Race 1, and Hungry for More

The best way to describe last weekends race is deceiving! It was a tough course, but loads of fun indeed! The Navy Seals were on hand to get things started: 

The swim was gnarly to say the least. 2 loops meant battling the tough surf not once, but twice!


The entire women's field started together. I made it out through the surf just behind Hillary Biscay, with no other pink caps in sight (which isn't saying much because it was hard to see far with the big surf). I felt strong in the water, and knew I was somewhere in the front when I entered for lap 2. This was the toughest swim I've ever done in a triathlon (evident by the slow swim times!). Several friends were there to cheer for me as I exited the water. I was in second, which meant there were some very fast pro women behind me and soon I would be the hunted!

             TYR's Hurricane suits are the bomb....First and Second out of the water! Solid!!

The bike was flat but nice and windy- not my favorite. With each loop of the course (4 total) the wind picked up. The bike was not the strongest component of my race. I felt flat for the first half and struggled to keep my heart rate up. Good news, when Kate Pallady and Haley Cooper came flying by I tried hard to keep them in sight and felt stronger and stronger w/ each mile.Had I been racing age group I think I would have let them go without a fight...but I was racing elite and figured I should at least try to play at their game.

The run was grueling. 11 miles worth of packed and soft sand (beach and random sandy trails). I was surprised with my pace after mile one. Solid, could I hold on? Then, during mile 2 I stepped in a small hole in the sand and my hamstring seized. I couldn't walk. I stretched for about 90seconds (thank u Garmin for keeping track of the time I spent standing still). I wondered if my race was over, swallowed 2 salt tabs (with salt water from the ocean) and thankfully was able to start running again. Flat bike courses can be fast, but it means you're using the same muscles throughout and was probably the reason for the random muscle seizing. From there things only improved with each mile. As we ran off the beach at mile 2.5 I was ready for some fast pavement. Joke's on me- more soft soft sand and a head wind awaited. I tried to work on my form, stay light on my feet, and build my pace throughout. After the first of 2 loops I was in 7th, but closing the gap between me and the girls ahead of me.
Two goals of mine going into this season are to take in more calories on the run and try to negative split the run. It's only race #1 and I accomplished both (something I didn't do well at all of last year!) With 5k to go I threw it into another gear, emptied the tank, passed a few girls and almost caught another before the finish. I ran out of real estate, but dug deep and finished with my fastest miles of the day.
I definitely left it all out there, and finished at 4:48:16. I was 6th overall, and the first non-pro to cross the line. It was really really fun to race amongst the fast pro women, and I couldn't be happier with how things went. I'd love the 1:30 that I spent attending to the hammy cramp back, but I'm now confident that the months I've spent working on my running form will pay off!

The first triathlon of the year is in the bank.... a worthwhile deposit, leaving me hungry for more!

Welcome back my love!

A few weeks ago the request came in from my friend Shannon: "want to climb Palomar?" I may not be in shape, but this climb will kick my butt into shape like few other rides can. Plus, how can I say not to a request coming from 6 people willing to drive all the way from Pasadena to ride Palomar (5 of which were Palomar virgins!). I immediately stored the ride in trainingpeaks. After 2 weeks of riding I was ready to visit the mountain we love to hate!

The gang arrived from the northern hemisphere and were ready to roll. I let my worries be known. No, I wasn't worried about the 5,550ft climb in 12 miles! I was worried that the sun was no where to be found. I HATE (seriously HATE) descending that hill when it's cold. I threw on 3 layers and packed another long-sleeve in the pockets for the descent. We rolled out and I was scared of possible hypothermia to come :(

Shannon and I layered up and ready to roll!

The Pasadena crowd looks very happy. Do they know what's to come?!?!?!

Soon we happily welcomed the Lake Wulford climb. Climbing = warmth. The weather in San Diego has been summeresq lately. It was cool today! But then again, we're riding in January...not too shabby for this Michigan native!
As we made our way to the lake atop the climb my quads began to burn. Oh boy! A sign of good things to come.

At the bottom of Palomar we stopped to make sure the bottles were topped off, the excess clothing tops were off, and provided a quick description of the climb for the guests. It went something like this:
"Ok, we'll start up, after 5 miles there will be a V in the road stay left. From there you'll enjoy 7 miles of switch backs. Ready.....set.....GO!"

The watch timer started and we were off. It only took 90 seconds before Shannon and her fellow climbing mules were off. That girl inspires me! She can climb like few other chics can! And she'll be in St. George for her first Ironman in May...I can not wait to watch that action!!!

5 miles in and I was in 'no mans land.' 4 goats ahead of me, and two behind. The iPod was put into play and the fun began. My goal was to build my intensity, heart rate and power throughout the climb. "Where are those 4? Seriously, what studs!" At the 5 mile mark I got out of the saddle and bumped up the intensity. 7 more miles!

Rage against the Machine provided a little inspiration with "Know your Enemy." I caught an unknown rabbit. He was feisty and put up a good fight. Thanks for letting me play dude!

Another thanks to Bon Jovi for letting me know "We Weren't Born To Follow."
3,000ft down.
"Ya, Ya, We weren't born to follow. Come on and get off of your knees. Life is a bitter pill to swallow. We've gotta hold on to what we believe."
Ya baby...climb climb climb. Legs burning, burning, burning.

Rocking out to Kings of Leon I made it back and forth a few more switch backs. Just then I saw one of my fellow goats. I think he thought I was a bit lonely, and figured he'd come pick me up. At every turn he looked out to the panoramic view with appreciation. It was awesome to see him enjoying one of my favorite backyard playgrounds. I vowed to never take this scenery and terrain for granted.

Ok, back to reality. I was dying, and he seemed to be spinning with ease. I tried hard to hold on, and together we passed one of our mules. I love those moments of encouragement amongst training partners: "good job. kill it. go go go." I let him know he was almost there. Seriously, the first time up this long climb is the worst. You just don't know when it will end!

"I Got a Feeling" (Blcak Eyed Peas)...Woooooo Hoooooo! This hurts SO GOOD! LOVIN' IT.
4000ft.
That leaves just over 1,500 to go. I took a glance at my watch and knew I had better get a MAJOR move on if I was going to record a descent time for this fun little time trial. Before we started I was sincerely scared my legs couldn't make this climb after only 2 weeks back on the bike. They proved me wrong, and were in the game to play and responded well to my request for more.

Wait a second- Do I see the last 2 rabbits! There's my favorite goat. " Shannon, I'm coming" (I thought-I couldn't speak at this point) We "flew" (as fast as one can possibly "fly" when grinding on their easiest gear 11.2 miles and 5000 ft in.

Just then my FAVORITE climbing song came on: "He's a Pirate" by DJ Tiesto. I have no idea how it ended up on my play list, but seriously download it. Your cadence will quicken, your power will rise, and your heart may pound out of your chest.

I don't know how I reeled in those crazy goats, but I just about caught them all. It wasn't a race, but you see, at mile 5 I was feeling a bit sorry for my self out there in no mans land. When I clicked the stop watch at the top that I wasn't as weak as I thought I'd be.

A quick coffee/hot chocolate to warm the core and it
was time to retrace our path home

It was far from warm atop the Mountain. Clothes on quick and lets get off this giant. If I haven't mentioned it before, I hate this part. But what goes up, must go down.
To have this kind of ride in my back yard is simply awesome! Thank you Palomar for allowing me to fall in love with you again. I enjoyed sharing this ride with so many out-of-towners! Come back soon guys!

As for me- Palomar my love, I'll be back soon!!!

The fog has lifted

I enjoyed my time away from triathlon. I took advantage of mornings without an alarm, time with family, going out with friends (since I could actually keep my eyes open past 9pm), and much R&R! I'd be lying if I said I wasn't itching to get back to training again. I was starting to feel bogged down, and am very ready to return to my eat healthy eating regime and cut some excess weight ASAP!

It's time to get back in the saddle, enjoy running through my favorite trails, and jump in the pool (at 6am instead of the glorious "club med" noon workout).
Yes, the fog has lifted!

Fog set in last night, but thankfully the sun was shining inland for my morning ride with Julie

Last week was my first full week back. I even opened my trainingpeaks.com account again. Oh, I missed that calendar view of 20+ hours of swim/bike/run. I got in a solid week of training last week, culminating with a 5 hour ride with great friends on Saturday (Time sure does fly when you get to hear about one friends honeymoon in New Zealand, and another's wedding in Mexico!).
This week marked the return of 6am workouts (I only relied on 2 of my 3 set alarms this morning to get up). I even feel tired and a bit achy today! Kind of sick, but I missed the feeling. The fog of the off season has lifted.... now I just need to figure out a race schedule! In the meantime, there's more training to enjoy tomorrow...

Make it a Great Day!

Staying strong

Before an ironman we all imagine a time when we can sleep in, enjoy a big cup of coffee, and maybe watch some morning tv instead of catapulting out of bed and onto the saddle for a long ride. But, then that time comes. And....we struggle to keep out mind and body away from the swim, bike, run. I begain training hard in January/February, raced my first half ironman in March, continued with a race every month, and culminated with the awesome 2x ironman. Of this, I remind myself every morning as I try to stay away from the pool, off the bike, and out of the Brooks runners.
I've attended yoga everyday this week to try to get the body moving and quiet my nagging mind.

Last Friday I did swim and bike. But the ONLY reason I did either was to join our beautiful Bride to Be, Beth for a little bachlorette surprise! It was a bachlorette excursion that only triathletes would find amazingly amusing! And we couldn't have picked a better Bride to play with. What a trouper!
It was a coastal scavenger hunt (well of course we rode our bikes to each location!)

Beth was required to properly request each new present and clue by asking:
"Do you have a gift for me, the most beautiful bride to be."
(sorry for the poor videography! I swear the champagne came later in the ride!)

I even enjoyed our quick climb up Torrey Pines to reach our final clue before turning back. Tired legs, yes indeed.

We ended with a toast. Congratulations to Beth and James! 28 days until their big day...

That short little swim/bike quickly reminded me that my body needed more downtime. I woke up the next morning with random foot and ankle pains and feeling quite under the weather. I quickly returned to the sleep, eat, don't train regimen.

Racing an ironman 4 days before Thanksgiving really is quite nice! I didn't think twice about that yummy dessert (or 2) I inhaled! Thanksgiving was so enjoyable, thanks to an awesome dinner and great company at Julie's

Thankfully the athletic crowd kept the food healthy (as we discussed how ridiculously gross it is that our country takes perfectly healthy foods of turkey, potatoes, yams, and cranberries and shoves it in the deep fryer or loads on the butter and whole milk. Ewwwwwww!) Healhy cooking or not, the food coma was intense. Thankfully the dogs were up to walk a few laps of the neighborhood.

Every morning as I place my feet on the ground, I'm reminded of this 2+ year paronial tendon injury. Immediately after IMAz I couldn't even stand without toppling over like a bobble doll. I was able to run shortly after Kona, but clearly the concrete and sincere effort I put in on that marathon in Az took its toll. I swore I'd get to the bottom of it after Ironman(s), and now that time has come. I really want to return to the pool, but instead am off to the yoga studio. Seriously, people really just do an hour of yoga every day and are perfectly fulfilled! I guess this week is all about trying to be "normal."

Namaste!

and THAT's a wrap!

I honestly wasn't so sure how the second Ironman would go. I've never done two ironman's in a year, let alone 2 in 6 weeks. I went to bed Saturday night feeling a bit uneasy. I woke up feeling the same. The hip pain I experienced after Kona was still present and my back and legs felt tight. I would be lying if I didn't admit thinking "what am I doing?" But quickly I responded any uncertainty with "I'm going to kill this race and make it count!" The day before the race I found a lucky penny face up on the sidewalk. I tucked it into my wetsuit, thinking I might need a little luck along the way.

I saw so many familiar faces before jumping into the freezing Tempe town lake. I wasn't alone in my quest to tackle some unfinished business from Kona. Jumping in the water right ahead of me was Lindsey Corbin, Sam McG, and my favorite Aussie Kate Major. I waited for the pro start, took a big gasp and entered the frigid waters feeling calm and confident. I was ready to give it my all, and hope for the best.

Swim: The gun went off and I felt like I was having a strong swim. I swam 99% of the race alone. This is something I NEED to work on. I hate swimming amongst the crowd, but sadly that shows in my swim times. I exited the water, saw 1:03, and knew I once again drastically failed to reach my potential in the ironman waters. I quickly got over it and concentrated on warming up out on the bike course.

Bike: It was a cold start, and when I hit Bee-Line Hwy we were greeted with a decent head wind. Negativity entered my mind. Thing is (unlike kona), when we made the turn around there was a nice tail wind to brighten my thoughts. My speed soared above 30mph and for the first time I stopped thinking about a DNF and started thinking about succeeding.
I set my expectations high, and hoped to ride sub-5:30...if all went really really well! Loop 1 (of 3) was completed in 1:40. Nice! But I needed to settle down. My mind was racing and I was still unsure how my legs would go at this distance so close to my previous IM. I refocused and reminded myself that this race was between me, myself, and I. I internalized things and just stayed calm for lap 2.
When I rounded the turn for lap 3 I realized "I'm doing this!" I was riding amongst mostly men, and wondered at this point where I was in the field. Thankfully I knew most of the officials on the course so got a quick update "Caroline, you're only 20mins behind Kate and well into the top ten age group women." No way, the pro's get a 10min head start, so if this was all true things were going quite well! From then on my mind remained strong and confident. My legs followed suit. I experience some stomach issues and back pains, but was able to respond and adapt to the unexpected without letting the race get away from me. I couldn't get all my bottles down (GU+CarboPro of course!) because I kept burping and almost throwing up. I supplemented liquid calories with a banana and GU gels. I wasn't worried about hydration but knew I couldn't start the run low on calories since I struggle to get anything down out once I leave the bike.
I rolled in at 5:26 with a giant smile on my face. I had no clue where I was in my age group. But I had an entire marathon to figure it out. This race was mine for the taking!

Run: I came out of T2 running strong. My HR remained low, my leg turn over was high, and my pace was strong! I held under 7:50 for the first 10k (pace wise. actually the splits were just over 8:00 because of all the 180degree turns on the course that make the run a bit slow). I was passed by a girl in my age group, Marie. She got a bit ahead of me, but I reeled her back in and stayed with her for the second loop. My pace remained well under my goal pace for the marathon, but my HR was under control so I allowed myself to run strong and race.

As I made my way through loop 2 I felt the effects of a sidewalk marathon run. Seriously, who thought a run course on sidewalks was a good idea. Oh wait, Roch and Huddle...darn them! It hurt! Marie ran away from me at the start of the third loop and I started to slow. I felt the effects of my early fast pace. Mitch was out there and offering me the perfect words of encouragement throughout. At this point he yelled to me "breath Caroline, don't let this get away from you. Stay within yourself and just relax." He read my mind! I was thinking about everything but what I was doing. I wanted to know where everyone else was (it's impossible to figure out on this 3 loop winding course!).

I wanted to podium and was told I was in 3rd, 4th, 5th and 6th. Clearly no one really knew. At mile 20 I accepted my first cup of Coke, and tried hard to focus on just getting to mile 24 (I try to think of the marathon as 4x6miles. The last 2 take care of themselves). The concrete was taking it toll. My legs were screaming and the wheels were falling off. I started counting every quarter mile. Not good. I tried hard to keep the pace under 9min miles. Not good, but it was all I could do.

With 2 miles to go I thought I could break 10:30. No Way! Really! The turn over picked up, the smile found its way back, and I charged for the line. When I came around the corner and entered the finish shoot I thought I saw the race clock at 10:27...no wait that's a 1. 10:21, Seriously! No Way!

I crossed the finish and instantly felt overjoyed. Now THAT is what I worked so hard for this year. The W30-34 came to play! 10:21 was a new Ironman AZ age group record...but this year there were 9 of us that beat it. I raced amongst some amazing girls! How inspiring. 10th overall femaleis something I never imagined accomplishing at a major Ironman event!

Diana and Nick handed me a beautiful bouquet of flowers just before I crossed the finish. So sweet! As I walked to gather my bike and gear bags everyone was asking if I won the whole race. I smiled and said "nope, but I won MY race!" This really was a race without expectations and only for myself. I won that race, and couldn't be happier about it!

The day went far better than I could have ever dreamed. A special thanks to TriBike Transport for giving me the chance to end my season on this high note! Thank you to Cervelo for refusing to let a cracked bike frame get in the way of my dream race. and of course GU for fueling the fire within!

You don't have to feel good to race good! The door is officially closed on the 2009 season. 4 half ironmans, 2 ironmans, and a slew of shorter races in between. It's been quite a journey! Thanks for joining me for the ride!!

post race soak in the FREEZING pool offered a temporary cure for the pain