Editors Note: No pictures from this year's event... I put in some shots from Jill doing this in 2002.
Su Chang
Sunday, July 9, 2006
Olympic: Swim 1 km, 35 km Bike, Run 11 km
Main goal: I had 3 main goals for this race:
- Get my nutrition right. I suffered from stomach cramps in my last Olympic race. I didn’t want to repeat the mistakes I made.
- Understand how my body handles racing in the heat.
- Test my physical and mental toughness by going into the race after a high volume, high intensity training week with no tapering. My reasoning here was that I felt that this would better simulate how hard the ½ IM will be. I also wanted to rest the week following the race in preparation for the Ironman training camp and I didn’t want to take 2 weeks of rest during peak training period.
Time goals: I based my time goals off my performance from Cascades, ie if I went as fast as I did at Cascades, then these would be my times. I knew this was aggressive for me considering I went into Cascades very fresh after a week of tapering.
Swim: 25 min
Bike: 1:17
Run: 1:06
Total Transitions: 5 min
Overall time: 2:53
Pre-race
I had all these issues going into the race. At one point, I was joking with Kathy about what more could possibly go wrong:
1. On Friday, I got some kind of food poisoning from my lunch at Yummy Teriyaki. I went to bed without eating any dinner. My stomach was in pain and I felt terrible overall. I was concerned that I wasn’t eating anything even though this meal is the most important one. I felt better on Saturday although I was still suffering from overall weakness. But, I was able to keep all my food down during the day so that was good.
2. My bike seat was adjusted to a new position that I haven’t tried for more than 5 min. LONG story on how I got to this point. I wasn’t sure how I would feel with this new seat position.
3. My knee was really sore. Dave worked me really hard in our training session. We did ALL lower body work. One of the exercises I did (reverse lunges with one leg on the blue, very soft and wiggly platform) aggravated my knee. I thought my knee would be in trouble after I did that exercise and I was right. It was pretty sore going into the race.
4. I forgot to bring my Tempur-pedic pillow to Yakima. Kathy and I went to Target and bought a memory foam pillow that would be better support for my neck. But, the pillow was too thick. I still used it because it was better than the hotel pillows. I woke up with neck pain. I’m pretty sure my neck is out of alignment. I can feel that my neck rotation is restricted. I was worried about how I would do in my swim and my bike. Those two activities aggravate my chronic neck condition.
5. I was still pretty tired and burnt out from a big training week. I was suffering from overall lack of energy.
6. On Saturday night, my left ear started hurting. It was the outer ear, right at the opening. I wasn’t sure what was causing the pain. It concerned me a little. Fortunately, it was a dull ache and not a sharp pain. Thank goodness for small mercies! J
Saturday night, after a huge pasta meal where I literally stuffed myself, I went to bed with a big ice pack on my knee. Kathy brought the ice pack for me, which was really nice of her. My race packet had samples of Biofreeze so I decided to rub some on my knee. I was really hoping my knee would feel less sore by the morning.
I woke up at 5 am on race day. I ate a bagel with peanut butter. This went down pretty well. My stomach felt sensitive but overall, it was much better than the day before. I continued drinking water until 1 hour before race. I sipped on a tall Americano (Starbucks) until 20 min before race start. I also took 3 enduralytes about 10 min before start. Overall, I felt a general lack of energy. For Cascades Edge, I was literally bouncing with energy and enthusiasm. For this race, I felt burnt out.
Race
The race did not record split times. I read the manual for my watch and figured out how to record my own split times. The split times here are from my watch.
I was really not looking forward to the swim. The lake was very tiny and very dirty. When I saw it the day before and saw how grungy it was, my stomach actually got queasy! It was a mass start. Everybody went at the same time. I stayed behind a little bit to let the fast people go ahead of me. A fairly large guy swam right over me. I didn’t enjoy that. I almost got kicked. I had to stop suddenly to avoid getting kicked in the face. We had to keep the buoys to our left which made it difficult to see given that I only breathe on my right side. I only saw half the buoys. The course went around the lake (it was a tiny lake) so for the most part, I just followed the shoreline. I really did not like the swim. I could not wait to get out of the water. Time: 23:51. This was quicker than I had expected so I felt a little better. My neck felt stiff but I tried not to focus on my neck.
My transition time was 2:42. The bike was really hard for me. I could not believe how hard I struggled on the bike. My HR was low (high 140s to low 150s) but I just could not get my legs to move. They felt very tired and heavy. I was feeling the effects of a hard week of training. I had to bike on a lower gear. My legs felt like stumps. Anna passed me pretty early on in the bike segment. I cheered her on as she passed. I was passed by many cyclists. That was hard on my morale. But, I kept pushing as hard as my legs would let me. I biked by myself most of the time. I knew I was biking a lot slower than I normally do. I felt demoralized but I just had to push everything out of my mind and just focus on getting the bike segment done. I slowed down several times to stretch out my neck. I knew my neck was out of alignment which was causing some nerves to be pinched. I’ve experienced this many times before so I wasn’t really freaked out by it. It was unfortunate to have to deal with this in a race but there wasn’t anything I could do. Time was 1:25:45. However, I forgot to push the button on my stopwatch as soon as I got off my bike. So, that time includes my bike to run transition time. But, that transition went really fast for me. I think it took a minute (at least, it felt like it only took a minute). Even if my transition took 2 min, my bike time was well off my target pace. My nutrition on the bike was 3 Cliff shot blocks, some almonds, and 2 enduralyte capsules. The only thing I felt good about was my stomach was not hurting which meant my nutrition is going well.
I had to just push my disappointing bike results out of my head as I started my run. There wasn’t anything I could do about the result. I focused my energy on doing the best run I could. The run started tough as usual but I kept my head low and just focused on my cadence. I had my fuel belt. I made sure to take a sip of water every 10-15 minutes. My stomach felt pretty good. No stomach cramps. I felt good about how my nutrition was going. I took a cup of water at every water stop. I took a couple of sips and then dumped the rest on my body to help cool me down. I started noticing my ear pain. I don’t recall noticing it on my swim or my bike. I guess the pounding from running makes the pain more noticeable. It wasn’t a sharp pain so I just pushed it out of my mind. Around the 3 mile mark, just before the big, long climb, I saw Anna and Kathy going up the hill. Kathy looked great! I was very happy for her. I watched her run for the rest of the race. She looked very strong. I wished I had a camera with me. I would’ve taken pictures of her just to show her that she looks great and does not run like a duck! I didn’t catch her until the last mile so she did really great on her run. I had driven the course the day before so I knew that there were 2 climbs. Once I finished the second climb, I knew it was downhill and flat. Overall, I felt very tired on the run. I was breathing very hard. I definitely could not wait until the end.
For the first 3 miles of the run, I was keeping pace with a man who was a few steps in front of me. He knew I was right behind him. I kept my head low and for a while, I just focused on his legs and did what I could to keep pace. Once we hit the hills, he struggled a bit and I passed him. But by that time, I saw Kathy and Anna ahead of me. I then focused on passing Anna first and then Kathy. At the finish line, when that man I passed crossed the line, he came up to me and congratulated me on setting such a good pace. That made me feel a little better because I knew I just had my toughest run. My nutrition was 1 Cliff shot block. I tend to not like to eat on my run. Time was 1:08. I knew that was a little slower than I had hoped for but overall, I was pretty happy with it. I knew I ran under a 10 min/mile so that was good enough for me. Overall time: 3:00:58
Post race reflection
I was VERY thankful when I crossed the finish line. I definitely did not finish nearly as strong as I did in Cascades Edge. I definitely felt the effects of a big training week. Throughout the race, I felt a general lack of energy. But overall, I still felt pretty good about my race. I had a lot of fun despite my struggles. I stayed mentally tough on the bike even though it was demoralizing being passed by so many people. I couldn’t even keep the people who passed me in sight. I felt pretty good about my mental toughness. I learned a lot about what I need to do to keep pushing when the times get tough. I wanted to experience a tough race before Troika which is why I deliberately went into the race feeling tired and drained. I think I succeeded in making the race tough for me! J
I was 8 minutes off my goal time but I don’t feel that is too bad. I’m happy with my results. I was very happy with my nutrition plan and how well it worked out. And, I feel much better about racing in the heat. I need to work on my bike a little more. I’m not convinced the new seat position is right. My lower back didn’t hurt but I didn’t feel like I had much power. It could just be from tired legs. I’ll go biking again after some much needed rest.
Kathy Watson
Race report for Valley of the Sun Olympic triathlon in Yakima, WA- July 9, 2006 - (.6 mile swim, 22 mile bike, 7 mile run).
I decided to do Valley of the Sun because I thought it would be a good training preparation race for Troika. I wanted to do a race that would be in the heat, so I could see how my body would handle the heat, and to help figure out my nutrition for racing in the heat.
Overall goals for this race:
To get my nutrition right, and feel strong for the entire race
To get a good feeling of what racing in the heat will be like
To really learn how to pace myself right throughout the entire race so I could finish strong
Time goals:
Setting time goals for this race was not important to me. I did have an overall goal to finish the race in under 3:10. But, this race, I wanted to really focus on my HR and pacing myself, so I didn't know what time that would really get me for my swim, bike and run.
Saturday (day before race).
Today, my plan was to EAT all day, and eat lots of carbs and sugar! I bonked at Cascade's Edge, and I didn't eat enough for Cascade's Edge. I got my nutrition all wrong at that race, so I decided I'd do things opposite for this race to see how my body reacted. I am more unusual (at least compared to most people I talk to) in that I can eat literally 10 minutes before a big workout, and feel great. So, I know I need a lot of food to make it through intense workouts.
I had a big breakfast Saturday morning (waffles, fruit, and orange juice). Then, I packed up my car, and was off to Yakima (my family did not come this time. This was my choice. I knew it would be really hot for my kids to sit and watch the race, and since this race is not an important race to me, it was fine that my family did not come. I left my house about 11 AM, and I stopped by the grocery store to pick up a large thing of spinach pasta salad that I love. It also has pine nuts in it. So, this was a good thing to eat for the carbs and protein. I also got a turkey and swiss sandwich. I bought a big jug of Gatorade. And, I bought an old fashioned donut!! This would be for part of my pre-race meal the next morning.
Su did this race with me, and we drove our own cars there. But, we met up in Cle Elum and had lunch. I decided to just eat my pasta salad. I had eaten my turkey sandwich already in the car on my way to Cle Elum. I also made a batch of brownies before I left, and I was snacking on brownies on my way to Yakima. YUM!! And, I was drinking my Gatorade (and also clear water) on my drive. So, I was loading up and eating my way to Yakima!
The weather was awesome. I LOVE hot weather. The only reason I've been thinking a lot about the heat in Spokane for Troika is because though I LOVE to be in HOT HOT temperatures, I have never exercised at full intensity at high temps. Normally in high temps, I'm at a hotel sitting by a pool sipping on my Mai Tai while I dip in and out of the pool from time to time.... so obviously, doing a 1/2 IM in this type of heat is a different experience! But, I really enjoyed the drive over to Yakima, and was looking forward to the heat.
Su and I arrived in Yakima. We checked into our hotel. Then, we went to drive the bike course and the run course. We were laughing because in the description of the bike course, it says, "there will be a big 1 mile climb in the bike course". So, being from Seattle where a "climb" means a hill that is part of the 7-hills of Kirkland ride, we were driving this bike course, and we were trying to figure out where this "climb" was. We finally figured out where it was, but it really wasn't a climb. It was a very small incline, and nothing compared to what we're used to training on. So, I felt the bike course looked pretty easy. We drove the run part, and we did see the two hills we had to run up. One hill was long, but not too steep. The other hill was short, but very steep. But, we realized after every up hill, there was an immediate down hill, so we knew we could just push ourselves hard up the hills because we'd be able to recover fast while going down the hill. We then went to see the lake, and this lake was really small and gross!! There was lots of "unknown stuff" floating on top of the lake. It just looked really dirty. There were lots of geese around... ewww! But, I decided to get it out of my mind about what might be in this lake water and know that the swim would be short.
For dinner Sat. night, Su and I went to an Italian restaurant. I had a salad, and a large bowl of spaghetti w/ meat sauce, and a lot of bread, too. I ate until I literally could not put another bite in my mouth. I stuffed myself! We ate around 7:00 PM.
We got all of our gear organized Sat. night, and we went to bed around 10:00 or 10:30, and I slept well!
Sunday (race day)
Pre-Race meal:
I rolled out of bed around 5:30 AM. I was really tired. At 6 AM, I ate a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. At 6:15 AM, I ate a hard boiled egg. At 6:30 AM, I ate the Old Fashioned Donut I bought, and drank some Gatorade. At 6:45 AM, I ate another hard boiled egg. We then checked out of our room, and got our cars loaded up. Su wanted to stop by Starbucks to get coffee. I do not drink caffeinated coffee (I used to, but I went off Caffeine about 3 months ago completely. So, I didn't plan to get coffee). But, when Su was getting her coffee, I decided to just give Caffeinated coffee a try and see what would happen with my race. (I know this goes against everything I've learned about not trying something for the first time on race day, but I knew this was my last chance to see how my nutrition would go before Troika, so I gave coffee a try). I only drank about 6 oz. of black drip coffee (with cream). I finished drinking my coffee at 7:30 AM. (I also was drinking water all morning too).
Pre-Race warm up:
After I got my transition are set up, I threw on my running shoes, and I went for a light jog only for about 5 - 7 minutes. Then, I threw on my wet suit. The race was starting at 8 AM. It was 7:50, and I wanted to do a quick warm up swim in the lake. I was pressed for time. I got myself down to the lake 5 minutes before race start, and I just jumped in the lake and swam to the first buoy and back. The lake was not as bad as I had thought it would be. I just mentally took any thoughts about geese out of my mind!!
SWIM (.6 mile):
The race start was a mass start....85 people all at once... men and women. This was the first race where I started with men in the start. Wow.... men are MUCH more aggressive than women are!! This was actually my worst swim ever. I say that because I was hit, splashed, swum over, knocked, kicked LITERALLY the ENTIRE swim. There was not one time where the pack of people I was around thinned out! It was a very small lake, so there was really no space for the pack to thin out. And, I was surrounded by men... and they were HUGE guys, too. It was crazy. At one point in time, I had to breathe only on one side because this guy was just inches from me on the other side, and his stroke was so aggressive that with every stroke, he'd splash so much that I had no air to breathe from that side. But, I thought breathing on one side would be a better strategy then to move away from him. If I had moved away from him so I could breathe on both sides like I normally do, I would have moved farther from the buoys and would have had to swim a little farther. So, I just chose to stay right next to this guy (we swam the exact same speed), and just breathe on one side from time to time. I did swim over two people (two guys). I had no choice. I was so blocked in and I was faster than they were, so the only way for me to get around them was to swim over them. I just grabbed the back of this one guy's wet suit, and pulled myself over him. I felt kind of bad doing that, but I really didn't want to get stuck behind him... he was really slowing me down. The other guy, I swam over his butt and legs! So, I would call this swim, "just get to the swim finish how ever you can" type of swim. It was .6 mile swim, and normally, that would take me 15 - 16 minutes, and this swim took me 20 exactly. I'll take that, though. It was rough conditions!! I was SO happy to walk out of that lake.
TI:
This was not a high tech race, so they did not have timing chips. So, I had to keep track of my split times myself. I did not keep track of my transition times, though. But, I know with the whole race, I took a total of 6 1/2 minutes for transition times, so my TI was probably 3 - 3 1/2 minutes. I go slow in my transitions. I do this on purpose. I just need a little extra time to regroup, and make sure I'm comfortable. With this transition, we had to put all of our swim gear (wet suit, goggles, towel, etc. etc. etc.) in a big plastic bag with our race number on it and leave it right there. They did this because T2 and the Finish was at a different location than the swim start and T1, so during the bike and the run, our plastic bags with our swim stuff in it was transported to the finish. So, I had to take the time in T1 to shove my wet suit and all my other belongings in a bag. It was a good transition, though. (I did yell out to everyone around me, "I apologize if I swam over any of you!" I felt good saying that... racing is all about having fun and encouraging each other, right!)
BIKE (22 miles):
I expected this bike course to be real easy, and fast. But, there were head winds for the first 12 or so miles (I didn't expect head winds). The road was also very chipsy, so it was a pretty rough ride. I did ride in my aero bars for 3/4 of the ride, so that was good, and helped me with my speed, I think. I was really concerned for the first 6 miles, though. I was not going fast (even though there were head winds... I really did not feel like I was pushing hard), but my HR was too high (180)!! I was worried that my HR would stay this high for the bike, and that would really affect my run. So, I slowed down even MORE.... I felt like I was going SOOOO slow. But, I needed to get my HR down. Finally about mile 6, my HR went way down to where it should be (165). Phew!! I was so happy when it came down to my normal HR for my bike, and I then was able to get back to my normal speeds. My HR stayed around 165 for the rest of the bike. We also got tail winds for the last part of the bike, so that helped me make up the time I lost in the first 6 miles when I had to slow WAY down to get my HR down. So, I felt I paced myself well for this bike course and I was ready for the run.
On my bike, I ate cliff shot blocks and almonds. I also drank my perpetuem/heed mixture, and also plain water. I had electrolyte powder mixed in both bottles, too. After I hit mile 6, I felt GREAT on my bike and had great energy. I do not know why my HR was so high for the first part. Weird!
T2:
Again, I do not know my exact time for T2, but I'm guessing it was around 3 minutes. So, this was another first for me. With this race, there is actually someone there to "catch" your bike and rack it for you. I have never experienced this before. Then, before the race, we had to get our "running" bag ready and in this bag had everything I'd need for the run. So, as I was coming in on my bike, they yelled out, "#18", and someone caught my bike, I jumped off, and another person handed me my T2 bag, and I just transitioned right there. It was interesting. You'd think this would have been very fast... but the reason my T2 took longer is because I took of my cycling shoes, took off my helmet and gloves. Then, I bent down to put on my running shoes, but I grabbed my cycling shoes instead (my head was not on straight), and I put my cycling shoes back on!!! HAHAHAHA!!!!!!!!!!! What was I thinking????? So, I took my cycling shoes BACK off, and threw on my running shoes, my fuel belt, and my hat, and I was off.
Run (7 miles):
Normally, the run is my least favorite part of a race because I'm a new runner (just started to run in March of this year), and it's just really tough for me. But, for this race, my run was my VERY favorite part of this race. I can HONESTLY say that today I made my weakness my strength! It was the best run I've ever had, and I learned so much from this run of what to do for future runs. I started out feeling really good. My legs didn't feel like "stumps" like they did at cascade's edge. That might be because my feet were warm from the heat outside. My goal for my run was to make the first 2 - 3 miles easy... to run slow and keep my HR down. Then, at mile 3, my plan was to pick it up, and start to push myself more. Well, when I started my run, there was this guy who was probably about 1/4 mile in front of me. I noticed he was about my pace, BUT he would stop to walk about every 6 - 7 minutes, and he'd walk for about 30 - 45 seconds, and then run again. So, he was my target! In the past with my runs, I have never made a goal to pass anyone because I felt like I was the slowest person on the course, and I was always the person to be passed. But, this run, my goal was to pass just ONE person. So, this guy was my target. My goal was to pass him and finish before him! By mile 2, I was a little closer to him, but I still had a ways to go to catch up to him.
At mile 2, there was a water station. I just took water and dumped it over my head. It must have been in the high 80's by this point. I was also eating cliff shot blocks and almonds, and had my fuel belt with plain water (and electrolyte powder), and another bottle with HEED in it.
At mile 3 was our first hill. It was about a 1 mile up hill, but a gradual slope... about the same grade as Old Redmond Road between 148th and 140th. Not too bad.... I knew I had to keep running up that hill, and I didn't worry about my HR because I knew there was a down hill immediately after where I had a chance to get my HR back down. The guy "my target" was walking up parts of this hill. I was closing in on him, but still not close enough to pass him. Then, I hit the down hill, and my HR was about 187 by the time I hit the top of the up hill, so not too bad (for me) for a hill. I ran down the hill, and my HR went down to where I wanted it (177 - 180... this is the top of my aerobic zone, but I knew from training runs I can keep my HR at this level for long periods of time). I was close to this guy by the time I got to the bottom of the hill. I was probably about 30 feet behind him. THEN, we hit our next hill. This was TOUGH. It was short, but VERY steep. About the same grade as 40th where people do hill repeats. I PUSHED myself and RAN up that hill as fast I could. My HR got to 197, which is what it gets to when I run up 40th. And, about 3/4 the way up this hill, I reached my goal.... I PASSED the guy!!!!!!!!!!!!! This was about mile 4. So, it took me 4 miles to catch up to this guy, but I did it, and I PASSED him going UP hill, too!! That just gave me an extra boost of energy to make it up the rest of the hill. Woo hoo!! I was SO excited to actually PASS someone on a running course that had been in front of me for a long time! This was a huge milestone for me!
Then, at the top of that hill, was an immediate down hill that was a small down hill grade, but it lasted about a mile. So, I had a long time to get my HR to recover. I booked down this hill... I KNEW I was running fast.
I also knew I was running faster than normal (my normal pace is 11:00 - 11:15 min/mile). But, I assumed I was probably running about 10:50... not much faster than normal. I hit another water station, and I actually stopped to walk for 10 seconds JUST to drink some ice water... yes, this water was ice water! I do not have the skills yet to run and drink from a water cup, so I had to stop to quickly drink. So, I drank that, then I took 2 more cups and dumped on over my head, and another down my race suit! AHHHH!! So refreshing. The temp must have been about 90 by now. I then continued to run, and I felt awesome!! I felt SO strong, and I never once felt like I HAD to stop. I just felt awesome, and I have never felt this good on a run.
Finally at mile 6, Su passed me!! I knew I had to have been running fast for her not to pass me until mile 6. She is a 9:30 pace, and I expected her to pass me about mile 3, just based off of past races, and training, etc. So, when she passed me at mile 6, I decided I was going to stay right behind her and not let her get too far ahead of me. This was not a competitive thing... it was a way to push myself to the finish. I KNEW I had only 1 mile to go, and she was going to be my pacer to push me to the finish. I stayed the exact same distance behind her for the last mile. My HR was at 187, so I was anaerobic now, and I knew it. But, I REALLY wanted to push myself to the end. Su and I only finished 30 seconds apart. So, I kept myself just 30 seconds behind her for the last mile. I KNEW I was running fast for me.
When I crossed the finish, I looked at my watch and was in complete disbelief!! I finished this 7 mile run in 1:11... that is a 10:08 min/mile pace! I have never in my life run this fast. Wow!!
So, what I learned from this run was: 1) pick out a target that is my goal to pass and make it my mission PASS that person on the course! 2) start out slower on the run, and pick it up about mile 2 - 3. 3) I need to eat on the course, and this helped. Also, I think my nutrition was right this time, so I had energy on the whole run. 4) I learned from the guy in front of me, who was actually running my pace WHEN he was running that even if you stop to walk just for 30 seconds every so often, this REALLY slows you down!! I never knew how much stopping to walk from time to time slows you down. So, this showed me that stopping to walk, unless there is a TRUE TRUE need is no longer an option for me in a race! This guy probably lost 3 - 5 minutes off his time just from stopping to walk several times. 5) I learned to REALLLY push myself the last mile of the race, even if I'm anaerobic. I did it with this race, and I finished so strong still.
So, I hope my run at Troika will go this well. I realize this is a 13 mile run, as opposed to 7. But, I'm still going to use the same strategy (to find someone to pass, and to take it easy the first part of the run and pick it up the second part of the run, and to push myself HARD the last mile!).
This was a great race for me. It boosted my confidence for Troika. I now truly believe I will have a GREAT race in Troika! As long as I can finish feeling as good as I did in this race, that is what matters most to me.
Times:
Swim: 20 minutes
Bike: 1:20 (16.5 MPH average speed)
Run: 1:11 (10:08 min/mile pace)
OVERALL finish time: 3:01
Just a small addition onto this (correction, that is). I just realized that my transition times HAD to have been longer than I had thought. I know for a fact what my swim, bike and run times were because I was timing those on my watch. So, those times are accurate. I just didn't time my transitions (and since there wasn't a timing chip for this race, I don't know my exact T1 and T2 times). Well, my overall time was 3:01, and when I add up my swim, bike and run time, that leaves 9 minutes!! So, I guess that means I spent a total of 9 minutes on my transitions!! I was obviously VERY slow in my transitions, but I knew I was slow, so this doesn't surprise me that I was slow in this part of the race.
