A good swim this morning. I started with 200m and then did a variety of kick board, fists, and kicks. I threw in some kicks and 100m in between. I ended with 400m. This was a total of 1200m which is my longest swim yet. It felt good.
An easy snowy run to start the month off. We’ve gotten a mixture of snow, sleet, freezing rain, and more snow in the past few days. It was snowing lightly when I left. It’s hard to figure out running routes in the winter dur to the ski trails. This route should work and had a good portion of paved and plowed trails with some fresh powder. Running on the train tracks wasn’t actually bad since there was so much snow!3.4 miles 35:32 32f and windy with snow falling.
In the afternoon we took the kids to Lifetime for their swim assessment to see how they fit into Lifetimes scheme of swim lessons. They are 501 and 301. While that was happening I did a quick swim.
I did 2 x 400 with about 90 seconds of rest between. They were each around 7 minutes. The first a little under and the second a little over.
After we played in the water for a little bit.
After completing 20.3 (heavy deadlift) and 20.4 (heavy clean and jerks) my lower back was super tight. I have been using my TENS unit and rolling it, but it isn’t loosening up. I decided to skip CrossFit this week until Friday’s Open workout. So I decided to kick off my Ironman 70.3 training with a swim today. I went to New Hope and was the only one in the pool when I got there. I ended up with a total of 700m in the pool.
I started with 50’s bilaterally breathing, did some 100’s and used the kick board and pull buoy. I finished out with some 50’s. I was in the water for about 25 minutes. It all felt pretty good, I was taking it nice and easy!
I ended with sitting in the hot tub which felt really good on my back!
Square Lake Triathlon… I competed in it a few years ago and was a little nervous to be coming back, mostly because of the swim I guess. My swim training wasn’t consistent nor very intense and I hadn’t swam the distance yet. I also didn’t do a lot of open water swimming and on top of all that, the swim was a self-seeded time trial start. I know how to self-seed in a age group mass start (the back) but in a time trial start with a new swimmer entering the water every 3-5 seconds this seemed a little harder to figure out.
Race morning was cool with a chance of rain that actually held off until most athletes finished. Had it rained during the race, it would have precipitated during every one of my races this year! Because of the weather I gave the family a pass on spectating and drove over early on Sunday morning arriving in the dusky morning light, checking in and getting set up in transition. I was surprised at how many people were showing up relatively close to the actual start time. Getting there when transition opened might have been a little overkill, but I got what I thought was a good spot in the transition area. And that helped with the nerves, but then I stood around for about an hour, going to the bathroom and doing some stretching before the pre-race meeting and lining up. About 200 people participated in the event. I self-seeded into the front half-ish of the mid-pack. That felt like a good place to be and I probably could have gone out earlier.
The swim was two left turns for 1/2 mile in the water. My watch showed 1,300 yards so hopefully I didn’t swim an extra 500 trying to swim in straight lines! There were 3 buoys per side, but the middle one kept moving around and we were told not to sight off it. Kind of a waste. With the self-seeding I was passing people the whole time and getting passed by people too, so really no idea where I was at in relation to anyone in my age group. I didn’t have any trouble with the swim, I just stuck to one sided breathing and kept in the rhythm as much as possible. I almost missed the last buoy and corrected myself, though I think some people missed it and didn’t care. I finished the swim in 19:12 for 49th place.
T1 was 2:32. I wore my wetsuit which is a full body one. The water temp wasn’t bad, but the air temp was in the lower 50′. I packed a vest and arm sleeves to wear as I wasn’t sure how it would feel. If it was 52 and rain the vest would have been important. I opted for just the arm sleeves and they took a little bit to get onto my wet arms! Though they would be valuable for the bike!
Leaving transition on the bike (and run) you go up a steep hill and a little hill while leaving the parking lot. I should have spent some more time looking at the map, the course was different than last time I rode and the pavement markings were for the old course. They didn’t put any mile markers down as it had rained over night. My bike computer still isn’t working and I only felt my watch buzz at the 5 mile mark. The course was about 18 miles with a fair amount of hills. My watch said 18.5 miles with 250 feet of elevation change. The steep hill at the start and one other short steep one in the middle section of the course were the only steep ones of not, but both were quick. Otherwise it was a rolling course. For the first 5 miles it was a fair amount of getting passed and passing others. After that there wasn’t much traffic, but one guy and I went back and forth a few times before I finally dropped him. Of course many of the people passing me were riding aerobikes. Most of the course had wide shoulders with wind coming from every direction! I felt good on the bike and was pushing pretty hard on the hills. I took a gel around mile 10 on the bike and overall was feeling good. I got passed by some older people in the last 5 miles on their aerobikes (I got some of them back in the run!). The course is a lollipop. I finished the bike in 1:04:24 for 70th place. The steep downhill on wet pavement into transition wasn’t ideal, but it was fine.
T2 was 1:30 and this included a quick potty break. My bladder was super full and it was important to get it out.
The run went up the same steep hill and turned left out of the parking lot (the bike had turned right). I was feeling my harder bike pace, ok and lack of brick workouts as we did some rolling hills. My first mile was 8:41 which was slower than I would have liked, but I was running a steady pace and passing other runners. I’d say overall in the run only 3-4 people passed me. We turned around at the 1.5 mile mark/aid station. I grabbed a quick drink of water and emptied the cup on the back of my head. I should have taken the arm warmers off as I was a little warm and slipped them half way down my arms. Mid-50’s for a run is ideal temps! Mile 2 was 8:11. Glad to see the pace dropping! I ended up taking my arm sleeves off and running with them in my hands. I kept moving and trying to speed up as I went. The nice thing about an out and back is that you know what to expect! Push this uphill… I kept trying to pick up the pace and did mile 3 in 7:33. Yea, maybe I left a little in the tank! I finished in 24:49 officially which was 51st place.
I’m surprised that I placed higher in the swimming than the running! That’s crazy to me. It is hard to compare to my last race at Square Lake because so much was different. Overall, I felt happy with my day!
My total time was 1:52:56 which was good enough for 49th place! And 6th out of 16 in my age group. I will take it!
Finishing up the Cuyuna solo weekend. I had planned to run and swim today, but was feeling nervous about the swim. I woke up and ran the Yawkey trails. They were a little wet and I thought they might be busy since the other big unit was closed for the races. I liked being able to run from the campsite and straight onto the trails. I ran the Man Cage, Manuel Drive, Tugger, and Trout, plus the access trail. This totaled 3.5 miles in 42 minutes. My legs were definitely tired from yesterday’s riding. It took a little bit for my legs to loosen up and then the hills. It was a cool morning so that felt great.
I got back to the campsite and packed up. I kept going back and forth about swimming. The water is cool and super deep (that’s a mental thing) and pretty much no one was around that would even noticed if I was struggling. I knew that I would be fin, but it’s a mental thing. I could swim across to the “beach” and decide to either swim back or walk the short little bit back barefoot. Or I could walk to the “beach” and swim back to the campground. So many options and things to think about.
I finally decided to just do it. When I got to the dock, someone was there and I jumped in. I started swimming and got about 1/2 way across and just felt weird. I know half way I could have just finished, but again mentally it felt better to just turn around and swim back. So I did. My watch said 270 yards in 5:16. Not really what I was hoping for but I’ll take it. The water is so clear and it was fun to see so far down in the water. A different time maybe I’ll plan to snorkel or something.
I almost decided to go for a ride, but decided not to do the Yawkey unit. I hung out for a little bit longer so I could refill the growler at Cuyuna Brewing and then headed home.