Reflections on hard races and lessons learned.

It is a fact that you learn way more from your bad races than your good races. Here are some lessons that I have learned from my last few races.  Some of the mistakes I made seem like common sense but I suppose I had to make the mistake myself in order to learn from it.
Captex Olympic tri-
After St. George 70.3 I was signed up to compete in Captex tri in Austin Texas 2.5 weeks later.  I felt that this would be a fair amount of time to recover and gain a little speed for an olympic distance.  Well, I was wrong. I was completely wrong.  I had been doing my workouts and recovering as best as I could during the 2.5 week span but it was not enough time for me to recover properly. During the race I felt very sluggish and couldn't even get my legs moving, My heart rate was at a resting rate and I couldn't push it up and my power was so low my legs were burning and I was at a resting power number.  I felt like a complete dud that day and like I was letting people down by not performing at my best level.  I still came out as 5th overall female but was 5 minutes slower than last year at this race and was hurting a lot more.  

Lesson learned: You can do a shorter race before a longer race as a tune up but you cannot gain speed and recover at the same time after a long hard effort like a half Ironman.  Also, I have a difficult time racing at sea level. I feel sluggish and feel as if I can barely breathe every time!  I thought being born and raised at 5800ft was supposed to give you an advantage?!  Will probably stick to higher elevation races and avoid the humid/sea level climates. 

Deuces Wild Olympic Triathlon
This was my favorite race last year so I made sure I returned to do this fun race this year.  It was the weekend before an  "A" race so I trained right through it and felt great.  I had done some open water practice and was feeling comfortable in the water and came out of the water in 2nd place! I was able to summon some power from my legs on the hilly bike course and passed the lead girl around mile 10(she had a bad ass swim time).  Coach Jaime and I had agreed it would be best to just chill out and rest my legs on the run if I had a decent lead so I was able to cruise the run comfortably and finish as the 1st female finisher.  The run course on this race was marked really long so everyone ran a little extra which was challenging in the heat but it was fun and challenging.

Lesson learned:  Don't panic and race super hard to catch the girls in front of you!!! Its not worth the effort it will cost your legs.  I maintained composure and made sure my power was smooth and even the entire ride.

Buffalo Springs 70.3

Black beauty and I before the sufferfest at 70.3 Buff Springs.

The only place hotter than Lubbock Texas is probably Hell.  It was hot, humid and very windy all weekend which makes the tough course that much tougher.  I made so many rookie mistakes for this race I pretty much set my self up for failure.  Long gone are the days I can do a race on a package of  Hostess Donuts.  The fitter I get the more I need to eat all the time. I didn't eat enough the day before the race or the morning of the race to even partly cover the calories I was going to burn.  I spent the day before the race on my feet doing hair for a wedding in high heeled sandals.  I skipped lunch because I was busy.  I then did my final workout on an empty tank the night before the race in 100 degree weather.  Then the morning of the race all I ate was a PB&J. Yeah..... I know.... I'm an idiot. I had come off the bike in 3rd place but began getting passed by so many people I had no idea where I stood int he rankings. I get so emotional at these races that even though I felt terrible I felt compelled to finish.  After all, there are people out there with no legs and 100 other problems worse than mine! Who am I to drop out of the race just because I am hungry and tired and way to hot.  I spent the longest 13.1 miles of my life shuffling, walking,and dry heaving but hey I finished!! I ended up winning my age group and coming in 7th overall so not bad but definitely not what I am capable of. 

Lessons Learned: EAT!!! EAT A LOT!!!!! I needed to be filling my tank with better food and a lot more of it.  It just seems hard when you're busy with 2 jobs and trying to train and do 100 other things.  I am trying to make my nutrition a bit more of a priority. It's not OK to spend my day hungry because I am so busy.  It makes me evil and cranky and leads to poor performance.  Also, Drink more water.  Coffee and Diet Coke are not OK substitutes.  Lastly, race nutrition. It was too hot to be only having a few gels and 2 bottles with Osmo.  Osmo is great and I like it for hydration but it does not have enough calories and it was so windy and the roads were too crappy to be letting go of your handle bars to drink and eat enough (aero position was out of the question in the 35 mph winds).  I should have had more calories in my bottles as well as eaten more food at the beginning of the bike.

Hopefully, I can put it all together for the 70.3 World Championships in 5 weeks.  I have not had the most successful past few races but I have learned a ton from them.