The theme of this blog seems to be a little lopsided, not gonna lie. Apparently in 2021 I'm good for talking about racing....training...and racing. Sigh. Such is life. I have so many things I want to chat about and I'm pretty fabulous at creating post ideas in my head during runs and then not following through with them - anyone relate to the lack of follow through in 2021? Just me? Good. K. Thanks.
Since we last left our intrepid hero (still me, in case you forgot) five weeks ago, I managed to get a lovely tooth infection, get ridiculously sick from the antibiotics, lose two weeks of training, and ten pounds to boot. Hey look ma, I hit race weight! Seriously, the rest of July sucked. And coming into August, I have on tap a formula one tri (this post) an Olympic (this upcoming weekend) and two half ironman's in a five week span. So - thank goodness that mess is behind me!
Going into Summer sizzler this past Saturday, I was of the mind that "its gonna be what its gonna be", which was probably smart. Greg and I signed up for this race for a few reasons - first of all, encouragement of bad decision making (thanks Marcus), a free race weekend (we could totally race in Buffalo then host a family picnic at our house 4 hours later, right?) and a cool format - F1 - which was a 400m swim, 10 mile bike, 2 mile run, 400m swim, 10 mile bike, 2 mile run. How fun! We cashed in, did a few run swims to play, and prepped our ungodly 3am wake up time for Saturday morning,
Race morning is usually pretty straightforward - Greg and I have been racing for sixteen years, so we each have our own chores and can go from alarm to out the door in 30 minutes. This time, post shower, I was prepping breakfast when Greg stumbled on one of my favorite memes and made mention of the "diggity scale":
Because its totally normal for 3am, I grabbed my phone and danced around to "No Diggity" with my coffee, while debating the concept of diggity with the huz - since Backstreet equates "No Diggity" with "No Doubt" - we decided that diggity was NOT in fact a good thing. Urban dictionary confirmed this, thank god. Waking up at 3am? A fair amount of diggity. Waking up to race? No diggity! (I like the way we work it).
Transition set up was pretty simple bow that it was a du - run stuff on, bike stuff prepped, no sweat. We set up quickly and went off to find a bathroom. There were no port a potties, but a bathhouse that apparently had bathrooms 1/4 a mile away. It was locked. So was the second bathroom. WTF. Now, I'm not high maintenance, but pre race...I need to potty. FAIL. I ended up using some bushes (thankfully avoided the poison ivy, but got killed by bugs) and the bathroom person didn't show up to unlock them until 30 minutes pre race. Diggity scale - an OVERWHELMING surplus of diggity!
Despite the diggitiness of the morning, I was strangely calm. My goal for the day was a 1:55 (or anything under 2 hours) - I figured an hour for the bike, 50 minutes for the runs, and then a minute or so for each transition. I caught up with some buddies of mine, peed when the bathrooms opened, did a quick warm up jog, and headed off to the start. If mini mussel taught me anything, its that seeding is important. The start was a time trial - 2 athletes every 5 seconds. I lined up way in the back of the F1 starters - Ill be darned if I was going to race for the podium and the woman behind me started later. So, Ill start at the back of the race! Done.
Run #1: 13:11 (7:06/mi)
My race instructions for the run were to take the first two at tempo pace. What's tempo pace? I don't know. I get notoriously nervous whenever a pace shows up in my race plan that seems scary, so I didn't ask. And did the ever adult "la la la i cant hear you" when my coach tried to tell me. (Why does this man deal with me. I don't know). I decided to go out at comfortably hard pace. I began passing women right away, keeping myself in check, reminding myself to do my own race (thanks Silver Serpent!). Passed a few women and hit mile 1 in 7:08. Whoops. Probably too fast (I now know tempo is 7:30. Note that I never hit tempo during this race). Even if my watch said I was zoomin, I felt good, so I continued the same pace. On the way back, I increased my cadence, grabbed some water and trotted into T2 with a mile 2 time of 7:04. And now it was time to bike! Diggity scale of first run - no diggity!
Bike #1: 28:21 (20.9 mph)
The bike and run course were both easy for dummies like me - go out, turnaround, and head back. There were some sketchy coned areas the first and last mile but the rest was open, pretty flat road. I headed out for bike 1 with the idea to see how many women were still ahead of me, and keep it in check. My goal power was 180-190 and at the turnaround I was at 185 and averaging just under 21. Saw Greg about 2 minutes behind me lookin strong! Sweet. I counted 4 women ahead of me, and passed them all on the way back. Did I miss one? Maybe. Ill check it out on the run. Came back to transition feelin good and put on my run stuff for run 2! Lets do it! Diggity Scale - Hardly any diggity (those cones with the thru traffic both ways made for slight diggity)
Run #2: 13:18 (7:08/mi)
As I headed out for the second run, I reminded myself to keep it in check, and hit the same RPE of comfy hard for run 2. I saw Marcus running it in strong already almost done with run 2 (he is so speedy!) already in the lead by several minutes. His lead biker yelled out at me - you're first female! Wait - what? I'm what?? In. the. Lead. OMG. I took a deep breath and reminded myself AGAIN I still had 1.5 miles and a bike AND a run to go - but - I've never been in the lead before! OMG. Took mile 1 in 7:08, and mile 2 in....7:08. I'm consistent as hell and still...running too fast. But my body felt good! Saw Greg on the way back in and he goes OMG you're in first! I grinned and said...I KNOW! I totally forgot to check out the women behind me and set the goal for bike #2 to do just that. Diggity Scale - STILL NO DIGGITY
Bike #2: 28:38 (20.7 mph)
Goal of second bike - keep in check first 5 miles. Check out competition. Push harder second five miles if needed. Check. On the way out, I counted men. There was Marcus, still killin it in 1st, then I saw three dudes behind him. Wait...I'm in fourth place overall??? OMG. (Note, this was a small race - there were only 60 people - but still!). At the turnaround, I dialed it up a bit, and saw second place woman about a minute behind, and third place about two minutes. Lets dance, baby. I hit the gas and my second five miles averaged 21.3 - for an overall bike average of 20.7, NP 184 - spot on target. Diggity level - nope. Still none.
Run #3: 13:29 (7:05/mi)
On my way out of T5, I was passed by my one and only person during the race - a dude averaging 6:20 pace - I wisely let him go. Goal here was to keep my lead and hit the gas in the last mile with all I had. Mile 1- 7:11. On the way back in I saw my lead was up to about 2 minutes. Whatever. I'm goin'! Saw Greg with a half mile to go and I got super emotional as he gave me a high five and the biggest grin...and I hit the gas. Mile 2 in 6:57, for a total finish time of 1:41:03, first overall woman, 6th overall finisher, and a good 15 minutes ahead of my goal!
DIGGITY LEVEL - LESS THAN NO DIGGITY. ALL THINGS ANTI DIGGITY
No doubt, baby.
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