Belated Wildflower

Whoa! I guess I missed May. Here's a very belated Wildflower race report:

Travel to WF this year was so much easier and stressless than ever before. Brendan Halpin, Adam Jensen, Matt Shryock and I all took a flight together to LA in order to rent a van and drive to the race venue. This was easier than the usual 24 hour drive to and from WF. We must be growing up. Team MT also took the easy way out on lodging this year and organized a sweet homestay in Jurassic Park. This takes a little bit of stress out of bringing all of your camping gear. Who knows though? I think camping makes you tough. I have had some of my best races after camping so I may have to revert...we'll see. Race day came fast.

crack of dawn: Loaded up our mini to get the race EARLY. I am converted to getting to races early. I like my own space to get ready, think, and double make sure I am RTR (ready to roll/race).

swim: (27:46) This is a decent time for me, however, I didn't feel like I had a great swim. I was in a great pack off the start that I once again, accidentally swam off of. I will be working on my straight swimming skills this year because it is killing me. After the first turn, I lost this group and towed another group for the outbound portion. I was dropped from my own group at the turn buoys (getting a little tired) so I swam by myself for a bit until halfway back when I rejoined my little group (maybe they got tired). We all got out together and busted buns to our bikes. My new Zoot Prophet came off like a dream...LOVE it!

t1: (1:48)

bike: (2:52:45) Wowser! What a windy day on the bike in beautiful country. For anyone who knows me, or doesn't know me, you may know I do not like riding in wind. I would rather ride in snow, rain, mud, etc. I didn't have a choice on this day though so I did what I do in races and got in the best mental space I could, put a smile on my face (even if I didn't mean it sometimes), and did my best. Everyone is riding in the same conditions. It was tough and I did a lot of self talk. I was so focused on staying focused that the hills didn't even phase me. I loved the course and can't wait to compare future times to this one. I had a solid day but not a spectacular one. I was caught by a few girls in the last 5 miles that really helped push me into t2.

t2: (1:43) Pretty fast thanks to my Zoot Speeds!

run: (1:40:13) Solid. I didn't know what to expect on the run course. I guess I expected a few little dirt hills. I got what I expected and more! There were a few steep long hills. My motto for the run was to stay hydrated, take nutrition, and keep moving by keeping my cadence up. I was solo for much of the run. It was fun seeing some of the pro women towards the end at the only out and back. I could see there were a few not too far up the road but I was not able to close any gaps although I felt chipper even at the end. I was excited to get onto the road and the last stretch of the race. One, because it was the last stretch of the race and two, because I have raced the Olympic so many times that I was finally on familiar road. The last downhill, as anyone who has done this race knows, feels so good and so bad all at the same time.

final: (5:04:15) I really wanted to break 5 hours...boo hoo. Next year. I will be back to race this race again. I love racing on the same courses year after year to see improvement.

post race: Eat, sleep, and one of my favorite parts of the trip: cheering for the University of MT kiddos racing the Olympic! Team MT stayed on Sunday to cheer for the UMers like so many have done for me when I raced the Olympic. They did stellar and it was a ton of fun to see how much fun they were having racing. Sometimes I think maybe I could just cheer for races. Then again, no, I definitely LOVE racing.

Next up: Boise 70.3 on June 11.

Oceanside 70.3

A race report!

Pre-race: I tried something new and got to the race early this year. I have always thought this would make me more nervous but it didn't! I was able to use the bathrooms (no line!), get my stuff set up before anyone near me, and even warm up a bit. Girls had no swim warm up so I brought my bands and did a little band work before we hit the water. One Gu a fancy new wetsuit and I was ready to hit the balmy (low 60s) water.

Swim: (28:19) I had a great start behind the lead chase and someone who was kicking REALLY hard. It made it easy to stay in the draft except I seemed to have a longer right arm than left. I swam left my entire swim. It was a problem when I lost the draft and again after the second turn buoy when I swam back towards the outbound lane. Luckily a volunteer got me soon enough and I was back on course without very much time lost. My new Zoot Prophet wetsuit is AMAZING and I felt strong my entire swim. This was the first time I have exited a particularly choppy swim without a gigantic wetsuit scab on my neck. Thank, Prophet!

Bike: (2:42:59) Yay for this! My ride was 10 minutes faster than last year and on almost solely indoor training. I was able to stay in little groups until we hit the hills. I was dropped on a big descent, though. Can you say chicken? I have been working hard on not being a sally in wind and hills and it's clear I need to keep working. I held my goal heart rate with very little flaw and still felt strong and fluid when I arrived back in town. Onto the

Run: (1:37:57) A new PR! You would think I would be happy with this (and I suppose I am) but I was expecting to run a bit faster. I suppose that's why I am racing with the big girls; I am not even completely pleased with a PR. I ran 4.5 minutes faster than last year and it seemed so much easier thanks in part to my cute new Speeds and a whole lotta consistent run training! Two girls passed me in the last 3 miles...I need to work on sticking with these girlies...or better yet, staying ahead of them.

At the end of the day I was 4:54:03. This is the 4th time (out of 9) that I have gone 4:54:xx in a half. Weird! I was happy with a solid first half, and more, first RACE of the year. Now I get to look forward to the Montana World Championships immediately followed by Wildflower!!!

Zoot, Zappos, & Vegas

I am one lucky lady. I have a really cool sponsor, Zoot Sports, who sent Brendan Halpin & me to Las Vegas for the day to do a video shoot with Zappos. It's so that customers can get a 3D video idea of what the apparel and shoes look like on a real body, giving a better understanding of the features of Zoot clothing. Here's Brendan modeling a running tank, tri shorts, & compression socks:

Zappos would be a really neat place to work. They treat their employees well and they are happy and productive because of it. Our videographer gave us a tour of the Zappos facility where we saw employees working, singing, dancing, doing puzzles, napping, & working. I was able to act princess for a few minutes in one of the conference rooms. Great double Z meaning!

We finished quickly and we were in Las Vegas so we hit the strip for a bit. We lounged by a pool, toured a few hotels, played the slots (a whole $3) and hit the Bellagio Cafe for some lunner. I must give a huge thanks to the Bellagio Lost & Found for mailing me my camera to MT. It was a fun-filled day with Brendan, Sonja (Zoot and much more rep), & the folks at Zappos.

Tucson Training

Well I am not a snowbird this year but I did get to fly south for a quick week of training at The Cycling House. My week went something like this:

Wednesday: work in the morning in Missoula, fly south being picked up by the lovely Corbins in Phoenix, race CC eating In N Out burger (I win!), drive to Tucson

Thursday: Mt. Lemmon intervals opened up my week. They were 5x{5'@90-92%max heart rate (owee!) followed by a 2.5' grind} . After riding I did a mini transition trail run with Brendan.

Friday: Hill repeats at the golf course, 3 hour easy ride, 30 minute recovery swim.

Saturday: Brendan's 4.5 kiloyard set and a quick hard ride. It included lots of short 90-92% max heart rate intervals.

Sunday: Long trail run with Anya where I received a cactus spine to the foot that I still have. Easy 1k swim outside.

Monday: 4400yard swim set with the boys, Adam, Matt, & Bren. 4+ hours ride with those boys, hanging on for dear life at times...my favorite kind of ride!

Tuesday: Crabby long intervals running. I should have had coffee before this one to boost my attitude. I came home, had coffee, and had a much better day. We rode Mt. Lemmon (easy) for Linsey Corbin's birthday. I was greeted at the top by samples of everyone's cookies.

Wednesday: Fly home to the winter wonderland (indoor training land) of Missoula, MT.

Winter Ride #1

The noon crew including Mr. Scott Lenaburg!

My motor pacer for the day!

I took 45 minutes to dress and get my cross bike ready. It really took me that long. I am sure I will have that routine down to 10. It's kind of like the first race of the year. You usually forget something. I can tell you that I will never forget to fill my water bottles in a race again. I managed out the door today and didn't forget a thing. Maybe I am growing up.

Jeffro & Elliot joined in the rare Missoula sunshine ride at noon for those who don't have "normal" jobs. All on cross bikes we rode out to Clinton. Elliot was my lovely motor for motor pacing my 90+% heart rate efforts. He was an awesome wheel and I got the job done! Here was my workout for the day:

4x3min bigger gear last :30 by feel

8min grind <~70rpm>

3x2min bigger gear last :30 by feel

5min 100+rpm

5x:45 steady @ ~90%max heart race w/:15

5min 100+rpm

2 times through the following: 4x2min ~90% max heart rate w/:15, 1x2min ez spin

15min long spin=105+rpm

Great White North

I am not a big fan of fireworks so Independence Day weekend in the USA took Brendan and myself straight north towards Edmonton. It was a beautiful weekend to be in the car all weekend. :) We were both struck by how far north we were and being so close to the summer solstice, how many hours of the day it was sunny. This actually struck us in a bad way race morning. We woke in a panic thinking we had missed the start of the race that we had driven 12 hours for. It turns out that it was 4am and the sun was full fledged up and the alarm had not even gone off. RELIEF!

The drive was painless for such a haul. Race morning came quickly and we stumbled from our campsite to race site to get our bikes and T1s ready. I made the wonderful mistake at a race earlier this year of forgetting to fill my water bottles with water (although they had fuel in them) so I checked transition once, and then I checked it again to make sure I was all in order for a flawless race. Once I decided I was I put on my speedy Zoot Helix and headed down the water.

The race was a two loop swim. I lined up in front and when the gun went off I felt as if I was in a washing machine. There was no separate pro start for the Canadian race and I have not been swimming as much as I was earlier in the year hence the washing machine like feeling. At least I kept it under 30!

I was stripped of my wetsuit and on my way on my never before raced Orbea Ordu (the red one). The Great White North bike course is a pretty fast bike generally. Its rolly with quite a bit of wind and two sizeable climbs. I was focused on keeping my heart rate where it needed to be, eating and drinking on schedule, and staying in contact or moving up with those around me. It made the bike fly by and before I knew it I was into T2 in 5th place. Transitions included, I rode a 2:28 and change, and I was thrilled about it.

We hadn't visited T2 yet, which was a bit scary, but I spotted my Zoot Ultra Tempos quckly and was on my way to the run course. The run course was a blast! It was almost entirely on a bike path through town so it was windy with a few little rollers. For the most part it was flat and fast. I was told, although I couldn't see her, that 4th place was not very far in front of me. For the first time in a run race I was totally focused on what was going on in front of me, wanting to move up and knowing I had the training to do it, with little thought on what was going on behind me and if I was going to get caught. It made the run fly by and I was able to get within 25 seconds of 4th but I never closed it. With my surge from 17-20 kilometers I was a bit spent and she opened it back up to 1 minute. I was smiling all the way to the finish on the wonderful 4th of July because I had just raced a 4:37 and knocked 17 minutes off my previous personal best in a half iron while running 3 minutes faster than I ever had in a half marathon! I have coach Jim Bruskewitz to thank for getting me injury free and fast for this race.

To make it even better I was in the money and so was Brendan. He was chasing hard his entire race to get within 15 seconds of 1st. What a race! We capped off the holiday weekend with a beautiful awards ceremony and a drive back through Banff, spending all of our money at Lululemon. This was an awesome race that was very well put together by the race director, well supported by the community, and a great experience for every racer. This is a must do!

I am now amidst weddings and swim meets while training for my next races, Boulder 70.3 and Lake Stevens 70.3. Look for an update on the happenings in July before the races!

Triathlon season 2010.2

Hello all!

So I have been a bit absent from the scene as of late. I'M BACK!

While I was gone...
Going into IMSG I was a bit injured forcing me to choose between sure further injury by running or a swim/bike and hopefully keeping my current state of injury. I chose the latter and used May & June to recuperate and get my booty kicked into shape in a few MT road races.
The first was a snowy, ski resort race called Marysville. It was rough. We drove through a snowstorm on the way there, climbed a few mountain passes, wore every article of clothing we packed, and survived to tell the story.
Next was the Cow Country Classic. This is a meaningful race for me as it was my very first road race. On this day, I made the little break of Amy Fryckman on the first climb, got ridden off her wheel, held onto the second little group of 4, missed the attack by Tamara, and limped my way in for a tie with Lisa Curry for a shared third. We tried to hold hands across the finish line to no avail.
My third and last road race of the 2010 season was the Whitefish Stage Race. It was a criterium, time trial, and ciruit race. I pulled an absolute triathlete move in the criterium by dinking around in the first lap, taking my time getting into my pedals & cornering slowly. Meanwhile, NRO girlies were not waiting around for those like me, sending attacks off the front. I didn't see anyone until the final 5 laps because I was WAY off the back, doing my own early time trial warm-up. I made up lots of time in the time trial by placing 2nd only to Mrs. Fryckman. The circuit race was uneventful and flat. I had a bit of time to make up on 3rd and 4th for a chance at the podium. In the last lap I made the break without the 2 girls ahead of me. Sadly, I fell 1 second short.

Now my road season is done and triathlon season 2010.2 is beginning. My first race of season 2 is Great White North in Canada where I will be racing for the first time on my shiny new Orbea Ordu!