Winnie's Thoughts. Oh, and a recap of the Nautica Malibu Triathlon

This is a huge post because I have a lot on my mind. Good luck! This post is very emotional and very personal, so please keep that in mind as you digest.

Falls are Never Fun

I fell. I didn't just fall, though - I ate shit.

Patrick and I were two hours into our three-hour ride and I was feeling so great! We were averaging 18mph - probably the fastest I've ever consistently been on the bike (I'm not fast), taking turns pulling: the way back on the bike path we were taking is usually windy and slightly uphill, so drafting (while illegal in races) helps us conserve energy for long rides, and taking turns pulling ensures that each cyclist gets enough front time to get tired.

So there we are, mile 31. We traded off at mile 15 and mile 30 so I was still fresh from forcing Patrick to lead. In retrospect, I shouldn't have offered to pull again. The road split into two, and without thinking, I naturally veered toward the left, only to realize a split second after that that wasn't where I wanted to go. Where I turned, the road ended and I probably would have eaten shit going 18mph into dirt with rocks. Instead, I got to eat shit in concrete about 6 feet before the dirt started. I braked harder than I should have, and (according to Patrick) my back tired fishtailed as I flew over my handlebars.

I don't know if I landed on my bike or if my bike landed on me. I laid stunned on the floor and in my head I could feel the blood rushing toward my right arm. My right leg was in pain. Two other cyclists stopped to ask if we were OK. I laid motionless on the floor, with my right hand in the air - too afraid to move anything in fear that I was going to crack something as a reaction. My head was pounding from the fall - I probably hit it on the way down or after, because I remember looking up and seeing unfamiliar faces.

This very nice man offered to take my sunglasses off (not sure why, but I wish he didn't because he didn't return them!), and he and Patrick insisted that I not move until I was ready.  When the shock started to wear off, the two of them helped me up. A lady who also stopped scared the shit out of me because she said that if I tried to get up on my own my leg was going to shatter. (And I'M the dramatic one?!) I'm very gullible, so I believed her.

I stood, the nice people left (with my sunglasses 😭), and Selena showed up. I was bleeding from my right and left elbows and my right shin. The first thing Selena does? Snapchat me in pain. I will say, however, that I have great friends. The people who can help you laugh at yourself are the ones you should keep for life. They put your mind off the things that concern you and make the injuries hurt a little less.

Patrick left immediately after - the ride back was over an hour and my bike was not rideable. He was going to come back to pick me up and bring me back to my car. Selena stayed behind and we hobbled over to a nearby park to wait for him. Jesus (what a sweetheart, no joke) offered to pick me up, but I figured I was already inconveniencing enough people, so I said no.

Patrick and I laughed about this later, but Murphy's Law is real, y'all. Anything that can go wrong will go wrong. Patrick got a flat tire on his ride back. Minor setback, but I'll take minor over major any day.

Selena and I befriended a family while we were in the park. They were setting up for a birthday party in the shade we happened to be sitting in. Guys. I can't believe how nice some people in this world are. The two ladies who were there got back into their car when they saw how broken I was, drove home, got a first aid kit, and helped me bandage myself up (and watched me cry a little because of the alcohol antiseptic pads).

I'm home, I'm fine, and I was still able to enjoy my weekend. I'm sad because I broke two spokes, bent my front and back wheels, bent my derailleur hanger, nicked my shifters, bent my handlebars beyond repair, and bruised my arms, my legs, and my ego. I'm sitting at Newbury Park Bike Shop watching Ryan fix my bike and I'm being told that I'm lucky that it was the bike and not me.

Ok. Next time, Patrick leads.

Patrick's Vineman 2016 Race Report

One thing I want to get out of the way first. Last year, Winnie's and my run times were only one second apart. I've tortured her mercilessly about it all year. She'd say we had the same time and I'd make a point to say "well.... I ran a second faster." Well this year, her run time beat mine handily. By several minutes in fact. So this year the trophy goes to her.

Now, back to our regularly scheduled program: Round 2 in Patrick v. Vineman. This battle was just as bloody (metaphorically) as the first.

Lazlo Hollyfeld: How'd you do?
Chris Knight: How'd I do? I passed! But I failed! Yeah!
Lazlo: Well, then I'm happy and sad for you.

Real Genius, 1985

Swim

I expected the swim to take longer than last year. I've been neglecting my swimming lately for a host of weak reasons: work, too tired, wanted to focus on other legs. But I dove in and gave it a go, trying to swim efficiently and save energy for the rest of the race.

Last year's time: 31:40
This year's time:  31:49

A nine second difference? Not bad, not bad at all.

Bike

I expected the bike to take longer too. I've also been neglecting my bike in favor of working on my run. Nonetheless, the bike felt ok. My legs were tired from exertion, but not cramping up. I felt pretty good coming off the bike.

Last year's time: 2:54:19
This year's time:  2:54:21

A two second difference? Two?! Well, I'm nothing if not consistent.

An aside: At one point I was cycling up a hill and got stuck behind a car, which was stuck behind another racer who was in the middle of the lane of this two lane road. Ride to the right, people! The car moved a little left so I started coming up alongside it on the right when the rider up front dodged a camelbak bottle in the road. The driver of the car didn't see it and drove right over it as I passed, exploding the bottle's contents - which by its stickiness I can only assume was Gatorade - all over me. Not the shower nor the hydration I was craving at the time.

T2

Special entry here as a warning to others: Body Glide will liquify in the sun. I opened mine to do a last minute application and instead dumped the melted BG all over everything, including inside my aero helmet. So I have to scrape that out now (it's since solidified. Fun).

Run

I was going to rock this. I hired a run coach and totally changed my run form. I've been doing trail running training. I was not only expecting to cut time off my run, I was going to cut one, maybe even two minutes off my run pace. Last year I ran a 2:25:14; that's an 11:30 mile. Well that's an 11:23 run/walk mile. I KNOW I can do a 9:30 mile for a half-marathon and it wouldn't even be that tough.

I drove the course the night before and dismissed my stretch. It was just too hilly to do a sub 2:00, even fresh. But I could still go for knocking a minute, maaayyybe two off my mile pace. So how'd it go?

Last year's time: 2:29:14
This year's time:  2:25:17

Not even a full four minutes faster. An 11:05 minute mile. But that's not surprising how I felt coming out of transition 2. I don't know what it was, but about a mile into the run I just lost all motivation. My legs were heavy, I had a stitch in my side, and my quads were cramping up. I was miserable. So I allowed myself to walk. At the time I thought "I'll just walk for a couple seconds and then run the rest of the race." And that was probably my undoing. I allowed myself to fail and for the rest of the 13.1 miles, I horse-traded with myself. "Run to that cone and then I'll let you walk up the hill to the next one." Over and over. Just like last year. It got to some points where my Garmin thought I had stopped moving altogether and auto-paused. Towards the end of the run I had to rely on my clock to guesstimate what time I would finish with.

Coming into the end, I was checking my watch and saw it was approaching 2:34PM very quickly. If I beat that, I would have a sub 6:00. I saw Alice closing in on the finish and although I wanted to run in with her, I knew I needed to sprint instead to make the cut off. Ignoring the cramps in my quads, the rippling cramps (that's a new one!) in my calves, I sprinted towards the end. "You can't pass me!" she said... as I passed her. "Sorry!" I called back, not bothering to see if she was following me in.

Luckily I finished with a 5:58:31. I beat my goal for this year and my reach for last year. But to be honest, I couldn't enjoy the "victory." I don't know what it is - whether I'm just not cut out for half or greater distances or there's something unique about Vineman's course that breaks me mentally, but I just didn't enjoy the race. That's what I meant with the movie quote at the beginning. I passed, but I failed; and that's why I'm done with it. It's a beautiful course and Latisha's family is there so we can visit, but I'm done trying to beat the course. It's beaten me.

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.

Goal, Reach, Stretch (or "how I approach races")

With Vineman 2016 less than two weeks away *gulp* here's my pre-race report (of sorts).

Before every race I lay out three objectives for myself: a goal, a reach, and a stretch. I'm nowhere near competitive so "podium" is automatically off the table for any of them.  Let's not be ridiculous.

A "goal" is something reasonable and attainable. If I make my goal, I am satisfied with the race.

A "reach" is something that is on the cusp of attainable. You have to put in some effort to get that thing off the shelf - you can reach it - but you're not jumping off the ground to get it. If I make my reach, I'm happy about the race. If I don't, well, I'm less than enthused but as long as I made my goal and had fun, eh, it's ok.

A "stretch" is something that is really uncomfortable to achieve, but is still within the realm of possibility. If I make my stretch, I'm ecstatic about the race. But it's also something I don't mind not hitting.

Vineman 2015
Last year for Vineman, my first - and still only - 70.3, my goal was "finish." I put in the work, I felt comfortable with each of the legs separately, but I had never done them all together. I was concerned about overheating, my run was always my weakest leg, and it was - based on my start time - going to be at the hottest part of the day (from 1 to 3 pm). So taking all that into consideration, my goal was "finish." And I achieved that goal. I mean, afterward I told my girlfriend never to let me attempt something so stupid like that again, but I still achieved it.

My reach was a sub-6:00 time. I knew the swim would take me 30 - 35 minutes. I thought the bike could take me about 3 hours. It was aggressive, but my bike felt strong. And my run should take me - assuming I could hold a 10 minute mile (which I had done in practices) - about 2:11. Depending on transitions, I would be riiiiiight on the cusp of 6 hours. Well, my swim was a 31 and change. Pretty good. T1 was almost 3 minutes. Not bad. My bike was a 2:54. I was very happy with that BUT, I had lost two minutes to my chain popping off. Grrrr. T2 was 5 minutes. We had to run a good 1/4 mile extra just to get to T2. Not ideal, but not horrible. But then there's the run. Full disclosure, I was not ready for the course. Sure I had held a 10 minute mile during training... on a mostly flat loop. Vineman's run course is hilly AF. The first mile was fine and flat, but then you see this hill looming in front of you. And that's ok once you get to the top, but then you see a downhill which leads to another uphill and it broke me. I went from "reach" to "goal" real fast and I just had to grind out the remaining, but never ending, ups and downs. As I was approaching the last two or three miles, I knew I was close to 6:00, but I just didn't care. My run was a 2:29:14 and I finished with a 6:03:22. Man, dropping that chain still haunts me; I might have gutted it out if I knew in that last 5k I didn't have to shave a full minute off my mile pace.

My stretch was a 5:50 time. If everything had gone the best that it could, I might maybe possibly have gotten this. A sub 3-hour bike was part of this, and I achieved that, so I was pretty satisfied with that portion. But for the stretch as a whole, no such luck.

Vineman 2016
So this year, my goal is "beat last year's time." That's really my goal every time I do a race a second or third time. This should be pretty attainable. I know I can do all the legs, and I know I can do them all together. But I was probably in better shape last year, albeit had no idea what I was getting myself into. So goal is 6:03:21.

My reach is a 5:50. I think my swim might be a little slower (35?) and my bike is a little weaker (3:00?) this year. BUT, my run is much stronger. I changed my form, found shoes I love (Altra Torins #zerolimits), and Winnie and I held a 9:39 for a fun run half marathon pretty easily a couple weeks ago on a not-so-flat course. Plus, I've been doing a lot of trail running so hills don't break my spirit like they used to. I think my stronger run will hopefully make up for my maybe weaker other legs. If the others go the way I describe above and we assume 8 minutes for transitions, and if I can pull off a 2:07 half marathon, then I can hit that 5:50. It'll be a reach, but that's the point.

My stretch - well, I don't want to say it. It's one of those things where if you put it out into the universe, it might not happen, but it involves beating a 5:50. :) I'll update this after the race.

Help Winnie Help CHLA!

Triathlons have been a big part of my life since I signed up for my first one 2 years ago in May. I'm so excited to be doing the race that started it all - the Nautica Malibu Triathlon! - with Team Disney again for the third time!

Please help me reach my goal of $1,500 to support pediatric cancer research!

See my donation page below and let me know if you have any questions :)

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Pro tip

Sometimes, you just gotta blow your nose. Here's how to properly snot rocket.

Snot rocketing on your long rides is encouraged.

Snot rocketing on your trainer in your living room, I learned, is frowned upon.