San Diego WCS..Finally!

Almost 3 weeks ago now I competed in my first WCS race in San Diego, California. This race was also the last Olympic selection event for the US where the top US female would make the 2012 Olympic Team (if she also finished in the top 9). I went into this race with the only intention being to gain experience and learn from the opportunity that I was given. A year ago, I would never have guessed I would be on the start line at San Diego where the worlds best ITU athletes were competing.

Luckily, the race fell on the last weekend of my break from school before summer classes started. I went out there on Wednesday and the race was Friday. I did my usual pre-race routine and felt good going into the race and knew I had great training behind me. I had a pretty good swim and ended up with the second chase pack during the first lap of the 8 lap bike course. Over the next couple laps we caught the chase pack, and were caught by another pack and ended up riding about half the race with roughly 40 women. I have never been in such a large bike pack during a race! I got so caught up in everyone around me and the technical course that I forgot to get in the fluid and nutrition I would need for the run.

I felt good the first lap of the 4 lap run course but faded every lap as the lack if hydration and nutrition caught up to me. On about the third lap I started seeing double on and off and grabbed any water I could at the aid stations. At the end of the day, I was 48th out of the 70 women on the start list and successfully completed my first WCS race! I have so much more to bring to the table but have learned so much from this experience, I cannot wait for what the future holds!

Honeymoon Training

It has been a few months since Ed and I were on our honeymoon (aka training camp!) in Amelia Island, but here is a blog of the photographer we had the chance to meet at the pool while we were training! Thanks Toby!

http://tobyrichardsphotography.blogspot.com/2012/01/amelia-island-fl.html

Clermont Continental Cup

One of the best things about this race is that there is no air travel, just a 90 minutes drive from school! I drove down Friday after class and met Ed and our training partner Bj at the course. We did the normal swim, bike, run routine that the day before the race always calls for. It was so nice to have both of them there!

The day of the race was pretty boring until the 3:30pm race start. I leisurely woke up, did my shake out run around the hotel then stretched and stayed hydrated until it was time to head to the course. I got to the course around 1:30pm and did my bike warm up in the state park before we were able to enter the race course. Since the race is on the main road going into the park, we could only enter during our allotted 15 minutes between races. After entering the course and parking, I found my favorite juniors under the Triton Elite Team Tent before continuing my warm up.

As the start approached, we were called to line up. We lined up in the sand on the beach then walked about 150-200m into the water since the lake was so shallow. By walking that far, it ensured that the swim was much closer to a 750m swim as opposed to a 200m swim with 550m of running/dolphin dives. Don't get me wrong, there was still a great deal of dolphin dives and running as we exited the water! So the swim went by quick and I made the mistake of being in the middle of 2 packs going into the first buoy and got converged on. I was able to only make up a little time on the way back to shore. As soon as my hands felt the bottom I started dolphin diving then running through the water up onto the beach to transition.

I had a smooth first transition and made a small chase pack within the first lap. We ended up being the second chase pack and tried to catch the pack ahead with no luck. The bike was 4 laps out and back- no hills and nothing real technical. We were able to work fairly well as a group but were unable to gain any measurable time on the next pack.

I stumbled with my running shoes in T2 a bit. Once I was out running I felt significantly better than I did in Barbados two weeks ago, but my legs were still not responding the way I would have liked. I focused on my form and raced hard until the finish! This was by far not one of my best races, but I continue to learn about myself as a competitor. It is still March and there is so much time left in the season to be excited about!

Next stop: Mooloolaba World Cup!

Barbados Continental Cup

First, it’s hard to be upset no matter what the result of the race was when this is the race venue...

While watching all the tropical fish below during my cool down after the race, I reflected on how lucky I am to travel around the world doing what I love! I wouldn’t be able to do it without the support of my family and husband AND the understanding and flexibility of Coach Jennifer and my program directors at UF!

Last weekend Jennifer and I made a quick trip (flew out Friday evening and arrived back in the States Sunday evening) down to Barbados where I raced an ITU sprint Continental Cup. Overall I would describe the race as “good, not great”.

The women’s race started at 9:30am just after the men’s race. After lining up, we actually had to start twice since the starter blew the horn without announcing “take your mark” the first time. Once we had a clean start, I felt like the swim was over the minute it started. Most of the field seemed to be together throughout the swim with a couple women leading the charge.

I wasn’t expecting much to happen on the bike since it was 5 laps of 20km with only two 180 turns a lap, but I was wrong! There were a handful of girls that took the bike out hard and luckily right at the first 180 turn I was able to hop on the back of their pain train. Our front group of five worked together and was able to go from a 17 second gap the first lap, to nearly 1:45 by the time we got back to transition. With all of us taking short pulls, we were able to lengthen our gap more every lap while successfully combating the wind. This was great since the run was only a 5K and we all knew almost 2 minutes would be hard for anyone to make up over such a short distance.

I knew going into the race that my overall fitness is nowhere near its peak- it’s February! This time last year I still had another month before my first race and I have already competed twice in 2012. This concept is very hard to accept in the middle of the race and I quickly became frustrated with my lack of leg turn. I felt better as I entered the 3^rd and 4^th lap (the run was four laps of 1.66km) but then the race was over. I was able to hold onto 5^th, which I am not disappointed with! It was great to have Jennifer there to see me race and to travel with.

Overall, a good trip down to the Caribbean! I hope I get to visit there again with a little more time to enjoy the country without school looming over my head!

Next stop, Clermont ITU Cup!

La Paz Pan American Championship

Even though I have raced and traveled to south america on my own, the trip down to Argentina this past weekend was like no other. The race itself had incredible support (although hot with a high of 97 degrees for our 2pm start time). The streets of La Paz were lined the entire way spectators, some places close to the finish line were at least three people deep! The swim consisted of a 1.5 loop course, one direction directly against the strong river current. When I was swimming the course the day before it took me almost 10 minutes to get to the far buoy and barely over 4 to get back! To get to the swim start, we had to climb into small, personally owned motor boats that took us down river about 600-700m. I was able to make the front pack of women coming out of the water and into transition. The nine lap bike course was mostly out and back with two moderate hills per lap. There were children and volunteers holding water out as most of the women tried to keep our body temperature down as much as possible. A couple women fell of, but for the most part group stayed together and was able to put a 2.5 min gap to the next pack. The run was a very hot 4 lap course with 1 moderate hill per lap (one of the ones we also biked). With it being so hot I tried to start a little conservative and was able to work my way from about 12th to7th, but couldn't close the gap to 6th.

The travel was a bit crazy. I started the trip by driving 5 hours from school in Gainesville to Miami so I could have a direct flight to Buenos Aires. After the 8 hour flight, I took a 30 minute shuttle/taxi to the bus station then it was another 8 hour bus ride to get to La Paz. The community of La Paz was very welcoming of all the triathletes. I had no idea that this race started in 1984, and the entire support staff, medics and law enforcement are volunteers. This is a huge event for their city, with over 1000 age group racers onSaturday followed by a huge party until 2am. Although the travel was rough (including some food poisoning on the return flight), I really enjoyed my experience in La Paz!

http://www.floridatoday.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=2012301190037

Wedding!

I apologize for the delay in posting, I got very caught up in the Christmas holiday and my WEDDING!

Great Articles on Blood Clots and Endurance Athletes

As I continue to research I will post more information concerning blood clots, deep vein thrombosis and pulmonary embolism AND how they relate to endurance athletes. Please take time to read at least one of these articles/blogs to understand how to prevent these from occurring and what the symptoms are.

They can develop after hard training sessions if you sit in one place for too long (at an office, in an airplane, in a car, etc.) or from the physical adaptations of being an athlete. Endurance athletes especially tend to have lower heart rates which means slower blood flow and we tend to push ourselves to a point of dehydration (thicker blood making it harder to the heart to pump, and being pumped slower). These are just two factors that can make an athlete more susceptible to blood clots, compound that with how often athletes travel and the risk increases. Here are a few great articles/blogs on the subject.

DEEP VENOUS THROMBOEMBOLISM IN A TRIATHLETE

http://kierdoestri.blogspot.com/2011/03/how-does-professional-athlete-get.html

http://www.airhealth.org/index.html

http://www.active.com/cycling/Articles/Hidden_danger__DVT_in_endurance_athletes.htm

U23 National Championships - Buffalo, New York

I had a great experience getting to race in the U23 National Championships that were held in conjuncture with the Elite National Championships! Buffalo was a great venue to have the race at and I was lucky enough to have my mom AND Coach Jennifer there as support crew.

The swim was barely wetsuit legal, which meant that the temperature was not bad with a wetsuit on. The swim was 2 laps and in between laps we had to get out, run around a boat ramp then dive back in. By the first turn buoy I thought I was right with the front pack only to realize I was with the chase pack. About halfway through the first lap I made the decision to try to put as much time between me and that chase pack as I could. The only problem with this was that I ended up swimming the remainder of the first lap and all of the second lap solo.

Once I got on the bike I was able to see a couple girls right up ahead. I caught up to them and tried to work together but couldn't get organized. I saw the next group (the true chase pack) just under 2 minutes ahead of me and decided to go for it. I was able to catch that group about half way through the bike but again we couldn't get much organized and ended up being caught by the 3rd pack. Laura Bennett and Helen Jenkins were out front putting time on us every lap - they were working together like a fine tuned machine!

Once we got on the run I settled into a "comfortable" pace a little too early but ended up finishing strong and clinched my first U23 National Title and 4th overall! I couldn't be much happier with how the race went and how the season has gone! One more race in Myrtle Beach, SC to finish the USAT Elite Racing Series then off-season!

http://www.floridatoday.com/article/20110927/COLUMNISTS0303/109270301/Mark-Decotis-Super-Saturday-Brevard-County-athletes

U23 World Championship - Bejing, China

WOW, What an experience! This past weekend I competed in the ITU U23 World Championship held in Bejing, China.  This was my first race out of North America and I think I was more nervous/ stressed about the long flights than the race itself. During the long international flight I walked around and stretched about every 90 minutes and tried to sleep during a lot of it. We arrived at the hotel in China earlier evening, grabbed some food and headed straight to bed. Having never traveled so far before I didn’t know what to expect regarding jet leg. (I had researched it before leaving but it’s completely different when you experience it). I never got a solid night of sleep when I was there, it was always very broken.

The morning after I arrived we headed to the pool then down to the course on our bikes then a short run back to the hotel. I could not believe how stale I felt! The long travel really does dramatically affect your body, especially making it hard to elevate your heart rate. Luckily I have a coach very experienced with athletes racing internationally and she gave me the perfect workouts to do leading up to race day that would help me feel sharp! Thanks Jennifer!

By race morning I felt back to normal and went through my usual warm up routine. The U23 Women were lucky enough to have it rainy and far from hot on race day. This really didn’t bother me since everyone would be racing in the same conditions and stress does not change the weather.  I was able to keep my warm ups on until being called out to start on the pontoon which helped keep my body temperature from dropping too much right before the start.

Here is a quick course preview: The swim would be one big 1500m lap with a few left hand turns, the bike was a 6 lap course with a 2-3minute climb followed by the downhill and a few technical turns and the run was a 4 lap mostly flat course.

The race started and since the first turn buoy was 500-600m away it was a cleaner start than usual. After the first turn buoy I noticed the packs beginning to separate and was able to make the decision to stay with the front swim pack. About 15-20 women came into the first transition together but by the end of the first lap a pack off about 30 women formed. It remained this way through the rest of the rainy bike portion of the race. Coming into the second transition with 30 women was a bit chaotic to say the least. By the first 400m of the run the front packed turned into about 15 women. Through the next 3 laps the pace would fluctuate depending on who was leading but we kept a good pace. As we ran through transition and onto the final lap, there was a surge that separated the top 5 women from everyone else. I was able to hang onto that pack and ran in 4^th position for most of that final lap. Right after ascending the short, steep hill that led to the finish line I was passed by the 5^th place women. I surged to stay on her heels and we passed the 3^rd place women. As we neared the last 180 turn (about 300m from the finish) I could not hang onto her shoulder, and she beat me by 4 seconds. I ended up finishing the race in 4^th place, just 11 seconds off the winner.

Coach Jennifer and I achieved the goal we set for this race which thrills me..  missing the podium by 4 seconds proves that we still have plenty aspects of the race to improve upon. This race motivates me to continue to train smart and hard!

Thanks so all my sponsors, USAT, Coach Jennifer, my fiancé Ed and my family for all of their support to make this trip a success!

Next stop: Elite Nationals in Buffalo New York!

San Fransisco Continental Cup

Ed and I after my 2nd place finish in San Fransisco!