Second-to-Last Race of the Season (Already?)

[colby]

Hard to believe it's already September, and here I am facing my last race of the season this weekend. I'm sad to see it go, but the water is definitely starting to cool off and outside conditions are getting less consistent.

This weekend, I did a first-time event, the Spokane Triathlon. It was held out at the north end of a state park here in Spokane, so a little outside of town but not too far. About 30-40 minutes from home (at least, at 5:30 AM - during the week I wouldn't want that commute!). They advertised a 59 degree swim (I am not making this up), a mostly flat bike with "some rollers", and an off-road ish run through the park.

Saturday's packet pick up was only 11-2, so we headed out around 1:15 to enjoy some lunch after picking up. Their t-shirts were huge and they were out of size small. The guy in front of me got a medium. I got a medium. I think I can sleep in it. I think my husband could wear it. No race materials in the packet, but everything was up on their website.

Sunday, transition opened at 5:30 but we decided to sleep an extra 15-30 minutes and left home at 5:30. It wasn't a super-crowded race and it was an entirely local crowd, so I wasn't too concerned. Parking was about 1/2 mile from the race, but it was down a paved road to a boat launch. When we got there, due to our warm weather this week, the water was up to a blazing 62 degrees - the same temperature as the lake for Ironman in JUNE. I went sleeveless wetsuit anyway, because I like the fit, and I wanted to find out how it'd feel. I racked my bike toward the back of the racks (some people sure were hogging space in transition, entire towels laid out with stuff!) and set out my stuff. I'm really minimalist, but I brought my arm warmers just in case I needed them after the cold swim.

I have taken a couple of easy yoga and easy cycling/swimming (no running) only weeks the last couple weeks to try to heal my shoulder/back/neck from my car accident in July. It really helped, but I know my race suffered for it. That's fine - it was better for my body.

The swim: was interesting! It turns out this is basically part of the Spokane River, but it's a reservoir between two dams, so it's wider than the river and COLD. You can see the bottom almost the entire swim! They started the men at 7 and the women at 7:03, some women weren't even in the water when the gun went off. I think they should have gone 7:05 or 7:10. It was a "deep water" start (people were standing on the bottom ). The buoys weren't anchored well, people got caught in them or didn't go completely around them because of the movement. Not very much kayak support for a 1.5k swim. I felt my arms warm up as I went - I think this'd be a perfect temp for those QR arm warmers we looked at a while back. All in all, it was a good swim, but a little slow - I exited the water at about 34 minutes, which was 10 minutes slower than my last olympic distance swim, but the fastest swim was 8-10 minutes slower than that race, too, so I was on pace.

T1: was weird. People seemed to be very much in end of season mode. Standing around, chatting about their swims, no rush. It disoriented me for a minute, and I slowed down before I remembered "wait, we're racing here". I grabbed my arm warmers but was trying to figure out what to do with them after I got on my bike and decided I'd be okay... I dropped them. They weren't there when I came back. Time was somewhere around 2:20.

Bike: was not very flat, or the wind took all the flat fun away. There were a fair number of rollers, not entirely hills, but enough to drag you down to sloooowww speeds. It was a nice course. Open to cars, but there just weren't very many cars. They were windy, scenic roads (with the scenic-involves-hills definition), with nice cover and a nice tailwind on the back of the out-and-back. I have a sneaking suspicion the serious decline in my performance between sprints and olympic/long course races is related to my nutrition, but it's hard to tell because I hadn't really trained well enough for this race. You can get away with a lot in a sprint, but for this distance I actually felt hungry even before I got out of the water. Need to apply Ironman breakfast to Olympic races and think about not just gels especially in warm temps. Looks like my time was 1:24, the same as the super-hilly race I did a month or so ago. THAT is more directly due to my lack of training. I did lose a minute or two when I dropped my chain going up a hill (dummy... wasn't thinking, I've never done this before in a race) and had to stop and put it back. In the middle of a hill. Fun.

T2: uneventful. Pulled on my socks and shoes (my feet were cold for most of the ride but warmed up after the hills and toward the end. There were people basically hanging out in transition as if a race wasn't going on. I think they were relay teams. The winner of the race was finishing as I got out of transition, which told me I was on pace with the last race I did where the same thing happened. Around 2:10-2:20 again, I think. I was farthest from the "in" on this one, so I had to go through everyone to get to my stuff.

Run: I know I was slow here, slower than normal. I haven't been running (it really messes with my shoulder/neck) much lately and I knew 10k at race pace would be a stretch. That was good to know going in, because mentally I just let myself set off at a sustainable pace, probably a 10 minute mile that degraded. The run was two loops of mostly packed dirt/some gravel, with some weird out and backs in it, but it was actually mostly shady and pretty nice. And flat! Hooray. I felt kind of sick after running through the sunny portions, and there was only one aid station so I couldn't cool off. I ran the entire first loop, but I did take some walk breaks to feel better during the second loop. No sense being sick for something I knew would be harder than usual anyway. I don't know what my run time was, but I know it was slower than last time.

My finish was around 3:20, which means my run was around 10 minutes slower than last time. I had hoped to make up some time on the bike, but really not knowing the course and having not done long rides lately, I did just fine.

My husband feels like a terd for forgetting the camera and there were no official pictures. Other than my lost arm warmers (which they said they didn't find yet, so I'm going to post up on Craigslist and see), it was a good race, and I now have a reason to come back next year - to kick my own butt!

Congrats to everyone else that raced this weekend. We had beautiful weather. My last race is Sunday, in Seattle, where it may rain, but will hopefully just be cloudy. (Hopefully I won't need arm warmers )

[kacie tri-ing]

Congrats! You have had a great season!

[spindizzy]

Sounds like everyone's laid-back attitude rubbed off on you. And perhaps you're a little bit tired. I think you've had a great season and look forward to your last RR.

[Tri Girl]

The close of the season is always a little sad, but look at how amazing your season was. Impressive effort out there. Funny about the T1 lollygagging. I was right there with them on Saturday at my race. I can tell it's the end when nobody (but the REALLY fast crowd) are in a huge hurry. Those are my kind of races.
Congrats on a great race!

[colby]

Thanks, everyone! I'm honestly really glad I took some easy time when I could, as much as I wanted to keep going I think it was better to stop than to run into a wall which would be much more depressing than being 20 minutes slower than usual. You'd all be reading about how I am second guessing my love for triathlon rather than "eh, I was slow, but who cares, I'll do better next time."

It actually made me feel better to know others were winding down. I think it really did rub off on me, a good reminder that we are really out there to have fun first and foremost (a dose of my own medicine was in order!).

I will enjoy the months until June without that feeling of cold water in my ears that I got today - it was like a built in reminder that this is what would happen if we raced through the fall as outside temps dropped.

Next week's is the Trek sprint. It should be fun. I think about 900 women. I signed up Athena. We'll see how THAT goes!

[tribogota]

aha! finally an advantage, we don't end the season until november and then start in january...so have yet to experience end of season blues!

[Alex]

Great job, Colby. Sounds like you did the smart thing taking it easier in training.

I sure miss the race pics, though!

Alex