Race Report: Winja's Ironman 70.3 Arizona (October 16, 2016)

Yesterday, I became a 4-time half ironman. It was the third half-ironman I completed this year, and a big "training day" test before the full in November.

Overall, I did better than I thought I would, but was disappointed with my run and very impressed by my bike.


Pre-Race:

I took this race more like a weekend workout to see how well prepared I would be for the full. With that said, there was no taper for this race. I woke up bright and early Friday morning, swam with GRA, and rode the river trail with Patrick before I headed out to Arizona.

Guys. The drive from LA to AZ is quiet. Without stops and with some minor traffic, I made it to Tempe in six hours.

Best part? I averaged nearly 55 miles per gallon. All the way to Arizona with 3 gallons of gas left to spare. (The little things in life make me happy!)

Arizona is dry. I started sneezing as soon as I got to Tempe and couldn't tell if I was sick or just allergic. I think it's more allergies than anything else now that I'm back home, but it's not very ladylike when you're on the bike and snot runs down your face and hits your shoulder during a race. 

Saturday morning Patrick and I met up to pick up our packets and sign our lives away. 

I can't take nice pictures.

We sat through an athlete briefing after we dropped our bikes off, and then scouted the course for the full. Guys. We didn't anticipate hills on the course. THERE ARE HILLS ON THE FULL COURSE. It's time to get some hills in for training. It's late. I know. I just wasn't expecting anything outside of a flat course for the full. (Insert sad face here because I was really sad to find this part out).

When we finished the drive for the full course, we figured we would tackle the course for the half. Now, when Patrick mentioned that the course looked like a little kid took a crayon to paper and drew the course, he wasn't kidding. Three loops of right turns, left turns, and u-turns. Over 40 in the race alone. It took us longer to drive the course for the half than it did for the full. 

I spent much of the weekend worrying about whether or not this race was feasible. To top it off, the weather was supposed to be 93 degrees and my wave wasn't set to start until 7:56 am. My emotions were out of control. 

Race Day:

Those who know me well know that I worry a lot. As in, I overthink things and replay scenarios in my head way too much. I couldn't sleep, and woke up at 3:30 without my alarm. I was only a mile away from transition, but I hate being late, and even though my wave wasn't set to start until 8.. well, I showed up 4 hours early. 

Just kidding - Transition opened up at 5 and everyone had to be out by 6:20, so I had to find something to do for an hour and a half. I watched the swim start, including Patrick's 6:30 (lucky duck) start, and by 7:56, we were in the water and the cannon was going off. By then, the sun had risen and my tinted goggles came into play. With the mentality of taking it slow, the swim was nice and smooth - a few of the girls tried to swim over me, but I was able to get away and managed to get into a rhythm by the time I hit the fourth buoy. 

1.1 miles, done. 

A volunteer pulled me out of the water at the end (it's a staircase with rails) and wetsuit strippers helped me out of my wetsuit. 

Swim time: 41:46. My slowest swim ever, but hey - practice, right?

The bike I was expecting a 4 hour time - turns have been hard for me since my bike accident, and I always unclip and brake when I do, so I figured I'd be about 20 - 30 minutes slower. The turns weren't as hard as I thought they would be. I still unclipped and I still braked, but I took advantage of the straightaways and went into aero whenever possible. 

The result? 8 MINUTES FASTER THAN MY FASTEST TIME ON THE BIKE. I averaged 17.2 mph and made up the time I lost on the swim. My sunburnt face and shoulders were a worthy sacrifice.

Two coats of sunblock later, I started the run. It was torture. In my head I was trying to figure out where Patrick was. I figured when I finished my bike, he'd finish his run, but in reality, he was only half way done with his run and probably miserable. 

Try starting a half marathon at 12 noon. Insert 92 degree weather. Insert haphazardly sprayed sunblock over already sunburnt skin. Insert already exhausted legs not ready for a run. That was me. 

I started to develop plantar fasciitis a few weeks ago and had to get new shoes to try to repair the stabbing pain in my heel. My new Hoka One Ones had never seen a run over 4 miles, but I couldn't risk exacerbating the pain even more, so I broke the golden rule: Nothing new on race day. 

My gimpy run started off fine - my first mile clocked in at 9:38, but soon after, my mile time slipped to 10s, 12:30s, and even hit 15+. It was so hot. I was trying not to dehydrate, so I held a cup of ice while I ran, and I walked during the aid stations. Mentally, I was all there. I was so excited to finish. Physically, my body was shutting down on me. The run course was unforgiving and had no shade. My lips were chapped and no amount of water was quenching me. 

But, I finished. I kept asking myself if I would be able to handle the full, but I think the conditions were a little different. The heat was a big factor. The new shoes.

I want to say that (for the most part) I am ready, but who knows? 

I downed 2 bottles of water as soon as I finished. I headed over to the athlete food tent to get into the shade, and I sat there for 15 minutes without talking to anyone. I needed to cool down. 

4 halfs is a big accomplishment in my eyes. We're a month away from the full. Fingers crossed. 

Garneau was nice enough to repost my photo on Instagram!

Consider this your #MondayMotivation. Go after what you want. Don't let a not so stellar moment ruin your chances at a great overall result! #LiveYourDream 👏 @_winja on your 4th half-Ironman! ・・・ #Repost @_winja It's 92° and I'M NOW A 4X HALF-IRONMAN, Y'ALL! 💪 worst run of my life, best bike of my life. I'll take what I can get. #IMAZ703 #winja1406 #winja703 #burnttoacrisp #ihateeveryone #Garneau #LiveYourDream

A photo posted by Garneau (@garneausports) on Oct 17, 2016 at 7:28am PDT

Results here.

Race Report: Winja's Ironman 70.3 Vineman (July 10, 2016)

Well. It's been 2 days, and I'm NOT sore! For the first time, I feel like my training has finally paid off. 

One year ago TODAY, I did my first half-ironman. Sunday marked the third half-ironman I've done in the span of a year, and in short, I'm VERY proud of myself. It's hard to really acknowledge how much time and effort goes into training because you never feel like it's enough, but when you cross the finish line, a huge weight lifts off your shoulders, and you feel good. Really good.

I'm still riding that endorphin high now.

This was my second time doing Vineman - it's a hilly course that starts in Guerneville and ends in Windsor.

THE PREP:

Things were a little different this year in that we were told to drop off our bikes and our run gear the day before - with T2 17 miles away from T1, we had to plan accordingly to get everything dropped off by the 4pm cutoff time at both locations and check in for the race itself. 

I did, however, get to cram time in to meet Nanette from Women for Tri, a fellow ambassador who did a great job holding down the fort and meeting some of the women who represented 39% of the race population at Vineman 70.3! The goal is to empower more women to do triathlons, so you'll see a lot more Women for Tri plugs from me as the year progresses. 

THE RACE:

(Disclaimer: Two weeks ago, Bryant and I rode to San Diego from LA, and I pulled a muscle in my right leg. It had been bugging me since then, so I had fears that I wasn't going to finish and that I was probably going to be in pain.)

We got to transition around 5 in the morning - everything was dark and calm, which made for a very peaceful transition set up.

Another thing new thing about the race this year was that everyone had to be out of transition by 6:15 am. On top of that, we were no longer allowed to pass our stuff off to our support crew - it would be considered "outside assistance", and we were told that we would be blue-carded and disqualified from the race if we did.

We all went back to our transition areas to try and figure out what we would do without the help of our friends. Half of my stuff went back into my transition bag and was handed to Alice's brother before the race. All of the items that I wanted after the race was over was placed into my morning bag, which included my phone. Before I gave it up, however, we pulled most of the DTT team together and took a picture!

You'll notice that the #WheresPatrick hashtag comes into play here. He left his phone on silent and missed his opportunity! We'll photoshop him in later.

THE SWIM:

The pros took off exactly at 6:25 - both Crowie and Andy Potts were racing, so it was great watching them come out of the water and pulling their bikes out of transition. My wave (obviously less important) took off at 7:22am. The water was a cool 71 degrees compared to the air temperature of 58. Half of the swim course is meant to be swum against the current, so I swam on the outside of the river to get a little less of the brunt, and closer to the markers on the way back to get an extra push from the natural flow of the river. Shallow points in the river meant athletes getting up out of the water to walk the swim, which astounds me every time. I'm against it, but I do know that Patrick walks it every year. Maybe he'll elaborate a little more on it in his race report.

Despite feeling good after the swim, it looks like my time was a few minutes slower than last year - 3 minutes slower. I'll blame it on the current.

THE BIKE:

Transition was much more organized this year - carpeted for all of the athletes so that they wouldn't struggle with the muddy ground as they pulled their wetsuits off. Since there was no handoff, I took off on my bike without worrying about looking for someone to pass my wetsuit off to - I jammed it into my bike bag and ran up the little hill before mounting my bike (another change they made to the race this year - probably because so many people fell off their bikes last year trying to get up the hill).

The bike course seemed a lot shorter than it did the last time I rode it. Alice said she practiced a lot more on hills - I chose to do the distance. This year alone, I did 3 centuries as part of my training for the full, so the normally daunting 56 miles only seemed like a 30-mile ride, which was a nice way of looking at it. Mile 44 is always the kicker: Chalk Hill. My back was on fire by the time I hit mile 30, so I found myself getting up out of the saddle quite a bit. I think I'm due for another bike fit. This back pain isn't getting any better, so I'll need to lessen the pain everywhere else if possible.

Lots of rolling hills, lots of people that I passed with flat tires, lots of unpaved roads, more cars, more SAG support, and less crowd-cheering. Beautiful sights, though. Probably 50+ vineyards that we rode past.

Bike time was very similar to last year, but this year! This year we got to ride a little further into the transition area before dismounting, which was nice. Last year we had to run a quarter of a mile in our bike shoes. Not cool.

THE RUN:

The run was hard. You know that feeling when you're finished with a workout, you're exhausted, want to go home, and then you realize that it's 7 in the morning and you and have to go to work right after? That's how I felt when it came time for the run. I was putting my shoes on in transition and asked myself why the run was 13 miles and not 1. Or none. None would have been nice.

But, c'est la vie.

I put on my hat, sprayed some more sun block on, and rolled out of T2. Rolling hills. So many rolling hills. The first few miles are shady, but then all the trees disappear and you're running along an airport property with NO TREES. I was a little smarter this year - I ran with a cup of ice. At every aid station, I asked for more ice, and I made sure that I was always hydrated. I actually think I may have over-hydrated, but when you're running in the heat, less is definitely not more.

My overall run time dropped by about 7 minutes, which made up for a lot of the time I had lost in the swim and the transitions!

I will say I had no energy left by the time I hit mile 12. I wanted to sing a song in my head but couldn't think of anything, so I counted. From 1 to 100, and then back down again. I saw the finish line as I turned into Windsor High School, but I continued to jog it in. I had nothing left. I'm hoping that by the time I hit my next half (October), it will be cake - the full is in November!

POST RACE:

The most important part is that I finished. I've been called a sandbagger before because I'm always telling people that I don't think I'll be able to finish races. I think my expectations are so much higher than they should be, so I verbally communicate a lower expectation so that in the event that I actually don't finish I'm not as depressed.

I checked my time and I was a whole 5 minutes faster than my time from last year! I know there is room for improvement in the swim (I should have swum a lot more) and the bike (I should have worked on a lot more hills) - the run was good but I know that with more practice the time will go down steadily. I'm looking forward to my next race!

Results here.

From LA to LB, through OC to SD! 107+ Miles, Complete!

Have you ever had a weekend that was nearly perfect? That was this weekend for me. But before I can elaborate on my weekend, I first need to go over the last few weeks.

I've been sick - really sick - for the last month and a half. It started with a harmless cough. At IM Oceanside 70.3, I had cough drops in my mouth during the swim, bike, and run. I blamed the subsequent sickness I had on the half-ironman itself (I get sick after just about every race), but the cough became so persistent that I felt like my lungs were about to come out of my mouth every time I opened it. I had a nose that wouldn't stop running and ears that were plugged for a good week.

I went through three rounds of antibiotics - Each time, it felt like my cough was getting worse. My coworkers would tell me to go home or ask me if I was okay every time I started hacking. Clearly I was in no shape to work out...

So I slowed down significantly - I went from training 9+ hours a week to 2 (if I was lucky). I stayed out of the pool: my lungs couldn't handle it! and I couldn't run as much - I'd start wheezing after a mile. But the marvels of modern medicine kicked in, and this weekend, I finally started to feel more like myself! IT WAS SO NICE.

So, on to the more important things: The story of how we biked to San Diego!

----

Last year, when Selena/Lisa/I did our first metric century, Bree and Jared and Trey and John joined the 100-mile club riding from LA to San Diego. When the opportunity came to join them, I couldn't help but pounce on it - LA to SD! Two of my favourite cities in one trip? I'll take it! :)

We met up bright and early Saturday morning - so bright and so early that the sun wasn't even out yet. From Union Station, we biked over to the blue line and took the metro rail to Long Beach.

From Long Beach, we picked up Trey before we started the long journey - Through Seal Beach, Huntington Beach, Newport Beach, Laguna Beach, to Dana Point! John met us up in DP - 

The weather was perfect. It was chilly but not cold, windy but not overbearing. We went at a relaxing pace and always managed to stay close enough to keep tabs on one another. 

Dana Point turned into San Clemente, which: Lo and behold! led to a photo op in front of the Edison International Power Plant. Jared laughed at me when he realized that I stopped, but come on! Naked Gun made these things famous. 

The coolest part (as usual) was biking through Camp Pendleton. I am always constantly surprised to find that there is a such a huge base essentially in our backyard. It's beautiful, secluded, and probably the only place I will ever need to apply in order to ride through. 

We stopped for lunch by Oceanside/Carlsbad at a place called Angelo's Burgers - which, as it turns out, is a chain with very very good lettuce. I think we were all dying of hunger by the time we stopped, so in our delusion, the lettuce became a selling point. I'm sure we talked about it for a good five minutes. We even wrote a glowing yelp review as we ate our food: 

"Lettuce, crispy. 10/10 would come here again."

The key word here is "delusion". 

Nonetheless, it was nice to get a break after 60+ miles of riding. Full of burritos and burgers, we started up again. 

La Costa, Leucadia, Encinitas, Del Mar, La Jolla!

And then the monster. 95 Miles in, John thought it would be funny to take us to Torrey Pines: a gigantic mountain and the only route to get us where we needed to go. 

Not that bad of a climb - 1.5 miles and an elevation of about 500 feet - I thought it was going to be worse than it really was. But it was beautiful!

It was funny, because the ride (for the most part) was relatively flat with a few rolling hills. We were going down a hill when I saw Torrey Pines ahead of us, and I think my eyes doubled in size. We took the long and gradual path versus the steep and narrow one, though I think next time I may try my hand at the steep path. It can't be that bad, can it?

Somehow we ended up at UCSD - I don't know how people get from one point to the other - the campus is so huge I got tired as we biked through it!

We kept riding - Mission Bay, Pacific Beach - It wasn't until we stopped at the Santa Fe Depot and Bree walked into Stone Brewery that I realized we had finished. 107.7 miles. We were 4.3 off from a full iron distance bike ride! I felt great. I didn't cramp up (though my back did start hurting around mile 90), and we had time to enjoy an IPA with John before he caught his train home. 

What a fun ride and a fun trip!

As I always say - it didn't happen unless Strava said it did. With that said:

And how did we celebrate? Food at The Crack Shack, but more importantly, ICE CREAM (ok, Gelato) -

• | 05.13.2016 | • #everydayisicecreamday

A photo posted by winja. (@_winja) on May 14, 2016 at 8:28pm PDT

Good times. We took the Amtrak back home - I ate half a 14oz bag of Skittles (Think 5 - 6 big handfuls) and was still able to sleep the rest of the way home. To many more centuries!

Pushing to New Limits: Palm Springs

Last month, a few of us thought it would be a good idea to do the Palm Springs Century: a 100-mile bike ride with scenic views and thousands of cyclists from all over the country. New Balance offered a "Brick" to those that did a bike ride on Saturday and one of their sponsored runs on Sunday. Sweet deal.

(Thanks, Bryant!)

The ride itself wasn't too challenging, but it was long and mentally draining. Kevin, Abel, and I managed to stick in some sort of close distance, so we met up at every rest stop before continuing.

100 Miles. 

Lisa, Bryant, and Jarrett also finished the 100 miles! We dipped our feet into the hot tub before planning out the next day's events.

I left a little earlier than everyone else on Sunday morning because I was stupid brave enough to sign up for the half-marathon. Abel, Jarrett, Lisa (and Mia, that cutie pie!) all signed up for the 5k and were running it a little later.

I swear, this kid makes my heart melt. 

Guys. If you don't train for a half marathon, DON'T RUN IT. I've been running on and off for the last 15 years - to me, a half marathon is challenging, but considered a long run....

I trudged along. Literally - my hat flew off because it was windy and I considered leaving it because I was going so slow and didn't want to lose any more time. I knew it would take more effort to run back for it, bend down, grab it, and try to regain that momentum that I had lost. Bye, hat.

But then! This nice gentleman stooped down, picked it up, jogged a little faster, and returned my hat to me! I was both grateful and spiteful because he made it look so easy. Then he continued to breeze by me. I'm sure he finished his half significantly faster than I did. I'm squinting my eyes at him right now. -__-. Thanks nonetheless! =P

The good news is that I finished! Lisa and Mia were so great and waited for me!

Obviously we celebrated with our bricks. That second picture of me and Lisa? We were both on one of those spring-horse things. You know, the one I'm on in the first picture. But the two of us. We stopped laughing long enough to snap a picture of our bricks.

Great weekend, great accomplishment. Next stop? The LA Marathon tomorrow!