Chattanooga 70.3 2.0

Me and Matt and Carter post race

I kicked of my triathlon season this past weekend with Chattanooga 70.3. I chose this race because 1) its in driving distance 2) Quintana Roo is based there and 3) Last year I woke up sick and had the most horrible experience that haunted me in the back of my mind for a year. I had to beat these demons and was determined to smoke the course. The course ended up smoking me yet again, but I still walked with a PR for the course on an uber-hot day!

As mentioned earlier this year I spent alot of time focused on running in order to find a great day at the Boston Marathon. We kept up with biking and swimming but you never really feel "tri" ready until you are focused on those sports. After Boston we took a quick turn and hit the bike and swim hard and about a week away from race day I was actually feeling optimistic. My A-race is not until August but as professionals we always seek to "be our best" on race day no matter what. I did a relay with some friends the week before and road the bike portion of the relay to get a feel for my new setup. It was fast and my numbers were good. This gave me more confidence leading into race week...

Monday of race week we were met with some vicious storms that actually ended up sending a Noahs ark of rain for 6 days straight. My basement flooded twice and I felt like I was living in the jungle. I couldnt wait to just hit the road on thursday and escape. Not exactly the pre-race stress I enjoy,  but hey atleast my workouts were going well!

Me and Jacob checking out Knoxville

Thursday, Jacob and I headed out after work and decided to break the 10 hr drive into 2 parts. We cruised to our half way point and I cranked the AC in the hotel like NO OTHER after living in my safari of a bedroom for the last couple days.  It was still raining Friday morning so we did some shake out strides in what felt like a cloud and this was probably our first realization that the humidity was about to be in full force on race day. We stopped in Knoxville for lunch and took a quick walk to loosen our legs. This helped a ton. We arrived in Chatty To our host house (Thanks to the Lawyers for our second year of Housing!) by about 2 pm and had a few down hours before heading over to Quintana Roo for some fun.

This was the QR Painting room and just happened to be all "Neutrons" <3 <3 <3 so cool!

Saturday was typical pre-race stuff and QR hosted a really great breakfast for us. It was so nice to be able to spend time with the group that works there and the athletes themselves.Thanks again for putting together such great events! Overall I was feeling pretty good and just knew it was gonna be hot. I tried to pre-load/carb-load/rest-load as much as possible and before we knew it Sunday morning was upon us.

The Swim:
This was the only part of the race I actually felt I was racing. The swim was great! I put on my Zone3 sleeved swim skin over top my OwnWay Onesie (amazing fit!). I got in the water to warm up just a bit but you had to be careful how far you went because the current was strong. I could tell it was stronger then last year but I lined up appropriately. One thing I always find myself doing before a race is chickening out. You start to question yourself. But today I was ready -- full throttle and I took out with the lead swimmers. It was fast. I was swimming Hard. My arms hurt. But we just kept swimming. We rounded the first set of buoys and heading back with the current. The swim ended up being a few yards short but either way I was on pace to swim my fastest 70.3 to date and most importantly exiting with the pack of girls I needed to be with.

The Bike:
On to the bike I was feeling rather "meh". Not great but not bad. I road the majority of this ride solo and felt the humidity start to take over. I watched a few athletes pass me and play cat and mouse with each other. Drafters gonna draft but I am not game for that. After experiencing last years pack of drafters I must say this year was MUCH better...but I guess you can never have a solid clean race these days. After analyzing my files I actually road fairly steady and my power was pretty close to what I wanted to ride. I had wished for a few more watts but my legs just didnt have them during the heat of the day. I drank all of my bottles and my nutrition was good, but my hydration seemed to be lacking. I felt dehydrated coming off the bike as I almost had chills already. Coach Matt and I discussed that my adaptation to the heat and humidity was probably just not there yet,  more so then my nutrition plan being a problem.

The Run:
I ran about 4 miles "decent". Then I was not really running or racing at all. I slogged through to the finish line. When I wanted to quit I literally thought about all my athletes and friends. I remember how bad I felt last year and how this was not nearly as bad. The second loop of the run was "KONA-NooGA" as they call it. It was incredibly hot. Coke, Ice, Whatever it was ...I just had to keep moving. I only ran 2 mins faster then last year but hey it was faster! My run definitely did not show my abilities but on the day overall I am okay with my race. Improvements have been made and all we can do is keep our heads down and keep working.

Grunting through the run.

Because every race deserves icecream

Ill be racing Escape from Alcatraz in two weeks. Looking forward to the "cool" temps this time!

Thanks to everyone who has helped support this season so far. In Particular Bonzai Sports for quick bike support, DC Tri Club Elite, Matt Hanson Coaching, Zone 3 Apparel, Quintana Roo , Klean Athlete, SBR Sports, and Normatec.