Race Season

Less than 4 weeks to go... that makes me nervous/excited. Ian and I have both had dreams concerning preparation related to the race. His was just last week and basically he found himself without goggles, or earplugs at the beach, and then realized he hadn't removed his bike from the car and therefore it wasn't in the transition zone. Mine, I come out of the swim with about 30minutes to spare before the cutoff time and I can't find my bike, I search and search and search and find it at the 29minute mark, I rush to get everything but don't make it to the bike mount line in time, and I'm disqualified.

Neither of these things will happen I'm sure, but Ian will make sure he has everything he needs, and my goal is to have as obvious a t-zone set up as possible.

The past few weeks have been hectic. May 5th was my first bike time trial. It was 15km and the scariest part was the held start, but I didn't fall over, and I was told by a few people I had one of the best starts...I guess a lot of people started in too hard a gear and couldn't get going. I ended up with the second fastest female time but to be fair there were people out there riding anything from tri bikes, to road bikes, to cruisers and mountain bikes, so I wouldn't really say it was a competition except for against oneself. I learned that I should reset my cateye which tells me distance because I held back and only really pushed it when I noticed the finish line from about 1km left. Definitely had too much in the tank at that point.

May 12th was the first duathlon I've ever done, and Ian and I did the long version, which wasn't really that long, the distances were 2.5km run/30km bike/5km run. The runs ended up being shorter than that, but that's what it was supposed to be. This was a smaller race of some pretty strong athletes. I'm used to being in the top 25% for my category but that didn't happen. I was happy with my race as I followed my goal pacing exactly.

May long weekend I took the Friday off to get some training in as the weekend was a wash. I was going to Svina's wedding which was an amazing party that started with the ceremony in Ottawa on Saturday then the celebration in Toronto on Sunday. In between we had Chris' going away party, so really no time for training. On Friday I went for a long ride that was supposed to be 90km but at about the 80ish mark I blew both my tubes and only had one spare, so Ian had to rescue me and bring me home. In the evening Ian and I tried our wetsuits for the first time with about a 1km swim. I only had an hour between the bike ride and the swim and I guess I hadn't eaten enough because a 1km swim shouldn't be too bad, but when I got out of the water I was shaky.

This past weekend was Ottawa Race Weekend where the goal was to race the half marathon. I haven't really trained as much for running specifically as I usually do before races, but I felt fit and thought I could have a good race, so I tried to go out with the 1:45 pace bunny. This pace, plus the fact that the pace bunnies usually go out a little faster to have time in the bank for the last half, resulted in me blowing up. It was a hot day, not necessarily for lazing around but in the sun at about 10am with no breeze or shade I felt the heat. When you train all winter in cold, the heat takes a toll on you. Between the heat and going out too hard I ended up getting a calf cramp at the 12 or 13km mark and my pace slowed down completely. I finished with a time of 1:59:27 which was almost 15minutes slower than goal time and one of my worst times ever at this distance. Because of this race I have signed up for the Army half in September which will be cooler, and I hope to get some more running in, to get a better time.

This coming weekend Ian and I are heading to Tremblant, to check out the bike course primarily, but also the run and maybe swim too. It looks like it is going to rain all weekend but hey, guess we should get used to riding in the rain.

Next weekend June 9th, we are competing in the Ottawa Riverkeeper sprint distance, which will then start our 2 week taper.

I definitely don't feel confident that I got enough training in but I do feel confident enough that I can complete the distance. As my coach/mentor says "Remember your first HIM is NOT about a time goal (even though you have that in mind) but to complete.  If you get the bug then the next ones can be about times." So I am trying to keep this in mind. Especially since Tremblant is going to be a hilly course, I won't likely be able to ride at paces I normally can pretty easily on flats.

So that's the lineup. This whole adventure has been quite a ride, can't wait to see what happens next.