My schedule calls for a bit lighter training week before races, but I took that to a whole new level. Being so busy right now has really caused me to have to omit or decrease a workout or two per week. But, as I look at the calendar, I see that IM Wisconsin is only a mere 11 weeks away, which means I have to buckle down for the rest of the summer. It should be a bit more do-able as I don't have as much travel planned for the next 2 weeks.
This was my third year competing in the Quad Cities Triathlon. It is a great race - 600 participants, well run, great schwag, free chiropractic, close to home! I was kind of curious to see how I would perform this year. My training has been (for obvious reasons) lots different from previous years. For one, I've actually been swimming on a regular basis (last year, it seemed like my only swim "training" occured during races!), secondly, I had a much bigger base of running under my belt, and finally, I had a sleek new bike to ride!!
The weather was great for the race, although a bit windy - sunny and in the low 70's. I was in the 6th wave of swimmers: women 30-39 (silver swim caps). The swim start was a bit rough. It seems like every year I get kicked and grabbed and swum over more and more, but this year I decided to start in the middle of the pack (rather than my usual outside position) because I wanted to see just how well my swimming was coming along. I just kept my head down and tried to get into my rhythm, and every time I looked up to sight, I saw fewer and fewer silver caps ahead of me. That was a nice little boost of confidence and as it turns out, I came out of the water 6th in my age group of about 32!
Even though I was pretty light-headed coming out of the water, I had a quick transition and got out on the bike. We had a cross-wind most of the 15 miles, with a couple smaller stretches headed into or with the wind. As usually occurs at the QC Tri, the tailwind was on the "out" of the out and back. I passed quite a few people (mostly from earlier waves) on the bike out because they hadn't quite figured out how to take advantage of the help! The headwind was brutal coming back, but I had the 10th fastest bike in my age group.
At T2, I made a last second decision to not wear socks on the run and had another quick transition. The run starts out on a trail and has a couple of short, steep hills in the first mile, then we hit pavement for the rest of the run. By this time, I was getting pretty hot, but I managed my best pace ever in a triathlon run! All in all, I bettered my time from last year by 6+ minutes! It was another great race, and a great way to kick off the racing season for me!
Next up was the Dutchman Olympic Distance Triathlon in Pella. I met Roehr in Pella for packet pick-up, and then we headed out to drive the bike course to see what we were up against. Although Roehr grew up in Pella, she had forgotten just how hilly that part of Iowa is! The course has a couple pretty nice climbs that really reminded both of us of the course in Madison.
Roehr dropped me off back at the church where I met up with Terri, Jerry, and Tina (friends I met on the training weekend in Madison) for the pasta dinner at the church. We had lots of laughs as they ran out of pasta twice - both times before we got to eat any. Plan B was dinner downtown at George's where we found more pasta and free ice cream with every dinner!! We ate our fill, then ran into more DM triathletes in the corner (only in Pella would this happen...), where we hung out for a while, chatting about ice cream, triathlons, and shoes! As 9pm approached, we all headed to our accomodations for the evening. I stayed with Roehr at her high school band director's house - random, but perfect!
I was kinda nervous before the start of the race. Not because I didn't think I could handle the distances, just because I'd never done a race this length and I wasn't sure how to pace for it. The swim looked pretty long (1.5K), but oddly enough, that was the part I was least worried about! All the women started in Wave 2; there were 54 of us. I didn't get kicked/grabbed as much as at the QC tri, but it took forever for the field to spread out. As soon as the women started to open up, we began to catch the men from the wave before, and about that same time, the faster men from the wave after ours were catching us! At right about the turnaround, I finally felt like I was finding some sort of rhythm. As soon as we rounded the 750m bouy, all I could see was the sun glaring back at me. It was pretty hard to sight on the return trip, but I made it. I did have one "first" for me on the swim: I completely swam over the top of some guy! One of us was not going straight back to shore (him), and he just started to cut right across my path, so with a couple well-placed strokes, I just slid right over him and on my merry way! I was 6th out of 15 in my age group out of the water.
I experienced the same light-headedness in T1 that I had at the QC tri, but again managed to wrestle myself out of my wetsuit without face-planting on the ground. Roehr was already in T1 when I got there, but I managed to sneak out a few seconds ahead of her, but that would be the closest to her I'd be for the rest of the day. The bike out was fast; there was a little wind at our backs. Pella had tons of volunteers - at least 2 at every intersection, and they were great at cheering for everyone. The course weaved through town and then out to the north. My only real complaint about the course were the two blocks of brick paved street that we had to ride on. Going out was great - with a slight tailwind which was increasing as the race progressed, but that meant it would be a decent headwind for the trip back into town. Plus, all the major uphills seemed to be on the second half. I only got passed by a couple of women, and I passed a couple others. I ended the 40K bike leg with a 19.2mph average.
As we made our way back to transition, the sun began to come out and start to show its stuff. I made it through T2 without any major catastrophies. I did opt for socks this race, and I was glad I did! The 10K run starts with a little incline out of the transition area and onto a gravel, then asphalt trail. After what felt like a nice, gradual decline for about a mile, we settled into the run along the river by a campground (were the campers basically just gawked as we went by). There was little shade there, so each water stop involved one cup of water for drinking and one for dumping over my head! We'd been told of the "hill" around mile 3, but I guess I was thinking that it wouldn't be quite as long as it was! As I started up the hill, I saw Roehr coming down and she told me to take it easy on the uphill, 'cause it was a doozie! I took her advice and played a game with myself that I will from here on out be calling "Dutch Letters," in honor of the Pella Dutchman triathlon. Not only did I return to my coping mechanism of repeating the alphabet backwards, but I added also singing it forwards, and at a couple points during the hill, adding a few choice words to the whole thing. I finally reached the top of the hill, found the turnaround, and started back down, thinking the worst was behind me. I saw Terri, Jerry, Jess, and Kerrie (someone I graduated from PV with) and tried to give them whatever encouragement I could muster.
Although the BIG hill was behind us, there was still a lot of climbing left to to do get back to the finish line, and this was where I had to do a bit of walking. It wasn't pretty, but I walked and ran from about mile 4 to mile 5, then just tried to gut it out the rest of the way. Roehr was cheering for me as I got closer to the finish, reminding me that we had just checked off another race on the countdown to Ironman! I finished in 2 hours and 55 minutes - 9th in my age group of 15, but it still felt great. In the back of my head before the race, I expected to be right around 3 hours, so beating that was awesome in my mind!
The post-race was great, and I found lots to eat. We hung around for a while for the awards and door prizes. The RD was basically pulling numbers out of thin air to give away the prizes. Then he switched to just basically asking who wanted what! I won a big jug of Hammer Gel just for being one of the people in the race training for an IM. Then, I won some gloves and a water bottle just because my birthday is close to 10/10. Random! I think the best part was just hanging out with Roehr and her parents and all my new friends from the DM Tri Club. It's been great getting to know them, and going to races is so much more fun when there are a bunch of people you know! And, most of them will be at Racine in 4 weeks, too!
Week 13 Weekly Round-Up (Sunday thru Saturday):*
Swim: 3800 yards
Bike: 1 hours, 35 minutes
Run: 23.7 miles
Cross-Training: about 120 minutes of core and strength work.
*Including Quad Cities Sprint Distance Triathlon
Week 12 Weekly Round-Up (Sunday thru Saturday):**
Swim: 5200 yards
Bike: 4 hours, 5 minutes
Run: 16.2 miles
Cross-Training: about 120 minutes of core and strength work.
** Including Pella Dutchman International Distance Triathlon
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