Iron Girl Tahoe 2012

Wow! It's been awhile since I blogged. Life got in the way, but I hope to be back to writing with some regularity. I decided to do the Lake Tahoe Iron Girl again this year, with the goal of destroying my time from last year. Unfortunately, my work's GIANT HUGE ANNUAL CONFERENCE BIGGEST EVENT OF THE YEAR moved to the week before the triathlon so I was not nearly as on top of my structured training.

I mountain biked (a lot), started swimming a couple of months earlier, went to yoga pretty frequently and ran at least three times in the two months before the triathlon. Mostly, I was confident that I could push myself a lot harder than I had the previous year. Because of a major change to the bike course (almost twice the elevation gain!), it was hard to compare times to the previous year, but I did end up beating my previous time and getting 10th in my division!

Pre-Race

Having learned from last year, we didn't show up mega-early, rented wetsuits, and wore giant fluffy socks. One of the things that I learned during my blogging break is that I am soy intolerant. Sometimes I forget to check things for soy in the ingredients. FYI, Clif Bars have soy, and I definitely regretted eating one pre-race. Ugh. 

The Swim

I loved having a wetsuit! I could get in the water early, not freeze to death, and my legs felt so floaty! I did an open water swim race (800m) with my mom earlier in the summer, and it was really good prep for this. The swim felt good, and I was really glad I had started swimming earlier in the year this round.

400 m swim

2012: 8:31- F 25 - 29: 9/66, Overall: 59/595

2011: 10:41- F 25 - 29: 25/56, Overall: 166/494

T1

I stripped off the top half of my wetsuit, threw on my Keens, and started the loooong jog back to transition. Once I got there, I knew that I had to somehow get into my biking outfit, but I was slightly mentally frazzled. After a few seconds of dazed staring, I figured it out and got myself on ready and headed out on the bike.

2012: 7:34

2011: 10:01

Bike

I was obviously not completely on top of my race prep this year, as I did not know the course had changed until the Friday before the race. Ooops! Instead of an out and back, there would now be two loops that involved going up and down the two big hills twice instead of once. The bike leg was where I knew I could really improve this year, so I pushed hard. I played leap frog with a couple of girls throughout the whole race which was great for helping me to push myself. The major downside of the two loop course (besides the leg-trashing hills) was that the participants were much less spread out, causing some traffic jams.

All in all, I was super pleased with my performance. Despite a slower time, I jumped way up in the placing, both in my age group and overall!

Bike 24 k: 

2012: 58:01- F 25 - 29: 10/66, Overall: 100/595

2011: 54:16- f 25 -29: 23/56, Overall: 215/494

T2

I didn't hang around transition this time, just headed off. Unfortunately, I had lost my water bottle on the bike ride and didn't have an extra in transition so I started my run already super thirsty.

2012- 1:59

2011- 7:15

Run

I barely ran at all this summer. I don't especially like running, so it is really hard to convince myself to go when I could be mountain biking instead. My goal was not to walk, which I achieved, though my shuffling was not much faster. It took until the halfway point to feel like I was doing anything more than slogging, and I definitely regretted my lack of running. I think pushing hard on the hilly bike also trashed my legs and contributed to my slow run. But hey, I finished and even was able to kick it a little bit in the end.

Run 5 k

2012: 32:56- F 25 - 29: 31/66, Overall: 252/595 (at least I kept in under 11 minute miles!)

2011- 31:22- F 25 - 29: 16/56 Overall: 166/494

Overall

2012: 1:49:01 - F 25 - 29: 10/66, Overall: 107/595

2011: 1:53:38 - F 25 -29: 31/56, Overall: 243/494

And here is the most important/best part of the triathlon, brunch: