Smithfield Sprint Triathlon - Race Report

As part of my preparation for Ironman Florida, I registered for the first local (southeastern Virginia) triathlon of the season: the Smithfield Sprint Tri.

My first triathlon! (Yeah, those are pigs on the shirt)

It was a baby tri, even in the Sprint world: 300meter swim (in a pool), 10-mile bike, and 5k (3.1 mile) run. I do more than this amount on any given day of training for my Ironman. But I wanted to practice stuff like swimming and biking around people, and transitions. Turns out, I needed it.

It was a beautiful day for a tri -- sunny and mid-60s. I arrived at the race to get my bike racked in the transition area by 9:30am. Taking some good advice, I used a 5-gallon bucket to carry my gear in (so it could be flipped & used to sit on while putting on bike/running shoes).

My transition area

I tried to set everything out the way I would need them as I came in to the transition area both times. In front: hand towel, bike shoes (with socks in them), sunglasses on top. Helmet sat on my handle bars. In back: Running shoes, favorite running cap, running belt with running number.

Number 281

I headed off to get myself all marked up: race number on both arms and the front of both legs. (That wasn't so bad, I've gone to Tough Mudder races where they write your number across your forehead because it's the only place it won't come off).

But seriously, I'm getting to the age where that little number on the back of my calf is bugging me just a little. Sigh.

Because it was a pool swim, they started people every 15 seconds (based on submitted swim times). I was starter #281, which meant I began my swim at 11:24am. So, a couple hours of sitting around, but not too bad.


The Swim
So, it was a 300m swim. Basically, up one length of the pool, then back down, then duck under the rope and do the same thing on the next lane, for six lanes. It was a giant zig-zag. Pretty well organized for 500 people and one medium-sized pool.

I knew the swim wasn't going to be awesome for me. It normally takes 300 yards of SHEER MISERY for me to get warmed up in my swim. I am convinced I am going to drown in the first 300 yards every time I hit the pool, but by 500 yards I hit my stride and have no problem for the rest of 2500-3000 yards.

Today was no different with the misery. But had a couple of extra problems to boot: swimming in my tri-suit (and sports bra) and with my HR Monitor on for the first time.

You know that old adage about never doing anything new on race day? There's a reason for that.

Stupid, I know.  I KNOW.

Problem was the restriction I felt my sports bra and HR Monitor put on my chest -- I really felt like I was having difficulty breathing during the swim. It could've all been in my mind, but it was still not fun.

Anyway, made it through water, up and out of the pool and into the transition area.

Total time: 6:36 (Ranked 89/203 women)

T1

Okay, so evidently all my preparation, still didn't help me too much. I sat down the wrong way on my bucket, so everything was behind me. (Somehow couldn't figure out just to spin around, so kept reaching backwards. Duh.)

I still had my swim cap and goggles perched on my head, so I didn't put the sunglasses on right away. Instead I threw them in my small bag, which later meant I had to hunt for them, costing me probably 30 seconds.

Dried off my feet, got my socks and bike shoes on. Helmet on and immediately clicked (no DQ for me!!). Finally found my sunglasses and I was off, awkwardly running my way through transition in my bike shoes.

Total time: 2:46 (Ranked 162/203 women -- wth?? I've got to work on my transition skills)

Bike:
VERY HAPPY WITH MY BIKE RIDE!! I do not have much experience riding around other people, or in any sort of hills or turns. This was just the sort of experience I needed. Not too crowded, but enough to make me really be aware.

Hills were challenging and fun -- I actually had to change gears (compared to oh-so-FLAT Virginia Beach)!!! At the end of 10-miles, I would've gladly done it the course again, possibly two more times.

And I proudly did not fall off my bike when coming back into transition. Repeated my dismount mantra in my head: "Butt off seat, unclip bent leg". (I say that ever since I couldn't quite get my feet unclipped a couple of weeks ago and took a tumble)

Total time: 36:49 (Ranked 90/203 women)

T2 
Got the bike on the rack, bike shoes off and running shoes on. Sat down on the bucket the wrong way again. Sigh.

Spent at least 20 second trying to decide if I should clip my iPod shuffle to my running cap. I knew it was illegal, but didn't care. I decided not to, but regretted that decision a mile or so later.

Total time: 2:15 (Frakkin' 180/203 -- what the heck was I doing? How long can it take to change shoes for goodness sakes?)

Run
Run was okay. Coming off the bike, I felt like I was going slow. But really, for me, I wasn't doing too badly -- averaging around 9:40 min/miles. Wished like heck I had my iPod. I finally pulled out my phone and got some music going. I was just listening out of the phone speakers -- no headphones. It was like a little tiny boombox.

Course was out and back, a few hills, but nothing unmanageable. Whole run was pretty uneventful.

Total time: 30:33 (Ranked 111/203 women)

Overall total time: 1:19:02 (Ranked 101/203 women)


What I learned:
1) I've done lots and lots of races in my time, but not triathlons. I can't just show up for a tri like I do a running race. Transitions for tri's take practice and organization. I need to think that through more. And get faster in transitions!

The dreaded tri-suit

2) Ahem, don't try anything new on race day. Nuff said.

3) I thought there was nothing less flattering for "normal sized" women athletes than running clothes. I was wrong: tri-suits are worse.

4) Nutrition: I'm still experimenting. I used a Generation UCan drink 30 minutes before the race. I felt fine in the swim and bike, but felt hungry during the run. Ended up eating a couple shot bloks. The UCan should've held me for the entire race -- not sure if that's a physical or mental thing.

5) I should try to do some sort of a warm up before a swim. 100 jumping jacks or running in place. Something that gets the heart pumping and breathing harder BEFORE getting into the water.

But I did it. I'll admit after this tiny race I feel woefully unprepared for my Ironman in November, even knowing I still have 7 months to train. But I am one step closer today than I was yesterday. Today, I am officially a TRIATHLETE. 

Week 5 Training (March 24-30) - aka: Life Gets In the Way

Week 5 of 36. Thirty-two weeks until the race.

What this week's scheduled training looked like (March 24-30):

Total hours scheduled: 6 (originally 8, but traded with another week)

Total hours logged: 5

Total running miles this week/total: 11.2 / 64.7

Total biking miles this week/total: 15 / 175.23

Total swimming yards this week/total: 5000 / 25000

Weight: x - 1. No change. Still trying to eat more protein. Also need to add in some weight training. 

Level of IM enthusiasm: 8/10. Enthusiasm didn't wane this week, but my available time sure as heck did.

Nutrition elements: None to speak of. Did have more success in use of UCan for a 2 hour run/swim combo. I keep hearing rave reports about it, so I want to keep it using it. Jury's still out.

Other: Tomorrow I leave for Florida for three days for a much-needed break with Capt Awesome. This week was absolutely frantic: both good and bad. Good: my first novel released this week, so that was quite exciting. Bad: I had a huge deadline and tons of stuff to do before my trip.

Plus, the triathlon fates seemed to conspire against me: pool closed one day when I showed up, Shane West had a flat tire when I went to ride during a tight workout window. I tried to get all my workouts in this week, but just couldn't. Such is life; I'm not going to freak out about it.

Next week will probably be a little light also because of the trip. I'll definitely get my runs in, but won't have Shane West available until Thursday. But, I aso plan to get my first open water swim in my wetsuit. Looking forward to that!

Week 4 Training (March 17-23) - aka: Nutrition - ICan, UCan, WeAllCan

Week 4 of 36. Thirty-three weeks until the race.

What this week's scheduled training looked like (March 17-23):

Total hours scheduled: 7:00

Total hours logged: 7:00

Total running miles this week/total: 16.43 / 53.5

Total biking miles this week/total: 38.08 / 160.23

Total swimming yards this week/total: 5000 /20,000

Weight: X-1. Actually lost one pound, after four weeks of working out an hour a day. Sigh. I'm figuring out that as always, weight loss is more about what I eat than what I do. I don't necessary eat a lot, but what I do eat is almost all carbs. I know the changes I need to make. But knowing the changes and making the changes are two different things.

I'm trying to change my diet a little at a time. This week, it was substituting celery and peanut butter for one snack a day. Next week, I'm going to tackle my lunches, see what changes I can make there.

Level of IM enthusiasm: 8/10. Feeling good. Four weeks down, eternity to go.

Nutrition elements: I tried the EFS Liquid Shots I mentioned last week. It's 400 calories per container which is way too much for the shorter workouts I'm doing, then once it's open it's supposed to be used within 24 hours.  But I was doing a 1:45 brick, which would be through lunch, and I hadn't had anything to eat since breakfast so decided to use it for fueling/meal.

This stuff tastes pretty bad, imo. (I should probably preface this by saying that texture is a big thing for me in race nutrition. I don't like gels because they basically remind of really gross pudding.) The EFS Liquid Shot is not quite as thick as gels, so that was a plus. They weren't pleasing to eat (drink? -- I dunno, it's kind of that in-between consistency), but on the flip side, I never lagged for energy and I didn't have any of the gaseous feelings that sometimes comes from eating shot bloks. Somebody mentioned adding half a Shot bottle into a bottle of water. Might try.  Cost is also a factor: $5 each.

I'm also experimenting with Generation UCan. Here's their website, or really, an even better blog about the product is here. I used it once this week, and wasn't impressed. It claims to give you training energy for 2-3 hours without needing gels/fuels (due to some combination of dark magic and corn SuperStarch), but after 45 minutes into a long workout, my energy felt pretty low. I'll keep trying it, make sure I'm using it right before I give a final judgement. It's supposed to be used instead of carbs for pre-workout fueling, so I would like for it to work. Fingers crossed.

Other: Went on a long ride this week off the trainer and didn't fall, let's call that a win.

This week I've just been concentrating on not breaking the dam. So far, for 4 weeks, I have completed all workouts on my schedule. Sure, I've had to shuffle some around, and even cut a few short (whatcha gonna do when you're racing the school bus home for your elementary aged kids?).

But I haven't missed any workouts just because I didn't want to do them or because I've had deadlines or because I was tired. I KNOW I will end up missing workouts in the course of this madness I call IM training -- sickness, kids, vacation:  life happens, and that's fine. But I feel it's important that I don't miss a workout for no particular reason: that's a slippery slope that leads to more missed workouts.

I'm trusting that if I'm disciplined now, and for the next seven months, it will pay off on November 1.

Race/Training Tip (from others who know): The mental aspect of the race:  Start with a series of objectives in mind and if one is not achievable drop down to the next. But don't worry as the ultimate objective is to finish, and you have heaps of time. Even if you throw up during the marathon as I did, and think you have to drop out, don't. Just sit down for half an hour, eat real food and drink electrolyte and coke until you feel better. (http://www.endurancecorner.com/library/triathlon/strategy/first_ironman)

Week 3 Training (March 10-16) - aka: You Might Want to Unclip That Foot Before Getting Off Your Bike

Week 3 of 36. Thirty-four weeks until the race.

What this week's scheduled training looked like (Mar 10-16):

Total hours scheduled: 8:00

Total hours logged: 7:50

Total running miles this week/total: 16.43 / 37.07

Total biking miles this week/total: 42.7 / 122.15

Total swimming yards this week/total: 5000/ 15000

Weight: X (still. Seriously, no change? I'm eating too much. Will need to really start thinking about my diet soon.)

Level of IM enthusiasm: 6/10. A decidedly harder week for me, mostly because of work deadlines (but I got Book 2 in my series finished -- yay!). 8 hours of workout in a week is making me dread when I'm going to have 15-20 hours training in a week around Aug-Oct. Note to self: get my schedule clear as much as possible for those months. Duh.

Nutrition elements: Still nothing, really. I had one 1:45 bike ride that required some nutrition, but just grabbed my normal pack of shot bloks. I have these Liquid Shot EFS by 1st Endurance that I've heard really good things about, but those bottles have 400 calories. That's equivalent to two packs of shot bloks.

I generally don't do any nutrition for under an hour. After that I try to take in 200 calories an hour. So unless I break up the EFS bottle across a week's worth of workouts (a sip here and a sip there), I probably won't get to try these until close to June.

General notes: Had a couple of important newbie IM Milestones this week! First, I swam 2500 yards without stopping. That's 1.42 miles, or roughly 60% of the overall IM swim. It was in a pool, but still helped boost my confidence that I was able to get that distance completed, this early in the training season. Took 54 minutes, so if I kept that same pace at IMFL I would finish the swim in less than 90 minutes, well short of the 2:20 cut off.

Second milestone was on my bike. I do most of my rides on the trainer because there's nowhere nearby I can ride without fear for my life in all the traffic. But I had a 1:45 ride scheduled this week, so I took Shane West out to a local no-cars-allowed 16-mile bike loop.

But unfortunately, because I'm so used to being on the trainer (where my back wheel is held steady no matter what), as I was stopping I forgot that I was clipped into the pedals, then unclipped the wrong foot. Which all resulted in a pretty hilarious fall to the ground. I was going very slowly and nothing was really hurt but my pride (and a little skinned knee). Fortunately, no one else was around, or they could've heard me yell "Ohhhhh nooooooooooo!" as I fell. (Cue Ke$ha song: It's going down... I'm yelling timber!!)

I reported about my fall in one of my IMFL groups. They quickly asked the important question: was your bike okay?  I'm happy to report Shane West is just fine.

Now (for any newbies who might be reading), as I stop, you can hear me repeating my bike-stopping mantra: Butt off seat, unclip bent-knee leg. Butt off seat, unclip bent-knee leg.  If you don't do both of those, you're going to end up on the ground, looking kinda like this:

Seriously, this is exactly how I looked, but without anyone to laugh at me. And Shane West isn't pink.

Week 2 Training (Mar 3-9) - aka: That *#$^% Heart Rate Monitor

Week 2 of 36. Thirty-five weeks until the race.

This week's scheduled training looks like:

Total hours scheduled: 7:00

Total hours logged: 7:15

Total running miles this week/total: 9.97/20.64

Total biking miles this week/total: 51.50/79.45

Total swimming yards this week/total: 5000/10000

Weight: X (no change)

Level of IM enthusiasm: 8/10 - still excited to do my workouts every day. I just try not to think about how many more months I'm going to be doing this. Because that leads to: alajfpvoaipuvasdfmdebsyaoe. (head against keyboard in despair).

Nutrition elements: Still none. Although I have been practicing with some of the yummy, real-food workout fueling found in  The Feed Zone Cookbook.

General notes: Had to switch my workouts around due to the schizophrenic tendencies of  Mother Nature this week (snow and ice half the week, sunny and 60s the other half), and changed one 45-minute run into a 60-minute bike ride on the trainer (all my rides are on the trainer right now, that will probably stay true except for long rides, even when the weather gets nicer. More on my bike phobias another time).

My Heart Rate (HR) monitor continues to be the bane of my existence. I received some encouragement from friends, one ultra-runner in particular, who warned me that using a HR monitor could be a "soul-crushing" experience. 

That's just about the truth.

The normal HR formula (220 - your age = Maximum Heart Rate) that we've all seen on the wall of every gym and YMCA, was what I was using last week. Based on that formula, my Maximum HR would be 179.

So that would make my "Zones":
Z4 (90-95% Max HR): 162-171
Z3 (86-89% Max HR): 155-160
Z2 (75-85% Max HR): 135-153
Z1 (65-74% Max HR): 117-134

Except that last week I found out that my HR gets up to 176 in what I thought was a medium-effort run. To stay in my Z2 (where most IM training takes place for at least the first 12 weeks), I had to walk 3/4 of the scheduled time.

Soul-crushing, indeed.

This week I decided to educate myself a little more on HR training. I read a Runner's World article "How to Use a HR Monitor" which helped answer a lot of my basic questions.  They suggested using the formula Maximum HR = 205 - (.5 x your age), which would put my Max HR at 185. Much better.

To get an even more specific Max HR, I did the test they suggested. In an all-out three minute sprint, after significant warm up, my HR got up to 189.  So now I'm working with that number.

Making my new Zones:
Z4 (90-95% Max HR): 170-179
Z3 (86-89% Max HR): 163-169
Z2 (75-85% Max HR): 141-161
Z1 (65-74% Max HR): 123-140

I'm still having to do a crazy walk run combo to keep myself in Z2, but I'm hoping as my overall fitness level increases, and my fear of the HR monitor decreases, this will all start to click and become more natural for me. Fingers crossed.  

Next week's schedule:  Week 3 Training Schedule

Week 1 Training (Feb 24-Mar 2) - aka: Getting Up at What Time?

And away we go!

Training scheduled for this week (Monday, Feb 24-Sunday, Mar 2):

I'll update with what the actual training hours (and miles, because honestly, the plan may talk about training in hours, but in my runner's mind it's still all about miles) at the end of this week. I'll also try to post a few emotional and personal stats each week:

Total hours scheduled: 6:00

Total hours logged: 6:00

Total running miles this week/total: 10.67/10.67

Total biking miles this week/total: 27.95/ 27.95

Total swimming yards this week/total: 4900/4900

Weight: X (okay, I'm a woman in my 40s. I'm not secure enough to put my current weight on a public blog. We'll just keep it X +/- whatever amount, each week)

Level of IM enthusiasm: 8/10 The thought of doing this another seven months is pretty overwhelming, but I was ready to get started on an official training schedule!

Nutrition elements: nothing fascinating, no workout was long enough to need nutrition. I have been concentrating over the last few weeks on eliminating coffee as the very first thing I need in the morning in order to survive. Have been pretty successful in that regard.

General notes: I am a night person. Blame it on being a writer or whatever, but my "natural" awake hours are from 10am - 2am. So adjusting to waking up at 6am-ish to get my workouts in before hubby goes to work has been TOUGH. Hopefully that will get easier.  Next week I'm going to talk about using the HR monitor, because that is flippin' killing me also.

The Post Where I Can't Really Count that High

So training officially begins next week on Monday, February 24 -- 36 weeks out from the race. Everything fitness-wise I've been doing up until now (which honestly, due to life and other responsibilities, hasn't been very much -- mostly core strengthening, swim technique, and basic bike awareness) has just been extra.

This week I finally pinned down my training plan. It's a hybrid born out of the free TriFuel Supercoach triathlon program, some input from a local triathlon coaching team, and Don Fink's IronFit plan (as found in his book Be Iron Fit).

I go into my training fairly confident in my running and swimming abilities. Swimming... well, I grew up in South Florida, where they basically throw you in a pool a couple weeks after you're born, and you never get out again. I've also been a pretty avid scuba diver over the years. So even though I had to work on technique (in my swim clinic), I am not overly-worried about the swim.

The same is true about the run. I've been running for four years. I've completed two marathons (see that write-up here), and multiple Ragnar Relays (200-miles split between a team of 6 or 12 -- my most recent one here). Don't get me wrong: I'm not fast. I'm never going to be fast. But I know how to run.

But cycling. Heaven have mercy. I've never been a big fan of cycling. It's all new to me and it's all a challenge. December was Month O' the Bike for me to just get me accustomed to being on Shane West all the time.

Taking the above factors into account, I've made my IMFL Training Plan. You can see the overall mileage chart (actually really more of a duration chart) in the link near the top "My Mileage Chart".

But here's where I got a wee-bit worried:

 

The totals.  By the time November 1st rolls around in 36 weeks I will have spent over 90 hours swimming, 182 hours biking and 138 hours running. For a total of  410 hours.

(I told Capt Awesome that number and he just walked out of the room shaking his head muttering, "Just wake me when it's over...")

Btw, those numbers don't include the IM race itself, the Half Iron or other triathlon races I have scheduled this spring and summer.

This training plan is in time rather than distance (except for the swim part), which is new to me. I've always trained distance-based, but based on multiple areas of input I'm going to try this. I'll keep you posted.

But HOLY CRAP: 410 hours???? The equivalent of 10 weeks in a full time job.

Just wake ME when it's over.