Race Report: Beginning of the 2012 Spring Season

It has been a busy and exciting week at the Turtle's Den (not sure where turtles live...will have to look that one up).  This week began with a VO2max test on my bike where I learned that I am not an efficient fuel burner and I am waiting for my coach to determine my heart rate zones to begin training to help my body learn to burn fat!  (what is left to find out about that I am NOT efficient in...oh, I have a treadmill test this week).  I got to test out the water one more time at our local Spash and Dash event on Thursday and did a 1500 meter swim in Tempe Town Lake and a 5K run along the lake.  It was a nice dress rehearsal for today's triathlon.  I have definitely had my good and bad workouts this week.  Seems that early in the week, I am having a little more fatigue from the previous weekend, but I am bouncing back by the middle of the week.

Today was our opening race of the season, The Marquee Triathlon.  I competed in the Olympic Distance.  It was my first test run of 2012 to prepare for the Ironman Course.  As I was driving down to Tempe this morning, I thought about how relieved I was to be doing the IM on my local turf and not have to add in the anxiety of being in a strange city and finding out how to get to the event and where to park.  It can be exciting to travel, but I think taking on the task of IM is grand enough in itself.  So for any of my new friends that will be traveling to AZ, please let me know if I can do anything to make your travel any easier.  The race course itself is pretty easy to follow....just go in circles.  They did change the transition area around a little bit to make more room for the Expo and to decrease congestion, but I am not certain how IM will arrange the transition.  Each triathlon that takes place at our lake changes up the course a little bit.

(This was an amazing picture that one of my teammates took of the lake early this morning.  I hope it was ok to borrow this Luis.)  It makes TTL look inviting.

Triathlons at TTL are a big to do.  You have to drop your bikes off the day before and this was my first time doing a triathlon as part of a team.  Racelab had a first timers meeting and eventhough I am not exactly a first timer, I love to learn new tips from the more experienced triathlete.  The three most important things I took away from the meeting were NO WHINING, NO QUITTING unless you face a life threatening situation and SMILE at the finish.  I think I will always feel like a novice.  Maybe once I earn my Ironman status, I will hold a higher position!

Yesterday was very windy with a chance of rain.  Racing bikes were swaying and a few falling off the racks.  Today we woke up to perfect race day conditions.  It was in the 50s at the start with 65 degree water temps and warmed into the 60s.  The swim went off without a hitch.  We started in waves and if you are over 40 and female you start in the last wave (except this time they had a wave behind us for first timers).  I had a successful swim though not as fast at Thursday night and a little cramping at the end, but I actually finished 1st out of the water in my age group.  But that was not enough to maintain the lead as I fell further behind relatively speaking on the bike and run.  Every athlete has their strong event, but the triathlon is definitely not won in the swim.

Today was the first time I had a wetsuit stripper and that was awesome saving time and effort.  I was slow in my transitions which gives me something to work on, but I felt strong on the bike.  I averaged 16.5 mph which is an improvement since my last bike events where I usually averaged 15 mph.  Maybe those shorter cranks helped, but this was probably the Purple Chameleon's last race as I am hoping to have my new Scottie by next race and maybe will gain another mph.

The next transition went better but was still slow.  I chose to keep my regular laces in cause I don't really like the elastic no tie ones, but might have to try them again.  My feet felt numb after the bike ride and then went to burning, but it was tolerable and I was able to hold a steady pace of 9:40 on my 10K.  This is an area I hope to improve in for my shorter tris, but it would be great if I could hold this pace for an IM.  I just worked on keeping a slow steady pace and was hoping for a kick at the end, but I will settle for getting through the run without any significant problems.

My family was there with me today and that especially helped the last few miles of the run when I was starting to feel the burn. 

So multiple today by 4 and you get an IRONMAN.  I finished in 3:04:56 (10 min faster than previous Olympic Distances) and finished 65/114 women and 7/15 in my age group.  There is hope in making the cut offs for IM, but there is still a lot of work to be done.

Sneak Peak Ahead:  VO2max treadmill test
May 5, Olympic Tri at TTL with goal to break 3 hours and hopefully have the new bike to help me do it.

Congrats to all my teammates and friends that competed today.  Congrats to my friend Adrienne who came in 1st place in women's olympic.  Well wishes to my friend Denise who crashed into a moped that cut across the course.  And most of all thanks to the wonderful team that supports everyone no matter what.  Today's event was dedicated to the cyclists in last weeks accident and to show our support we wrote their names on our bodies.  Everyone rocked!