Resurrection Camp - Part 2a

Purse came to visit Team Pataky (that would be me, Matt, and the dogs) on the west coast, and while we were on different training schedules (I’m in recovery, she is ramping up to race) we still managed to have our own personal training/gchatting without the “g” camp. She has promised to slog about the first half of “camp” so I am left with part 2, which shall have to be published first, as she is too busy to slog.

Anyway, Friday I returned home from work to face an impending zone 5 interval bike ride. Purse didn’t have anything scheduled, and being the magnanimous person that she is, agreed to play DJ and motivator (between her ab work and trigger pointing) as I mounted my bike on the computrainer. Her DJ expertise proved to be extraordinary as she picked just the right dance mix to help me jettison my zone 5 intervals into a new hundreds digit. This was huge. Afterwards we celebrated by dancing to the song that got me there.


Lauren and Zone 5 interval fun!

Computrainer Proof!

Purse flexing for the competition (not actually riding).

I would show pictures of Ronin the dog dancing to this song as well, but they are rated NC-17, as he was more interested in reenacting this song with a pillow.

On Saturday we woke up early for a swim workout. Matt came along as well, but wasn't so keen on doing our set (or he was scared of the Purse interval). I also worked on developing my "swimitude." (For all of you people not familiar with my vocab, "swimitude" refers to an attitude of supreme confidence which is exhuded at all times. Most people who swam competitively growing up manifest decent levels of swimitude.) As I learned on Saturday, people with swimitude don't wait at the wall for the faster person to swim through...they make that faster person swim around them or attempt to prevent being lapped.

After the swim set, Purse and Matt headed out for a two hour tour de Silicon Valley. I had a long run to do, but heard via Matt that they had a great time taking Purse up Old La Honda and trying to drop her on the descents.

Next on the agenda was a quick drive up to SF to meet up with Purse's cool cousin. We were also planning to meet up with Paulo, who was on some whirlwind tour of national parks, but apparently he got lost trying to drive the 4 blocks to our restaurant. Hmmmm.

Before dinner, however, we both had additional items on the training schedule. Lindsey had to do a short run and I pointed her in the direction of the "fun" Alcatraz run course. Most importantly, I had to stop off at Sports Basement, the MECCA of all shopping which serves as a black hole for much of my income.


After my shopping extravaganza, I headed out towards Chrissie Field to meet up with Purse and walk back to the car. I finally spotted her pink visor but accompanying this visor was a scowling, angry face. Apparently she missed the running trails and she was also manifesting some type of low blood sugar issue. She babbled incoherently at me for a few minutes..something about 13 minutes and sweet potato...and then kept on going. I finally met her at the car where she whipped out a baked yam from her purse and took a big bite. random.

On Easter Sunday we all headed up to a local park with the dogs for a pre-ride sunrise hike.




Purse underestimates the strength of PatakyHarrison dogs.

After the hike it was time for our ride out to Canada Road....land of triathletes who want to race before the race (self included!). Purse was working on her ITU drafting skills, so I did my intervals for the first 2 hours (with Purse helping me keep the watts in check!) and then switched places and latched on for a free ride home. Unfortunately, Purse decided to eat right before her zone 3 intervals, and had some issues which were only resolved by her abandoning her bike and lying down flat on the road multiple times. At one point, three sets of good samaritans rushed to our assistance, thinking that she was dying or something. We did finally make it back home and spent the rest of the day relaxing before taking her to the airport...which marked the conclusion of Res Camp 2009.

Oceanside wrap-up

Congrats to LAHP for completing her first race of the season!  It was cool to see her rack her bike with the other pros and cheer her on throughout the morning.  My take-away from her race experience is to always STAY FOCUSED.  Over the course of several hrs, things happen and you can't let your mind wander, or worse, dwell on something that is (soo) over (i.e., telling your husband/coach/slog co-author about going off-course MID-RACE will not get you across the finish line any sooner).  :)  :)  I am really proud of LAHP--next up for her is Wildflower... which has a punishing bike course.  GOOD.  She is recovering and getting back to work soon! 

Race day photos:  LAHP heading to transition in the morning...

swimming...
Lauren told us after the race--surprisingly, not during--that she saw us positioned on the rocks taking these photos.  This is a good sign that in swim practice, she will master the ability to see her swim splits during 400s by peeking at the pace clock before flip turns.

Andy Potts on the run...
I actually didn't get any pictures of Lauren after the swim since I was busy cheering and post-race she wasn't in a picture-taking mood, ha.  ;-)

Lauren's Oceanside 70.3 Race Report: A Humbling Experience.

In what is becoming a pattern, I'm sitting at the airport in San Diego waiting to catch my delayed flight out of here...perfect opportunity for blogging or slogging about my "fun" day. 

Lessons Learned: 

- Racing as a pro is VASTLY different than racing as an age grouper.

- Don't wear clear goggles when swimming into the sun.

- Study the bike course map and don't blindly follow the directions of course volunteers.

- Don't complain to your coach or husband on the run.

- Don't let a disaster in one discipline ruin the rest of your race.

Going into this year I was warned by coach Paulo and others who had made the switch that there is a huge difference between racing as an age grouper and racing as a pro. Apparently I did not internalize this and perhaps I had secret hopes that I was impervious to this phenomenon - this was not to be the case, however. 

Race morning was typical. I set up my transition zone (this time amongst the triathlete magazine cover girls), did a warm up run, and then sat in the porta potty line multiple times. I was surprisingly calm as I put on my wetsuit and made my way to the swim start. I lined up somewhere in the middle and when the horn sounded I had high hopes that I would find some girls' feet to draft. This was not to be the case. I swam as hard as possible and held on as long as possible but the fast packs of girls dropped me. After the swim turnaround I found myself directly facing the sun with nobody in sight. Was I the LAST pro girl in the water? The horror! I continued swimming in what I thought was a somewhat straight direction after almost running into some random guy on a paddle board (who happened to be telling me that I was off course) and finally made it to the boat ramp. I later learned that I was not the last girl out of the water, but was heroically leading the last pack of girls in an intricate and creative zig zag pattern. awesome!

After a three hour T1 (you'd think this was my first tri ever), I managed to jump on my bike and get my feet into the shoes. This WAS a first for me....a small victory in my long day. I got into my zone and started hammering to find all the girls that had beat me on the swim. Unlike the constant legal slip streaming of age group racing, I was alone. COMPLETELY ALONE. For someone that thrives on passing people, this was difficult. I am used to getting ahead in my age group by the midpoint on the bike and then just holding on for the run, but this is apparently not how it works in the pro field. I finally started passing a few people (perhaps 6 or 7 by mile 35) and was excited thinking that I was slowly making my way up to where I really wanted to be. 

Sometime after mile 40, I came across an intersection with one volunteer and a bunch of cars. I thought the volunteer was motioning me to turn right, so despite having done this race TWO other times, I turned right and headed up a huge hill. After about 5 minutes and 2 forks in the road, I realized I was off course, so I stopped, turned around, and climbed back up the hill. After about 10+ minutes I made it back to the main road and continued back to transition. Rather than shaking this off and continuing my race however, I freaked out and this is where I lost the mental battle. 

I finally made it back to transition with the longest bike time I've had in 2 years and the only thing I could think about was how unfair this was and how I needed to tell everyone this ASA FREAKING P so that they wouldn't think I was slow.  What were all my age group friends going to think of me? Would they secretly think I should have stayed age group? Was my coach going to fire me? Was my husband going to find a new person to which to offer his sherpa services?? Perhaps this energy could have been better spent focusing on my run. Perhaps I could have caught a couple of girls, rather than mentally quitting in T2?

The run was uneventful. I was running just to finish. I saw Matt right out of T2 and screamed to him how I went off course. I saw video of this later and while it is quite humorous now, I was definitely pulling out the "poor me" card and not following the HTFU mantra. I saw Paulo a minute later and tried to tell him what happened but he told me to shut up and run. This was the best piece of advice I got all day. I slogged though the run and finished the race in an unglorious cloud of anger and frustration. After spending 30 minutes pouting in transition and avoiding Matt's calls, I finally packed it up, walked out of transition and faced my friends. 

As I mentioned previously, I learned so much today. Most importantly, I learned that the mental game in professional triathlon is HUGE. I need to be prepared to deal with whatever comes my way and not let it affect me. Yesterday I failed miserably in that, but am going to pick myself up and get back to training and racing. I have only myself to blame and am looking forward to learning more fun lessons along the way! Bring on Wildflower!!!

Thanks to Matt, Purse, Paulo, and Shawn and Tracy for encouraging me on the run and throughout the day. I appreciate the support. Also thanks to Sara de BOOM (yes, she is related to Tim de Boom..so she is triathlon royalty) for showing up and celebrating at the Drunken Crab Shack in my honor!! Congrats to all the other posse members who finished yesterday as well!

Note: This was posted by Lauren, not Lindsey. I forgot to log her off when I posted and don't want to attribute this day to her!

Oceanside 70.3: pre-race evening

I flew into San Diego this afternoon and was greeted by Timex teammates Jodi and Bruce. Jodi and I are newbies to the Timex team--Bruce successfully scared us with initiation stories about camp which takes place Saturday-Tuesday. Hmmm... We met up with Lauren and Matt at an Italian restaurant to FUEL for tomorrow.   Even though I'm not racing, I was peer-pressured into carbo loading with Lauren and Jodi (Matt gave me the first slice of the appetizer pizza and Bruce offered me a jumbo-roll before wolfing down my chicken/spaghetti mound).

After dinner, I jumped in the car with L&M and we BOOKED IT to the closest ice cream store.
Supporting to the max... 

Matt unpacking the car THANK YOUUU

Lauren getting PSYCHED UP by channeling the message from the latest ed. of The Economist (Under Attack)

Mimicking Lauren's finger-pointing pose, I'm drawing attention to the near-record 58 hits to the slog today.  We may have seen higher volumes at some point, but this is remarkable for a day when neither Lauren nor I were at work inflating the #s with multiple web page hits.

Sleep time...

The Bikes are IN

Here are a couple pics of my new rides. To start, I am a proud new owner of a sparkling Madone 5.2 from Trek in white/platinum (I'm a traditional girl). This is me posing with the bike on Sunday before previewing the Columbia course for 2 loops and a transition run. The guys at Revolution Cycles in Georgetown (spitting distance from THE running store, Georgetown Running Company) built the Madone in ONE DAY.




And here's the new tri bike, the TTX. I'm packing it up soon to take with me to California for Timex Camp so Paulo can fit me on it while LAHP RACES. I bet he is super excited to tinker with the fit...

The most exciting feature is the PowerTap-outfitted race wheels. The PowerTap measures the watts you produce while riding so you can see just how well (or poorly) your workout is going... it's similar to swimming in a pool w/ a pace clock. Yes, race wheels are intended for workouts! :) I did not know the PowerTap was coming in my shipment from Timex... <3

Package in THE MAIL!!!

After a long day of work and training, I came home, opened the mail box and found a surprise! Inside the mailbox was a small package addressed to me. This was the moment I had been thinking about for months.... and just in time for the Oceanside race this weekend!

I opened the package and unwrapped the most magnificent gray, dry-wicking tshirt ever. What is more, this tshirt is emblazoned with the logo of the DC Triathlon Club. Purse, being the generous and thoughtful athlete that she is, was kind enough to provide me with this awesome hand-me-down product for training and racing. Below is her thoughtful card.


I tried it on and it fits perfectly. It will be great for those cool and crisp California mornings when it it too cold to wear sleeveless shirts. This will also be perfect for wearing to and from training camps - a great replacement for my Princeton sweatshirt which Paulo deems "elitist." When feeling particularly east coasty, I could even don this shirt for a race!!!

Thanks for your support Lindsey/Purse!

President's Motorcade Sighting on Run!

Yesterday Obama's motorcade passed me while on my run. It's only a matter of time before I'm in the inner-circle as I sometimes split a lane with Rahm at the pool super early in the morning. Yesterday's events are retold in the following chat with Lauren:

me: the prez drove past me on my run

Lauren: slobama?!?!? woot

me: yesssss

Lauren: awesome!

me: constitution ave was shut down so he drove past as i approached the lincoln memorial. i was running in the direction the motorcade was driving but it was RIGHT next to me. I looked over my shoulder as his car passed DID NOT STOP TO GAWK figured if he was looking out the window

Lauren: haha he would roll down and say "GTWD"!

me: he would be impressed that I WAS GTWD and not STOPPING HAHAHAH EXACTLY