National Harbor OWS

I didn't have to coach gymnastics this week, so I took full advantage of it and decided to test out swimming at the National Harbor. These open water swims are put on by Wave One swimming and are held every Thursday. Of course I coach every Thursday so I was excited that I could actually go to one!

We (Jason and I) arrived with plenty of time before the swim start. It was a super relaxed set up and they just gave a short and sweet overview before we could get in the water.

 

The course was set up at a 300 meter triangle and you could swim much as you wanted for an hour or until the sun went down. The water felt clean and was the perfect temp at 74 degrees. I was glad I decided not to wear my wetsuit and get in some last minute open water training in before Raleigh. I swam 8 loops in who knows how long?? I always forget to wear a watch to these things. The buoys were a little hard to sight as they were small, but you can't really get lost when you are swimming in a circle.

 

Overall it was a great experience and I am sad I can't make it to any more of these as my open water swimming and my swimming in general is not the best.

 

Happy Friday and have a great weekend! 

Raleigh 70.3 Goals

IM Raleigh 70.3 is this weekend and I am getting excited!

 

I used the same 20 week training plan that I used last year, which is from trifuel.com. I know this is just a generic plan and is not catered toward individual athletes, but it seems to work out ok for me and it's free! True specific workouts are not given, only time, but it wasn't too hard to know some of these workouts needed to be interval, hill, or speed work days. Overall I think training went well, even though my motivation was pretty low in Jan and Feb. Slowly but surely I got more into training and am excited to race this weekend :)

 

I registered for this race the same day it opened and am looking forward to hopefully a traffic free 4 hour drive to Raleigh. I don't know why though that I didn't think there going to be a heat wave in NC in June. I don't race well in heat. Actually I am horrible runner in the heat. We have had a cold spring this year and I was hoping it would continue through the first weekend in June, but no so such luck. Race day weather as of today: 89! But I am trying to stay positive here - we can not control the weather, so I just have to make the most of it - it could be worse - like rain and high winds. So I will not complain.

 

I started to get nervous thinking about the goals I have set for myself and how the heat might be in the way of my goals...ie death march on the run...

 

swim: around 35-37 minutes.

Not sure how much a wetsuit actually helps you, but my time at kinetic last yr was 36 minutes, so just hoping to do the same. Also hoping I don't panic in the damn water. I always seem to do this. I would also like to put forth an effort on the swim instead of just floating along at a comfy zone 1 pace. 

 

Bike: around 2:55 (give or take)

The bike course looks to be rolling hills with an adorable 1200 ft of climbing over the 56 miles. This seems like it should be a fast course? I really have no clue. I just want to ride smart, take in my calories, and save some of my legs for the run. As Karen says, "drink your drink, eat your snacks."

 

Run: ??? wildcard

Umm...usually the run is my strongest leg, but this is the leg that I am really nervous about. Like I mentioned I don't run well in the heat and my body really hasn't had a chance to get to used to running in the heat since it's been cooler. I have been running high 7s to low 8s off the bike and my original goal was around a 1:45 half. I don't know if this is reasonable anymore or if I am just being a wimp. I guess I really will not know until I'm running out of T2 as to how the day will go. I need to stop working myself up about this stupid run.

 

Transitions:

Get the hell out there as fast as I can and don't BS around like I usually do.

 

Hmm...lets see...other than being a little nervous I think I am ready to go :)

 

Happy Wednesday all :)

Capitol Hill Classic 10k Race Report

I have always wanted to run the Capitol Hill Classic, but this is the first year I was actually free the weekend of the race and could run it. The course itself is just an out and back with a little running around RFK.

When I first registered I thought it might be a stupid idea to do a race after riding the Casa River Century the day before. But as it turns out, it was a good idea!

I have never really raced raced a 10k and didn't really have any goals going into this race besides run and have fun. The race starts at Stanton Park which is just a short walk from our house over by Lincoln Park. Walking to a race = the best thing ever! We left our house at 8 and met up with Rachel around 8:15 for a 8:30 start time.

The race was delayed 15 minutes which wasn't too big of a deal and we squeezed our way near the front as no one was seeded correctly.  So we knew there was going to be rage rolling right at the start line.

Mile 1 : 6:50

As soon as I crossed the start line my goal was to find some free space and get around the slow people who should have not been at the front of the line. I didn't want all the zig zagging around people to slow me down and didn't realize how fast I actually ran the fist mile in. My watch beeped: 6:50. Um. I just did a 6:50 mile but hey it didn't feel all that bad. So for whatever reason my new goal became to finish the 10k with a 6:xx overall pace. I don't know I always just make up goals in the middle of my races, but every time I do I am just let down.

Mile 2 & 3: 6:56 - 6:53

As I was trotting along down East Capitol Street I spotted a guy that was running about the same pace as me and decided I wanted to keep up with him. As my watched beeped after each mile I looked down and thought wow I am actually going to do this. I am going sub 7. I only have 3 more miles.... how hard can it be to run 3 more miles at this pace......

Mile 4: 7:05

By this time in the course we were running what seemed like zig zag circles in the RFK parking lot. Even though it was boring, it was flat. My pace slowed down a little and my pacer was slipping away from me. I wasn't too worried about the 7:05 and thought I could pick it back up the last two miles.

Mile 5: 7:36

WTF Hill and WTF legs. My legs felt like death as I struggled to maintain a faster pace. My brain really wanted to run faster, but my legs did not. Ugh. There goes my made up goal.

Mile 6: 7:16

I was really struggling the last mile and as you can see I ran this race way to fast the first three miles. I tried my best to bring my pace back down but just couldn't do it.

Mile .3: 2:02

My watched ended being ahead just a little bit but I tried to kick it into high gear for the last .3 (6:46 pace). I was happy to be finished and cross the finish line.

Total Time: 44:38  which landed me 18th out of 1288 women and 8th in my AG.

Thoughts ~ I couldn't be happier. I ran this race on tired legs from the day before and still had a great day. I wasn't expecting much coming into the race and ran way faster than I thought I would. I don't even know what my other 10k times are? Maybe 52 minutes. So I got a big PR. True I didn't go sub 7 but I don't even know where that goal came from. I certainly wasn't training to do that so I can't be upset. Overall it was a great day and brunch afterwards was so much fun.

Happy Tues All :)

Kinetic Race Report

I'm a little behind on race reports....

 

I was using this race as a great way for training. We (M and I) drove down to my cousin's house who lives in the area the night before. It was nice to sleep in till 5 instead of driving down the 90 miles the day of. We left her house at 5:30 and were at Lake Anna by 6am. I guess we should have given ourselves a little more time because we were in transition setting up until it about closed. We also found out that Setup Events had a little snag with there timing chips and "lost" everyone's timing chips who's bib was higher than 400. So yeah raced without a timing chip. Not really a big deal, but not really sure how they got accurate swim times.

 

Swim: 1.2 miles - 43:39 (swim + T1 time)

We were in the last wave that went off at 7:20. The water was about 68 I think so I wore a sleeveless wet suit. As soon as our wave went off I panicked. I seriously am getting sick of panicking in the water. I have done this enough. This should not be happening, but it was. After about 100 I stopped and treated water for a little to bring my heart rate back down and relax. I don't know why this is happening? I really flustered with my open water swimming and these stupid panic attacks at the start of the swim. At any rate I continued to swim and felt fine. I even was sighting ok since it was over cast. I thought I felt fast (for me) in the water but as I ran out on the beach and looked down at my watch I saw 40 minutes. WTF. 40 minutes. This is 4 minutes slower than my 70.3 swim on the same course last year. How could I have swam 4 minutes slower? I only treated water for maybe 10 seconds. I was very flustered and mad as I made my way into T1

 

T1: Nothing special here. I decided to put on cycling gloves because it was raining when I got out of the water and didn't know if it would continue to rain during the bike. I just feel more comfy with gloves on if it's raining. Once I got to the bike mount line I realized my shoes were completely lose and had to re-tighten my dails. I guess I was out of it.

 

Bike: 56 miles - 2:55:24

Like I said it was lightly raining as I started the bike leg but it wasn't too bad. My heart rate was pretty high and took it took awhile to calm down. My big issue for the first 20 miles was my hip flexor. It was killing me. I wanted to cry it hurt that bad. But I didn't want to slow down and I wanted to try my best so I kept pedaling. Eventually it felt a little better around mile 25. I told myself over and over drink my drink, eat my snacks, I hope M made it out of the water. This is actually the only thing that went through my mind on the ride. No songs, no talking to myself. Just this same phrase over and over again. The course this year was a single loop instead of two loops. I liked to course. It's a fast course with some rolling hills for the first half then it picked up the old course around mile 30ish or so. My goal was around a 2:50 - 2:55ish. I was on target but we really hit some nasty head winds around mile 30 - 45 or so. Ugh. Wind. Why is it always windy? Oh well, kept pedaling. I was pretty happy when we turned back into the park and I knew I was done for the day. No running 13 miles for the win. Although I felt like I could have ran. My legs and stomach felt great.

 

Overall Time: 3:39:03

 

Brick: 2 miles

M and I finished within a couple minutes of each other and did a short brick along some of the run course.

It was a good day and lots of fun. Also so proud of M for finishing his first 1.2 mile swim! I think we are both ready for Raleigh. 2 more weeks! woot!

 

Happy Monday All :)

Racing Weekend

It's Race Day tomorrow!

What race you ask? Kinetic 70.3 - Well I'm only doing the aqua-velo as a training day for Raleigh 70.3

I have actually never done an aqua-velo so it should be fun :) I plan on taking off my timing chip and doing a short brick run when finished. I think it will be a great chance to test out my nutrition plan and work on getting my T1 time down. I always suck in T1.

Hopefully the rain holds off for us. As of now it's a 60% chance of rain. Ugh. Biking in the rain. Not my favorite thing to do. At least on the bright side of things it will be about 70 when we start the ride, so I won't be freezing.

Regardless I am excited about this race as it was my first ever 70.3 last year. 

I think the course is great! But I will be honest I'm not shedding over tears about not running 3 hill filled loops. I'll let everyone else have fun with that.

Happy Friday All and good luck to everyone racing this weekend :)

Weekend Recap

This weekend was filled with sports, traffic, and rage....

Saturday:

I set my alarm for 7am, but was up by 6:30.  I had some oatmeal and was out the door running by 7:30. I had a 105 minute run on my schedule. Sometimes it's hard for me to guess my mileage based on time, but I was guessing this would be around a 12 - 13 mile run. So I did a simple out and back up to the Zoo (6 miles one way). The first half of the run is mostly uphill. My splits: 8:11, 7:59, 8:24, 8:13, 8:39, 8:30. I was hungry by the 6 mile mark and ate half of my honey stinger chews. I normally don't have to take anything in during a run this distance, but I guess I was just hungry that day. But onto the second half which is mostly downhill: 7:56, 8:00, 8:10, 7:56, 8:20, 8:09, 7:35.  As you can see my splits are really all over the place. I really wasn't looking at my watch much and over all the run was uneventful. My overall pace was 8:06 which is right around where I want it to be at Raleigh. Oh course the challenge is keeping that pace after swimming and biking. Also I slow down a lot in the heat. So even though I hate that it's still been in the 60s. I would love it to be that temp come race day. One can only wish.

Soon after my run, we (Rachel, M, and myself) were on our way down to Lake Anna for an open water swim clinic. Lake Anna is about an 1:30 drive from DC so we gave ourselves a little over 2 hours to get there since traffic on 95 always sucks. And sure enough it sucked but we still managed to get to the lake right at 1 o'clock which is when the event was suppose to start. But to our surprise they changed the start time till 2 then delayed it a little more. So it was a lot of sitting around which was irritating. Finally Rachel and myself just got in the water and started swimming. The water felt ok at about 63 degrees. Originally a 500 meter course was suppose to be set up but after swimming 6 loops I realized it was not that long. We are guessing it was around 250 - 300 yards. Not really sure? I ended up doing 9 laps and it was great practice. It was really nice to get some open water swimming in since we never really get a chance to do so. Afterwards we stopped at Chick-fila which might have been the highlight of my day. Oh so good! Then it was onto more rage inducing traffic on 95.

Sunday:

Sportz take two: Bikes!

I will be honest here, I woke up with a running nose and I felt so tired! I did not want to do this ride at all and neither did M. We finally got ourselves out the door at 9:30 to start our ride. The schedule had us doing a 3-4 hour ride. I wanted to go on the longer side of the ride since we missed the last two weeks. I was freezing cold all the way up to the BP and the stupid wind. Ugh. With my race wheels on I feel like I am getting blown all the place. It's scarey. When will I get used to these things? I went out a little past the T down river then turned around to go back home. Once I made it back to the T my legs were trashed. I took a quick break and almost bit the dust trying to clip back in. Then I had a serious laugh attack after telling M I was done and there was no way I was making it back home. I don't know why this was so funny but I have never really laughed so hard on my bike. I was going so slow up hill (5mph) and had to unclip to finish my laugh attack before I fell off my bike. The rest of the ride sucked. Then it sucked some more ounce we hit Georgetown and had to ride back to the city to get over to the Hill. Worst 62 miles ever.

Once home I thought about skipping my brick run but forced myself to do it since it was only 20 minutes. My legs felt like crap but started to warm up but by that time I was done. I was happy with my pace on the run but the thought of running about 10 more miles in 4 weeks, ugh. Can I do it at this pace?

The rest of the day turned into napping :) Oh how I love sleep!

What was the favorite part of your weekend?

Happy Monday All :)

Training Update

Just checking in as I seem to keep forgetting about my little blog.

 

Last week I was sick basically the entire week. I struggled through my workouts Tues - Thurs and finally just couldn't force myself out the door last Friday as I felt like death. I still felt like death on Sat and missed around a 60 mile ride/brick run. I didn't want to not do anything so I dragged myself to the pool and managed to swim 3000 yards. Sunday and Monday though - more rest days as my body got over this stupid sickness.

 

I basically panicked and had a breakdown about missing 4 days in a row of workouts. I especially panicked about missing my long ride as I had missed my long ride the weekend before due to visiting family/friends in VA Beach. That's two long rides missed back to back. I was almost in tears. Will I be able to finish Mount Tremblant? Do I have enough bike training for Raleigh? Have I ruined my training? It's hard for me to deal with missing workouts. I see the workout on the training schedule and I want to do it. It's there for a reason. But, in the end, I am sure I will be fine. I think we have 18 weeks left before MTB and I'm sure I'll have a chance for lots of fun rides. I know working out while sick doesn't really make sense and hopefully I don't get sick again.

 

This week I feel 100% again and my training has been going well. No missed workouts :)

 

I am looking forward to the weekend as we are heading down to Lake Anna for some open water swimming tomorrow. As you guys know, my swimming sucks so this should be helpful. Then on Sunday - Long Ride - woot!

 

Happy Friday All and have a great weekend :)