Race Reports x3 2018 - Drake Half, Clear Lake Tri, and Bluff Creek Tri

Well, I've been a giant blog slacker... plenty to say just zero time to synthesize any of it so starting with something easy.  Three quick race reports for my fitness adventures so far in 2018.

I decided last year after being a giant slacker and doing one whole triathlon and a couple of 5k runs to get myself organized and fit again.  My gym has this Inbody measurement device that looks at hydration, muscle and fat mass for all parts of your body and such.  I did the first measurement at the end of August in 2017 when I decided to get my tush moving again.  And then did a fifth measurement in May of 2018 and found I was down 8 lbs and 4.4 % body fat (I'm sure in July I put some of the squish back on but such is life... I like sweets too much).

First the Drake Half Marathon

I set some goals as part of the getting back in shape process and that was to do another half marathon and three/four triathlons this year.  Not going to let my body or the weather hold me back so I got myself signed up.



I hadn't done this race before but it sounded like a nice small race to do.  I started doing group runs with the Vardo running group in Ames.  I ran in all kinds of weather and did a least two long grueling treadmill runs thanks to mother nature's whimsy but built a good base and was ready when race day came.  The weather for Drake was about as nice as it could be for a blustery April morning.  We saw lots of vardos and Triracers at the start and I was in good spirits.  I picked a pacer close to where I hoped to end up and then We were off.  

My carpool buddy Ashish

One of the things I was trying leading up to the race was different nutrition options.  My body doesn’t tolerate Gatorade or GU so I generally avoid all free non water offerings at aid stations.  I had been testing a couple Young Living options for hydration and energy so I had a small water bottle with Aminowise, a banana, and two Nitros with me.  I started with the prerace banana, took a nitro between mile 5 and 6.  My pace was right where I wanted to be in the mid nines and felt pretty good through the never ending rolling hills (didn’t expect quite so many), and missed the right time to take my last nitro so miles 11 and 12 I didn’t have much in the tank but pulled it together for a strong finish. My final time was 2:08 which was in my top three for fastest half marathons.  I had fun and would definitely do that course again.

Clear Lake Triathlon

Second new tom me race of the year was Clear Lake triathlon.  My folks have a condo just up the hill from this race so I spend a lot of time training on this course when I’m in town.  I was busy with kid stuff in the days leading up to the race, and I hadn’t really done any racing in 2017 (yeah it sucked and I was stuck last year so this was the year of getting it done).  I threw all my gear together at 10 pm two nights before, then had this and that for the kids after work and rushed up to the lake with Joshua.  I realized as I was getting my gear set out I forgot two things... my wetsuit (not a deal breaker as we’d swam in the lake a couple of weeks earlier) and my goggles!  

Running out of the lake took forever

Yes the former competitive swimmer forgot the goggles.  It was ten pm and there were no options for getting a replacement pair.  I found some kiddie goggles in the condo as a last ditch but thankfully once I set up, I was in transition talking to one of the race volunteers and told them my goggle issue and they said follow me, led me to another local woman who had three pairs of goggles and she set me up with an older pair. They were perfect.

The swim was brisk at the start with water temps in the mid 70s. I hit the start and hyper ventilated a bit the first 100+ yards and I had to do couple quick breast strokes to settle down and give myself a pep talk, and once I calmed down it was smooth swimming.  One thing to note is the lake is pretty

smiling because running is fun

shallow so many ran in a ways, but I opted to swim as soon as it was deep enough. I didn’t follow the same rules getting to shore and ran quite a ways in the lake and legs were burning so probably should have kept swimming.  Didn’t matter because my son and folks were on the shore cheering me out of the water.

The bike was full of small rolling hills and large wind turbines and while I had decent bike training going into this there was a consistent but not super strong wind and I didn’t feel as strong as I’d hoped... seriously everyone passed me.  

The run course was pretty flat and after a quick transition I was off for downtown and the Surf.  I felt like I’d have a strong run and the clouds were hanging on with the cooler air.  I was having fun and we ran through downtown and saw the family again before heading out to the Surf and back to the finish at downtown.  While I didn’t see any racers I knew It was awesome to have part of my family there.  It was a very well supported race and I’d definitely do it again.

Sprint triathlon 750 m swim 13:54, 12.5 mile bike 46:53, Run 5k 28:39 overall time 1 hour 33 minutes

Bluff Creek Triathlon

Leading up to this one I always seem to waiver between doing the sprint and the Olympic distances because the run is always a hot steamy suck fest.  I told myself this year that I was going to stay with the challenge of the Olympic and just adjust the best I can.  I brought several icy water bottles, and a cooler with my cooling shrug which keeps my skin cool when wet as well as a cooling towel on ice.


I did forget my racing sunglasses (case but no glasses) so had to run back up to the truck to get my everyday ones that are also sport ones.  I also forgot breakfast so I ate one of the granola bars I had with me.  Did I say I was nervous about doing the Olympic distance... uh yeah just a bit distracted.  Oh and this race totally snuck up on me as I didn't do any riding after RAGBRAI until the Wednesday before the race and I hadn't done any distance swim workouts until the Monday before.  Eek!

I had fun in transition despite getting arriving later than expected.  I visited with as many of the triracers and Ames folks as I could before the race started as we were well represented.  I took a few calming breaths before the swim start and I was off.  

Again I made bad decisions on goggles as I grabbed an old mirrored pair with impossible to see out of lenses instead of just my tinted pair (time to invest in some new pairs).  Needless to say that made sighting nearly impossible during the swim.  I was forced to sight off my nearest neighbors as the red bouys are really hard to see (race directors... orange or green please) and you can't see the turnaround point for the swim course until you are 1/3 of the way through the swim as you skirt the shore on your left for quite a while before things open up so you don't really sight off the bouys until you are almost to the turn around.  I ran into traffic of the two waves in front of me about half way in and spent the rest of the time weaving through people to the turn.  After that sighting was a little easier with one red and one green bouy before the slippery run out of the lake.

Two awesome ladies (three I guess :)

Once on the bike I was cruising around 18-20 mph until the turn at Pilot mound and the roll to Twister Hill.  I think my max speed on the return trip was just short of 40mph as that hill seemed steeper then the hill on the way out.  After the first big hill I was a bit wiped and it took me a few miles of grinding things out (yes with people passing me) before I pulled it together and had a more focused return trip.  The second hill was a slow grind up (4 mph) but I had taken on some steady nutrition before getting there and felt a lot better after that one.  

My Ames teammates

I made it back to transition and did the dance of the gear swap including my cooling shrug and I was off on a shuffle to the finish.  The course goes through a lovely prairie for 1/4 mile (this is actually the suckiest part of the run despite being lovely because the humidity doubled).  Then it spits out onto a short gravel road and onto the main paved road.  This is an out and back with a repeat and there are two decent hills so you get to run up both of them twice. Thankfully the water stops are at the bottom and you hit those each twice as well.  I was pleased with the camaraderie on the course with people encouraging each other and found I started doing it as well and kept a smile going through the slog which helped keep me moving.  I made sure to double up my water at each stop to drink and to wear, and I took a nitro at the right before the turnaround to repeat the run course.  I had a few sketchy moments where I walked part of the same hill and felt a bit icky but managed to breathe through it.  Highlights of the run... two fuzzy wuzzy caterpillars near the damn at the bottom of the hills.  Never was I so happy to plod across a finish line.  Below is my last take at Olympic distance on this course (2014).  http://blaesing-thompson.blogspot.com/2014/08/race-report-shawn-bluff-creek-olympic .html

The numbers for this go are: .9 miles swim 29:15, 25 mile bike 1 hour 36 minutes, 6.2 mile run 1 hour 11 minutes.  Total for my slowest time ever 3 hours and 32 minutes for the finish.  4th in my age group out of four but I had a great day.  As always thanks for reading.

Race Report Times Two - Cyman Triathlon Sprint 2016

Missing the triracer ladies but
here I am with the fellas.
We had seven total.

Just knocking out some race reports tonight.  Last one of the season on Cyman Triathlon sprint distance 2016.  Since I had spent the day before hanging with my girl doing some volunteering for the Special Olympic equestrian games I figured she owed me some cheering for my last race of the season.  It was nice that this race doesn't start until 9am so we rolled out with the sunrise to head to Bondurant.  Another gorgeous day to race and a tad warmer on land and in the water than when I did this race two years ago.

My biggest concern going into this race would be my ankle. I know I still owe you a blog with that story and I will queue that one up soon.  Needless to day I was looking at the water exit from the lake straight up an embankment and a tad worried.  I had my KT tape on my ankle and I hoped that would be enough.  Although it was mid September the water temps were between 68 - 70 so I opted for my wetsuit for the swim.  It was a calm lovely day for a swim.  They adjusted the buoys a bit so we wouldn't be swimming directly into the sun for the first buoy.  We waited on the Olympic racers to do their heats and most were coming out of the water before we got started.  It was a solid swim for me but I probably held back a bit and my shoulder was barking a bit on the return trip.  They had four or five people on the climb out of the lake to pull people out of the water so getting out of the lake was not an issue.

Starting the bike
Photo by Abby

I made it through transition and headed out on the bike.  This course is a bit of a roller through the beautiful Iowa countryside.  Lots of farms, animals, and topography variety to keep me entertained.  The course essentially has two loops and a couple of short stretches were we overlapped going in the opposite direction.  Despite not having done many rides this year I had a much faster ride than when  I did Bluff Creek six weeks earlier.  All in all I felt a lot more comfortable on my bike for this race.

The run was a different course then when I did Cyman in 2014 so while I knew it was on a paved trail it wasn't on the same trail as before.  There were stretches of shade and sun along the trail.   It was starting to get warm towards the end but I felt like I was having a solid run and really tried to push the pace as I ran the last mile back around the lake to the finish.

The best part of the day was having my best girl Abigail with me.  She is twelve now and has a couple of triathlons under her belt as well.  It is important to me for her to see me race, and the payoff from all the hard work I do leading up to my races.  I also hope that she can see that I push on despite my limitations with MS and injury do the things I love like racing in triathlons.  Either way she was my rock star support team and was rocking the cowbell at the finish for all the finishers coming in.  Super proud of her and grateful to have her by my side.

My best girl and I after the race.

Another season is in the books since my running was derailed so no marathon to close things out. I'm looking ahead to next year and trying to figure out what races to do.  I'd hoped to do my first marathon at Grandmas in Duluth but it looks like I will be in Muscatine celebrating with my crazy extended family that weekend so will have to look towards some other options.  Time to formulate a plan.

As always thanks to my teammates (Triracers and Pearl Izumi), my fleet of medical professionals, and my family for another great year in the wilds of the Midwest.  #endureandenjoy

Race Report - Bluff Creek Sprint Triathon 2016

I am way behind in my blogging this summer so here is my race report from Bluff Creek Triathlon in late July.  After the car accident and then slogging through a half ironman triathlon three weeks later, I've spent most of my summer rehabbing my shoulder and then my ankle (see my national park post for details.).

Before the race

So going into July I knew I planned on doing one of my favorite races using the registration I couldn't use last year with my MS flaring.  The question was did I want to try for the Olympic or just get by with the Sprint.  It was looking to be less humid than last year, but was still going to have a bit of heat on the run especially if I did the Olympic length.  I figured since my season was toast anyway, and I really hadn't done any runs over three miles, that I would just do the sprint and have fun.  It ended up being a lovely day with a comfortable temp at the start and nice lake temp (I've done this race in May with water temps in the low 60's so I will take the 70's over that).

Hanging on the beach we noticed there weren't very many racers from our club this year.  We had a log of folks up in WI doing a training weekend for IMWI so pickings were slim.  I think I counted six of us and was grateful for a little company on the course.  As always we took the bus to the beach for the start.  The swim was pretty uneventful across the to the boat ramp.  I probably had more to give but my shoulder was starting to ache as I came around the last buoy.

Since the wreck in May I've done very little bike training (read none to speak of) and mostly just tooled around with the kids or the occasional commutes to work.  I didn't have high expectations on the bike and really felt my lack of training as people continued to blow by me the entire ride. This is a flattish straight out and back sprint course unlike Twister Hill on the Olympic course.  Looking on the bright side it was a beautiful day, and the wind wasn't too bad this year.  In past years I've done this one with not enough gears to keep up in one direction and not enough gears to stay upright coming back so this was pretty light work.

  

I wrapped up the bike course and then was off to the run course.  This is a bit of a rolling run course with a stretch on grassy and gravel trails, then into the park on the roads down a big hill, over the damn and up another long hill to the turn around point, then repeat in reverse. The run felt pretty strong for me and I probably could have pushed a bit more but heat was rising and I was enjoying the day.  All in all was a great race, not an age group finishs but I had fun and that is what counts.

Thanks to my trainer for the Stongar with Mongar plan who got me most of the way through July. Thanks to my physical therapist who worked to get my shoulder mobile again.  Thanks to my family who lets me wonder off in the wee hours to play outside, and to Pearl Izumi for the sponsorship this year #endureandenjoy365