Racing at "Home"

Last weekend was the Victoria 70.3 and sprint race.  In many ways it was like racing at home (ok, kind of literal as I live 45 minutes from the race site), but "home" as in how much the course and event feels like that home you grew up in but haven't lived there in years, and has grown a lot since you left.

In what almost seems another lifetime ago, my good friend Norm, myself, and a bunch of our friends put on the NewBalance Half Iron - a grass-roots race we poured blood, sweat & tears (all those things!) into for 12 years.  Then Norm handed it over to Lifesport, and a few years later it became a WTC event.

I have a lot of nostalgia for those old days (although I can't go back - there's no way I could do that much work again!), but I have to admit WTC did a tremendous job with the event.  I'm looking forward to having that event in our backyard for years to come - without personally having to carry hundreds of bike racks in & out of trailers...

As for the race itself: one of the highlights was having so many Betty teammates there!  Amy & Melanie from Calgary, Roxie from Bellingham, and Kathy from Phoenix.  It was a fluorescent Betty party, and believe me, we did not go unnoticed!  Perfect weather, camping at the park in the RV, the debut of my new bike, yet another age group win for Jason... fantastic weekend!

Team Betty! (unfortunately we were missing Roxie)

You know there's a lot of hills when my
power file looks like that!

I had a lead in my AG off the bike in the sprint race! First place
woman blew by but somehow I held off third.
I saw her at the turnaround and figured she'd catch me -
have to celebrate small victories!

Jason on his way to an age group win in the 70.3.

Second place W45-49 podium in the sprint race.

Meet The Newest Member of our Family

 A new bike wasn't really in the plans for me this year.  Then Jason started talking about getting rid of his Shiv and getting a Felt, so I started thinking about taking over his Shiv.  Then I saw a frame for sale that I absolutely fell in love with, and bought it pretty much on a whim.  Last night, Jason swapped all my parts over to my new bike, and I rode it for the first time today.  Love.

 

To Sleep, Perchance To Dream...

Now that we're into June, things get crazy busy at work.  Normally I have a 5 a.m. wake-up call once a week (and two 5:30's), but this week it was 5 a.m. every day as I had to get early workouts in because of evening work commitments.  Evening work stuff means I'm not going to bed early, which makes the morning alarm that much harder to take.  Plus, having a hectic work schedule, and trying to fit training, and dog, around everything leads to being a bit stressed, which for me seems to equal crappy sleep.

So. I am tired.

Jason's in San Francisco, and tomorrow he races Escape from Alcatraz with many of his Every Man Jack teammates.  I was looking forward to sleeping in (all I have on my schedule is a long run and some quality time with the dog) and then watching his race online.  The swim start is 7:30, so at least I get a nice, easy morning.  Hooray!  It's 7:30 p.m. Saturday right now, is it too early to go to bed?

If only I could crash as hard as Tiki can.
Lucky dog.

Highlights from the Shawnigan Sprint Tri

This isn't really a race report since it's taken me a week to get to it - basically just some highlights and random thoughts from the race.

The water was really warm - 20.5 degrees C.  Pretty unusual for May around here.  We didn't get as much rain as normal over the winter, and no snow in the mountains so I guess that's why.  I imagine a lot of the local races won't be wetsuit legal this summer if this keeps up!

Seems like the field gets smaller here every year.  Too bad as it's a great little race; hopefully now that WTC owns it, they'll find a way to build up the numbers.

This year felt easier than last year.  Good sign.

The new Betty Designs team kit is super comfortable.  And gets lots of attention and compliments!

I decided I'd ride hard, but not crazy uncomfortably hard (if that makes sense).  I ended up with the fastest bike split in my AG by 2 minutes.  Yes!

My friend Candace came out to watch, and she's a super race cheerleader so it's always great when she comes.  If it looks to her like I'm not working hard enough, she yells at me and makes me dig deep.

I wore these really cute runners that matched my kit perfectly (Brooks pure cadence 3), even though I knew they had a rub spot.  Yep - got a pretty nasty blister.  I'm torn with what to do with them... everything else is great except that one spot.

Nice way to start the tri season - 1st place M45-49 for Jason in the olympic event, 2nd place W45-49 for me in the sprint.  My first ever race in the 45-49 category!

Next up... Victoria sprint on June 14.  Before that though, Jason's off to Escape from Alcatraz this week!

Sprint Race Gear List

I'm getting ready for my first triathlon of the season tomorrow, the Shawnigan Lake sprint tri.  One of the nice things about a sprint (besides being done before breakfast), is that - relative to longer triathlons - you don't need a lot of gear.  Here's everything I'm using tomorrow.

My snazzy new Betty Designs team kit!

Swim:
- wetsuit (still too early for the lakes here to be warm enough to not be wetsuit legal)
- swim cap
- tinted goggles
- race kit
- timing chip

Good sign that my swim cap matches my kit!

Bike:
- bike with race wheels (6" deep front and 9" deep rear)
- tri shoes (different than my road shoes as they have one big velcro strap for quick on-and-off)
- helmet (I've switched to "aero road" this year to have a single helmet that does it all)
- sunglasses
- Garmin Edge 500
- one bottle with Vega Pre-Workout Energizer

Paired down bike... only one bottle cage (between the aero bars)
and no bento box, etc - completely unnecessary for such a short race!

Run:
- running shoes
- socks
- visor
- number belt
- one Gu Roctane

That's it!  While that may still seem like a lot of gear, it's so little compared to a race like Ironman.

Team EMJ CAF ride in LA

Jason and I were in North County (San Diego) for the May long weekend, and decided to take an impromptu trip up to LA for the Saturday.  Jason's on the Every Man Jack triathlon team, and some of their local athletes were hosting a charity ride to benefit Challenged Athletes Foundation.  We thought it was a great cause, a nice chance to ride some new roads, and an opportunity for Jason to hang out with some of his teammates.

It meant an early wake-up call from Oceanside where we were staying, as check-in for the ride was 7am in Santa Monica.  Luckily early morning freeway traffic is light, so we arrived with lots of time. Turned out the group was a pretty small one, but eager nonetheless (most doing the 100-mile option, Jason & I chose the 70-mile route).  A few of us rolled out together, with CJ & Brad from Team EMJ leading the way.

Ready to roll!

We headed out via Brentwood to the coast, along the PCH through Malibu, and then up into the Santa Monica mountains.  Of course, like every ride I seem to agree to do, it has a gnarly climb in there somewhere!  Shockingly though, I wasn't the last up of our group! Small victories.

600m climb in about 15km - yay.

 

Climbing Encinal Canyon.

At the top of Mulholland, the 100-milers peeled off from the 70-milers, and we headed back down to the PCH.  Riding through Malibu, I looked over to the water and noticed a group of about 5 dolphins swimming along the shore!  Nice to be accompanied by beautiful animals through a beautiful part of the world!

The traffic had definitely picked up, especially as we got closer to the city.  We arrived back at Bike Improve (and I'd spied a Whole Foods in Brentwood to head back to for lunch...), and not long after, most of the 100-mile group arrived back by SAG - they ran into some vicious headwinds and called it a day.  We mingled, ate pizza, watched the Tour of California on the shop TV, and waited for the two brave souls that stuck out the full 100 miles to return.  Then it was time to head back to our condo in Oceanside to plan the next day's adventures!  Once again, SoCal did not disappoint!

New Goals, New Race, New Coach

Here we are, one quarter into 2015 already!  A mere 5.5 months away from Ironman Louisville, so training has "officially" started (as opposed to the always-active I try to be).  I am trying to set some new goals for myself for Ironman; they need to be realistic of course but also lofty enough to really have me working hard towards them.

I'd like to PR the swim (so sub-1:07) and PR the run (I don't even want to say but honestly I've never had an IM marathon that didn't start with a 6, so...).  I don't really think I can PR the bike (which would mean riding sub-6 hours on a hilly course), but I'd like to ride really well and need to figure out what that means for me, at 45 years old, on a course that has so many hills.  As I get closer to October, I'll refine those goals based on how my training has gone.

So, cue the new coach; I finally asked the person I've had in the back of my head for years: Sean Clark.  For some reason I've always thought Sean would be the right coach for me, but I don't know why I've never acted on that.  I've known Sean more than 15 years, and Jason's known him for over 20.  He and his wife, Tara-Lee Marshall (yes, that Tara-Lee for those of you that know your Ironman history), run CMS Coaching over on the mainland.  They are a great team and I am confident Sean and I will work together to accomplish my goals.  Plus, they are both hilarious and awesome people!  They've been coaching athletes of all levels for years, and I'm super excited about it.  Already I'm a slave to my powermeter on rides and Garmin on runs - things I should have focused on long ago but it was always so easy to just go the pace that felt right on the day.

Spring is in full swing on the west coast, meaning you never really know how to dress for a ride.  Last week I was soaking up some glorious warm sunshine, then yesterday it was cool and rainy but by the time I had ridden back to town, it was warm and sunny.  At least I get good use out of arm warmers, vests, and then pockets to shove them into this time of year!

Happy training!

Sun's out!