Thursday, April 7, 2016

Oceanside 70.3..... the ideal lead up


Not so much....

Here is how the lead up and day went down for my 7th Oceanside 70.3.

Wed:

- woke up with a noticeably stuffy nose that progressed to sinus pain by end of the day.  Ugh
- shake out run was slow and legs heavy- ignore this

Thur:
- sinuses impacted and sore throat.  Dust off the neti-pot
- OW swim with Erica (best homestay ever) and few pro's and fellow races.
- Water temp was good- cool and comfortable and sinuses drained in the Cove - feeling optimistic

Friday
- woke up ignoring how I was feeling and promptly took daytime cold drugs and fooled myself into thinking I am "much better". That was until I took a nap and woke up with a low grade fever.  ignore
- this was the first time I realized racing may not be possible, but nevertheless, I racked my bike and acted like I was fine
- pre race dinner- courtesy of  Foodsense Now - roasted sweet potatoes, black beans, corn and chicken.  Perfect balance and tasted great.  Small amount of dark chocolate
- The Right Stuff before bed

Saturday
- up 3:30am- no fever but not feeling stellar (ignore).   Decided to take daytime cold meds to dry up my nose  - WADA approved drug. Issue with a decongestant is that it dries up everything else.  dry mouth etc
- 3x pancakes + coffee and almond milk + The Right Stuff for breakfast- 600 calories

- out the door early as Erica was starting 55 minutes before me.  I had some time to chill in my car before heading to the race and I decided to not overthink it.  Just see how the day unfolded.  If I was feeling really sick and felt like continuing would make me sicker, I may drop.  And if my foot gave me issues, I would drop as this is not my A race and I did not want to risk injury.
- in Transition getting ready and soaking up the race energy, connecting with my athletes racing as well as so many friends  and team mates.  The best part of racing.
- As they were closing transition I realized my timing chip was at home...panic run and nearly knocked over Heather Fuhr freaking out - no worries, chip on and as I am walking back I hear last chance for body marking.  Holy crap I forgot to get marked.  This was starting to feel like my first rodeo.
- Lined up and waiting in the cattle call and finally in the water.  Swim out to the start line, adjust my goggles and the strap unravels.  And my goggles are under my cap. So with 1 min to go, treading water I take off my cap and rethread the goggles, back on my head and cap on and gun goes off.

Swim  28:41 (2:10 slower than best swim at O'side)
2 min slow based on my PE and fitness.  Water was choppy and I did not see the tangent right and lost time treading water asking where the heck to go. As usual the swim was crowded. I felt good swimming, loose and not compromised.

Bike: 2:44:12 (4 min slower than best bike)
I forgot to put my aero jersey on before the swim (clearly my brain was not working)  so I tried to wrestle it on and ditched it.  Legs felt good on the bike- followed power guidelines and know I was going to be okay as the last 10 miles I was feeling strong.

Nutrition- possibly have finally figured this out
water up front
concentrated bottle with carbo pro and carb rocket and every 30 min I took a sip that was 125 calories. I draw lines on the bottle so I know I am drinking the right amount
6 total salt tabl-  3 at 1 hour and 3 at 2 hours.  Took in less salt as I preloaded with The Right Stuff
- 700 total calories

Run 1:50:47 (7 min off best run)
Here we go.  First few miles I held back and ran as planned.  the plan was run in control first lap, knowing that my biggest competitor is a runner and I may need all I have a the end. Going into the race, doing the math I figured if I ran a 1:5-54 which is all I can expect based on my compromised run fitness -  I am about a month shy of being race ready - it would be a close race.

First split I got by clocking the turn around she was about 7 min back- which did not tell me a lot as I did not know where she was coming off the bike.  So I kept the pace.  Around mile 5 my breathing became compromised and I could feel the cold settling in. My pace was getting slower and I was not feeling so great.  Legs seemed okay but my chest, nose etc were not feeling good.  Took it 1 mile at a time and soaked up the crowds where I could and got to the turn around.  Here is where I had to talk with myself as I was not feeling well and not sure what would happen.  In fact I wanted to lay down and take a nap.
best part of being on a team is racing with fellow teammates! 

This is where I decided to race, stay in the game and suffer.  The last 6 miles were tough, tunnel vision and taking them 1 at a time.   Leslie was the only person I could focus on and around mile 10 I was cramping and thinking no way.  I took a vial of  It's the Nerve, nearly puked and took off.  I could  see she was about 2 min + back.  If she was running 45-1 min faster per mile I was going to get beat.  Not happening, so I dug in, picked up the pace and just ran.


It worked but holy hell it was painful  -  Having just finished the book How Bad Do  You Want It- I had a few good mantras in my toolkit to focus on.

It was a good day... slow day. Instead of focusing on how slow my run was I am focusing on the ability to race and suffer!

Next up St George-  I am sooo excited!  4 weeks of training and being healthy could be really fun.

Moral of this race is you just never know- don't over think it.  Compare this lead up to IM Lake Tahoe where everything was nearly perfect; great workouts, healthy and so confident and wham a totally bust of a race.

So I take from this race....
-  don't waste energy on what is not going right
- go for it, dig deep and suffer

Thank you Mike Ricci for sticking with me after last years cluster of a season and a rough fall.  And Leslie for the intel and knowing how to talk to me when racing.

can you say chafe? 
And for the reminder of what can happen to our bodies race day...suck it up and ignore
the hoka blister I get every race















And a special thanks to Groove Tri and Nytro Multisport- Without the awesome support at Nytro getting race ready would be a challenge!

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