Over The Mountain Race Report

Over The Mountain (OTM) was not a race that was originally on my schedule.  However, since Knoxville was such a bust, my coach & I decided I should do another "tune-up" race before Rev3 Williamsburg.  After perusing the local race listings, OTM seemed to fit the bill.  I've always liked the course and it holds a special place in my heart because it was my first triathlon 5 years ago!  OMG I've been doing this for 5 years now; hard to believe!

Kurt & I drove down to Charlotte on Friday evening, where Chris Causebrook and his fiance Jaclyn graciously offered to let us stay with them.  Their place is amazing and let me give you a free tip real quick - if you are ever extended an invitation to Chez Causebrook, you would be wise to accept!  Chris & Jaclyn thank you guys so much for your hospitality!!!

4:30 am on Saturday morning came around real quick and we made it to the race site by 5:55 to do packet pickup and set up transitions (it's a point to point race, so there's a bit more logistics involved than normal).  As the sun rose, the sky looked clear and it held promise that the day would turn out to be really nice - unlike the scattered thundershowers that the forecast called for.  We even chatted to a USAT ref who said something along the lines of, "Yeah, so we've had real bad weather here the past few days, but it looks like today is going to be perfect weather for the race."  I had no reason to doubt his statement, especially because I was issued my lucky number 14!  Apparently however, things were not meant to be.  Literally as soon as I started putting on my wetsuit it started raining.  Oh no, here we go again...

The Swim - 1500m - 24:42 (1:30/100 yds)

Water temp was 72 degrees which felt downright warm compared to what I've been swimming in thus far this season.  I started out at the back of the open field, my plan being to draft off of faster swimmers.  This ended up working out perfectly and I drafted off of the same guy for the entire race.  I felt a little bad about this b/c I hit his feet enough times to be annoying.  A few times he kicked really hard, which I think was a signal to me to get off his feet.  But I didn't.  Actually, I did try to pass him once or twice, but when I realized I wasn't going any faster than he was, I just settled back into the draft zone.  I felt comfortable on the swim and I think I owe this to all the open water training I've been doing w/ Jordan at Belew's Lake!  As I was swimming into the finish, I looked at the surface of the water and I could tell it was still raining. 

T1 - 1:52
OTM has a great T1 - its a fairly long run straight up a ginormous hill!  Usually this hill is lined with people cheering you on, but the fan crowd was a little sparse due to the poor weather conditions.  As I ran up the hill I started mentally preparing myself for the bike.  Because this race is a point-to-point you have to stuff all your things into a bag in T1.  I made the blunder of accidentally putting all my gear into someone else's bag.  Sorry #18, I hope I didn't confuse you!

The Bike - 45k - 1:23:26 (20.1 mph)
Starting out on the bike I had a few flashbacks of Knoxville, but forced them out of my brain.  I was determined to beat the bad weather!  I knew that at this point I was in second place and I could not afford to be a baby on the bike or I would lose too much time to the woman ahead of me who is a strong cyclist.  I channeled my motor pacing practice and got into the aero and powered away.  I felt a little nervous at first, but this went away as the course went on and I did a really good job of attacking the course given the weather conditions.  The only problem was that my legs were dead!  I was cursing my coach for that lactate threshold bike ride on Wed & that track workout on Thursday!  Yes, Sharon, you were the object of my un-affection!  Normally on this course I make up some good time on people on the climbs, but my legs were burning on every single one of them.  I knew I was probably not gaining on the uphills, so I figured I had to crush the downhills.  I've never looked forward to descending in the rain as much as I did on this course.  Despite my hurting quads, I really enjoyed the bike - I think it's one of the funnest & prettiest courses in the NCTS!


T2 - 0:43
T2 was pretty quick - ditch the bike & put on the running shoes, Rev3 visor, & Garmin.  Heading out on to the run Kurt told me I was about 1:30-1:45 back on the leader.  I felt pretty confident that I could close that gap.

The Run - 10k - 39:21 (6:20/mi)
Just like on the bike, my legs felt so heavy on the run.  The first two miles were especially un-pleasureable.  I'd describe the run course at OTM as undulating - there really aren't any flat areas, it's either you're going up or you are going down.  It winds through a bunch of quaint neighborhoods and had a ton of turns.  At each turn I kept hoping I would see the woman ahead of me, but I kept turning and turning and she was nowhere to be found!  Finally about 2.5 miles into the run I turned the corner and there she was!  I felt a little bit of relief.  However, she was running really strong and it took me until about 3.5 miles to catch up to her.  At this point I drafted off her for about a quarter to a half a mile before picking up my pace again and bringing home the win.  To my amazing surprise I got a new 10K PR out there!  Pretty happy about that :)


Total Time - 2:30:02 (1st overall female)
It felt good to cross the finish line in 1st!  It felt even better to know that I had conquered the rain and beat the bad weather conditions.  It was the moment when I knew I could truly put Knoxville behind me.  I am so glad that I decided to sign up for this race and it was just icing on the cake that it happened to be my 5th anniversary of my first triathlon, which as I said before was at the exact same race.  Just for kicks I looked back at my time from 5 years ago:

Swim - 28:58
T1 - 3:12
Bike - 1:34:55
T2 - 2:19
Run - 48:23
Total Time - 2:57:55

I suppose a lot has changed since then ;-)

Motor Pacing

This past week I rode my bike every day except Tuesday and accumulated a lot of time in the saddle – 16 hours to be exact.  So, yep, I’m still working the bike!  I did a variety of workouts, but by far the most interesting thing I did was try motor pacing in the middle of my 85 mile ride today.  My coach has been after me to try this for a while now and honestly, I’ve just been too scared to do it.  However, when I saw it written into my workout in Training Peaks it became official that today would be the day.  

You may be wondering what motor pacing is.  Essentially, motor pacing involves cycling behind a motorized vehicle that paces the rider, close enough so that the rider gains a sizeable draft.  This is a training tool that has been around for ages and is used by pro cyclists to develop high-end wattage at a high cadence, with low torque, at high speeds, and all with a fluid motion.  Picture Tour de France riders for a minute. Even when they are riding at a very high-intensity it still looks effortless, like they are gliding over the roads.  While their legs are in a furious spin cycle, technique is perfect and the rest of their bodies look relaxed. 

So in an attempt to look more like this while riding:

And less like this:

I motor paced for the first time today. 

I rode for 45 minutes to get a good warm up and to get to a good road, where Kurt met me w/ his Jeep Liberty.  My coach emphasized that we needed to figure out signals for “speed up” and “slow down” before we started.  We decided on a few hand signals, but when I got behind the car Kurt couldn’t see my hands at all.  This was pretty much the driver’s view:

So since he could only see me from the neck up we decided that if I stuck out my tongue then he should speed up.  If I got out of the aero bars then he should slow down.  If a car was coming behind me he would raise his arm up and we’d slow down and pull over to the side to let it pass. 

I thought I was going to be terrified doing this.  However, quite the opposite!  It was freakin’ awesome!  Sitting in the pocket behind the jeep I was turning the pedals in my hardest gear with ease.  In fact I probably could have used a few more bigger gears.  It felt amazing to cruise at 30-35 mph.  Now, when I slipped out of the pocket a few times, it required a lot of effort to catch back up, which provided a lot of motivation in itself to stay behind the car.  I felt comfortable and fluid in the aero position.  Kurt motor paced me for 30 minutes and afterwards I think I was on a total adrenaline high, haha!  I would not have minded finishing out the rest of the ride like that!  This is what my view looked like:

Now, a few words of caution.  I do think motor pacing is pretty dangerous.  You have to find the right road without a lot of traffic.  Being in Wilmington, it was perfect because we found a long, straight, flat road for our first time.  Ideally the road should be pretty smooth, without a lot of potholes or cracks.  Make sure you have the signals between cyclist and rider down.  Also, be sure that the rider has decent enough bike handling skills to begin with.  Finally and maybe most importantly, you want a good driver that speeds up and slows down GRADUALLY.  As Kurt put it, the driver should be prepared to drive off the road and into ditch first before slamming on the breaks!  I have to say he did a really good job!  Thanks Kurt!!!

So, in summary, motor pacing was the bomb and I’m looking forward to the next time it shows up on my training plan! Although it may be kind of an old-school training method, sometimes old school is the best school ;)

Another First

I wish the title of this blog referred to another first place finish, but that is not the case.  This past weekend I had my first DNF at Rev3 Knoxville Oly.  I felt really good coming into this race and was sure that I was going to have redemption from last year’sdisappointment.  I was also expecting similar weather as last year – sunny, 80 degrees, and hot.  Unfortunately none of these things came to pass…

I’ll start with the first fiasco of the trip, which was the hotel.  My dad has taught me that I should always try to save money whenever and wherever I can, in any way shape or form that I can.  Turn off the lights when you leave the room, turn off the faucet when you are brushing your teeth, never turn on the air conditioning or the heat, never buy anything full price, never buy anything without haggling for a lower price, etc.  Embracing this philosophy, I went online at the last minute and booked the cheapest hotel I could find.  As we pulled into the parking lot at 10 pm on Friday night it looked pretty sketch.  The lot was basically empty except for a few shady-looking characters who appeared to live there.  We walked into the non-smoking room and were immediately hit with the stench of cigarette smoke.  I asked Kurt if we should request a different room and he said, “When there are multiple cigarette burns in the comforter I doubt it’s going to make a difference.”  Upon further inspection the place was pretty dirty – stains on the comforter, crust on the hand/face towels, mildewy bathroom, and pillows that smelled like a carnivore’s BO.  At this point, my mom’s words were ringing through my brain, “You get what you pay for.”  She is in fact correct about this and I have learned this lesson before, so I don’t know why I was at all surprised that the cheapest hotel on the internet was a total sh*thole.  Within 2 hours of arriving we had completely repacked the car, checked out, found another hotel, and checked out of hell.  

Fast forward to Saturday.  It was pouring rain.  Just like it had been pouring rain for the previous 24 hours.  We went to the expo and I got to catch up with all my Rev3 peeps which is always a blast!  I rented Reynolds race wheels and as the bike mechanic was putting them on my bike he asked me if I had ever rode in the rain on carbon wheels before.  Thinking back I realized I never had.  He highly recommended that I take the bike for a spin to test out the brakes, because as he put it, the braking with carbon wheels is “different.”  So, I took the bike out in the rain for a quickie.  I realized that by “different” he really meant “worse.”  As I was approaching a set of railroad tracks that were roughly at a 60 degree angle across the road, I thought to myself that I had better make sure to go over them perpendicularly because everything was so slick.  I thought I went over them at the right angle, but apparently not because as soon as I was mid-track my bike slid out from under me and I fell hard onto my left side.  My aero helmet hit the ground and my neck snapped back to the right.  I skidded off the tracks and onto the pavement a bit.  It was one of those moments where I felt like bursting into tears, but when I looked around and realized that no one had seen me fall (aside from the couple of cars that rolled by but didn’t bother to stop) I got up and dusted myself off and surveyed for damage.  A few bruises and some busted skin, but nothing broken.  The bike also appeared to be fine.  I was pretty shaken up because I ride over tracks literally on every ride I do in Greensboro without a problem so I have no idea why I went down like that.  I got back on and rode back to transition where I got to tell Kurt and our friend Chris what had just happened.  Kurt encouraged me to try going back over the tracks to “get back on the horse” but I was not having any of that.  I racked the bike and called it a day.

Another 12 hours of solid rain goes by and despite wishful hoping that the rain would let up it was 50 degrees and still raining buckets on race morning.  I’m in transition putting all the fixin’s on my bike when out of nowhere, I lose my balance and fall onto the bike of the girl to my right!  Kurt saw this happen and said it was one of the slowest and clumsiest things I’ve ever done – normally I’m pretty quick and nimble.  I felt bad because I messed up her set-up a little bit and caused her bike to fall onto the bike next to it.  Wow.  I’m sure anyone that saw this probably thought it was the first triathlon of my life.  I brushed myself off, again, and finished setting everything up.

The Swim – 22:31 (1:22/100 yds)

I knew the swim would be cold because the water temp was announced earlier in the week as upper 50’s.  However, I also knew that I was “used” to this by now from swimming at White Lake Half and training at Belew’s Lake.  Thus I elected to skip the practice swim on Saturday, which I believe was a good decision for me.  I suited up with the Blueseventy gear – Helix/neoprene cap/booties -- and put in some ear plugs.  There was not much of a warm up area so I just splashed a bunch of water into my face before getting in and then tried to swim back and forth as much as I could before the gun went off.  Although the water was downright frigid, I warmed up pretty well and got into a good rhythm on the swim.  The course is pretty straightforward – ok it’s a straight line – so sighting is not much of an issue.  I was hoping to draft off of people, but it never panned out.  I passed a lot of people b/c my wave was the last wave of the day to go and I felt strong the entire time.  I got out excited because I knew I was doing well!  Turns out I got a PR in the swim, the one silver lining of the race I suppose ;)

T1 - 4:35
There is a very long run from the swim exit to transition, I’d guess at least a quarter of a mile.  I booked it on this and was passing people left and right, still feeling good!  However, as soon as I stripped off the wetsuit and was exposed to the cold air, it felt like my body heat evaporated into thin air.  I put on socks, cycling shoes w/ mini booties, a wind vest, a headband over my ears, and a thin pair of gloves and exited T1, hoping that I’d warm up on the bike. 

The Bike - DNF

I never warmed up on the bike.  Rather, I warmed down.  It was freezing on the downhills and I couldn’t even generate substantial heat on the climbs!  Part of this was probably due to the fact that I wasn’t riding as hard as I could b/c I was wary of the wet roads.  I did have to cross two sets of railroad tracks, and was successful both times.  All the potholes were filled with water and there were many little “streams” of draining water going across the road.  On one of the climbs I saw my teammate David and I told him I might have to stop and he said, “Why would you do that?”  I thought it was kinda obvious.  About 10 miles into the ride I was at the point where I was so cold that I couldn’t stop shivering and my teeth were chattering.  My core temperature was decreasing, and so was the quality of my bike handling.  I just had to stop and that was the end of my day and my first DNF.

OK, if you’ve never had one before, let me tell you that DNF-ing sucks!  I felt like such a wimp, especially because so many other people were able to get through the race and some of them not wearing much more than a trisuit!  How could they continue, but I could not?  It was pretty demoralizing.  Apparently there were >100 DNFs and at least 4 people hospitalized for hypothermia.  Does this make me feel better?  Not really.  I spoke with a handful of other DNFers and they had similar stories – just got too damn cold to go on.  Again, doesn’t really make me feel better.  In addition to feeling pathetic for not being able to just “suck it up,” it also sucks to have spent all the time and money that goes into doing any race.  And I felt terrible that Kurt was out there in the cold crappy weather to cheer me on and I couldn’t even finish.  Ugh, it makes me sick. 

Where to go from here?  Forward.  My focus is now on the Williamsburg HalfRev on June 23^rd.  I’ve been looking forward to this race since it was announced since it takes place at my alma mater :) Time to just get back to training, put in more hard work, let the weather warm up about 30-40 degrees, and have a solid race at Willyburg.

Last thing I want to say is congrats to everyone who raced at Knoxville and beat the weather!  You are all total BAMFs and I am thoroughly impressed!  You deserve some major kudos!

A Good Old-Fashioned Training Update

Since I haven't really talked much about training lately, I figure it's time for an update :)

The Swim
The gist of my swim training is that it is not my focus right now, and I am ok with that.  Sometimes I feel like I should be doing more, but when I look back at last season I was only losing 1-2 minutes max in the swim to other top amateurs, time that was easily made up on the run.  So, I've only been swimming 3 days a week and I have stopped going to the master's program at the GAC.  Aside from having to get up super early, my biggest problem with swimming at the GAC is that it is way too damn cold!  It makes swimming miserable and it's just not enjoyable.  This past week I was in Wilmington and had the great fortune of swimming at the YMCA, where they keep the water temp around 80 degrees.  I actually enjoyed being in the water and got to wear my new Rev3 shimmer suit without freezing my nips off!  So I've got to find a different pool in Greensboro to go to because it takes a certain amount of mental energy to psych yourself up to be painfully cold for an hour or more.  Actually, one fun alternative to the pool that I've been partaking in lately is open water swimming at Belew's Lake!  My friend and uber swimmer, Jordan McAmmond, feels the same way as me about the water temperature at the GAC, so we have been hitting the lake together.  You'd think that swimming in low-60 degree water would be worse, but really, with my BlueSeventy Helix, neoprene cap, and booties it is quite comfortable!  Anyhow, despite not swimming that often, my 1000 TT times are continuing to drop, so I suppose I can't complain :)  If you are looking for some swimspiration, check out pro triathlete Jenny Leiser's blog on swimming sets of 100s.  In addition to some good workout sets on there, it's motivating to read about a top swimmer pushing herself to go faster, when she could probably slack off in the pool and still beat the entire field in the swim.

Me & former UM Terp swimmer Jordan at Belew's Lake

The Bike
The bike IS my focus right now.  Again looking back at last season, this is where I was losing 10-15 minutes to other top amateurs, and essentially losing the race.  My coach has been relentless on my bike mileage and I am thankful for that.  This past week I got 14 hours in the saddle and am forcing myself to get more comfortable with being in the aero position.  Being in Wilmington last week gave me a good opportunity to practice riding in the wind and maintaining my aero-ness despite some nasty head, cross, & tail winds.  I have also been incorporating a lot of lactate threshold intervals and hill repeat workouts.  Although I don't feel like all this training has paid off yet, as evidenced by losing White Lake Half on the bike, I've been told that it can take up to 6 months to reap the benefits of cycling training.  If that is true, then hopefully by Rev3 Williamsburg I will be feeling really strong on the bike.  The only thing to do is to continue what I've been doing, which is get my butt in the saddle and ride. Hard.

View of Topsail Island after cresting the only "hill" on the entire 80 mi ride :)

The Run
Thank God for the run.  It is my favorite because it always feels good and it gives me time to think - I often have some of my most creative ideas while running :)  I haven't been focusing on the run, but I've been paying it a little more attention than the swim.  On average I've been doing about 30 miles/week, and have recently started incorporating tempo stuff and track workouts.  I like going to the track because it reminds me of when I used to train in the summers before going to back to soccer pre-season at William & Mary.  The repeats I run now are longer, but I still get that magical feeling of pure raw speed that working out at a collegiate track confers.  Sometimes I'm tempted to time myself in a 100m sprint just for kicks.  Another form of running that I still incorporate here and there is trail running.  Greensboro's trail systems are awesome and it's a way to get out, put in the time, and not focus on pace. I don't think I've ever gone on a trail run that I didn't enjoy :)  So, my plan for the run is to keep on keeping on.  I'm happy with the progress I'm making on the run, while at the same time keeping my main focus on the bike.

Ran on Wrightsville Beach at low tide last week & saw some brave kite surfers getting in the water!

Next up for me is Rev3 Knoxville Oly and I'm super psyched for this race!  T-minus 1 week to go!!!!

Whole Impact Nutrition, LLC

The field of nutrition is a vast one. This has always appealed to me because there are so many different shoes one could fill as a Registered Dietitian/Nutritionist. At the same time, it's always been self-evident as to which areas in the field are of greatest interest to me: sports nutrition and wellness/weight loss nutrition. However, as most new graduates know, when you take your first job you can't be too picky about it. So, when I was offered a job at Wake Forest Baptist Hospital after completing my internship there in 2010, it would have been idiotic to turn it down. I worked in the hospital in the cardiology unit for a year and although part of my job entailed educating patients who were recovering from bypass surgeries about a healthy diet, it left much to be desired. To my disbelief, many patients were simply not interested in making dietary changes - and if a heart attack isn't enough motivation for someone to change, then I doubt that anything that I have to say will be more impactful! Plus, my sessions with them were often too

short, though there wasn't anything I could do about that if I wanted to see everyone that I had to see within the allotted time. Furthermore, I usually only saw these patients one time before they were discharged so I had no follow up with them and no way of knowing if they were successful in their efforts to change.
 
So when the opportunity came for me to start a new job at an adult day care facility called PACE of the Triad, I thought that an outpatient facility would give me much greater opportunity to spend more time with patients and have some follow up with them over time to track their progress. This job was really challenging because since PACE was brand new it was up to me to create the nutrition component of the program from scratch and I was the only dietitian working there. I liked having more autonomy and greater responsibility. And while I did have more time and follow up with participants in the program, again, most were simply not interested in dietary change and only saw me because the doctor wanted them to. A lot of the participants were very elderly and would say things like, "I might only have a year left to live and I'm going to eat whatever the heck I want to." And honestly, I could not argue with that! I'd also estimate that about 50-75% of the participants had some form of dementia or Alzheimer's which made the work even more challenging.

 Of course during both of these jobs I was training and participating in triathlons. From time to time I worked with athletes on my various tri teams and I really liked this. I continued to read and enjoy both sports nutrition research and information on general healthy eating/weight loss. Because of this, coupled with my growing discontent at work, it finally dawned on me that I needed to make a change if I wanted to have a fulfilling career path. Although I had always been intrigued by the idea of starting my own business, this was this point where I began to seriously consider it. It didn't take much time for the idea of Whole Impact Nutrition to be hatched and I've been working on developing it ever since.
 
I'm super excited to say that I've finally gotten everything ready for my nutrition coaching business, Whole Impact Nutrition, LLC. It's taken a little longer than I expected, but I have finally finished the website and am all set up :) Whole Impact Nutrition has two goals:

1)      To teach athletes how to fuel themselves in order to sustain rigorous training, speed recovery, conquer race-day nutrition, and ultimately reach peak performance.

2)      To teach people how to eat an optimal diet to lose weight, achieve better health, improve quality of life, increase longevity, and have more energy.

I’ve included my philosophy and the services I offer on the website, so instead of repeating everything here, I’ll just direct you to the site:  www.wholeimpactnutrition.com.  You can also follow me on twitter for free daily nutrition tips @W1Nutrition.  I am really happy to finally be working with populations that I am passionate about and am excited to see where this takes me.  Everyone always says “when you like what you do, you’ll never work a day in your life!” ;-)