Training, Training and a Race Report

Training training training. That's what I do. I look like a slob at work, coming off of a 3+ hour training day with just enough time to hop in the shower before showing up to slog it for another 6-8 hours at night. Training has been hard to describe. So much good but not without the bad. I don't know what has happened to my swimming. I am definitely not getting slower, but I feel like I am worse. Probably because I have been doing so much open water lately. I have definitely lost confidence that I am an OK swimmer. These days I dread jumping into the pool, where I meet training partners like Lindsey, who can miss like 2 weeks of Masters and still jump in and push me to my utmost limit. While I gasp for air on the wall just trying to hold her back, she sighs lightly and says "woo tough one today." ha ha. I have a lot of respect for that girl. It would be the easiest swim or one that is torture and she still has the same attitude. I wish I could say that I do the same.

Coach D and I have been trying to figure out why I suck so much in the open water. We have been trying different things, and now sometimes in the water I'm not sure where I started! How did I swim two months ago? Today in the pool Sabrina told me that I have the largest spray from my kick in the pool. That's cool. I wonder where all that power is going, since I am the worst kicker in the group!

Anyhow, frustrations aside, biking and running have been going great. I did a lot of running last week, including two hard interval sessions. Biking has taken a back seat this week, after about 2 months of bike specific work. I had another amazing run session going at Elk this Saturday where I attempted to stay with Magali and Kerry for the km repeats. OMG it was hard. They were running around 3:20-3:38 kms. Coach Lance and Paul say that the km is about 10 seconds slow. That was probably the first time I have ever ran 3:10-3:15 kms. Every time we started, the girls would shoot off like a cannon, while I would struggle to close the gap in the first km. I bowed out after 6/10 repeats, since my hamstring was crying for mercy in that scary "i'm gonna snap any time" way. I also thought that I should waste the $30 entry fee for the Esquimalt 8k the next day, and actually run half decent. On to the race.....

Although I bowed out early from my workout the day before, I was still really tight. I took a nice light warmup with some A,B,Cs and then headed up to the start line. My goal for the race was to run consistently and smoothly, preparing for the run leg of my next tri. I went with my new racing flats, sans socks, to get used to them. This would be my longest run in these flats. I had done two 5km run legs in sprint triathlons with them, and am eager to see how they will hold up in longer distances. I am not the most agile runner, so I was slightly worried about running hard in flats.

The race started and I kept it pretty chill. It always amazes me how fast some people go at the beginning of the race. These people are in every race, and know who is going to and not going to beat them, yet they still insist on sprinting ahead of the leaders like they belong there ha! To the dude that momentarily passed Marilyn Arsenault doing 3 minute kms before fading into the dust, that was just silly!

Anyhow, I settled into a rhythm after a 3:35 1st km, knocking off 3:40s for a few kms. Jeff Hunt was around me, and that was nice to key off of. I thought he may hold a little back for his second race of the day, so I decided to not pace off him. There was nobody else to go with, so I just ran by myself the whole way. 3:40, 3:40, 3:40. It was getting a little strange. I just kept the same pace the whole way.

At km 6, things started to unravel. It was hot out. I was sweating. My feet were sweating. For the last few kms I was reeling a PIHer in that went out waay to fast and was fading fast. I swear he was hitting 3:15 kms at the start, and was now hitting around 3:45. Unfortunately, I could feel the blisters starting under my feet. I could actually feel the liquid shifting under my weight. I held steady for the second to last km at 3:40, but the pain became too much by the last km. I just wanted to finish. To his credit, the PIH guy held it together long enough and had a great race. I finished with a 4 minute km for a time of 29:59.995. I actually saw the official results and that's what it said ha!

I probably would have run slightly faster at the end had I known I was even close to 30 minutes. O well. I just wanted to get that damn show off. Surveying the damage, I had three blisters, each bigger that the size of a quarter. Another blister was on my heel. Not cool. How am I supposed to run a 10km leg in a tri, if I can't even deal with 8k? Unfortunately, I think these shoes are done. Either I'm not a racing flat guy, or not a Saucony guy. I'm going back to my ol' Nike's.

After a post race brekky with my family, I headed out for a bike ride in the 30 degree heat. Damn it was hot. It was so hot that I ditched my usually jersey and put on a racing top. I decided not to bring my extra tube and stuff, since I haven't had a flat in a while and it was to be a short ride. You know what happened. I got stuck on the highway with no phone, no money and a 3 km walk in my socks to the nearest gas station. With all of the blisters, it was pretty hellish. A $36 (honestly it was like $2/ km!!!) cab ride later, I was home and grumpy! Had to work in the night, which I barely managed with a heavily taped up foot.

Today was an ugly swim that I will not talk about. I'm over it. I just want a solid week of training before the Self Transcendence tri this weekend. Swim and Bike tomorrow. Happy training.

Mj