05.28.10: Triathlon Link Love

"Triathlon Link Love" is a weekly series where I repost interesting blogs from the week.

Triathlon & Training
THE master list. What you need on race day. (SwiCycloRun)
Print this out and put it in your gear bag. Now.

Back By Popular Demand: Race Report #1 (Journeys of a Triathlete Father of Five)
We all know this guy. Mark's gearhead video will have you laughing your spandex off.

Outstanding Race Reports
HarryMan Sprimpic Triathlong, DONE! (SwiCycloRun)
Read all about Jon's frigid tune-up race on the scary Harriman hills.

The Race That Almost Wasn't (Tri-Karen-Tri)
Karen's husband and my husband went to the same "suck-it-up camp." Read about he convinced her to do the race despite being sick (sound familiar)?

General Health and Nutrition
Shrimp and Tomato Pasta (Bowl of Berries)
Jennifer just posted this super simple recipe for shrimp and tomato pasta. It can be served hot or cold. A great option to make in advance and chow down after a long ride!

Good News, Endurance Runners: One Scientist Says We're Not All Nuts (No Meat Athlete)
Keep a copy of this article on hand and the next time a doctor (or any other moron) tells you that running is bad for you just pull this out.

Randomness and Giveaways
Photo Gallary: The art of the Ironman tattoo or when a boring M-DOT just won't do (EverymanTri)
Have you or would get an M-DOT tattoo? I plan to. I don't even care if it's overdone. I'd be so proud of myself I might even tattoo it on my forehead...

Race Report: Pine Barrens Sprint Triathlon 2010

The race weekend went pretty well, and much better than last year. They moved the date to Sunday so we were able to drive down on Saturday afternoon, get settled in the hotel and go out for a nice pasta dinner. My throat had starting getting a little sore in the afternoon but I tried to just ignore it...

We were back at the hotel by 9 and lights out by 10pm. I slept okay for the combination of being in a hotel and a race night. The weather forecast for Sunday morning was "unsettled." It had rained some overnight and there were heavy clouds in the sky. The hourly forecast showed some showers in the 10 o'clock hour (about 1 hour into the race) but luckily it didn't turn into much.

Registration opened at 7:30 and we got to the site at about 7:15. We walked around a bit and inspected the beach.  

This is a very small race (only 38 people this year!) so transition area is very casual. We set up our stuff and watched the other racers trickle in.

Nearly everyone had tri bikes at this race! Honestly, I think that maybe 50% were tri bikes and 30% had clip on arrow bars! It is a long, flat bike course so being in the aero position is a big advantage here.

Before we knew it they were calling the race meeting and then it was time to head down to the water. The water here is cold but it didn't feel nearly as cold as last year. I don't know if this reality or just my own expectations. Since it was such a small race everyone started the swim at the same time.

The times in parentheses are my times from last year.

Swim: .5 miles, 14:43 (16:40); 7/38

The horn blew and we were off swimming. It felt like the water was much warmer than last year and I was able to put my head down and just swim. I sighted on every or every other breath and stayed on course well. I spent most of the swim with one or two guys near me which probably helped me stay on track. When I rounded the buoy and was heading back I got a little messed up because when I was sighting I realized that the swim caps and the buoys were the same color so the people that were still swimming in the opposite direction were confusing me. After I figured that out I spent a little less time sighting and just tried to stay straight until the other swimmers were gone. I kept looking around for any other green caps (women) but didn't see anyone.

I thought I was the first female out of the water but it turns out there was one other woman in front of me. I cut about 2 minutes off my time from last year. I think a lot of this was just being more comfortable in the water and knowing to position myself at the front of the pack.

Transition 1: 2:20 (4:18), 26/38
Transition 1 was uneventful. I tore off my wetsuit, tried to get some sand off my feet (you have to run up a sandy beach to transition) and got my shoes. When I left transition I noticed had taken me about 2 minutes. I remember that last year it took me four. What the hell was I doing for four minutes last year?!

Bike: 24 miles, 1:26:16 (1:26:42), 34/38
The bike felt pretty good but I was a bit disappointed with my time. Only a 30 second improvement from last year. There was definitely more of a headwind this year, however it was that big of a deal. I felt like I was keeping good mental focus and trying to keep up a decent average. The last four miles felt sooo long and I just wanted to be done with the bike. I'm hoping that I can put in some serious bike time this summer and try to make some improvements in this area.

Transition 2: 1:05 (2:18), 21/38
Twice as fast as last year! This is what I like to see. I forgot to grab my belt with my race number but I don't think anyone noticed (or cared).

Run: 4 miles, 36:58 (43:23), 32/38
The run was hard but it was awesome! I am so, so proud of my improvements here! I cut more than six minutes off my time from last year. My first mile split was 8:59, followed by 9:17, 9:18 and 9:24 for an average of 9:15. I really pushed in the first mile and tried to get into a fast group. The run is on a trail through the woods so it has a lot of uneven terrain and a ton of sand. I would estimate that a quarter of the run is through sand. With about a mile to go I saw another woman through the trees who I estimated to be about a minute behind me and she looked to be in my age group. I really, really did not want her to pass me so I picked it up another notch and gave it everything I had. It turns out she was in my age group but she never passed me. I finished about a minute and a half ahead of her.

Sam grabbed my camera and took a few pictures of me coming out of the woods.

 

Overall Results
2:17:55 (2:26:42)

29th of 38 total participants

5th of 9 females

1st of 2 females age 25-29

Swim: .5 miles, 14:43 (16:40)

T1: 2:20 (4:18)

Bike: 24 miles, 1:26:16 (1:26:42)

T2: 1:05 (2:18)

Run: 4 miles, 36:58 (43:23)

Final: 2:17:55 (2:26:42)

It was just starting to rain as I was finishing the run. We quickly headed back to transition and packed up our gear. Then it was time for awards. The nice thing about such a small race is that nearly everyone gets hardware!

Sam improved 15 minutes on his time from last year and won 3rd place in his age group.

I won first place in my age group. Even though there were only two of us I was still so excited to earn a metal!!

Next up is the Tolland Summer Solstice Sprint Triathlon on June 19th. This is another repeat race so it is another chance to compare improvements over last year!

I Crushed Pine Barrens & Strep Crushed Me

Sorry for the uber-delayed race update! Pine Barrens Sprint Triathlon went great and it was an awesome way to start the race year! The super short race summary is that I cut 9 minutes off my time from last year which included more than 6 minutes off the 4 mile run and I placed first in my age group (out of two)!

Unfortunately, I woke up race morning with a sore throat. I got through the race alright but I just felt worse and worse and yesterday I finally went to see the doctor and found out I have strep throat. So, I've been spending a lot of time recovering and I'm finally starting to feel a bit better. I'm hoping to have the full race report for you all tomorrow.

How to Cut 10 Minutes Off Your Swim Split

A friend recently sent me a link to this great article about how to take 10 minutes off your swim time. A triathlete recently wore a GPS on his last three race swims to track his actual distance vs. the course distance.

{source} 

The stats from the Busselton Half Ironman picture:

•Distance travelled from Garmin (inc run in & out): 2.33km

•Straight line distance (inc run in & out): 1.98km
•Distance extra swam: 0.35km
•Percentage extra swam: 18%
•Calculated time lost from swimming extra distance: 10 minutes exactly!

I think this is especially interesting because from the looks of this map it appears as though the swimmer was relatively straight. It wasn't like he went majorly off track at any point and still a straighter swim would have saved him 10 minutes!

The lesson here is that if you can become good at sighting in open water and swimming in a straight line you can make a serious impact on your swim time without improving your stroke at all. While this sounds simple most of us don't have easy access to open water so we can practice our swimming. In fact, I've only swam in open water once outside of a race.

SwimSmooth.com has a GREAT list of ways to improve your navigation, sighting and drafting for open water swims. They recommend the following technique for sighting:

Time your sighting just before you're going to take a breath. So if you're about to breathe to your left, lift your eyes out of the water just before by pressing down lightly on the water with your lead arm (in this case it'll be your right). Only lift up enough to get your eyes just out of the water. Then turn your head to the left to breathe, as you do so, letting it drop down into the water to a normal position.

An article on TriFuel suggests the following strategy for practicing in the pool:

A good drill is swim with your eyes closed on the middle 15 yards of the 25yrd length and open your eyes when you are going to sight. Try doing this every 3rd stroke to get the feel of sighting and closing your eyes will give you the sensation of swimming in murky water. A word of caution, notice I said only the middle 15 yards, because the wall at the end of the pool is not very forgiving.

Have you tried swimming in the pool with your eyes closed? I can't do it. It makes me queasy. Even when swimming in open water I need to have my eyes open (with goggles of course) even if the water is black and I can't see anything. I guess it has something to do with my spatial orientation.

How do you feel about your open water swimming skills? Are you lucky enough to have an opportunity to practice open water swimming where you live?

Race Week!

It's race week! My first triathlon of the season is on Sunday, the Pine Barrens Sprint Triathlon. Really it is more like a Sprimpic with a half mile swim, 24 mile bike and 4 mile trail run. I'm so excited to get out there and race and I'm really looking to see how much I can improve on last year's performance.

I had a solid training weekend which left me with good feelings about going into this race. Saturday was a 2700 meter swim at the Flushing Aquatic Center. This pool is usually too crowded for speed work so I spent a lot of time focusing on keeping an even, smooth stroke. I am also trying to get better at bilateral breathing so I did a lot of that too. After the swim we refueled and headed to the park. My left hip was feeling a little funky after my 5.5 mile run last weekend (I think residual effects from falling off my bike) so I kept an easy pace and did about 4.5 miles pain free.

On Sunday we worked at the Queens Biathlon and then headed up to the Bronx River Parkway for Bicycle Sunday. It was a gorgeous day and despite a bit of wind it was perfect for riding. I had hoped to do a brick with a 20 mile ride and a 2 mile run. We got up there a bit late so I really only had time to do a 13 mile ride and then the 20 minute run. The ride was good and I tried to focus on letting myself be uncomfortable and not letting up too frequently. This was my first brick of the season so I was a bit worried about the run but I'm thrilled to say that I did a very hilly 2 mile run with an average pace of 8:50/mile. I would LOVE to hold a sub 9 pace on Sunday but I also need to be careful that I don't blow up either.

This week I'm trying to take it a bit easy to give my body some rest before Sunday. I am focusing on eating clean, getting lots of sleep and staying hydrated. What do you in the week leading up to a race to prepare?

{Pine Barrens Tri - 2009}

5/14/10: Triathlon Link Love

"Triathlon Link Love" is a weekly series where I repost interesting blogs from the week. This week I added a new section for race reports. I love reading about other peoples races and their experiences and I know I'm not the only one!

Triathlon & Training
Guest Blogger (Because I Tri)
Erica, Leah's friend and swim coach, writes about her experience with her first duathlon back "after a long, hard winter fighting a mysterious illness and struggling emotionally and physically with her identity as an athlete." This is a must read!!

Joanna Zeiger's top swim do's and dont's for triathletes who swim Masters (Everymantri.com)
You all know how I feel about lap swimming, crowded pools and bad swim etiquette. This is a great list of do's and dont's for any swimmer in any pool, not just Masters.

Triathlon Training—The Good, The Bad, The Ugly (No Meat Athlete)
A guest post by Susan Lacke. She just completed her first marathon in February and is training for IM Wisconsin. Her honest summary of triathlon will have you laughing out loud.

Outstanding Race Reports
Escape from Alcatraz (Tri Tri Again)
Read all about Amy's experience in the Escape from Alcatraz triathlon. Amy not only managed to have a kick-ass, early season race, but she did it after (unknowingly) breaking her elbow on the way to start!

Ironman St. George - Third Time's A Charm (Diary of an amateur triathlete)
Rachel always writes really compelling race reports. This was her third Ironman and after two very difficult races she decided to just "wing it." Read her great report to find out how it pays off.

Rev3 Knoxville (Sonja Wieck)
Sonja is an elite amateur triathlete. She has an awesome attitude and does some really amazing races. Check out this post to read about her experience with Rev3 Knoxville.

General Health and Nutrition
Fritta on My Mind (Eat, Live, Run)
Great post about how to make the perfect fritta with broccoli, corn and cheese. Yum!

Randomness and Giveaways
Silver Hills Bakery Sprouted Grain Bread (eat, drink & be vegan)
Just stop by Dreena's blog and leave a comment for a chance to win 5 loaves of Silver Hills Bakery bread!

Time Trial in the Pool

Last night was another workout with the masters swim team. I still can't say enough how much I love swimming with Masters. I wish I could do triathlon "full-time" and masters swim "full-time" but there are just not enough hours in the day or dollars in the bank. I think I'll stick with triathlon for now ;)

Last night's workout looked like this:

600	4 x 150 Warm Up
500	5 x 100: 75 easy, 25 sprint
200	8 x 25’s: Complete this cycle twice with the first 4 as freestyle and the second 4 non-freestyle: 25 1/2 easy, 1/2 hard; 25 1/2 hard, 1/2 easy; 25 easy; 25 hard.
250	5 x 50 kick
500	5 x 100 on 3 minutes - 50 fast, 10 second rest, 50 fast
50	50 easy recovery
100	Timed 100 yard sprint, dive off the blocks (1:10)
500	10 x 50's Cool Down
2700	Total Yards

The last real set was a timed 100 yard sprint with a dive off the blocks. I was both excited and nervous for this. I have not been up on the blocks since high school. I jumped up and went with the first heat so I could get it over with. It all came back to me and I dove in and swam hard. My time was 1 minute and 10 seconds. I'm pretty happy with this. I don't remember how fast I swam the 100 free in high school (I was a distance gal), but I sent my dad a text message to see if he remembers. I think it was around 1:04. So, after nearly 10 years I've only gained about six seconds. I can live with that :)

Today called for an early morning interval ride in Central Park. The ride was 3 loops of Central Park with a 1/2 loop warm up and then a set of 5 intervals of about .5 to 1 mile each. I tried to really push it on the hard loops and kept telling myself biking is supposed to be hard!

The Wednesday night / Thursday morning combo is a tough one because swimming ends at 9pm and biking starts at 5:30am. For me this means something like this: home at 10pm, eat frozen burrito and bed by 10:30pm, alarm starts going off at 4:20am, up at 4:35am, in the car by 5am, in Central Park by 5:20am. We are going to a fundraiser banquet tonight so this morning I even managed to paint my toes after my ride and before work. I used to get pedicures on a somewhat regular basis but those funds have been officially reallocated to triathlon.

We Welcome With Love...

the new addition to our family, a Cervelo P2. My husband is now the proud owner of this beautiful bike.

Please excuse the poor picture quality. I had hoped to do a little photo shoot last weekend but the ridiculous winds canceled bicycle Sunday and we couldn't find another safe place to ride with the wind gusts. Sam took it for an inaugural ride in the park on Tuesday. He is in love. He may start sleeping in the living room to be closer. I am infinitely jealous.

This Ain't No Sunday Joy Ride

In the last 24 hours I have had two major breakthroughs about how I think about cycling. These might seem quite obvious to you, however they seem downright genius to me.

1. Biking is not supposed to be easy.
I think that part of the reason I'm not a fast biker is simply because I'm not trying hard enough. In my mind I have always thought biking is easier than running or swimming.

In my mind running is hard, very hard. It is heavy breathing, pulse racing, sweat dripping, what-the-hell-am-I-doing hard. Always, even on "easy" runs it is still hard. If it wasn't hard I would be walking.

Swimming can also be hard. My background is in swimming so I know what it feels like to push myself in the pool. To pick up the pace over a long set, to tightly flip into a turn, to sprint to the wall. I will always love the feeling of when you stop swimming after a hard set and you can feel your face is so hot from exertion that the water feels extra cold. Do you know that feeling? I love that feeling.

Now biking, biking is not hard. Biking is smooth and fluid. If you "rest" when you run or swim you stop moving. But not in biking - when you bike you can coast and continue to move forward. Perhaps this comes form the fact that until last year I had never ridden a bike for speed, only for pleasure. Until yesterday, my mindset was that biking is only hard when you are going up hills. Well folks, I have learned that if I want to bike faster I must try harder. Simple enough. I need better mental focus on my bike so I can truly keep a steady effort throughout a ride - no more slacking!

2. My weakness is hills - down hills.
I know that I have always been a bit timid when it comes to going down big hills. They are scary. Plain and simple. Since starting to do group rides with Asphalt Green I have learned that my biggest weakness is hills, downhills. Last Thursday in the hard core hill workout I got dropped by the group. Completely dropped. In fact, I got lapped. But do you know why I got dropped? Not because I couldn't keep up going up the hill. It was because I was going too slow on the downhills. This is where I got passed and this is where I got dropped. WTF right? I need to just suck it up and let myself go down those hills! Did/does anyone else have a problem with this?

Reader Question: Open Water Swimming in NYC Area?

A local reader recently wrote me an email and asked if I knew of any places to practice open water swimming in the NYC metro area (with an hour or so drive). I haven't done much open water swimming outside of races and the swims I have done were in Connecticut, Minnesota and California. Do any local readers have suggestions of where someone can go to practice their open water swimming in or around NYC?

{source}

It Must Be Windsday!!

The weather here in NYC was crazy today! The sun was shining but the wind has been whipping all day long. The kind of wind that brings down trees and light posts and blows in your windows and knocks your stuff over...

Sam took a road trip to Penn State today to watch his brother graduate from grad school. I stayed behind so I could get some chores done and, most importantly, I had to pick up something very very special... I promise pictures tomorrow of our new addition ;). After I got home from running all my errands it was nearly 4pm. I had hoped to go for a run today but I really hate running in the afternoon. I find that if I try to run after I have been eating/drinking all day my stomach gets upset. It's a good thing races are always in the morning! Does anyone else find it is more difficult for them to run in afternoon/evenings? Or bike/swim? I have no problem with biking or swimming but running in the afternoon is tough!

After some deliberation I decided that I would give it a try. I figured worst case scenario I would get in 2 miles, the shortest loop from my house, but I was really hoping to get over 4. The first mile and a half really sucked - my stomach hurt and my sides were cramping. The wind was blowing so hard that at times I felt like it was going to pick me right up off the ground! Around 1.5 miles I was thinking of heading home but I decided I would do at least 3. I'm glad I stuck with it because I found my grove and ended up running around 5.2 miles. It was also a perfect day to try out one of my new Asphalt Green tops today. I loved it!

 

The plan for tomorrow is to swim in the long course pool in the morning and then drive up to Westchester for Bicycle Sunday on the Bronx River Parkway. It is supposed to be sunny and cooler but super windy. Hopefully they won't cancel it because of the wind! Only two weeks until the Pine Barrens Triathlon!

Reader Help & Hard Core Hill Repeats

Things have been very busy around here. I have all sorts of fun training updates (today I was called "hard core" in central park), but first I have two very important questions:

First, lately it feels like when I am on hills on the bike (mostly descending but sometimes climbing too) that my front wheel is slipping out from under me. I also hear the sound of squeaky plastic/rubber but that happens at a different time. It almost feels like I have a flat tire and the first time I stopped just to double check. But, my tire seems fine and I don't know what is causing this. It is making me break a lot going down hills because I'm terrified that the bike will slide out from under me. Any thoughts?!

My second question is for the ladies. I recently got a new club tri top. However, it does not have a built in bra. The tri top I used last year was a racer-back and had it's own built in support and I didn't need a separate bra. So what I'm wondering is if I need to buy a tri specific bra or if a regular sports bra would work? Have you done a tri with a regular sports bra? Do you own a tri specific bra? Please, tell all :)

Training has been quite busy...

Saturday: very short run just to see if I could. Pain Free! Although two miles never felt so hard or so slow.

Sunday: 2800 meters at the AG long course swim practice and then up to the Bronx River Parkway for Bicycle Sunday. It was a bright and sunny day and felt awesome to be out on the bike. I logged 26 miles and got a little bit of a tan too :)

Monday: rain out... I hoped to run early before my flight to Chicago but a huge storm passing by kept me inside.

Tuesday: 4 mile run along Lake Michigan. It was a GORGEOUS morning for running and so much fun to be out on a new course. It distracted me from my exhaustion. Isn't amazing how quickly we can lose our running fitness?

Wednesday: In the morning I attempted a short "brick" with 30 minutes on stationary bike followed by a 2.5 mile run. Went to the masters swim workout in the evening but lots of cramping in my feet and calves kept me from getting much of a real workout in.

Thursday: 8 Harlem Hill Repeats... Ouch! I met the AG club for a hill workout. Of the 8 ascents, 4 were single leg drills where you unclip one foot and bike up the hill with just one leg. This is HARD but it is such a great way to focus on a full pedal stroke and find the dead spots in your climbing. On my wait up the hill a few guys from another local club were coming up behind me and they called me "hard core" for doing Harlem Hill with just one leg. It made my day :)