Kate Bruck: 1st overall Red Bank Olympic, "my "sacrificial" race to prepare for Eagleman 70.3"

May 26 at 7:17am | 0 comments

Red Bank Olympic distance Triathlon 5/15/2011

I had decided to do this race more as my "sacrificial" race to prepare for Eagleman 70.3 (a half-iron) in a couple of weeks.  I had absolutely zero expectations leading into this race, as I hadn't tapered and really didn't care what the outcome was-- just wanted to "blow out the carbon" so that I was sharp for Eagleman.  Since my race performance was not so great at the Disney half-iron last year, Coach Cliff and I felt it was good to get a race in before my first half-iron of the year.



We (Foof and I) woke up at 4:30 a.m. that morning to heavy, cold, thick clouds and rain.  Outside temp was around 55 degrees-- brrr!  I figured, well, I will just put in a good effort and then after the race, finish up the rest of the work that was on the schedule for the day.  Around 5:15 a.m. I ate a plain white flour bagel with earth balance and plenty of honey.  I usually have a cup of coffee the morning of a race, but opted for a double espresso (note to self-- the rumors are true-- espresso clearly has much less caffeine than regular Sbux coffee).  We headed out- all bundled up in sweatshirts and warm-up pants!

Got to the race venue around 6:15, set up my transition, saw a couple familiar faces, chatted and around 6:45 ate three black cherry cliff blocks (with caffeine).  Headed to the restroom and waited in what seemed to be an endless line-- race director definitely needs to up the porto-potty count for next year :)

Got back to transition around 7:40, struggled to get the wetsuit on- was so cold I didn't want to get undressed!

SWIM: Our wave took off right around 8 a.m. (give or take a few minutes).  It was a deep water start in the Navesink River at Marine Park.  I jumped off the dock into some cold-ass water- but it wasn't so cold that it made me piss my pants and forget my name- so I was pretty relieved.  Gun goes off and I thought-- find some feet, find some feet.  I tried to hang on to the top ladies, but it just wasn't there for me today.  Coach had mentioned about a week or two before this race that my swim times may go down a little (because of the heavy cycling emphasis over the last few weeks), but not to worry because I will get it back.  I pushed as hard as I could and felt like hell.  We hit the turn buoy and I was swimming so hard, yet lousy, that I didn't realize I had completely gotten off course and was practically at the other side of the fucking river-- well son of a bitch.  I turned myself around, got back on course and started seeing people that I had passed a while back.  Dammit.  Got to the dock and looked at my watch...was expecting to finish the swim in the 22 to 23:30 minute range...25 FUCKING MINUTES.  Double damn!!  Coach telling me that my swim might be a little slow certainly didn't take the sting out of that!  How did I go from swimming an average 1:13/100 yard to a 1:31/100 yard.  WTF!!!!?!?!

Total swim: 25:30

Got to transition, was totally disoriented, almost fell over trying to get my socks and shoes on...normally don't ride with socks on, but was afraid I would have toe-cicles if I didn't.  Got the helmet and sunglasses on and took off-- transition time: 1:53.  Good Lord, I think my grammy can transition faster than that...and she's dead...

BIKE: I have had many discussions with Cliff about my bike performance and it seems that I am capable of much more than what my race performances have shown-- so I had decided this morning that I would say to hell with the run- I am not holding ANYTHING back on that bike course, because I want to see what I can put out there and how it affects my run.  I had also decided to not use race wheels, because: A. It was raining and on a hilly course like that, I didn't see the benefit if it was raining, and B.  I really wanted to use my wheel with the powertap so I could see what kind of watts I was cranking out on a race effort.  Initially, I was passed by about five or six men, but I was steadily passing all of the women that had beat me out of the water.  At about 15-20 minutes into the ride, I sucked down an espresso Hammer Gel and throughout the ride I drank a full 24 oz water with two scoops carbo-pro mixed with two scoops of lemonade Ultima.  I felt very strong on the climbs.  The downhills were a little tricky with the slick road conditions, but I managed to keep my cool descending, thanks to all of the tips and training I got in Spain last month.  I was pushing very hard and although I felt some fatigue setting in, acknowledged it and pushed it out of my mind.  As we started to make our approach back into town, I came up on what I had assumed was third or fourth female overall (she was actually 2nd place female overall) and passed her feeling pretty solid. 

bike split: 1:13:04.  Ave speed: 20.67...fastest female bike split...YAY!!

Back to T2-- Forget my overall placement in the race, this was my finest achievement of the day!!!!  Historically speaking, my T2 has SUCKED!!!  In :38 I racked my bike, threw on my shoes and grabbed my bottle, hat and bib number and out the gate I went!  I finally had a good transition, yay!!

RUN: I started off the run with quick turnover (95+ foot strikes) and feeling very strong.  In the first half mile, I came up on what I was pretty sure was the first overall female and had confirmation of that when I saw her friend wildly flailing his hands in excitement saying "you're number one!!!!!"  He he he, not for long, and I quickly passed her.  What a great feeling.  The run course was very familiar to me as I had run these hills a zillion times doing long runs from Bodman.  There were a couple big pushes, but mostly just some nice rolling hills.  I sipped on 8 oz of bottle of Ironman Perform.  I was running a race pace with high turnover, and even though I was pretty sure I would not be caught, I still pushed hard-- this race was all about seeing what I was capable of.  I hit the turn around and didn't see any females until I was 2.5 minutes past the turnaround- yeah, they weren't catching me. :)  I took the next 3.1 miles just as hard as ever and at about mile 4.5 a woman looked at me and said "honey, they are far back, you can slow down".... umm, yeah, right!!  I saw Foof, gave him the thumbs up and then put my finger up and gasped "first place".  I got back into town and hearing everyone screaming and yelling for me was pretty exciting!!  I made the turn to head down to the finish line and became a bit overwhelmed with emotion.  I saw the finish line and knew for sure that I was first female as I grabbed the tape!  Whew!!!

Total run time: 42:51, pace: 6:53/mile.  First place female overall (by 8.5 minutes!!!!)))

What a relief!  I am so happy that I chose to do this race-- I think I needed this both to affirm that I am capable of putting out a hard bike effort and still have my running legs and also for a nice morale boost.  Doug Rice and the crew of Split Second Racing put on a fantastic race-- the bike course was great, the run course was great and despite my own shortcomings, the swim course was great too! I am so grateful for Coach Cliff Scherb and his superb coaching abilities.  He takes a personal approach to each of his athlete's training and because of this, we are all able to excel!  I also would be lost without Karen Foote and her super-duper reiki healing sessions and Dr. Liz Perez, without whom I would not be able to stay injury-free...well, for the most part ;-)  Many hugs, love and thanks to my very good friends-- my TRUE friends and family that support me in so many ways. xoxoxo

Stay tuned for my next race, Eagleman 70.3, June 12

Andrew Gentles: "I was so thrilled to be able to place in my division"

May 05 at 10:10am | 0 comments

Andrew Gentles: Tri The Parks Triathlon - Georgia 5.1.11



My first triathlon was one of the coolest experiences of my life. I have been on cloud 9 since Saturday, and can't wait to get back to work and continue to improve.

Swim (600 meters): 12:26.5 - I didn't realize they count the time from the water to T1 as part of your swim time!

T1: 2:49.5

Bike (13.8 miles): 39:38.9

T2: 1:15.1

Run (3.1 miles): 22:37.2

My blood sugar was 217 when I woke up at 4:18am (bolus of 2.3 units to correct). I wasn't surprised by the high blood sugar since I had been having a problem with high sugars in the morning over the last  few weeks. Breakfast consisted of a plain cinnamon raisin bagel, Dannon light & fit yogurt and a banana (bolus of 5.5 units at 4:48am).

We arrived at the park around 6:30am for an 8:00am start. The temperature was 44, and I was sporting shorts and a t-shirt like an idiot. Thanks for the warning weatherman Scott, everyone else looked very comfortable in their long sleeve shirts and sweatpants. Thankfully, the weather got much warmer by race time! I was overwhelmed by how many top of the line bikes with race wheels lined the transition area. I guess everyone was excited for the first race of the season! Once we had set up our transition spots, Scott and I headed out to check out the first part of the run course. We did several striders to get the blood flowing and knock loose some of the cobwebs. I was still feeling a bit groggy at this point. My blood sugar was 140 at 7:01am!

We began to put on our wetsuits around 7:40am. My blood sugar was 82 at 7:45am, so I had a GU gel to help bring it up a bit. When I was putting on the wetsuit, I realized that it would be very difficult for me to take off my pump 5 minutes before the beginning of the race since it was attached to my backside, so I made the executive decision to take it off since I was comfortable with my sugar level. I checked one more time before heading to the water at 7:56am, and was delighted the 86 on the screen! Don't worry, I had a gel tucked under my cap just in case.

Now it was time to do a short warm up in the lake to get accustomed to the wetsuit. I cheered on as Scott put on another dominant swimming performance. All I hoped for at this point was that he and I put in strong performances. As I waited for my wave to go off, I was surprised by how calm I felt. No pre-race jitters or anxiety, just pure focus. So focused that I forgot to enable the GPS on my Garmin, which came back to bite me on the run later. At the beginning of the swim, my main thought was to avoid the flailing bodies around me. The hardest part of the swim was making sure I stayed on course. I tried to look up every 10 strokes or so to confirm that I was still heading towards the buoys. I even stopped 2 or 3 times for a second or two and treaded water to acquaint myself. My thought was that I would rather take a few seconds to check instead of taking the scenic tour of the swim course. The lake was muddy and visibility low so I occasionally swam over slower age groupers in the waves ahead of me. Once I hit the shore, I quickly realized that I never took the time to practice taking off my wetsuit. I faced a long struggle trying to unzip the back of the suit. I walked by Scott's partner, Mark, and my mom on the way to T1 who weren't expecting me so soon. Mark said it's a good thing he didn't take a picture of me because I had a very angry look on my face as I struggled with the zipper. Once I hit my transition spot, I luckily was able to get the zipper down and decided to sit down in order to get the bottom of the suit off and give myself some time to catch my breath.

I throw on my race helmet (early birthday present) and new Oakley's, and take off for my biking adventure. Luckily, I was able to borrow Scott's coaches P2 so I was very familiar with the bike. One guy passed me as we left the park, but the rest of the ride was smooth sailing. I was in attack mode the whole time, and I must have passed over 100 people. There were lots of rolling hills on the course. Given it was my first race, I was afraid to go too hard fearing a collapse on the run. I was very pleased with my bike leg, and am encouraged knowing that I could have given it even more.

Pulling into to T2, I jumped off the bike and my calves both felt pretty cramped. I threw the bike on the rack and reached for my shoes. Scott was already done with his race and shouting advice from behind the ropes. He could tell I was getting frustrated as my shoes were tough to get on as I had the Yankz laces pretty tight. He ran with me for a bit, gave me words of encouragement and told me to catch my breath for the first 500 yards. For some reason my watch was only showing my heart rate and not distance. I resorted to relying on the signs on the course for distance, which hurt me in the end because I didn't realize that they were the signs for the duathlon so I misjudged the distance left in the race. I had saved a little in the tank thinking I had longer to go. If I would have paid attention to Scott during our warm up, I would have caught the part where he said, "once you hit the turnaround at the top of the hill, you don't have much longer and you can go all out." He was waiting for me with 0.2 miles left, and ran with me as I sprinted to the finish. I was so far in the zone that I missed my cheering section and the signs my mom had made for me that read "Go Big Red" and "Andrew Rocks." My  heart rate hovered between 158-161 during the run, so clearly I had more room to push it harder. My blood sugar was 165 following the race at 10:49am.

Overall, I am extremely satisfied with my first race. It was incredible to share the experience with Scott, and I look forward to competing together in the future. My blood sugar control could not have been any better. I was so thrilled to be able to place in my division and fulfill my competitive drive. These results would not have been possible without the help of my coach, Cliff. I went into the race confident and didn't experience any anxiety because I knew that he had provided me with the right tools and had helped me put in the hard work.