Boulder Peak, Pro Town Showdown

   
     This race was such a good race for me last year that I had a lot of positive feelings coming into it. Last year I won the Elite Amateur division with a strong run to pass a competitor that I have a lot of respect for. As usual, I was nervous about the swim and not excited that the water temp was too warm for my Blueseventy Helix wetsuit, which means I'd be in my skinsuit. There was only nine of us at the start so I knew I'd have to attack the swim extra hard to stay in contact with all of these super fast pros. I started off very aggressive, usually I'm the one that is getting shoved and punched, but this time I think I was the person to avoid. I wasn't going to give up those feet for anything. I stayed in contact with the main group for the first 500 meters than found my self swimming with two others that caught up to me. I excited the water with the two other women, one ended up being Amanda Lovato, and was feeling pretty good about being in contact with others to start the bike.  
     I biked as hard as I could and pushed it, keeping close watch on my cadence to make sure that I didn't slack off. Unfortunately, this wasn't good enough. My bike time was actually slower than last years time by one minute and 45 seconds. This may not sound like a lot, but when you expected to be at least two or three minutes faster than last years time it hurts. I started the year off with higher power numbers on the bike than last years numbers. This was a very disappointing fact that I would examine later after the race, but I never fixate on this during a race. I consider each component to be separate on race day and once I have switched from one discipline to the next it is history and time to focus on the present.  
   I could definitely feel the fatigue on the run from the hard biking. I was at present nursing an injured foot from an aquaman race I had done during the week which caused a bone in my foot to shift and become painful. I honestly didn't even think I'd be able to run in time for the race so you could say this was a good little workout. I ended up 8th Pro for the day and overall was content knowing that I had given it my all and wasn't "complacent" on the swim or bike portion. 

    
RESULT: 8th PRO

Rev 3 Knoxville

    Knoxville Olympic distance was my second race this year with Rev 3, and I love their organization and attention to detail. You can always be assured a practice swim the day before, which I especially appreciate. Although one of my downfalls and biggest stresses is racing urban triathlons. It also seems that every time I do an urban triathlon I am without my "pitcrew."  When you have no family or support at a race it makes it a bit weird to finish and not really have anyone to high five or hang out with.  Fortunately I was rooming with another pair of pros and got to know them on this trip, which added a fun element to this triathlon.
    The swim was in a river, we swam up current and than back down and had to pull ourselves up and out onto the dock. I had a much better swim here than I have had in the last couple of races this year. It was a wetsuit legal swim for the first time this year and I go to wear my new Blueseventy Helix wetsuit and I think it made all the difference. I came out of the swim in 14th place out of 26 pro females, so I was feeling pretty good about the race so far. Anytime your not last as a first year pro you're doing well!
    The bike was actually pretty hilly and a more technical course, which is usually more of my style. Usually. I managed to lose contact with other riders in the event and found myself out on the bike course unable to see anyone, which sometimes makes it hard to push the pace and see where all of the turns are coming up at.
    Onto the run I pushed hard trying to catch other athletes and my perseverance paid off! I caught three girls by the end of the run. A new thing that Rev 3 is trying this year are tubes of water on the run, and they are amazing! Its like being given a superlight bottle of water to hang onto and drink during the race.  I wish every race had this as an option. I finished the run in 39:57, not a bad time for an early triathlon, thank you to Alaina Case for pushing me all the way to the finish line. My overall place was 18th out of 26 Pro Athletes.  Overall the bike course was really pretty and the run was on a peaceful bike path, I would definitely go back next year!

The transition area featured banners of every Pro in the race, super cool!

ITU Draft Legal Clermont Triathlon

This was my very first ITU style race and I was really excited and probably the most nervous I've ever been to do a triathlon. This was also my very first Pro race and my Aunt, Uncle, Mother, and 88 yr old Grandmother were coming along for the trip! Unfortunately, the lake was extremely dry this year and that will forever be the talk of THAT triathlon. They lined us all up and than had us walk about 250 meters out to the start line in knee deep water to ensure that we "swam" the full 750 meters of this sprint triathlon race. This made it pretty interesting when it came time to exit the water! Anyways, the gun went off, and me being all the way on the right side of the line immediately fell into last place, after all the dolphin diving ended and we began our actual swim. It was fast, furious, and all I could think was oh my God, I'm in last place and it's only 15 second into the race. 

The starting line, pretty much all of this water that you see was higher than knee deep!

It was an interesting swim, everyone swam in one straight line as you can tell by how we came out of the water. I ended up gaining two positions and didn't come out of the water last, but came out too far back to make the first bike pack or the second. I ended up chasing for the whole race with two other girls. 

A picture of me exiting the water at Clermont. 

After getting organized with two other girls we attempted to chase down the bike pack, but only had about 12.5 miles to do it. We were definitely gaining on them, but frustratingly never quite caught up. I also ended up working alot harder on the bike than other girls that were in larger bike groups and able to save more energy for the run.  Never the less, I loved doing this race. The tactics involved during an ITU draft legal race is definitely exhilarating and makes for a more fun race. 

Onto the run, which is my strength, I was able to pick up at least five positions and finish the 5K feeling strong. 

I definitely encourage every athlete to run with their tongue out!! (really it was just great timing)

My Uncle, no doubt, sharing his wisdom and perspective on how the race went, lol (it was his first triathlon spectating). Also my Grandmother and other members of my family hanging out post race. 

Rev 3 Costa Rica

     I remember the first time I clipped my shoes onto my bike for T1 during a triathlon and declared; "this is either going to be great, or its going to be a disaster." It was GREAT, I saved a lot of time in transition and mounted my bike much faster. I wish I could say the same of my recent exploit in saving time in my transitions. I've been skipping socks for the run in order to save time in transition and during this race, which included a beach run and a course that resembled something of an obstacle course and car dodging mayhem, it seemed to be a disaster.
    This is my first year as a pro and has definitely been more of a challenge, but also great at the same time. The practice swim on friday was alot of fun. I practiced in my new Blueseventy Swimskin (PZ3Tx) and my new Blueseventy siren goggles. I have to say that out of all the goggles I've used to race in; these are definitely the best, no fogging and no sunglare! The water was very rough and choppy making it hard to spot buoys. I actually prefer it to be a bit choppy and was hoping that race conditions would be the same. Unfortunately race day the winds had calmed down for the mornings swim of two laps in Playa Conchal in Costa Rica. I exited the water having to chase down the girls in front of me. The swim is a bit of a weak point and I'm working on my swimming and getting used to drafting off others and staying with the group.
    The bike course was a bit brutal, it starts off on a short section of gravel leaving transition and climbs and grinds up a long steep hill. The total elevation gain on this course is around 2300 ft. The bike was going pretty well until the final two miles. I lost my chain and had to stop to fix it, costing me probably around 30-45 seconds. Next I hit the gravel section and it jarred me and the bike so bad that I lost my chain again and it jammed into the gearing and couldn't be undone. I ended up running my bike about 150 meters into transition!
     Onto the run, it started on the beach and at times was a bit hard to tell where I was supposed to be running. I ended up developing huge silver dollar blisters somewhere around mile 2 and just suffered to get to the end of the race. Lessons learned on a difficult course! I ended up Tenth overall and on a tough course against stiff competition, I'll take it.

Doing an interview at swim practice on Friday

Post Race, icing my poor feet after getting silver dollar blisters and running  unnaturally for four miles

Rev 3 website for race
http://rev3tri.com/costa-rica/costa-rica-news/
Link to a video for the Pro Race Recap.
http://vimeo.com/38892119

New Year, New Gear

This being my first year as a Pro Triathlete I decided that I should take it up a notch and get a G.P.S. to train with, maybe even a heart rate monitor. I might even go crazy and get a power tap for the bike.  Training with all these devices has never really appealed to me. I've always prided myself on not needing all the latest gadgets and just walking out the door and using what I have and going off of feel and not worrying about numbers all the time.  That being said, most people that I talked to were a bit surprised to learn that I trained with nothing. We have a great running trail in Colorado Springs that has mile markers, so at least I've gotten some feedback on my run pacing in the past and that was always good enough for me. But now I will have a complete log of the run, elevation, and heart rate data with my new Garmin Forerunner 110.
    I'm also excited to be swimming in Blueseventy this year! I'm hoping to have all the gear before my very first ITU race in Clermont, Florida on March 3. I'm super nervous and excited to be racing ITU, it seems like I've waited five years to experience this racing style. Actually, I have waited five years to get a shot at ITU.  I love the head to head competition and knowing exactly where the leaders in the race are and being pushed hard to compete.

Hy-Vee Triathlon, 5150 Championships

This is number two of my championship races that are back to back. I competed in the Elite Age group wave in the Championship 5150 race. I'm excited to get another opportunity to race some of the same girls from the National Championships. Oh yeah, there's also a huge prize purse for amateurs, one of the largest ever of its kind! 

First place gets a Mini Cooper plus $5000 and prizes go 5 deep. 

Second place- $4000 in prizes

Third place- $3000 in prizes

Fourth place- $2000 in prizes

Fifth place- $1000 in prizes

So, there is a lot on the line and people are extra anxious and stressed. Coming into the race all the pre-race briefings kept stating this would NOT be a wetsuit legal swim. The water was above 83 degrees, but what do ya know, it ended up coming down to a legal temperature of 78. There was definitely a lot of chaos in transition and I have to say a lot of upset Male Elite age group athletes. Apparently most of the females had prepared for the unexpected and brought the wetsuit with them anyway, mine just required a trip back to the vehicle; Thanks Mom! 

The swim had six turns on the course, and I was a bit concerned, especially after what happened at Nationals. So I made sure to get a good look at the buoys and angles and all that before the start. The swim went well and its always nice to not have to swim through bodies of past waves. I started working together with another swimmer half way through the swim and she helped keep me on track once we hit the section heading into the sun.

Heading out on the bike I tried to settle into a pace, but it was a hard thing to do with more than 25 corners on the course. We were also constantly being watched by officials on motorcycles and at one point I was almost certain I had received a penalty for blocking. I was riding in the same lane as the girl in front of me but it was a bit left of the gutter. I didn't have the greatest day on the bike, and on the last corner into the park I came in a bit hot and crashed. HARD. My disc caught some wind and started fish tailing and swung completely around. I ended up facing the other direction and in bike traffic leaving the park. I knew for a fact that I had bounced my head off the pavement and my hip was pretty injured at the moment. After sitting there for what I think was a few moments I saw a chic come around the corner and that's what got me up and back on the bike. 

I started the run with a bleeding shoulder, torn shorts, and a huge contusion on my butt/hip. I was in 7th place. NOT GOOD. I started out running as hard as I could but it took over three miles to get within site of the females in front of me, but I got there. I started passing girls with less than 2 miles to go in the race and passed my last girl on the hill right in front of the finish line to take 4th place overall and a personal record on the run of 39:07.  Sadly I was only five seconds behind 3rd and barely missed the podium. But I did get a pair of Zipp 404's as my prize!!

Overall Place: 4th, 2:14:27 

Hy-Vee Swag Bag

USAT AG Nationals

USAT Nationals has really been the focus of the whole year. I've wanted to do well at this race ever since I started racing six years ago. My very first experience with AG Nationals was in Kansas City, MO in 2005. This particular race was completely rained out, and I have to say I was almost relieved on that particular day. I was in no way prepared for the level of competition that year and honestly I think it might have really discouraged me. Just looking around at all the other racers I felt I was in way over my head. My next National race experience was Portland, Oregon in 2007 and 2008. I fared well placing 13th in 2007 and than 11th the following year, but it definitely wasn't satisfying enough for me. I wanted to place and bring back a medal.

    Race day morning I was excited and a bit nervous, but felt well prepared and ready to kick some butt. I was one of the last groups to go off, so that meant waiting and watching everyone else start their swim. It also meant we would be out there a full hour later in the heat of the day. The swim was a bit different with four turns to make and it made it crucial to swim a straight course in order to have a fast time. Unfortunately at the first corner it turned straight into the sun and I couldn't find the next corner buoy, and neither could the hundreds of people in front of me. Almost the whole field swam out way too far left and swam extra. This was a costly mistake that would later cost me.  SWIM TIME: 24:08
   On to the bike I was looking for revenge to make up lost ground. I paid close attention to how many in my age group I was catching. I believe I caught four girls and I assumed there were still a few ahead and maybe some gaining, so I kept the pace at a leg burning speed. I caught my friend Beth, who was in a prior wave, before the turn around and gave her a shout out of encouragement. After the turnaround two girls in my ag did catch me and it was a battle back and forth to keep them in sight and also put some time on them. I was able to drop the one in all black and put some time on her, but the girl with green socks stayed slightly ahead. BIKE TIME : 1:05:38

  Next up the run headed straight up a steep hill right out of transition and it was there that I passed the girl in green socks and didn't see her again. This was a steep and surprisingly long hill and it definitely took a minute or two to recover from afterwards. Around mile 3 I was surprised to see a girl from my age group catch up. I ran with her for a minute or two to try and challenge, but I couldn't hold on. Frustrated I tried to accept the fact that I was now definitely in second place and needed to keep on the pace if I had any chance at passing her back if she started to falter. The finish line was definitely a welcome sight today, but overall I felt pretty strong with the effort I put out.
RUN TIME: 39:51

OVERALL TIME: 2:11:56
AGE GROUP PLACE: 3rd

Beth and I the night before the race being silly.