TriAptitude Coaching

It’s always fun when race season begins and all your friends and athletes show up at the local races to shake out the cobwebs and get back on the race course together.  Last Saturday was the Colorado Sprint Triathlon held at Boulder Reservoir right here in Colorado. It’s a fantastic local race run by Without Limits Production and race director Lance Panigutti.  It is also the first in a three race series this year with 5430 Sports which includes Colorado Sprint, Boulder Peak Olympic and the 5430 Sports 70.3 distance race in September. It was a phenomenal registration deal- all three races for an entry fee of only $330. Wow, you just can not beat that price!  What a great deal for three amazing races here in Boulder run by a fantastic race team.  I am definitely planning on signing up for the entire series next year as I plan to focus on local races next summer and keep it a bit more manageable for me with my family.

So, my hopes and goals going into this race were pretty simple.  I wanted to use the Colorado Triathlon as race prep for Costa Rica- an open water swim, transitions, tune up on the bike and make sure my TT was ready to go and finally to check out my left foot on a race pace run at higher intensity off the bike.  My biggest goal though was to have fun and be there to support my own athletes as they raced.  I only accomplished a few things on my list.

I originally had five athletes who planned to race.  But, as life is such, some unexpected turn of events prevented a few from toeing that start line.  And, in my case, I almost did not do so either!  About a week before the race a few things happened to change dynamics and plans. First of all, TriBike Transport e-mailed and told me that they needed to pick up my bike in Denver 10 days earlier than expected.  This was not a complete surprise as their original estimated ship date for my bike was June 11 which I knew was too close to my race date of June 18.  So, I had to have my race bike ready for transport and dropped off by June 1/2.  So, that kind of blew my hope of racing on my TT bike and checking it to be race ready for Costa Rica.  I was going to have to race my road bike.  Don’t get me wrong- I love my road bike.  It is awesome and I miss being on it more often.  But, it had not had a tune in about 2 years, has a different set up than my TT bike and was not in racing shape.  One more thing to add to the list- tune road bike and get it race ready. It definitely crossed my mind….should I just use Saturday as a training day back home in Evergreen and skip the race??  Nope. I’ll ride my road bike for it.

Open Water Swim- well, it’s been a colder than normal spring in Colorado with a big snowfall in May.  This prevented me from getting in any open water swims leading into the race.  My swim fitness is good but it’s always nice to get in the open water and practice skills before you actually try to do so in a race.  But, no, not me.  I could not figure out a time to get in an open water swim in Denver at a time which worked for my family schedule and included air temps which were above 39 degrees.  So, I bagged that early 5:30 am OWS at Grant Ranch and continued to swim in the pool instead.  After all, this is a tune up race, right?  Costa Rica is a 1.2 mile swim in the ocean at 75+ degrees and is non-wetsuit legal.  So, there’s nothing race specific about swimming in 58 degree water in a full wetsuit and barely going 750 m because I am frozen to the bone.  Lucky for us, Colorado Triathlon race day water temps were up to 68 degrees and it felt great!

But, let’s back up here a bit.  I got my bike tuned and ready to go.  The bike fit on my roadie is different from my TT bike and so I had to get used to my geometry on this bike again. I found that it was bothering my lower back a bit.  But, heck, I had no other options so I was riding it as is for the race.  I took my bike down for a brick workout in Morrison on Wednesday and ended up losing my bike computer bracket and my Garmin into the overgrown grass along Bear Creek Lake path.  That was probably another sign that racing this week was not exactly aligning with the stars. But, my legs felt great on the bike and I loved riding my road bike again.  I also had a great short fast run off the bike which encouraged me that I was ready to race.  I got off the bike to load it into my car and I noticed that I had a little twinge in my throat.  No no no. That’s nothing. I never get sick, I thought.  Well, at least not since right before Ironman St. George 70.3 last year – a year ago- when I got bronchitis and was knocked out for a week. That was bad.  But, no no no.  This is summer.  I am ready to race.

My husband flew out early on Friday morning to Chicago for his reunion weekend at Notre Dame.  Sadly, I had to miss that fun with him because I was already registered to race Colorado Triathlon and also coach my athletes there before we knew the date for his reunion. So, Greg had to go on his lonesome.  I felt badly about that. We always have a hard time traveling to events like that without the kids because we have no family in Colorado to watch the boys for the weekend. We usually have to divide and conquer for some events – one parent stays back with the kids.  Not ideal for couple fun. In fact, it is one of our couple goals for this year. Make more time for the two of us together.  That’s an important part of the balance equation which I feel has been missing for me and my husband lately. (Uh, see previous post about life balance….LOL). Anyway,  the point of this digression is that with Greg out of town and me supposedly racing and coaching on Saturday in Boulder, Friday was a series of moving targets and logistics as I planned sleepovers for all three of my sons with friends. So, the afternoon was spent transporting the boys to different friends’ houses and getting them settled for Friday night and Saturday until I could pick them all up around noon after the race.  As I was dropping Connor, Matthew and Tommy off and thanking my friends profusely for watching my kids, I started to feel worse- headache, scratchy throat, congested nose. You have got to be kidding me!!! What??  I have busted my ass this week to work details out so I could get to this race and now I am going to feel like hell out there??  And, feel like hell doing my first open water swim of the season, riding a road bike which does not fit me well anymore and one which no longer has a bike computer (because it popped off on Wednesday and is now AWOL forever) and try to run with a stuffy nose through which I can not breathe. That was not my plan!!  But, we all know that life does not always go as planned and we just have to make the best of what we have. I decided I would get my race gear together and go to bed early and see what the morning brought me.  No promises to race.  Worst case- I do not race but I still go and cheer on my athletes. That is still a win in my book!  So, I reworked my mental framework before I went to bed and decided to take it as it came.  Huge thanks to Rick Stockreef for picking up my race packet on Friday or me so that I at least had my race materials and could be prepared.

My alarm went of at 4:00am on Saturday morning. Not a huge change of events for me as I often get up this early for morning training sessions so that I get them done before my sons wake up.  I was on the road to Boulder by 4:45 am and pulled into the reservoir by 5:45 am.  I was definitely there earlier than I needed to be but I prefer getting to a race site with more time rather than less especially when I still have not decided if I am going to race yet!!!  LOL- Yep. True that. I was debating back and forth all the way to Boulder. I was feeling better on Saturday morning and really wanted to race. So, I was weighing my options all the way into transition. And, once I decided to get my body marking done and I had #102 on my arms, it was a bit harder to weigh my options without bias. Option A)  I do not race at all and I just cheer on the sidelines. B) I use the race as my open water swim practice and just swim my 1500 meters. C) I swim, transition and ride my bike conservatively (ummm…. yeah…..not likely as I love to pound it on my bike). D) I swim, bike and run but do so in Zone 2 only and take it super easy (also not likely since I have a really hard time holding back on the race course- I should just take the temptation away and cheer on the sidelines)  E)  Take it as it comes and just see how it all flows. I chose Option E.  But, after my warm up run and having a hard time breathing on that, I was wavering more toward option F) Swim and bike as tolerated, transition to run and then come back to cheer my athletes on from the sidelines because there is no way I can run feeling like this and not get too sick to race my Ironman race in Costa Rica in two weeks.  The smart me won out in the end. I know my limits and I know what happens when you push through something that your body is not ready to handle. The answer is nothing good.  Keep your eye on your goal and make sure you focus on what is best for you and your long-term destination.

And, that is what I did. I was a bit disappointed that it came down to that. Ideally, I would have liked to run my 10K off the bike and finished with an Olympic distance time for the event.  But, you know what?  Things don’t always go as planned and it is the strength and ability to dig deep and make the smart choices which determine the success you have.  I have not always been able to do that.  I am an immediate gratification kind of girl- I always have been.  I want it on the day that I planned it.  In the past, I have pushed through injuries with which I should not have raced. The long-term results were not good. In fact, one year, it cost me Nationals. I raced on a sore calf in a sprint race leading into Boulder 70.3.  I pulled a calf muscle during that race and it impacted my Achilles tendon.  It made it almost impossible for me to run my 13.1 miles during IM Boulder 70.3 and it stayed aggravated for the next few months costing me my chance to race at Nationals that year. It was a hard lesson to learn.  REST when you need to REST.  I should never have raced that sprint distance that year leading into a big race.  Trust me. I was playing that one out in my head on Saturday morning.  The run portion of this race was out.

I rallied around to find my athletes and tried to touch base personally with everyone before the swim start.  I visited with friends and enjoyed seeing familiar faces I had not seen in a while. It was a beautiful day in Boulder, warm and sunny. It felt like summer and it was fun to be at a race no matter the circumstances.  I was happy and I was going to enjoy what I could do.  I jumped in the water for a practice swim and the water felt great. The water temp was 67.9 degrees and I wore my sleeveless wetsuit.  I was in the third wave to take off – women 35 and older.  I positioned myself at the front and in the middle as I normally do.  The gun went off and I simply found my rhythm. I did not force myself to go out fast since I was not feeling on top of my game. I just wanted to swim an easy, comfortable pace and practice staying on course.  The swim went great. I was comfortable in the water, I found a space and position in my pack of swimmers which worked for me going out from the start, I gradually picked up my swim pace as I tolerated.  Before I knew it, I was rounding the turn buoy and preparing for my return to shore. Taking a quick glimpse as I sighted, I did not see many other white caps in my vicinity which was a good sign as it meant that I was toward the front of my wave.  I came to shore feeling good, not out of breath at all except when I sprinted up the sand to T1 and ran into transition to peel off my wetsuit and grab my bike.  Swim done. Not my fastest at 27 minutes (give or take) but good considering I was holding back a bit and trying to make sure I did not overexert myself for this one.  Goal for swim was to use it as a practice swim and assess how I felt getting out of the water to see if I would bike.  I decided I felt pretty good and would go ahead and bike the course.

I struggled out of my wetsuit…..and I mean struggled…..my right foot was stuck in there something fierce and I finally I had to sit down on the ground and give it a good yank.  Note to self- use more TriSlide on my right leg and practice my step, lift legs, free from wetsuit routine.  I am out of practice apparently.  I grabbed my helmet, put it on and made sure the chin strap was completely latched before I even put on my cycling shoes.  I grabbed that bike and was on my way.  Here goes nothing!  I started out a little harder than I wanted and had to back off a bit coming onto Jay Rd from the reservoir to calm my heart rate and breathing.  I could tell that my throat was not going to like all the deep inhales and I tried to focus on breathing through my nose but that was kind of pointless because it was all stuffed up. My goal for the bike became holding a steady pace which allowed me to keep my heart rate lower than I would normally on an Olympic bike course and use my downhill breaks as needed to focus on speed without energy expenditure.  I was quickly realizing that a run was out of the question.  It was hard for me to get my breathing regulated on the bike so I knew it would be pretty impossible on the run.  Nevertheless, it was a fun 40k ride on the Boulder course and I always enjoy opening up my speed on Nelson Rd.  I made sure I gave everyone notice as I passed with an “on your left” to the best of my abilities but my voice was getting more hoarse as the ride went on and finally I could not do it as well anymore.  One gentleman got pretty angry with me and shouted out, “Rider on YOUR right!!” I felt badly but I just did not have a voice at that point to notify him in the way I normally would have.  So, my apologies to that young man.  Doubt he’ll be reading this blog but just in case- sorry, sir.

The entire time on the bike, I expected to see some cute ladies pass me with an age of 45-49 on their calves.  I was surprised that it never happened.   In fact, I remember only speedy young men flashing past me at 25 mph.  As I was coming into transition after 1:07 on the bike, I realized that I was in first place in my age group and must have a comfortable lead. I was also surprised that my bike time was that fast considering I was on my road bike and I was holding back.  That was a fun surprise. Wow, did that non-smart part of me really want to run my race.  “No no no. You could blow up on that run and really get sick for Costa Rica.”, I told myself.  But, maybe I could just run a slower pace and hope it’s enough to get through.  No, or maybe you could try to run, not be able to breathe and feel awful for the next 4 weeks and lay in bed in Costa Rica while your sons go surfing.  That sounds like a bad plan.  Is there an Aquabike category in this race??  That would have been cool.  I wish there was an aquabike category.  I’ll pretend there is and I will transition to the run and hit the timing mat, run up about 1/4 mile and call it a day.  So, the debate continued in my mind for a brief period of time.  The smart me won out.   I am so very grateful that smart me won out.  Dumb me always gives smart me a run for the money so it is often a crap shoot.  So, I finished early without running a 10k but feeling good about the effort I could put in and happy that I had played it safe instead of being a risk taker.  There are times to take risks and there are times to play it safe.  Today was a play it safe kind of day.  Skip the run and go cheer on the other athletes and have some fun.

It turns out that there was an aqua bike category for this race and I was lucky enough to get an official race time in that category 1:38.  I was extremely happy with that considering the circumstances!!  Thank you to all of my friends who supported me on race day- friends who watched my kiddos, friends who cheered, friends who made me laugh, new friends I made on race day, old friends I have not seen since last race season, MHM team mates, my own personal athletes and my husband who called from Notre Dame to check in and see what exactly I had decided to do out there at the Colorado Triathlon.  Like I said, it was not the most organized race day physically or mentally for me.  And, I did not feel that great during the event. But, I sure did have a great time with everyone I saw there and it was a happy day all around.  Final results- fun, laughter, friends, practice swim, bike ride on my roadie after two years, cheered my awesome athletes on and saw them kick some ass and I got first overall in the aquabike. I call that a winning day.