that was happened to be okay for me. It was strange. I think I had a good sense for how hard was too hard and was willing to ride my own race, which is why I had sort of weird non-uniform reactions to the things going on around me with regards to the other girls, but it was interesting for me to see that in action because usually the races I'm in aren't that dense with other people in my age group. In any case, I came out of the bike a tad slower than I had hoped, but given that the ride was definitely hillier than what I was used to, I'm really happy with that pace for that course.

T2: Was so long. That's all I have to say. I'm not great at running with my bike in tow and the sheer distance I had to run with my bike made me not a happy camper.

Run: I'm not a fan of two lap runs. I like being able to just zone out on the run until I get to the finish, turning around for multiple laps always makes me feel like a small part of my soul is dying. The course was strange because they laid it out in such a way that we had a bunch of 180 turns to make, which was odd. It could have been flatter but what terrain there was wasn't that bad and I won't complain about that. I will, however, complain about the fact that the course was definitely set too long, even taking into account the general mistakes that GPS watches make...I definitely played pace by my watch even though I knew that wasn't going to end up being accurate given the course and just set myself the goal of staying under 9:00 mile pace by my watch. (Which I did manage to do! My watch gave me a final average run pace of 8:43.)

The first lap felt really good. The course opens onto a flat followed by a downhill and I didn't have any issues with jelly legs or anything weird like that (I like running off the bike). I felt pretty good most of that lap but when we got around to lap two, I was really feeling myself slow down and I had to really proactively think about keeping my cadence high and keeping that pace going. I took the first lap pretty conservatively and upped the effort on the second lap, although it really did feel more like I was just hanging on rather than pushing in any meaningful way on that second lap. I took a bit of water at every aid station (hit four in total) and although I was starting to feel the heat towards the end of the race, the weather conditions really were pretty perfect and I didn't have any core temp issues at all.

The run was fun because I got to see the other girls on it. We made a point of high fiving when we passed each other and it was good to have a sense of how I was doing in relation to Connie and Juhi. Again, knowing where I was and that I was in a position to possibly be the fastest female finisher on the team really kept me going. All the other competitors were really nice too. It was great to hear words of encouragement from the faster girls passing me on the course and to be able to pass that forward when I passed other girls on the course as well. (Speaking of which, this is the first race at which I've passed a significant number of people on the bike and/or run. Usually races are one of attrition for me: Get out quick on the swim, try and finish before literally everyone else passes me. But I held my own alright on the bike and run and I'm proud of that.) There were also lots of random teammates lining the road cheering, not just for their own team but also everyone else. It was always nice to hear things like "Looking good WashU! Keep it up WashU!". I should just change my name lol. The boys were still on course during my first run lap and I really enjoyed getting yelled at by them too.

Biggest cheering shout out of the day though definitely goes to Molly. The way the course was set up, we had to run up a low grade but somewhat prolonged hill into a straightaway into a turn into the finish. I had just come out of that hill and was struggling because it was the end of the run and it was one of those points where I'm sure my face made it really obvious that I was hurting. Molly saw me while she was starting her second lap of the course on the other side of the road and yelled a bunch of things I don't think I really processed, but I knew she was cheering me on and it gave me the kick I needed to get myself down that final stretch.

As I made the turn into the finish chute, there was a girl probably just a few meters behind me whose mom was yelling at her to pass me. I wouldn't have even known she was there had her mom not tipped me off, so as soon as I heard that, I picked it up and sprinted into the finish. I did manage to stay ahead of her, which made me really proud. I was also surprised at my finish time. I thought with the longer swim and the non-spectacular bike due to the hills and the sheer length of transitions that for sure I would've been a 1:55 or slower so it was a really pleasant surprise to have done better than that.

Here are my finish details:

Garmin Numbers:

• Swim: 1860 yards, 26:51, 1:27 average pace, definitely totally not accurate because I started the watch about 20 seconds before the actual start (in water) and didn't remember to hit it again until I had run up halfway through transition
• T1: 1:26.6, again, inaccurate because I hit it halfway through the run in and didn't make the bike transition until I was already out and moving steadily on the bike course
• Bike: 24.82 mi, 1:25:42, 17.4 mph average, 1,437 elevation gain
• Bike speed splits by 5 mi: 18.8, 17.1, 17.3, 16.3, 17.6 (fell off as time went on, have to work on maintaining that bike speed consistency - I struggle with climbs in particular later on in the biking portion)
• Run: 6.61 mi, 57:33, 8:43 average pace, 180 spm average cadence (yaaaaaas this number is soooo good)
• Run pace splits by mile: 8:17, 8:34, 8:55, 8:45, 8:50, 8:53, 8:46
• Total time: 2:53:31

Concluding thoughts about the race: I'm glad to see the training has paid off. Even though it wasn't really reflected in that finish time, I think it's reflected in my standing overall (I was definitely expecting a finish somewhere in the 250-300 range so to have come in at 211 is really amazing) and in how well I managed to ride on a course that was tougher than what I was used to and how solid I felt on the run given a much quicker pace than what I did in Cyman (by my Garmin numbers of course). Something that I loved was how the entire lead up to this race Henry kept reminding me over and over again that I had done enough and that I was in a good place to put together a race that I was proud of, and I wasn't sure I believed him. Now that it's over, it's good to see that he was right. I did do enough, I did put together a race I'm really proud of, that is super super cool.

It's really cool to see myself improving but I also recognize that there's a lot for me to improve on still. I feel like I can be better across all the disciplines, swimming included. I'd like to be a better climber on the bike, I'd like to be a faster runner in general, I'd like to continue improving on my swim endurance. Racing is great because it brings everything I want to improve on into focus. There's a lot there that I think I can work on (leg strength/power, swim technique, core strength/stability, sustaining higher aerobic loads, base because you can never have too much base, etc. etc.) and what it'll come down to is whether or not I have the time and want to commit myself to a whole new slew of goals. I'm going to race Wildflower and finish off my semester and give myself some time to figure out where I'm going and what it is what I want out of this sport moving forward.

All in all, I'm really glad I did that. It was a huge honour to race with some of the best in the country and I felt like I held my own on that course amongst a lot of phenomenally talented athletes. I'm really proud of how my race went and the entire weekend did what racing always does for me: it makes me want to get after it more. I always have a hard time with training because I spend so much time feeling so much pressure to improve but once I'm on the race course I always feel so free just doing what I've prepared myself to do. That's amazing. That's my favourite part of racing. It's this great opportunity to show off what's gone into your preparation and that's a pretty special occasion. I am simultaneously terrified and super excited to get to do this again this upcoming weekend at Wildflower.

Post-race: After getting a super cold wet towel thrown over me to cool me down (fun finish line fact: I definitely remember looking up as I was coming down the chute and seeing the medical personnel lined up at the finish and thinking, yes if I collapse at the end there'll be people to take care of me xD), I hung out with the girls and cheered the rest of the women's team in while drinking huge amounts of Gatorade and eating free food (they had Southern fare, baked beans and pulled pork and corn muffins). Then we went back to the hotel, showered and changed, and came back out to cheer on the boys. We hit up Cook Out on the way and I got myself chicken strips which were exactly what I needed at that moment. Once we were back at the venue, I went out onto the run course to bring them in while everyone else went to the finish line. It was great to see the boys out there doing their thing but it was also a little bit soul-crushing to watch. The day had heated up significantly because of their later start time and the struggles were very very visible. I texted Henry and told him that watching these guys compete made me feel like throwing up because it honestly just looked so tough. 

After the boys finished, a small group of us took off a little bit earlier because one of my teammates was catching an earlier flight out than the rest of the group, so our car headed to the airport early. I spent a couple hours at the airport, chugging iced coffee and getting some work done. I had a super greasy burger and sweet potato fries for dinner which was every brand of glorious. Two flights and a very kind car ride home from one of my teammates later, I was finally back in my own bed. (One of the boys brought up how we had probably used more modes of transportation that day than we ever had in the past: walking/running, swimming, biking, car, MetroLink, and airplane.) 

Yesterday was Sunday and I just slept and did work and ate plenty of food all day (which involved making two pasta bake casserole things and a tray of blueberry muffins which will be my only sustenance for this week). Today I'll take an easy run (goal is about 4 miles at 9-10 min mile pace, nothing specific really, just shake things out and see how it feels) in the afternoon after a pretty long school day that will hopefully involve getting some productive work done. Neuro midterm on Thursday as well as a lot of life responsibilities and other things going on this week. Will have to bust my ass to clear up everything related to school this week so I can go to Wildflower and have some more fun tri-ing in California! Happy Monday everyone!

Much love,

Jess

The home stretch

[Day 112]

I've been spending the week trying to keep my life together. Less training hours for sure but also a lot of school work and wedding related tasks has kept me really busy. Not an excuse to not have been here logging, but oh well. Let's get caught up.

4/16 Saturday: Rest day

4/17 Sunday: Open water swim practice with Brian C. in Rolla, MO
Summary: 2696 yards, 1:07:22, some laps of the lake punctuated by sitting around on rocks and chatting. I touched a fish with my hand for the first time. It was in a quarry generally used for scuba diving, which is pretty cool.
Lap paces: 1:38, 1:38, 1:32, 1:34, 1:38, 1:35 for the efforts
Hit Rate: 106/116 (91.3%)

4/18 Monday AM Workout: Spin biking at the gym (b/c my bike is gone...)
Summary: 23.60 mi (hahahahahahahahaha sure spin bike computer...), 1:00:36, 23.4 mph
Hit Rate: 107/117 (91.4%)

4/18 Monday PM Workout: Rec swim, punctuated by lots of conversation w/ Jeremy lol
Summary:

• WU: 600 as 150 swim/50 kick
• Main set: straight through unless indicated
• 4 x 50 free @ :50
• 3 x 200 free @ 2:50
• 100 easy
• (break)
• 4 x 50 free @ :50
• 3 x 150 free @ 2:10
• 50 easy 
• (break)
• 4 x 50 IMO @ :55
• 3 x 100 IM @ 1:40
• (break, that was supposed to be free but I decided I wanted to swim IM so I did)
• 8 x 75 free pull @ 1:15 (no paddles)
• WD: 200 choice easy
• Total Distance: 3500 SCY (~1:10)

Hit Rate: 108/118 (91.5%)

4/19 Tuesday: AM run

Summary: 5.02 mi, 44:09, 8:47 pace, 179 spm

Pace splits by mile: 8:43, 8:51, 8:53, 8:44, 8:45

Hit Rate: 109/119 (91.5%)

4/20 Wednesday: Tri team practice w/ Brian, showed up without a plan, sort of did whatever

Summary:

• WU: 4 x 200 as SKIP
• Main Set:
• 4 x 100 free @ 1:30
• 4 x 50 free kick w/ board @ 1:00
• 5 x 200 free
• 2 @ 3:05
• 2 @ 3:00
• 1 MAX
• WD: 200 easy
• Total Distance: 2600 SCY (~50 mins)

Hit Rate: 110/120 (91.6%)

The general trend the past couple of days has been feeling not super great on the workouts but churning out decent paces given what that felt like. The run on Tuesday felt particularly rough, maybe because I was hungry going into it, and although it wasn't a super quick run, it wasn't a super slow one either so it turned out fine. Same thing with the 200s at practice yesterday, didn't feel great, but for the effort that I was putting in I was really happy with what I was splitting. So...things are going okay I think?

Today is off (travel day!), tomorrow will be whatever on course training and shake out workouts we choose to do as a team, Saturday is race day! Wish me luck!

Much love,

Jess

I have a lot of feelings.

[Day 46]

Fun facts: I don't handle myself very well. It takes a lot for me to be satisfied with myself and okay days or even good days generally don't make that mark. I had a rough time this morning at the gym and I'm still figuring out where I am given that. I wasn't as mentally present as I like to be, but sometimes it's just hard to be fully mentally present at 5 am and I'm willing to cut myself some degree of slack for that. The problem though is that I think honestly I've been falling back on Henry a lot these past couple days, I've really let him take the mental burdens for me because it's so much easier than stepping up and taking responsibility for my own efforts. As much as I know that having him around makes me better in a lot of ways, I also know I'm doing myself a disservice if I let that become an excuse for me to be less tough on myself because I know he'll pick up the slack. I wasn't 100% there and 100% committed this morning and I don't like that.

I definitely also totally psyched myself out this morning. I had such a mind-blowingly great lift on Thursday and to me all of that was from the kick I got from getting to take that lift fed and in the evening when my body was warm and ready to go. It scared me so hard to be getting back into the gym this morning because I felt the weight of wanting to hit those numbers again but knowing that I was going back to being fasted and cold. I was telling Henry about this on the way out there, some people feel a lot of pressure going into races/events, but I typically don't. I mean don't get me wrong, I get nervous and I'm hungry to do well but I think everything that I can possibly control about the race is already out of my hands. I build those races in the months that lead up to it and the day of is just a matter of execution and the right kind of luck because there are always race circumstances that are out of your control. But I feel pressure every day that I'm training, every time I lace up to run and every time I clip in on the trainer and every time I dive in the pool and every time I get under a bar at the gym, I feel so much pressure because those moments are what are going to make or break my races and every single workout feels so valuable and so important and so heavy sometimes. It sucks to fall short in those contexts, it really does, and that's where I feel the nerves and the pressure the most.

One of the things I've noticed about my benching especially is that what's going through my head on my first rep normally has a way of determining how the rest of the set goes. I've been trying really hard to tell myself that it's easy weight on that first rep, I just repeat that to myself over and over no matter how that first rep actually feels because I know it makes a difference in how many I end up being able to hit. I think today I was expecting everything to be harder because of the whole being fasted/cold thing and I think it definitely played into me not performing quite like I wanted to be. I'm bad at the mental game and I hate that because it seems like such a simple thing to fix. Just don't think like this. It's frustrating today.

The other things worth noting today are that I had a pretty rough morning post-workout. I felt fine immediately afterwards but after about an hour and getting some food into my system, I felt genuinely awful. I ended up taking about an hour nap just in Henry's lap on the couch trying to get put back together and I've been doing much better since, especially after lunch. It was not the start to my day I wanted though. I also sort of felt shitty because Henry was obviously going about his life being a perfectly functional normal human being but I was such a mess. It was just one of those situations where I felt awful for not being able to pull it together and just suck it up and be normal because someone who literally did the exact same workout as I did this morning happened to be sitting next to me and was perfectly fine. That's the kind of thing that makes me feel weak in an extra special way. -Sigh-

I should also comment on the swim meet yesterday. It was meant to be a dual meet with the SLU club team, but they dropped out due to weather (it was snowing yesterday) so we ended up holding a time trial instead. My swims were super slow, but also I was getting like a couple minutes between each swim so what was I expecting really. Regardless, it was a blast. I love racing, like deep down at the core of who I am I love racing. It didn't matter that the context was a casual time trial, my body goes places it would never go in practice when I'm racing and I love that feeling so much. There was a distinct point in the third 50 of my 200 free when literally everything in my body hurt and I was just like, awwwwwwww yes this is what I live for and I dug a bit deeper. Which made me feel sort of like a total weirdo, but hey, it's what I love to do. So I'm going to summarize yesterday and today!

Yesterday's Workout: WUSTL Swim Club Time Trial
Summary:

• Meet Warm Up:
• 200 free, 200 kick
• 8 x 50 sprint down/easy back 
• 8 x 25 IMO
• 2 x 25 breakouts off the blocks
• Swims: we were hand timing, so I don't have exact numbers
• 200 free: 2:20 low
• 100 back: 1:17 high
• 100 IM: 1:16 high
• 50 back: 35 mid
• WU/WD yardage: 350
• Total Distance: 1850 SCY (I counted this as 30 mins on my Garmin)

Hit Rate: 49/52 (94.2%)

Today's Workout: AM Lift w/ Henry

Summary:

• Back squats: WU 12 @ 65#, working 5 x 8/8/8/6-2 @ 105#, 1 x 8 @ 95#
• Flat bench: WU 12 @ 55#, working 3 x 8/8/6-2 @ 85#
• Deadlifts: 3 x 8 @ 125#
• Pulldowns: 4 x 12/12/9-3/12 @ 7 plates alt. wide/narrow grip
• Legs giant set: 3 x 
• Goblet squats: 15 @ 45#
• Weighted split squats: 15/side @ 15# DBs/side (these got split pretty heavily, they were real rough)
• Reverse lunges: 15/side @ 15# DBs/side
• Superset: 3 x
• BB push press: 12 @ 45#
• BB row: 12 @ 45#
• Superset: 3 x 
• Bicep curls: 12/side @ 15# (I should like probably be doing more weight but I'm always afraid I'm going to destroy my wrists or something...)
• Skull crushers: 12 @ 15# (I think I normally do these a bit lighter but it was fun to try and get through these at this weight. It was hard, I didn't do a great job, had to break them up a lot and had Henry spot quite a few of them, but it was fun to try.)

Hit Rate: 50/53 (94.3%)

The only note I have to say about this is that I repeated the set I did with Fay that one time, but after having back squatted already and subbing normal squats in for goblet squats and I would like to say that this set will f*ck you up. I honestly didn't even push super hard today because my brain was just not in it, but I can almost guarantee you that if you do this right and really fight to get the reps in consecutively it's the kind of metabolic work that would make you vomit. I'm gonna keep working at this, I wanna be fit enough that this set at this weight gets easy.

Okay end long post/rant. Need to get back to studying for physio. Happy Monday! (:

Much love,

Jess

Race Report: Hot Chocolate 15k (St. Louis)

The journey to the start line of this race was tumultous to say the least. Some burnout and an injury (plantar fasciitis) meant that I hadn't been consistently training for about an entire month prior to the race and the lack of fitness was finely evidenced by my finish time. Despite that, however, I'm glad I decided to run the race. It was one of the toughest things that I've done in a while (it turns out being in shape makes races feel considerably less difficult) and I always think it's good to be tested mentally. Not to mention I did really enjoy myself and the break from a long weekend of studying for finals.

It wasn't too early of a morning, a 7:30 am gun time meant I could get up around 5:45 and be comfortable early to the race still. The weather was warm over the weekend which was nice, I wasn't worried about what I should be wearing, shorts and a t-shirt would do the trick. Since I wasn't taking the race very seriously, I also didn't take things like nutrition very seriously. I ate half a Clif Bar and drank some Nuun (had some Nuun the night before as well to get those electrolytes in, I usually prefer the potassium loaded kind of Vitamin Water but I hadn't prepped any in advance so I settled for Nuun) at home, then headed out. I got there with plenty of time to spare to use the restrooms and get my bag checked. I also had 3 Shot Bloks about a half hour before the race, instead of the typical gel and half a bottle of water or Vitamin Water 15 minutes out. Again, wasn't taking it very seriously.

I was lucky enough to be in a preferred corral, so I was able to start with the first wave which opened up very quickly and allowed me to be actually running right from the get go. I hung around the 9:00 minute mile pace pacer for the first 5 or so miles. She was running with another woman and I sort of hovered around them and listened to their conversations. Turns out she got into running also from a competitive swimming to triathlon transition (and she's now an Ironman!) and she recently had a child and has just been getting back into training seriously. She was a pretty sweet person, it was nice to run near those ladies for the first half of the race. I did, however, get dropped soon after that.

The goal going into the race was to try and hit around 9:00 pace and keep it comfortable in the first half and then depending on how I felt, either try to negative split the second half or just try and hold onto the pace for the finish. (Just note that my average pace for the half marathon a month prior was around 8:22, so this was quite a bit slower of a day.) I did well to stay on that pace the first 5 miles and honestly felt really good for about 4.5 of them, then things started falling apart. Those initial splits (according to my Garmin, which did blip in and out a bit on some miles downtown because of the buildings) were 8:53, 8:40, 8:41, 8:59, 8:55. Oh also I should note that it started raining about 5-10 minutes before the start and continued to lightly rain during the remainder of the race. It also got real windy during some segments which was rough. I found myself trying to tuck in behind small groups to get out of the wind, to mixed effectiveness.

After mile 5, things just sort of started coming apart. The lack of fitness was really starting to show and I started feeling really exhausted and running real slow. Towards the end, the route is the same one that the finish of the Rock 'n' Roll half uses, and I remember feeling terrible towards the end of that race as well but I was able to maintain form and pace then whereas this time it was all I could do to just keep putting one foot in front of the other. There were many times around mile 7 when I thought maybe I just wouldn't be able to do it. At this point, my pace had dropped off by so much that a huge stream of people were just flying by me which was really demoralizing. All I could do was tell myself to keep putting one foot in front of the other. I just had to make it to the finish. It didn't have to be fast, but I wasn't going to let the distance beat me. So I slogged up and down the small hills in the last few miles and eventually made it to the finish. I was pretty disappointed by how the second half of the race went, but I didn't quit on it and I made it to the end, which was what counted. The pace splits were 9:23, 9:28, 9:57, 10:10, 10:32 (for the last ~0.3 mi).

All in all, this was where my performance landed me:

Some thoughts about the race:

• I'm glad that I didn't hurt my foot any worse. It got slightly aggravated towards the end of the race (uphills and downhills especially seem to be what's hard on my feet) but actually bounced back fairly quickly after the race. I'm a week out now and my foot feels perfectly normal again which is a huge blessing. 
• I'm really glad I decided to just go for it. I feel like it's important to race just for the sake of racing sometimes, without pressure for a PR or whatever. I've always been a big believer that frequent low-pressure racing is important to success because it normalizes the race environment and helps manage achievement-related expectations. I think this day really proved that point and will be a helpful experience for when I find myself in slightly higher stakes situations.
• It was really cool to see first hand the huge difference that the training makes. I had run a race at what felt like a very high effort that during a regular portion of my training block would be shorter and around the same pace as my typical weekly long run. In-season fitness is an amazing thing. My half marathon just a month prior was more than 3.5 miles longer than this race and it was faster by almost 1:00 per mile. The training makes a huge difference.
• At the same time, it was cool to see how for my baseline fitness has come since I started running. Turns out I'm capable of more at my baseline untrained level than I thought was possible. When I first started running, 3 miles at an easy effort was hard when I was untrained. Given that, I'm very impressed by the fact that I was able to run 15k continuously. Even with the pace drop off, I was able to average a somewhat decent speed (by my standards) so I'll take it.
• It's a great thing to do something that is mentally difficult. There's more than just good training behind successful races, you also have to have the mental coping skills to back up that fitness in a racing environment. I feel like that's a skill that I lack sometimes and have really needed to work on, both in a day-to-day training sort of way and in a racing environment sort of way. Being challenged physically is one thing, but being challenged mentally and having to rise above the sense of disappointment and discouragement I felt from being much slower than I knew I could be and struggling more than I thought I should be was really valuable. Proving to myself that I can get through those thoughts and be better than that kind of negativity was really special and I know that experience will make me better in the long run. 

Comments on race environment and management:

• The race is spectacularly organized. It was smaller than Rock 'n' Roll but was very friendly, very orderly, and very professional. 
• The swag is great, as is the hot chocolate and free post-race snacks.
• Having a chocolate bar shaped medal is pretty cool. 
• If you're considering registering for this race as a winter training carrot, definitely do it, it's a great experience.
• There were a lot of small children running (both the 5k and the 10k!) which I thought was amazing. Run as a family! It's good for everyone!

I also want to share what the training has looked like between Rock 'n' Roll and this race. I had about one good week of resting and recovery, three weeks of decent (not fantastic) training, and then about four weeks off for various reasons. I'm going to start sharing these for the rest of the races I prepare for as well, just because it'll be interesting to go back and see how performance lines up with training. Usually I expect this will go along well with my "hit rate" measure, which I stopped keeping track of for this cycle because it was clearly not going to be a serious training cycle, but I will pick back up with in the new year.

That's all I've got for now! I haven't actually done any form of physical activity since that race. I've intended to, but finals week was happening and now I'm trying to reassemble my life so I can go home for winter break with my apartment not in an abysmal condition. I'm also trying to get some other things in my life (e.g. I'm playing around with a new plan for tackling studying next semester) sorted out right now so that I can hit the ground running in 2016. I'm a big believer that you need to manipulate your environment in such a way that it maximizes your likelihood of succeeding, so I'm figuring out what adjustments I need to make in order to optimize the world around me so I can just do my thing when I get back.

It's been a great year! Happy holidays to everyone! (:

Much love,
Jess

Race Recap: Cyman Triathlon 2015

Last Sunday I went and raced my first Olympic-distance triathlon and the first collegiate conference race I've ever been to and it was FANTASTIC. Here's the day by day:

Friday: Took an afternoon 6 miler run, went fairly easy, it was hot and I wasn't trying to actually work out so much as just get my legs going. I don't normally do runs that distance this close to a race, but I had been feeling sort of sluggish all week and I wanted to get in a little bit more. Really I just wasn't confident that the taper was doing the right thing for me. I know we're always told to trust in the taper, but I have a hard time with that, and I figured 6 easy miles weren't going to ruin anything for me so I went for it. It definitely still felt sluggish, but I came out of it with a bit more confidence in at least my ability to finish. The numbers: 6.11 miles, 58:47, 9:37 pace.

Saturday: Henry had arrived late on Friday and we got loaded up and ready to go nice and early on Saturday. Molly drove us and we got into Ames, IA around 3:30 pm, picked up our race packets, and went to our homestay's house. For the most part I spend the day working (in the car, at our homestay's, etc.) because that's the med school life. Lunch had been Thai food (pho and a lot of egg rolls) at a random small town in Iowa and dinner was penne from Noodles and Company. All the carbs! We went to bed pretty early, around 9:30, for a 6:45ish alarm the next day.

Sunday: The race had a nice late 9:00 am start, but we did have about a 40 minute drive out to the venue so we left around 7:30 am. It's nice how routine race mornings feel to me now, I have a sense for how much I should eat (this time it was a bagel with cream cheese and a banana) and drink (half a bottle of water, most of a bottle of fruit punch Vitamin Water) before we leave and how I like my set up for transition and what I like to do pre-race (take a gel 15 minutes from the start, washed down with the remaining Vitamin Water, typical pre-swim warming up).

We were told the lake was 77F, but in reality it was probably closer to 67F, I think they just messed that up. It was wetsuit legal but since I thought it was warm, I opted not to use my wetsuit. It was an in water start and I was really cold waiting for the start, but in all honesty it would have still be too warm for the full sleeved wetsuit. I definitely think I'll have to invest in a sleeveless wetsuit because it is a disadvantage to be without one and there are going to be frequent weather conditions like in this race where the sleeveless would have probably been helpful.

The mass start was all the collegiate athletes, which meant it was predominantly male. I was really freaked out in the start, I got trapped between some huge dudes and it was quite intimidating. My swim was disappointing IMO, it was a 27 minute split for a mile and I think I really could have done better than that. The glare on the swim out was really bad though which made sighting almost impossible and in all honesty my swimming just hasn't been very en pointe lately. That's something I'm really going to try and hammer out in the late winter and early spring to make sure I'm capitalizing on my strengths in future races, especially when collegiate nationals comes around. I was the 5th girl out of the water, 19th (of 34) overall, which wasn't fantastic. I'm not used to getting dropped by the lead pack but that was what happened. I did come out of the water footsteps after two of my teammates though, so I took that as consolation and did my best to get ahead and stay ahead the rest of the race.

My transitions were fantastic this weekend, 59 seconds out of T1 and 34 seconds out of T2. Part of that was that the transition area was small, but I also genuinely think I was moving very well and I was very happy with that. The bike started off great and sort of faltered as time went on. The way out involved some tailwind and net elevation loss and I blasted through it. It was a two lap course and about halfway through the loop there was a turn into an uphill into a stretch that was straight into 9 mph headwind, which was a struggle. I got passed by a fair number of people, mostly on TT bikes but also one or two on road bikes, so I know I have room to improve and I can definitely still work on my biking strength. I finished on a 1:27:08, just under 17 mph, which I was okay with given the distance and the headwind. I do want to be faster and I definitely think I can be faster, so I'm just going to keep working.

What I enjoyed most about the ride though was that I really hammered the entire way. I went out at a hard effort and just kept pounding at it and I was much more bold with that effort than I thought I would be. I'm really proud of myself for committing to that and having the conviction that I was fit enough to push that sort of effort the entire race, I really do think it paid off.

The run was pretty good by my standards, especially given that I hadn't been running very much in the lead up to this race. It was under an hour, which was the goal (the reach goal was under 55 minutes, but I knew I was going to need a lot more training to get there). I split a 56:54 on a nice flat course and great weather conditions (despite the wind, it was a nice 57F air temperature wise which made for great racing weather). I felt way more relaxed the entire run than I imagined I would which I think was super key to the performance. I was also extremely consistent pace wise from mile to mile despite not having any indication of pace on my watch (I had it set to give me cumulative time only) which I was very happy with. Yes, it got rough towards the last few miles but that was more because I was trying to turn it up and squeeze a little more speed out of my legs than because I was faltering or anything. I had taken a gel in the last 5 miles of the bike and drank my entire Gatorade bottle and some water from my just water bottle so I was well fueled and well hydrated the entire run. Even though for the most part, it was people passing me on the run, I also passed one of my teammates, which I was very proud of seeing as I literally never pass people on the run.

All in all, I finished in 2:52:37 (27:00/00:59/1:27:08/00:34/56:54), which I thought was phenomenal. Getting the sub-3:00 finish in my first Olympic race made me really proud. It was a super fun race, I really tackled it with a sort of conviction and aggression I don't get from myself often, and everything went off without a hitch! I couldn't have asked for a better day or better first Olympic experience. I really loved the distance, I know that it would probably have been super brutal on a harder course (like the course I raced last weekend), but this is really the distance I want to train towards getting better and better at. Loved every moment!

The rest of the day was sort of a mess of driving and eating outrageous amounts of terrible (for you) but delicious (awwwww yeah) food. The things eaten: a butt ton of free bagels (with my leftover cream cheese) and a banana immediately post race, McDonald's for lunch (Big Mac meal, 6 chicken nuggets, iced tea), an ice cream bar from a rest stop, Pi's deep dish for dinner. Awwwww yeah. My MFM professor who has been lecturing us about healthy eating all semester would be so disappointed in me. But it was post-race! I deserved it!

In any case, we came home, I did some work while eating and watching primetime football and getting my legs rubbed out. Then it was getting ready for the week and sleeping!

Monday: Henry and I's second anniversary (yay!) and a rest day!

Tuesday: That's today! I was planning on going for a short 3 miler this morning but ended up Skyping home for like an hour. It was worth it to miss a recovery workout for some quality family time. The rest of my day is insanely busy so I'm probably not going to try and make it up or anything, will just let this one go, it doesn't hurt to take some extra post-race recovery.

Moving Forward: My next race is the Rock n Roll St. Louis Half Marathon which is just under 4 weeks from now. The plan is to take it easy this week (maybe slowly ramp up a bit towards the end of the week) and then go hard with the running for two weeks and take a week of taper (which also happens to be my midterm exam week). I do have a vague structure planned for workouts for the two key weeks but I really want to prioritize life and medical school right now above racing since I've put such a big emphasis on racing these past two months, so how well I stick to that will depend on how busy my schedule continues to be. The goal for Rock n Roll will just be to run the best race I can, get more experience, have some fun. I won't worry too much about the speed. Don't get me wrong: I'm going to race it. I'm just not going to put any pressure on myself in terms of goal times or anything.

Hit rates: I finished the training block in the lead up to last week's race at a 61/67 (91%) hit rate. That definitely reached my 90% goal (and crushed the 80% minimum I set for myself) and lo and behold! My races went great. I think this is a great way to think about training and the workouts that I hit or miss and is a nice easy metric that helps keep my anxiety levels down while allowing me to be realistic about balancing training with all the other things going on in my life. The next serious training cycle I get into, which probably won't be until the spring when I do the build up into nationals (which will hopefully be about a 3-4 month build), I will definitely use this system again to keep track of my progress. For now though, I'll step back and be a bit more relaxed about training and take some time to prioritize everything else like friends and school and generally taking care of myself while doing some road races to keep me going with the running.

Second summer/fall of triathlon racing = complete! Can't wait to see what the next year has in store. (:

Much love,
Jess

Back injury update, start of taper!

So after my redemption brick, my back injury got way worse and I ended up spending a week doing very minimal training and just trying to rest it off. The only workout I got in that week was a short trainer ride that back pain cut short. I got back on the train the week after though, despite continuing back pain, because I figured if it wasn't getting better or getting worse, I had nothing to lose by just trying to tough it out until the races. I also saw a doctor during that time period, who put me on some NSAIDs and referred me to PT, although my appointment isn't until next week so that's not looking to be helpful for a while.

The combination of getting back in the pool and NSAIDs seems to have helped and the back pain seems to be easing up day by day. What's important is that I can swim and bike and run on it fairly unencumbered for now and that's all I need to be able to race this weekend and next. I would give you the full rundown of workouts from the last week, but my med school life is mildly insane and I don't really have the time for all the details, so the vague outline sketch will have to do.

8/31 Monday: AM CSP practice, distance free day, 3200 LCM, I fell off during the middle of the main set mostly because of back pain, but I did what I could. 51/55 (92.7%)

9/1 Tuesday: AM CSP practice, mid-distance free day, 3500 LCM, back starting to get slightly better (really sore when I wake up, eases up as the day goes on). 52/56 (92.8%)

9/1 Tuesday: PM short easy run, 4.28 mi, 39:24, 9:12 pace, way better than I thought it was gonna go. Could definitely feel the loose back, but I focused on form and it was never really pain so things were good. 53/57 (92.9%)

9/2 Wednesday: PM tri team swim practice, 3600 SCY, sort of a hot mess because it was fairly disorganized but I got what I needed to do done. I was also planning on taking a ride but decided against it because I needed to put time towards school work, which is the priority. I counted that as a missed session. 54/59 (91.5%)

9/3 Thursday: PM easy ride, 3 laps of Forest Park w/ friends, 2 easy, 1 fast, 18.99 mi, 1:22:36, 13.8 mph. 55/60 (91.6%)

9/4 Friday: AM CSP practice, IM day, 3600 LCM, some back pain off during the short axis strokes but things were generally improving. 56/61 (91.8%)

9/4 Friday: PM base run, this was really bad and it turns out I had a bit of an illness that day (combination of dehydration, slight fever, heat, stomach pain). I ended up having to walk a significant portion of it and the pace was real slow. I did technically finish the intended distance, but I felt pretty low about it and it really knocked my confidence when it came to pushing through pain. 6.66 mi (on 7 mile route around Forest Park), 1:07:22/1:14:32, 10:07 pace. 57/62 (91.9%)

9/5 Saturday: AM tempo ride brick, Midland-Ashby route and 4.5 mile run, restored a little bit of my faith in myself after Friday's terrible run. 58/63 (92%)

9/6 Sunday: OFF - Had been a planned workout day, but I needed to focus on school so I opted out. Hilariously enough, Henry and I ended up doing that timed 100 push up challenge again (I did really poorly compared to last time, so we're not going to talk about it) and I did some core work afterwards (fueled by my discontent about the push ups). I'm not counting that as a real workout, although in hindsight, it was pretty real...58/64 (90.6%)

9/7 Monday: AM tempo ride brick, Midland-Ashby route and 6 mile run, taking advantage of Labor Day and making sure I can go the distance on the run. 59/65 (90.7%)

The next few days will be taper followed by a race this coming Saturday (Club Nationals - sprint distance), lots of recovery, and another race the next Sunday (Cyman Triathlon - Olympic distance). I'll try and be better about these updates, but honestly, med school is pretty real so we'll see. At the very least I'll do reflections on the race weekends. Forgive me! I'm doing my best. (:

Much love,

Jess

Race Report: Running from Cancer Half Marathon (Tecumseh, ON, Canada)

So my Garmin is telling me that I did not actually run a half marathon, which is sort of sad...But the course is certified so idk, maybe the GPS is just wrong. In any case, I will present my Garmin data as if it were accurate and we can debate whether or not I'm 0.08 miles off some other time.

Yesterday's Race: Running from Cancer Half Marathon
Summary: 13.02 mi, 1:53:19, 8:42 pace.
Pace splits by mile: 8:02, 8:24, 8:38, 8:48, 8:45, 8:49, 8:42, 8:43, 8:46, 9:07, 9:01, 8:49, 8:37, 8:15.

Let's start by commenting on my finish time. I don't have an official finish time yet, although I will update this post when I do. As of right now, we'll go with my Garmin time, which says 1:53:19. This should be pretty close, I started the watch when the race started, I stopped the watch after I crossed the line. My time from Philly was 1:55:37, which makes this about a solid 2 minutes faster. Most of that I honestly think can be attributable to the fact that this course was as flat as physically possible (there was a total elevation gain of 16 ft, which is nothing) but I'm still generally pretty happy about hitting that time range since my training has felt on the slow side. I want to be under 1:50 by the St. Louis Rock 'n Roll Half though, so there's still work to be done for sure.

The day started with me waking up at 5:38 AM (just before my 5:40 AM alarm) and getting dressed and starting to hydrate with some water. Mom took me to Timmy's where I got two 12 grain bagels toasted with cream cheese. I ate most of one and then couldn't really eat any more. We arrived, I checked in and got my timing chip and sat around while drinking the first half of my Vitamin Water. (Up to this point, I had already drank a little more than half of a bottle of regular water.) I also scoped out the competition, which, because it was a running event, was intimidating seeing as it looked like everyone else was a real runner, and I feel really out of place amongst real runners. Some Ironman finishers were thrown in there as well, including one man who had a cocky attitude about him I really disliked. It was intimidating.

Mom left to go back home to Coen and I hung around while sort of warming up (really just loosening out my legs, doing some mobility movements, I didn't do any jogging like a lot of the other competitors did). At 6:45, I downed a single chocolate Clif Shot and washed it down with the remainder of my Vitamin Water and just chilled until the start.

It was interesting to note that up until this point I was very much so feeling unconfident and sort of freaked out by all the other runners and my comparative lack of running experience, but as soon as they announced "5 minutes to go" (we started at 7:05 instead of 7:00 because they had a bit of set up to do on course still) my brain like flipped a switch into race mode Jess and all of that fell to the wayside. It's funny how that happens, I guess the mental half is something that really does transfer across sports. Before races, I'm all business, and my brain is good at zeroing in on only worrying about making sure I execute the way I want to and I'm glad that instinct kicked in when it did yesterday morning.

I started out too fast, and I knew that as soon as I took off. One lady who passed me just after the one mile mark had commented to a friend/teammate of hers that it was an 8 min flat first mile and I was like, whoops. But the pace settled down pretty well for me over the course of the next few miles so I don't object to it too much, even post-race.

Around the 4-5 mile mark, my right foot started hurting and it was more of a bone ache than anything else and I knew it might develop into a problem further down the line but I didn't give it too much thought at the time. It didn't negatively affect my running yet and I was willing to let it go until it did start to bother me more. It never did, so that was good. (Although it was hurting all of yesterday and still hurts today so I'll probably have to give that some time to heal up.)

Also around this time, there was a man who had come up on me, pulled up beside me briefly, and then fell back and ran on my shoulder for most of the remainder of the race. On one hand, he was probably drafting off of me which was mildly annoying, but on the other hand having someone behind me pressuring me is exactly the kind of thing I need to keep me going. Usually people in front of me are less motivating because trying to catch up to someone is always a struggle, but trying to stay in front of someone or trying to drop someone are much easier for me to motivate myself to do. So it was sort of nice to have that kind of pressure on my back for most of the race.

The plan was to try and make sure that I only got passed in the first half of the race and only passed people in the second half. With the exception of the guy who sat on my shoulder most of the race and passed me in the last mile, no one else passed me and I passed a few people (including a girl who had passed me at the beginning of the race and pulled way ahead, I was very glad to have been able to real her in in the final parts of the race).

Overall, I was very very happy with that race. I had mentally given myself permission to look at my watch for splits starting with my mile 10 split, but I found myself not even wanting to know because I was running a well executed an well paced race (or at least that's what it felt like) and I was really enjoying my race experience and I didn't want to ruin it with pressures about pace or PBs. So I was happy to run in and determine my end pacing on feel alone and that worked pretty well for me. Also as the man behind me passed me, he ran side by side with me for a bit and encouraged me to get after trying to get in front of that girl who had been ahead of me the entire race and it was nice to have that encouragement near the end. The last time I raced this distance, the last 4-5 miles were just torture and I was mentally pushing myself really really hard just to try and hold onto the pace that I was going. This time, I felt like I moderated the effort much better throughout and it was just a very comfortable and enjoyable run. At no point did I feel like the distance was too much, it doesn't intimidate me anymore, and that's also really really nice. On top of that, I felt absolutely destroyed physically after my last half, but I felt much better after finishing this one. I mean my legs were super tight and I had to spend a lot of time walking it off and my ankles and hamstrings especially hurt a lot throughout the rest of the day, but I was able to stand and sit without feeling like my joints were going to explode open and was mostly in control of my ability to walk throughout the day, so it definitely took less of a physical toll on me than my first race had. Progress!

The only big things I want to be able to improve on are taking things out a little slower and trying to hold onto the pace without big external motivators. I had actually dropped guy on my shoulder briefly whilst passing someone else in front of me, but at that point I was mostly alone because the next person in front of my was quite far in front and I had no real motivation to keep pushing the pace. That was where the 9 minute mile drops came from I think so trying to hold onto that pace in the absence of pressure from competitors is something I have to work on. Also, as much as I am mostly very happy with how consistent the run was in terms of pacing, I would still like to be faster on the back end compared to the front end (and I would like to be able to do that by making the back half faster, not by making the front end slower), so that's something I will continue to work on.

Other things worth noting: The race, despite it being very small, was very well organized. Props to the organizers for hosting a great event! And there was plenty of water on the course, which I tried to get a little bit of at every station, and drinking while running is something I'm slowly improving at. Well organized small races are very impressive to me though, so I'm really glad I had a chance to be a part of that.

As far as recovery goes, it's been a day now, and I'm definitely more sore today than I was yesterday, especially in the quads (which I wasn't feeling at all yesterday), but I have less structural pain in my ankles and other joints, which is nice. I wanted to take a short recovery run this morning, but a few minutes out I knew that it wasn't going to happen because I just couldn't hold decent form on my tired limbs, so I turned around and came home. I will try to be active about walking and stretching today and we'll maybe give it another go tomorrow.

All in all, the race was a really great experience and I'm really glad that 13 days ago I randomly signed up! I'm excited for the rest of the adventures this season of racing will bring. (:

Much love,
Jess

Late runs and early swims

So...I spur of the moment signed up for a half marathon yesterday! Mom pointed out a flyer she had noticed previously at the rink where my little brother has hockey camp and thought it'd be a good idea for me to go run the race. So I decided to do it! It's in 11 days. I am (perhaps falsely) confident in my ability to cover the distance, but super unconfident in my ability to run it at anything mildly resembling a reasonable speed. It's an out and back course though, so I figure I'll go out easy (the goal is averaging ~9:00 min miles, but I'd be okay with anything in the 9:00-9:30 range) and try to build and negative split it on the back end on the way in. That's the game plan, we'll see if it plays out that way.

Because of this upcoming race though, I've had to make some changes to my training plans for the next two weeks to make sure my run game is up to par for the race. It's also forcing me to really take training seriously (including swimming, since that's a cardiovascular endurance thing) which is a nice change of pace. I need that race pressure kick in the butt, we've talked about this already, so it's a good place to be I think.

That having been said, I took last night's run pretty late and sort of close to dinner (about an hour afterwards) and it was rainy which was simultaneously nice because it was cool and simultaneously not because wind/wet. But whatever. I had a negative split 6ish miler planned but ended up doing a track workout because Coen wanted to go play basketball and I can supervise his ballin' while running on the track. He was a trooper, he played a lot of ball, because my run was pretty long. I had been hoping to do a pyramid set (400 through 1600) with 1/2 distance active recoveries, but it became very clear early on that I wasn't going to survive that at current fitness slash closeness to dinner so I reshaped the workout. Here it is!

Yesterday's Workout:

• WU: 1 mile easy (9:47.7/9:50)
• Set: 5 x 
• 400 fast (1:56.3/7:40, 2:00.5/7:51, 2:07.7/8:28, 1:59.9/8:04, 2:03.3/8:16)
• 200 easy
• 800 fast (4:04.2/7:57, 4:04.1/7:58, 4:24.8/8:50, 4:13.0/8:22, 4:07.7/8:14)
• 400 easy
• WD: 1 mile easy

Summary: 7.54 mi, 1:12:46, 9:39 pace.
Hit rate: 7/9 (77.7%)

I was really aiming to be closer to the 7:45-8:00 pace range (also I realize that the pace numbers are sort of out of whack, I don't really know why which is why I included the overall time estimates, although those aren't perfect either since I was hand clicking the lap buttons rather than using a more accurate measure) so I was disappointed with the pace overall, but honestly it was a tough workout and I put in an effort I was more than happy with. All this tells me is that I have to put a lot more work into speed in the future (August?) but I'll take what I've got for now.

This morning I took an easy swim, just trying to get back into it after having been pretty inconsistent with pool time since ECCs. My arms are weak, I felt very slow/sluggish, but I'm glad I went. St. Clair is nice because the pool feels fast since it's shallow and the ceiling is low, but it's also really hot which is annoying. I need to do more core work, I can really tell that my core is weak and my body position isn't great. I also need more discipline when it comes to breath control (breathing pattern consistency, not breathing in/out of walls, etc.). Will probably get back in and try to do a lot of pull work tomorrow to slowly bring that upper body strength back. But in any case, here was today's set:

Today's Morning Swim Workout:

• WU: 1000 SKIPS
• Main Set:
• 4 x 200 free @ 3:45 (wow so slow, lots of rest)
• 8 x 50 IMO @ 1:00
• 4 x 100 kick @ 2:00
• 4 x 100 free pull @ 1:55 (really slow compared to the kick)
• WD: 200 easy
• Total Distance: 3200 SCM (70 mins)

Hit rate: 8/10 (80%)

At the end of the day, the goal of these swims is just to maintain some semblance of swim fitness while I try to train more of the running (and cycling in August). This afternoon I'll take a long run (haven't quite decided time/distance yet, will see how I'm feeling) while Coen is at hockey camp and that'll be that for today! I'll be back later in the day with another update hopefully. (:

Much love,
Jess

Race pressure

So today was one of those days where I had totally committed to being useless when I woke up. It was gloomy and the weather said it was about to rain and I just sat in bed (not even dressed) and derped on my computer for hours. I got an email yesterday from the collegiate tri team here about an NCAA Nationals qualifying race that USAT wants Wash U to send athletes to and I was interested so I spent some time looking up more information about the whole status of women's triathlon as an emerging NCAA sport. The ultimate result of my wandering through the depths of the internet and past race results was me determining that I really need to step up my running. So when things cleared up a bit in the middle of the day, I went out and took the run I had been planning on doing before I mentally bailed on it (while blaming the weather). I don't know what I would do if it weren't for race pressure getting me off my butt to train. I need that kind of motivation and I'm really glad I found it today and did the work I had to do. Here it is!

Today's Workout: 5+ mi base run, similar to the past two days, negative split RPE was the goal (evidently did not happen - I would say it was because I got lost, but I think mostly it was because I got too excited and went out real fast).
Summary: 6.42 mi, 59:29 total time, 9:16 pace.
Pace splits by mile: 8:50, 9:05, 9:02, 9:46, 9:21, 9:25, 9:38.

Some interesting things happened today. The weather was MUCH cooler (64 F, slight breeze, overcast, not too humid) which meant I felt great starting out (and for most of the run actually) and decided that I would take it out fast because I was feeling inspired to be great and why not right? You can see where that went during mile 4, when I encountered a road that was (a) longer than I thought it was (took a new route today) and (b) on a slight uphill. The redemption in that though was that I ran at a pace that felt comfortable effort wise and tried to keep my heart rate down and recovered quite well and got back into the groove. I think my body really dislikes any deviation from my forever pace effort/heart rate so learning to cope with the inevitable ups and downs of terrain and race conditions is an important skill for me to practice.

I did get very lost shortly after that though. Part of my run involved going down the stairs at the World's Fair Pavillion because I had no idea where else I could go. I did make it back in one piece though! And the total uncertainty about what the final length of the run would be (it was about 0.5-1 mile longer than I was planning) kept my pace/effort in check. I tried to stay as quick as I could while still being comfortable and not risking dying before getting to where I needed to go. I've also realized that it is worthwhile to run in the middle paths through Forest Park. There are some nice wooded (but paved) trails which are shady and very pleasant and there's more terrain within the park itself (I need practice with terrain). I will have to explore more on future runs.

I think this run was reassuring because it was a reminder that when the weather cooperates with me, I am quite a faster runner than I am when the weather is hot. Which means I only need to build up adaptations to the heat, not necessarily to raw running fitness (however you want to define that). That'll take time and practice and a lot of patience (and I'm a very impatient person), but knowing that it really is the heat that's my issue is comforting and will help me work through what I'm sure will be some pretty rough and miserable training ahead.

I head back to Canada tomorrow briefly to pack and pick up furniture from my old house. I will try to get a run in on Thursday and a swim and a run in on Friday before taking Saturday off to make the drive back, but we'll see how it all fits in. There's some more rain expected in Windsor (although that's what I said earlier this week and I've gotten all my three runs in so far) and my mother may have plans that keep me busy, but I'll do my best. Then back to STL briefly before heading back for about two weeks just to spend some time at home. Okay gotta finish cleaning up the house and packing for tomorrow now. Good talk. (:

Much love,
Jess