Fly By Night Duathlon 2022: Top Gear

 Well, now that we got that shitty Block #5 outta the way, it's time to talk about RACING! 

This past weekend kicked off the 2022 multisport season with a new to me race - The Fly By Night duathlon.  While it's got all the normal elements of a duathlon - run/bike/run/bike/run, that's where the similarities end.  Usually, races start at the butt crack of dawn - this one, much like the name suggests, started at night - 6pm.  The course was also something different - the bike took place on the Watkins Glen Speedway - a 3.4 mile track that featured lots of turns, twists, and hills - and the run was a mostly cross country, over grass, rocks and some gravel.  Greg and I have always wanted to du do this race, and with it nearly being discontinued in 2019, we decided to bite the bullet and get it on our calendar for 2022.

Note that this race decision had no positive impact on my Ironman goals other than to get in a race setting and practice transitions and suss out my gear - much like Running of the Green, I had no designs at speed and had done zilch to train for a short, fast race.  When asked about my goals - I really had none.  I had intended to take a recovery week the week up to the race and be fresh, but since I threw my Ironman tantrum the week before, I was week one into a build on race day.  Which was no big deal.  I did my long run Tuesday in the stupid heat, and long ride Thursday - a four hour effort that felt great, aside from my bike having an epic meltdown.

Oh right.  Apparently Felix (that's my bike, Felix the Felt) felt a little left out about my tantrums last week, so he decided to throw a few of his own.  On Thursday, I set out for my four hour ride and noticed a distinct lack of shifting options on my bike.  Two gears would completely skip and every time I shifted, it made a grindy, unhappy noise (yep, that's my diagnosis.  I'm a closet bike mechanic).  I pulled over about 10 miles in and fiddled with the di2, and made it much worse.  Yay.  I debated the merits of shifting the long ride to Sunday, immediately discounted that plan, and pressed on.  Ick.  I was averaging about 18 on the flats, and could not stomach 3.5 more hours of this.  Luckily, my own personal bike mechanic was shooting a house in Webster (that's the huz), so I texted him and motored myself over thataway.  After a half hour and a few choice four letter words, we had it shifting like buttah.  Since Greg had the drone up, he took a little video of me on the bike (cause who doesn't do a photo shoot mid long ride) and I was off again!  The rest of the long ride was pretty uneventful, save for the fact that I still was missing the two easiest gears, but I was finally able to cycle it out at roughly race pace.  Success. I got home, we played around some more, and that Friday I took the bike out again.  And one mile in....lost all shifting.  WTF, people.  I gutted my way through the (thankfully short) ride in one gear, and got home in one piece.  Pulled out the di2...it was dead.  Welp, lesson learned.  Let's charge it up.  Three hours later....nothing.  WHAT.  Turns out the junction box had died.  Ok.  After a quick googlez, we determined the junction box was merely a cute decoration to extend the wires and bypassed it to get my gears back.  SCORE.

This brings us...to race day.  I won't lie, I was a little concerned about Felix, and the downside of an evening race is....you have all day to think about it.  I was up at 5am (thanks kids) and had a full day of momming ahead of me.  It was so weird having it be "race day" - it felt like the day before an Ironman, when you don't wanna do much - but we took the kids to the park and tried to do the good parenting thing until our neighbor took the lil gremlins at 2pm.  With that, we grabbed our gear and set out for the Glen!

The weather was HOT.  About 82 and sunny, with the threat of a thunderstorm in the distance.  We debated stopping at few (ok, more than a few) wineries en route, and finally made it down to Watkins Glen shortly after 4. Ran into a whole bunch of friends I knew and some...I did not, but knew me (whoops.  Apparently my notoriety preceeds me!).  My fellow RAT Carin found a four leaf clover and gave it to me with the hopes that my bike would behave during the race (such a sweetie).

 This part, hands down, is my favorite - catching up with all my fellow crazies at the start of the race season, when everyone is so excited to just BE there.  Which is good that its my favorite...because we got to catch up for about an hour and a half.  Whoops.  Apparently the crew at the track was running behind and didn't even let the timing and RD crew in to set up until 5pm, so we weren't able to access transition until 5:35, which left...25 minutes to warm up, set up, potty, and be ready to GO!  This is about a half hour less than I need, and my whole thought of running the gears on my bike zapped away - oh well.  I did a quick jog to the bathrooms, thew a bunch of shit by my bike (which toppled over in the wind a few times -yay?) and called it a day.  We headed to the start line...no...that start line....no wait, is that the start line? a few minutes before 6, staring uneasily at the dark clouds, making silly jokes, and new friends along the way.  I lined up next to a tall dude with long hair, who jokingly informed me we could be friends until the last run when it was on.   I didn't know this dude from Adam (actually, his name was Szetong) but as one usually does, the concept of hanging out next to a fellow crazy in lycra at 6pm on a Saturday worked its magic and we ribbed each other until the gun sounded and we were OFF!

Run #1: 11:39, 6:51 pace

The run started off with a nice descent then quickly ran out of road and added some nice gravel, rocks and grass to contend with.  I really wasn't expecting that but kept my cool (hah, who are we kidding, it was still 80) and ran out the first mile at up tempo pace.  It was at this point I noticed the sheer amount

of Cornell college tri girls passing my ass and laughed a bit as I readjusted my expectations yet again for this race.  Easy come, easy go. There was a rock section I opted for a quick walk at (and would repeat this all 3 times) but kept the effort steady 6-7 RPE and hit the bike with energy to spare.

Bike #1: 35:25, 17.3mph

Welp, spoiler alert folks - this was not what I was hoping for.  I heard the track was hilly and didn't pay too much attention to it - I watched a video of the course and since a warm up wasn't in the cards, took lap #1 as my course recon.  Each bike segment was 10.2ish miles, or, 3 laps.  Holy cats.  We started out with a nice descent, which was a little cross windy for my taste, but I worked with it best I could, then we hit a wall of wind and a steep incline.  Which is where I found out rather quickly I did not - in fact - have all my gears.  I was still missing the easiest two in each ring - they spun out just fine but applying weight to them apparently screwed them up, because they would auto shift down every time I  attempted them.  Hell.  I really wanted those gears, but this is what I had, so I rolled with it. What else to do.  The looped course really worked against us with the wind - about 3 miles was either cross wind, which made the descents SUPER fun (not) or headwind.  The groups were wild - since we didn't have a lot of track to work with, people were in bunches, all over the place, passing on both the left and right.  I opted to stay on the hoods for 90% of this race, and found out later almost everyone else did too.  I'm pleased to say I passed two of the Cornell girls and kept my shit together while descending, which was a total win, even in the wind!

Run #2: 13:01, 7:39 pace

I ditched my bike in transition happily, and grabbed my visor and handheld for run #2.  Run #2 was

pretty uneventful except I managed to snag my buddy Szetong, who informed me we could still be buddies since it wasn't lap #3 yet.  We ran together for a little bit before he passed my sorry butt on the rock section, and I ran the rest of run #2 pretty uneventfully at a nice tempo pace.

Bike #2: 36:38

Coming back into transition was a little dicey - the winds had picked up and there were bikes laying on the ground everywhere.   I grabbed my helmet - and noticed...a helmet identical to mine on the ground.  Oh hell, which one was mine??  I took the one I had on off, made a quick guess (I was right) and headed to the mount line.  Where, it should be known, my buddy Joe was manning the water stop.  The same buddy that came to Cassadagaman last year and totally watched me get my shorts caught in my bike seat and biff the mount.  He, of course, is a good friend and would NEVER bring this up again to me (uh, note the pink "sarcasm" font) so, of course, I flying mounted with finesse and impressed the shit out of him had an equally awkward mount with much sarcasm from the peanut gallery.  I flipped him the bird (I LOVE volunteers, really) muttered something about a "water boy" and was off.  Oh man.  Bike mistake.  The hills had gotten bigger, my bike still was fucked, and the winds picked up.  Nothing to do but ride baby.  I channeled every badass element I had, chanting "Be SB Be SB down every descent" (I'm a super badass, folks) and made a few cracks when I passed my friend Laura on a stretch telling her THIS WIND SUCKS!  (We have a inspo thing about not "sucking" when we race...and this weather was...SUCKING!)  I managed to pass back one of the Cornell girls that had passed me back in run #2 (really, I wasn't even thinking about placement, but those girls can RUN!) and finally headed it in just over 36 minutes.  For reference, my NP for the bikes was 190 and 182, which is race pace for me.  And the WINNING male averaged just over 20 for bike 1 and just under 20 for bike #2 so....what the hell I was thinking about my goal bike split of 20mph was....just that.  Pipe dream.  Oh well

Run #3 12:58, 7:38 pace

For run #3, I ditched the visor and handheld, and just went for it.  I started the run with one of the Cornell girls I had just passed on the bike, who quickly ditched me, which was perfectly fine.  One of the Middle aged dudes I was running with (I always find these guys, they are my jam) cracked to me that "these college kids have all the time to train" which made us laugh.  Seriously, I love the sport is getting more traction, but Amen to that - I wish I had found it at nineteen!  About a mile in, I spotted my buddy Szetong on an out and back, who tosssed me a battle cry grin (we are tight now, BFF's after 90 minutes) but I knew I wasn't catching his butt, so he was safe from me - and the irony of us not knowing each other AT ALL two hours ago...to finishing within a minute of each other, made me laugh.  The rest of run #3 went smoothly and I stepped on the gas with .5 miles to go, crossing the finish line in 1:53:xx, way the hell off what I thought I would do, but hey, it was an adventure!

Post-race, I caught up with Greg, who had an equally tough day, and hung out at the finish line catching up with friends I missed pre-race.  I ended up placing 6th overall and winning my age group, which was pretty sweet.  

I'll admit I was chasing the overall podium but I found out the results only placed the overall winner, and with Cornell in the house, I was just glad to collect some hardware, which was a cute little mason jar (okay, t's now Biz's flower jar - so hardcore).  My buddy Mike posed for a pic with me and showed me his undying love by portraying the state of my quads post missing gear hilly bike - Love ya, Mike!

We collected our gear, changed (I managed to accidentally hit up the men's room looking for a hottie cause I'm an idiot), helped with breakdown, and got some delish  BBQ.  We headed home - such a weird feeling to be travelling home, in the dark at 10:30!  and called it a day.

Quite a season opener for 2022- learned a few lessons, got some good transition practice, and always a good time with Score-This and Wolfpack events!  Now, it's time to sort that bike out before the next race....which is my Ironman  tune-up - Silver Serpent, on June 5!

Ironman Training Block #5 - Can't Help Me Now

Sometimes, I wish I could write posts in my head that would magically transcribe themselves into a perfectly formatted blog and - voila!  I could hit publish.  I've written some pretty epic (in my own brain) posts while out for a run or ride and then forgotten the majority of it when I finally have a chance to sit down and transcribe.  Maybe I need one of those voice to text thingies.  Wait, I already struggle to ride my bike as is, while paying attention.... scratch that.  I suppose you'll just have to wait for my navel gazing as is.  We do the best we can.

This post is a little overdue - Block #5 "in theory" ran from April 18-May 15 - reality....is another story. As is the last month.... months? of my life right now, it's a story, a process, a struggle, and possibly a little bit closer to our end goal of 140.6 (TBD).  Let's talk.  I'm going to address this one in more of a linear fashion, as the progression of this block is best told in a timeline.  

Block #5 started out with a bang. In going with the theme of 2022, life continues to pile up a little bit too much unnecessarily, and I put my head down, stare my goals right in the face, grit my teeth, and get it done.  Block #5 brought the training volume up 18 hours per week - which - when you factor in the full-time job (thankfully that can be flexible at times, but still requires 40-50 hours a week), my second job of coaching (yes, this is my own doing, I admit it, but I love it), my littles, family, the two boards I sit on, friends and - guys - my plate is full. Overfull.  I get asked quite a bit how I manage it all, and the answer is, I don't know.  I'm a master of multi tasking, I don't sleep much, and I love (most of) what I do?  I'll probably need to re-assess at some point, but in my self proclaimed mid-life crisis year, I'm spot on in this trainwreck, thanks.

Felix the Felt...he's so ready to race!

With that being said, this block, I needed to start really being judicious with my time.  As in, my natural reaction of saying "Yes" to everything took a backseat - and since I also suck at boundaries, this was quite the test!  Between my non-negotiable life commitments and the workload of training, I found myself often just "getting it done" - cold mornings, tempo runs on little sleep, and odd long training session days.  

Right off the bat, I had to flip around my long run of 20 miles in week #1, due to some weekend visitors.  The first five days of the block were epic, including that 20 miler - I ran the first half solo and the second half with my buddy Hugo - the pace was fast and I felt awesome.  Unfortunately, post run I had to life right away, then ride, then had company all night, which was crappy recovery.  I met another buddy for a ride that next day and completely fell apart a half hour into the ride - I've ridden with this friend quite a bit and he asked lots of questions about my training load, which, I'm sorry to say, I took a little more personally than I should have, and it colored my perception of my training stress way more than it should have one week into a build.  Lesson learned - remember, you know your own situation best, and its important to be honest with yourself about your levels of fatigue, one way or the other. (Spoiler alert - I did not learn this lesson until several weeks later, which is also my forte).

As luck would have it, week #2 re-sorted itself nicely after that rest day on Monday.  My speedwork on the run and ride was spot on, my long ride on Rouvy riding the IMDSM course - 110 miles in 5:27, nailed it (holy shit if I hit that race day I'd die a happy girl), and a solo 18 mile run with some good rollers, all nailed.  Perfect.  I'm indestructible! Nothing can stop me!  I'm so gonna rock this Ironman!!

And then week #3 said....hold my beer. It started off just fine, with a long set swim, which was

consistent but felt a little sluggish.  No biggie.  My tempo run felt awful - I nailed the pace but it was way harder than normal.  I started to re-think the week but said, self (and I knew it was me, cause I recognized my voice) anyone can have an off day.  Put it aside. Get it done.  The next day was a 4.5 hour ride.  90 minutes in, I called the audible.  I just had absolutely no desire to be on the bike.  At all.  It wasn't physcial - my legs felt fine.  But I could not talk myself into this stupid ride.  I pulled out all my tricks - picturing race day, remembering how much I loved the sport, and even sending out some inspo seeking texts (which my guys delivered on beautifully like the amazing friends they are) - nothing.  I didn't have time to redo this ride, guys.  It was do or die.  And...I died.  

In typical Rae fashion, I tried to negotiate my way out of it.  I figured I could ditch the ride, do Thursday's swim on Wednesday, shift Thursday to a semi long ride, and salvage this last week of build.  I got changed, ate a snack, and drove to the pool.  And sat there.  In my car.  Staring at the building.  Completely conflicted.  I called my best friend and just cried.  I rarely let go like this and admit being vulnerable....and I just could not even do this.  I was so incredibly mad at myself - as a truly type A person, I don't believe in giving up.  Because.....if I give up once, doesn't that make it easier to do so next time? 

One of my slow jams, Rob Thomas's "Can't Help Me Now", summed it up....and when I got home.....I listened to that sucker on repeat for the rest of the day, mulling it over...

And we fall, and we break
And we turn our inside out
And we're lost in a daze for days and days and days and now
But I thought that I could turn it around
But I don't wanna fight
I don't wanna cry
I don't wanna leave
But I don't wanna be here, be here now
There's a bad taste in my mouth

When DO you throw in the towel?  Is it wise sometimes to truly know when it's better to take a step back if your body and mind need it?  

Turns out, yes, yes it is.  I had built in time for this to happen.  A free week because of life or these types of situations....I actually thought I wouldn't use it, but turns out week 19 is the magic week.  So, I heeded the wise words of my best friend (I am so lucky I married that guy), turned the car around, and came home.  I spent the next few days doing low key workouts as I wanted to, when I wanted to, how I wanted to, and with whom I wanted to.  It was perfect.  It was exactly what I needed.  And I bounded into block 6....the final build....ready to go.

It didn't hurt that I got to watch Ironman St George the weekend after I fell apart - watching Blu, Kat Matthews, Ryf, and MY BOY LIONEL do some serious shit up - in the perfect setting, the same stage I got to do World's 70.3 just eight months ago - holy crap.  What inspiration.  What raw grit.  And again, why I do what I do.  And while I won't be cruising past Braden Currie to bring in 2nd....and my backdrop is a cornfield...I'm ready.  Block 5 was...our short block.  We are done with that. 

The big dance at the end of this next block is just five weeks away (as of May 8!).....one week of build, my first multisport race of 2022 (Fly by Night Duathlon), two more weeks of build....then taper time.  Then....ITS IRONMAN, BABY!