Apple Capital Sprint

Once again, a little slow on the posting.  Sorry.  (for the 1 person who actually reads this little blog)

So. Last Saturday was the Apple Capital Sprint Tri in Wenatchee.  This has to be my favorite race to do, and this year was no exception.  There were 8 members of our "unofficial" Ephrata Tri Club who participated, 5 of which raced the sprint.  It was fun to have so many people I knew there - it gave me people to cheer for out on the course.

Ephrata Tri Team: Sam, Gavin, Taylor, me, Dee Dee

I have been working on my training/race nutrition lately and it completely paid off on Saturday.  Usually I have trouble eating enough calories, but it was not the case this weekend.  This awesome book I bought Nutrition for Endurance Athletes has guidelines for every intensity & training pace imaginable.  Dave and I discovered that on race morning I was starting out with a major calorie deficit.  Not good.  Normally I'd just have a bagel and some juice - apparently not enough carbs for what I was about to put my body through.  Saturday I had a bagel with jam, 8 oz of fruit juice, a bowl of oatmeal, a banana, HEED and a gel.  Count it up people - that's about 250 grams of carbs.  For breakfast.  I *heart* carbs.

Swim: 500yds / 12:32 / 2:30 per 100 - 3 minutes better that last year



Ok, so not my fastest quarter-mile swim ever, but probably my best race swim ever.  I didn't freak out about the abundance of seaweed (seriously, they swathe a channel through it for the race.  gross.), I did not hyperventilate, and I swam as part of the pack the whole time - as noted by the photo below.  I was so mad when I came out of the water because I was never able to break free of everyone.  It seemed like I was always sandwiched between people or had someone criss-crossing in front of me.  Other than that, I have no complaints!!

that's me in the middle, #25, with someone trying to mount me

Bike: 13.1 miles / 43:04 - 6 minutes better than last year

Not much to say here.  It went well.  I had forgotton how hilly this course was - there's the monster climb right out of transition and then you get rolling hills the rest of the way.  Nothing too exciting happened - I think I passed one girl in my age group and nobody passed me, so that's always a plus!

 

Headed down the big hill into T2

Run: 5K / 26:30 / 8:32 per mile

I felt great for this entire run, probably because of my big breakfast (thanks for force-feeding me Dave!) and I was actually able to run up the monster hill out of T2.  Yeah, they make you bike & run the hill.  Stupid race director. I don't see him out there. (Oh, wait - he's a pro & he's awesome!)  Anyways, the run was also pretty uneventful - I was able to pass quite a few people, but also got passed once or twice.  This race is so small that I was pretty much by myself for the whole run which was kind of nice!  My one complaint is that I had the Kenny Loggins song Playing with the Boys stuck in my head for the entire run.  Yes, ladies, Tom Cruise shirtless and sweaty was with me saturday morning - it made for a nice distraction.   

 

Getting ready to climb the hill

Total time:  1:27:22 - PR!  (but also the shortest swim of the year)

2nd in my age group - girl who got 1st beat me by 7 minutes

7th woman overall

 Felt great the whole way through this race.  From start to finish I feel like I did the best I could under the given circumstances (like people who don't sight on the swim! argh!!)  After the race I didn't get the headache/queasy feeling like I usually do, but I was also shoveling water and food down as soon as I crossed the finish line, so once again, yay for nutrition!! 

 

Done!!