Buffman and Squeaky blog from MySpace

Took this from Myspace....

Sunday, May 18, 2008

End of finals AND Buffman and Squeaky Olympic Tri
Current mood: excited


Well, to start off, I have to explain how TOTALLY unprepared I felt for this race. I had finals all last week, and I needed to do well, so I was going on several days of WAY too much coffee and very little sleep, and very little training. I had 3 off days last week, and only minimal 1-hour workouts the other days, although last Saturday was a long workout....Thursday, I finished my last final in Pharmacotherapy, my killer hard class. The final was WAY easier than I thought, so I have hopes of maintaing a halfway decent grade. I almost don't care anymore. I am halfway done!

That night, I went out with a new friend that I met through cycling. It was a bit awkward, because I really don't want to date. I just want to hang out. I wanted to meet him somewhere, but he insisted on picking me up...plus he paid. I had 2 glasses of wine over the course of the night. We ended up talking for 9 hours, until it was about 1am and my eyes were rolling back in my head. I slept in a bit Friday, but went to a wedding that night. Had a BLAST! I danced my toosh off and decided that I need to check out some local salsa nights and find some hot dancer to hang out with who can literally sweep me off my feet (only on the dance floor...this girl is off limits for a while).

SOOO.....drove to Lubbock early Saturday morning....well, ended up leaving midday actually, got there just in time to meet my friends for dinner, whom I didn't find, but it turns out they were in the same restaurant the whole time....DUH. I had been worried about my hydration...I lost 2-3 lbs this past week, probably from shedding water cuz I wasn't working out much. Not good!! So, I drank and drank and had race day boost with juice. Not sure if it helped or not.

Had my kiddo with me, which is hard during a race. Kids just don't understand that mommy needs her quiet time the night before while doing the prerace rituals of cleaning the bike, setting up the bag, and making sure everything is in place so the morning is smooth. ....they would rather whine about every little thing. OMG.....Love my kid, but that was rough.

Smooth enough morning, water was COLD....about 56 degrees...thank Gawd for wetsuits!

SWIM: I went out okay and was planning on doing the usual bilateral breathing I have been doing,but that went out the door pretty quickly. I never did get into a good rhythm ..not for long. I thought my sighting was alright, but then kept finding myself too far off the buoys...maybe there was a current or I just swim funny. Some guy hit my face twice right at the end...I was having flashbacks to SOMA, except this time I didn't bleed.

BIKE: Transition was okay. I felt a bit relaxed and realized I needed to pick up the pace a bit. Now, my friends had told me that this was a hilly course, so I have been hitting the hills pretty hard at home, every long ride has been hills....and you do hit a very steep grade right out of transition...people who clip their shoes in ahead of time don't really have time to get in their shoes! There's a couple deep dips into and out of the canyon, but mainly flat terrain. I felt pretty good, started out around 163 HR, then dropped down to 157'ish and held, the entire race. I was averaging over 20mph, going a good 27mph at one flat stretch, but there must have been a bit of a tailwind, cuz I was only holding about 17-18 coming back. I passed quite a few guys, and quite a few passed me, but I felt strong out there.

RUN: I need to dismount better. Transition went fine..the bike to run is always super easy. I started out alright, although my feet were tingling for nearly 2 miles from the vibration on the road during the ride. I think I was holding an 8-8:30 pace, but felt like 11:00 pace. The sun was out in full force, and I was starting to feel it, but I kept plugging along at 157 HR. Some people told me that I was 4th overall female, and that the girl in front of me was about 1:00 ahead. I spotted her at the turnaround and got excited. I figured with negative splits, I might be able to catch her. No Way! GI upset and whooziness kicked in the second half of the run....I think I know what happened. I had 2 bottles originally for the bike, but took out my plain water to put my spare tube in the bottle holder. I had stopped using my seat pack when I started riding with roadies. Well, my water bottle had 2 scoops of Heed, and I had one gel halfway through the ride....and they didn't have plain water at the bike turnaround!!! I knew I was in deep doodoo at that point. I needed water so that the nutrition in my belly could move..I was hyperosmotic, which meant that nutrition was going nowhere, and water was moving into my belly. So....only 2 water stops on the run...I couldn't take in any more nutrition and only so much water...was getting the tingles all over...still haven't figured out if that is dehydration or plummeting blood sugar, or both. The last couple miles I was doing the Choo-Choo....anyone who has gotten to this point in the heat knows what I am talking about...when every exhale is a grunt, sigh, something....I was hurting, but I had to hold my place!!! Fourth overall was good for me if I could hold it. I finished in 2:46:47, which is 9 minutes faster than my last year's PR in olympic distance, so I am happy. I made sure to sprint at the end (always have to see what's left!) and did a thumbs up for the camera, but that smile didn't last long. I thought I was going to pass out at the end, nearly had an asthma attack, and HAD TO HAVE plain water!! I couldn't find any and was feeling really ill at this point. It didn't take long to get my head back on straight, but am still sick to my stomach, a good 8 hours later.

FINAL: 4th overall female (2+ minutes behind 3rd, and a full 12 minutes behind 1st), and 2nd in my age group. The award was a cute little engraved clear bone. The tri is called Buffman and Squeaky, named after 2 boston terriers who were nice enough to make their appearance. Adorable.

Good start to my race season, and I think if I had been rested and hydrated and had my plain water on the bike and run, that I might have beat that 3rd place girl. Next week, Iron Horse in Durango, followed by the Narrow Gauge 10-miler. Yippee! :0)