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
