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Friday, September 24, 2010

Syracuse 70.3 Race Report

I really didn't know how this race was going to go for me, I figured since I was here anyway and was entered I may as well give it a go and if it all turned to poo I could just pull out. After the other 2 Ironman's I have done I have always had about 2 weeks of easy swimming and biking and no running at all, so to do a half Ironman only one week after Ironman was going to be pretty interesting.
My legs had been pretty sore for a couple of days after IMMOO but the worst thing was the blister in between my 1st and 2nd toes which was a bit of a problem and was taking a long time to heal. I managed an 18min run the Thursday after Wisconsin and things felt ok, I did one easy 1000m swim and didn't get to ride my bike at all until we got to Syracuse so I couldn't really tell how I felt.

I don't have any photos from the race but have included a few from the day before.

PRE-RACE
A very large transition
We racked our bikes the day before the race then it rained overnight. I forgot to take any lube in the morning so my chain was not going to be working very smoothly. I also realized on the drive in that I had forgotten my Taptap head unit which aside from my actual bike and wheels is one of the most important parts of my bike. To be honest I actually wasn't so concerned, I had a watch so could roughly see my bike time but was a bit sad that I was going to be missing out on all that power data. I figured I would just ride to how I felt, maybe it would be better not to have power/speed so I couldn't see how slow I was going.
The weather in the morning was not so great - not too cold but a bit rainy and cloudy. I was a bit concerned about being wet then getting cold but the commentator assured us that the rain was going to stop between 7.30 and 8 so I decided to stick with just the tri top and shorts.

SWIM
Nice lake for swimming
 There were only 11 of us Pro Women and we started 4mins behind the Pro Men and 4mins ahead of the first wave of AG men. The start of the race was delayed by 15mins because of traffic issues so by the time we were lining up to start I was already shivering after my swim warm-up. The water was about 17degrees and dead flat. The gun went off and after about 50m I had already been dropped. I tried to bridge the gap but it just wasn't working so I swam by myself the whole way and by the end was about 2mins behind the last girl ahead of me. Basically my worst nightmare for a swim. I had to run out of the water all by myself with all these spectators giving me claps of pity and I'm sure they were wondering why on earth was this slow girl racing pro. My swim time was 33mins something which is pretty bad for me. In fact it is probably slower than my time at Tauranga when there were nasty currents and big waves and I got stuck under a buoy and had to be rescued. Shame.
I felt like I was swimming ok, I just couldn't go any faster. So far my race wasn't off to a very good start.

Swim exit

BIKE
Poor old RooRoo was waving around in the breeze and feeling pretty lonely as the last bike on the Pro rack so I jumped on and off we went. After about 15mins I began to seriously regret my clothing choice. It wasn't raining but the higher we climbed the colder and foggier it got, the downhills were the worst - I would get a little bit warm up the hills then would freeze on the downhills. My hands started to go numb so eating became quite a problem. A few AG men passed but none of them I could keep up with. All I could think about for the first half of the ride was how cold I was and I started to think I wouldn't make it to the end of the bike. I hadn't started shivering uncontrollably yet but I didn't think it was too far away. At a few stages the visibilty was so limited that you could only see about 20m ahead of you which made some of the downhills pretty interesting. Luckily they had flashing lights at the intersections and they had lined one part of the road with flares which was cool. Gradually the fog subsided and I started to get a little bit warmer. I had no idea how fast I was going and only had the 5mile markers to know how far I had gone. Since it was a hilly course I was thinking it would take somewhere between 2hrs40 and 2hrs50 but really had no idea.
At about 20miles I passed one of the other Pro women which buoyed my spirits a bit and then passed another two before the end of the bike. The second half of the ride was a lot easier - mostly flat and downhill so I think I picked up a bit of extra speed through there. Rolled into T2 with an official time of 2hrs41 which was only 10mins slower than the fastest girls bike split so not too bad an effort I thought.

RooRoo waving in the breeze, the racks were far too high for us...

RUN
The run course was point to point and was supposed to be overall slightly downhill so should be a fast course. Legs didn't feel too bad starting out and I ran the first mile in just under 6.50 and the next one in about the same. Mile times don't mean much to me so I stopped checking them after the that, I could have tried to calculate for each mile but that would have done my little brain in. There was a short out and back section at the start of the run and I couldn't see any of the girls that I had passed on the bike which was good news.
Passed a few men in the first couple of miles and after about 5miles the last girl I had passed on the bike came running past me. I tried to keep up but it wasn't happening so I let her go and hoped the other girls wouldn't do the same. I fell into step with an AG man somewhere around the 6mile mark and pretty much ran with him the whole way. I tried to pass him a couple of times but he wouldn't let me get even a step ahead which was pretty annoying but he was running at a good pace so I stuck with him.
The run course was less than spectacular - 75% of it was on a 6 lane boulevard going past run-down buildings and through heaps of intersections. The marshalls did a really good job of controlling the traffic so there were never any issues with that.
The run was pretty uneventful, my legs felt tired but nothing like the pain of Ironman which was so fresh in my memory. I had gone back to sock-less running and my feet felt so much better than in socks the week before.
Finally the finish line came and no other girls had passed me so I ended up 9th Pro Women in a time of 4hrs55 - incredibly the first time I have ever broken 5hrs! My run time was 1hr33 which was also the first time I have broken 1hr40 in a half so not a bad run. The fastest girls run time was 1hr23.

Apart from my piss-poor swim I was happier with this race than IMMOO. I didn't really feel like doing Ironman the week before had any affect on me which was pretty surprising and it has cemented my idea that more racing is better for me.
So now it is back to NZ to start training for IMWA where I shall redeem myself from my IMWI demons...

Wednesday, September 22, 2010

Chiacgo/NYC/Syracuse adventures

So I thought I would put up a little update for anyone who is interested in what I am doing post-IM in the big USA.
We left Madison the day after Ironman and caught a lift to Chicago with Sean Stringer. Sean is the world record holder for the most amount of Ironmans in one year (20 in 2009). He did this to raise money for a foundation he has set up www.onegoodthought.org - check it out, pretty impressive.
From Chicago we flew to NYC to stay with my friend Juliet and Stu in Manhattan. NYC was pretty overwhelming especially coming from the green pastures of Madison, Wisconsin...


The bright lights on NYC - even in daylight

But we got around quite a bit and saw most of the city in two and a half days. Managed a little trot in Central Park on the Thursday after Ironman - just planning on going out for an easy 20mins and ended up in some kind of some sprint with some man in hot pants. Its ridiculous - I can't go anywhere without picking these people up!! Also did a little swim at a local YMCA which was a bit of an ordeal just trying to find the pool in the building and having the lifeguard explain all the rules of the pool to us. Those American's and all their rules! The list of rules for Central Park is about as tall as me!!
After NYC we braved the Manhattan traffic and hired a car to drive to Syracuse in up-state New York for the 70.3. It was about a 4 hour drive all on the interstate which was pretty boring but easy driving. I even had a turn at driving which was a bit scary for everyone... But I only got beeped at once.



Lucky American's love their big giant cars

Syracuse turned out to be not quite the holiday destination that I thought it might have been... A bit run down but the swim and bike for the 70.3 were in a nice area, similar to Karapiro in NZ we decided.


Pre-race run reccy - we ran on this road for about 2mins in the race...

The race was on Sunday - I'll do a race report for it soon - and it went pretty well, the weather wasn't great at the start but it was ok by the end.
The next day we did a road trip along to Niagara to see the falls and do a quick outlet shopping trip on the way back. Niagara Falls was pretty awesome, the town not so much...



So now we are waiting at JFK airport waiting for a flight to LA then a flight to NZ then back into it!!

Thursday, September 16, 2010

IRONMAN WISCONSIN

So here is my race report, its a bit wordy I'm afraid...

PRE-RACE
I got to transition in what I thought was plenty of time but I seemed to be almost the last pro in to be fluffing with my bike. I didn’t have much to do so was in and out within 10mins once my tyres were checked, bottles filled, shoes clipped in and Em’s cookies taped to RooRoo. RooRoo seemed to have fared well despite the front wheel waving about in the breeze all night because I couldn’t rack it by the brake levers (fronty bottle was in the way) and as usual my front wheel didn’t reach the ground when racked by the saddle.



Pre-race fluffing

Made my first pre-race toilet stop, the beauty of a race of 2900 people with only 700 women meant that there was no queue for the girls toilets and a huge queue for the men. Ha!
Got down to the swim start, wetsuited up and did a little warm up swim waiting for the race to start.




SWIM
My instructions for the swim was to get onto some feet and stay there. I knew there should be some people about the same speed as me and within a few hundred meters there was a little group of us. We pretty much swam the first lap and a half together but then started to get strung out by the turn around buoy. I had to put in a few little surges every now and then to keep up but lost my feet with about ¼ of the way to go. Amanda Balding had been on my feet for the second lap and I must have slowed down a bit on the way back because she came through and took the front. So I stuck with her for the way back and we started to get passed by the fast AG men with a few hundred metres to go (they had started 10mins after us). Came out of the water in 1.05 which is pretty much the same as my IMNZ time last year, I really didn’t know if my swimming was any better or worse so I guess it is the same.
Came out of the water and had my first wetsuit strippers experience which was interesting. I had pulled my wetsuit halfway down and they make you lie on the ground and they whip if off you which I wasn’t totally expecting then you run to T1 holding your suit.
The run to T1 is up a spiral parking ramp which was lined with spectators and quite overwhelming, I thought it was never going to end and was getting a bit dizzy.
I had all of T1 to myself when I ran in so had some helpful volunteers get my food into my pockets and send me on my way.

BIKE
I’ll put it out there and say my goal for the bike was to go under 5.30. I knew the course was pretty undulating but figured there was as much down as there was up so thought it would be doable.
I checked my average speed and power after about 45mins and was shocked to see my power was way high at 137w (I was aiming for between 120 and 130) and my speed was way low at 30.1kph – at this rate it was going to take me just under 6 hours… Quite a few men were passing me on the first lap of the bike but they were all too fast for me to try and keep up with (we had an 10m drafting zone) so I rode the first lap on my own making sure I was eating and drinking regularly. It had ended up being quite a hot day so I made sure I was drinking enough.


I started to pass a few people in the second lap of the bike and at times had people to ride with. The spectators on the course were awesome – groups of them would pop up out of nowhere with cow bells, speedos, stereos and pompoms. I had managed to get my speed up to over 30.5 and power down to 132w but I still knew that my sub 5.30 time was long gone and I would be lucky if I did 5.45. Starting the second lap of the bike I really needed to go wees but no matter how hard I tried I just could go on the bike so had to stop at Mt Horeb. I think it must have been here that Jocelyn Wong passed me because she was behind me onto the bike but ahead of me on the run but I never saw her go past me otherwise I would have tried to ride with her. I thought she could end up riding quicker than me and she put out a pretty good bike time.
The last 12miles were mostly downhill with a tailwind so I gained a few places there but still ended up with a 5hr47 bike time which was way slower than what I was hoping for. My average power was 129w so I’m not actually sure I could have ridden much harder either. So overall I don’t really know what to think about it.
Once again I had transition all to myself so was in and out pretty quick and got molested by the sunscreeners although I think the sunburn damage had already been done.

RUN
Everything always feels a bit weird running after sitting on the bike for 180km and this was no exception. I felt like I was really creeping along but was passing people so figured I must have been going ok. There were only mile markers which don’t mean much to me except the first one which I was surprised to see I did 6min52, but settled into a slightly slower pace from there on. It was now between 25 and 30degrees so was grabbing ice and sponges at the aid stations to help me to cool down. The first lap of the run was pretty uneventful, there were heaps of spectators and we got to run around the University of Wisconsin football stadium which was cool. It’s a pretty messy run course with a few out and back sections and I thought I may have been slowly catching a couple of the girls ahead of me.


I got to the halfway in about 1.42-1.43 so would have done a good time if I could maintain that for the second half. My tummy started to feel bad around the 27km mark so I had to make a couple of quick toilet stops which seemed to get that under control. My quads were starting to feel pretty bad and running just wasn’t fun anymore. I walked through a couple of aid stations and struggled to get running again. I had a blister on my forefoot which was also starting to burn and I think I just gave up a bit, I saw J-rad who was asking what the story was so I stopped to have a chat with about 10km to go. I had every intention of finishing but I knew I was well over what I wanted to do. There was actually another pro girl who ended up just a couple of minutes ahead who must have been suffering about as much as me, maybe that would have been motivation enough if I’d known she was going backwards. My end time was 10.43 with a 3.43 run – ouch. Almost exactly 20mins slower than my 2009 IMNZ time – 10mins on the bike and 10mins on the run. I was 11th pro and 16th female. I can console myself that there were 4 of us pro’s within 10mins of each other so it’s not like I was an hour slower than anyone else which was a big fear going into my first race as a pro. I really should have run around (or under) 3.30 which would have bumped me to at least 8th place and in the money, but I didn’t.


Thank god thats over...

I was hoping for a better result and while it could have been a lot worse it also could have been a lot better. At least I didn’t do anything really stupid which I would regret. The general consensus is that IMWI is a slower course than IMNZ so maybe I shouldn’t compare my times but I would like to think that I am faster and have more iron-distance training under my belt so was hoping for a bit more.
I did think at several times during the run that I never want to do Ironman again because it hurt so much but think I just need to toughen up, surely the more I do it the easier it will get?! So I think I will be lining up for IMWA in 3 months time – at least it’s a bit closer to home and I know it’s a faster course than IMNZ so no excuses!!!

Big thanks to J-rad to being my number one supporter, to Mike for letting us stay with him in Madison, to Guy and Ben for my awesome new K-Swiss gear, to Davo for his infinite knowledge on all things Ironman (and all things in general) and to everyone back home who have supported me :)

Sunday, September 12, 2010

IMMOO eve...

Less than 12 hours to go now - bike and gear is all checked in so not much more I can do except eat, sleep and stress...
Race day is looking to be perfect weather, today was rainy and foggy for the first part of the day then cleared up. Tomorrow is set is be clear and sunny and temperatures in the mid 20's, awesome.
I rode over the first part of the bike course yesterday, its pretty crazy going through bike paths and parking lots - like taking a little ticky tour around Madison... Must remember I am in a race and not out for a Sunday pootle. And transition is inside the main convention centre - weird!! Should be a bit different though.


Everything I need for an Ironman


RooRoo ready for racing amongst the foliage


T1 in the ballroom...


RooRoo racked and ready to go FAST

So now to do a few last minute things before beddy-byes and next thing I know I will be on the start line at IRONMAN - ARGH!!!!!

Friday, September 10, 2010

IM Wisconsin - Pre-race

So after two plane trips and a bus ride we finally arrived in Madison, Wisconsin after almost 2 days of traveling.


Rooroo getting ready for its big trip

We were lucky enough to be set up with a homestay who is an ex-Kiwi living in Madison and is doing the Ironman this year.
First impressions of Madison is that it is predominantly a uni-town with frat houses and all. We wouldn't have even known there is an Ironman on here with no signs or anything around which is a bit different to Taupo 5 days out from race day.
The bikes seemed to have traveled well despite our boxes being opened and everything being a bit disrupted, so we put them together and went for a bit of a ride the day we arrived. I was hoping for some hot weather but it was cold, grey and super windy which wasn't quite what I was expecting. But the forecast for Sunday is pretty good so heres hoping...
Its a pretty nice town especially where we are staying - very green and lots of big trees lining the streets. The roads are super smooth except for a few cracks which can make it a bit bumpy but way better than the big chip we are used to.


Leafy Madison


Check out the well-manicured lawn - they all look like that

Supermarket shopping was probably the highlight of the day given my love for processed American food. Had to hold back a bit so I don't stuff myself before raceday like I did in Kona.
Yesterday we rode the 40mile loop which we do twice on race day. Its an awesome course with heaps of rolling hills but only a couple of hills that you have to get out of the saddle for but they are all short. Not what you would call hilly compared to NZ hills.


On the bike course

Today did a little swim in the lake, luckily I didn't see any snakes which everyone has been going on about. The lake isn't exactly clean but was a good temperature and will certainly be wetsuit legal which is a relief. It all started to get a bit serious then with registering and picking up race numbers,etc. I was glad to see that I weighed in at 40.3kg so I hadn't packed on any kg's since leaving home and eating bad food which is always my fear. We then spent a bit of time at the K-Swiss tent and my dear friend Guy and the one and only Ben Harper kindly hooked me up with some super styley K-Swiss race kit to make me go extra fast on race day - thanks team!!!
Tomorrow is the Pro briefing and we will check out the rest of the bike course and then pretty much lie around and do nothing - choice.
I will check back in for a pre-race blog for those of you who are hanging on the edge on your seat... :)

Thursday, September 9, 2010

Weekly Update - 30.08.10 - 05.09.10

SWIM

Squad x 2
Non-squad x 1

~11.3km

Nothing too exciting this week, did my 5km set on Monday and good set of 100's on Friday. Wednesday we did a bit more of body position in the water which I opted out of and just swum by myself for a while. While I think it would be helpful for me, there was just a bit too much fluffing and if I stop swimming and start floating for 10mins then I will stay cold for the rest of the session.

BIKE

Forget to record my totals for the week before I left for the US but it was roughly:
13hrs
300km I think....

Pretty easy week this week, long ride was only 2.5hrs although a lot of this was hanging onto our friend Kezzle-Ann's wheel as he did a 100min effort around the airport so it was quite intense at times. Commuting was pretty nasty this week with lots of rain so I was pretty glad to be finishing up and not having to deal with that for a while. In the 3 months that I have been at this job I have driven 3 times - once after I had a tummy bug and it was raining, once when I had a cold and it was raining and once a couple of weeks ago when I was just a bit over riding in the wind and rain. But overall I have been pretty good.

RUN

Time: 3hrs49
Distance: 47.5km

Finished my run training for IMMOO with a 1 mile PB on the track which was pretty exciting. I have been having a bit of a shoe dilemma recently - my lovely new Brooks Adrenalines and me don't seem to be a good match, since I've had them my calves have been tightening up with any longish runs and even on short runs I can feel them. Its not really bad but not something which is usually a problem on a day to day basis with my Adidas Supernovas. So I went for a couple of little runs in my Supernovas and while there was a bit of residual calf tightness they were pretty much fine. So I was tossing up which shoes to wear for the race but think I am going to go back to my Adias ones. I had a whole heap of retired ones which I basically replace when I think I have had them long enough but because I am pretty light they always seem to hold up quite well, so I just picked a retired pair in the best condition and took them for a little test run to make sure they were all good. When this race is done and dusted I think I will try and wean myself onto the Brooks because they control me better than the Adidas but maybe just need a bit more time to get used to them.