High Cliff Half Ironman
First triathlon of the season was the High Cliff Half Ironman on June 19th. This was my first tri of the season so I was a bit nervous to see how my training, nutrition changes and equipment changes would work out. All had been used in training but a race is so much different than training. The swim was interesting. White caps and a strong wind. In fact it was supposed to be pretty windy all day. We lined up and started at 7am. It took me a bit to get going in the swim. I kept swallowing water and getting pummeled by the waves but I eventually got in my groove and was on my way. I came out of the water in 23 minutes. I think since the waves were so strong for a couple days the course was short. But anyway onto T1 and the bike. The bike went pretty well. We had a head wind from the west but I didn't let it bother me. I just kept pushing and riding like I had practiced. I tried my new nutrition and all was going good until about 10 miles left in the bike. I started to get light headed and a headache. I thought it was because of being in the aero position for so long (even though I had training rides longer than 56 miles going into the race). I had eaten all my food that I brought, which was exactly what I was supposed to do so I did good there and drank a lot. Finally got off the bike in 2:49, very pumped about that, I wanted 2:50 so I was right on track. Now for a good run and for my foot to hold up on the trails. This is a tough run. You start out by going up the high cliff hill, which is nasty and then run the other 11-12 miles on trails. My foot hadn't been very good on trails lately so I was worried how bad it might get today. But little did I know that would be the least of my problems. I also had forgotten my hand held water bottle with my Gatorade in it and my run nutrition in it. Not good. So I grabbed what few honey stingers I had left on my bike and headed out. I started out of T2 happy to be off the bike, ready to focus on the run but soon realized I had nothing in the tank. I was running completely empty of calories. But how could that be? I ate quite a bit on the bike. I climbed the hill and to my surprise Jeff was at the top of the hill with my water bottle asking...."Did you forget something?!?!" I was so happy to see him. I continued to trudge on but knew I was out of it. I saw Jeff a couple more times on the first loop and the same places on the second loop. He was very encouraging and I was not, saying I feel like crap. Run time: 2:20 (terrible, I know) and Overall Time was 5:35. So while I was so busy feeling like crap I was trying to figure out what went wrong. So here's what I came up with. The week before the race was hectic. The day after the race we were leaving to spend 10 days in New York so getting ready for that kept me busy all week. Also I don't think I ate enough the day before the race or rest enough. The day before was exceptionally crazy. And my third conclusion is that, despite how good the lefse sit, I burn through the calories too fast and need to eat more to have some energy for the run but can't really do that because they are too dry to eat a ton of them. So back to the drawing board before Door County in about a month. Oh and as I was walking back to get my stuff, sulking a bit because of my terrible run, I ran into a friend of mine, Mike. We started talking and next thing I know I have a new coach. Never had a coach before. This could be interesting. Some pictures from the race:
Swim start. Check out the nice white caps!
Done with the swim. Trying to catch my breath up that hill.
On the bike
On the run
More running
Happy to be done!
This is a 5K put on by the Fox Tri Club on the 4th of July. It's in its third year and going strong. It is very well organized and always gives a great shirt. It's usually in a pretty heavy training block for me so I traditionally ride to the run and then run the run with Jeff and his kids. This year was the same gig. I got in about 49 miles on the bike before the race, ran the race with Philip and Jeff and then rode home, another 17 miles for 66 total on the day. The race went well. Windy and warm. Philip had his best time ever and it was fun to run with him and see him do so well. The ride home, not as much fun. Very few calories = very miserable ride home. That along with a new bike position made me uncomfortable, but I did it and it was a fun day.
This is my favorite half ironman in the area. It is so well run, the bike course is good, the swim is good and the run is tough, okay I like everything but the run and the two large mountains you have to climb up. The race was on July 18th and was scheduled to start at 8am. All week the weather people had been predicting storms for Sunday but we optimistically hoped they would hold off. I raced last year at Pig Man in storms and it was miserable so I vowed never to do that again. Well I got up Sunday morning to rain and huge green, yellow and red blobs coming our way. Being optimistic (although the whole way up I was saying I'm not sure I want to race in the rain again and maybe they'll shorten it or call it if it's bad) we, Jeff (my awesome race sherpa) and I, headed up. I got there, parked and got ready for the day. New nutrition today. Homemade pop tarts and a Reese's Fast Break Candy bar. I had tried the combo the week before in training and it was okay so I was confident to give it a go today. This was my first race under my new coach and with my new power meter (more on that in another post) so we'll see what I got. I got everything set up, put my garbage bag over all my stuff (I learned that the hard way at Pig Man, I came back from the bike to have two running shoes with lakes in them, not cool) and just hung around. They announced a 30 minute delay because of lightening so more time to talk and chill. So finally, 8:30 rolls around and we are ready to go. I was in wave 2 for the swim, the women's elite wave (Wave 1 was elite men). Three minutes go by from the men's start and we are off. The water was like glass! Sweet! I am cruising along, getting in my groove, following some girls feet, getting jammed by guys at the back of their wave that we caught already. I get to some open water and just start cruising. Cool. I'm start making a game out of it. I wanted to see how guys I could pass before the end. So I am pushing along at a good pace, not all out but a good solid pace. Out of the water in 28:49, my best swim time at this race. Good enough for 3rd female out of the water. And I passed lots of guys. Made a quick stop by the wet suit stripper for them to rip off my wet suit and on to T1, which was slow by the way, not sure why but it was. Got my bike, ready to hop on and my chain is off. WTH!! So I fix that and I'm out. While I was fixing that a couple girls passed me and a couple more passed me in T1 too since I was so slow. Out for the bike. New bike position and new seat, less than a week old. We'll see how this goes. I'm feeling good. I'm passing women and even some guys. Somewhere between mile 5 and 10 a squirrel runs out at me from the woods and goes in between my two wheels....seriously!! How much is God seriously smiling on me today?!?! I for sure thought I was going to hit him. I had just passed a girl and she then pulled up next to me. I said "Did you see that?", she said "Yeah, that was freaky stuff!". And off I went. The rest of the bike ride went okay. I kept up on my eating and my drinking and my new position turned out to be okay. I remember the roads last year being very bumpy but this year I was definitely in a better mental space and my wheels are so comfortable that they didn't bother me. We did get rained on a couple times on the bike but nothing too serious. The wind picked up about half way through but it was more of a tail wind than anything so it was welcomed. I finished up the bike in 2:43 which is my best half ironman bike time ever. Time to run. The run started out okay. I felt pretty good, felt good on calories and I remembered my bottle with my nutrition in it this time. The first two miles clicked away pretty quickly. It was getting humid and a bit warm but that didn't bother me. I started to pick up a few hills in mile 3 and then saw Jeff at mile 4. I was slowly running out of steam at this point. My legs were just done, my quads, my hamstrings, my calves, getting to their limit. Coach knew this was probably going to happen with the new bike position and pushing harder on the bike but it was okay, it's just a training day. I continued on on the run, up a big hill, saw Jeff again, through Egg Harbor, down a few more hills I climbed earlier and then up the big bluff hill and then on to the finish. Run time was not good, I walked some, especially up the big climbs and a few other times. Run time of 2:06. Overall time of 5:25. This race has gotten big time in the last two years, which is awesome to see, so I was pretty low on the results by the end. Overall the day went well. I felt good on the swim and bike and hung on for the run. God really shined on us today, there were two huge weather systems that went north and south of us and kept us safe and dry. It was just amazing. And the squirrel incident turned out okay as well. And a major positive, my nutrition worked out well and I felt good nutritionally off the bike. Only two pictures from the day:
Out of the swim
Into the finish
On Saturday, July 31st we did the first annual Packers 5K Run/Walk. Mark, Asher and I ran 12 miles early in the humid rain. We got poured on for most of it. But thankfully that actually kept us cool. We changed, got refueled and Jeff, Mark and I went to the 5K. It was misting for about the first mile of the run and then it got super humid. We wore our packers clothes and hats and Mark put his game face on, putting stickers under his eyes. The course did a huge loop around Lambeau and the last mile we ran in the tunnel and did a loop around the field and back out to the finish. This was a good run for the first year, hopefully they keep it up for years to come. And it would be really cool if some of the Packer players would actually run, none of us saw any but that would be really cool. It was also fun to run through Lambeau feeling much fresher than we do at the marathon.
So I think that gets everything caught up. Several fun races this summer. Not much for August, just lots of training, which I'm looking forward to.
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