Warhawk Triathlon Race Report

March 15, 2014
Monroe, Louisiana

Time flies when you're training hard! The winter months have come and gone and it's officially tri season. My goal race is the Nautica South Beach Tri in Miami in April, but I was looking for a warm-up race before then. The Warhawk Triathlon fell into the perfect time frame for both myself and training buddy Brinn, who is getting ready for 5i50 New Orleans in a few weeks.

We got a late start on Friday evening because of the Hattiesburg Irish-Italian Fest 5K. We had 25 BRAND NEW runners from our New Beginnings Training Program complete the 5K. This group faced some serious challenges- pretty much every training run was cold, raining, or both. They are pretty tough, though. GREAT race turnout, perfect race-day weather, lots of happy faces, great success! Very proud!

We arrived to Monroe late and the morning came too soon. There was definitely a little anxiety about kicking the season off and racing again so I didn't get much sleep. We arrived early to the race site per usual to check in, get settled, and warm up. Somehow Brinn and I BOTH got our timing wrong and thought the race started at 7:30, so at 7:10 when we arrived to the pool ready to do our swim warm-up and the pool still wasn't open, we started freaking out a bit. The lifeguard arrived, we jumped in and did a couple hundred meters plus some pick-ups, then looked around confused at 7:30 when we were still one of the few athletes in the pool area. The race started at 8... Whoops! And that's why we're here- to get the mistakes out of our systems and PRACTICE! We spent the rest of the time with a long warm-up and practicing starts and turns.

Swim 6:06, 1:32/100m
The swim was a time-trial start with about 5 seconds between athletes. I was number 22 in the water and it was pretty congested. I asked the guys around me what their EST's were and they all said 5:30-5:45. LIARS! Within the first 50 I caught up with the person in front of me. By the next 50 we were swimming 3 wide with the guy two spots in front of me. I didn't feel comfortable trying to pass the guy in front of me and being able to hold pace, so I swam next to his hip for the next 100 and took advantage of some drafting. At the 200m mark, I decided I needed to pick it up and had a strong but still chaotic second half. All this week I'd been working on a strategy for snaking the pool, but the turns were too congested so my plan went down the drain. Finish time 6:06. A little slower than I expected, but ok considering all the congestion.

Bike 29:18, 22.5 mph


Today I wanted to see what I was capable of with the bike. I've had some pretty solid rides over the past few weeks and have been feeling some real improvements. Today I wanted to see those on paper. I felt strong from the beginning. There were a lot of turns, but when I wasn't slowing down or speeding up, I was putting in some fast efforts and I felt like things were finally meshing. The course was flat, but challenging. After the race someone said they didn't realize they were going to be doing a crit today. On the drive home, I replayed the course in my head and counted 19 turns. But there may have been more... 29:18, 22.5 mph. Not as fast as I was expecting, but I still feel good my moving speeds.

Run 20:47, 6:57/mile

Finishing up the run & cheesing big
because I just won my first tri
of the season!

Most of my anxiety for today was about the run. I didn't know how my body would be feeling at this point or how it would respond to the fatigue today. The past few weeks have been pretty volatile. One of the guys on the bike told me the girl behind me was a strong runner, so I needed to move it. Focus on form, get my head in the game, quick feet, don't think about how bad it sucks- you can rest in 21 minutes, just keep moving. A couple men passed me with some speed, but no sign of any girls (I peeked on the turns). Most of the course was on concrete sidewalks, which made me nervous. I tried to stay on the asphalt as much as I could to avoid the harder surface, even if it meant a few extra steps. 3 miles felt long... I don't think I had much more speed today, but once I got into a rhythm things were ok. I think I'm set up for some strong 10k's this summer (fingers crossed!).

Finish 57:37. 1st Overall female 
Took away some fun hardware and prize $$, which is ALWAYS a plus. This was a solid race for me. I'm happy with today's performance, but am more excited about this season. None of the legs were particularly outstanding, but none of them held me back. I'm looking forward to continued improvements. It's going to be a good summer!


Results HERE

Some Days We Just Don't Have It. Mississippi College Open Track MeetRace Report

March 1, 2014
Clinton, Mississippi

Fatigue is a reality I've yet to completely comprehend as an endurance athlete. As a scientist, I know the physiological causes and stages of fatigue, both short and long term. As a coach, I understand the cyclical nature of training for performance- challenge, recover, repeat. As an athlete, I experience discomfort, both general and localized. Sometimes the discomfort is painful. I try to listen to my body so I can identify this as a normality of training versus a warning sign of an oncoming injury. Then, I adjust.

The problem is here: distinguishing the difference between discomfort & a real problem, and pinpointing exactly when I need to back off and let my body heal.

The greatest challenge in training is doing so injury free. The athletes who can stay healthy through intense training phases are the ones who will have the best performances on race day.  This is why I value the phrase "Train Hard, Recover Harder". Make the most out of your non-workout time so that you can have quality training sessions each time you hit the water or pavement.

This means actively practicing the following:

• eat when you're supposed to
• sleep when you need to
• give the legs a break and sit during downtime (I prefer to stand- it keeps me focused at work. SHAME!)
• stay hydrated
• wear your compression gear (Always Swiftwick socks! serious recoverysocks) http://blog.swiftwick.com/the-secret-to-recovery-swiftwick-compression)
• practice self-massage, & schedule massages when necessary.
• DON'T just do these things when you're not feeling 100% (Guilty. But then again, when's the last time I've felt 100%?!).

Let me describe the past week of training.

Sunday we started our first week back of speedwork. Kyle says this was by far our best speed session. It was pretty aggressive (but manageable) for our first week back.
4x400 hitting 1:25-1:30 goal with SHORT rest intervals
400 recovery
repeat 400 + recovery
4x200 hitting 40-45 goal.

Monday was the usual- masters swim + run. BUT since we do bike intervals & long run on Tuesdays, we decided to move the 90 min. run to Monday to allow recovery time & get the most on the bike. The run was rough from the beginning, but I kept waiting for things to loosen up. After 50 min. I finally came to terms that my body was not going to cooperate so I stopped. MY LOWER LEGS KILLED! Shins, achilles, calves... both landing and pushing off were painful. At the end of the run I was having difficulty balancing on one leg. Spent the evening massaging muscles that have never before bothered me & hoping I hadn't overdone it.

Tuesday- Bike intervals- SPEED! Then short recovery run with our New-B training program. Not good. They were definitely pulling me along!

Wednesday- masters swim. Took the afternoon/evening off & massaged.

Thursday- Swim + short brick (1.5hr + 15min + striders). Legs felt ok (except on striders)- still a bit stiff in the lower muscles but MUCH better than Tuesday... I might be ok on Saturday! Keep massaging.

Friday- masters swim + shorter brick (45min + 15min). Legs better, striders less painful. More massage.

Saturday- RACE DAY! Spent the morning at the Superhero 5K for Terrod Jackson (serving NUUN to thirsty runners), BUSY day at the shop, then left early afternoon for the track meet.

Arrived to Jackson, checked in, then got to work. The warm-up felt more exerting than I thought it should have, but my body was giving me a red flag during our dynamic stretches. Impact was extremely irritating, I was having difficulty toeing off and felt like I was just dragging my legs along. With about 15 minutes to the race start I just sat in the grass massaging my achy legs and hoping they would stop throbbing long enough to get through the race. Kyle gave me a pat on the back and told me to get it together, we're here to race. Conditions were perfect and there were 19 girls running the 5K- COMPETITION. Wimping out was not an option, I was chasing the 20 minute 5K.

20 minutes came and went, but I could have told you it would before the gun went off. The goal pace was 1:34 per 400m, which was realistic, just not today. I hit my times on the first mile, made my passing moves strategically, and felt ok. After that first mile I could feel my body want to stop. I tried to ignore it, but my physical limitations beat out my mental strength. I went into survival mode- just finish and do the best I can today.

21:23- Nowhere near my sub-20 goal. It was a painful finish, both physically and mentally. Emotionally I was disappointed because I feel like my goals and expectations for this race were within reach, and conditions were PERFECT. But physically this was all I had today. Before I could get too discouraged, Kyle reminded me that we don't have GREAT races every time we gear up for competition. The goal is to always work towards getting faster; some days we just don't have it and that's ok, because the big picture is that we are better today than we were last year, month, or even week.

And guess what?!? 21:23- a "BAD" race by my standard- is STILL A 3RD BEST TIME! So I can still blow up terribly and have a pretty solid race. I might not have the number just yet, but the level of improvement over the past year is significant, and that is what we really value. At least until the next open track meet...