Buzzard's Bay

I raced yesterday! You'd never know. I have been a poor blogger about it.

Truthfully, I've been training, but not really for this particular race. I was more working on the cycle portion of that half ironman relay. But in the last two weeks I did manage to do some sprint training.

Results at the end, they're good, so I'll save them.

It was cold. Really cold when I got up. 41 degrees. Unsettling at the thought to be in the water at that temperature. But I got ready and packed the gear and heading to pick up Kevan and John.

Luckily Kevan and I swam a couple times this last week. The air and water were cold, but we found our way through it. The last time I swam was really successful, we did the Barrington Beach stretch and back and then a little more. I felt relaxed and good in the water.

We got there early and we set up transition and kind of walked the swim area and the bike in/out. I need to know where the exits are. I get disoriented easily and that's all wasted time.

I set up my transition like a pro. It's all that practice Kevan made me do. I know exactly where everything should go and the order it should be in. I even placed socks and jersey out in case I felt cold coming out of the swim. I had my water bottle to wash my feet... I was prepared.

My mom and dad came to watch the race with Josh and the kids, so it was nice to see them out there and have a cheering section. At these kinds of things, everyone cheers for you, but it's nice to hear your name and recognize people. :)

The swim course from the shore was daunting. But then I realized you swim/walk to the start. Nice. The channel we swam in was nice and wide. It was like I was all alone. At Wild Dog, I got kicked and partially swam over. Here I was just able to plug away and swim at my own pace, sight and not worry.

I was one of the last women out of the water in my wave, but I'm ok with being a slow swimmer. Really. I make up for it on the bike and the run.

This race was about how far I can push myself and working through the discomfort. And I did it on the bike.

Transition 1 was ok, I partially stripped out of the wetsuit on the way up and managed to get it off ok. I got in my shoes, slapped on my helmet and ran out the bike out.

The bike was nice. It felt almost as long at the half iron man relay. I kept a really good pace and passed almost everyone in my swim wave. I started seeing all the guys and their ages... 32, 24, so I caught up to the primary swim wave. Good inspiration that I was doing well.

I pushed really hard on the bike. I had a couple of good exchanges with other riders, passing, falling back, passing. Ultimately, I won! How cool is that?

I made it back to transition, dismounted like a pro. Which almost was to my detriment since no one else was, especially the lady in front of me. Yikes.

I got out to the run and felt pretty crappy. My legs felt heavy and the last thing I wanted to do was run three miles. So I go up this huge hill they have at the beginning, I pace myself shorten my stride and make it to the top and feel better. I plug away at the run, take a sip or two of water and then turn back at a mile and a half.

At mile two I picked up my pace, at mile three I float down the hill and use the momentum to pass people and carry me towards the finish like. I ran as fast as I could into the finish line and it was done. Yay!

Final results:

96/444 Overall. Top 100.

Ready?

3/20 for my Age Group. I placed! Third is not first, but I couldn't have caught that girl anyways. Second maybe if I had run a little better and swam faster. But really? For that day, I'll take third. I have next year to win.

Overall time 1:25.03 It was such a good day. The weather, what I accomplished. Lots of good post race food and beer. Kevan and John were a lot of fun as always.

race results.

Good times!

Now I can skip out on swimming for just a little bit before I get some lessons and work on my tattoo since I'll be out of the water. Yay.

Training for the Amica marathon in Newport in October. For sure running the half, I may be finagled to running the whole for fun. I think the half is more reasonable. :)

Duathlon October 25th! Not as intsense as a triathlon, but it'll do for now. I'm addicted to racing now, I need it all the time. The excitement, the preparation... It's all so much fun.

I should get ready for work.

Oops.

Neglected my blog for a little there, eh?

I raced in the FIRM Half Ironman in Narragansett as a relay team yesterday. Totally outperformed what I thought I could ever do, and I had a great time. So it was a good day.

Kevan was gracious enought to be my relay partner as finding partners through Teams in Training didn't go so well. I think everyone there wanted to see him race the whole thing, so I'm glad he raced with me. As a relay we did really well, 5:06. Kevan did great on the swim and I think he did great on the run. I couldn't run 13 miles in 1:38, but he can.

I did the entire 56 mile course in 2:51 (rounded up, I'll still saying 2:50). It was a long, lonely ride, but totally worth it. I destroyed hills, passed people, kept a really great pace for quite a few stretches. As I should, I was on a relay after all. I was happy. Next year I'd like to make that my "A" race, what I'd really like to train for.

I was originally going to say the Amica 70.3 in July, but that's not enough time. The year after for that one! Even if I'm not really ready for it when it happens, I'd still like to try and train for it.

Olympics first though. I have to nail the swim part to get to Half Ironman. And I need to build my running distance. Both things I can do all winter. Then it's assembling the whole thing to run it all together. That's the miracle.

I have Buzzard's Bay this weekend, and I'm really looking forward to it. I've been testing how hard I can push myself and I really plan on putting all my effort into this race. I set my own expectations pretty high, even higher than Wild Dog, so we'll see.

This is my taper week for training, and I'm trying to figure out what's the most effective in terms of rest/training. I did my big bike workout yesterday, so I'm looking forward to some light biking, running, open water swim this week. I have totally been overtraining lately, so it will be nice to tone it down a touch.

Pre race on this upcoming Saturday I have to work, so that will be a good rest day for me. I won't be tempted into yoga, or a 40 mile bike ride. And maybe for one race, I will get some sleep and my body will be ready to go. Usually I'm sore and exausted, and I still do ok, so maybe if I'm fresh I'll do really well.

I need badly to find something to wear because I'm pretty sure it's going to be very cold on race morning. The wetsuit will keep me warm, but I only wear that for 15 minutes. Thank goodness it's a little later in the morning this time.

After this weekend I have only a few more things through October for racing. Amica Half Marathon and Wrentham Halloween Duathlon.

I took about twelve days off in October for vacation, five of which we're spending in Canada with Kevan and Kelly. Looking forward to that very much. The other days I have no idea yet.

We were looking at taking the kids on a road trip to New York and going apple picking in Vermont again, so we'll see what happens. All I know is, I don't have to work a full weekend until November. Score.

Bikes and Jobs and stuff.

The FIRM bike course went really well for me. We didn't do the full 56, but we came really close. I kept a decent pace and only dropped one of my two water bottles. Hehe. It's a challenging course, but mostly flat, the hills are in the middle. So I warm up on the flat straights and I can hit the hills pretty hard and then recover on the way back. Strategy.

Plus I did it in tri shorts and wasn't uncomfortable. Which means for once I was sitting on my saddle correctly. Hurray for small victories.

I may or may not have relay partners for the FIRM, too. I just want to be ready if I actually get to go and race that day. If not, I'll observe and take pictures.

I felt really good afterwards. Tired, but good. Repeating the course again on Saturday. Looking forward to see if I can replicate my pace and whatnot.

Didn't get my promotion. Totally bummed. In a way it's good, it doesn't hamper my tri training. I won't have to readjust my schedule and throw the kids and the family off. In a way it's bad, because apparently I'm failing at the things I thought I was good at, so it's a little disheartening.

They probably had who they wanted picked ahead of time for that position. That's how it usually works anyways. So now I get to look forward to using those things that I suck at as benchmarks on my next review. So if I don't improve them, I don't get a raise or I get fired. Yaaaaaay.

I started looking at late registration today for classes. I'll see if I can pick up some stuff to take piecemeal and then do something more aggressive in the fall.

There are some good things going on. At least we're still going to Canada in October. I'm still breathing, walking and tri training. And I'm going cycling tonight. :) So it's all good.

It makes the other things I do matter more. Family. Triathlon. Friends.

I'll be ok in a few days. Hopefully some aggressive bike riding will help.