Tuesday Tidbit: You know it's single file right?

Ok, quick Sunday Summary make-up session:

Monday-rest

Tuesday- 5 miles planned, no miles actually run
Wednesday-rest
Thursday-4 miles planned/Brick work out instead 3.4 mile run & 1000 yards swim
Friday-rest
Saturday-Triathlon
Sunday-4 miles planned, no miles actually run...a little more tired than anticipated

Summer of Weight Loss Update (SOWL)

So I am completely rocking this weight loss party. No extreme dieting here, just sticking with my concept of calorie consciousness. Today's weigh in brings me to 186. My "lofty" goal of 180 is now seeming attainable and surprisingly sustainable. Things are going great. I wish I had a picture of myself today because I not only felt skinny, but I think I looked skinny too. Yes it all sounds vain, but if you know me, then you know I do not take compliments well and I usually put myself down. I think the self-esteem exercise I did during the 31 days to 31 really helped.

Race Report

Sorry I was late posting this. I was waiting for race results. They were posted, but they had me with my age group when I raced as an Athena with a different wave start time. They had to adjust my time and update the race results. The downside is I didn't get a plaque race day for placing 4th, but the good news is my adjusted time squeaked under my 2 hour race goal. This was the second TRI of the season and originally my goal was going to be to reduce my previous time of 1:57:29. However, I did not ride my bike a single time since the last race on June 5th. I only got in the pool once and that was the week of this race. I only swam 1000 yards. I ran a little, but really just a few times. Here's the short version:

TBF RACING TRI for FUN 1/2 mile swim~16 mile bike~3 mile run

4 out of 15 Athena's (this is half the field as the first race 6/5)

1:59:54

If I would have aged grouped I would have been 25/34 in the 30-34 group

Morning:

woke up at 6:15, rolled out of bed at 6:35

6:35 pump

7:15 left for the race which was about 45 minutes away (note race starts at 8:00)

Breakfast:

Darn it, I was not up early enough to make anything. Luckily I had a power bar in my purse I had intended to snack on at a movie last week and didn't. WOW! I forgot how filling those things are, I only ate half. I was stuffed. No water, I packed it in the back of the pilot, I'll drink a little when I get to the race...so I thought.

Arrival:

8:00 arrived at the race, registered then headed to the bike support tent to have a nice young man pump up my tires. Good thing, I am still not accustomed to my bike and the new skinny pump up thingy. Yes I know, shame on me for not being on top of my new bike's maintenance.

Just shy of 8:15 I had my wet suit on and was on my way to the water. The good thing about racing Athena is that it supports my tardiness by being the last wave to start.

RACE

SWIM:

Distance: 1/2 mile

Time: about 19:21 (about 30+seconds slower than last time)

New Race technique I tried at the last TRI was to swim before the swim start. Triathlon Magazine (email) promotes warming up to get your body accustomed to the movement while also getting your heart rate up. They recommend a few hundred yards, I only swam to the rope line and back. It was great and surprisingly I had zero nerves at this race. None.

8:30 my wave went out and I lined up at the front right side. I am normally a back of the pack girl to avoid being kicked and realize I can achieve the same results by avoiding the pack all together starting further ahead and off to the side. I let the folks get going a few strokes before I went out and felt really calm. Like I said, my training for this portion of the race consisted of a 1000 swim at the gym 2 days before the race. On my way out to the first buoy I kept getting water in my goggles. I had a good buoy to buoy and on the turn to come in my swim cap kept threatening to come off. Not things that should have slowed me down too much, but I just wasn't focused on my stroke. I finally yanked the caps off and stuffed them in my wet suit with 200 yards to go. Wet suit you ask? No the water wasn't cold, but the buoyancy is my security blanket and worth the transition time I rack up trying to get it off.

Effort: I went out easy hoping not to freak out and realized I was far to comfortable and tried to push it. Honestly I had hoped my time was much better than last time it felt so good, but I really think the distractions of goggles and caps threw me off.

Transition 1: Probably took 4:30. This is a whole minute slower than last time. I had a hard time trying to strip the wet suit off. My shoes were hard to get on, my gloves were hard to get on and for the first time I actually worried about all the people getting out of transition before me.

BIKE: 

Distance: 16 miles

Time: about 1:02:00

Fuel: 1 Bag of Sharkies mostly at the turn around and on the way back to transition

Effort: I felt ok on the bike going out, but was having trouble right away with my chain catching when I shifted. The rolling hills were way harder than they should have been because I have no idea what I am doing on the bike. If I didn't shift early enough it was that I shifted the wrong direction. That's what riding a bike 1 time in the last month will get you. I need to learn how to shift. Before the half way mark I had given up on getting close to my last time of 1:01. For this to happen I would have to hit the turn around at the 30 minute mark. Just to see how bad I was doing I looked at my watch and it said 53:59. Yup take away 4:30 of transition and 19:21 for the swim and I was on track. That surprised gave me the boost I needed to try and stay strong on the bike. With about 300 yards to the dismount I was casually passing someone, when a rider obviously trying to make up time tried to pass me while I was passing someone. I must have swung out to pass too wide because this rider tried to go between us and could. This was a fairly closed road within the park. I hollered at her to see if she wanted me to move over further left to let her through the middle and she didn't say anything, just dropped back a little. I over took my person and the faster rider over took me, but not without commenting that "You know it's single file right?" Wow, really? Sure it doesn't sound too bad, give the newbie (me) and tip, but no that is not how she said it. She was snippy. She was wearing a team uniform and so was I. Did she expect that someone in uniform is obviously too experienced to make such a HUGE mistake to pass someone too slowly and too wide? She was not an Athena that I could tell and unless she was pulling out 6 minute miles I couldn't imagine her age grouping either, not hanging at the back of the pack with me. So was her level of competitiveness about beating her own time? I don't know, but she came off as rude.

Transition 2: Probably took 2 minutes about a minute longer than last time. I could maneuver past some people walking their bikes, then my gloves wouldn't come off either. Advantage to not having clip ins is that T2 is mostly done when I rack my bike. Disadvantage? Well? I'll know when I get my clip ins later this summer. 

RUN:
Distance: 3 miles

Time: about 31:00
Fuel: Tri Berry Gu at mile 1

Effort: I was so excited to see the the aid station right out of transition. I never understood it until now. I had forgotten my water bottles in the car so something to drink right out of transition was desperately needed. My husband stayed up last night added a holder onto my bike for me to be able to take 2 water bottles with me and I left both in the car. I had planned on using a race tip of spraying my legs with water on the bike to refresh them The 1-mile marker turned out to be at an 11 minute mile pace and I was walking alot. The fire road was dusty, but easy on the joints. There were rolling hills. I walked alot. At the start of the run I had no real hope that I would reach my goal of finishing in under 2 hours. It would mean that I had to run 10 minute miles which is pushing my limits. Like a real lot. At the 1-mile marker I decided that if I got to the turn around in near 5 minutes from that 1st mile marker I would go for it. Lofty, but surprisingly enough I was on track, but would need a sub 10 to finish. The second pass of the first mile marker was also mile 2 and I had just over 10 minutes to finish. I tried, but found myself walking with less than a quarter mile to go. This is where race volunteers play a huge role. I had a guy call me out, saying, "Ah come on DTC, your not walking are you, you're almost there!" Not meant to belittle, but meant to motivate. I felt obligated to this team that I am now apart of not to let them down. Who knew a team skin suit would be so motivating. The finishing stretch of about 100 yards I could see my teamates and hear them cheer me on and I pumped my elbows pretty hard. Probably my best finishing kick to date. I finished in 1:59:54....it was a squeaker, but a squeaker that earned me 4th place in my Athena division and they awarded the top 5. It was a good day despite how unprepared I was. 

I know all my times are rough estimates, but that is close enough for me. One of these days I learn how to read the lap function on my watch. I can mark them, but have not idea how to go back and look at each "lap". I think I see a fancy watch in my future.

 
Post Race
TBF racing is so well supported. Aside from the great volunteers and ample support on the course, they secure the best vendors. I got a great massage that focused on my ITB and then hit the chiropractor folks for some deep ITB treatment. Oh and Oreos and bananas are the best post race snack. I almost forgot to mention that Single File Girl was standing with her time, obviously staring at me. I made eye contact and tried as honestly as I could say, with a happy wave mind you, "hey sorry about that." Guess what? I got the eye roll! WOW. Too funny. This was a TRI for Fun, not USAT official and she was still super annoyed with me. Can't please everyone I guess.


Have you ever made an innocent mistake and gotten over the top feedback? Am I the person way off base here, was my faux pax worse than I realize?

Thanks for reading!

Thankful Three

1. For Monday night no drop rides
2. For my new skinny pants (new from the attic)
3. For a surprise dinner date with my hubby followed by rocky road on an sugar cone