What Not to Do in the Span of 4 Weekends

This is a book...hopefully you have some coffee or a tasty spirit to sip while reading.

Weekend 1. Race a half-ironman where everything goes right and it's pretty much the best race of your life thus far.
Weekend 2. Maybe some of the travel zapped me.
Weekend 3. Train really hard the week leading up to this weekend. Do the Death Ride and think it wasn't that hard when in actuality it probably depleted you a lot more than you realize.
Weekend 4. Do another half-ironman on what should be an easier course. Have sketchy preparation leading up to race day, lose gel flask on bike around mile 20, and spend rest of bike course panicking about calories. Despite a faster run, I was still overall slower.

What I am discovering this year is that racing is a lot harder than just finishing. Up until the end of last year (like after Lake Placid) I was merely doing tris to finish. Starting with the Folsom Olympic last August I began actually racing. It's a whole different beast.

Topaz Lake

Death Ride recap - Headed out to Markleeville the morning of the day before the race with a friend from here. We did some work from the hotel that was on Topaz Lake just over the border in Nevada. We went and picked up our packets in the afternoon, and the participants and the bikes resembled who and what you see at Ironman races... lots of super fit cyclists. For dinner the night before the ride we met up with Dan and another friend at this small restaurant off the side of the road bordering a trailer park. I don't think any of us had any expectations (I mean, we were pretty much in BFE) but the food turned out to be delicious!

Ride morning comes and we head out to the start around 4:30am. As we are driving over Monitor Pass (the first pass of the ride) we are suddenly blinded by hundreds of single headlights. Wow, riders are already out on the route and it's not even 5am! Later we would find out there were people who were starting even at 3:30am! I tell my friend we can just head home now, be back in Folsom in time for breakfast.

So weird to be eye level with the top of the mountains!

It's chilly at the start, and the initial few miles of the ride are downhill. Luckily as we start heading up the first pass it warms up. I rode the first two passes with my friend, and from then on I was by myself. The third pass (first side of Ebbett's) was the most difficult for me. It was definitely the steepest and felt the longest. I also may have been bonking on this pass, because I was so happy when I got to the top. I chose to stop longer once I got to Hermit Valley on the other side of Ebbett's and spent a decent amount of time there just getting calories in. Once I got back to the top of Ebbett's after the fourth pass I said fuck it, and took off. Minimal time at aid stations, just tried to keep going. Soon enough I was at the top of Carson's, the fifth and last pass, a Death Ride 5 Pass finisher!

Riders coming down the hill into the Carson Pass 5-pass checkpoint!

Talked to a few random people along the way, including a guy from Chicago, a couple guys from MN, and some Bay Area folks. In general, the ride was good, but I have to say the aid stations were probably the least stocked I have ever seen at the extreme rides (like doubles and Auburn century). They ran out of Cytomax several places, and water, and silverware. In the future I hope they use more generous estimates for the supplies.

And now we come to Vineman 70.3, the race that actually wasn't. The day before the race I went to Marin to do the Soup Spoons & Carbon Forks ride. Initially I was doing the ride because I really wanted to ride over the Golden Gate Bridge (I've run over the bridge, but never cycled) but on the way to the bridge, the wind was bad and everyone had warned about all the crazy pedestrians on the bridge and I made the decision to hang out in Sausalito with three of the other riders. That ended up being the best decision of the day, as we chilled (literally) at a coffee shop while waiting for the rest of the group to return. Exciting things were discussed!

This is the closest I got to the bridge that day.

I was staying with the Ericksons' the night before the race. They have an absolutely gorgeous house on a lovely piece of property, complete with gardens, fruit trees, chickens, and a beautiful patio. Their house and property is what I want one day! The other nice thing about their house is it was between Guerneville and Windsor, where T1 and T2 are, respectively. (Okay I hate races where the transitions are separate, such a pain in the ass.)

Sunday morning Jo Ann was nice enough to drive with me to Windsor so I could drop off my car so that I would have it at the finish, and then she drove me and my bike to Guerneville for the race start. It was quite chilly and foggy in the morning, much different from what Folsom is like this time of year!

My wave didn't go off until 7:42 am which was actually better since I was so cold! I had my sleeveless wetsuit since I have determined as terrible as I am at swimming in general, I am even worse in a full-sleeve suit (if that's possible). Pretty much lost the pack immediately, and my sighting was off so I had to keep swimming extra. Later on I realized that may have been because the river wasn't exactly straight. I was actually shivering during the swim since the water wasn't super warm and the air was cool and damp. I found the turnaround by spotting the guys in the previous waves walking around the big buoy. The water was shallow enough so that most of their bodies were out of water, and remained shallow for a sizable part of the return trip.

Sadly there were no wetsuit strippers at this race, and transition was in dirt, which made for a messy T1. Struggled out of my wetsuit (the one thing I may be worse at than swimming is getting my wetsuit off) and tried to get as much dirt as possible off my feet before putting my socks on. I asked a volunteer to tie my numbered bag onto my backpack so that it wouldn't get lost on the way to the finish. Then I dawdled a bit and reassured a girl she wouldn't need arm warmers for the bike.

Onto the bike... just was not feeling it. The previous day Jo Ann had walked me through most of the bike course telling me what was steep and what to be careful for. That helped a lot, particularly when there were sudden steep hills. At mile 10 on the course my coach passed me and said "Come on, come on!!" I tried to go...legs weren't responding. Towards mile 20 I was feeling a bit better...until my gel flask fell out. There were too many people around me to even consider stopping to retrieve it, meaning I lost about 300 calories in  a second. I still had 150 calories of Gatorade, and 300 calories of Clif Blocks, but knowing that my main fuel source was gone I began to panic. And pretty much spent the rest of the bke ride thinking about whether I would have enough fuel to run. There were only 3 aid stations on this course, and they didn't have gels. That was my second time to panic. I grabbed a bottle of Gatorade, and later on half a Power Bar, but I think just because I didn't really want to be out there, my mental state was rattled and I just checked out. There were a few times along the course I wanted to just get off my bike and lay on the ground and be like is it over yet?!?

Into T2 I'm in cruise mode. Try to use the porta-potties before heading out but both of them are full. I've been warned this run is hilly and unshaded. I'm out on the course, passing almost everyone. Since the Male Under 29 wave started behind me, I get passed by some of them. Around mile 3 or 4 my bladder wants to explode so I stop to go. The turnaround is in the winery and I'm still feeling pretty good. The course isn't as hilly, and there are less hills on the course. I pick up the pace at mile 8, and by mile 9 I've decided that if I run faster I can get off this damn course sooner. So that's what I do... with a half-marathon PR as the result. Despite my less-than-ideal nutrition on the bike!

Okay morale of the story, probably should not have panicked on the bike. Also, do not overestimate yourself and think you can handle 3 big events in a month's time. There are plenty of things to nitpick about what went wrong on Sunday, but I figure, you can't always have good races right? And as long as I learn from what I did stupid, then that's what counts.