Getting "back in the game"

2012 Racing Report

August 12^th, 2012 

Mountain Man Olympic Triathlon

Flagstaff , AZ

Sorry if I ramble a bit, I’m just a bit tired, and will Spell Check Later!  Enjoy!

Today was my first race back after my Ironman last November. I’d been having a hard time getting back in the “game” if you will and committing to a training plan.  I had at least got back to doing some “training” without a plan, but finally made the commitment. I signed up for the Mtn Man Olympic Tri for 2012.  I choose this because I could make a goal to see if I could beat my PR from 2010, my first ever Olympic Tri. Which was after a gallbladder removal and only 6 weeks of training. There were several things that had me nervous about this race.

1.     I didn’t train on the bike for near as what I needed to do. Construction on Fain Rd, kept me from my usual route, and I grabbed rides where I could up at Lake Mary and on my trainer at home.

2.     I was running, but only averaging about 3-4 miles as the old back injury was making itself known and I had to tone it down a notch so I wasn’t having shooting pain down my backside.

3.     I  had just started a Whole 30 Meal Plan, reading a book called It Starts with Food, inspired me to try it, and see if I could dial in my nutrition better and as the book stated would help me race better. I also wanted to see if I could “go the distance”.  

So this Whole 30,  basically is a Paleo Diet, only eating meats, veggies and fruit.  And NOTHING ELSE. No dairy, sugar, grains, legumes, bread, nothing.  So I was using this race as an experiment to see how I could adjust to racing and training and not have the usual Gu fuel, powder race drinks, Gatorade, etc.  Seems like it was a success!  And I was on Day 29.

And I have to admit I was scared I wasn’t sure I could do it and not bonk. So I took the pressure off and just used this race as a  “get back in the game”.

Race Day:

Sunday Morning: Aug. 12^th, 2012.

I woke and was reasonably calm. I had all my gear ready to go. And was out the door by 4:15 am. I got over to the race course and got my transition setup, body marked, timing chip, and finished any last minute details. I had decided earlier in the week that I would try and knock off one minute on each discipline so I could at least try to break my previous result as follows:

2010 Results From Mountain Man Olympic Triathlon

Swim 45: 06

T1 5:18

Bike: 1:32:19

T2 4:19

Run 1:12:50

3:39:51

My swim wave for the Olympic  was the last one, so we were offset 22 minutes from the start time. At 6:32 AM I jumped into a reasonably warm 71 degree Lake Mary and started my swim. I actually had a lot of contact in the first 500 yards of the swim, more so then my Ironman. I even stayed near the back because I didn’t want to get in the pack I couldn’t keep up with. But I felt strong; I also just told myself I would do it. My swimming is the one thing I had been working on all off season. But in the pool I was getting 40 minutes to get in 1500 yards. So I knew I had better in me then my previous result, and I WANTED that to be better. NO MERCY became my mantra for the day. And it was a good one that someone gave me to focus onJ.  I remember coming around the first buoy, and thinking  everyone was farther to the left, and I was in line with the buoy , so I felt like  I had to keep checking where I was, but I was fine, and it gave me lots of clear water to swim. Before I knew it, I was at the second buoy, then the last turn around.  By this time, I KNEW I was doing better, but I thought I was around the 40 min mark.  When I ran out of the water, It must have been here that I got a gash on my foot cause it was bleeding by the time I got to transition. I literally ran to the timing mat to get my best time. My swim time?  33:31 min/sec.   Highly blowing my old time out of the water! Literally by 12 minutes! I never expected that time! I’m still in a bit of shock, I always seem to have my open water swim be longer then pool swims, so that was a pleasant surprise!

((((ADDENDUEM:  I actually went back and found out I swam my distance in 30:36min/sec  and T1 was 2:54 )))))

I don’t currently know my T1 or T2 time, I’ll add them later.  But my plan was to get in/out fast so I didn’t lose any time. I headed out on the bike and was going faster then usual. I slowed down by the turn around but got there in 50 min rather than 53 min from my last training ride. I turned and hauled butt back to transition. What I did notice was that even as I booked it back my legs were still feeling good. I knew they were tired, but I was back in the mental game of just telling myself, “they don’t hurt! YOU ARE FINE! You have enough left in the tank” you know that whole “mental toughness” thing. I got back to transition in record time. Originally I was thinking  my previous time was 1:27 hr/min, so I was bummed  I wasn’t going to met my goal of beating my time. Only to learn later as I wrote this, I beat it by 3 minutes J.  I must have been flying because I hit the brakes and skidded to a stop! LOL then got off my bike and headed into transition. Per Garmin 3:39 per mile and 16.5 pace.

I began my run with a faster pace than I expected! I clocked my first mile at 9:50min. Then I began the ascent up the hill. And usually I only walk it. But with my goal, I decided to run/walk a min at a time. I was getting hot and was dumping lots of water on me. At the turn around, I decided that I was going to go for 1:05 min. Even though I thought my time was 10 min miles from the previous race. I’m not sure where I got this time, as you can see from above it really was 1:12 hr/min. So I began my decent down the hill and picked up the pace to a 9:30 min/mile. I usual I felt myself begin to  bonk near the bottom and was back to the one min run/walk interval. But as I hit the one and ½ mile mark, I was determined to get my butt moving.  Any jogging was better than walking, and I was ready to get done and get to that finish line for my reward J.   I pushed the last ½ mile and ran around a 9:45 pace. Then I rounded the corner, and ran down through the Finish line! I remember seeing the time of 3:36. So I knew I had to subtract 22 min from that, I beat my goal of getting home under 3:30. But I was having trouble figuring out exactly what time I had gotton. I thought I was slow in two of my events.  Of course it’s hard to figure it out while I’m hunched over trying to catch my breath!!! 

Good news is that my run was 1:09 hr/min and my pace was 11 min/miles.

After further investigation. I realized that I PRed in all THREE EVENTS.

Unofficial Results Minus T1 and T2 times.

                        Swim 1500 yds          30:36 min/sec                  beat by 15 min
                        T1                                     2:54 min/sec
                        Bike 24.6 Miles       1:29:25 hr/min/sec           beat by 3 min 
                        T2                                     2:21  min/sec        
                        Run 6.2 Miles          1:09:19 hr/min/sec           beat by 3 min
                        Total time                 3:14:37 hr/min/sec

Guess this Whole 30 meal Paleo Diet just spoke for itself and proved to me that it does work for dialing in better race nutrition. Not to mention the side benefit of losing a lot of weight. Which I can’t check until after Day 30 which is Monday. So Tuesday, I’ll see just how much I lost.

Next Race? Deuces Wild Olympic Triathlon Sept 7-9^th in Show Low, AZ