I'm laying on my bed resting my tired legs, blowing my nose and sipping Airborne tea (if you drop an Airborne tablet into hot water it fizzes like a science experiment and dissolves more quickly!) Yes, a cold hit me yesterday... not fun to race with a stuffy head, but I had a good time anyway.
This was the first annual South Bay Duathlon in Morgan Hill, with only 100 racers for the international distance (5k run, 40k bike, 5k run.) A few hundred more joined for the sprint distance that started 90 minutes later. Morgan Hill is a 1.5-hour drive from San Francisco (just south of San Jose) and the race started at 7:35 -- they thankfully changed the time from 7 am when it occurred to the race organizers that it's daylight savings. Which meant my alarm was set for 3:30 body-clock time, and we arrived when it was still very dark (and quite chilly!)
Overall it was a well-organized race; the only thing that surprised me was that there were no aid stations on the bike. I'd expected water or sports drink; they'd advertised that Hammer would be at the aid stations, but they neglected to say that the only aid station would be at mile 1 of the first run. There was water at mile 2 of the last run. While I'd brought plenty of gels, I'd only brought 1 bottle of sports drink thinking that I'd supplement with free stuff, so lesson learned.
It was also quite chilly... upper 40s. My hands and feet went numb on the bike, so T2 was an interesting exercise to tie my running shoes with non-functional fingers. My laces came untied in mile 2 so I had to stop and retie them (again with frozen hands.) Lesson #2: put Yankz on my running shoes. I bought some last week, couldn't figure out how to put them on, and then forgot about them. Time to figure it out. And maybe bring gloves to races. I'm not sure what to do about the numb feet; they were numb for the entire second run leg. I think it was a combo of the temps and also something I haven't solved that one yet; seat maybe, or bike fit.
Lesson #3: Remember where the finish line is. I crossed the timing mat at the end, hit Stop on my Garmin and started walking... then heard people shouting "keep going!" Oops. The timing mat was for transition, and the finish line was at the other end of the parking lot.
Overall I'm very glad I did this race; it was great to get back into the race mentality, go hard and see where I'm at fitness-wise (not where I hoped it would be, but more on that in a sec). That said, I'm not sure if I'd do this particular race again. While it was well-organized and a flat course, it had 5 loops on the bike and it was not in the more scenic part of Morgan Hill. I suppose that's good for mental training... loop 3 was my low point when I realized I had 2 more laps of monotony. Normally the spectators would keep the energy high, but not in this tiny race. The small group of spectators were just standing around, talking amongst themselves. Not cheering us all on... just looking for people they knew and only cheering for them. The rest of us made endless silent loops past uninterested bystanders until it was time to transition. Ugh.
I'll share one entertaining vignette from the ride. I was just starting lap 5 and feeling a bit bummed about my pace and the fact that I'd been passed by a lot of people but hadn't done much passing. It was a pretty strong field overall, and while there were only 20 women they were all solid competition. So when I lifted my head to see a woman on a bike going a bit slower than me, my competitive instinct flared up: hurray! someone to pass! I put my head down and hammer... I get closer, and closer, feeling a sense of accomplishment and renewed vigor... until I see that it's a young girl with very spindly legs setting out on her first leg of the sprint distance. Ha. I felt a bit deflated, but it gave me a chuckle. At least that helped bump up my last split.
Anyway, switching gears, here's me and my friend Maddie before the race:
A little backstory: Maddie has raced one triathlon in her life: a sprint back in 1998. She just bought a bike a couple months ago and just switched from cages to clipless pedals. She's been riding once a week -- pretty solid distances -- but is still learning her bike gears. She has no computer and no idea how fast or slow she rides. And She's also only run 3 times this year. I tell you all this because while she went into the race just hoping to finish, she totally kicked my ass... coming in 3rd AG (small field, but 3rd out of 13 is still impressive.) I rolled in 10 minutes later.
Ack!! What a crusher. Given that I've been training for 10 weeks, this was certainly disappointing. However, I do have to remember that I've been doing primarily base training and just started adding in some speed intervals 10 days ago. And as coach reminded me the other day, I'm not training for a duathlon or Olympic, I'm training for a half IM. So that helps to keep things in perspective.
The one thing Maddie has been doing that I haven't: she just wrapped up an 8-week advanced bootcamp with Pac-West held at the Lyon St Stairs near my house, where they run up stairs holding medicine balls over their heads, among other adventures. I know strength is my weak suit, and I haven't been very diligent about it. But after seeing her performance I'm pretty motivated to dial up my strength training 2x per week. I bought a TRX a couple weeks ago but I'm not as hard on myself as when I took the class, so I may sign up for another class and/or the bootcamp (since it's 3 blocks from me.) I've been seeing improvement in my heart rate, but I lack the strength to take advantage of the extra beats I've gained. Definitely something to work on.
So to wrap up my rambling blog post... first race of the season is done! I went in with realistic expectations (finish < 2:30) and finished in 2:31 and some change. A few minutes longer than I'd expected but certainly close enough. I took away some lessons, renewed my commitment to strength training, and am looking forward to making some solid improvements over the next 6 weeks for Wildflower. Now my assignment is to rest my legs and get over this cold!
Good effort....!
Now, get some elastic laces for your next race!
Posted by: cheryl | 03/14/2011 at 11:52 AM
Great job with your first race of the year! I keep reminding myself when I'm not where I want to be - IT'S ONLY MARCH! We'd be in trouble if we were in our best shape of the year now :-) Rest up and enjoy the recovery!
Posted by: Molly | 03/14/2011 at 04:48 PM
Good job for the first race. Hope more race this year. Keep up the good work.
Posted by: Chiropractors Seattle WA | 03/15/2011 at 10:02 PM
Excellent job with your first competition of the year! I keep telling myself when I'm not where I want to be - IT'S ONLY MARCH! We'd be in problems if we were in our best appearance of the season now :-) Relax up and relish the recovery!
Posted by: jacksonville chiropractors | 03/21/2012 at 02:46 AM