2016 Bozeman Triathlon Race Recap – Sort Of...

I’m going to take a different approach to this race recap.  Usually I like to write about each leg of the triathlon (how I was feeling, what I was thinking, and times for each leg of the race) but, something interesting happened to me on Sunday during the run portion of the race and I wanted to share it with all of you. 

When I got off my bike and was headed for the transition area one of the volunteers said “you are the 2^nd woman”.  I was kind of stunned by this and I thought “is there a chance I could place in top 3 today ?"

I hurried through transition and started out on my run.  About a half mile into it I got passed by another woman so now I’m the 3^rd female (if the volunteer was correct).  3^rd – that’s ok.  So I kept running.  I heard somebody behind me but, didn’t look back and didn’t know if the person was man or woman.  Around mile 1.5 the person ran up beside me and passed me – female… now I’m 4^th female.   The thing is I knew this female.  She is part of the MSU Triathlon Club team which is also coached by Matt (my coach).  When she passed me, she didn’t go flying by me and I was able to keep pace with her.  We ran like this for quite a while and then we got to a part of the course where I started rolling.  I am very familiar with this course, and know when I get to certain spots I can really clip along at a quick pace, and other places where I slow down.   So I passed her but, I could hear her behind me and knew I wasn’t gaining any ground on her.  When we crossed the river there is a little bit of a hill and I slowed down just enough for her to pass me once again.  SIGH!  At this point, I just stayed with her and thought when we got to the back-side of the pond (about 1/4 to 1/3 mile left in the race) I might be able to pass and finish strong.  But, as you know from the results, it didn’t happen.  We got to the half mile left mark where there is another little tiny hill and she got a couple steps on me and I just couldn’t catch back up (or so I told myself).  I finished as the 4^th female! :) 

Background info… I never competed in any sports growing up except 5^th grade track and that was only because the school principal made it mandatory that everyone in the school go out for track.  It was awful!  I did not like it!  Other than that, I never competed in anything until just a few years ago when I ran my first half marathon.  So, this competition thing is pretty new to me. 

Here is the interesting thing that happened to me.  When I do these triathlons I have never done them to compete with anybody except myself.  I set goals for myself and then go out and see what I can do.  I have never even thought about what anybody else is doing or worried about “getting that person in front”.  If I happen to pass somebody, it’s not because I was ‘trying to get him/her”, it’s because I’m doing what I need to do during the race.  It is always about me and am I doing what I need to do to reach my goal.  So, racing alongside this other female on Sunday was a totally new experience for me and as this was happening I was thinking “what are you doing?”, “you don’t usually care about this stuff?” but, this is also the first time that I have been so close with anyone during a race too.  It was kind of unsettling for me.  How bad do I want this 3^rd place finish?  How much does it really matter?  Some of you with athletic/sports backgrounds may think this is really weird.  :)   Of course it should matter but, like I said, this was a totally new experience for me and I didn’t know what to do with it .   I ‘m a little confused by this ‘competitive(?)’ side of me.

So – now reflecting back on that run, I wonder if I did enough.  Did I give up mentally (I think I did)?  When we got closer to the finish line I felt like I had a little more ‘oomph’ left and might have been able to finish a bit stronger but, my mind said ‘no, don’t do that, you don’t want to race through the finish line’.  But, what if I had given just another 1% would the outcome have been different?  Matt has said to me – no matter if you think you are done, you can probably always give another 1%. 

After I told Pat about my run he said “that sounds like fun"… when he said that, I think I frowned and said “fun”?  I was so confused by how I felt and what I was thinking during this race “fun” is not how I would describe it.  But, now after having a little time to reflect – I do think it was FUN! :)


My cheering squad yesterday.  Thanks for documenting the day for me Pat and Jen!

Don’t Worry, Be Happy

On Sunday I had a long bike ride which I titled “Hills of the Gallatin Valley”.  The ride included Hyalite, Triple Tree, Kelly Canyon, Dump Road, and Naya Nuki hills which is a big circle around the outskirts of Bozeman and totaled about 78 miles.  I rode really hard on the hills even getting out of the saddle a few times on each hill which I don’t like to do because it's hard but, Matt tells me I need to build strength – so I do it.  :)  It was a really fun ride and I was really happy with how I did on the hills for the day.   Days like this are real confidence-boosters for the CDA IM (August 21).  I finished the day feeling strong, happy and thrilled with the effort - came away thinking “I can do CDA IM".

Kelly Canyon View

Then there are other training days where I end up thinking – ‘what makes you think you can do this?’, ‘you can’t swim’, ‘you can’t change your bike tire’, ‘you are running like a turtle’.   That happened the next day after my awesome hill bike ride (Monday). 

On the plan for that day was a 3750m open water swim (OWS), 20 mile bike – easy effort, followed by a 5K run with the Women Who Tri (WWT) group.  When I went to load my bike in the truck the back tire was flat… oh no… On my new bike I have trouble changing the tire – the tire is so tight I can’t get it back onto the rim by myself.  Pat was not home so I wasn’t sure how I was going to complete this task.  I got the wheel off the bike (no easy feat), then got the tire off the rim (again not easy – took me at least 10 minutes to do that), then put on a new tube and tried to get the tire back on the rim.  I struggled with it for another 10 minutes (probably more) and finally walked to my sister’s house, and together we were able to pull it onto the rim.  Total time to change the flat about 30 minutes – NOT GOOD!  But, it was changed, so I loaded the bike in the truck and headed over to pond to swim.

3750M in the pond is about 4 laps.  The first lap was awful.  I wasn’t swimming straight, I was stopping every couple minutes to catch my breath and when I was swimming it felt like I was thrashing around in the water not making any headway.  In my head, I’m thinking ‘what’s wrong with me, why can’t I swim’.  The second lap was a little better.  I still stopped frequently but, my sighting was better and I was starting to relax a little.  I told myself to ‘shutup and just swim, you know how to do this’.   That worked!  The third and fourth laps were much better, I was thinking about my stroke, my body position, keeping my head down, kicking and being long in the water.  Finally my brain was focusing on what it should be thinking about.  But, the swim was slow and as I got out of the water, I was thinking about the IM swim time cut-off and wondering how in the world I was going to be able to do it. :(

I got done with the swim, took off my wetsuit and noticed the back tire on my bike was flat again.  JUST GREAT!  I didn’t have a spare tube with me (I had used my last one when I changed it earlier in the morning).  So, I drove to a bike shop and asked them to change it for me.  By the time I got back to the East Gallatin Rec Area I didn’t have time to complete my 20 mile ride so I rode about 10 miles, practiced some turning drills.  It was fine but, not what was planned, and that always annoys me when I have to alter my plan and do less than what is supposed to be done.  SIGH! 

After the bike I met up with the WWT group for the 5K run.  By this time, I was kind of flustered with how my day had gone, and I had a headache so I wasn’t feeling great.  I ran easy and was glad to be done and finally able to go home.

The rest of the evening I was down on myself, wondering how I was ever going to swim 2.4 miles, bike 112 and run 26.2.  I could hardly do any of those activities today, let alone do them at the distances required for an IM.  UGH! 

It’s interesting to me that this doubt still happens.  I have done an IM, I know what it takes to get through the day.  I am well trained right now, and I still have time to get even better.  So why do certain workouts send me into a tailspin???  I know by now that not every workout is perfect, that there will be awesome days and days that just don’t go as planned.  And just because they don’t go as planned doesn’t mean I’m going to crash and burn in CDA.  So next time I have a sucky workout day, I am going to try and not let my head get the better of me – no self-doubt, no worry! :)

DON'T WORRY, BE HAPPY!

Workout Summary for 6/6-6/12

Last week started pretty easy with Sunday (travel back from Walla Walla), Monday and Tuesday as “Off” days on my plan. 

Monday
I needed some open water swim (OWS) time so I went to the East Gallatin Recreation Area on Monday afternoon.  My first OWS of the year was last week with the Women Who Tri group and it did not go well for me.  I always get anxious/nervous when I swim near people so the first one of the season is always difficult for me.  So Monday afternoon I decided to go over to the pond by myself and acclimate (go in slowly – ankles, knees, waist, chest, then bobs).  I spent about 15 minutes acclimating, and then did a little bit of swimming.  It was enough to help my head get into the right mind-set , and I felt that after that little bit of acclimating/swimming I would be better the next time I swam with the group. 

Tuesday
This was also an “off” day but, my coach offers “Transition Tuesdays” practices every Tuesday evening.  It’s an opportunity to practice transitions and also get in a workout.  Tuesday’s workout was a bike up Sypes Canyon alternating 3 minutes hard with 5 minutes easy followed by a short run.  I made it up Sypes Canyon following the 3/5 minute hard/easy instructions and was really happy with my performance on this workout, and also my new bike (it’s fast).  Turning around at Sypes though, the weather changed drastically and I got caught in high wind and a torrential downpour/thunderstorm.  The storm was fantastic but, the whole ride back to the transition area was a bit treacherous.  There was so much water on the road I felt like I was riding in a river.  I did not follow the 3/5 minute instructions on the way back – my goal was to get back without crashing!  :)  I was really cold when I got back to transition and it was still raining so I wimped out and skipped the run. :) 

Wednesday 
Women Who Tri open water swim.  Practiced sighting, swimming closely, and exits from the water.  Lightning showed up in the sky so our workout was cut a little short but, it was still good practice getting in the water with a group again!  My sighting needs some work – I am not swimming straight.  It will get better – I’m a bit rusty from not doing it lately and I just need a bit more time in the water. 

Thursday through Sunday – WOW – the workouts really got turned up a notch... 

Thursday
Hill repeats on Hyalite two times.  Hyalite is a 10 mile climb.  The first time was ride up 3 miles, turnaround and go back down for 1 mile.  Do this all the way to the top.  The second time was ride up 2 miles, turnaround and go back down for 1 mile.  The first set of 3/1 went really well.  The second set of 2/1 also went well but, I was definitely feeling the workout in my legs.  There were a few times when I started thinking “I don’t know if I can make it to the top”.  But, it’s amazing how the body performs when the mind changes the negative to a positive.   I told myself “I am doing it”, “I can do it”.  And guess what, I did it! :)  My legs were definitely tired when I got to the top the second time.  PHEW!  That was about 50 miles on Hyalite and totaled 82 miles for the day.

Pretty at Hyalite - Water is really high

Friday
Run 10 miles at Bozeman Creek – 5 miles uphill, then turnaround.  I asked Matt (coach) if I could do this using run/walk intervals – he said “no”.   :)  So I ran it – and I did run the whole thing – no walking.  That’s a first for me!  And if you saw my facebook post earlier in the week, this is the run I did without insoles in my shoes. 

Saturday
20K bike – very hard effort followed by a 5K run – hard effort!  Yes, I was feeling a bit tired by now (after Thursday and Friday workouts) but, I did really well on both of these things.   And I will say again – my new bike is FAST! :) 

Sunday 
Bike to Livingston via Jackson Creek and Frontage Road.   78 miles total.  Coming back from Livingston to the top of Bozeman Pass was about 12 miles in a headwind.  Grueling!  I mentioned to Matt that the CDA course will probably be windy, and that the part going out of town is uphill and into a headwind… so guess what appears on my plan … ride to Livingston – knowing that I would have to come back uphill into a headwind! :)

Back from Livingston, feelin' fine! :)

And finally...

Yelling or throwing things out your car window at bikers is NOT COOL!  I know none of my family and friends reading this blog do these things so please … Pass it on!