Transition Drill Time

Transitions. They can make or break your race ... seriously! Think about it. If you take 1 minute in T2 while your competitor takes 2:30, they have to run 30seconds faster than you per mile (for a 5K) just to keep up with you. That 1:30 difference can make a big difference!

So, if they are important how do you make them fast? Practice. practice, and some more practice. This practice involves trying out different setups, a different order of putting things on, maybe different gear. You don't have to do loads of races to get this practice. Instead, you can do "mock" triathlon/transition drills.

Every time you finish a bike ride practice getting off your bike. Now, that might sound silly, but when stop riding ...
- Do you unclip your shoes?
- When do you take your shoes off?
- Do you completely stop before you do all that?
- How fluid/efficient is the movement?

Now, don't get me wrong. Those aren't the only thing that go into a fast transition, especially since all that happens outside of the actual transition area (TA) ... but it's a good start.

Before our Team in Training (TNT) athletes went to their big race, we practiced their transitions. Oh what fun it is to torture them. =) Jeremy Davis, president of SetUp Events, gave us a few transition bike poles to practice with. We made it a competition between them all and had prizes from our awesome sponsor TriSports.com. Nicole also got some gifts from her other sponsors to spice up the pot.

It was a great day. Athletes learning what works for them, what makes it efficient, the rules of transition ...

Practice your transitions ... what's to lose, but precious seconds off your race time!

Greenville Sprint Triathlon

This is a race that can't be missed. It's right in my backyard and all the big wigs of local triathletes come out to play. Fun times for sure! Besides the Westside Aquatics Center has gotten a complete make over and I was anxious to swim in their new pool. Some of my Team in Training (TNT) triathletes even decided to come out and race.

The morning started out early, as do all race mornings seem too. Not sure what the issues was, but I was all discombobulated this morning. Almost forgot to set out my helmet in my transition area! Finally got all set up and checked on my TNTers. Headed out for a quick warm up on the bike to check the gears. All as good, so time to walk up to the pool. Uh oh, had to run back to my transition and put my socks out ... and sungalsses ... oh, and grab my swim cap! Ok, now all ready.

SWIM: Seeing as I had signed up the day prior, my race number was at the end of the participants. Thankfully SetUp Events changed their timing for pool starts and I was able to jump in with Nicole. Funny thing, we get up there and this girl in front of us was talking about how these two girls always give her a beating in the pool. Pretty sure we are those girls. Heehee! For some reason she always starts before us, and then we have to climb over her in the water. Lady, please change your swim time and start with people that actually swim your speed!

At this point I am already excited to swim, and then we find out we are allowed to dive in ... yay! Boy was it fun to see athletes try and dive when they aren't used to it ... can we say BELLY FLOP! My swim went great. I had a great dive and caught someone before I even took my first stroke. A couple laps later I came up on that girl (from the starting line), but I was nice and went wide when I passed her. =) With abotu 75 meters to go, I lost my swim cap, but other than that the swim went well. Didn't completely find my groove, but was still very happy with my swim.

BIKE: 57 seconds = run in, socks on, shoes on, helmet on, sunglasses, & run out with my bike ... I've seen faster, but I'll take it! The bike starts with a long gradual up hill and continues with rolling hills. I reached the top of that first long hill, turned right and started cruising until this truck & trailer zoomed past me and then slowed down. I seriously could have gone right up onto the trailer if the ramp was down. Crazy! We slowed to almost a complete stop, so me being the impatient one did the illegal thing and passed on the right. Ahh, shocker. Yes, I broke the "riding rules of conduct," sorry. Susan passed me with a few miles left on the bike. I tried to hang close and was able to run in the T2 with her.

RUN: YES! I beat Susan out of TA! But, of course she passed me before the first turn like I was standing still. This was a 2 loop course. I pushed through it & got to that finish line!

Frank Roth ... a-m-a-z-i-n-g! He pulled and pushed my sore muscles into submission. =)

This race was one of my TNTers first triathlon. He is a cancer survivor and his such a happy spirit about his everything. He has pushed his body passed his physical goals. Watching him cross that finish line was not only humbling, but also inspiring!

Hills -or- Wind??

What would you rather deal with when biking, hills or wind?

This past weekend, my coach (Nicole) & I went on a charity ride called the Flight of Doves. It was a fantastic metric century w/ the best SAG stops in the state. With me training for a 70.3 in October this was the longest distance I had done yet this season. I was excited, yet a little nervous for what was to come. Thankfully my coach was out for an easy ride, which helped keep the pressure off of me.

We all start out & instantly I am having flashbacks of a few weeks prior on another group ride. Everyone was riding so close together (something that triathletes rarely experience unless they also have a road bike, which I do not) & I was enjoying the draft. The group was charging up the first several hills & I was going right with them. Soon though, I remembered it was a metric century ride ... my longest ride yet of the season. I backed off. Instantly once I was out of their draft the realization set in that now I had no help pulling me up the hills, except for my own legs. My coach, Nicole, is too small to get a good draft off of!  =)

Up and down, up and up and up and down. It seemed like there were way more up hills than down hills, but I guess it always seems that way! We were cruising along just fine and then mile 48 hit me. Yep, I started bonking. We had 14 more miles to go & I was hurting. My back was hurting, my legs were hurting & I was just spent. Every time I saw a new hill I became pretty vocal about it! At the last SAG stop I ate some cookies, gelled again & sucked it up for the last few miles.

During my bonking session & my extremely cheerful spirit about the hills (hahaha), Nicole asked me if I'd rather ride up hills or against the wind. Of course I barked back "WIND! WIND IS WAY BETTER THAN THESE STUPID HILLS!" At that moment, when you are bonking, I think everyone would probably say they'd rather deal with the opposite of what their current suffer-fest involved.

As this week has gone by, her question has stuck in my mind. What would I rather deal with ... honestly? Hmm, yeah I think I would rather have hills. Shocker I know after this past weekend. But think about it. You can train on hills. There is always an end in sight. Hills are mini challenges, or major challenges depending on the hill/mountain, but when it comes down to it, there is a top to each and every hill no matter how long or steep it might be. Wind on the other hand is unpredictable & you can't really train specifically for head winds. How long will they last? Who knows. How strong will they be (how slow will they make you)? Who knows.

I choose hills!

Heat, Hydration issues ... use NUUNs!

I just have to say NUUNs are awesome! We've been having many days, make that weeks, on end where the heat factor has been over 100 degrees. Wow! its hot out there folks. I get off work at 11am and you guessed it. I'm out in that heat. Smack dab in the middle of the hottest part of the day. It's great race day training right?!

Well, if you are going to be training in the heat, you had better be well hydrated! But, you can't just drink water. If you do, you will still have big problems. So what do you do? How do you get rid of cramps in your legs/feet.  Some people will try things like pickle juice ... YUCK!  Don't really think I could handle that one. But, what I can handle is NUUNs. Their awesome flavors & their easily accessibility makes them my first choice in hydration. They are tablets and they fizz up and dissolve in your water without any stirring or shaking. They are great for not even training, but every day activities. Heck, I even use them when I am standing on the outdoor pool deck when I am life-guarding!

Where has the summer gone??

Well, it's been quite the summer. Racing, working, relaxing, friends ... hmm ... GOOD summer!! There have been a couple races since my last post:

Festival of Flowers International Triathlon:
 - To give you a little view into my day ... after I crossed the finish line I had to lay under a truck because I was so ill and couldn't move. It was a tough day out there for me. Physical battles of GI issues & the mental battles to go along with those made my day difficult. When you are throwing up the entire bike & then loose your gel flask, you kinda bonk. And bonk really really bad.
 - There were some awesome friends down there. And, it was so fun to see some of our "crew" members! When you are desperately struggling just to finish, there is nothing better than having Nicole running towards you yelling and making you push that last little bit you have left.


Caine Halter YMCA Sprint Triathlon:
 - How fun to be racing in my backyard. I've been working at this YMCA for the summer and so I was very familiar with the course. I was 4th female out of the water ... woohoo!!! The bike was 3 loops around Greenville Technical College. There were quite a few good hills on that loop! The run course ended up being pretty flat, just what I like.
 - Finished with 2nd place in my Age Group!
 - Thanks to my mom for coming out and cheering me on. It was really fun to see her at random corners along the course screaming wildly! =)

Clemson Sprint Triathlon - 5.14.10

Clemson Triathlon: 3rd in my age group ... what a day! There were 5 of my Team In Training (TNT) athletes also racing this tri. I planned to get there at 6am (race started at 8am) to get all of my stuff done and then be able to help them when the finally arrived. Somehow there is never enough time for stuff. Probably should have gotten there at 5am. The TNTers start trickling in and Nicole & I go to work. It was so fun going out there with them & seeing them push their limits, overcome fears and become triathletes!!

Thankfully I was able to take my bike our for a quick check of the gears & computer. Stretching? ... nope. Warmup ... nope. Westsuit on ... barely. I had really wanted to get into the water and warm up, but that didn't happen. If I had I would have realized that the anti-fog that I put on my goggles last night DID NOT WORK!!! Oh well, I'm good at overcoming stuff, right?!

It's time for the race to start & Nicole & I are frantically trying to do a few stretches & throw our wetsuits on. There was a lot of tugging and pulling, but we finally got them zipped just in time to run off to the beach where all the other "white caps" were waiting to start swimming.

SWIM: I hang back on the beach and wait till there is about 60sec before I swim out to join the group treading water. BANG and we are off. My TNTers are off on the left edge and I was smack dab in the middle, one from the front. Surprisingly I didn't get clobbered much. Instantly my goggles were fogged up. What? Didn't I put anti fog on them last night? I keep swimming w/ only being able to see in a 2ft radius around me. Finally I look up & see splashes off to my right & I can't figure out if I'm supposed to be turning or not. I stop swimming & start treading water. Yep, you read that correctly. It didn't last long, but it did happen. I was going to try and spit in them & then I just said forget it & pulled those suckers down around my neck & swam the 600m w/o them. Open water swimming is my favorite ... right? Well today you would have never known it. That grove I usually get into never came. My hands hit the sand and I jump up and try and high-knee run my way the rest of the way out of the water, run past the sandy beach and stop at the grass to pull off my wetsuit. Trying to run up the rather long hill and around to TA would have surely not been fun while wearing the wetsuit, so I took it off first. At about half way up the hill Nicole passes me. What is she doing so close to me?! And, she just passed me. Oh no! I will not let her get a better swim time than me. I know this will be the only part of the race I can possibly beat her at, so it was on! We cross the time mat the same time and then it's a race out of T1. ... and I beat her! =)

On to the BIKE: Ok, I leave on a little high b/c I beat Nicole out of T1, but ... well then the throwing up starts. Yes, unfortunately it hasn't gotten any better. It sucks. What can I say. The bike has got a good number of hills, but nothing I shouldn't be able to handle. As the throwing up continues, I start to slow down. Susan passes me and says "SAY - rah!! Try to hang on" and try I did, but she was flying compared to me & I just couldn't keep it. Think I need to start hitting the hills she trains on!

Run time: Yay. The run was awesome! Best one eh-ver!! Haha, just kidding. Not good at all. I was slow. Didn't have anything in me. The run by far was the weakest link. Probably didn't help that I had thrown up the entire time I was on the bike. It's not an excuse, it's just the truth. But I did cross that finish line!

I accomplished what I went out there to do ... finish the race & I have fun in the process!! All the friends out there made it an awesome day. Hearing people yell & cheer me on, whether they were fellow competitors or spectators, always makes me smile. If I'm not smiling on the outside (because I am hurting to much!) I am always smiling on the inside. =) Probably the best part of the day was seeing the excitement on the faces of my TNTers as they crossed the finish line. They have worked so hard this season & are going to rock out at their official TNT events coming up soon. For many of them, this was their first triathlon. I was once in their shoes, & if not for the awesome coach I had then (& still have!) I would not be where I am now ... as an athlete and as a person. Thank you Nicole Ramsbey. I'm sure there will be many more fun days ahead!

4 Years Ago ...

Four years ago today I was scared, anxious & definitely not able to sleep. Why, you ask? The Clemson Sprint Triathlon was that next morning. This was a huge endeavor for me. In one day I would be overcoming what my family/friends thought I was incapable of doing. That previous fall, I had even had a guy laugh at me when I told him I wanted to do a triathlon & he told me I couldn’t do it. I was in my senior year of college, not doing anything athletic at the time, really didn’t seem to have time for anything & was definitely ‘slightly’ overweight ... I called myself “big boned!” (and still do!) That Saturday morning, I went out there and gave it my all. I swam, biked and ran ... and I crossed that finish line & became an official triathlete. It’s funny, I just read my old race report (posted as a note on my Facebook) from that first Clemson sprint, that was quite a fun day!

"Triathlon, from the outside looking in you can't understand it....From the inside looking out you can't explain it."

After that day at Clemson in 2008, I was hooked. Tomorrow will be my 23rd triathlon since I started and that quote is correct ...
- I can’t explain the pain I feel certain days from training,
- I can’t explain the mental battles that go through my head during training and racing,
- I can’t explain the elation I feel after pushing myself to my far extremes,
- I can’t explain the feeling I get when I cross the finish line,
- I can’t explain my addiction.

As I prepare for tomorrow’s race, I still have nervous jitters, but I am a much calmer than four years ago. Tomorrow is going to be a tough day. Every race is tough it seems. The weather is hot and muggy and there are even possibilities of thunderstorms. I race better in cold weather, but I will survive! There might, well probably there will be throwing up, but I will survive! My muscles will be crying and my mind will tell me to stop, but I won’t stop and I will survive!

Not only will I survive, but I will push through my limits, I will finish & I will have FUN doing it!!