Sunday, June 18, 2006

Here's the short version!

Long version to come later---soooooooooooooooooofreakingtired and have to head to Dad's house soon!

First of all--I LOVE triathlon! So fun.

OK--on my 3 goals:

1. "Swim in under 32 minutes": 28 when I hit the beach! Liz, you were right! Got out of water, had a good T1 (Thanks to my new wetsuit that just FLEW off!), and thought, "Hey, it's not an A race but maybe I might PR?"

2. 5 minutes into the bike leg, thought, "Um, yeah. There will be no PR'ing today."

Just checked weatherchannel.com and it said what most people guessed: Winds SSW at gusts of 15-25mph. No joke. I didn't want to exaggerate so I looked it up. So throw my original "18.3mph avg." out the window! :)

BUT---remained calm, did some positive thinking, and ended up with a 17.3mph avg. I'll take it. Not bad for me.

3. "Run 9:15min/miles, but drop this if it's hot and I'm not feelin' it" This brings in my new vid, BTW--sorry if you're not a Snoop fan but it just fits my day. :)

It was sooooo hot at this point (87 F), and pretty windy with no shade. First 2 miles at 9:20, OK...but my HR was out of this universe. Made the decision since no PR was happening and it's not an A race to drop it down a notch, but HR did not come down. :( So it was a long and not very fun 10:00min/miles, BUT serious money in the bank for IMW. I'm proud of myself for hanging in there and finishing strong.

Finish time just at 2:59 by my watch--good enough for 2nd in AG! :) (out of like 3 or 4...ha ha) Got some nice hardware and had a blast with my friends.

OK--more later, but that's da scoop!

___________________________________________

OK--I'm back and I decided just to tack onto this post, since I pretty much wrapped it all up there for ya. Except for the OUT OF CONTROL HEART RATE that happened for the ENTIRE RACE...???!!! Now, my heart rate is USUALLY pretty high. Probably partly to do with the allergy medication I am on. But today it was NUTS.

Here's the splits I had according to my watch, along with some commentary:

Swim 28:05 to beach--really happy with this, as I didn't feel that great in the swim. I was kinda kicking myself for not testing my wetsuit before the race, as I felt like Randy from a Christmas Story ("I can't put my arms down!")

HR: 186 ?! Okay, I just stood up out of the water so I know it will go high....should settle down here soon.

Bike: ? Can't tell from my watch, but avg speed 17.3 mph--disappointed to say the least. One thing I learned today: Flat does NOT ALWAYS equal fast. Flat with nothing but soybean fields and NO TREES often means very windy, which does not mean fast. Oh well. Tried to remember that everyone had to deal with the wind, and not just me. The fact that I was able to sustain that pace with the 15-25mph wind gusts did make me happy, but I was hoping for a nice fast race. So much for that idea. For one road though, I did some glorious coasting at 22-24 mph...yeah, I can't usually do that so for those few minutes there the wind was my friend. :) But into the wind I slowed down to 13-14! Ugh....

HR: ranged from 177-184. What is going on? I definitely didn't drink enough on the bike. It was so hard because the wind was throwing me and everyone around so much, that I had a fearful grip on my aerobars as I hunched down and tried not to get blown over. One dude had a DISC wheel in---WTF?!! I saw him get blown across the lane! Not so smart.

Run: I think around 1:02? This was deliberate though, as I realized after the bike that it wasn't going to be a PR day and decided to slow down...but it DIDN'T HELP MY HR AT ALL!!!!! Then I was mad because I was like, well why the hell did I slow down if my HR won't go down?! I might as well keep a high HR and try to hold a faster pace...mile splits:

1. 9:27 HR: 184 (Uh oh. Still high...and my hat getting blown off my head and then me turning around and chasing it really didn't help my cause)
2. 9:33 HR: 184 (This HR is freaking me out. Must slow down. It's so hot I'm feeling nauseous...)
3. 10:44 HR: 184 (#$*%&(%&!!! BLEEP BLEEP!!!&*(#%%^&#$! Why the @$*( did I slow down if my HR IS NOT CHANGING?!!)
4. 10:18 HR: 184 (You've gotta be FREAKING KIDDING ME)
5. 10:24 HR: 186 (I just don't give a hoot at this point--hey look! A big, 3 foot snake on the trail! Cool!)
6: 9:50 HR: 187 (It's hot. I'm tired. This blows.)
.2: 1:53 HR: 193 (Okay. Statistically, I should be DEAD right now if I follow 220-age. Oh well, kicked it at the end and passed someone.)

So, um, me and my new coach are gonna have a nice long talk about what the heck happened with my heart. I might be able to fake it through an Olympic with an AVERAGE HR OF 181, but I can't be pulling that crap on a HIM or DEFINITELY not IM. So I need to figure out what happened and how NOT to have it happen again.

So I was pretty disappointed for a little bit, mostly in T2. I felt like I had really improved on the bike and wanted to hammer, but sometimes you just have to modify your plans. Truly, you can never run the same race twice, as you can never have the SAME CONDITIONS. So a goal of PR'ing on the bike was not worth getting hurt over, and I thought it would help to drop off my pace on the run but somehow it didn't. Ugh.

Despite how mad I was at parts today, I tried to in my head stay very positive. I said things like, "I love the wind, it cools me off." Even though I was SWEARING at it under my breath. :) I started to think, on that long and slowest 10K I've ever run in my life, that this was some good mental preparation for IM MOO. It was hot, I was tired, and I had to keep positive and keep pushing. I didn't walk once, and managed to even pass a few on the bike and run--including some men who had a head start on my wave. So I tried to focus on the good and think how this was money in my Ironman Bank.

Crossed the line with some CTC friends on the sidelines--all of us who collected hardware--way to represent! Scott the HFP guy, who is a CTC guy too, announced the names of those finishing. He said, "Here comes #34, (me) across the line--but we like to call her TriSaraTops!" ha ha Thanks for making me laugh, Scott! Then as I crossed the volunteer took my number and informed me I came in 2nd and gave me my 2nd place award. So that cheered me up. But I don't think there were too many in my age group, so don't get too excited! ha ha I do know that the girl who won my age group came behind me out of the water. Story of my tri-life. :)

Well, time to get crackin' here. Tomorrow's a rest day, and then it's all about me and hills. And figuring out what is going on with my rabbit-like heart rate.

Do rabbits have high heart rates?

I think I just made that up.

You always gotta remember--every day we're healthy enough to race is a gift, and you grow with every race you do! So I had a good day and learned a lot. Onward to Madison...

21 comments:

Nancy Toby said...

So glad you had FUN regardless of pace!! That's what it's all about - when you can go for a great workout in company and have more fun than should be legal...!!!

Michele said...

Congrats!
So you didn't PR but you had fun and that is what it really is about. Plus you got some new hardware! ;-)

TriBoomer a.k.a. Brian said...

That's a great performance in tough conditions. And, yes, you did put a lot into the IMW bank.

Congrats on the hardware too.

Stay tuned...

Chris said...

Woohoo! Congrats on your podium finish! :)

Wayne said...

Nice job, the fact that it seems you had fun even in a strong wind suggests it was a good day.

And well done with the placing, you can only race the competition on the day and were the second fastest, nevermind how many competitors.

Nancy Toby said...

Hmm. How was your pre-race hydration? That could affect your HR adversely.

Or just wrong time of the month, too.

Or cardiac failure. But it's probably not that. :-)

BuckeyeRunner said...

Great job, Sara!! It was damn hot out there today! You did awesome!

SRR said...

2nd in your age group! WHO-HOO!! You go girl!

E-Speed said...

hey! Great job in shitty conditions! Awesome swim! Woot Woot! And I would take that run any day with the heat like it's been, maybe the heat affects heart rate?

tryathlete said...

2nd place is good - well done!

Mojo said...

Sounds like you did excellently even with high winds. A second place AG medal? Way to kick ass!

Sounds like you had lots of fun too, even though the heart rate was scaring you. Ya, rabbits' have high heart rate, you aren't making things up. :) Do you think your heart rate was high because you were excited?

Great race, got any pictures?

Kim said...

Incredible job despite all the tough conditions and the beating your poor heart took (literally)!

Looking forward to seeing some of your race pics...maybe some tongue sticking out ones?! :)

Janet Edwards said...

Nice job on a second AG finish on your year to train slow and go long! As this is not exactly what you are training for this year, I think that was one nice performance considering the hot & windy conditions!

Oh and way to kick some major tail on the swim!

walchka said...

Anytime you break the top 3 you're allowed to brag. :) It sounds like it was a very valuable race even if it didn't go as well as would have liked. Nice job!

Cliff said...

Congrats TriSaraTops for 2nd place :0....

PR and low HR never mixes..but it was a hot one out there. That's a good attitude of keeping that HR low in HIM and IM. It is all about pacing :-)

Trifrog said...

Heat does adversely affect heartrate; how much higher than normal was it compared to your perceived exertion? Being tired and not peaking or tapering for this type of race will also make the intensity seem harder - to your heart and your mind.

Your post also seems to indicate that your own concern about what was going on with your heartrate may have prevented you from relaxing even when you slowed down?

Anyway, good experience, good performance, and be excited about the hardware - you showed up and completed the race!

Hollyfish said...

I had this same experience with my HR in my half marathon in June 2005. It was 90˚F, sunny and humid. The first issue was that my body was not used to those temps - it was the first hot day. The second issue was this that I just found on-line by googling "heartrate running heat" (but no quotes):

When you run on a hot day, your body must deal with both the heat of your surroundings and the heat produced by your muscles. In fact, over two thirds of the energy produced by the muscles is lost as heat. During hot weather running, more of your blood is sent to your skin for cooling so less blood flows to your working muscles. This means that your heart must beat faster to run at a given pace.

If you push too hard in the heat you get in big trouble and your body stops being able to cool itself. Nausea is the first sign, then you'll actually stop sweating and rather than clammy, your skin will be dry and HOT. The first stages of this are heat exhaustion...the later stages are heat stroke, which can be and often is fatal. So stay cool out there and don't push too hard in the humid heat!!!

And great race!!!

Joe said...

Well you sound a little disappointed but let's look at the positives:

1. Your swim kicked ass.
2. The conditions (in particular, the wind) were not ideal but you managed to deal with them through positive thinking.
3. You had a good T1.
4. You won some hardware!

Okay, as for the heart rate, it does seems a little bit high, even to me, a guy who usually averages up into the high 170's during running races. On the other hand, you're younger than me so your max heart rate should be a bit higher than mine, which would allow for a higher average heart rate.

Man, I can't believe you were able to hold your heart rate above 180 for a whole 10K run. I would have keeled over and passed out from exhaustion. You must have a remarkable pain tolerance. What is your normal heart rate during such races?

> I felt like Randy from a Christmas Story
> ("I can't put my arms down!")

Heheheeheheh.

> Scott the HFP guy, who is a CTC guy too,
> announced the names of those finishing.
> He said, "Here comes #34, (me) across
> the line--but we like to call her TriSaraTops!"

Apparently, you're famous!

Lance Notstrong said...

Averaging 17.3mph on the bike with a 15-25mph headwind is pretty kickass if you ask me!!! Take pride in the fact that you never walked and enjoy the 2nd place no matter how many were in your group :-)

Afternoon Tea With Oranges said...

I think you did awesome! Any day I get hardware is a good day!!!

Congrats!!

Rae said...

Awesome job on the tri!! And congrats on placing!!! You are going to rock IM!