Athlete Reports

Jun 19 at 7:50pm | 0 comments
My nerves were totally frayed leading into this race. I had bigger expectations than previous years, and qualifying for the AGNC’s was key to achieving my race goals for the year. My wife helped diffuse them, by reminding me that I’d qualified the last two years, and that I was much better trained this year. Still, my mind was playing tricks on me. Because the swim start felt so awful two-weeks ago at Rev3, I decided to warm up by running shortly and a good swim with some pickups to get the blood flowing. Twenty minutes later it would be time to race. The swim start felt way better than Rev3, but it was a fray to say the least. Lots of jostling in the first 200 yards, but I found some feet and got a decent draft into more open water. I am still plagued by inefficiency on the swim, and had to let that precious draft go to let my HR and breathing settle. After composing myself, I focused on strong long strokes and a good kick. I was nowhere near any opportunity to draft. I stayed focused and pushed to finish hard. The first six miles of the bike course are really fast. For three miles it’s slightly downhill and flat and the next three miles descend to the lowest course point. It’s a screaming fast turn-filled descent that gets the adrenaline running (especially when you forget to re-clamp the front caliper). With the HR low still low, I took in a bottle before the climbs to come. I felt pretty solid for the first three miles up out of the cellar, I picked off a bunch of people and the legs felt decent up the first few steeper grades. Around mile nine something didn’t feel right. I was pushing it up a gradual grade, but the bike was just not responding. Did I flat? Nope. Were the rear brakes rubbing? Nope. What is going on? Then it hit me, fatigue from Rev3 HIM two-weeks ago was still in my legs. At least it wasn’t a flat…so, with the internal governor switched on, I knew this wasn’t going to be my best bike. Around mile 16 I got absolutely smoked by another 30-34, and I tried to catch him for a mile or so, but he was gone. I didn’t have that extra register, and I was not about to go into the pain cave without my best bike-legs underneath me. By this point I was by myself, and unusually for a 40K, I just wanted off the bike. I was fired up to run. The two-loop run course sets up so nicely for a fast run because there is only one hill, and it comes at you near miles 2 and 5. I got the feet moving real quickly out of the gate, down the hill I leaned forward and let gravity do it’s thing. My pace was faster than I had planned, but I felt like I might just be able to hold it. Leaders started passing on the return of loop one, and I was keeping a mental tally of my place, best estimate of 20 or so in front of me with no idea how many in my AG. High-cadence was my focus in the flats below the hill, I felt efficient and fast and knew I had an opportunity for a strong run. I felt great even as my HR spiked going up the hill, I was able to immediately turn it up at the top and my HR settled quickly. I saw my wife and girls at the turn-around; I love that part of the race, better energy than any fuel. Now time to repeat the loop, and let it rip. I was starting to fatigue pushing the final hill, but with less than a mile to go I was able to gut it out and crank it up on the flats to the finish. I crossed the line in 2:14 claiming third in the AG and 13th OA. Checking the splits when I got home, I noticed a nice little 2:00 min addition to my final time…my first race penalty, which is most likely the result of a rear bottle ejection right in front of the official, ouch. The final result was 3rd AG / 17th OA. 

Jun 19 at 7:21pm | 0 comments
Eagleman 70.3, June 10, Cambridge, MD



Race start for the 30-34 females, 8th wave as at 7:42.  I woke up at 4:45, had some coffee, coconut water and cream of rice and I was off to the race.

I got to the race at 5:50, body marked, set up transition then it was time to head over to the start. The weather had been warm recently, and in previous few years for this event the water temp was above 76.1, so I thought for sure this would be a no wetsuit swim.  however, I lucked out and temp was 75, so I wore my sleeveless wetsuit. The high for the day was 93 degrees.

The swim was a floating start, which I prefer. The mad dash to the water always seems to cause a bit of anxiety for me. I started out on the far side of the starting line, away from the cluster of women in my wave. I was in straight line for the 2nd buoy and tried to stay behind someone faster then me. It was 275 yards to the first buoy so I swam hard to that point then focused on staying long and strong until the end.  Out of the water my watch read 32 minutes. I was happy, that's a pretty  consistent swim time for me. 

On to the bike, where I had 3 bottles with 250 calories of carbo pro in each mixed with a nuun or a Hammer fizz. My goal was to finish a bottle in 45 min, which I kept on target. At 2 of the water stations, I grabbed water, squirted it on my legs and neck to cool me down then drank the rest. I was feeling great, so great I let out a couple tears of excitement. All along  I had my Garmin 910 turned toward the inside of my wrist. At mile 44, I accidentally hit lap and it started timing my T2 time. At this point I could only go by RPE. I continued to feel great right back to transition.

The first mile of the run I wasn't feeling so hot. I could feel all the fluids in my stomach moving around. After mile 1, I was able to have some relief and started feeling great. At the turn around I pasted 2 women in my AG and started getting emotional again. I drank water at every station and poured ice every where I possibly could. Mile 10, I passes the next woman in my AG. Last mile or so I had enough to empty the tank and pick up the pace and finish strong. Once I passed the finish I had no idea what my time was.  I checked my Garmin and saw 4:52. The tears were pouring. A PR by 23 minutes. It was a flat and fast course but hot and windy. I was so happy! I placed 4th in my AG and 25th woman overall.

Thank you Coach Cliff for helping me meet my goals!!
Eagleman 70.3, June 10, Cambridge, MD

Race start for the 30-34 females, 8th wave as at 7:42.  I woke up at 4:45, had some coffee, coconut water and cream of rice and I was off to the race.

I got to the race at 5:50, body marked, set up transition then it was time to head over to the start. The weather had been warm recently, and in previous few years for this event the water temp was above 76.1, so I thought for sure this would be a no wetsuit swim.  however, I lucked out and temp was 75, so I wore my sleeveless wetsuit. The high for the day was 93 degrees.

The swim was a floating start, which I prefer. The mad dash to the water always seems to cause a bit of anxiety for me. I started out on the far side of the starting line, away from the cluster of women in my wave. I was in straight line for the 2nd buoy and tried to stay behind someone faster then me. It was 275 yards to the first buoy so I swam hard to that point then focused on staying long and strong until the end.  Out of the water my watch read 32 minutes. I was happy, that's a pretty  consistent swim time for me. 

On to the bike, where I had 3 bottles with 250 calories of carbo pro in each mixed with a nuun or a Hammer fizz. My goal was to finish a bottle in 45 min, which I kept on target. At 2 of the water stations, I grabbed water, squirted it on my legs and neck to cool me down then drank the rest. I was feeling great, so great I let out a couple tears of excitement. All along  I had my Garmin 910 turned toward the inside of my wrist. At mile 44, I accidentally hit lap and it started timing my T2 time. At this point I could only go by RPE. I continued to feel great right back to transition.

The first mile of the run I wasn't feeling so hot. I could feel all the fluids in my stomach moving around. After mile 1, I was able to have some relief and started feeling great. At the turn around I pasted 2 women in my AG and started getting emotional again. I drank water at every station and poured ice every where I possibly could. Mile 10, I passes the next woman in my AG. Last mile or so I had enough to empty the tank and pick up the pace and finish strong. Once I passed the finish I had no idea what my time was.  I checked my Garmin and saw 4:52. The tears were pouring. A PR by 23 minutes. It was a flat and fast course but hot and windy. I was so happy! I placed 4th in my AG and 25th woman overall.

Thank you Coach Cliff for helping me meet my goals!!

Jun 11 at 6:23pm | 0 comments

It’s not often that you do a race where the race director is just as excited about your finish (and every other athlete’s finish) as you are…enter Rev3 Knoxville. My sister, husband, friends and I chose to do the race in Knoxville because we figured it would be a good early-season race to get ready for 2012 racing. I had done the South Beach Tri a month prior, but was very sick and so I still didn’t have a good indicator of where my fitness was. I left South Beach feeling defeated; I wanted an opportunity to really lay it out on the course feeling 100% healthy and give it all I had.

 

We arrived in Knoxville on Friday morning and got checked into the Holiday Inn Worlds Fair, which was within steps of the finish line/expo, yay! We went down to get registered for the race, ran into Gilad Jacobs from Normatec and some other friends and then headed out for dinner. Driving through Knoxville that evening, it was evident that this was not going to be a flat race!!!

 

We got our bikes ready on Saturday morning (day before race) and then headed down to the river for the practice swim. Water temperature was said to be 66 degrees, which meant wetsuits would be a must if you wanted to feel your arms and legs while swimming. With the air temps in the mid to high 80s, we were sweating buckets before we could even get the wetsuits half way on! I dove in, starting block style and WOW IT WAS CHILLY!!! After a nice 15-minute swim, the water felt fine and actually a bit refreshing. We headed towards transition, checked in our bikes and then drove out to the local bike store to pick up some last minute items.

 

Sunday morning came way too soon after a 3.5 hour "nap” on Saturday night. I had breakfast—two pieces of gluten-free white bread toasted with almond butter and honey. I have been dealing with some GI issues and therefore have given a go at a gluten-free diet, which seems to quiet my stomach on race morning. I didn’t feel very nervous; it seems that my race-day anxiety has hushed to nothing more than a whisper, which makes it a lot easier to concentrate on the task ahead of me! We headed down to transition, which was in a parking garage. Going over logistics, it appeared we would have quite a run from the swim to transition and then from transition to bike mount- all on slippery concrete and boat docks! Although, once I was racing both of these distances proved to be less challenging and slippery than what I had anticipated, yay!

 

After getting my transition area set up, my sister, husband and I made our way towards the swim start in the Tennessee River. Since we were starting an hour behind the pros, we were able to see all of the pro men and most of the pro women come in from the swim and start the bike before we had to walk down to the river, which is always so exciting!!

 

Our wave was called into the water and we waded for a very short period before the gun went off for our wave. I had enough time to catch my breath from the chill and do maybe ten or 15 strokes down the river- not much of a warm up, but would have to do!! My constant struggle with open water swimming is finding feet from which to draft. The gun went off and I started digging really hard. I chose to put myself front and center for the start, which proved to be a gutsy move as it was a little fierce there in the beginning 200 or so yards. Elbows, punches (unclear whether they were intentional or not), etc.- another thing that having a few seasons under my belt has helped with- the aggressive behavior no longer intimidates me. I tried and was somewhat successful in hanging onto some feet for a draft until the pace was too slow and moving on to the next one. Once we hit the turnaround, however, I was never able to regain a good draft and found myself alone for about the last 2/3 of the swim leg. Oh well, this is a big improvement from seasons past when I couldn’t seem to find a draft for the whole swim! My arms never really seemed to regain feeling and I found my upper body locking up at times as I navigated up and then down river. I really had no expectations of what my swim time should be as most of my early season training has been so bike-focused. I hit the dock in the high 22 min, which I felt was pretty on par for the effort I had put in so far. I ran through transition pulling and tugging at my Orca Alpha, which just didn’t seem to want to part with me! Argh- the dang thing just wouldn’t come off!

 

Grabbing my helmet, sunglasses and bike I quickly exited transition and ran like hell towards the bike mount having no idea where I was in overall placement. Out on the bike course, I remained very focused on the watts that Coach Cliff had set forth for me. I found the course to be great, with lots of rollers and some really good climbs—although the rollers made it kind of difficult to keep within the wattage range that I desired. It was evident that on this day, I was the passer, not the one being passed! I have been working hard on my bike and felt like it was finally starting to show. As I neared a familiar backside, I passed my husband and he shouted out "I think you are in fourth or fifth place overall!!” as I passed by. Perfect, I just wanted to hold this and make top five overall! I still was averaging about 4-5 watts below what I had hoped for, so I really upped the gas on the pedals for the remainder of the race. I saw the four ladies in front of me as I neared the bike turnaround and was able to confirm my overall placement. As I charged through the last couple miles of the race, I passed the fourth place female charging up a big hill and she hollered out "go get ‘em!” I got a little excited at the thought of possibly making top three overall! As I approached the driveway into the parking garage I took a chance on doing something new (NOTE: DON’T EVER TRY ANYTHING NEW ON RACE DAY). After a disastrous flying dismount a couple of years ago which left me injured for six weeks, I had kind of abandoned any kind of quick dismount tricks and stuck to leaving my feet in my shoes, thereby having to run through transition in bike shoes ever since that accident. I knew that this was going to be a long run on slippery concrete and doing that run in bike shoes was going to cost me precious time because I would need to run slowly and cautiously. I took the chance and slipped my feet out of my bike shoes pedaling the last couple hundred yards with feet on top of shoes so that I could run much faster in bare feet. It worked!! No crashes!! Victory!!! Off the bike in fourth place overall!!

 

Socks and running shoes on, I grabbed my hat, race belt and Fuel Belt flask and took off. I had been told that the run portion was "flat and fast”, which did not seem to be the case in my opinion. The run was on one of the greenways that are throughout the City of Knoxville. The greenway had many undulating inclines and declines with an approximate ½ mile big decline at the start of the race (which meant we would be climbing for the last ½ mile of the race). There were enough rollers that it was going to make it more of an effort to maintain a consistent pace. I caught up to the third place female around the first mile marker. It was that point when I really started thinking "just hold onto this, you got this.” With the sun beating down on us and temps hovering somewhere close to 90, I was finding it hard not to feel a bit nauseous with every sip of Ironman Perform- which was unusual for me. As I ran through the miles, my legs went from feeling strong to feeling like they might seize up. I was trying so hard to just hold on and not get passed. I approached the turn around and saw first and second place female and then a pro female that was pacing her male friend- which threw me off for a moment. With about two miles left I tried to pick up the pace and pretty much abandoned the thought of getting anymore Ironman Perform in my system. I started feeling extremely light-headed, which I have to assume was as a result of not having enough calories/hydration. I picked up the pace and turned the corner for the last long climb up to the finish line. It was tough to stay strong, but I approached the finish line and gave it all I had!! I was pretty sure that I had placed third, but I went over to the timing tent to confirm…after a little confusion with another competitor’s timing chip, it was eventually determined that I was indeed third place overall! Shortly after, I saw the race director, Eric, told him my overall placement and he was just as excited as I was!!

 

It was so great to make it to the podium. I was certainly not expecting to do so well this early in the season; I was just hoping for a PR! Also, my placement was good enough to qualify me to race as a pro! After a good long week of talking with Coach Cliff and weighing the options, I decided to apply for my professional license and received my pro card shortly after! Looking back at the path I have walked these past few years, I feel so blessed and grateful to have this opportunity! I certainly don’t subscribe to the belief that my life thus far has just been dumb luck. I am very excited to see how the rest of the season unfolds for me!

 

Things that went right/things that I need to improve…well- drafting for 1/3 of the swim race is certainly an improvement, but I need to be better at this. I am hoping that racing in the pro field will lead to less slow bodies that I have to navigate around and therefore can concentrate on just hanging onto whoever is in front of me. I also need to really make sure the first thing I do when I get out of the water is take the wetsuit off, when I am still slippery with water. Waiting until I get to transition to take of the wetsuit is not good for me and costs me time as I wrestle with the wetsuit. My bike went pretty well, but would have liked to have a little more in my legs that day- but this was not my "A” race, so I gave what I had. My run was not great, about: 10-: 15 seconds per mile off of what I had anticipated and I just didn’t have the "pep” in my step like I usually do; I felt "wonky.” However, I have had very little run training, since it has been all about the bike since January, so I guess I cannot complain. One thing that I cannot control, but that I find frustrating is the constant drafting that goes on during the bike leg. It was evident to me (and a couple of the ladies I spoke with) that there were some people who intentionally drafted in order to get a faster bike split and also save their legs so they can run faster off the bike. To those people a scant two-minute penalty (should an official catch you- which they didn’t) is nothing compared to the several minutes you take off your bike split from sharing a draft, not to mention how much faster you run off the bike. To those people, I say— perhaps you ought to stick to some draft-legal ITU racing and you know what they say about karma…

 

Thank yous…first and foremost—thank you to Foof for being my rock, my manager, my equipment handler, my Sherpa for this trip and most importantly for being my partner in life. None of this would be possible without you! And all of this, plus you had your own great race to do that weekend!! Thank you to my sister, Diane for being so helpful during race weekend and congrats to a great, hard race! Thank you to Rev3—great venue, race logistics went smoothly, great volunteers, AWESOME swag and fantastic crew! To say the least, you all go the extra mile to make each and every athlete feel special and because of that, I will always have Rev3 races on my schedule! Thank you to my FANTASTIC sponsors—Cycles 54 and Breakthrough Nutrition! I feel so incredibly honored to wear your name and promote the business. I am very lucky to have two amazing companies that hold the same beliefs towards life and how to treat people as a major source of support for me! Thank you to Coach Cliff Scherb- without your gift and talent for fantastic coaching, I would never have been able to get this far! And finally- thank you to my healing friends and my cheering/positive/supportive friends—you know who you are and I am eternally grateful to have you in my circle. J Thank you, Universe!

 


Jun 11 at 1:07pm | 0 comments

 Matt Art!

For anyone looking to race a fair but tough half, this is a great race. The group at Rev 3 puts on world-class event that is seamless. The venue looks great, there have tons of staff and friendly volunteers, aid-stations are in the right place, it all just works, and it is in our back yard.

What a day to race, temps in the high 60s to low 70s, partly cloudy and not a touch of humidity.

I felt better prepared this year, thanks in large part to tristarathletes.com, specifically Cliff Scherb, putting some real focus and volume in my training for the first time since getting involved with triathlon a few years back. After a few months of training hard I was just itching to race...

For a number of reasons the swim felt really slow. Firstly, I went out a little to hard for a little too long trying to find a pack close to the front. I didn't get there and had a hard time recovering to a strong steady pace within the first 750 yards. I had to regroup and re-pace my effort. I went back to work trying to find some feet, but by that time the feet i was finding were the stragglers from the previous 6 waves, and it became a exercise in obstacle avoidance rather than drafting. I came out of the water in 33 and change, motivated to make up for some lost time.

Because the 30-34's went off 35 minutes after the start, the bike course was nice and crowded on the climbs. I love picking people off on the climbs. I tried to stay aggressive but prudent on the front of the hills, and hammer over and down the backsides. At the top of a climb around mile 28 I had some serious trouble getting the chain back up on to the big chain ring, and after a half mile of panic it finally went. I quickly made the decision to keep it there for the rest of the ride, and hoped it wouldn’t haunt me on the run. Luckily the big climbs were behind me and a tailwind would see me back.

I didn't know it at the time, but I had the lead for 30-34 AG coming out of T2. I felt great on the bike and now it was time to get the lead out. I was too focused on quick turnover to hear my family cheering me on. High turnover was the mantra for the first 2.5 miles, just stay efficient, I got my legs back and started pushing it. Then comes the major test of the run, a mile long uphill on dirt. I leaned forward and tried to maintain pace. One of the 35-39 AG’s who had passed me early in the run was in my sights and I focused on reeling him in. Near the top of the hill those familiar twinges in the quads started, time for gel and salt. Around mile 5 I got passed by someone in my AG who was flying, I had to let him go then a couple more, still too fast and too early. Around mile 7 I found the right group to go with. Two guys, one in my AG one older, passed me on a downhill, I kicked it up and kept them close. We regrouped on a climb into mile 8 and were pushing each other. The other guy in my AG was leading the 3 of us, but slowing on the climbs, I knew I had him. Time to race! I just had to pick the right time to open it up. Coming back toward Quassy the crowd packed in the run course, and really fired me up, then turning for the final loop I saw my family "GO, DADDY!"…IGNITION. Then the mantra starts, "this is what you train for!” I bumped the pace and put some distance between us. Two miles of downhill and flats popped up on the watch at 6:22 and 6:36. At the turnaround with 2.5 to go I had put about 20-30 seconds on them. Time to focus again on turnover and stay efficient. Then I heard footsteps coming fast, another 30-34 AG who just blew by me, damn he was cooking. I tried chasing him to the last hellish hill at mile 12, no avail. Last mile up hill, shut up legs, mind over matter. The older guy that I broke from caught me and I yelled at him "I'm coming with you!" The last push, 600 yrds to go my legs were moving as fast as they could. Home free and crushed!

After 5 minutes of staring at my feet, I finally looked at my watch, 4:43 and change...7th AG and 19th OA (not including pros) although I did beat a pro. Time to recover and refocus on Griskus!!!