7/25/10 - Headwaters 1/2 Iron

Headwaters Half Ironman
July 25th, 2010
Bozeman, Montana

On Saturday, I drove up to Bozeman, Montana (4.5 hours away) to compete in a small, rural half ironman race, the Headwaters Half. There were 40 entries total, and I was the only one in the 19-and-under age group – as long as I finished, I would win! Anyway, it seemed like a good pick for my first Half, because (1) the registration fees were much lower than the big events, (2) it was close to home (relatively – living in the West, the scale of “close” becomes rather large), and (3) the course was supposed to be pretty fast and reasonably easy.

Point (3) was overthrown about a week ago, when the race directors realized that extensive construction over the road where the bike was supposed to take place would not be done in time for the race. Originally, the race would begin 15 miles west of Bozeman in Three Forks. So, they did the best they could and moved the entire race into Bozeman itself. Instead of a flat, fast bike course with one big climb at the turnaround, it was now a grueling mountain pass. Still, the swim venue wouldn’t be noticeably different, and the run course looked flat, so it seemed that there might remain a possibility for a nice low time. Also, it was at “low” altitude (i.e. 4000 feet above sea level, and I live at 6200). Yay!

Swim: 1.2 miles (+all of my swerving around), 40:02, 67˚F (water), 55˚F (air)
I really haven’t been swimming much this summer, for a couple of reasons: First of all, the swim is such a small part of a triathlon, especially once you get to the Half distance, that it really didn’t deserve a ton of my time. Second, when living in one of the most beautiful outdoorsy towns in America, it seems almost a crime to spend too much time swimming laps inside. Anyway, I always have done perfectly fine in the swim, even before I started training with Coach Bill (although I improved immensely and noticeably throughout the school year while doing that training).

The swim course was three clockwise laps, with a funny stipulation that we get out of the water and run across a point of sand in between each lap (I think this was so they could keep track of us and make sure we all did the full distance – no fancy timing chips or anything at this race!). That was kind of a drag, definitely messed up the flow of things, but overall the swim was fine. The water seemed unbearably warm (they said it was 67, but I don’t believe them; either that, or my recent daily short plunges into our glacial meltoff river really have acclimated me to cold water).

So, I finished in something ridiculous for how little I’ve been swimming (~12th place overall, 3rd/15 women) and moved on to the bike.

T1: 1:45 – realized how much easier the transition is without numb fingers!

Bike: 56.6 miles, 2000 feet of climbing, 3:33, 55-85˚F
The bike was rather more brutal than expected, but I ride quite a bit so did reasonably well. The first 21 miles were mostly climbing, sometimes gradual, sometimes steep. Plus there must have been a few significant downhills (which I don’t remember riding down, but certainly remember riding back up on the way back). At the top of Battle Creek Ridge, there was an aid station where they gave us water bottles with water or Heed. As a side note, I had never tried Heed before (yes, I know, you’re not supposed to try anything new on race day, but I couldn’t help it), and it was DELICIOUS and didn’t even hurt my stomach during the run. I think watermelon flavored. Anyway, I think I’ll buy it again in the future. Also, I was excited for the bottles, because I labeled my own bottles with my name and picked them up after the race, and then I ended up with two more nice ones! I guess I’m a loser cyclist, because I really have a pitifully small stash of bottles.

Then there was an 8-mile descent/flats, then back up. I started swearing at the flies and bees that I suspected of wanting to sting me in hopes of stealing some of my Shot Bloks; maybe I was a bit crazy from lack of food/water, but they do sting me on a regular basis when I have sugary things in my back pockets.

Finally, I reached the top of the pass again and started a flying descent back to the transition area (with the exception of two particularly nasty and surprising uphills). My original time goal for the bike was 3:20, since I recently did a mountainous 110-mile ride that averaged 17mph and thus figured I could carry that pace into the triathlon. However, a combination of WAY more climbing than expected and not drafting with anyone made me miss it slightly, coming in at 3:33. Usually the bike is my strong point, but I think it must have been the strong point of a lot of these women because I ended up in 7th

T2: 1:21

Run: 13.1 miles, 2:30, 85-90˚F
Oh, the run, how I’d looked forward to running a half-marathon after already racing for ~4 hours (not).

The first mile of the run, I felt GREAT. Psyched, I thought that it wouldn’t be nearly as bad as I had thought; I did a few big long brick workouts in the mountains, and this course was flat, and I felt relaxed and fast (for me).

After the first mile, I realized how hot it was outside, and I felt terrible. I know many of you probably don’t think that 85-90 is that hot, but you also probably don’t typically go skiing in May-June. I had fueled myself as well as possible during the bike, but I was just losing water like crazy. At the aid station, I had them put some ice into the water bottle I was carrying, but between there and the next aid station (a nasty 3 miles away), my drink was so hot that it barely helped at all. I started shivering, which seemed like a bad thing, so I slowed down and basically stumbled along until the aid station, where I replenished my ice. Surprisingly, I finished the first 6.5 mile lap in 66 minutes, which didn’t seem nearly as bad as I expected. (I am not a fast runner, but can usually manage a sub-2 hour half-marathon. However, for walking and stumbling a large portion of the course, 10-minute miles was not bad at all)

Second lap was worse. The course started with a 1.5 mile out-and back lollipop, which took me 15 minutes the first lap and 25 the second. It was dreadful, and I was trying to ration the liquid I took in because my stomach usually cramps up when I drink too much while running. After the aid station, I decided that that method wasn’t working, so I set little miniature goals every couple hundred yards and let myself drink sips of ice water upon achieving each one. Unfortunately, about 1.5 miles into the 3 miles between aid stations, my water supply was quite low and also quite hot again. I felt the shivers coming on, and a throat closing with despair at how far I had already come and how impossibly far the remaining 3.5 miles sounded. So I walked for a minute, then stumbled along some more.

.5 miles from the finish, my calf gave a couple of spasms, and it felt like the bottom of my foot was going to seize up – electrolyte depletion or something? I was glad to almost be done, before my body freaked out any more. Crossed the finish line in 6:47, in 7th place out of the 12 women finishers (several dropped out during the run)

My overall goal had been sub-6, readjusted to sub-6:30 once the course was changed…Not good, but considering I almost never run in temperatures above even 70 degrees (since I run in the mornings when I wake up, when it’s usually around 40-50), surviving a run in the heat was an accomplishment.

Lessons learned:
1) Buy a sleeveless wetsuit someday
2) Get some HEED watermelon
3) Always have a depleted water bottle so there is an excuse to take a new free one at an aid station
4) Doesn’t matter how much I push on the bike, I’ll always feel like crap on the run anyway so may as well go all out (as long as I’ve done enough brick workouts beforehand)
5) Bring along a race crew or someone who is willing to drive around and dump ice or ice water all over me when I vainly attempt to run in the heat (or, alternatively, perhaps I should do my longer races in the spring, fall, or winter, when it’s cold)

5/29/10 - Triathlon at Rigby Lake

Rigby Lake Olympic Triathlon
May 29, 2010
Rigby, Idaho

Race Report: Rigby Triathlon 2010

So, I came back home to Jackson, Wyoming last week and had already signed myself up for an Olympic tri in Rigby, Idaho (about 2 hours away). Unfortunately, throughout the week my training definitely was hurt by being back in high altitude; in our valley, at 6200 feet above sea level, it’s quite difficult to get enough oxygen, at least for the first few weeks. Still, I was already registered, so I decided to race despite my misgivings.

I woke up at 4:15 and drove to the race course, rather devastated by the 42 degree weather with frequent cold rain showers. “Well, at least the water will feel warmer than the air!” was my optimistic thought. Haha.

The race directors, though in general they were exceedingly well organized, did not tell us the water temperature; they had said on their newbies swim-session Thursday that it “wasn’t even chilly!” and probably wouldn’t require a wetsuit. And perhaps it was warm, on sunny Thursday…However, the lake was nearly empty still (since our lingering winter hasn’t allowed enough snow to melt to fill it up), and the temperature was, I would guess, 45 DEGREES (at the very most, 50). I thought I grew up on cold water, since our river is made up of glacial snowmelt. Terrifyingly, this was the coldest water I have ever been in, without a doubt (colder, even, than the ice-baths we used to take after running).

Swim (22:22, 4th/13 Women, 6th/40 Overall) The kind of cool thing about Idaho, and sort of the whole Rocky Mountains/West, is that people are either extremely tough or extremely stubborn. It never occurred to the race directors to shorten or cancel the swim, so the race proceeded as planned. There was an Olympic and Sprint option, and the Olympic racers “swam” two loops of the course. The lake was so shallow that we could literally walk almost the whole time if we wanted – and for the first 100 meters or so, I did just that, slogging along faster than most of the swimmers and managing to get my heart rate up high enough to tolerate the cold. Then, I started swimming freestyle, grateful for my wetsuit, and passed a lot of people. I paced myself way faster than usual just to get the hell out of the water, and came out as the second woman.

T1 (3:08): Transition 1…that was painful, even more than usual. My hands and feet were numb, obviously, so I struggled to put on a long-sleeve jersey and kind of shoved some ski socks on my feet and gloves on my hands. I stood up...then sat back down, too disoriented to move for a little while. Leaning heavily on my bike, I trudged over to the bike mount.

Bike (1:15:12, 2nd/13 W, 12th/40 O) After around 30 seconds of trying to be coordinated enough to clip in, I finally got my feet into my pedals. Then came a moment of stupidity – I had forgotten to leave the bike in its big gear in front, and my fingers were way to numb to shift. I coasted along for a little while trying to shift, then finally reached over with my other hand and managed to hold the lever. Ok, finally off. After this slow start, I decided that I didn’t care about my run pace, so I actually went quite fast and hard for the whole ride; it was a flat, fast course, and all the pelting rainwater on the ground made it even faster (hydroplaning). Alas, I didn’t pass anyone, but that was because there was only one woman in front of me. I finished the bike just behind her, and shoved my blocks of flesh (normally called feet) into my Newtons (T2 0:50, 3rd/40).

Run (53:29, 4th/13 W, 9th/34 O) New running experience – numb feet, just like all the triathlons in my recent memory, but also numb lower legs and bright red (think: MIT jersey-matching) upper legs. At this point, I really had no goal, pleased that I had survived the previous two events. I just tried to stumble along at a reasonable speed. A guy passed me, glanced at my leg-number, and called out, “What, only 18??? You aren’t supposed to be this fast until your late twenties at least!” That made me feel good, so I tried to increase my stumbling speed to keep up with him. He dropped me after a while, but I caught him again before the end. Eventually, the end came, and I was thrilled not to be passed by any women on the run (not that I was running fast, but apparently no one else was in a great running state either).

So, second place in women, first place in under-19 (out of 1, haha). I was quite happy –I came in at 2:35:03, which is a new PR for me, although I think the bike course was a bit short. By the end, the air temperature had warmed up to 44 degrees  It was an epic race, one that only lunatics would show up for.



From the very beginning it really seemed like each individual was racing not against each other, but more against the elements, which was very cool, because we beat them.

-Shaena

4/17/10 - Collegiate Triathlon Nationals 2010

Collegiate Triathlon Nationals
Olympic Distance Triathlon
April 17, 2010
Lubbock, Texas

Race report:

Well, I lazily decided to try to finish my 8.02 pset before writing a race report, but by now, I think just about everything has been covered very well by the other nationals bamfs. So, I will just add a brief report of my point of view, preceded by everything leading up to the actual race.

Before the race:
I came to MIT last fall after 4 solid years of high school endurance sports (running, cross-country skiing). Mind you, I was not at all fast, but I trained like a beast. Or so I thought. Then, I realized that what I had considered “training” for the small triathlons I did a few summers in a row did not actually correlate to real triathlon training; I pretty much was a runner, and would jump in the pool once (literally) to make sure I could swim the tri distance without drowning, and I bike commuted to work and school so figured I would do fine on the bike portion. And so far, it had worked – I was always a Junior in the age group categories, and the races were always small, so I pretty much always won! That was what made me originally like triathlon, because I could train a lot and race decently and actually get prizes (yes, greed was the motivator). Then came MIT.

I thought that the triathlon club had disintegrated here, since the website was never updated and I hadn’t seen anyone at the CPW athletics fair…so, I bought my first road bike last summer and decided I would do cycling at MIT instead. Once I got here, I was pleasantly surprised to find that indeed there was a triathlon team, AND that the fall tri season made it quite possible to do both triathlon and cycling without any conflicts. So, as soon as my bike arrived from FedEx (and the bike store put it back together for me…now I know how), I joined the tri club in the Lobsterman and Mightyman NECTC races. They were great fun, although by the end of Mightyman I had a stress fracture in my foot.

Unable to run for 9 weeks (which sounded like a death sentence to me), I started attending swim practices and cycling club rides. I swam in elementary school, but not since then, so I was pleasantly surprised to find that swimming actually came far more naturally to me than other sports that I struggled at such as running.

Cycling well really just requires lots and lots of hours on the bike. So, that’s how I spent my fall, riding my bike, meeting people, and swimming increasingly well.
In the winter, I could run again, but I was back home in Wyoming, so I mostly just skate-skied instead and attempted to ride my trainer indoors (boring). Once back here, I tried to step up my workouts to include an average of 4 weekly bike rides, 3 runs, and 3 swims; I had never trained so much in my life! It was great fun though, except that since I was racing on weekends for cycling, I never had the energy to run hard/do intervals. That showed in Nationals, but honestly even when I used to run 40 miles per week, I still wasn’t nearly as fast as most of the people there.

OK, this is actually becoming a rather long brief summary, so I will move on to the race.



Race:

We arrived in Lubbock eventually, put together our bikes, ate, slept, etc. The other race reports go into very good detail about all of this. Kristen did a great job driving through the “roads” that were really more like rivers due to all the rain and flooding. The swim did not feel as cold as the officials made it seem, but unfortunately my fingers were cold enough that I couldn’t hold them together; I basically clawed through the water the entire race, which felt terribly slow, but it didn’t really matter since the swim was so short anyway. The bike course was windy, and I felt a strong urge from the cyclist side of me to draft off of the big, strong men who passed by so easily; I did not, and just kept pedaling along. At one point, we went downhill with a tailwind, and my spedometer said I got up to 43 miles per hour, which was by far the fastest I’ve ever biked before! Anyway, I saw a few of our teammates on the bike but was too distracted/concentrating to say hi to most of them. Then came the run. Bleh. For a former runner, I really hate running fast. I’m really glad that I finished, and that my feet thawed to the point where I could feel them after a few miles, and that the other MIT people looked like they were going so much faster than me on this part.



Kristen demolished me in the run (well, she pretty much demolished everyone), so we actually ended up with the exact same finishing time of 2:30:33. That was pretty awesome, since we always thought that we would probably end up close, but not THAT close. Matthieu did amazingly, and Chris would have if he hadn’t had a flat tire.

Though Brad was in Texas for less days than us, he raced well and helped us out SO much by driving us to and from the airport. Senovio and Scott both raced very well, despite this not being the ideal first race conditions. Zuzka was very fast, of course. Kristen and I were both quite happy, I think, since we were in the top quarter of the women! And Ari did quite well too, though it didn’t help that they cut down her best section (the swim) by so much.

Overall, nationals was a great experience despite the weather. The triathlon club in general is a wonderful place to find training partners and work towards common goals, and along with cycling is my favorite part of MIT so far. We have an amazing swim coach (Bill Steele), great sponsors, and dedicated members and officers. Hope to see everyone at the New England Season Opener and at NECTC races next year!

-Shaena

4/10/10 - Yale Lux et Velocitas

Yale Race Report – KOM
April 10-11, 2010
New Haven, CT

We headed out to the Yale race course, competing for the title of “King of the Mountain.” They advertised their ITT and the end of the circuit race as a terrifying, steep, long hill. Yuri said that it wasn’t really a hill, but upon arriving, it certainly looked like one to me!

ITT: The individual time trial was a 4.2 mile course, winding around a park and some neighborhoods for the first few miles then climbing up to the top of the “mountain” for the finish. Luckily, the hill wasn’t very steep at all, though it was a bit long. I raced in the Women’s C category this weekend, and the field was quite large for women – 40 racers! We left at 15 second intervals, and until we reached the hill, I only passed one girl; I felt tired all week and was resigned to a somewhat mediocre race, since I’ve never been very good at hills. However, upon starting the climb, my weekly hill repeats began to kick in, and I passed five more riders before the top to take second place overall. I liked the time trial, since it reminds me more of a triathlon (blasphemy, I know), with no one to compete against except my own pace.

Circuit: The circuit race consisted of several ~3 mile loops with minimal hills, followed by the mountain to the finish. At the beginning, I got up into a good position near the front, and we basically had a rotating paceline of the first ~5 riders for most of the race. There were two strong Yale girls, and two UVM girls, so occasionally they would pick up the pace or try to break away, but overall the first 3 laps were fairly uneventful except for one big crash (behind me, thank goodness) that took down around 8 women and forced some of our other MIT riders to slow down for a while. On the last lap, we picked up the pace, and upon starting the hill only had the strongest/luckiest riders remaining close by. One girl attacked, and I stayed with her, while the others fell slightly behind so we were all pretty strung out. I was climbing and thinking “Wow, this is great, I’m going to get second in a hill climb! Awesome, I’ve never been very good at hills!” And then I looked over and realized that the girl next to me looked like she was about to die, based on how hard she was breathing…so, I broke away, about 400 meters from the finish, and sprinted through to get first. It was very fun to actually win a race, and made me REALLY glad I’ve been working so hard on hills recently.

Crit: Sunday morning I woke up with burning, exhausted legs. Great. However, after a long warmup, I felt ok again. Kristen, Katie, Liz and I were all entering the crit together, so we decided to try to work together, if possible. Upon stepping into the second row of the starting line, the girl in front of me turned around and said, “So, you’re the KOM? Or QOM, I guess.” It took my MIT mind a while to understand the acronym, but yes, I was the “King of the Mountain” from the previous day (and I won a jersey!!!). Uh-oh…now I couldn’t pretend to be weak and say “Does someone else want to lead right here? I’m not very fast on the uphills…” – verbatim what I said during the circuit race. So that was how the race went, with girls being much more aggressive than before, attacking frequently, and trying to box me in so I couldn’t catch up again. It was exhausting, and my first C crit. I couldn’t ever tell which laps were primes and once sprinted for something that wasn’t actually one. Liz and Katie both did well in some of them, though, and Liz broke away very nicely once. By the end, I thought it was just going to come down to a huge pack sprint and I would die because I was so tired. Luckily, some of the other girls sped up immensely during the last couple of corners, so it got was more spread out before the final stretch. It took me a while to get the energy to stand up and sprint, but I did pretty well in the downhill finish and got second (behind the same girl who outsprinted me in my first Intro crit). Kristen passed a ridiculous number of riders in the sprint and ended up in 8th, which I thought was pretty cool, and Liz came in 6th. Added to Yuri’s win and Martha’s 2nd in the Women’s A, we basically dominated 

Very fun weekend, and congrats to everyone who raced!

-Shaena

3/6/10 - Rutgers Frozen-Toed Season Opener

Race Report: Rutgers 2010

March 6-7, 2010

Piscataway, NJ


This was my first weekend of bike racing, and I was pretty nervous. Sure, I train a lot and have a few years of endurance sports in my background, but cycling is different; the results aren’t based just on who trains the most, but on strategy, and awareness, and being at the right place at the right time. So, I entered the Intro Women category, hoping to find other riders like myself – fit, but inexperienced and terrified of making a tight corner in a big pack.

ITT: The ITT was the portion I was least worried about, since it’s basically the same idea as the bike portion of a triathlon – ride hard and don’t worry about other people. The course was quite short, though, roughly 2.8 miles. As an endurance type of person, I don’t think I’ve even done a running race that short in quite some time, much less a ride! Anyway, the race was fine. After they taught some of the intro women how to clip into their pedals and downshift, we went off at 15 second intervals. I started first, so I didn’t see anyone else until after the finish. In the end, I got 4th/35 in 7:52, about as good as I could expect for such a short race.

Criterium: The crit was the section I was most scared for. The course seemed fine, with one tight corner at the end of a downhill and some potholes, but nothing as terrifying as I expected. We did two coached laps, where we basically rode in a double paceline and were told when to switch off leading (I didn’t lead at all during this section). Then, our race began, only 4 laps long. During the first lap, I didn’t start out in the front, and while I worked on moving up the pack, a girl from McGill attacked. I tried to follow her, thinking that I could catch her, wasting a lot of energy and basically just pulling for the next lap and a half; this was a good learning experience, as I should have actually attacked and sprinted to her instead of going virtually the same pace as her 100 yards behind her. By the third lap, I had pulled for quite a while in my futile attempt to reach McGill, so I sat in behind another suffering newbie the rest of the way. I’m a terrible sprinter (the type who can get passed by 10+ runners in the last 100 yards of a cross-country race), but managed to hold my own and come in 4th overall. I was happy with the race, though if I had strategized better I could have been with the girl in front. (As a side note, she switched into women’s C the next day and placed 3rd overall there, so perhaps she didn’t belong in Intro to begin with).

Circuit Race: Sunday, we got to sleep in until 6:30 and arose to another beautiful sunny day. The circuit course was not very technical, with no major hills or treacherous turns, although there was definitely a headwind coming into the finish/lap area. After a coaching clinic for the Intro riders, we took two coached laps of the 2.5 mile course. This time, I was smart and made sure to be in the first line at the start. We only had 2 race laps, so it was quite short, again. After the start, I drafted in the front group, pedaling easily through the first lap and never pulling. Then came the final lap, which was surprisingly action-packed for an Intro race. There were 5 Yale girls with a coach and master strategy; unfortunately for them, they actually discussed their strategy out loud while racing. I heard snippets of “Let’s wait until that turn” and “attack then”. Since that was where I was planning to attack, I decided it would be a better idea to attack before them, so I sprinted up ahead. After a bit, a few of them caught me, so I slowed down drastically and rested, assuming someone would pass me to speed up the pace again. No one did, but I still got to rest, so it was ok. A Yale girl attacked, but I stayed on her – she said to her teammate “Don’t let anyone else get my wheel”, but I was on it already J. I took the corner right before a slight uphill tighter than most of them, and then sped up again. At this point, only one girl came with me. Riding into the headwind towards the finish, I was pretty exhausted so drafted behind her. I didn’t sprint into the finish quite as well as she did so came in second. Overall, though, I was thrilled, because I finally got to put into action a lot of the drills from our clinics, and managed to get second in a 5-on-1 pack. Afterwards, I spun on the trainer and watched the Men’s B and then the Women’s A/B/C races, which were quite exciting and a fair bit harder-looking than mine had been.

All in all, it was a great weekend. We had perfect weather, some amazing results, and good exercise. I had really missed traveling to races on weekends and am really happy to be doing it again in a new sport. Also, I think I have finally found people who are more intense than me, go to bed earlier than I do, and drink more water than me – an excellent combination that I’ve been searching for my whole life. Great racing, everyone!