Embracing Discomfort

This post is a little bit about triathlon, and the closest to a Lake Mills Triathlon race report you will see from me, but really it's much more general.  Sometimes I run across something that explains a feeling better than I can, and that's where this is coming from.  I don't want to write just another race report.  When inspiration strikes, you have to roll with it.  This article for the Huff Post blog really resonated with me and touched on a few things I've been thinking about a lot lately. Here's my favorite passage from it:

"There is real value to the attitude that teaches us to analyze a situation fully before jumping in, to avoid assumptions, to be prudent. But we hold onto caution more tightly than we realize. If you're really going to commit to something, you're going to have to catch yourself at that moment when your instinct tells you to play it safe. Embrace the discomfort. Push through the caution. Even if you're fighting for breath and your quads are burning, and even if you're staring at the blank space of an empty screen. Keep going."

The article is mainly about the application of a lesson from rowing to the rest of life: the need to push your own boundaries, to step out of your comfortable little box and see where it gets you if you really want to grow and improve.  As a former rower, I believe I learned how to do that pretty well in the boat.  If you're not hunched over your oar wishing for death at the end of a 2k race, you left too much out there.  And your teammates deserved more.  At least, that's how I always saw it.

Rowing is hard.  Really, really hard.

Chasing that final 1%
Fast forward to my journey in triathlon.  I became a swimmer at age 8 and continued through high school, so I was a pretty decent swimmer for a triathlete right away upon picking it back up at 22 even though I was very rusty and much slower than I was at 14.  And starting cycling fresh off of rowing wasn't too difficult either, honestly.  My legs were pretty strong, and while I had ZERO technical skills, I could hold my own with my new teammates and my confidence grew quickly. With a few more years of training I have become stronger and more efficient, and found that I loved to bike, loved to time trial, loved to push myself every bit as hard as I did in rowing.  Winter time trials at SBR usually finished with Summer stumbling out the door to hunch over the wood chips.  I knew I could give it everything I had.

Running, however, was a different story.  I didn't run in high school, and while I'd always enjoying the run part of training for other sports, I did no run-specific training until I took up tri.  I came in with no knowledge of form.  I just ran.  And I was ok; I was fit.  But compared to my swim and bike, my run was way behind, race after race.  And slowly, steadily, it got to me.  I have always been competitive: with others, but even more so with myself.  I try to be the best I can at everything I do.  I got frustrated with my slow running progress.  I labeled myself a poor runner.  And because of that, when the going got tough in races, when I saw girls coming for me, passing me, part of me let myself accept that: it was inevitable, it was "supposed" to happen.  I was a swim-biker; I was bigger than they were; I just wasn't cut out to be a runner.  Excuses.  I lacked the same confidence and killer instinct that I'd had as a swimmer, a rower, and that I'd learned as a cyclist.  The pain came, and I backed off slightly, afraid to blow up.  Afraid of giving my all and finding that it wasn't even close to good enough.  I couldn't find the guts to dig until the finish line was in my sights.  And it took me a long time to realize I was doing this.  My triathlon runs have always seemed just a little bit short of what I felt like I could do, and upon reflection I noted that it was often not my legs that were holding me back in the middle of the race.  I was hot.  My stomach felt sick.  I was uncomfortable, and habitually I relegated myself to managing a certain level of discomfort.  But really, what would happen if I really just went for it?  What was I afraid of?

Starting the Lake Mills run.  Thanks to
Aaron Pratt for catching this.

On to Lake Mills.  It's the basically the Wisconsin tri scene's season-opener.  For a small sprint, the race always attracts a lot of top talent.  I'd spectated or volunteered the past 3 years, and finally wanted to try it out for myself and see how I stacked up.  It wouldn't be a priority race, just for fun.  With that in mind, I talked through my thoughts about my run with my coach and we decided to let the race be an experiment.  The plan was simple: bike like hell, then push the run with whatever I had left.

Race day did not disappoint.  I had a great time seeing so many friends on the course.  I started in the elite wave, which was coed, so that was fun.  Despite almost missing the start, rough water, and a stop to tread water and fix my goggles after they got kicked out of place, I left the water and T1 in good position.  I was biking without power for this race, so I just tried to keep the males ahead of me in sight and made sure the effort was high enough to keep me breathing hard throughout the whole leg.  A little bit to my surprise I rolled into T2 with the women's lead, but I could hear that 2nd (Cindi Bannink) was hot on my heels.  Since she typically outran me by a lot, this would be a good test of my strategy.  I felt pretty strong, and tried to focus on my form and stay internal instead of thinking about what was happening behind.  I made it to the turnaround still holding the lead, and knew I must be running well.  But the moment came, Cindi picked it up on the second half and came by me at about mile 2.  And I fought to keep her as close as possible, to do what I promised to myself and my coach.  I felt sick but kept charging.  And about a quarter mile from the line, I found out what would happen.  Right in front of all the spectators, my stomach contents worked their way up into my mouth, and I fought to keep it closed until I got over the line past the volunteers yelping for my timing chip, to the nearest trash can.  So I'm not going to post any of the flattering pictures from near the finish.  But aside from scaring people with my Exorcist impression, I felt great.  I felt proud.  I did exactly what I came to do.  I raced without regrets.

Carrying it over

Hanging out looking over the edge of
Half Dome with Cal Crew teammates

When it comes to non-athletic endeavors, pushing ourselves that extra bit to grow usually doesn't mean doing the same thing more intensely- it means moving in a different direction, blazing a new path.  It means letting ourselves be vulnerable in ways we aren't used to.  This is something I've realized I need to do a better job of in other areas of my life.  It's easy to fall into routines and get comfortable.  Momentum is a powerful thing.  I've always been good at adhering to expectations, working within a script, following a plan.  I cherish my sense of control.  I like to know what to expect.  But it's hard to make progress when you're imposing your own limitations.

Part of that rationale is why I tend to be a better communicator in writing than in person.  Having the time to craft something into exactly what you want you want it to say, having the power to edit it before sending it away, is comforting.  The internet age is kind to introverts.  But being able to confidently articulate information, wants, and needs to a variety of audiences, in real time, is invaluable. That's something I'm still working hard to improve, even though it can be scary.  I admire people who are great communicators.

As I move into the final year to year-and-a-half before finishing my doctorate, "things are getting real" in that arena.  I need to make jumps in both knowledge and ability.  They don't just give those degrees away.  The process is a bit intimidating, but I need to not be afraid to make mistakes or to ask for help when I need it.  No one is expected to know everything, even at this stage of the game.

So this is a pledge, a pep talk.  A promise to make an honest effort to take more initiative, take more chances, put myself out there even when it's terrifying.  To be more proactive in going after the things I want and better at directly communicating my needs and concerns.  To dream big and own my goals- because fully committing is the only way I'll be able to get there.  I will make mistakes.  I will fall on my face from time to time.  And that's okay.  I don't want any more opportunities to pass me by.  I've come a LONG way in the past 10 years, but I know I have so much more ahead of me.

What risks do you need to get better at taking?  Where can you push the envelope?  Is there something you can do to get out of your own way?

Cheers to you all and your dreams.  Go out and get them.



And for any of you who used to watch Boy Meets World like I did... go here and watch 4:15-5:25.  You may have to watch the rest of the episode for context...

Adventures in Boulder: UNAVCO visit

Yeah, I'm cool.

We interrupt your regularly scheduled race report to bring you some SCIENCE!

Though it may not always seem like it from this blog, triathlon is far from my day job.  Life as a grad student can certainly get hectic and stressful, and athletics have always been my release, my escape, my means of maintaining my sanity.  But many times there are fun opportunities as a student as well, and I recently took advantage of one of them: a trip out to Boulder, CO for a short course in Finite Element Modeling of Deformation at Volcanoes.

A science short course is an intensive class that is condensed into a short time frame, usually a few hours to a few days long.  In this case, the course took place over the Tuesday-Thursday of the week after Triple-T.  Our car arrived back in  Madison from Ohio very early Monday morning, and I flew out later in the morning.  So partly by accident and partly by design, I did absolutely zero swimming, biking, or running that Monday-Thursday.  Side note: don't expect to remember everything if you're packing while dead tired.  I think this turned out to be a very good thing, though.  The days in Colorado were full, with class from 9am to about 6pm and evening socializing and networking with the other participants.  It did make me a little bit jealous to see all the cyclists buzzing around the area during those few days, though.

Schematic of how InSAR works.  Blue: positions at
 time 1, pink: positions at time 2. Offset for ease of
viewing.  Range change is represented by rho.

The course took place at UNAVCO, which is a non-profit university-governed consortium that facilitates earth science education and research using geodesy: the study of the earth's shape, gravitational field, and rotation.  Some tools used in geodesy include GPS, gravimeters, tiltmeters, borehole strain measurements, and satellite radar measurements.  I was at the course because my dissertation is using data from technique called InSAR (Interferometric Synthetic Aperture Radar) to measure surface deformation at a volcano in Alaska, and I am learning to model this deformation using the finite element method.  For SAR, a satellite sends signals of a particular wavelength to the ground, and those signals bounce back to the satellite with an amplitude and phase that depend on the characteristics of the surface and the distance traveled by the signal.  Interferometric SAR involves using the difference in phase returned by a signal sent to a particular area on the ground at two different times to calculate the change in distance between the ground and the satellite, and therefore the uplift or subsidence of the ground, during that time period.  It's pretty amazing that this works when you consider all of the factors that go into making the measurements, and it's only possible because we know and can account for information such as satellite orbits so precisely.  InSAR is useful for volcano monitoring because volcanoes uplift when new magma moves into the system beneath them, so the amount of uplift of a volcano and the rate at which it occurs can be used to try to predict eruptions.

The course went really well- I feel like I learned a lot, and am much more competent with the modeling program I will be using!  Hurray.  I love the Boulder area, too... I could definitely see myself ending up out there one day.

With that, I'll leave you with some pictures snapped by the UNAVCO staff.

morning background lecture

loading our data sets

working through a demo model as a group

getting a tour of the UNAVCO warehouse- really fun stuff in there!

group shot in front of the office

American Triple-T Ohio

heading into transition rocking the Rev3 shorts

This race is one of my favorites, one that I look forward to heading back to year after year.  It's pretty much a racing junkie (guilty)'s dream: 4 triathlons over 3 days!  The event takes place in the Shawnee State Park near Portsmouth, Ohio.  I say "near" because there's really no town within miles, nothing close by except for the lodge and cabins up big a hill from the transition area at Turkey Creek Lake.  There isn't even reliable cell service from the lodge area.  Factor in a relatively small field of racers who are seeing each other on the courses all weekend, many of whom are returning racers, and most of whom are staying within the park, and you end up with a triathlon retreat weekend of sorts.  Everyone is required to wear the provided official Triple-T tri top.  We keep the same race numbers all weekend, so you end up chatting up the people who share your rack in transition, meeting people in the "ice bath" that is the creek post-race, etc.  The camaraderie makes the experience really fun.

So, how does this crazy thing work?  Athletes can enter "solo" or part as a two person "team".  The four races are a super sprint Friday night, an Olympic distance Saturday morning, another Olympic Saturday afternoon (but bike-swim-run) and a half distance on Sunday morning.  Your times from all four races are added together to get a total time for the weekend.  If you race as part of a team, you are allowed to draft off of your teammate on the bike leg of the third and fourth races, and the team's time includes the times of each member from the first two races, plus the time of the slower member from the third and fourth race (teammates are supposed to finish together on those two).  This was my third time at the race- it would've been the fourth, but I broke my hand in 2011 and had to back out.  The first two times I raced it as part of a coed team (thanks for pulling me around and being my run sherpas, Kory and Bill!).

Yeah.  Word on the street is that I punched a dragon.

Last year on the half distance's bike leg I remember being passed by a solo female and thinking she was a complete bada**... so of course this year I thought it would be a fun challenge to try it solo myself. This event always attracts some really fast folks, including a few pros, so I knew there would be great competition.  I always like seeing where I can stack up against the guys too.

The format of the race makes for a few unique challenges.  The main one is pacing.  Don't let yourself hear "Ohio" and be fooled, these courses are HILLY.  Go too hard on the first two races, and you'll find yourself walking up the trail on the half.  Fueling is another very important part of the weekend: you almost have to force yourself to keep eating on Saturday.  Recovery is key.  That's the part I messed up this year- academic deadlines meant much less sleep during the pre-race week and during the weekend than I really needed, and I definitely felt it catching up to me on the second two races.  Another challenge is managing all of your race gear. Nothing seems to really dry between races, so it is good to have spares of things if possible.  The tri top is necessarily the same for all 4 (kind of "ew," but unavoidable) but I packed 3 pairs of shorts: my new Pearl Izumi Rev3 ones for the super sprint and half, Endurance House ones for the morning Olympic, and Wisconsin tri ones for the afternoon Olympic.  I also recommend multiple pairs of socks, and bringing some newspaper to stuff shoes with, at least after the Saturday races.

Full race reports for each race would be completely overwhelming, so I'm going to attempt to cover just the highlights.  If you have any other questions about the courses or want any more details about my races, hit up the Comments section below!  I know these routes VERY well by now! :)

Friday p.m.: Prologue Super Sprint (250m swim/ 6k bike/ 1mi run)

Fast and furious, a good time to check out the competition and shake out the legs after a long drive. I went wetsuit-less since the lake was pretty warm this year compared to past years (mid-60s).  The bike is a short out and back, then a trip up the giant hill past the cabins and a screaming fast descent back to T2.  I have thankfully improved my descending since last year so my knuckles weren't quite as white at the bottom!  The run was flat, with a turnaround just before the spot where the trail we would be running on all weekend starts to climb. I kept myself to a quick clip without running too hard, and enjoyed seeing so many friends on the course.  The state of Wisconsin had a pretty good contingent out there this year for a race so far away!
Time: 25:53

Calm before the storm. They send us off TT -style by 3's

Saturday a.m.: Olympic (1500m swim/ 40k bike/ 6.55mi run)

The swim here begins 3 at a time, time-trial fashion, and in what is supposed to be number order (assigned by previous Triple T results and submitted best half distance times).  However, a lot of people seemed unmotivated to talk to each other to actually figure this out, so a lot more people started in front of me than should have.  I must have swam around 40 or 50 people. Argh!  The bike course for this one is really fun and includes the infamous Thompson Hill (which you can see in my power file as a sharp spike at ~22 min/7.7 mi in) as well as a couple of really fast descents with some tricky turns.  When you see an ambulance parked up the road waiting for someone to crash, you know the course means business!  My legs actually felt really great on the bike for this race and it turned out to be my favorite one of the weekend.  The run was our first time onto the pretty-but-brutal Lamp Black Trail, which is pretty much uphill for 2.5 miles, steep downhill for one, then a turnaround and back up and over.  My running legs showed up that morning too, so I had a ball and was really happy with the progress my run has made over the winter.  On the ride uphill back to the cabin after the race, however, I could tell my legs were starting to feel the effort...
Time: 2:33:24

Saturday p.m.: Olympic (40k bike/ 1500m swim/ 6.55mi run)

transition set-up is a little strange for a bike-swim-run

As is typical for this race, by the afternoon it had gotten sunny, humid, and hot!  It was the first race of the weekend that teams came into play, so again we were supposed to line up in number order, but this time teammates lined up at the faster member's number for a time trial bike start.  Unfortunately transition was set up poorly for this and people were even less organized than in the morning.  The slower numbers, who were racked closer to the mount line we would be starting from, swamped the transition area's center aisle and blocked most of the faster racers (lower numbers) from getting through.  Luckily for me overtaking people on the bike is much less violent than in the water, but I was plenty frustrated by having to weave around so many people in the first ten miles.  In retrospect, my adrenaline-fueled riding cost me a few matches that I should have saved for the long climb on the way back... I still need to learn to control my emotions a bit better when racing.  As I reached the hill summit on the way back, the sky suddenly opened up into an epic thunderstorm, one that made me yearn for the pleasant riding conditions of Knoxville.  This was an instantly soaking, struggling to keep my eyes open, gee-I-hope-that-car-can see-me kind of rain, just as I hit the first of 2 big descents.  Needless to say, I lost a lot of time on that one trying not to die.  The storm, though intense, turned out to be fairly small and isolated, so a few miles later we were back on dry roads.  Two or three miles from transition there was lightning directly overhead (enough to make me shriek a little and curse) so I started imagining possible scenarios for the rest of the race. Bike/run? Probably super muddy.  Stop after the bike?  Anyway, I was shocked to turn the final corner into the lake area and spot dozens of flailing shapes in the water.  Guess we were swimming after all...

Long story, but I did not have my beloved sleeveless BlueSeventy wetsuit for the weekend, and the idea of struggling into my full sleeve in T1 didn't seem worth any time savings in the relatively warm water.  So I took off the tri top and charged through transition in just the tri shorts and sports bra.  In case you were wondering, swimming after a hard bike ride and two other races is really, really not fun.  I'm not sure how much the wetsuit would have helped, but I felt a lot like this:

save me.

and was thrilled to get out of the water.  By the time I got out, though, I was apparently low on fluids/electrolytes/calories because I rode the struggle bus all the way to the run turnaround trying to revive myself with sports drink. I came around quite a bit on the second half, but it was a little too late to salvage a good result.  I took advantage of the on-site massage afterward (glorious!) to begin the recovery for the big one on Sunday.
Time: 2:45:00

Sunday a.m.: Half (1.2 mi swim/ 56 mi bike/ 13.1 mi run)

Racers foggily trying to scramble out of transition in
time for the start.

I made sure to start a lot farther towards the front of the line for this race and was rewarded with a pretty clean swim.  My shoulders and back were tired, but I still felt like I turned in a pretty strong split.  Once on the bike I found that I'd beaten a lot of the top guys out of the water, because a bunch of them came by me in a pack as we started the long climb on that course (sigh).  Madison rockstar Cindi Bannink also passed me up that climb and I expected that to be the last I saw of her until the run, but to my surprise I caught her again about 5 miles later after a flat/descending section.  Pretty cool, until I botched a sharp gravelly turn and wound up doing a little off-roading on a rocky section.  Luckily I managed to save it/ sta upright.  I checked my tires after maneuvering back onto the road- no flats, but the incident killed my cornering confidence a little bit, and Cindi was long gone.  I came through the aid station at the end of the lap pleasantly surprised to see myself on par with the pace Bill had pulled me around in the year before.  But the bike course of the Triple-T half is no time for heroics, so I backed off a little bit on the second and final lap and brought it in with my bike power just above what I'd ridden at Oceanside (and a little over 25 minutes slower than my split there, which should tell you a lot about this race course).  Aside from a dropped chain on one of the climbs (gah), the second lap was without incident, just a bit lonely.  Knowing the course helps a lot at a race like this.

Finally it was time to run, and the day had heated up considerably.  I began to suffer pretty quickly and found myself grasping at anything I could find to cool me down. I was wearing the Fuel Belt I won last year at Rev3 Wisconsin Dells to carry some extra fluids and salt, so in addition to fetching ice and other fluids at aid stations I used the belt's bottles to pour water over my head and take in salt while walking the steepest uphill sections.  The leading males actually lapped me while I was walking up the long hill after the first lap's turnaround, which was kind of embarrassing even though they told me "nice job" as they glided by. The ice and fluids eventually helped to start perking me up, but I was still out of it enough at the aid station halfway to beg a nice volunteer for the rest of their Coke (it worked!) and accidentally leave one of the bottles I had intended to fill sitting on the table.  A small rain storm on the second lap helped me to cool down and feel more like myself, and I'm pretty sure my second lap was much faster than the first.
Time: 5:51:53

Part of the Madison crew at the post-race pizza party/awards

Overall I think I performed pretty well considering the fatigue I was carrying into and through the race weekend, and either way I had a great time again out there.  I came out as the 4th solo "senior" female (ages 24-39-- way to make me feel old) which was just shy of getting an award.  But I'm sure I will be back, and I've got plenty of good years ahead of me.  Special congrats to Cindi and Dan for taking home division awards, as well as Justin and others for finishing their first Triple T!

Rev3 Knoxville

Whew.  For someone with a pretty constant internal monologue, I have not done a great job of staying on top of blogging.  I've had a lot going on lately between academics, travel, and racing.  There are a lot of different things I've been thinking about, but it's difficult enough just to stay on top of race reports for now so I'll get to those eventually!  For now, here's a recap of how things went in Knoxville earlier this month.

This was was my first Rev3 race since being selected to be a part of their age group team, Team Rev3, as well as the first Rev3 race of the year, so to say I was excited was an understatement.  I'd met many of the team members at our summit in Colorado in January, but not everyone had been able to make it.  Plus, most of us are pretty spread out across the country (I am the only one in Wisconsin!).  The opportunities to hang out are few and far between, and I felt compelled to seize this one.  Knoxville will also be the site of Rev3's first Age Group Series championship next May, so I wanted to scope it out!

I left Wisconsin early Friday morning with my coach Bill and my friend Ben, with the aim of making it to Knoxville in time for the Team Rev3 dinner and the Rev3 Glow Run.  Between the rain, traffic, and some construction mess, we didn't quite make it.  Too bad- it looked epic!  There was even a movie and popcorn afterward.  Rev3 donated all proceeds from the event to a former UT swimmer, Nicole Gross, who was badly injured in the Boston Marathon bombing.

Finish line of the Glow Run.  You tri aficionados might recognize the curly-haired guy in the left corner :).  Photo by Eric Wynn for Rev3.

Saturday: Pre-race
By the next morning it was pretty clear that there would be no break from the rain over the weekend, but we carried on the best we could.  After a stop by the expo to check in and pick up my new Pearl Izumi team kit, we drove the bike course.  Note: there are several stretches you can't access until race day because the bikes head against the normal direction of car traffic.  The course was beautiful: green and rolling.  It looked like a ton of fun (...on a dry day- but we'll get to that).  The three of us heard that the water temp was 59*, so we opted out of the practice swim.  I will note here that we are all quite experienced swimmers and race in open water a lot.  I would strongly recommend to any newer swimmers, swimmers who are getting used to their wetsuits, or people who struggle in cold conditions to seize every opportunity to practice in open water race conditions before race day!

I got to carry around this bad boy over the weekend.
Sweet.

Next we set off for a quick pre-ride of the run course.  It was here that Ben's bad luck for the weekend started, with an unfortunate encounter with a set of railroad tracks. You can read about the ongoing saga over at his blog.  He was sore but ok, and the bike seemed fine except for the loss of a few gears. The run course was pretty flat for the most part, with a few gradual grades.  Much of it was on a nice shady greenway, sheltered from the bustle of the downtown area.  Bike check-in afterward went smoothly.  Everyone was quite relieved this year that transition was on the bottom floor of a parking structure- no soggy bikes and triathletes the next morning!

Race day

Personalized transition spots :)

The HalfRev racers started first and we were all doing the OlympicRev, so we didn't have to roll into transition too early.  A lot of people were freaking out a bit about the combo of high fifties air temperature, high fifties water temperature, and rain.  As someone who has always run warm and tends to really suffer in heat and humidity, I was quite possibly one of the only people there who was actually kind of thrilled out the temperatures.  I was not so thrilled about the rain, but race day is often about who can roll with the punches the best, so you just have to learn to make the best out of whatever happens.

Swim: 19:57
The swim was a point-to-point river swim with a short section up-river, two right turns, and a long stretch down-river with the current.  I was in one of the last waves to start.  There was only a minute or two between when the wave was allowed in the water and our start, so I didn't get much warm up other than a few strokes and my dry land stretching beforehand.  I started on the front to the outside while the other fast girls ended up starting on the inside, so I ended up pretty much on my own the entire swim.  My stroke felt ok, but I could have used someone to push me. I also probably ended up a little too far towards the middle of the river on the back stretch, but the current might have evened things out. Before I knew it I was climbing out at the dock of the Tennessee women's rowing team. The run to transition was nearly half a mile, so I took my wetsuit off immediately.

T1: 3:51
We got to run through the boathouse briefly to hit the timing mats, a cool experience for a former rower.  There was also an optional shoe pick up there, but I hadn't left anything so I just tore after the string of guys up the hill to transition.  The pavement was a little rougher than expected, so shoes actually might be a smart choice next time.  My body felt pretty warm, but apparently my hands and feet were not.  I fumbled a lot with my helmet and shoes, the first time I've ever had trouble with that helmet strap.  This seems like it was a pretty common problem among racers, though.

on my way out

Bike: 1:15:39
Oh, the bike.  The rain was relentless.  I'd brought sunglasses to protect my eyes from the raindrops and road spray, but they started fogging even before I made it out of the parking garage (forgot to use my Foggies pre-race...).  I cleared them a few times in the first mile before giving up and stashing them in my FuelBox for the remainder of the ride.  I must have left my brain back in Madison, because I spent two miles confusedly punching at my Joule computer trying to get it to pair to my wheel before I remembered that I was riding my disc for this race... which was not PowerTapped.  D' oh. This was probably for the best, because with the very wet roads I ended up needing all of my concentration to look for obstacles, instead of peeking at my power numbers.  We had noticed the day before that the holes and other road hazards were marked with spray paint, but with the accumulation of rain overnight many of these markings were hidden.  So I ended up changing my bike strategy and riding up the hills extra hard since I had to brake WAYYY more than usual on the turns, downhills, and other fast sections to keep an eye on the road.  I really enjoyed the course route and look forward to being able to ride it under different conditions in the future.  For this race, my primary concern was making it back to T2 upright!  I ended up having a lot more fluid on my bike than I needed in the colder conditions, something to plan for better next time.  I was pretty comfortable temperature-wise in just my tri kit and calf sleeves- only my toes were a bit chilly...

T2: 1:33
Pretty simple, in and out.  Cold feet and colder-than-I-realized hands made for some clumsiness, but overall I didn't lose too much time.  I heard some cheers for me but didn't get a chance to see who it was, so if that was you- thank you!!! It helped :)

Run: 43:59

Rev3 races give you a FREE finisher photo!
How cool is that?! 

Frozen feet make for an interesting running experience.  For the first half mile I felt like I was running on concrete blocks, then they felt like marshmallows.  Finally about 1.5 miles in they stopped tingling. Once that happened, the run was pretty fun.  Since most of it was out-and-back, I got to see many of my Rev3 team members as well as some Wisconsin and other friends.  There were also giant, foot-burying puddles to splash through... there was no avoiding them!  It was too difficult to figure out where I was in the women's AG race with the back of the women's pro field kind of blending into the front of the age-groupers, so I just tried to keep my cadence and intensity high.  The cool rain felt really great at this point and it was nice not to be overheating for a change!  The last mile was a long gradual climb and I'd missed the mile marker at mile 5, so the race started to seem really long at that point.  I also discovered that I needed more electrolytes/calories during the run after all, because I was losing steam quickly and there were no more aid stations.  One girl flew by me in the last half mile, which was frustrating, but overall it was a pretty decent run for me.

Total: 2:24:59, 1st 25-29, 6th amateur female

Despite the challenging conditions, I had a great time over the weekend and also have a good start towards qualifying for the Age Group Series championships next year.  The cold conditions suited me much better than they did a lot of people, though- each person responds to heat and cold very differently.  A lot of people made the decision not to start or not to finish this race, and I respect that.  It is SO important to pay attention to your own body and how you react to things, and make the decisions you need to in order to keep yourself safe.  If you were one of those who ended up with a DNS or DNF next to your name- don't let yourself feel bad about it.  Better to be around to fight another day!  The season is just getting started.

Half a second later, my butt was on the ground,
baseball slide-style.  Luckily no one got a picture
of that part.  To my knowledge...

In other news, Ben had more bad luck with a flat during the race, but gained a few minutes of fame in the tri community thanks in part to a tweet by the lovely and talented pro Mirinda Carfrae

<- Can a blog have a bloopers section?  If so, I leave you with a photo addition.

Next up in blogs: Triple-T and a quick trip to CO.

Also, I'm racing again this weekend at Lake Mills, a.k.a. "Wisconsin Worlds"... glutton for punishment over here.

Collegiate Nationals Wrap-up

The USA Triathlon Collegiate National Championships, or Collegiate Nats, is an event that I look forward to every year.  As someone who both 1) didn't find the sport of triathlon until grad school and 2) used up their NCAA eligibility in undergrad (rowing), I have been very lucky and grateful that triathlon is a club sport that allows grad students up to age 28 to participate.  My primary training partners and some of my favorite people in Wisconsin are from the Wisconsin Tri Team.  Team members brought me into the sport and showed me the ropes, and it's a pleasure for me to now be able to do the same for other members of the team.  Any chance to race with them is always a good time, so of course there's no way I would have missed Nats in Tempe, AZ this year.  In addition to the chance to race/bond with my team all weekend, it's also a chance for me to meet up with other friends I've made from around the country through my involvement with the USAT Collegiate Committee and other aspects of the sport.  It's also just a great race to be a spectator at.  Schools are known to dress up in crazy outfits, and the spirit everywhere is unique and really special.

The Badger "scooter gang" at Collegiate Nats in Tuscaloosa, 2012

Collegiate Nats has continued to grow and change every year along with collegiate triathlon in general.  The field of college age triathletes keeps getting larger and deeper in talent.  USAT has identified the college years as a missing piece of the Olympic triathlete development pipeline in the U.S., as many talented young triathletes have typically chosen to swim or run in NCAA programs in college and put triathlon on hold.  Another complication for developing successful Olympic athletes is that most triathlons in the U.S. are a non-drafting format, while the Olympics are a draft-legal, "ITU style" looped format with a different set of rules and required skill set. Women's triathlon is currently looking promising as an NCAA emerging sport, but the implementation of that would still be a few years away.  In the early years of collegiate triathlon competition there was just one national championship race every year, a non-drafting Olympic distance race.  To help bridge the gaps between junior elite triathlon competition (which is ITU style), U-25 (formerly U-23) and pro/elite ITU racing, USAT has increasing been working to incorporate draft-legal racing into collegiate tri.  Last year at Collegiate Nats the first ever draft-legal collegiate race was held- a mixed team relay, to help draw a large number of participants and create interest and excitement among the collegiate athletes.  The race was a success, so USAT kept it plus added another race this year- an individual draft-legal sprint race.  It was decided that the mixed relay would be kept just for fun/bragging rights, but the individual draft-legal race would be scored.  Individuals could then be scored for a combined draft-legal + non-drafting championship, and team scores would be made up of the top 4 non-drafting scores + the top draft-legal score per team per gender.  Game changer!

Suddenly the weekend got a lot more complicated for teams.  The nature of draft-legal (DL) races requires them to have much smaller fields than the non-drafting race, so only a few people per team, at most, would be racing those.  The draft-legal athletes were also required to be on road bikes instead of tri bikes, and some other types of aero gear (helmets and wheels) were allowed for the Olympic race but not for the DL ones.  Between picking which athletes would go in which races, getting all the gear for ~20 people across the country, and then shuffling athletes between races and hotel and meetings and airports all weekend, the team definitely had a logistical challenge, and as one of the lucky few athletes who had chosen/was chosen to do all 3 races, I was flying around all weekend.  As a result I missed catching up with a few people I'd wanted to meet up with, but the weekend was still a blast!

Weekend bonus: getting to hang out with my sister Aeryn, who lives near Tempe.  She even had a sweet little care package waiting for me upon arrival late Wednesday night!

On to the race reports!

Friday a.m.: Individual draft-legal sprint

This was quite a new experience for me, and was honestly the part of the weekend I was most terrified about.  I did the DL mixed relay at last year's Collegiate Nats and have completed a handful of collegiate cycling road races and criteriums, but something about draft-legal tri was very intimidating.  I think my concern was that it is SO tactical that I knew I'd have to do a great job adjust my plan on the fly to put Wisconsin in the best finish position.  My teammate Ellie would be in the same race.  Since only one person per team counted towards the team score, we tried to plan out what each of us would do in a dozen different scenarios to ensure that our first person finished well while our second wouldn't end up too tuckered out for the Olympic distance the next day.  Ellie and I were pretty close in ability on the swim and run, with her having the edge on the swim and myself on the run, so things would depend a lot on where we each ended up on the bike.  The distances for the race were half an Olympic, so 750m swim/20k bike/5k run.

It was fun to show up and see all of our names on our individual spots in the transition area- it felt very "pro."  I'm sorry I forgot to get a picture of mine! After watching our teammate Robbie race in the men's race (he did great!) it was time for us to line up.  Unlike the men's race, we weren't allowed to wear wetsuits-- the water had warmed up half a degree to be just over the cut-off.  We entered the water by number, which had basically been assigned randomly, and chose starting spots along a wall for a push start. The swim course was a strange kind of loop and a half, and it was crowded the whole time.  I got flustered and ended up swimming sloppily, but near the end I spotted a flash of white a few meters ahead and suspected it was Ellie.  I tried to stay with her and ended up chasing her up the metal stairs 4 seconds behind, with the 13th best swim at 12:04.  Transition was fast and furious. I didn't do a flying mount since I hadn't been practicing it, so I hit the bike with my shoes already on and started to hammer to catch the girls in front of me.

working with a few companions on the bike

The bike course consisted of 4 5k laps, with a small hill at the far end of each and a 180 at the end closer to transition.  Less than half a mile in I came by Ellie, who was having some trouble getting her feet in her bike shoes.  I yelled encouragement as I passed, but knew it was in our best interest for me to keep chasing the couple girls I saw just up the road.  As a much stronger swim/biker than I am a runner, and also knowing that a hard bike would hurt my legs less for the rest of the weekend than a hard run, I tried to use the bike to advance as far as I could.  I flew by a few weaker cyclists, and after 2 laps found myself part of a strong group of 5 for a while.  Still a bit gassed from my long chase, I missed the boat when two of them made a move off the front.  In fact, in an in-race first for me, I found myself throwing up off the side of my bike (luckily missing it and my leg) on lap 3.  Oops.  Still not quite sure what that was about, but I felt a little better afterwards.  I stuck with the remaining 2 girls for the remainder of the ride, contributing to the pace-setting when I could (which honestly was not often by that point).  I was trying to save a little bit of energy for the run, and both other girls seemed a little fresher than I was.  I was off the bike in 33:44 (6th best) after a tricky flying dismount around a U turn into transition.  Eesh!
 
The day had grown quite hot by this point, in the high eighties and the sun was shining brightly.  Coming out of transition the Air Force Academy girl (Sam Morrison) took off like she was running a 100m dash, so I was content to just let her go.  Meanwhile, the UCLA girl and I swapped places a couple times over the 2 lap, virtually out-and-back run.  I felt pretty strong considering the heat and the hard bike, and there was a big gap to the next girls behind us.  I made sure to yell to Ellie as I passed so she would know she could bring it in easy.  The course must have been slightly long, because no one ended up breaking 20 and there were definitely a number of very fast girls in that field.  Thankful for the gap behind me, I brought it home in a pretty comfortable tempo pace for the 9th fastest run at 23:06 as well as a 9th place finish at 1:10:08.  After that, the focus changed quickly changed to recovery, and I made sure to spend some quality time in the NormaTec recovery boot tent :) Still on tap for the the rest of the day was a mixed relay briefing, Collegiate Committee meeting, and pasta party with the team at Tempe Marketplace, so I had to spend a bit more time on my feet but tried to stay as loose as possible.

Ellie and I post sprint: Wisco girls showing a little Rev3 love

Saturday a.m.: Olympic distance

The girls were slated to go second again- the men started at 7:30, while the first wave of women was at 10:50.  I enjoyed cheering for my teammates and some other Midwest conference friends at various points on the course: T1 exit, swim exit, bike, run finish.  The day was quickly heating up as the men were finishing, and after our top 4 were in it was time for me to "warm" up. Ha.  Managing heat was, as usual, a major concern for our team at this race.  I opted to wear my white arm coolers, which had helped a lot in some of my more successful hot races in recent years like Vegas in 2011.

I started on the inside of the swim course, a long rectangle, and stayed there throughout.  In fact, I think I was a bit too far to the inside at many points, because the bulk of the field seemed pretty far away.  Needless to say, I didn't find anyone to draft.  My lats felt tired (from the poor swim the day before?) and I never found a groove, so I just tried to keep turning over.  I couldn't wait to get out of the water and onto my bike. After watching countless men slip on the metal swim exit steps earlier in the morning, I was happy to make it out without incident. Time: 23:26.

The transition area was really large and the ends of the bike racks were not numbered, but lucklily I'd taken careful note of the landmarks near mine.  The 40k course was 2 laps with 2 180 degree turns on each.  My bike legs felt pretty good right away, but I kept an eye on my power to avoid going out too hard.  Even riding fairly conservatively I passed quite a few girls in the first 15 minutes of the ride, which was fun. The first 180 was a couple lanes wide and was no problem, especially on the first lap.  The second one bordered on ridiculous: the width of just a car lane + bike lane, bounded on each side by a curb (no room for error!).  We hadn't previewed this part of the course, and I panicked slightly when I saw it on the first lap, unclipping one foot to ensure I could complete it safely.  On the second lap, I started to pass through slower girls on their first lap who started in late waves, so some of the turns got a bit congested.  Luckily I hit the second 180 on my own the second time, and gritted my teeth and made it through with a hard lean, without unclipping.  Whew.  About 45 min into the ride I ran out of water... darn desert.  My legs wanted to push a bit harder, but I decided to play it safe considering the very hot run coming up, and eased off a bit. Time: 1:00:54, 17th best (the course turned out to only be 22.4 miles-of course they shortened my favorite part :/ ).

enjoying the cheers at the end of lap 1

The run course was a single big 10k loop that went across the river for a long stretch.  Through the course of the bike I had moved up into the top 25 and came out of T2 right behind Tess Amer, a Colorado athlete who I knew was very good.  Awesome!  My legs actually felt pretty solid and I focused on my cadence.  We went along at a quick but manageable pace.  My heart rate started to feel like it was climbing, though, as my body heated up.  The first aid station was a mile in, and I yelled ahead for the things I wanted, but the ice arrived a little too late.  I plowed through without it, not wanting to let Tess get away.  Half a mile later, however, I felt my temp spiking and slowed a little to keep things under control.  It was 90* and the run had zero shade.  From then on, my run was damage control.  I'd lost my little baggie of salt tablets somewhere in T2, so I had to wing it.  At every aid station I drank Gatorade for the electrolytes; poured water on my head, jersey, and arm coolers; and grabbed as much ice as I could.  I had to walk a little to pick up everything.  Ice went down the sports bra, under the hat (I'd worn a full cap specifically to carry ice), even some down the shorts.  I held ice in my hands, in my mouth, anything I could think of to try to cool off.  It helped a little bit, and I was able to increase my pace after each aid station, only to begin crashing again a few minutes later.  Girls were starting to stream by me and I was just doing my best to keep it together, both physically and mentally.  Many parts of the run, particularly the part across the river, were quiet and a bit lonely- just us girls and our demons.  On a short out a back section near mile 4 I spotted my friend Alison from Iowa, a speedy runner, a minute or two down from me and made it a goal to try to hold her off.  Finally near mile 5 we hit the last stretch and ran into a few spectators to lift our spirits.  I spotted Kevin, the collegiate committee chair, and made a quick joke as I ran by.  Alison passed me close to the 6 mile mark and I did my best to summon an extra gear into the finish line.  Time: 48:39.  Certainly slow for me, but not as bad a blow-up as the year the girls started second in Tuscaloosa.  Thank goodness for that...

Final result: 2:15:34, 37th out of 406.  In hindsight, I think I should've found a way to carry a third water bottle on the bike, and/or slowed down at the first aid station for ice and more fluids.  Aside from that, I think I managed the heat as best as I knew how.  It's so hard every year to have a national championship in a hot place in April while there is often still snow on the ground in Wisconsin- no time to acclimate.  But we are not the only school in this position, and just have to do the best we can.

I have a history of heat issues at this point, ending up in the med tent both years in Tuscaloosa, in 2011 at Vegas, and last year at Door County.  If I don't end up in medical, does it mean I could/should have gone harder?  I don't know.  Is that an unhealthy criterion to judge by?  Maybe.

Saturday p.m.: Mixed Team Relay

By the time I finished my lengthy stay in the ice bath, got food, and watched a few more teammates finish, it was already time to get ready for the afternoon relay.  This meant scrubbing off race number tattoos and applying new ones, switching my pedals back to the road bike, putting number stickers on my road helmet and a new swim cap, fetching timing straps for myself and my teammates, etc.  Crazy.  I checked to make sure my brakes weren't rubbing, since the bike had been handled several times by a couple different people since the race the day before.  Everything seemed fine.  The race consisted of teams of 4 from each school.  Each person completed a 250m swim, 5k bike, and 1.2k run before tagging the next person on their team.  The order was female/male/female/male, and I would be leading our team off.

Swim: this was the most physical swim I have ever been in.  I was crawling over people and bring clawed at from the minute the horn sounded.  It was a struggle just to breathe in all the splashing.  My being-coordinated streak came to a crashing halt as I slipped not once, but twice climbing out of the water on the metal stairs. Yowtch. I dashed out, grabbed my bike, hopped on and felt a little bit of a shimmy. "Tire pressure must be a little low," I thought as I gently took the left turn onto the road.

Low was an understatement.  As soon as I started to turn I felt the rear wheel slide out from beneath me.  Instinctively I tried to correct it by jamming myself the other way, but the tire wouldn't let me stick it.  Instead, I wobbled briefly before coming down on the pavement on my other side.  GET UP.  Luckily I got out of the way without any of the girls hitting me.  I felt the rear tire: completely flat.  Well, that explained the crash.  Other than that, the bike looked ok.  Some of my teammates ran over as I looked around helplessly.  Was there neutral support?  Can I keep going?  Soon I was handed a wheel.  Everything was a blur.  I must have lost a minute or two; everyone else was long gone.  But I finally hopped back on the bike to some cheers and tore off in an adrenaline-fueled frenzy to the now-familiar 5k loop.  Surprisingly I caught and blew by one girl, but the rest of the field wasn't even in sight.  I felt kind of stupid all by myself but treated it like a crazy TT in my drops.  As I passed by transition at the end of the loop I heard teammates screaming that we were still in- go, go, go!  Coming off the bike I could see a few girls ahead in the distance and set off in hot pursuit.  In a run this short, there was nothing to save- it was full gas the whole way. To my surprise and delight I managed to squeeze by a couple more girls before tagging my teammate Alex.  Hey, at least we weren't last!  I always enjoy having something to chase.  Alex, Mali, and David all did great and brought us past a few more teams by the end. 

I ended up 6th in the individual combined standings (draft-legal + Olympic) and the team ended up  16th overall, with 13th place for the women and 21st for the men.  Not too bad for a Midwest team, but I know we can do even better.  I was recently elected president of the team for next year, and I have some big goals for us :)

Some of the team accepting our award for UW Rec Sports Club of the Year!  A week post Nationals.

The awards ceremony that evening was a good time as always, and our team found a few others to celebrate with (shout out to UW-Eau Claire).  I held my last meeting as Midwest Collegiate Commissioner, a position I will miss despite all the work.  It has allowed me to meet so many amazing people over the past 2 years.  In my final year as a collegiate athlete (I better finish my doctorate next summer!!!) I'm excited to have such a great team and great friends, and to really savor the experience.

On Wisconsin!