Marquee race recap - Kristin

I'm supposed to by writing a paper right now, so naturally I'll take this time to blog about the races this weekend. (It's not the 11th hour, and I've got to keep with this procrastination thing that has worked oh so well for me! ;)

Wednesday night, I decided I'd take advantage of an opportunity to participate in El Tour de Mesa on Saturday for free. I'm such a sucker for free races, I can't turn them down. So despite the fact that I had only been on my bike once that week (and for who know how many weeks prior), I decided I could pull out an easy 28 miles before the tri. This I told myself I would definitely do easy so I could save my legs. Wrong. I couldn't stay at an easy pace. It was sooo cold, and sooo windy, that half way through I found a group of people I could draft off of and since I just wanted it to be over, I pushed myself to stay with them. Dumb.

Tired legs? Check. Saddle sore? Check. Another medal? Check!
So the tri. Duhm duhm duhmmmmm!!!

Well, I pulled out my wetsuit I hadn't worn since last year. For the Rio Salad Olympic to be exact. The tri I got a DNF in. :( Last year I was having an irregular heart beat (determined to be an anemia induced heart block - during exertion my heart rate would just drop in half), and during my swim my heart rate got so low that my vision actually started getting dark, and I had to flip over and float on my back for a minute so I could breath and NOT PASS OUT IN THE WATER!!! It was really scary. When my heart rate dropped into the 60s during the run I called it quits. My first Olympic tri, and I got a DNF. Well that was NOT going to happen this year. I'm on top of my iron and ready to go!

Swim - I struggled!! I think I either need to get a new wetsuit, or I need to cut the neck out of mine. I just kept struggling for breath. I'm sure that this helped contribute to my almost black out last year, and was probably not all the low heart rate thing.

I could get a good rythym going for a little bit, then I'd have to flip over and back stroke while I gasped for air.

But I did try something new. (on race day, dumb I know, but it worked!) I've been having water get in my ears during swimming that would drive me crazy!! So I got some ear plugs, and they were awesome. I highly recommend swimming with ear plugs.

Oh, but I do need to get something worked out for my goggles. I LOVE the Aqua Sphere Seal XPs but the bridge of my nose is so low that unless the goggles are pulled down really low on my nose, water will leak in. I had to keep readjusting my goggles. :(

Bike - I don't love it when 60 year old ladies fly by me on their super sweet tri bikes. I reallllly want a tri bike. Also, I felt my tired quads and super sore bum from the tour the day before.

I have tri shoes that I've been using. They have a big vent at the front of the foot so the water can drain off your feet, and air can go into the shoe to dry your foot off. Supposed to be a really great idea. But not when it's not 85º out, and you're not wearing socks. My feet froze!

Run - It's really hard to put numb feet into running shoes. And even harder to run when the fronts of your feet are numb. Literally, numb!!! It was so crazy. I just had to trust my rythym even though the sensation was all off. And then as the numbness wore off, my toes were throbbing. It wasn't until about mile 4 that I could feel my toes without all the pain.

When I run, I rely heavily on my Garmin. I grabbed it, hit the buttons to search for satellites, and it took so long that it went into power save mode. I tried it again, and the same thing happened. It didn't work my whole run! So I had to just go with what felt comfortable, and then push it a little beyond that. I was sure I was doing close to 10 minute miles. I was SHOCKED to see that I pulled off an 8:26 pace after that awful bike ride! But it was nice to pass some of the 50 and 60 year old ladies who flew by me on the bike.

And when I was running the last 400 meters, I couldn't help but think of Kim and feel sorry for her, having to run another 7 miles, and doing an additional 31 on the bike?! Then I started thinking, can I really do that? And that's only HALF of a full, can I really do a full Ironman?! Then I reminded myself that I've got 7 months to get ready, I won't be doing it alone, and HELL YA I CAN DO AN IRONMAN!!!

That's what I'm thinking in this picture-

I have a special talent for taking really attractive race pictures. But if you look good at the end of a race you didn't try hard enough, right?

So, I need to figure out the wet suit choking situation. And do I need to try different goggles? And my tri shoes, I think they'll be okay for Rio Salad since it'll be warmer, but do I risk it?