Triathlete on a Business Trip

This week I've been in Vancouver whoopin' it up with the good folks of the American Society of Engineering Education. I'm staying at a nice hotel right on the inlet, selected because (1) it had the only pool that looked like I could swim laps in it (2) there are refrigerators in every room so I could eat most meals in and (3) it's right by Stanley Park.

Yes, I attended the conference, but I can only do that for so many hours of the day before my brain implodes. So here's how one triathlete does a conference:

Monday (travel day)

• Pack suitcase half with clothes, half with food (oats, casein, Xtend, raisins, almond butter, tortillas, gladware, plasticware).  Clothes split between work stuff and workout stuff.
• Be only passenger on plane to pull out a picnic lunch from home - chicken + flax oil + brussels sprouts + cauliflower.  (Might have also been the only passenger with an actual "book" and not a Nook/Kindle/iPad etc.)
• Ask cab driver to stop at grocery store on way to hotel to get perishables (pre-cooked chicken, veggies, cottage cheese, fruit).

Tuesday (day of my 15 minute presentation)

• Knock out a darn good back and shoulder workout in tiny hotel fitness center using just dumbells, a stability ball, a lat pulldown, and one adjustable cable machine.
• Rent a bike to ride the seawall around Stanley Park. That hour and a half bike ride was the best $16 I spent here. It was a BLAST.
• Swim in the hotel pool in the evening.  Notice that while it is large enough and deep enough to swim laps, it is unfortunately warm enough to cook an egg.

On the seawall, hopefully not contracting anything
creepy from the borrowed helmet

Making do with what they have at the hotel.
This shows nearly the whole weight area.
People wander around the hotel in their
bathrobes to and from the pool. Hmmm.

Wednesday (conference)

• Run the Stanley Park seawall!  Heaven....bliss, for about an hour!
• Ice the legs...love hotel ice machines for that! 
• Toy with the idea of paying $20 for fancy downtown gym but instead get creative (again) for a chest and arm workout (yes, not great timing with yesterday's shoulder workout but I want to hit legs with Kurt at our gym Friday). 

Thursday (travel day)

• Finish reading Becoming an Ironman on the plane and Athlete's Guide to Recovery (thanks to TriCrowd member Joel's recommendation).
• Wear calf compression sleeves on plane, just because.

A funny thing about being away is that I turned my phone off because it's global roaming and expensive (and I'm cheap).  So my family has been emailing me.  Here are some excerpts:

Grant (9): "a bit boring here too with you gone. we go to the pool in the morning, freeze our butts off. then we go home to our house until lunch which we eat at oma's house. we watch smithsonian or play uno or something like that, but today I went to william's house. love you and see ya soon!"

Spencer (11): "Grant and I both miss you and anticipate your return. The time while you were gone has been relatively uneventful."  Can you tell what a mature 11-year-old he is?

Robert (hubs): "Yes.  Love you. me" Classic.  Short and sweet.

By the way, I LOVE Vancouver. It's clean and beautiful and cyclist and pedestrian-friendly. I've enjoyed my few days here but look forward to returning home!

Race Report: TriAdventure Summer Sprint Triathlon

Sunday I raced in the first home-town tri we have had in the area in more than ten years. With over 200 racers, and legions of volunteers, many of whom I know from the gym, it was a great time.

While I was excited to have so many local folks at the race, I have to admit that I felt a little pressure to perform up to my capabilities (e.g. avoid a major blowup). At the same time, I was feeling a bit of….I’m not sure….maybe racing burnout. Or maybe it's that I knew that I had these two back-to-back trips right after the race (I'm in Vancouver as I type). At any rate, I wanted to finish out June with a good race and be able to turn my attention from racing back to training until I race again in August. I switched my thinking around by reminding myself that I love to swim, I love to bike, and I love to run. So during each leg, my mantra would just be “I love to ___”

Swim - 400m (8:08, 22/104 women)

This was a pool swim, in a fairly new facility that was designed in part as the competitive pool for the Virginia Tech Hokies. It was set up in 50m lanes for a 400m snake swim, so just four laps. One look at the swim start seeding and we were all left second-guessing our self-reported pool swim times. I knew there were faster swimmers behind me so the pressure was on to deliver the times I reported. In the pool, it’s clear when you are passing or being passed. In open water, there is anonymity. I think I got a little psyched out, a bit intimidated knowing swimming is not my strength.

There were no ladders, stairs, ramps, or levitation spells to get us out of the pool, so we’d have to hoist ourselves up with spent arms.

I was passed by one person on the swim, my One-on-One Endurance teammate, John King. I actually stopped at the wall, grabbed on, and uttered an entire time-wasting polite sentence like “after you, John, go ahead and pass.” Then I tried to draft off his feet for a bit but pathetically couldn’t hang for the final lap. Not soon enough, the swim was done and I somehow climbed/rolled/flopped onto the pool deck and moved on.  (Despite the mantra, I did NOT love this swim. I'm not super thrilled with my swim time/placement....slacker!!)

T1 (14/108) - This involved some major bike shoe fumbling. With a steep hill and sharp turn out of T1, I had little choice but to put my bike shoes on and run my bike out to the line to mount. Having shoes pre-clipped in could prove tricky or dangerous and as I told others, safety is faster than an accident.

Bike - 20k (38:17, 4/108)

The bike leg was my favorite at this race. Most of it is on a fairly tame (well, for the Blue Ridge Mountains anyway) straight, rolling, freshly paved road. Teddy Roo and I bounded off for some fun, passing a fair number of folks. I saw John King up ahead and focused on keeping him in my sights. And I did, even catching him near the end at which point I chided him to “speed it up”. I averaged a bit over 20 MPH, a good pace for me.

Coming into T2 I heard the announcer, who I later discovered was Cole Harden from the bike shop, say something about “Here comes Cortney Martin into T2 about to head off on the run which is her specialty.” Uh-oh, NO pressure there!!! But just maybe that helped me to believe in myself a little more.

T2 (30/104) - Not good, especially considering Coach is the king of T2! Sloppy! Maybe time to reconsider the socks.

Run - 5k (22:08 - 3/104)

The run began with a sharp turn through a narrow chute and up a flight of perhaps 20 stairs (and major face-plant potential) before heading out on the road. It was an out-and-back course and as I was heading into the turnaround, who should I see coming out but my nemesis, Ellen Sortore (I adore her-- truly) , who beat me by five seconds the week before!! She issued a friendly “come and get me” and I took her up on her kind invitation. I saw Tanya and we exchanged a high-five of unspoken encouragement. I took the suffering up a level, closed the gap, and overtook Ellen. YES!! THIS is racing!! I was jazzed, just thrilled, to come out on top of a head-to-head chase. I felt a surge of adrenaline.

The final half mile is up a pretty good hill and I could not let up no matter how much it hurt. There were plenty of other strong racers on my heels. Two things flashed through my mind: (1) I’ve endured worse burn doing leg workouts with Kurt so don’t be a wuss and (2) I want Coach Jim to see my heart rate on this hill and say “Wow you were working hard, that was some major red-lining there in the final mile” I didn’t want to leave any doubt that I had given it all I had.

The last tenth of a mile has a hairpin turn into the finish and I heard my husband and friends cheering and yelling frantically. I looked back, saw no one, and burned what was left in the tank coming into that sweet finish. I’m pleased to say I ran a negative split. Did you catch that Coach!? Neg-a-tive split!  Miles were 7:13, 7:05, 6:58.

Results - Team

Team One-on-One is small but mighty with Ryan Day winning the overall men’s division, Edie Nault taking second among the women, me fourth overall and top master’s, John King and Tanya Leroith winning their AGs, Matt Pugh winning Clydesdales, and George Santopietro 2nd in his AG. We make quite the rainbow out there.

Results - Individual
Here are the full race results.
4th/104 women, 1st Master's.
Would have been 11th/121 men

I burned all the fuel in the tank, so I feel good about that.

Handing out wet wipes to everyone.
Always the MOM and such a dork.

Lessons Learned

• I am learning that I can race. Up to now, it’s been more about running my own race and letting the chips fall where they may, but now I know I have the guts to race, head-to-head.
• I don't think I swam up to my potential. Why? I'm curious to know how my race swimming compares to my swimming in training. Am I as fast or not? Does my technique slip? Is the limited warmup a factor? Am I afraid to push myself harder? If so, why?
• Embrace the uniqueness of the course. Every course has its challenges due to layout and topography. For this course it was the narrow and steep bike start/stop and the stairway start to the run. it's these differences (assuming it's safe) that make it fun to race at different venues.
• There's still plenty of slack to take out of my racing, particularly in T1 and T2. 

Shout-Outs
Its always nice meeting new triathletes. Hi Kristine and Anna!

Bonus!
I got a mention in the paper. Along with my age. I guess I will have to stop telling people I'm 25 ;-) haha.

USA Triathlon Age Group Nationals

 

I've added the big-daddy race to my calendar, USA Triathlon Age Group Nationals in Burlington, Vermont on August 20.  Last fall, when I met with Coach Jim for the recap of the season and goal-setting for this year, Nationals was on my list.  But as I thought about managing the complicated logistics of it all alone, I took it off the list. Why venture out of my beloved Virginia?

Fast-forward to May, and the candid smiling running race photo. That's the day fate put Mike Morris in my path. He is the fellow in the photo, whom (who?) I have since discovered is a tremendous ambassador for the sport. (Just to get a sense of the situation, I told him he could sell ice to Eskimos!) He and some other local racers have been to several National and World races and says the experience is well worth the aggravation of getting there.

Then Mike put me in touch with a fellow age-grouper, Jan, who represented the US last year in Budapest in the 60-64 age group.  She lives five minutes from me (who knew?!)  and was looking for a traveling companion.

Jan and I met today, hit it off, decided we were half crazy, and agreed to sign up!!

Oh, and I should mention that the weekend BEFORE Nationals I am signed up to do the Luray Double which is an Olympic on Saturday, Sprint on Sunday.  So yep, three races in 8 days and about 1700 miles of travel.  But I will head to Nationals with no expectations or pressure other than to enjoy being immersed in the community of triathletes!

Husband is supportive, Coach is on board, registration is paid. Between June 27 and August 12, NO races for me.  That'll be time for family and kids and some solid training.

Speaking of, I pick the boys up from camp at 2:30 today, I cannot wait to see them! It's been way too quiet around here this week.

Have a great weekend everyone!

Swim Meet

We have a summer swim league in the area and the boys and I have participated the last several years as members of the BCC Barracudas team.  This league encourages adults to participate and I initially did so to support Spencer and Grant -- kind of an "I know what you are going through" solidarity thing. I have to say, if you have the chance to compete in a swim league - master's, rec, what have you - you should.

I didn't grow up on any sort of swim team, I really just learned to swim for triathlons. (thanks Coach Jim!) Swim meet were unknown territory for me.

Let me just say that I truly believe that I push myself as hard as I can for tough intervals in practice. But somehow it doesn't come close to the whole-body hurt of a competitive race like this. Even a triathlon swim, by virtue of the longer distance, is not the same.  In a swim meet you are red-lining very intensely for a very short time.

Here's how it plays out:

You warmed up an hour ago. You wait your place on deck, fidgeting with goggles, adjusting your suit straps. The heat before you finishes. Up on the block, wait for the horn, and DIVE!  The body reacts with momentary shock. You think you paced the first 50 right but somehow you are still dying on the second 50! It's an unfamiliar hurt.  Reach the wall...and stop.  Catch your breath, gather your strength, and hoist yourself out.  

Then in my case, I return to my required volunteer job, still dripping, which is to average race times (two timers per lane). That's my favorite job, I like doing the averages in my head, it's good mental exercise.

Today was kind of funny as there was a very low turnout so some heats were combined. (Tons of the kids were away at 4-H camp including mine.)  My 100 free heat was all the girls/women over 13, but it was announced as the "Girls 13 and 14 year olds" which I promptly thanked the announcer for!!  Yes, the 14-year-old took me handily.  That means I did not win the Dum-Dum lollypop given to the heat winners. Darn it! Oh, and I refuse to do a flip turn. The one time I tried, OK I tried like 100 times in a row, I got so dizzy I just decided they were not for me.  Plus they are no use in a triathlon.

I swam in my first ever relay, told by the team coach that I HAD to. Turns out it was pretty fun with all my (under-18) teammates and I held my own. And we won.  YAYYYYYY!!!!!  WE WON!!!!  I'm not competitive, haha.

I finally figured out today that if I pull my swim cap down over the top of my goggles, I won't get water in them when I dive. Does that make me like the old geezer with his pants pulled up to his armpits?

If you get the chance to do a good old off-the-block, air-horn-in-the-ear swim race, go for it.  It'll get your heart pumping and muscles burning like nothing else!

Strength Training: Compound Lifts for the Busy Triathlete

With limited time for strength workouts during race season, compound movements such as squats and deadlifts are a cornerstone of my re-tooled strength training program.  Kurt's suggested approach, which makes sense, is that I can hit a lot of muscle groups at once making these types of exercises efficient and effective.

I've just started adding squats back into my routine. Squats primarily hit quads, hams, glutes, back, and abs but lower legs, shoulders, and arms also factor in.  I am rusty and have some chronic bad habits to address. I've always had a tendency to fold a bit at the bottom of my squat, I think in part because of my individual biomechanics, but certainly there are things I can do with bar placement and stance to help.

I wanted to see how I was doing on form so I shot some video. (I also need to shoot from the back to look for L-R imbalances.) I was curious if I was hitting anywhere near a competition-legal depth, in which the "top surface of the leg at the hip joint must descend until it is below the top of the knees" (USA Powerlifting) Even though I'm not competing in powerlifting at the moment, I still want a legit squat, and won't settle for sloppy form on any exercise in the gym. (Neither will Kurt, so it's really not an option!) Video confirms that the upper body "fold" is there at the bottom and I'm stopping just short of parallel. Things to work on!



Deadlifts also hit a lot of the major muscle groups of the upper and lower body. Trap bar deadlifts are one variation that I find significantly tougher than my favorite sumo-style ones (see Birthday Deadlifts) and I feel it in my quads more. Video shows that my butt pops up just at the start so I need to work to keep my back tighter and hips lower as I start the lift, driving with the legs, not pulling with the back.



My warmup for all this fun was 3 sets x 20 reps of 35 lb kettlebell swings and 12 lb medicine ball wall toss squats. I followed the squats and DLs with hill lunges (35 steps up, 40 lb bar x 3 sets), leg press, single-leg stiff legged deadlifts with dumbells, calves, and core work.

And today I rest. No workouts whatsoever!! Then some short tune-up workouts Thursday and Friday and RACE DAY on Sunday!

If you are looking for a good fire-ya-up read, check out one of Kurt's monthly articles from Natural Bodybuilding and Fitness Magazine.  This one is about passion, dedication, and commitment to a sport that is truly a lifestyle. Endurance athletes can learn a lot from bodybuilders. I'm very fortunate to work with a world-class natural bodybuilder who serves as a continuous reminder of the rewards of hard work and smart training as well as the importance of sound nutrition, rest, balance, and humbleness.