Very Belated Blog

It's been way too long since I've updated. There are several reasons for this: 1) I was mad because I had a bad race and, well, didn't want to talk about it. 2) I started my summer job, which means that time is much shorter than it was a couple of weeks ago. 3) I haven't been home. I've been watching my sister's house - and that means less access to a computer. Basically I was checking my email and leaving it at that.

The Jay Benson race was the 10th of May, which as races around here go, was a big deal. We call it WC of ABQ #1. Everyone who's anyone goes to it. I won it last year. In a time of 1:00:33. Really good, and three minutes faster than my previous year's time. Two minutes faster than the previous year's winner's time. This year, however, my run wasn't where it was last year - 40 seconds slower than last year - and this time I was working a lot harder to keep that pace. I don't think I ran the race right, went out too hard, couldn't hold a good enough pace on the bike after that, either. Not to mention, I was about 20 seconds slower in the water too - again, I was too tired when I got to the water to hold the pace I did last year. I ended up being only about 20 seconds off of the winner, but a minute off of my time from last year. Call it whatever you want - it was just a bad race. I was nervous because I didn't feel up to racing, either. I woke up that morning and thought, "Really? Do I have to do this? I want to go back to sleep." That's never good. Not on a race morning.

After that I trained my silly little tush off, hating having had a bad race, and feeling that maybe it was because I hadn't been training enough. This last weekend I went and raced the Milkman in Dexter, NM. It was a great race. I was really happy with it because I didn't taper for it - only a recovery week because I had killed myself for three weeks before that, and I had a good swim. My only complaint is that, well, something is wrong with the timing system. I have on my watch a 1:06:45. But they have 1:09:24. I should have the same time as them (within a few seconds anyways) but to have more than two minutes off is strange, seeing as how I started it at the start and finished it at the finish. And it's never been off before. And I'm a little bothered by the transition zone being unfair, everyone goes a different distance than everyone else (and somehow I ended up being in the farthest, slowest spot). A bit worrisome that a long standing and reputable race would have these problems. Oh well. Stuff happens. Other than that, I was happy with the race and it was fun.

Another thing I've been wanting to talk about but haven't gotten to is the ProBar. I mean, they make my life so much easier. They have enough calories to take the edge off a hunger and to get me home when I'm feeling close to bonking, and they can function as a replacement lunch. I basically cannot get enough of them. High in all the good stuff, and tasty too! I would have to say that of all the granola/energy bar type foods that I have tried, these are the ONLY ones (and I do mean only) that I like more every time I eat them. I don't get tired of them. They're not painfully sweet - even the Whole Berry Blast (definately my favorite), which would perhaps be considered a sweeter ProBar. I do eat them like they're going out of style.

Well, next up for me is more training (after a recovery week this week) and then the Grady Williams Memorial Tri up in Farmington. Then Socorro, Los Alamos, and Age Group Nationals. Here's to hoping for a good race...

My next adventure is the Jay Benson a.k.a. ABQ Worlds. Basically anyone who's anyone, in New Mexico, does this race. This will be my fourth time doing it. The first time I raced it was my second triathlon ever. I didn't do too shabby. Second time around I got second. Third time around I got first, though according to some I was "helped" by another's flat tire...so this year I have to make sure that everyone knows I wasn't "helped" by anything. We will see on race day, I suppose.

I am pleased to annouce my newest sponsor, the AuraWave. I have been sneaking off with the Canadian version (well, since I have a boyfriend that's Canadian and who just happens to have one) to use on any sore muscles that I have. It's the same kind of device that chiropractors use to loosen up tight muscles and make everything feel better. This is just smaller and much more convenient. I LOVE MINE! I'm basically always using it. For whatever. Be it a little achyness in my shoulders from riding all day or that pesky knot that keeps coming back in my hip...It's great because you don't have to sit there and massage things out yourself or pay someone else to do it. Just put the zapper pads on and let 'er rip.

I am taking my first final tomorrow...wish me luck. I'm not sure how it will go, I suppose it depends on how difficult he decides to make it. Hopefully not too hard. I'm off to run before more studying...

It's Springtime!!

Spring has FINALLY sprung! Today is hot, beautiful really, and last night I watched the most amazing sunset while I was ss mountain biking. It was gorgeous! There were a lot of people out on the trails, no doubt because it was just a lovely evening, not too hot, not too cold, just right. And sunny. I love sunny days (so it's good I live here!).

USAT Collegiate Nationals didn't go as well as I'd have hoped. I got a flat tire, right out of transition too, so I basically got on my bike, rode a bit, looked down and thought, "Oh no, really? This can't be." But it was, and I got off my bike at the top of the hill that was right out of transition and stood there, dumbfounded, because I didn't have anything to fix it and, well, it's a tubular anyways. They don't change easy and why would you carry a tubular during an Olympic distance race? If you flat you're out of the race anyways. Luckily I was close enough to the bike station that I waddled down the hill in my goofy bike helmet and had the bike guys change it for me. Then since I was ready to go and they were kind enough to change it for me, I finished. I finished in a spectacular 3:07, but, admittedly I did have a nice little jog in my racing flats. I saw no point in pushing it for a race I clearly wasn't in anymore. So I had a glorified brick workout. It could have been worse, for sure, but it's always frustrating when that happens. Not to mention my poor boyfriend (and excellent sherpa) was running around thinking I was down and out somewhere since he didn't see me go out on my bike. He didn't find me until the run, as I'm jogging and chatting with a nice girl from MIT.

I'm coming up on the finals time of the semester, meaning the next two weeks are crunch time. A bit more stressful, but then it's SUMMER! I'm really excited for the summer, especially since this year is going to be a great racing year. Next race: Jay Benson!

Off to Collegiate Nationals!

Tomorrow I head out for the USAT Collegiate Nationals with the UNM Triathlon Team. I'm not sure how it will turn out, but I'm excited anyways! I have my bike more or less set up, final details are always the night before, but race wheels are here, it's in tune, and it's looking fast and ready :)

I raced this last weekend at the Spring Fling, a backwards sprint tri, since my usual spring race is MVTC was cancelled this year. I won first place (yay!) but the day was so hard because of the weather. The run wasn't too bad, nice and cool actually, but as we're topping this hill, I saw off in the distance the wall of water that was coming at us. And it was a wall of water. It started sprinkling on us towards the end of the run, which wasn't bad, but by the time I was out of the transition area, it was POURING. Starting the bike there were rivers going across the roads, and though the rain tried to stop at one point, there was still so much wind! The rain started again, and though I was leading, I didn't take it fast because I wasn't going to risk taking a dump the weekend before an important race (Nationals). The water was so nice to get into, my feet, legs, and arms all burned when I jumped into the pool. I finished with an ok time, but my transitions were nice and quick :37 for T1 and :38 for T2. Good practice for the next sprint that I'll do :)

I must get to packing now...

First Race of the Season

Last week was spring break, perfect time to head off to a race! We went out to Lake Havasu on Wednesday, a nice drive, with a better traveling companion. Casey really is the best sherpa ever. We camped out for the few days before the race, which was nice, but HOT! It's just not that hot here, it was around the 90's most of the time, and since we were camping, our relief from the heat was the lake, a mere 100 yards away. The lake was so cold, we'd swim and then be cool for several hours afterwards.
Since it was spring break week, there were a TON of people there, around London Bridge mostly, but there were plenty of drunk, sunburned collage students in swimsuits hanging around the boats. I saw at least one beer pong table, too. There was a Motor cross competition that weekend too, so there were more RVs than I could count. There popped up a small triathlete village in the camping ground where we were, making a small area where tents almost outpopulated the RVs. Almost. But only in a really small area. There were more RVs in that one little campground than I've seen in an RV sales lot.
The race itself went pretty well, the swim was nice because the water was so clear, if a little cold. The swim took us through part of the channel that the London Bridge crosses, which was shallow enough at some points that people were standing and jumping in the water. I could see the bottom most of the way through the swim. The beach, however was rocky and not well marked. So if you got off course a little bit, you ended up going through worse rocks than a tiny little space they'd shoveled. The transition went better than I'd thought, didn't mess up jumping on my bike/putting my shoes on at all! Probably could'a been faster though. The bike was fun, accept for the portion that went through the neighborhood, where we counted something like 24 corners. On TT bikes...bright idea. Then there was the hilly section. Which was a section of some monster hills that really weren't that bad if you could get some speed going up them. And the last big one was right after a corner, so not much speed, but I got enough to get most of the way up, and just stood up, and passed 3 people! I guess that ss mtb is working! Then there was the other side...I hit a really high speed, at last glance something like 48 mph, it was so steep, and so long, it was so fun! Then the transition to the run went just fine, and they took us over a section of deep deep sand. I didn't know it was supposed to be an offroad...grr I don't like deep sand. But that's ok, everyone had to do it. The run went fine until I was completely overheated. There weren't enough aid stations, they claimed they'd be every mile, but they definately were not. So I ended up third in the collegiate. Even though the results claim 4th. Interestingly enough there's supposedly a girl that was 10 seconds ahead of me...she must have been invisible. There was NObody near me when I finished. Oh well. For the first race of the season I'll take it. So lessons learned: have a way to stay cool. That's about all.
I want to also introduce my latest sponsor: Taylor Ranch Family Chiropractic. They provide chiropractic work (obviously) but they also do this Active Release Technique that's good for overuse injuries and it works so well! Honestly, without that, I probably wouldn't be racing. So, to TRFC, Thanks!

Coming Back From the Flu

A couple of weeks ago I came down with the flu. It's a good idea to avoid that if you can. Of course, I bet you already knew that. It took me out for 9 days, and I'm just now starting to be able to come back and do stuff again. I finally rode to school on Friday, too, it's a decent ride by itself, I wouldn't call it hard, but it was definitely slower than usual. Slow or not, I got hellos from three people! That never happens! The weather was beautiful, I made it home just before it really started to get windy, the typical spring winds that pop up here. Saturday's ride wasn't too long either, but it was perfect for including the intervals in the afternoon with the new team. A new girl showed up, a girl in High School looking to get into tri's (yay! We need new blood.) but she didn't bring a helmet and I couldn't let her ride. Sad, but now she knows. I really hope she comes out again, I think there's promise there. There were A LOT of men out racing and just basically hauling butt everywhere. It seems that everyone really comes out when it first starts to get warm.
I was intending to sleep in a little on Sunday morning, but, of course, my plan was foiled by my dog. She has been getting treats from my dear mother at 5:30 in the morning, and now, right about 5:30 is when she starts to whine and gets restless because she wants treats. It's Pavlov's dog...needless to say she doesn't listen well to "Shut up Cleo" from me.
One of the races that I have done every year since I started Tri's is sadly cancelled, and even though I wasn't completely planning on going, I'm really disappointed. It was my first tri. It was posted on facebook that it's cancelled, so I'm somewhat skeptical, but since I talked to one of the guys at the school that usually puts it on, my hope has dwindled. Seems my baby sprint race will be the Spring Fling.
I'm getting a new bike, too. I'm really really excited! Pictures to come.... :)

Race Plan

My races for this year go like this:

• Feb 14th - Sweetheart Run ( already did this one, obviously), did a decent 20:33 for third place. Not bad for a triathlete in pre-season.
• March 21st - Havasu Lake Triathlon, Olympic Distance
• Tentative - April 5th - MVTC Triathlon, Sprint Distance
• Tentative - April 11th - Spring Fling, Sprint Distance (I'll do either MVTC or the Spring, not sure yet)
• April 18th - Collegiate Nationals in Lubbock Texas, Olympic Distance
• May 10th - Jay Benson Triathlon, Sprint Distance
  
• May 31st - Deuces Wild Olympic Distance
• June 6th - Milkman Triathlon (Qualifier for Best of the US)
• July 12th - Boulder Peak Triathlon, Olympic Distance
• August 1st - Socorro Chile Harvest Triathlon, Sprint Distance
  
• Tentative - August 15th - Los Alamos Triathlon, Sprint
• August 22nd - Age Group Nationals, Olympic Distance
• October 11th - Elephant Man Triathlon, Olympic Distance

Also, I'm going to be looking for runs to do this season, and if I can get a mountain bike set up for racing, I may hopefully be able to do some Xterra races.