cyclocross

i went to cyclocross practice the other week. the last time i went was like in 2001 or 2002 maybe. it was on my old gary fisher that i loved and is still in the garage because i can't deal with ever getting rid of. it almost went to the dump, actually got all the way there but eric didn't toss it since there was no recycling there. whew! that was a close one. eric set up his cross bike for me to ride. its too big but he set up the seat and pedals for me and it was pretty fun. i can see how it will totally help with my bike handling skills. it was hard work though. even those easy laps at the beginning. and there was a totally sketchy descent that i did like 10 times but every time i felt like it was going to be the last time i cleared it. i had never raced cross for a few reasons one being that it didn't look fun. it was fun to watch but i didn't think it would be fun to race. another reason was the whole getting on and off thing. they teach you how to do it, they have coaches there that help you out but the 2nd and last time i went to one of those practices some teenage girl laughed at me when i totally fell trying to jump on my bike. ever since i have been scared to do it. the coaches weren't there this past week so i just got on and off as normal but the bike seems extra high so i don't know how i will do it.
also happening a few weeks back was the Lake Sammamish triathlon. i have done this race every year that i have done triathlons, so this was race #4 and i have improved.

pre-race:
I wasn't so sure about the race since I wasn't feeling my best and both my legs from mid calf down were really tight and sore for some reason. i wasn't feeling well because i had run out of my flonase and i love that stuff and my legs were tight i think because my cleats on my mtn bike shoes weren't set up quite right and after Durango they got a beat down. But I slept well and woke up abouit 4:45AM before my alarm set at 5.

I had my PB&J, grabbed my stuff and was out the door. The race site is soooo close, some may argue that i should ride to the start but hells no i'm not going to ride to the sart, so I took the long way and drove the bike course on the way there. It was pitch black when i got there. since i was so early I was the first one on my rack and set up on the very outside. I haven't ever done that but everyone says its the thing to so, so I did it. i was so early so i went and sat in the car for a while. and it started to rain. luckily it was pretty warm, in the 60s. eventually i went back to transition, and one of my friends from high school in Ohio was racked right next to me! It was her frist tri so that was exciting. i have been trying to get her to do a race for a while since she is a super swimmer and bikes and runs all the time. i dind't know she was going to be there but she had seen my name on the start list and our numbers were only 1 apart! after seeing her i was super excited to be at the race!!!

I went crazy with the Body Glide and put it all over my feet and ankles and arms, put on my wetsuit and went to the water. The water was perfect temp. I swam for probably 5 minutes then waited for 20 minutes for the race to start... as we stood there it started to rain even harder. joy.

the swim:
i had a good start to the race and i thought i swam really well, and more importantly, i swam the whole thing! My time was 8:49. I don't know how close that was to actually 400m, but I was really happy and was 16th in my AG in the swim, 2:13 back from the fastest time in my AG. I felt like I was still pretty competative as I was getting out so I felt like it was a sucess. Last year's swim time was 6:56, so I can guarantee that the swim is not marked accuratly/consistently. My first time at this race my swim was 9:56.

T1 - get this, a whopping 1:19! Talk about shaving some time off there. I think the no socks and gloves were big, but also, I pulled everything off and out of my head while I was running in AND started putting my helmet on while I was pulling my wetsuit off. The body glide on my feet really helped. I felt like I was in there for longer but I guess not! this is compared to 3:27 in 2006. Big improvement, one that i need to continue at other races as well.

The Bike
the bike was good. it was raining pretty hard so i took it real slow on the corners, r-e-a-l slow. those white stripes scared me to death. i was passed by only 1 person, a girl from the younger age group. she was flying! But I was happy with how i was riding, average pace was 20.19mph, total bike time was 41:36. i passed a ton of people. usually i try to be friendly and encourage the other racers but i didn't have it in me since i was working really hard and concentrating on the road since it was so wet. its an out and back with a big hill you go over and hit each way. last year the course was 1 mile longer and I averaged 18.6mph, so that was pretty exciting, the first time i did the race i averaged 16.9mph.

T2
not as stellar as t1, at 1:11, and not so sure why it was so long since i started taking my helmet off as i was running in and i grabbed my stuff and took off.


the RUN
the run was ok. i felt pretty good starting out but i didn't feel like i was going very fast. it takes me w while for my stride to lengthen and feel good. i saw a group of probably 5 people totally cut the course since there was one section that wasn't marked very well and there were no volunteers at the corner. i wonder how many people cut it behind me but i stuck to to the row of little orange flags. about 2/3rds of it is on a grass trail. i was running along passing people, i was caught by 3 people i think, 1 was a 19 yr girl then other two were men. and then with 1 mile left i was caught by a woman in my AG. ugh! She got about 20 feet ahead of me and then stayed there. it was a total mental game from there on out. was i OK with her up there? could I catch her? if i caught her could I pass and hold her off? i was working really hard at this point and not sure. i did make some ground on her and was right on her tail when we saw eric and the kids. i was running so hard that the kids had their hands out for me to slap as i passed and I didn't do it! as i passed i heard them call me on that and i felt totally bad. at the 3 mile mark i made my move and got right next to her and was a tiny bit ahead and then she kicked it in and dropped me. grrr. i couldn't catch back on, i should have waited. she beat me by 4 seconds! aak! I haven't ever had a finish like that but it was fun. i wish i had my garmin on so i could have seen what it did to my pace, but my run time was 23:30, which is 7:35 pace. last year i did it in 7:34 the first time i did it was over 9 minute pace. i was happy with the run but not sure if i would have pushed it that hard if that woman wasn't right there like that. so i need to work on that.

i was 5th in my age group, 6:23 back from 1st and 14th overall, 6:27 back for that. i think i had a goal at the beginning of the year to come in top 5 and i did so that's good but i just squeaked by!

now i am training for xterra nationals at the end of september. (ok so i had started to write this a while back - i JUST got back from nationals and will try to get a report up sooon!) i just finished up a hard week and will have another hard week coming up. tuesday had been a rest week so i could take seamus to kindergarten and be there that night for her to tell me all about it. wednesday was masters swimming and cyclocross practice which was about an hr of total riding with 1/2 hr of it at intensity. thursday was supposed to be a track workout but i swapped with friday's 1.5 hr road spin so i could go to seamus's schools cirriculum night and find out what she will be learning all year. i sat on the trainer at 6am watching Hamlet2 which was not good. Friday was the track workout which i had been afraid of all week.
part of the stress was about where i would do the workout. school is starting up and so is football season. the guy at work joked with me that i should do the workout while the football game was going on so that people would cheer for me but i decided that i wasn't so sure about that. i opted for the redmond HS track since their team was playing away that night. what i didn't realize was that the younger teams would be practicing there. that turned out to be ok, but it rained on me... and the track is new and according to the guy at work it smelled ( which it did) and it was slow which i had no idea about. my workout was 800 warm up, 4x400 at 1:45 with 200 jogs between, 2x1200 at 5:15 with 400 jogs between, and 2x1600 at 7:00 with 400 jogs/walks between then i threw in an 800 at the end just for fun. i either hit or was faster for all of them except the two 1600s. i was dying and those came in at 7:09 and 7:10. not horrible and a much harder workout then i have done in the past. i was sort of pleased. saturday was supposed to be a 45 minute open water swim but it was pouring rain and the motivation was at about 0 so janet took me to the pool and i was very thankful. i worked pretty hard and was beat after. i was still tired and sore from friday but i worked hard. sunday however kicked my arse. i was supposed to do 2hr hard mtn bike ride with 2 x 20 minute sustained climb followed by 45 minute hard run with 1 - 10 minute climb. it was pouring, like dumping, total torrential down pour. it was terrible. we ran into some of eric's friends and the great quote of the day "i'm getting too old for this shiat". i was working hard and getting discouraged because i felt like i ddin't have any power but eric said i was doing really well, so that made me feel better.we toyed with the idea of just not doing the run because we were so cold. we kind of finished the bike in 1:30 and decided to call it a day. until we got to the car and changed into our running stuff! we headed out for the 45 minutes and it was a good run. i'm gld we did it.