My first 70.3 Motivation Man Race Report

So, last Saturday, June 2nd I competed competed  completed my first 70.3, Motivation Man or the HEATFEST that it was. The whole week before we had horrendous weather. We had a tropical storm, tropical depression, I don't know what we had but we had 100% rain and precipitation every day. I was so scared that  the event was going to get cancelled, or that the swim was going to get cancelled, and I really wanted to participate in all three distances as it was my very first 1/2 iron man distance!

We got to bike drop off the day before and had to leave our bikes covered in plastic bags to prevent them from getting wet. So this was a first for me as I had never done this before. Thankfully Diane took tape so I could tape plastic lawn bags to my seat and my aerobars.

That evening, Chris and I went to Bellagio for dinner, carbloaded, I was a ball of nerves so I tried to eat as much as I could, had about 2 sips of wine to calm my nerves, and tried to relax:

Do I look a little nervous?

The next morning we were up and going at 5am. Got to transition to set everything up. Luckily there was no rain and no signs of rain. We walked to the intracoastal as our swim wave was off at 6:50. I couldn't really see the buoys. That was my main complain. I had to ask the race director where to swim as I knew I was swimming in a triangle, but I didn't really know where the midpoint of the triangle was. Clearly they did not do such a great job marking the area of where we were swimming (more of that to come later)

Here we go getting ready to swim:

So, from the first buoy to the second buoy I was fine. No problem. I did it in about 7 minutes. Amy even asked me if I was fine, I said sure, no problem, I thought this is great, I'm doing well, no current, not a problem at all, I could see, everything was fine. Then I get to the second buoy or the 45 degree angle in my imaginary triangle. I don't see the other 45 degree triangle. Where do we go? The course description had a little map that apparently marked more buoys. 3 buoys for a 1.2 mile swim is clearly not enough, especially with a cloudy day. Not only that, there were a few boats that were patrolling the area so it reeked of oil and gasoline, I lost my swim cap and I had to fight to put it back on b/c I was not going to swim 1/2 mile with all of my hair all over the place. It was honestly a disaster. Then I hear lifeguards telling us to swim more to this side to avoid the current. I honestly felt that I swam 2 miles. And I never saw my second buoy or my 45 degree angle as my second turning point. A lifeguard just told me to follow the crane by the bridge. Seriously?
So before I realize I am swimming with pink caps, yellow caps, purple caps, green caps, and I realize that I'm way behind as the Olympic swimmers started 15 minutes after we did.

Total time in the water: 1:15.
Total time that I had guesstimated: 1:00
Total time lost: 15 minutes that I had to somewhat make up.
And I still feel that I swam for 2 miles, not for 1.2 miles.

I got to Transition, changed into my cycling shoes, socks, put on my helmet, saw Chris as he was just finishing his swim, and took off on the bike. I was so happy to be on the bike and off the nasty intracoastal, salty, and oily water.




I realized that I was about the only one left for the 1/2 distance and most everyone else was already on the course riding. First 10 minutes in the bike were trying to adjust to the bike, the wind, the ride, etc. I started drinking my Calories on the bike, saw Chris for about 2 minutes then he passed me, and tried to maintain 16-17 mph on the bike but the wind was a little tough. The Olympic turnaround was rather quick, and then I was out for another 10-15 miles all by myself. Very lonely bike ride, saw my teammates on the other side so I knew the turnaround was coming soon. I stopped at the water exchange station, grabbed a kid so he could help me, grabbed a water bottle and poured it on my aerodrink, grabbed another bottle, mixed it in with my Calories and also opened and snacked chews every few miles to make the ride be less boring. I sang American Pie and Bohemian Rhapsody about 7 times each. I was so happy to see the mile marker going to 30 miles, 40 miles, and slowly approaching the 50 mile zone. I actually passed about 5 people since I was one of the last ones on the swim, but I did take a tiny small advantage in that I'm not too slow on the bike and I had no mechanical issues. I ended up finishing my bike in 3:05 which is an average pace of 17.9 or close to that.

T2 was long and slow since I had to change socks again (my socks were wet) and I was a little bit out of it. I grabbed everything that I needed except sunscreen. Big mistake. I looked at my garmin and thought that if I could actually run the 1/2 in 2:35 I could come in under 7 hours. One can dream right? What I didn't realize was that I was actually starting the run portion at about 11am and the sun was at its strongest. It was a heat fest. I ran for the first 15 minutes and my legs, thighs, and trishorts were completely covered in salt. And it took me about 15 minutes to cover one mile. I knew it was going to be be a long day and my goal of finishing under 7 hours was shot out the window. I slogged, run/walked,walked/run/walked but my stomach was so full from the 3 bottles of calories earlier that I couldn't really handle anything. I saw my teammates Diane and Amy and they both looked strong. I looked weak and tired. Diane gave me a salt pill that was worth gold. Amy had dirt or mud all over her face which was a funny moment. Then Lourdes (she had already finished as she was doing the relay race) decided she'd keep me company and ran about 4 miles with me. Those were the best 4 miles ever. She talked to me about everything and nothing and it made the 4 miles go by a lot quicker.
Here we are running together approaching the 6th mile:

Then I saw Aunt Pattie and Chris's mom and Chris with signs for me as they were all cheering for me so I had to pretend to run hard in that moment and not walk:

Chris yelled at me and reminded me not to quit, that we do not quit, that we keep on going until they pull me off the finish line, and to keep at it, so he gave me some comforting words.
And he left an orange slice, a water bottle, and a banana for me.

Worst thing is I still had another lap to go to all over again. I continued my run, walk, walk, walk, slog, jog, walk, run, and by mile 7 I wanted to cry. Then I remembered my long term goal: Cozumel.

By mile 10 there were very little volunteers left, they had opened the lane to allow traffic back in, and I saw Kike in a bike that was not his. He came to check on me. He poured water on me, gave me tons of water, and biked along with me while I ran my 13 minute pace. I know this is totally not allowed but he at least kept me company and reminded me to use my arms as my arms totally dead right next to me while I was running. By mile 12 I ran a little harder since I knew the end was almost here. I look very bad ass in this picture:

And finally I finished. I was the second to last finisher. I finished the run in 3:17 and my total time for my first 70.3 was 7:47. I finished and that's what counts. And I felt great as I crossed the finish line:

I saw a couple of members from my triathlon group with IVs because they were so dehydrated. Not fun. But all in all, I had a great time, great experience, and I'm ready to get out there and race again, in my new bike of course!

Nautica RR

Nautica Race Report:

Well, this was my first triathlon of the season. I decided last minute to sign up since the Auto Trader group needed a swimmer and a cyclist to do the relay.

I ended doing the 1/2 mile swim and the 19 mile bike ride.

 

The Swim:

I was on the relay wave so I was actually about the second wave group to go. I swam with all the rest of the relay swimmers, and a bunch of other divisions. I decided to start off on the right hand side and to sort of go on the side avoiding the massive swimmers jumping on top of me. I also learned to bypass them and to not really fear them kicking me. I swam to the first buoy, so far so good, did my turn and took off. Another Hammerhead was panicking in the water and talked to one of the lifeguards (I do not remember her name) but I gave her a pep talk and said come on hammie you can do it you can do it! I also swam for a while with Chiara and it was so comforting to swim next to another HH. Then I sort of got lost and started venturing towards the left. I am not a good spotter but my method of spotting is by following the legs and the water splashing. All of a sudden I got sort of lose and was venturing way out to the left. One of the lifeguards whistled at me to swim more towards the shore (I was swimming to deeper water) so I lost about 2 minutes doing that. I never panicked. Told myself to breathe in and out and do my every other stroke and bilateral breathing (which I know slows me down) but that's another post! Next thing I know I see the last buoy make a right and swim straight to the shore. Frank taught us this crazy bunny jumps to do right when you are closer to the sand instead of running on the shallow part (which is hard and exerts more energy) do these bunny dolphin jumps where you are jumping over the water. I did that and got some major sand burn (instead of carpet burn it was just like sand burn on my knees) Ouch! I saw Chris and Gabe, I smiled for a pic and then I ran up to transition. I was so tired. This is a picture of me coming out of the water.

Next thing I was at transition, put on my socks and cycling shoes, snapped my helmet, grabbed a honey stinger and took off. I have not learned how to run barefoot with shoes already clipped onto the bike. I am running with my cycling shoes on (ouch!) and went took off. The bike was 19 miles, a couple (or maybe more like a lot) of bridges along the way. I was actually cold as I didn't even dry myself and it was a little windy. I wanted to do the bike in 60 minutes. I took off and had my one and only honey stinger and water. I was so tired and my heart rate was so high from sprinting from the water to the bike. I saw Chris on the way back, smiled a dorky smile with my hand sticking out, went to Transiton, gave my chip to the runner and off he took.

I ended up doing the swim in 24:16 for 1/2 mile. Last year I did it in 24:44 so I was 28 seconds faster AND I did not panick.

I ended up doing the bike in 1:02:31 which was an average pace of 18.2. Last year I did this same course in 1:09:50 at an average pace of 16.3. I improved my bike time by over 7 minutes. I'll take that!

I also got no chafing and no sea lice so I was very happy about that.

I did use a new hoohah cream. Mistake #1. Do not do anything new on race day. I used the new hoohah cream that morning. It worked wonders. Hoo hah

 

I also used this awesome lotion that has SPF that protects you against sealice and jelly fish. Either the water was clear or the lotion really worked but I had no new bumps!

All in all, this is a fantastic race. I would totally do it again next year and do the longer distance. It's a bit of a challenge because it is the first triathlon of the season.

Last Long Bike Ride.

So I never posted about my cut back week last week as well as how my nutrition went.

Last week was supposed to be a cutback week with 6 hours total. Somehow, I managed to workout for over 9 hours.

I did do much better nutrition wise during the bike. We rode 50 miles and I had a gel thank you honey stingers. I love your products! honey stingers chocolate gel. At mid way point, I had a honey stinger wafer cookie and 1/2 a diet coke. Again, love their products! I tried drinking tons of water. At the half way point, I had some of the Accelerade that I had mixed on one of my bottles. On ride back, I ate a bag of the honey stinger chew bites and drank some more water. I had about 2 chews before we finished the bike ride. And I had enough energy left in me to run twenty minutes.

What I did differently:
1. Nutrition. Ate and drank a lot more. And by drinking, I mean caloric drinks, not just water.
2. Rode on the small chain for the first 30 minutes to get my legs warmed up and more in a spinning gear. Then switched to the big chain. On the last 30 minutes, I switched to the small chain. What a difference! My legs had so much energy left in them. And they didn't feel so heavy by the time I had to start the run.

Much better ride then the week before. We averaged about 18 I think. But I felt so much better. So now I have to figure out what's the best nutrition for me to do and when/how soon I should do it!

Nutrition woes

>So, on Sunday I rode for 62 miles (3 1/2 hours) at an average speed of about 17.5 followed by a 30 minute transition run. I thought I was going to die. Considering that the riders that I rode with are all pretty fast, Christina and I were the last ones. The wind on the way back was brutal so Frank made Christina and I ride in mid front of the group. There were only about 7 of us so it was very easy to be left behind. Onto nutrition and the main point of this post: I consumed 620 calories and 72 ounces of water during my whole 4 hour workout. And I bonked at about mile 45.I ate oatmeal and a banana before the ride.Within 75 minutes, I had a honey stinger gel. At the midway point, I downed a bottle of cytomax and a cliff bar.On way back, I had Gatorade. The last calories that I had were at about mile 45.Frank told me I should be having approximately 200-250 calories per hour times 4 hours=800-1000 cals.So I was deficient and struggled so much the last 90 minutes of my workout.And, I felt it. The last 15 miles were brutal and my run was more like a fast walk joggling type of thing. I had taken 3 bottles with me, one with cytomax and the other two with water. Most of my group had calories in each bottle. I need to do a better job and figure out what mix works best for me. Cytomax, accelerade, Gatorade, infinit, carbopro, gels, bars, chews, food, so many options and choices that it gets overwhelming. In an effort to make sure this does not happen again, and considering the fact that I've been so hungry every day, I decided to schedule a visit with my old dietician Ivonne yesterday and we came up with a plan:1. Approximately 45-60 carbs per hour of intense exercise. 2. Add a fat to my lunch to give me more energy. (avocado, hummus, etc)3. Try to do a gel and a caloric drink every hour. That's what I'll try and see which option fri the one billion options works best for me.4. Eat something (cliff bar or honey stinger waffle cookie at midway point or when we stop to turn around)5. Low fat choco milk or smoothie as my recovery drink. (choco milk is much easier)Let's try this again for my next long bike ride and compare how I felt....