Last week was TAPER week in preparation for the New Roads Triathlon Festival weekend: REAL races!!!!! Signed up for the Sprint on Saturday and 70.3 on Sunday.
Taper week was so much fun. I ran 8 minute pace for .25/mile and did sprints in the pool under CSS – nice to remember I can run and swim fast when I’m not exhausted from training! Felt 100% going into the weekend.
The Saturday race was so much FUN!!! Instructions from coach were to swim CSS swim, go ahead and go 90% on the bike (145 power) and then hold back a bit on the run so not fried for the 70.3 Sunday. I hadn’t expected it, but the swim was wetsuit legal. Jumped in with the 2:00/mile group and had a strong, strong swim. Found a guy to draft off of for the long stretch and swam hard into the ladders. Long swim out run, but had a pretty fast transition. Got out on the bike and felt amazing. Flat, fast ride around the False River lake. Pretty course and rode right where my power was supposed to be. The course was 19.5 instead of 18 miles. This effort was a 20 and 60 minute power all-time best for me. Back in and out with a fast transition and felt great. Ran 10 minute miles for 1 and 2 and then 9:55 on mile 3. Finished and felt amazing. Won AG and was 20th of all women finishers. Drank a protein shake as instructed right after the race to start recovery for the next day.
Woke up Sunday at 4 am. Race started at 7 am. Such a beautiful day!!!!! Was one of the first swimmers in the water and dove in and felt amazing. So weird that today, NOT wetsuit legal, so I was wearing my speedsuit. I am fine with either and swam strong the entire time. Garmin say 2105 yards, so I didn’t swim any “extra” and pretty straight buoy to buoy. Did swing a little wide on one turn but corrected pretty quick.
Link to swim start video:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/zw2hzbxkjlpwm6s/IMG_3173.mov?dl=0
Got out feeling great. Got to T1 and there were ants all over my set up. Eck……Just tried to shake everything out before I put it on and kept going. Got out on the course. Visor was fogged up and wet, so kept it off for the first 10 miles. When I finally put it on, such a mess. Took about 6 miles for the moisture to finally clear up. Instructions on this 56 miles were to keep power at 120 for the first 24 miles and then go to 130 for the remainder. About 10 into it, I was at 123. Settled down and by the end of loop 1, was at 117. Did exactly what I planned on nutrition. I was determined not to stop at all on this ride. I used to stop at every aid station to refill nutrition and go to the bathroom. Refilled my bullet at hour 2 by pulling a bottle and refilling it while going 17 mph. For the third hour’s nutrition, I was getting tired so I briefly stopped at the end of an aid station, pulled a bottle, refilled and was out again in about a minute. Worked to pick up the power at mile 24 and did bring the power up to 119. Something isn’t working properly on my right powertap pedal, and that kept going through my head and was making me question if my power readings were really correct. The right pedal was blinking red and then green and wouldn’t calibrate. Day before on the sprint, coach told me only the left pedal (weaker leg) had registered, so powertap just doubles that legs effort since no right. I had opened the app Saturday afternoon and both pedals were showing on, so we thought maybe solved, but Sunday race morning, no bueno. I had another set of powertap pedals do this so need to get them replaced. Told myself to just ride hard now and not worry about it. I worked hard to try to get my power up and to 20 mph. Did it for a while but knew I probably couldn’t hold that power all the way in. Was trying to get in at 3 hours. Ended up at 3:08. Not my best 56 mile effort but was a RACE 56 mile PR. It was 18 mph average and overall, I had done my first negative split ride exactly the way my coach told me to. So the next time, I should be able to do it better. This and taking in all my nutrition was supposed to set me up for a good run.
Nutrition for the day:
4:30 am coffee, banana, 1/2 bagel with cream cheese 345 calories
6:30 am 2 scoops UCAN 260 calories
7 am GU 100 calories
bike hour 1 – 2 scoops tailwind 200 calories – 3 gel blocks 90 calories
bike hour 2 – 2 scoops tailwind 200 calories – 3 gel blocks 90 calories
bike hour 3 – 2 scoops tailwind 200 calories – 3 gel blocks 90 calories
run – one gel block for 6 of first 9 miles – 180 calories
GU at mile 3 – 100 calories
total calories – 1825 (Garmin says I burned 2300 for the swim, bike and run)
My plan for this run was to try to match my HIM run PR in New Orleans in 2019 of 2:19. I had followed my bike plan perfectly to try to set myself up for this. Unfortunately, didn’t happen……..
Got out on the run. First mile was on a skinny sidewalk with no shade. It was terribly hot and crowded (runners going in both directions). At mile 2, I got a stomach cramp. Both sides of my stomach. I stopped at every aid station and drank water and dumped one over my head. The water was very cold and felt great. But the cramps were so bad, I wasn’t sure what to do. I slowed down to 12/min miles just to try to keep running and not walk. At mile 3, an SUV driving through the neighborhood I was running through pulled up next to me and a little girl stuck a huge bottle of Ozarka water out the window and asked me if I wanted it. Did I!!!!!!! I held it and it was so cold, I would just squeeze some over my head and sip some every once in a while. I thought about stopping because of the pain of the cramps, but figured I would at least try to get back to the race site (3 loop course) and see how I felt there. No way I would have been able to keep going without that water that little girl gave me. By the time I got to the start of loop 2, the cramps had subsided. Heard teammates cheering my name and David was there, so that energized me a little. Just ran from aid station to aid station and walked through them and then kept running. When I started the 3rd loop, I wanted to see if I could pick it up and at least wind up with a 2:30 run. Mile 10 got down to 11:49 and mile 13 was my fastest at 11:13 – mostly because I just wanted the run to be OVER. Was proud of myself for battling through the cramps, but disappointed in the run time of 2:41.
Overall, this 70.3 finish time was a 22 minute PR. Mostly because bike split PR and realizing that every second counts and not to stop or waste even one minute. I did win my AG. Finished 24th of 44 women participants.
Have no idea what happened to bring on those cramps since I followed what I thought my nutrition should be. Maybe because hot (didn’t feel hot on the bike), my sodium was low? HAVE to figure this out before IMFL and in general for all future races.
But overall, I GOT TO RACE TWO DAYS in a row!!!!!!!!!!! And I got 2 podiums. And I had so much FUN doing what I love. Great weekend.
Immediate goals are to keep working with Alyson Sheppard on strength and mobility training, eat super clean between now and IMFL, figure out proper fueling on the bike, and explore how to pick up the pace on the swim and the run on these longer races.
Every race is a chance to learn how to improve for the next one and I certainly learned a lot this weekend.
Feeling pretty good today and that’s another GREAT sign!!!! I clearly remember feeling like I had been run over by a truck after my first 70.3!!!!!
ironcheryl2018 