What motivates you?

The fact that I have started this blog 3 times maybe telling....

In any case, in my Santa Rosa 70.3 race recap I was clear what motivated me that day.... nacho's and wine. While that worked for race day, as a parent, I know food bribery is not a good idea on a regular basis although I seem to use it a lot lately. 

Most of the time when I am not dead tired from Ironman training,  I wake up before my alarm at 5 ready to knock out some work and my first workout of the day.   And I carry that with the help of caffeine into the 2nd workout of the day.  Note, the most....

These past few weeks have been tough.  After a short 4 day recovery from Santa Rosa I hit it hard again.  I admittidely often bribe myslef with X food group to get through a transition run.  During my 2nd run on Sunday it was Fro Yo-   1- hold this pace and 2 - finish the run and reward is Fro Yo.  I did both!  But when I finished I dove in the pool and than laid on the floor for an unknown amout of time and the idea of getting int he car to drive to Fro Yo was overwhelming so I opted for some quality recovery food and was in bed by 7pm in the Normatec's.  So sometimes just the idea of the rewward is enough.

My least favorite workout, and this is putting it nicely, is the trainer.  I sometimes feel like it has an aura around it that says #suffer.  Maybe I need to do more easy spins on it to adjust my feelings, but ez spins are social time for me, so no.    I was struggling last week and thinking up many reasons as to why I could not do the workout, none of which I actually texted to Mike.  I even went so far as to think of a better workout on my bike outside, but alas did not suggest that either.   So I looked up my competitors recent race results and whamo I was motivated!  Along with a new playlist, I crushed the workouts.

So what motivates me...

1: Success
2: Food rewards or just the idea sometimes
3: My Coach(s) -  I include my swim coach too as he is HIGHLY motivating when giving what seem like impossible sets.  I appreciate the fact if he expects hard swimming he is all in to.
4: My competition- I feed of their success and may or may not panic train a bit 
5: My athletes. While they often think I give them BSC  worrkouts, 99% of the time I have tested them first so I know the pain and suffering. When I see their success I am motivated.
5: My friends- it's fun to train with friends and teammates
6: A new playlist - don't discount music when you are digging deep

Santa Rosa 70.3 recap

Nytro Girls hamming it up 

I loved Vineman and was really sad to see the race go away...but was optimistic that Santa Rosa would be just as epic.  And it did not disappoint.

For me it was a good day, I came up short on my goals for each leg but considering the short taper and fatigue I was carrying into the race I will graciously accept the results and I found my happy place on the top of the podium.

Swim: 28:29 Off  by over a minute.  Rolling start and while I dislike this from a "where is my competition" stand point it made for a nice swim with 3500ppl and for an early start.  AG start at 6:25 so I was in the water a minute later.  Lake temp 63- ideal and water is murky but feels clean.   I just did not have the extra gear and swam a steady pace and tried not to get upset knowing I was not digging deep.

T1: worst part of the race.  The run up the boat ramp was fine, less than .1 of a mile on carpet but the next .25 is up hill on chipnseal and it was treacherous and cold. Air temp 43 to feet were painful and running barefoot nearly killed me.  I dropped the F bomb about 1000 times.  Dear Race Director with all $$$ you pulled in for registration fees, drop a runner of padding.  I had socks on to keep my feet warm but did not put them on, nor would I stop to put on socks to run back up.  But I HIGHLY recommend some slide that you leave off to the side and jump in and run up.  If you have any feet problems this could be the death of your feet.  There were at least 100 smart people who lined up their shoes, it looked like the entrance of a temple.  Anyway that was COLD

Bike: 2:37:42 I was hopingfor 2:33 and on fresher legs I could have done it.    My power was dropping at mile 40 and the fatigue set in.  But it is a great course!   But, you know there is a but as I am not all about rainbows and butterflies.  Remember the crappy roads of the old Vineman, ruts and potholes and rough roads?  Remember how they finally repaved the entire course and how awesome that was?  Well forget that and re-remember the old course. The roads are mostly crappy, makes for a rough ride and lots of lost nutrition.   BUT the scenery is stunning.... all you think about is drinking wine, ok maybe that was just me.

always honored to be up on stage

Temp- it was cold.  43 degrees and I elected to not use my genius sock arm warmers, because i am an idiot and learned nothing from St George 2016, and I dropped my gloves and was too focused lazy to pick them up.  So I was cold, shivering cold for at least an 90 min or actually 93 minutes when I realized I was not shaking.  Not the smartest plan.  At 30 min I went for my glukos bar and my hands were like claws and I hit a bump and dropped it.  Ok so there goes 200 calories.    For this time of year- you want arm warmers and a vest and gloves!   I had toe warmers on which were helpful.

Nutrition:  1 glukos bar, as I donated the other one to the pothole  2x bottles with 100 calories of OSMOS, 1 glukos liquid pack gel , 1/2 bottle gatorade  = 650  calories.  I backed off on the sodium as as I figured I was not shivering out salt, so I took in 1600 mg for the entire ride vs 3200 as planned.

There are NO steep climbs although I was still happy to have a 28 cassette on there.  Mostly aero riding - just watch out for the giant seams in the road, as in 4 inches high and 3 wide and 2 feet long in the middle of your side of the road, most were marked, a few were not- if you hit that it would really bad.  I rode at 81% but the power was dropping the last 10 miles vs Oceanside where I was holding strong, so I knew I was struggling.  VI 1.03 so pretty even on that front.

D3 crew having fun post race

Wind- all kinds, tail, head, and cross winds- a bit squirrely as times.  I had a  Enve 6 in the front and was fine with that, but if you are tentative in wind I would not go deeper than a 404.  Disc in the rear and no issues.

T2  with 3500 bikes and only 4 rows of bikes it was a LONG transition, as in there were 3 traffic lights in the row, 3+ city blocks.  More running with bike in hand

Awesome to meet athletes face to face :)

Run:  1:47.14 I knew from the beginning the run was going to be a challenge. Plan was start at 8:00 min pace and the drop from there. In Oceanside those first few miles we so easy, hard to run "that slow", where as here it was not easy.  As the miles ticked by the pace was increasing a few seconds each mile as the the pain increased.  Coming off Oceanside where the run is packed with people this was  different run. After the first mile you left town, but not have hard right turns, stairs and a few weird loops all slowing the pace.  Once out on the river it was nice, shaded and crushed gravel but lonely and when you are hurting it was even more lonely.   The first loop is about 9 miles with too many hard turns and up and down curbs but I was taking it one mile at a time.  I hit the low point around mile 8 and had a serious chat with my inner voice to suck the F up and stay in the race.  1- thanks to whoever shouted to lean forward and 2- Andrew Shore who smacked me hard on the ass- that was what I needed!    I would not call this a fast run course and that is not because I ran slowly all the turns and ups and downs take away time, but that is my humble opinion.

D3 in the house

Without John to give me intel or not being able to see my competitors  I was racing blind.  The deal went like this " Julie if you want to drink wine and eat Nacho's you have to hold your pace. If you slow down, give up or think about walking you are eating carrots and drinking water for diner"  Around mile 11 I added a chocolate bar to the deal and was heading for home.  Nutrition was good 3x Huma gels and a few mint Shot Blocks- new and yummy!  Water or gatorade every aid station and 4 motivators at the 1 hour mark to stay caffeinated - 250 mg of caffeine for the race.

It hurt but that is racing...It's easy to reflect today, I could have run faster, but alas, I did what I did on that day.

Ah the benefit of racing in wine country 

The trip was great...with Liz, Bud, Courtney and Mike as housemates and so many D3 athletes and SD Tri Clubbers around, it was almost like a hometown race!   The topper was racing along side Jen and Teri my 2 athletes.  And we had a great post race party at our place with D3 and Nytro Racing Team.

Love this race and recommend it!

                                

                                  DIV      GEN      OA      SWIM           BIKE              RUN                FINISH

Dunkle, Julie    USA     1        40        255       00:28:29      02:37:32        01:47:14          05:03:01

Santa Rosa 70.3

Nytro Women running in the middle of CA

Eve of race #3 this season, Santa Rosa 70.3, the "old" Vineman,  New course, new venue and over 3500 people registered.  Biggest 70,3 in the US.  Wowza...

I am nervous in a different way for this race. Oceanside is the first big race of the season and can set the tone so the nerves there are big and real for that reason alone.  This should be auto pilot coming off a great Oceanside.  Notice the should be...

With Ironman Boulder in 4 weeks the taper for this race has been, well, what taper?  5 days of taper, where as I am a 10 day 1/2 Ironman taper kind of girl.  Looking at my biggest run week this past week and a full Ironman fatigue on Monday of this week I wonder how tomorrow will go.  Add as stacked AG with 3 Kona Podium Women  in my AG and I have my work cut out for me.

I'd love to say this is a training day in my build to Ironman Boulder, but let's all agree that is a big fat lie.  I like to stand in a certain place on awards day and I'm not sure I my legs have what it will take.   Sometimes we are cramming for a race, as in piling on workouts to get ready with limited time.  I am cramming my taper.  I even impulsively bought compression tights yesterday and tried to sleep in them, because surely that will heal my tired legs in 48 hours.  Normatec boots, check, I would have worn them driving up the 5 but just not sure that would have been the safest idea.

I had a full day off on Wednesday. Wow... that freed up 2 1/2 hours so I had a morning with the husband, drank 10 cups of coffee and buzzed to dog beach and let the pups chase balls until they decided it was time to go home.   I took great care in cleaning my bike, a clean bike is a fast bike, and getting it all ready to go.  With John not going, last minute change, it was just me to the car was packed and ready to go early on. Work was relatively calm so pre- race travel was a breeze!

On the road by 5 and up here by 2 with a 3 mile run in the middle of no where  with Liz.  We were on the road together, in separate cars  due to post race plans, but manged to meet up and run. Great way to break up the drive and shake out the legs.

Today is all the pre- race logistics, bike check 35 miles away, run gear check etc... gear all packed and sorted before I left so should be easy.

6:40 tomorrow and we are off.  With the rolling start, a point to point bike course and a run without any turn arounds and no John for intel, it will be me doing what I have on the day.

Lots of friends up here and 2 of my athletes racing so it shall be a "party" for sure!   Post race even better...