Heatwave RR

Heatwave Classic Tri has come and gone.  Heatwave is almost an Oly distance race.  This year the course changed a bit with some added distance on the swim and a few added miles on the bike to add up to something like a 1000yd swim, 27 mile bike, and 10k run.  This race is quite a fun one, in my opinion, but I can't really say why.  You are definitely swimming in a lake where the alligators outnumber the racers by quite a bit.  The bike is on the Natchez Trace, which I think is pretty.  And the run is on a mostly open, baking course with full sun (ignore the description on the website of the old run course.  I think there is shade for 1/2 mile).  Everyone melts down in the heat and then drinks a cold beer.  It is good fun. 

Good ol' Keith... :)

My race was....well....good?  I always liked the Ren and Stimpy song..."it's better than bad it's good!"  I am really still so, so, so flat for these races.  Nothing is near my best right now, and I feel like I have been stuck in the same place for the past two years where I am just fit enough, but not race ready.  My times are coming down bit by bit, so it is not as though I haven't been making progress, it just feels like a very flat line with a little slight elevation from time to time.  No big changes in my racing.

And that is okay because I am out there, finding the good in it all, and believing that when the time is right I will be back in the mix.

Speaking of the mix, I opted to NOT start in the elite wave and went to the time trial start at the back of the race.  In the moment, I just didn't feel confident racing the other women.  It is odd, because in the past I HATED being in the back and wanted to be where the race was.  I would have always jumped in the wave start if invited.  On this day, I just oddly did not care and did not want to trot down to the front.  I surmise my head was lacking confidence, so I started in the back and made my race a solo time trial.

I also just kind of felt like an out of date, left on the shelf too long-mom.  LOL!  Not knocking us moms!  But, I was one of the only women there without a disc, I didn't line up in the "elite" wave, etc, etc.  And, I am starting to feel old around all of the young whipper snappers!  I just felt a little awkward, and that is probably because I am so out of the loop these days and just making my way little by little back into the sport. 

The swim was uneventful and longer than advertised, but I don't ever see a time when I get out of the water so I don't notice.  I just know I had ZERO panic attacks and no alligator sightings.

I tried to work as hard as I could on the bike.  It just doesn't feel like it used to feel.  I think this is two-fold.  As I have talked about before on the blog, my position has been funky for a while now (since a saddle change in 2012), and after several changes, it was going from bad to worse.  I was encouraged to lower my seat, and I really felt it in my knees and back this race.  (Fortunately, I just now got everything dialed in back to a helpful fit Nacho gave me with my seat a little higher, and I think I am finally right in my position).  But secondly, I just.don't.ride.enough.period.  Maybe 2 days a week and 3 if I am lucky? I hardly hit 75 miles a week?  It is such a huge reduction from what I did for many years, that I am just not strong and fresh on the bike.  There is room to grow, and I will keep trying to build as I am able.

But never mind all that...I got out there and just decided to really keep trying to race the bike.  I pushed, I didn't give up, and I just kept trying to practice racing.  I was by myself as all of the other women did the wave, but I just keep using these races and opportunities as practice.  Of course, no computer or garmin.  Just all effort focused.   The bike split ended up being fine- not near the front, but near enough to some other women that I wasn't way off of the group.

The run was hot, but I am not complaining.  It is Heatwave Tri...so come on!  No complaints about hot races in the summer, peeps! It is what we do!!!  My knees felt awful from the bike, and my first mile was so slow.  I wondered if I had overbiked, although I only seem to be able to do that when fit.  How do you overbike when your max is moderate?  Lol!  But I was thinking...uh oh.  My legs feel like crap and they never feel this way.  Is it possible that even that pace was too much for me?  After a mile they felt better, though.  (I have since had a couple of bricks where they felt like that, but now that my bike fit was adjusted slightly, that has gone away.  I think I was really overloading my knees). 

The little patch of shade on the course

And then a few miles later I was reaching for salt.  Oh I was so crampy in my legs and just cursing the editor of the website who said there was shade on the course.  I did my very best to hold form, even though I was just one big heat cramp.  (And thank goodness I have the hot ironman experience...I think it comes in really handy when you know how to control the cramping and mitigate the heat a bit.)  The front girls were so far ahead of me from the different start times that I had no one to race.  And at that point in the day, it was just fine with me as the run was just tough, tough, tough.  My run ended up ranking pretty fairly in the field.

First place AG Los Locos Peeps

I finished 1stAG and 5th OA.  Interestingly, I was about 15 seconds out of 4th and 30 seconds out of 3rd.  It may have been interesting if I had started in the wave to see if I could have closed those gaps by racing.  But, I think just doing the TT was good enough for my head right now.  In the past I would have absolutely been trying to race for that podium, but on this day, I was satisfied with just having a consistent result, even if I am not back to being competitive.

I have oddly enough decided to put my name down for a fall marathon, and I am actually super excited about it.  So, where does that leave me with tri racing?  I am not sure.  Maybe Mighty Mite.  Maybe AG Nats if I can get a friends to go with me AND actually ride my bike more.  And possibly Redman Tri....that looks like it could be a fun, new adventure.   I am not done with the season yet, but I am still looking for those races that motivate me.  I am trying to stoke the fire and really just build back that passion for racing, and I think that starts by finding ones that give me a reasonable challenge and adventure. 

Happy Training!

A big Heatwave Classic Tri thank you to Wattie Ink, Enell Bras, Blue Seventy, and ISM saddles for the best race gear as well as Powerbar and Herbalife for race course and post race nutrition.  I am a lucky, lucky girl to have the best in these things that do make a difference.  And thank you to my Los Locos teammates for the great company on race day.