In looking over my training / race schedule for the season I had decided that I wanted to do 2 half IMs this year in my summer schedule. I was either going to do Lake Stevens or Troika in addition to Pacific Crest. I decided Troika would be the best timing for me, as I figured I would be dropping my training volume the following week anyway …a race right before that would be good; do my key workouts later in the week then start the real taper.
Well this all looked good on paper, in a world without kids, dogs, husbands and a house to remodel! : ) As the race drew closer I decided to wait until the week before to commit; things have been very busy here at home. Mike was off in Asia for a two week business trip and would only get home the day before the race. Over the last month we have been painting the outside of our house, putting new windows in some of the bedrooms and ripping out sheet rock to put new insulation in. Just like my workout schedule there is a house schedule. I need to get this put back together before Sept 1 when the kids head back to school, so they can make a smooth transition and we can start the year out right. None of this would be possible without the huge amount of help and support that we have gotten from my mom and dad, Jim and Janice Jeffery. (Thanks so much!!!!)
The large number of home projects meant there were certain things that just had to be done on certain days, regardless of my training schedule. Right after Mike left for Asia our Internet went out in the house! This has been a major stress for me because I am in daily email communication with all of my athletes, and this meant to get on line I had to leave the house…this took time out of my day; time away from the kids. So needless to say my last weeks have been extremely stressful trying to stay on top of everything. This was definitely the least prepared I have ever been for a race; not in a physical sense, but in terms of specific race preparation.
Friday before the race, while packing to leave, I realized I was out of Carbo Pro. The only place that I know that carries it here in Seattle is Triumph Multisport. Triumph is a bit of a drive from my house; it is not far but with traffic it can be 2 hours out of my day to get there and back. What to do? I didn’t have time to make the trip over there.
Well I decided to come up with an alternative nutrition plan. I would use e-load cliff shot blocks and endurolytes on the bike and just see how it goes. My bike is in desperate need of a tune up and I have broken off the head of one of the screws in the rear where the skewer goes in. These screws are there to adjust the wheel alignment and clearance. This happened the night before Seafair when we were putting on my race wheels. Occasionally the wheel will move and it will rub…(resistance training!) I just haven’t had the time to get it in and to be honest, I knew I was going to be taking the bike in the second week of Aug and I was hoping I could hold out with it until then.
The other thing was my aero pad. At pacific Crest one of my aero pads on my aero bars went missing the morning of the race, when they transported my bike to the race. I had called around to get it replaced but no one had them. It is something always forget about then realize just as I head out for my ride. So the eve of the race I decided to cut my one pad in half and stick it on both sides with duct tape…I did it and it felt fine …much better than the metal and now at least my forearms would be level!
I had ordered a new race outfit to wear for IMC…it came in the mail the day before we left (now this was a good thing!). When I removed the outfit, I looked at the briefs and thought …OMG..I can’t; wear these! They were a much different cut than what I was use to; much lower at the waist. This explains why my teenage daughter liked this outfit much better than the others. She thinks my other briefs look like grannie underpants, the horrorJ. I guess that is not cool and when you are a teenager, everything is about being cool. Candace gave a big thumbs up on this outfit. I LOVE the colors and after having worn it to race these are the most comfortable briefs I have ever worn ..they are awesome.
We headed over to Spokane the day before the race. We left early so we could get there and drive the bike course, as well as registering for the race. I had talked with some people and had gotten a variety of comment s about the course from it’s flat to rolling hills…Hmmm??? How can people see those two things differently? The run I had heard the same thing.
They definitely need a new map of the course for their website…we tried to figure it out with the map and just couldn’t so we finally gave up. I had to get into town and get registered then go to the pre race briefing . The briefing was good…but still didn’t help me to figure out the course. I ran into Su and Kathy there, two friends of mine from the Club. This was to be their first ½ IM and they had all the scoop about the course BIG THANKS TO THEM! It was very helpful talking with them and hearing their assessment ..what was interesting was how they both saw some parts of the course differently. We then went out for pizza then back to the room to get ready.
So we have an unknown course, a new nutrition plan, bike issues and a new race outfit; we’re ready to race!
Got up early race morning 3:45 we had to drive into town to get breakfast. Ate breakfast at Dennys (4 eggs, a piece of toast, a few bites of Mike’s pancakes, and a cup of coffee) then we headed out to the lake. Stephen was with us and was excited to fish. His first day when we had been at Medical Lake he had caught and released over 20 sunfish. He was anxious to get back and do some more fishing. It was a beautiful morning with a gorgeous sun rise. I felt pretty good and really relaxed.
GOALS: At my Pacific Crest ½, I left the race feeling that I could have pushed a bit harder on the bike. The bike felt easy, more like an Ironman effort. I decided that I would push a higher heart rate for Troika, with a goal of still being able to negative split the run and hold an 8 minute average pace.
SWIM: The swim is almost an out and back…rectangle shape. I really like the way the swim was set up. I started to the far right of the group. They had the men start first then the women and relays 5 minutes later. I didn’t have too much contact during the swim. A couple feet and elbows the first couple hundred yards, but after that it was fine. I finished with my fastest ever ½ IM swim, with a time of 34:40. Thanks again blueseventy, I love my Helix!!
T1: You come out of the water onto sand!!!! I am used to having rocks to deal with in most of the races I do. Out of T1 you run up a small hill to get to the transition area…T1 went smooth, no trouble there. My time was 1:26, which was one of the faster T1s.
BIKE: I really enjoyed the bike. My assessment is this is NOT a flat course. A lot of long gradual hills, false flats…some true rollers…the roads were good. There were a couple sections were they were bad but the majority of them were pretty nice. I definitely felt as though I was going up and down for the majority most of the ride…again nothing too steep. There was 1 steep hill in the park near the end, similar to the grade heading up to saddleback park. Again, this was not what I would call a flat course. My Ergomo says there was 2000+ elevation gain not a lot, but definitely not flat. I finished the bike in 2:38:33, which was an average speed of 21.19 mph.
T2: This is similar to what you do in IM. When you come in they take your bike…the person who brings you your bike will have a bag for you to drop you helmet and shoes in. Then you then run over to a park bench and some one is there with your bag…I loved this, it was fast and easy. 48 seconds.
RUN: Again I was told this was flat…it was not. There were parts that were flat but there were also a lot of long gradual grades…Kathy and Su had told me that Josh thought the first part of the run had a gradual grade I would have to agree. It felt like this until over the over pass. Then after that it was flat again for a while…then you had a long gradual hill then it was flat for a while…then before the turn around another short hill up. Like the bike course, nothing drastic but it is definitely not what I would call flat…rolling would be more like it. The aid stations were great. The people were very helpful trying to get you what ever you needed. They had tons of hammer products available, even endurolytes. Thanks to all the volunteers, they were awesome! Run time was 1:45:32, Average pace of about 8:03. I was happy with this after that bike.
Overall I enjoyed the race and would really like to do it again next year. The race finishes in a park in a beautiful park in downtown Spokane there is plenty to do there while you are waiting for the athletes to finish. One of the things they give out is a cool hooded sweatshirt after you complete the race. I loved this! You can never have enough hooded sweatshirts living here in the Pacific Northwest J
Big congratulations and thanks to Kathy and Su and Win. This was Kathy and Su’s first half IM ..they were on top of everything and were very helpful to me. It has been very exciting to watch them both grow over the past year into the athletes that I saw cross the finish line yesterday.
Win Van Pelt is a new addition to the Tricoachjill team. I am very excited to start working with him he’ll be a great addition to the team. Don’t let his soft spoken nature fool you J…he’s a competitor!!!!! His wife Terri deserves kudos too…that’s a lot of work following your loved ones in these races. Terri, Win and I are pictured to the right.
