Escape the Cape Recap

Ok, I know it's been forever since I updated the blog.  Playoff hockey sort of took over my evening downtime this past month.  But I'm finally back, with a recap of my very first triathlon, the Escape the Cape sprint on June 8th.

Starting about 24 hrs before the race, I was pretty much a big bowl of crazy (if you have any doubts about this, ask Joe). I had a brand new bike rack for my car and a brand new wetsuit, neither of which I really new how to use.  And I was terrified about the open water swim and the transitions.  Friday went by in a blur as I installed the bike rack on the car, made Joe come over to check that the bike rack was properly installed on the car, test-drove it out to Newton with the bike attached to get a refund on my wetsuit (they charged me for the wrong model), and spent way too long packing and repacking everything I could think of for the race.   At about 5pm, when I was printing the athlete packet to bring with me the next morning, I discovered on the race website that the start had been moved back 90 min due to storms coming through in the morning.  Apparently gmail had decided that this important announcement belonged in my spam folder.  After an order of pad thai, some time hanging out with a newborn, a big Bruins win, and more time spent worrying about gear, I finally got to sleep way later than I had meant to.

Joe (aka "the pit crew") and I got to Onset plenty early on Saturday morning, but I was still a mess until I was checked in, made it through the port-a-potty line, and had all my stuff settled in transition.  I had planned at least 15-20 min to get into the wetsuit, but it only ended up taking me about 5, so this was followed by a bunch of standing around getting even more nervous about the swim start.  I didn't get in the water to warm up, because I was afraid I would then be too cold on the beach.  Big mistake!  But more on that in a minute.

yes, I was very excited that my swim cap matched my wetsuit

Swim:

I think my favorite thing about this race (and there were many good things about this race) was being able to start in a "newbies only" wave at the end of the swim start.  Everyone was a little nervous but very friendly as we waited to get into the water, and there was no one behind us to swim over us after we started.  The start was on a sandbar a little ways out into the water, and the swim was a straight shot back to the transition area.  I was relieved to discover that just to the side of the official course, the water was shallow enough to stand up, AND that we were allowed to grab on to the lifeguard equipment if we needed a break.

In the water, the wetsuit felt ... weird.  But I was surprised at how warm I was, even though the water was only 65 degrees.  The horn went off and we all started swimming.  I felt GREAT for about 25 yards.  The wetsuit was the best thing ever.  It kept me floating on top of the water, and swimming felt easy.  And then suddenly, I couldn't breath.  As soon as I put my face in the water, I felt like I absolutely had to take a breath -- no way I could do my usual bilateral breathing.  I tried a little breaststroke to get warmed up, but the wetsuit was floating my legs so high that the stroke felt awkward, and it was even hard to keep my face in the water long enough for a breaststroke stroke.  So I switched to a strange mix of dog paddle and crawl with my head above the water.  Progress was slow, but at least I was moving.  But of course those are not particularly efficient ways to swim, and I was just getting more and more out of breath.  Eventually a safety kayaker saw me, and pointed out that if I flipped over on my back I could take a little break to catch my breath -- brilliant!  For the last third of the swim, I pulled it together a bit and managed to swim the crawl breathing on every single stroke.  It made me kind of dizzy swinging my head back and forth so much, but it was faster.

That's me on the right with the blue goggles, mid-stroke

After that, the finish came up pretty quickly.  I walked out of the water and tried to jog into transition, but discovered that I was still very, very out of breath so I took it easy getting back to my bike. Transition one went surprisingly smoothly.  The wetsuit came off in no time, and I managed a pretty quick change into bike shoes, gloves, helmet, and sunglasses.  In retrospect, it probably would have been worth the extra few seconds to wash all the salt off my face and take a few extra sips of water.

First open water swim done!

Bike:

Mount up! No I don't know what's going on with my neck.

The bike course was supposed to be 10 miles (I was actually prepared for 12 until I double checked the map on Friday night!) but storms flooded the end of the course, so it was cut to 8.3.  And those 8.3 miles flew by!  Given my start in the last wave and not super quick swim, I passed a handful of people without getting passed myself, which was a nice little confidence boost.  Before I knew it, I was in the chute and dismounting.  Having not had any water from my water bottle, of course.

In the finish chute

T2 also went smoothly, with a quick change from cycling shoes to running shoes and helmet to running hat.  Only catch was that it was so windy my hat blew off as soon as I put it on!

Run:
As usual, my legs felt really strange at the beginning of the run.  I decided not to wear a watch for the race, so I had no idea what pace I was running.  It definitely felt hot, and I immediately wished I'd taken my water bottle with me out of transition -- the little water stop just before and after mile 1 was not going to cut it.  I stopped for water, then walked up a ridiculously steep hill near the end of the first mile.  When I passed the water station again, I grabbed a cup of what I THOUGHT was Gatorade, but turned out to be some sort of absolutely NASTY watery Hammer drink.  Oh well.  There weren't really mile markers on the course (maybe there was one at mile 2?), so I just kept going along with no idea of pace or distance.  Then I started recognizing things from the walk over from the car to transition, and I knew I was almost done.  I saw Joe waiting to take a picture of me in the final turn, and then crossed the finish line.

Final turn to the finish

Results:
As soon I crossed the line, a volunteer handed me an awesome ice cold water bottle while another volunteer took off my timing chip.  Then I met up with Joe, we sat on the grass for a bit with our free slices of pizza, and then headed to transition to pack up all my gear.  I really did not realize how much STUFF triathlons require until I was lugging it all in and out of transition.

Officially a triathlete!

The official results were much faster than I expected.  I had figured on 15 minutes for the swim, and then after I spent most of my time dog paddling I assumed it would be slower, but it wasn't!  The bike was pretty much what I expected for a flat course.  The run time I still don't believe.  It certainly didn't feel like I was running fast, and I didn't want to puke at the end (my usual reaction to racing a 5K) so I don't really understand how I could have PRed by about 45 seconds!  But I have no proof the course was short, so I guess I'll take it :)

Swim:     13:20

T1:           3:39

Bike:      30:17

T2:           2:02

Run:       26:58

Total:   1:16:14

Overall, my times were good for 20/28 in my age group and 10th place in the newbie division.

Victory meal #1: McDonalds

After the race, we drove home and I only had a couple hours to unpack, wash out my wetsuit, clean myself up, and get into the city for the John Williams Boston Pops concert (did I mention that my pit crew is awesome and surprises me with post-race tickets to things?)  The concert ended just in time for the third period of Blackhawks-Kings game 5, so we went down the street to a sports bar to grab beers and dinner and watch the end of the game.  Which went to TWO OVERTIMES.  I made it through one, but was basically falling asleep at the table (also some drunk guy threw up on the floor ...) so I hopped in a cab and made it home just in time to see the Blackhawks clinch their trip to the Stanley Cup Finals.  All in all, a pretty good day.

Victory meal #2: pulled pork nachos

Lessons Learned:

• Open water wetsuit swimming is NOT like swimming in the pool.  After a bit of google searching, I discovered that hyperventilating when your face is in cold water, you're wearing a constricting wetsuit, and you've got race day adrenaline going is extremely common.  In-water warmups and slow starts from now on!
• Take time to drink water.  Quick transitions are great, but being dehydrated is not.
• Joe is the best pit crew ever, and he's also a pretty awesome race photographer.
• Always schedule post-race naptime.
• Triathlons are fun.

That's it for now -- back soon with a recap of tri #2 -- New England Trifest Olympic Distance.

Weeks 5-7: Catching Up

It's been a busy few weeks, and the name of the game was flexibility.  A bunch of workouts got cut or moved around, but the upside was discovering that I'm getting (slightly) better at taking it all in stride.  Here's a quick recap of the past few weeks' training.  As always, more detailed recaps are on my dailymile page.

Week 5:

Swim -- 1.1 mi

Bike -- 47.5 mi

Run -- 18.0 mi

We had a big crew race on Monday, which meant that I didn't really get my rest day.  So I decided to skip Tuesday's ride and make that the rest day instead.

Hooray for awesome fan photographers!

Then Mom came to visit for the weekend!  Which meant that my Saturday morning long ride was followed by a trip to the other side of the river for eating, shopping, drinking, and more eating.

Amazing post-ride brunch. Yes, that is a pile of fries with ground up hamburger, egg, and cheese.

Mint Juleps & Kentucky Derby watching

Visit to the Boston Marathon memorial

Mom's flight didn't leave until Sunday evening, and I didn't realize that one of the pools was closed for an entire week (thanks, NCAA water polo tournament!) so I accidentally missed my chance for the Sunday swim.  But I at least still got the run in.

Week 6:

Swim -- 2.2 mi

Bike -- 54.3 mi

Run -- 14.5 mi

I had a big presentation on Thursday that I needed to prep for, so I skipped Wednesday's evening run.  I also flipped Saturday and Sunday because of predicted thunderstorms on Saturday.  Of course the storms never materialized, and it was still rainy on Sunday morning so I ended up on the trainer anyway (and cut the ride ten miles short because I couldn't stand the idea of 40 miles on the trainer).  But not a bad weekend of training.

Thursday evening post-presentation celebration

Week 7:

Swim -- 2.4 mi

Bike -- 65.5 mi

Run -- 16.1 mi

Friday's swim got pushed to Thursday because I knew I had to drive out to Woburn for a vet appointment on Friday, but otherwise the workouts stayed pretty much on schedule.

Of course my dog would end up in physical therapy.  Takes after me!

It wasn't a great running week for me, with two runs cut short thanks to stomach and foot trouble, but it was a big week for the swim and the bike.  On Saturday, I went for a 40 mile ride on real live roads with a few friends.  I hit 30+ mph on a downhill without cranking on my brakes the whole time, rode one-handed long enough to wipe my nose, check my pockets, etc., and did a tiny bit of a climb standing up on the pedals.  And also once again came very close to my first clip-out-fail fall but saved it at the last minute.  On Sunday, I swam a mile without any significant breaks and it wasn't terrible.  So I'm feeling a little less panicked about the swim now.

Snack break in Concord!

In other exciting news, I finally signed up for a pre-70.3 sprint triathlon!  Really happy I'll have the opportunity to try out open water swimming before the big day.

Escape the Cape

Really looking forward to a recovery week this week!

I also realized that I screwed up and started my plan a week early, so I'm trying to figure out how best to deal with that.  I might stick with the plan and add a bit more of a taper (the plan as is doesn't have much of one) but am open to suggestions ...

Week 4: Crew Season

This was supposed to be a "recovery" week, but the peak of intramural crew season had a different idea.  In addition to the normal schedule, I had an hour long crew practice on Tuesday morning and our first "race" (qualifying time trial heats) on Thursday morning -- which meant four days in a row of two-a-days!

Swim -- 1.5

Bike -- 47.3

Run -- 14.4

The major development this week was taking the bike outside for the first time this season.  I was nervous, since riding with clipless pedals anywhere near traffic massively freaks me out, but it went much more smoothly than expected.  I'm getting much better at clipping in, and didn't have any near misses clipping out this time (compared to the approximately 1.75 close calls per ride I averaged in my few rides with them last summer).  As usual, I got about 30 minutes into the ride before I realized that the really annoying headwind was actually created by me moving forward at 15+ mph.  Someday I'll get used to it, I guess!  Good news was that riding outside seems to be slightly less uncomfortable than riding on the trainer, for some reason.

I'm also trying to be a little better about my nutrition, making sure at least some of my calories are healthy instead of just eating a lot of food.  And I've started thinking about what I'll be able to to eat before and during the race, so I'm experimenting with shotbloks, gu, bonk breakers, etc.

Soup + Salad + Bread is better than pizza, I guess ...

Got a free sample of this at the B.A.A. 5K -- tasty, but also basically apple sauce

No race this Sunday, but it was still a pretty packed day.  I've never had to worry about what time the pool opens on weekends before! (answer is 9am)  But the early(ish) swim was total worth it, because it was followed by this:

Tavern brunch buffet!  There may or may not have been chocolate cake, too.

Game four!

Free (gigantic) tshirt!

Lil Phunk!

I was NOT super excited about heading out for a run after the game (especially after I came home to a bunch of dog vomit) but I got most of the mileage in at a faster than expected pace.

Here's the plan for this week:

The main change was another crew race today (we kicked butt, in case anyone was wondering).  It was a hard workout and an early wake up, which means today didn't really feel like a rest day.  I'm debating scrapping tomorrow's trainer ride to give my body a real chance to recover before diving into the hardest week yet.  I'm also realizing that 5.5-7 hrs of sleep per night is NOT cutting it on this training schedule.  Getting 8-9 hrs per night is going to be a priority in the coming weeks.  So with that, I'm off to bed!

Week 3: What A Week It's Been

Well, last week was quite a week [warning - explicit language].  I'm pretty much exhausted, emotionally and otherwise, so I'm going to keep this one short.  If you're really curious, you can find details of the individual workouts on my dailymile profile.

This week's total mileage:

Swim -- 1.2 mi

Bike -- 52.1 mi

Run -- 16.6 mi

This week's workouts were pretty much on schedule, aside from Friday's swim, which I had to scrap because of the shelter in place order.  I had big plans to finally get the bike outside for Saturday's 30 mile ride, but ended up back on the trainer when my afternoon was taken up by the rescheduled Bruins game, which J just happened to have tickets to.

Trainer ride was miserable, but this was worth it

I rewarded myself for the trainer awfulness with some post-ride pad thai #yum

This week is a "recovery" week in the plan, which I'm pretty excited about.  Especially because I'm going to have to add in at least two crew outings -- one practice and one time trial race!

That's it for now - hope everyone has a good week!

Week 2: Boston

I don't have a lot to say about what happened yesterday at the Boston Marathon.  It was tragic and horrible.  After spending the early afternoon watching the race at Chestnut Hill Ave (between mile markers 22 and 23) I was on my way to meet my runner at the finish area when I started to realize something bad had happened.  I spent a scary 20 min or so walking through Back Bay with an uncharged cell phone, emergency vehicles and personnel everywhere, and no idea how bad things were or where in the last miles of the course my boyfriend had been when the explosions occurred.  But we were lucky, and neither of us had made it to Boylston -- my Green Line train had stopped at BU East and he was stopped on the course before the Mass Ave underpass, less than a mile short of crossing his first marathon finish line.  It was a disappointing, unbelievably sad end to what should have been a great event on a happy day.  But I'm incredibly thankful that all of our friends and family members are safe and were quickly accounted for.  Thank you to everyone who called/texted/emailed/facebooked to check on me, and to the nice doorman who let me charge my phone in his building's lobby so I could get some information and let everyone know I was ok.  My thoughts and prayers are with everyone affected by yesterday's events, especially those who were injured or killed and their families and friends.  While there are a lot of questions and very few answers at this point, one thing we know for sure is that there will be more races -- we will keep running, and we will keep cheering for friends, family members, and total strangers.  So with that in mind, on to a recap of last week's training (including the B.A.A. 5K on Sunday) and a preview of what's on the schedule for the week ahead.

Last week's total mileage:

Swim -- 1.5 mi

Bike -- 46.5 mi

Run -- 14.6 mi

We also had our first crew practice on the water on Tuesday, which was a fun extra workout. Like last week, I was completely exhausted most of the time I wasn't working out.  But this week I wasn't hungry all the time (even lost my appetite for a while) and actually started to feel tired in some of the workouts, especially the last swim.

Eating most of this ridiculous ice cream cake may have had something to do with me never wanting to eat again

Once again, the highlight of the week was Sunday's race, this time the B.A.A. 5K.  But first I should back up to Saturday, which started with a trip to the marathon expo for number pickup before my afternoon 25 mile trainer ride.

Race bib!

Believe it or not I actually didn't spend any money at this one

But I did manage a sneaky Ryan Hall photo

And picked up my already-paid-for race shirt

I wasn't expecting much from the race, since a) I hate 5Ks and b) my legs were already exhausted.  But I'd had an amazingly fast 3+ mile run on Friday, so I decided go for it anyway.  I lined up at the beginning of the 9 min pace group and started running.  And somehow a slightly sub-9 pace didn't feel too bad!  J was waiting for me at the corner of Charles and Beacon, and snapped this amazing action shot before I shoved my unneeded (but totally awesome) polka dot running jacket at him.

Running is fun!

The course was pretty crowded, and I never really had room to run until the last quarter mile, at which point I felt like I was going to puke if I pushed the pace any harder.  I even stopped at the first water station (which I never do these days) because I hadn't had anything to drink that morning and the pack slowed down so much going through I figured I might as well get some water out of it!  Bottom line was that the second mile (including the water break) was a bit slower but overall I held on to the pace for my second-fastest 5K ever with an official time of 28:01.

Thankful for a happy memory of crossing this finish line

The splits were slightly off because my gps picked up some significant extra distance with all the turns on the course, which was too crowded to run tangents very well.  But I'm pretty happy with them.

Then after a quick stop to change into a dry shirt and scarf a chocolate chip bagel and bottle of Gatorade (yummy!) I jogged the four-ish miles back to Cambridge, changed into my swimsuit, and went to the pool for an exhausted 1000 yd swim.  After which I met one of my best friends (who was in town for the marathon and is a super awesome runner) for a 2+ hour brunch, and then met up with J and friends for a pre-marathon pasta dinner.  It was an exhausting but wonderful day.

Coming up this week, more of the same, with slight mileage increases.

I had mixed feelings about whether to join #runforboston with a run today.  At first I wanted to stick to the plan and just ride my bike.  To not let this horrible event disrupt my training in any way.  But then was driving down Storrow Dr when I saw a runner in a yellow Boston Marathon shirt on the Esplanade and I almost started sobbing in my car.  I wanted to be out there.  So I compromised.  I rode the trainer for the planned 40 minutes (sprints and all), and then took my new B.A.A. shirt for a run around the block.  I know it didn't change anything, but it felt pretty good.

Sweaty Selfie!

Week 1 Survival and a Cambridge City Run Recap

I survived the first week!  Definitely got a little preview of how difficult this training is going to be.  Only a few days in I turned into a bottomless pit for food and by the end of the week I was exhausted.  I'm not sure I've ever been as excited about a rest day as I was today!

Friday: so proud of myself for taking a break from burritos for a big bowl of pasta with veggies I decided to take a picture

Bringing the weekly total mileage to:

Swim -- 1.3 mi

Bike -- 40.1 mi

Run -- 15.3 mi

I'm trying to be good about fitting in some of my PT strengthening exercises while I'm sitting around watching tv, but a) there isn't a lot of sitting around watching tv time these days, and b) if there is it's because I'm too exhausted to move!

I also had a slight freak out when I looked at the official race website and saw the time cutoffs for the legs of the race. From the start of the final wave, the closing time for the swim is 1 hr 10 min, the bike 5 hr 30 min, and the run 8 hr 30 min.  I was thinking it would take me about 7 hrs 30 min to finish the race, but I have literally NO IDEA whether I'm going to be able to make those cutoff times, especially on the swim.  I'm trying not to let the cutoffs make me too time-obsessed during training, but it's not easy!

The highlight of the week was definitely the Cambridge City Run on Sunday morning.

The morning didn't get off to a great start when I woke up exhausted after less than 5 hrs of sleep thanks to a combination of the NCAA tournament schedule and a ridiculous shortage of cabs in Boston on Saturday night.  But it was a beautiful morning (just a little windy) and I was feeling ok by the time I jog/walked the 2.5 miles from my apartment to the start of the race at Fresh Pond.

I met up with a (much faster) friend at the start, and a few minutes later the gun sounded and we shuffled across the line with several hundred of our new friends.  The course was pretty crowded, especially toward the middle where the 3 mile walk course joined up with the run course, but dodging people was actually a nice distraction and it felt great to actually be passing people for a change! I didn't think I would be able to keep up with said faster friend for long, but she was planning on an easy run and I somehow gutted it out until the last mile.  I usually complain about running with other people, especially with faster people, but after a week of solo training this was a really nice change.  By mile 4 my legs were completely done and not willing to put up with any change in elevation.  I remembered a pretty decent hill in the last mile, so I told my running buddy to go ahead while I stopped at the water station and took a little break.  I slowed waaay down and walked part of the last hill, but still managed to finish without slacking off the pace too much (splits are a tiny bit off because my watch recorded 5.06 miles total)

 My official time was 49:30, but I think that must be gun time instead of net time because my watch had 48:43.  Either way, a better performance than I expected after a full week of training with a 20 mile ride the day before!

After the race, things got even better.  We met up with another friend (and former Reach the Beach teammate!) for brunch at Johnny D's in Davis Square.

They had me at "parrot mimosa". 

The parrot mimosa in it's natural post-race environment.  Tropical mimosa >> beet juice.

Eggs, toast, home fries, cheese grits, AND chocolate chip banana bread pancakes? Yes, please!

Ladies brunching

This photo doesn't do justice to the amount of ridiculously bright running gear present

After brunch, I was NOT excited about having saved the swim for the last workout of the week.  All I wanted to do was pass out on the couch and catch up on tv.  But after a brief digestion break, I headed to the pool (the fancy one I hadn't tried yet!) and got my laps in, including a full 300 yds with flipturns and no breaks, which was a first.

Here's what's up for this week:

Plus at least one crew practice and the B.A.A. 5K as part of Sunday's run.  Back next week with the report!

70.3 Training: Week 1

It's April, which means it's finally time to start my training plan for Ironman 70.3 Racine!

Here's the plan for this week:

And, of course, this week's wild cards:

• an intramural crew team tank training session on Wed
• the Cambridge City Run 5 miler on Sunday

The tank session shouldn't actually be much of a workout.  We'll probably spend more time getting grilled on our seat numbers than actually rowing, so I'm planning to add it to Wednesday's scheduled swim and run.  The boathouse is conveniently located on the river (shocking, I know) so I should be able to go straight from rowing to running.

For the weekend, I'm planning to do the swim planned for Sunday on Saturday morning, then meet a runner friend for packet pickup and lunch, then get in my 20 mile bike ride.  Haven't decided whether use the trainer or take the bike outside for the first time this season -- will depend on the weather and who I can convince to join me (I still can't fix a flat and don't trust myself not to bite it with my still-new-to-me clipless pedals, so I don't like to do long rides alone).  Then Sunday will be the five mile race with a possible 1-2 mile warm-up jog to or from the start.  Or I'll be too tired from Saturday and take the bus ...

Back next week with a report on week 1 and a preview of week 2 of the plan!  And after repeated demands from "the people" (coughcoughkatiecoughcough) I will eventually post some sort of Austin recap.  Really.  Promise.