50th Post

I.CAN'T.STOP.THINKING.ABOUT.IRONMAN.

Jackson County Tri Race Report and bad "Car"ma

Happy Monday to everyone. I am finishing up with some things for work and thought I would take the time to do a race report. Prompt for once, I know! So, sorry it is so long but... enjoy.

We headed out to Lee's Summit, MO on Saturday morning. We did end up taking both cars. We had one bike that fit on the rear rack (his) and one bike that was too stinkin' small (mine). Since my bike has to ride in the backseat, the dogs would have had nowhere to sit and so two cars it was. (Time for a larger car, huh? And we don't even have any kids!)

So off we went, great trip out, to bed early and up at 5 to head to the race. Took the the Neon to the lake and got our gear out and set up in transition.


Mr KT getting his gear together before the race.



I was excited that Mr KT was able to come and do the duathlon while I raced short course. Anyway, off the long course athletes went in their waves.


Warm up on the beach



Long course athletes getting ready to go


Next the duathlete racers set out and finally it was time for the Sprint race to start. Mr KT said that he saw one of the Olympics distance racers try and jump on their bike from the back, like cowboys jump on horses in the movies, only not so successfully. The first time he shorted it and got hung up on his carbon fiber bottle cages, the second time he landed on top of the cages and ripped them off the bike spilling his drink everywhere, the third time he got tangled up and dumped his bike. Mr KT said that he was cussing but he just kept trying. 3 minutes could easily have been saved by throwing a leg over like a mere mortal but apparently he was trying to impress someone.

I was racing with a pretty good head cold, but it wasn't at all in my chest so I figured I was safe. I also didn't dope up on the acetaminophen until 3 hours after the race, so all was well. I think the only part of the race it may have affected was my swim. I felt like I couldn't get a breath and I am sure that the lake water wasn't helping. It was a 500 m swim and I only got kicked once. My goggles filled up with water and I got a breath of water but after I recovered from that I was good to go. I sort of felt like I was working hard and not really going anywhere but it didn't really matter as it was only 500 m.
Swim time: 9:52 (but about 45 sec was running up the beach) which makes my pace 1:40/100 yds

T1: Uneventful although the racks were super close together. I had to hold my bike over my head and jump over people to get in and out. Ran with cycling shoes through transition. Hopped on. Rode away.
T1 time: 1:38



Bike: One 11.75 mile loop. Hilly and great. Very little wind which was nice. I drank 1/2 a bottle of Gatorade. There was a tight S curve about 1/2 way through where they were telling everyone to slow down. Not only was it on a slight decline but the pavement was a mess. It looked like someone had poured new blacktop over old asphalt and the new stuff had come up in chucks. Anyway, it was manageable if you followed the recommendation from the volunteers and race officials to slow down. We were also warned about it before each wave started. Apparently, a few people thought that the race director was joking about that little snafu in the course. There was a gal down in the bushes and brush when I went by with about 4 other athletes around her. I rode on ahead to make sure that one of the volunteers with a radio knew that someone was down, which they did. The next little obstacle was a one lane bridge that we were required to dismount and run our bikes across. I actually thought it was pretty fun but there were about 10 people who got DQ'd for riding the bridge. It just so happened that at the time that I got to the bridge the firetruck for the wrecked rider was trying to get across. A whole mess of us were stopped at the bridge waiting for the firetruck which eventually decided that they weren't going to be able to drive it. We lost a couple of minutes but you know, it is just a game, a sport. The lady next to me was cussing out the volunteer, the firetruck, whatever she could think of. I finally turned to her and said something along the lines of, "what is one or two minutes in our race if that other rider is seriously hurt? It is just for fun." She growled at me, but stopped complaining. I smoked her after we were allowed to cross. Then about 1/2 mile up the road we were to turn left but I was stopped again as the ambulance driver tried to execute a three point turn. Three points turned into four, turned into five and finally I was given the go-ahead. I wasn't frustrated, if I was back there with a broken collar bone, tons of road rash and a week full of poison ivy ahead I would want some help ASAP. I had to climb a pretty good hill from a standstill because of this but I figure it only made me stronger. The last part of the bike had a monster downhill which was super fun except since I couldn't breathe out of my nose I ended up drooling all over my cheek because of the wind and my open mouth. Sexy, I know, try to contain yourselves guys.
Bike time: 41:09 Avg: 17.8. This avg was from my computer, mind that I had to stop completely twice.

T2: I undid the straps on my bike shoes coming in because I usually slide them off and run in barefoot but for some reason I unclipped so I had to run thru transition with my cycling shoes flopping around on my feet. Stupid. Anywho, same old, same old except this time I had to blow my nose. There goes :20. I pulled my shoes on, grabbed my belt and was gone. No socks on a race this short.
T2 time: 1:30

Run: My husband was waiting for me as I came out of the transition area. He had long since finished his duathlon and was waiting to do some cheering. I felt great off the bike. My legs weren't tired at all and I was ready to go. Mr KT ran with me for most of the run and don't worry, I couldn't pace off him if I wanted to, he stuck mostly behind me and off to the side. It was a nice run with lots of shade.
Run time: 26:49. Pace: 8:37.


Overall time: 1:20:54
Age group: 7/25 although I got a third place medal because 4 of the top 5 overall females were in my age-group. Tough crowd!
Overall female: 14/139

My husband was a rock star!
Run #1: 1.4 miles - 8:33 avg 6:07
T1: 0:52
Bike: 11.75 miles - 35:37 avg 19.8
T2: 1:02
Run #2: 3 miles - 21:14 avg 7:05
Overall time: 1:07:16
Overall place: 9/57
Age Group: 3/7 although got a 2nd place medal due to overall placing of the 1st place finisher


I am really glad that I choose to do this race after Big Creek went to heck.

Now for the amusing part of the story. Some of you may remember that as of last week I was not on a roll with the family cars. My Neon had to have a new alternator, battery and 4 new tires. Then, while mine was in the shop I smashed into the back of someone while driving my husband's. Well, here is strike three. I hope he keeps me around anyway. Hopefully I have some other good qualities.

When we were getting ready to leave MO, Mr KT couldn't find his keys. This is not unusual so we looked everywhere. Come to find out, he had thrown them in a plastic cup that was in the cup holder of the Neon when we left for the race. When we stopped for gas, I had inadvertently filled up the cup with trash and tissues and things and thrown it out. Needless to say, he was M.A.D. He went back to the gas station (20 or so miles) and dug through all the trash. I offered to go but I don't think he could stand to have me in the car with him at that point. He never found them. He said he found the cup but no keys. So we aren't positive they were in there but it is pretty likely. Anyway, he drove his mom's car home and I drove the Neon home. This morning he had to turn back around and drive the 3.5 hours back with the spare set of keys to switch out cars and then come home. I felt horrible but it was an accident, I swear! All is well that ends well and I think it would be in my best interest to go make him a REALLY good dinner tonight right now!

Have a nice week.

You know what is great?

Working with kids for two weeks and coming down with a cold... just before your last race of the season. Good thing it is a sprint. I have washed my hands religiously but yet still feel like I might sneeze at any second, all.the.time. Awesome.

So I feel like this...


which then, in turn, makes me feel like this...



or this...



So, we are leaving in the morning. Not sure how exactly we are going to get there without two cars because my bike is too short to fit on the bike rack and the dogs take up the back seat. I guess we will see how it goes.


Good luck to those racing at Louisville and Canada this weekend and here is to fabulous weather and the best conditions a person could ask for. Go get em!

Last weekend catch up

Oops, somehow time seems to slip away.

I meant to write a quick post about last Sunday but now all of a sudden it is Thursday and it doesn't seem so fresh in my mind.

Anywho, last Sunday, Mr KT and I did the Corporate Cycling Challenge on my company's team. We rode a 42 mile "hilly" route to Fort Calhoun and back to downtown Omaha. It was a nice ride even though he dropped me within the first mile. I mean if you ask me, 18 mph is fast enough for a 40 mile ride. =0) It was a nice ride with some rollers and some pretty good wind. We got home and went for a 3 mile run with the dogs together which was really fun. Nice easy pace, or as easy as it can be with 2 Brittany pups pulling on you.

Later that afternoon we headed out to the driving range to hit some range balls. That was a pretty fun time. Mr KT just got a set of clubs and was stoked to try them out. It went pretty well and we were tired by the time we both hit a bucket (80 some balls).

The next couple of days I was pretty darn sore from... you guessed it... swinging the golf club. My intercostals and obliques were screaming at me to do more core work which I will be incorporating after the race season is over.

This coming weekend we are headed to Lee Summit, MO for a race. I will be doing the Sprint distance tri and he will be competing in the duathlon. I just could NOT end my season with Big Creek. It was so awful. So, I am looking for some redemption. I am looking forward to this short little sprint.

More to come on the race early next week.

Later.

His and Hers Bikes

In response to the comment left by Bigun from the last post...

Bigun said...

I don't know..."she" looks like she has an uber-nice carbon fiber bike while "he" is riding a used steel jobber with only 3 gears.

August 17, 2007 7:29 PM

You may just be right.

Here are the bikes we ride when I can actually outride my husband. =0)

HERS...



HIS...


PULLING THIS...


OR THIS...




And the truth comes out. =0)

Editor's note: Those are baby pictures and so they aren't as light as they used to be.

Sweet new gear

Mr KT is a rock star! I wrote the last post about the Big Creek Tri sitting outside on our back stairs. I was leaning against the glass door and Mr KT was reading over my shoulder as I was writing from the inside. I had no idea he was doing that but he came outside later and said, "ok, so for our anniversary you need a rear water bottle cage and a heart rate monitor". Good guy, huh?

So yesterday, for our 2nd Anniversary, I got...


a Polar Heart Rate Monitor,



a pair of bright pink arm warmers




and a super cool jersey that I have been wanting forever.







He did make me promise not to wear it when I ride with him but that won't be a problem because he is so darn fast the jersey would be embarrassing for me not him.

Big Creek Tri RR

Make that hot, windy, broken, painful, and frustrating and you have yourself a more accurate title for the last post I wrote.

Let's just say that God was speaking clearly.

Just to warn you, this may be a really long post, so settle in...

I packed up and headed to Des Moines mid day on Saturday.




A friend took me out to pick up my packet and then we headed back to get our gear together for the next morning. My bike's gears were slipping a little bit but we got that straightened out for the most part.

I stayed with a buddy from high school and his wife and 2 year old little boy. They have been so hospitable as this is the second time this season I have stayed with them before a race. I stayed up way too late talking to them and catching up but that is part of the deal when you stay with friends you haven't seen in a while. All too soon it was time to roll out of bed. I got about 5 hours of sleep Saturday night. I got my gear together and stepped outside. Not kidding, it was 78º and 97% humidity at 5 am. There was fog on the ground and it was so oppressive you could hardly take a breath in.

I drove over to pick up my bike where I had left it the night before. I ate a piece of white toast with PB and Honey and got most of it down. From there it was on to the race site. We got there in plenty of time and got body marked and good end spaces in the transition area. I could not get myself to get in the lake and warm up even though it was more than warm enough. I just can't see the point of getting all wet and then having to stand around (I shiver no matter what the temperature) and get cold again. Warning to the dudes reading this, you may want to skip the next sentence. Besides, I had some nice cramps that were not helping my mood to race. Sorry guys but most of you have a significant other that probably talks about this so suck it up. =0) Just kidding.

I was in wave 4 and we took off about 7:45 or so. It was a one loop clockwise 1500 meter swim. I felt alright, I just never got in my groove. After the first turn the sun was in my eyes if I breathed to the right which I am a little more comfortable with. I was breathing left every third breath and closing my eyes when going right. Not pretty. I also noticed that when I was sighting, if I was off course, I was always pulling left. I have never noticed that to be a problem before. Swim time: 33:35. This is a 2:03 100 yd time. Really, really slow for me. I heard someone say they thought the swim was long but I have no idea if that was true. There was also a pretty sizable run to the transition area so maybe my swim was a little faster after you account for that.

T1 went off smoothly. 1:21

I jumped on my bike and was headed out on the course when I felt the chain slip the first time. I figured it was just working out the kinks but when it happened over and over I couldn't deny that I was going to have problems. I have since learned how to attempt to fix this problem but on Sunday morning I had no idea and in my defense, the thing was so loose that I probably would not have tightened it enough to solve the problem in one dismount. Anyway, I shifted through my gears and found out that if I stayed up in the second and third largest chain ring in the back and the large ring in the front I could keep from slipping. So I crushed my pedals for 24.something miles. I was hot, it hurt, the little rolling hills kept coming, and when I turned around there was a head wind. This course was probably considered flat for all intensive purposes but when you are mashing your pedals and your quads are on fire even the slightest grade seems somewhat difficult. Anyway, I was going to eat Fig Newtons on the bike, just a couple but I was working so hard and it was so hot there was no way I was going to get those down. I again with I would have had a heart rate monitor on because I was WAY up there. I drank a quarter of a bottle of Gatorade and most of my CamelBak of water (yes I am still wearing the stupid thing for the bike because I have not yet gotten a seat mount for two bottles and there is only room for one on my frame because it is so small). I also took an Enervit Lemon flavored gel 20 minutes before I got off the bike. Yuck, yuck, yuck. I also got held up by a van or SUV as I came back towards the park off the highway. The volunteers and the sheriff that were standing there did their best to keep him moving but I ended up coming to a stop behind him. I was growling, "go" at him until it turned into a shout. I am sure the policeman thought I was crazy, I wasn't even close to the front of the pack but I was still trying to be speedy to place in my age group. Bike time: 1:21:20 averaging 18.3 mph. I would like to be faster but I can handle that.

In T2 I dumped the CamelBak and all the calories that I didn't eat and took off. I took the time to put socks on again because I knew that I was going to be pouring water over my head and didn't want to get blisters. T2: 1:16

The run was horrible. I literally fell apart. I have never had such an agonizing run in my life. My legs were trashed from my psycho bike and it was so incredibly hot. I am positive that I added about a quarter of a mile on to the run (as did many other athlete) running from shade to shade which usually meant crossing to the other side of the street or the sidewalk. There were some spectators and volunteers who may have been angels randomly throughout the course squirting people with water out of bottles as we went by and a really nice random cyclist offering his water bottle to people as they went by which he would then refill from a big cooler. At each aid station I drank a glass of water and dumped a glass of water on my head and body. I was running 5-7 minutes and walking 30 sec. approximately. Running longer if I could and walking the aid stations. At mile 3 I drank a sip out of a glass and it tasted like chewed up bubble gum. I figured there had been Accelerade or something in one of the coolers long ago and that was what I was tasting so I sipped out of the other cup and it was the same thing. I didn't drink much at that station and dumped one of the cups on myself. Yeah, pretty sure that it was a powdered mix of something because I was sticky. I later heard that a bunch of people did the same thing. Have you ever tried to sweat through sports drink? Not much fun. I tried to rinse it off a mile later but at that point I really didn't care. I was hot, thirsty, tired and a bit crabby because of my snail's pace and the fact that I could hardly put one foot in front of the other. At some point I remember uttering the F word under my breath and swearing that I would never, ever attempt a half IM, let alone a full, ever. I ran the last quarter of a mile in at a decent pace which almost killed me. As I crossed the finish line some guy grabbed me and asked if I was alright, I was fine but I chose that moment to stumble and he pulled me over to the side and dumped a gallon jug of water on top of me. That soaked my socks and shoes which I had mostly managed to keep dry up until then. Run time:1:07:53 a disappointing 10:56 min/mile.

Overall time: 3:05:22 (I don't want to talk about it.)

It was just a hot day, everyone was suffering. I ended up 5th out of 10 in my age group even with my mechanical issues. I was 35th out of 75 for females and 217/304 overall. Not a great race but a good learning experience. I never felt sick or had a bad headache during or after the race so that was good but I still don't have the nutrition down. That is going to be something to work really hard on this winter while I ride my tail off on the trainer.

This was going to be my last race of the season but I am not sure I can end on that. There is a smaller sprint in Lee Summit, MO at the end of the month so maybe I will do that one to try and end my year with a good race.


This is Bricko and I recovering at home that evening.


Thanks for sticking with this report until the end. I know it was a long one.

Later all.