Posted on May 30, 2011 in Race Reports
Race week didn’t go very well. I left camp on Monday and 43 hours later arrived home in Boulder. As Doc predicted the travel made me feel sick and tired and by Friday old stress case MBE was not feeling well at all. But with some rest and words of wisdom from Doc and support from Eric, i was ready to go out and give it my all on race day. Unlike Singapore, once the race started it went smoothly. The swim was easy….no men to elbow me in the face. I got clean water and exited the swim with a decent lead over the rest of the field. Once on the bike, i felt pretty good but just was riding at the level of the other ladies. I battled the win on my own and finally saw some of the other girls around halfway. Unfortunately I couldn’t keep their pace and struggled into T2 in 7th place. Once on the run, I struggled a bit the first lap and faded to 9th place. But after 5k, my body woke up and I started to cruise. I managed to start moving up the field and landed in 4th place as the top American in the US Pro championship. While I would have liked to have finished a bit better, it was a good test out there and valuable learning experience. I nailed my nutrition much better thanks to having my First Endurance drink and gel with me for this race. No impromptu bathroom stops or puking like in Singapore so I learned never to be without my First Endurance products! In addition, I learned that I need to raise the level of my cycling. It was a tough day out there on the bike for me battling the crosswinds and I saw that I have more work to do there. Likewise, I learned never to give up. After the first lap of the run, I would not have predicted that I would be able to salvage my race. But around 4 miles the legs and body woke up, then the run started to get fun as I was able to start hunting down the other ladies. Finally, I learned that the travel takes a bit out of me and next time I need to both build more time into my travel around the world to a race and also not stress about feeling subpar race...
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Posted on Mar 21, 2011 in Race Reports
Singapore Race Review After a long dryspell, it was a huge relief to start 2011 with a W. The race in Singapore was a good training day as Doc would say and gave me chance to go hard and see where I am at early season. It was great to have TeamTBB members dominating out there with 1,2,4 in the womens race and strong results with three men in the top ten. The day had an auspicious beginning. I was beat senseless at the beginning of swim and probably arrived there last. Luckily the swim went better for the remaining 1700 meters. I exited third woman a long way behind teammate Jodie but not too far behind another team member Amy. The first lap of the bike was nice. I just tried to relax get into a rhythm and not get dropped by Amy whose biking strength surpasses mine. After a nice first lap, the second and third were mayhem as we tried to ride legally while weaving through over 1700 age groupers. Sadly, I grossly underestimated my First Endurance needs for a six week training trip in Thailand. I ran out of First Endurance drink a week ago so was forced to use a Singapore drink with carbonation. I tried to flatten it but it still had some bubbles so I was puking it up during parts of the bike. Then, at the end of the bike, the official gave me a penalty for blocking. After the race, the official apologized for making an example of me to the other girls. But really I had sympathy for the race marshals out there, frankly the three lap bike course was a mess and would have been near impossible to officiate. So at the end of the bike, I went past the bike entrance to the penalty tent in a frenzy to serve my infraction. After leaving the penalty tent, I was in such a flustered I started to put on my shoes before my socks. After more harried running around, I finally got out of transition and on to the run in third place. On the run, I felt pretty good but tried to be conservative taking the heat and humidity into account. For the first time in a race, I had some serious stomach problems and needed two quick pit stops on the run. I wish I had my brought more First endurance with me to Thailand as in all my previous half iron mans I have never had any issues using their drink. But other than the upset stomach, the run went okay as I just tried to get into a steady pace and stay as cool and hydrated as possible. I just barely nipped teammate Amy for the win and was glad to be done. With one race down, I am excited to have 2011 underway...
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Posted on Nov 18, 2009 in Race Reports
It’s been so long since I blogged that I have to update on two world championships and the LA triathlon. I sound like a broken record, but really my blogging regularity this year has been abysmal. Definitely, this is something I need to improve on….maybe I can kick start things now during the off-season. World Championships #1- the ITU version (or were they both ITU races) I made the trip down to the Gold Coast of Australia for the ITU world series championship race. The US team had a great group of athletes and an amazing support staff to keep us healthy. My foot injury was doing the best it has in weeks before the race, all thanks to our support. As a huge reach goal, I was shooting for a top ten finish, but my real goal was a top twenty. I failed on both of those and ended up 23rd. I lost my chance for that top twenty by having a poor swim to bike transition. Coming out at the tail end of that lead pack, my only chance to catch the leaders is to get on my bike fast and hammer like my life depended on it. It’s amazing in the ITU races how intense that first few k’s on the bike can be. As usual, I was slow getting on and then my hammering wasn’t enough to get there. After failing and settling into the second pack for a few laps, I tried to launch a breakaway hoping that one or two of the other strong riders would bridge and come with me. After a lap of pushing hard, no one came and going alone would have been a suicide mission for the run so I pulled the plug and settled in for a leisurely stroll on the bike. On to the run, I could feel my breakaway in the legs but otherwise didn’t feel too bad. I had a solid run: nothing great but not terrible either. The other US women did well particularly Sarah Haskins just getting nipped out of her podium finish and Jillian Peterson back from her broken collarbone to finish off the year with a great race. LA Triathlon I love this race for its open water swim, challenging run, and point to point bike. However, this year things didn’t quite go my way. I started with a mediocre swim and continued the pattern. I was off my game out there and never seemed to get going. On the run, my foot injury from earlier in the summer flared up with a vengeance on the steep downhill. I felt like I was hobbling out there and only managed to finish in 8th. While I was disappointed, the race was stacked with great athletes, and in retrospect my 8th this year wasn’t horrendous. In years past and even some non-drafting races...
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Posted on Aug 28, 2009 in Race Reports, Training Updates
I am finally coming through with a much overdue update from the 2009 season. After a rough some might say ugly start to the season, I switched coaches and started working with Simon Lessing and Darren DeReuck. While one high profile athlete may have opted out of their program, it seems to be a good fit for me. On the racing side of things, the highlights so far would be my wins at the Pan American Championships, Escape from Alcatraz, and Boulder Peak. The lowlights being a tough day at Oceanside and a flat disc wheel for the last 13 miles at the NYC triathlon. On the ITU circuit, I have had a good season finishing inside the top 15 in most of my world series and world cup races(one lonely 17th place). This sesason has flown by so far, but there are still some key races coming up on my schedule. Upcoming races include the ITU world championships on the Gold Coast of Australia, LA triathlon, Dallas US Open triathlon, and Clearwater 70.3 World Champs. I am hoping to fit in another half ironman somewhere to either whet my appetite or adequately scare me for Clearwater. Outside of all the racing, I have been busy moving and trying to fit in all my housing projects around training. Despite my desparate pleas to the HOA board and jumping through all their little hoops, I am still not allowed to put in the laminate floors I ordered. I guess I’ll be stuck with carpet if it ever comes in, but meanwhile I am warming up to the cement subfloor I have been living on the last month. Cement is the new hardwood right? On a side note, I moved just a mile away from my favorite training partners. So that I can keep an eye on them at all times- make sure they aren’t squeezing in any secret training on the side. I was planning to blog more often this year, but life got in the way. Starting now…(I am sure you’ve heard this before) I am going to do a better job of updating my...
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Posted on Nov 12, 2008 in Race Reports
It’s always nice to finish the season well. Unlike last year, I had a strong finish this year: Escape to Bermuda and the World Championships both went well. In my last race of the year, the 70.3 world championships, I finished 2nd and broke the world record. I was a bit surprised by the time and my overall place. But, otherwise the race wasn’t too different from my pre-race plan; I wanted to swim well, bike hard, and hoped to come off the bike with the lead women then just run my own race that is pretty much what happened. I’ll post my full race report in a few days. The weekend before that I had an opportunity to race in Bermuda. It was a great trip; the island was so beautiful with amazing beaches. IMG put on the race and did an excellent job; it was very well organized and a ton of fun. The pros also had the chance to help out with the sprint and kids races on Saturday which was fun and allowed us get to know some of the local athletes. The race course was tough with a hilly bike and very hilly run. Other than a sub-par swim, I was happy with the race. The poor swim probably cost me a few places as I was only one second out of 3rd and only eleven seconds behind the 2nd place lady. But at least if you are going to have a poor swim; the water in Bermuda isn’t a bad place to spend an extra minute or two floundering around in… I definitely hope to go back next year and improve on my...
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Posted on Oct 26, 2008 in Race Reports
The last race in my three race string was the Dallas US Open, the final race in the Lifetime Fitness series. I was excited for the race but definitely tired from all the travel. I arrived home from France on Monday but spent a few days on the east coast again, flew back to Denver on Thursday, then left 20 hours later for Dallas…racking up the frequent flyer miles. I was in a bad mood on Friday, but had a nice time at the race briefing and VIP party. It is always a treat to get free food, the life of a poor pro triathlete, and catch up friends that I haven’t seen in awhile. The day before the race Rinny, another pro, and I caravan’d with some of her Aussie friends to the race site. It was only supposed to be @24 miles away but driving there took forever. It made me wonder if the bike course is really 40 miles not 40K. After getting a bike, run, and swim at the race start, we drove the 20 feels like 40 miles and headed back downtown. After a relaxing lunch, I headed back to my room to rest and do all my pre-race rituals. Race morning started very early….we had to be down and ready to go at 5am. It was still pitch dark for the first hour or so when we arrived at transition. I went on a dark ride through the park and hoped I didn’t hit a pothole and crash before the race. The race started off well; the pack was swimming well and then we turned around at the far buoy and started swimming directly into the sun. I think our pack zigg–zagged back and forth and wouldn’t be surprised if everyone swam an extra 100 or 200 as we tried to find our way. It was amusing and didn’t really bother me too much as I figured everyone else was just as screwed as I was. I just tried to follow the feet and splashing up ahead…probably blinding following them as they zigg–zagged. Once on the bike, it was a bit of a draft-fest for the first few miles as we road through the pack on a tight single lane road. It was a bit frustrating but at least it was only for a few miles. Once on the main road, the pack spread out and drafting officials started hovering around us. Joanna Zeiger got a questionable call to stand down early in the bike; I didn’t think she was drafting but sometimes the officials can see things we can’t or make calls that suck but we have to live with….I had a great ride and was doing well in second place with Sarah Haskins and Julie Dibens. Then, with only 2 miles to go in the bike, I took a drink and...
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