| RACE SUMMARY | |
| Swim: | 42:57 |
| Bike | 3:33:39 |
| Run | 3:11:51 |
| Overall | 7:37:20 |
First was that I was very tired for much of the prior three weeks. I had felt sluggish for a whole week after Leon's Triathlon. This sluggishness continued for quite sometime and it was only last week when I felt I might be getting my mojo back. The Leon's race was delayed due to rain for a couple hours and it was cold and tiring standing around. I did well but afterwards wished I had just gone home and conserved my energy. I also had some sort of intestinal virus for about a week which made me quite tired. Add all that to some pretty stressful changes in my work situation and you have a prescription for fatigue which did not get resolved prior to this race.
With fatigue and 5 hours of rest after a 5 hour drive down, most of the drive was stressed due to the knowledge that I'd get there with only minutes to spare before packet pick up closed, I started the race with a deficit. I was still in hopes I'd do well.
The race start was delayed fifteen minutes for some unknown reason. I was cold because I had gotten in the water for a quick swim before the start. Fortunately I had my space blanket for warmth and my wetsuit and cap provided some protection. Still I was chilled and that takes energy. I had most of my smoothie that morning but no coffee which I would have liked. The race is sort of in the middle of nowhere so finding a coffee shop would have delayed my arrival more than I wanted. I had decided to stay with my daughter in Indianapolis so I had a 1:15 drive up to Muncie in the morning meaning I had to get up at 3:40AM. Despite my fatigue I was unable to sleep until close to 11:30 PM.
When the cannon went off it produced a huge cloud of smoke that covered the start. I thought my goggles had fogged up but realized it was smoke from the smell. I had bought a new pair of very expensive goggles that day before after check in. I know they say nothing new on race day but my goggles had a bad way of fogging and this made siting hard. My new goggles were totally awesome. No fogging at all! No leaks etc so that I just forgot about them. I ended up close to the front of the swim wave (we were wave 1 with 55+ men and women) and it was a big wave. I was not totally happy with my location but didn't alter it thinking I could handle it.I should have known better. I don't handle the swim starts as well as I'd like. I ended up swimming faster than I wanted and struggling with lots of bumps and whacks which elevated my heart rate too fast. I had to flip to my back a couple of times to get my HR under control and to get my swim stroke calmer. I managed to get into my rhythm by buoy 3 (there were 16) and with only a few issues like the younger waves blasting past and hitting me or grabbing my feet. Each time someone hit me in the legs I had leg cramping. It would last for 2-3 mins then relax. These leg issues continued through the whole race despite my attempts to get salt and mitigate it. I did a pretty good swim getting out at 42 minutes. That's a 2:13/100yds rate, much slower than I wanted but with the first few buoys and that stress I was happy. I had hoped for closer to 30 mins.
I took 5 mins on the transition to spray on sunscreen and put on a bike shirt with sleeves. It was hard because I was damp but I finally managed to get it on. My HR was elevated on the way to transition out of the swim so I walked most of the way in and out. I drank bottle of liquid glucose before heading out.
The bike started out great. My new bike: Ruthless performed really well. I had NUUN double shot in my water bottle in the cage and pure water in my water bottle between the aero bars. I also had Huma gels and glucose tabs in my bento box, as well as some salt tabs. I rode out onto the course and hit 19 MPH pretty quickly. I was happy with my speed and began hydrating quickly. The course is a lollipop with a stick of about 6 miles and a double loop. I liked the course. However my left leg did not like much yesterday. I started having aching in my left leg from the crotch down the inside thigh pretty early on. I ignored it for the first 10 miles but it rapidly became something impossible to ignore. I stretched it, did right leg pedaling and tried various other things. Thnking it was cramping I took some Nuun. Nothing seemed to work. I did not get the same foot pain in my right foot that I had dealt with on my old bike so I was really happy about that. I'm wondering if I still have fit issues on this bike that I need to investigate. I was frustrated with myself for forgetting my sport beans on the bike that morning. I had some in my running belt but forgot to add some to my bento box. These sport beans are my favorite race nutrition. I used the glucose tabs alternating with Huma gel through the ride. I dropped one Huma though so had 100 cal less than planned. I drank three bottles of water and one bottle of Nuun with two tabs. I think I hydrated pretty well but the nutrition issues due to one less Huma bothered me. The one I dropped was Lemonade flavor and the two I had were lemonade and mango. I hate really sweet stuff on the race and the mango was hard to get down.
My ride began well but ended slowly. My rank dropped from 12 to 22 on the ride. That is disappointing. It's a good time for me; 3:33. I used to take over 4 hours on the ride so I'm happy with my consistency of this improvement but clearly I can do better.
BIKE DETAILS | Division Rank: 22
| SPLIT NAME | DISTANCE | SPLIT TIME | RACE TIME | PACE | DIVISION RANK | GENDER RANK | OVERALL RANK |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 6.5 mi | 6.5 mi | 24:16 | 1:12:46 | 16.07 mi/h | |||
| 28.1 mi | 21.6 mi | 1:18:52 | 2:31:38 | 16.43 mi/h | |||
| 49.5 mi | 21.4 mi | 1:22:56 | 3:54:34 | 15.48 mi/h | |||
| 56 mi | 6.5 mi | 27:35 | 4:22:09 | 14.14 mi/h | |||
| Total | 56.0 mi | 3:33:39 | 4:22:09 | 15.73 mi/h | 22 | 483 | 1563 |
Transition 2 was really easy. I got off the bike with heavy legs and walked/jogged to my station. I had to sit to get my shoes on but managed to get out quickly. I walked out, but very quickly managed to switch to a slow run. That is a new thing for me. Normally I have to walk a couple of miles to get my legs moving at all and sometimes I think I'll never run again with such heavy legs. I was on the jog when I saw Lauren Wong on the course and said hi to her. It was good to see someone at that point.
I started my run/walk plan to do 4 mins run and 2 mins walk but fairly quickly I could see that wasn't going to work. The hills on this course did not occur at the opportune walk times so I altered my schedule so that I could walk up and run down. This caused me to go slower than I wanted but still it was a 2 min PR for my 13.1 mile run. My feet were burning the whole way and my legs were on the edge of cramping the whole distance. Mile 9 my right leg did cramp and I managed to get going anyway. I could feel the muscles tighten but decided to run it out rather than give into the urge to stop. I took salt every mile, carried my water and used my sport beans and glucose throughout. I took two glucose rolls with 150 cals each, and one sport bean with 100 cals. I don't know how much water I took because I drank sips the whole way replenishing the bottle at all but 2 stations. I'm surprised that I kept my rank in the run.
RUN DETAILS | Division Rank: 22
| SPLIT NAME | DISTANCE | SPLIT TIME | RACE TIME | PACE | DIVISION RANK | GENDER RANK | OVERALL RANK |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 6.6 mi | 6.6 mi | 1:33:47 | 5:59:16 | 14:19/mi | |||
| 13.1 mi | 6.6 mi | 1:38:04 | 7:37:20 | 14:58/mi | |||
| Total | 13.1 mi | 3:11:51 | 7:37:20 | 14:38/mi | 22 | 523 | 1617 |
I had to walk that last hill to the finish but managed to run across the finish line; I think I have always managed to do a light sprint across the finish even when I was really headed for physical issues. It's such a rush to finally make it. A friend was there when I crossed and I was so happy to see her. She told me she had DNFd which was a sad thing. I know how that feels; to see everyone else happy and finishing and you are standing around feeling a bit down.
I came in 22 out of 25 yesterday. Back of the pack. From 2nd place at Leon's to back of the pack yesterday. I would have been thrilled to be 12th and kept my place for the rest of the race. To do that I would have had to at least 17-18 MPH and had a 9:50 min mile pace. I'm not far from that but it's light years for me to consider getting there. I'm more hopeful that I can get to the bike pace than I am about the run pace. During the bike I knew I could have done more on the bike but was worried I'd use up my legs so much that I could not run. Plus that recurring cramp in my left leg caused me to have to stand and stretch that leg repeatedly, slowing my ride. It always seems to come down to my run though. If I could increase my run speed even by 1 min per mile I'd do so much better. That will be a focus for the coming months leading to IM LOU.
I've been hearing about Newtons new shoes a bit and tried to find the Newton tent yesterday but I was so tired I gave up. On the drive home I nearly fell asleep which scared me. I do plan to visit the shoe store and see if Newtons will help with my feet and leg issues. I knew I was running on rather old shoes and old inserts yesterday and it showed. I didn't have time to address it before the race though so decided to stick with my Nike Airs and my existing insert..nothing new on race day. Might have helped to just get new Nike Airs.
I've been hearing about Newtons new shoes a bit and tried to find the Newton tent yesterday but I was so tired I gave up. On the drive home I nearly fell asleep which scared me. I do plan to visit the shoe store and see if Newtons will help with my feet and leg issues. I knew I was running on rather old shoes and old inserts yesterday and it showed. I didn't have time to address it before the race though so decided to stick with my Nike Airs and my existing insert..nothing new on race day. Might have helped to just get new Nike Airs.
Finally a word about fatigue. When I was 32, I was diagnosed with CFS or Eppstein Barr Syndrome. Major fatigue issues that caused me to lose my career in Engineering. Symptoms included regular migraine headaches, inability to wake up once asleep, inability to sleep once awake, muscles so weak that I would crawl around my apartment to get around. I slept on the stairs several times because I could not move up or down. My brain would just seem to shut down. I'd feel confused and unable to speak or think clearly. I felt like I was senile. It was a scary time that lasted for many years. I finally declared myself healed after 8 years when the migraine headaches began to abate. I still have them but only rarely. When I deal with fatigue now, it's with some fear that I'll never recover. Those weeks heading into Muncie with the malaise I was feeling were a bit scary for me. I'm really tired today after the race and slept 10 hours last night, something I rarely do. I am up early every day even if I'm exhausted, I wake at 5. I'm hoping I find the cure for the fatigue and can move on to improve my race performance for my next race. I'm relieved I have over a month before the next one. It's a big one though. Titanium Grand Rapids August 23 full distance aqua bike. I'll be focusing on bike/run for the coming months. I have a great deal of confidence that I can do the swim. I was at the top of the field for the swim at Muncie and this is normal for me. If I can only get the other two legs into my strengths I'll be doing well. I'll be working hard to get there.
