#nomoreaquabike : Kinetic Sprint Triathlon

Heading into my first triathlon (fully including the running) in about 4 years was a little nerve racking, but I knew from the block before leading up to it, I was well underway of being great out there. My block contained the start of hill bounders, a strength workout that involves bounding up a very large hill over and over again, longer runs and longer rides, and the start of open water swimming.

Lake Anna Field Trip

Swim: I remember there was a point not too long about where I doubted whether I would ever be "fast" again but I am happy to say that those doubts are gone. Granted I will never be swimmer "fast" again, but I am pulling some good solid steady and resistance workouts throughout the week. This block came with the start of open water swimming, something that I am not the biggest fan of. When I can see the bottom of the body of water I panic and when I can't see the bottom of the body of water, I panic, so it's really just a lose lose. Meghan and I told a tri field trip out to Lake Anna one Monday after work and it was our chance to acclimate to the water in which we would be swimming in and get comfortable. I for sure got more comfortable and successfully made it through the whole workout without any panic attacks!

Photo Credit: Coach

Bike: This block came with a lot of bonks and nutrition fails while determining what I could possibly eat that is safe and will fuel me well. Long rides got dangerously close to bonks until I stopped to get snickers bars and the revelation that I was out of neutral position. My long rides have been going okay. I say just okay because my biggest area for work-on is my cadence. Dan tells us that we have to keep a cadence of 90+rpms on the bike and my long rides have been averaging somewhere in the high 70rpms. Not great...and I have really been pushing and trying to fix that but Dan says it takes 1-2 weeks to become a thing. On the trainer I am able to hit that high cadence but when I hit the road I find that I simply cannot. It feels like, although my fit are clipped into the pedals, that if I spin my legs to that kind of cadence, they will slip off and I'll go flying. However, I will continue to work on it because I understand the importance of keeping a high cadence especially before a run and trying to get those run legs ready to rock. I've been doing my PPT hill sprints by myself the past few weeks, so having Meghan and Dan be there with me the last time before my race was great. I always love have company in workouts as they make them go by faster or create them to be more tolerable. Dan is teaching me a lot about my power wattage and what I need to try and hold. While focusing on power has allowed me to get more consistent and has stopped the crazy wattage of burning myself out. I feel that to be successful on the bike I have to focus on the triangle of factors: HR, cadence and power. It'll come along,

Run: I have to say how absolutely blown away I am of my progress made here during this block! In the early stages of training, I was high in doubts that I could ever really understand this whole zone thing and how going slow would actually turn into fast, but I'm a believer. I had a big breakthrough this block with all my runs, especially my long runs! I was finally able to take it out slow and descend my pace throughout and get progressively faster to the point of negative splitting my runs. I had one Sunday where I had long run, PPTs, long run. I was thinking that was pure madness and I was not looking forward to it, but I actually ended up loving it and had run a total of 11 miles that day: more than I had ever run prior which gave me a new sense of accomplishment. My run is coming along more and more everyday and I had a big revelation during this block: I actually enjoy and look forward to running, something I never thought I would say. When I thought triathlon, I always thought swim and bike (AWESOME) and run (torture), but now I can see all three sports together and as something I love doing. 

Knee: I would love to say that my knee has been great and hasn't been giving me problems, but everything cannot be great all the time. During my last long ride I developed this debilitating pain in my bad knee and after e-mailing Lori Strobl (my PT) about it, we determined I was out of neutral position which was in turn hurting my bike fit position, therefore the knee pain. I panicked, this was one week before my race, however, she let me know of things I had to do to get back into neutral and I was extra diligent about getting the work done to get my knee under control, and I think I did! 

Kinetic Sprint Triathlon: 1:30.31 

Pre-Race: Despite Coach's wishes, I was a sherpa cheerleader for Meghan and Dan's kinetic half race the day before my race. It was hot, it was long and it was not the great resting day before the race as he wanted me to have, however, I did everything in my power to make it restful. Instead of biking in between cheering locations, we drove. Instead of standing and cheering, we had lawn chairs, and when I got tired and hot, I hung up a hammock in the shade and took a nap. It was great and I felt that watching the race is what I needed to pump myself up before my race. 

Morning of, I got up, packed up the little I still had left, did some physical therapy and made breakfast. Food before my races are always a battle; I was able to get down three pancakes and 2 scrambled eggs while sipping Infinit. I packed up the car and off I went to the race site! 

Swim: 12:12 

Honestly, there was nothing about this swim that was good. The wind created for a very choppy water swim, which made it very hard to breathe and sight. I ended up going off course a  little as I just couldn't see anything over the waves from the wind and the safety boats taking people out of the water. Dan tells me to shut my legs down and have long catch-up strokes, but I felt like I needed a bit more kick to power over the waves. I was also supposed to find someone to swim with and draft off of. I clearly need to work on this more, because I let two white caps pass me and I ended up swimming solo overtop of people and getting kick every which way. 

I was so glad to get out of the water and make it to transition. 

T1: 2:26 

"Think slow, act fast" is Dan's mantra when it comes to transition. I tried this, but without the use of wetsuit strippers, the removal of my wetsuit was very challenging and I found myself falling to the group when I tried. After the lengthy process, I was able to quickly get what I needed and bolt out of there. 

Bike: 49:06

A sprint course bike is fast and short...two things I didn't really feel prepared for, but I tried to race it as close to Dan's race strategy as I could. In the past I have hammered up hills and taken the down hills as easy, but he wanted me to really watch my power and make sure that there were no massive spikes, which meant I would ride up hills going slow while getting passed by loads of people. It was definitely a course that I was not prepared for. I've been training flat courses, so my legs were in shock from the hills, but I did the best I could. About halfway through I did throw up. I wasn't sure whether it was from nutrition or the quantity of water that I had taken in from the swim.  Looking at the stats now, though, I see that I raced I pretty solid race despite the hills and how I felt. Cadence can for sure be higher, but at least I got it out of the 70s! Power was higher than my training rides and I didn't have any absurd spikes for the hills...

T2: 1:02 

Helmet and shoes off. Shoes and visor and race belt on and off I went. 

Run: 25:44

Mile 1: 8:43 

I got out of transition and up a giant hill I went. Since the bike was so cold and windy, I had no sensation of my feet or really my legs for that matter. I was vaguely aware that I was moving and I honestly thought I was going 10:00/mile pace up the hill. The top of the hill marked one mile and I was pleasantly surprised with how quick I ran. It didn't feel bad. I tried to zone out all of the junior and HPT Endorphin girls passing me. My old triathlon self would've wanted to catch up with them, but I wanted to stick with Dan's plan as much as I could, so I focused simply on me and what I had to accomplish on that run. 

Mile 2: 8:22 

This was the most flat the run course got and I finally regained some feeling in my legs. Dan said that he wanted me to take the water stops slower, but I didn't. I felt that if I were to take them slower or stop and get what I needed, I wouldn't start moving again. I made sure I shouted what I needed before I got there and the volunteers always got the water into my hand. I sipped a bit but it was more to flush my mouth out of the throw up taste. 

Mile 3: 7:45

I love me some down hills and this whole mile was downhill. I still took it in control not letting my legs get ahead of me but a nice and solid run. Before entering the woods to the finish line, I saw these two greyhound dogs that I had my eye on all day before and I shouted to the owners, "I love your dogs, they kept me company yesterday." The owners laughed and told me I had 800meters to the finish. I kicked it into turbo drive and passed 3 people in the woods before the finish line. Michael and Parker of Endorphin were running up along the path to cheer and they cheered for me and told me I looked great, so I pushed as much as I could with the finish line in sight. 

Overall: 2nd in 25-29

I'm not wildly happy with my swim and bike performance, but I am very pleased with my run. Dan says that if my run was that good, I raced well, but maybe I'm just too hard on myself having a great aquabike season last season. I got second in my age group, and was 36 seconds away from getting first. I was the 18th woman overall and 103 overall. I saw things that I can improve on and had some surprises along the way (such as my run). Regardless of how I thought I did, it was a great first race and put that competitiveness back in me for the rest of the season. I look forward to Eagleman and my first ever half in 4 weeks! I, of course, couldn't do any of this without my support of my training partners, family, and coach! More to learn, more to grow! Giddy up!