Wednesday, September 23, 2020

Masters Swim

 Finally the gang is back together in the pool led by our wonderful Coach Lindsey. With new COVID protocols, the group was small, but it was great to be back in the pool under the watchful eye of the coach. I have mentioned this before, but I really like this class. There are several people who are all about the same speed so we tend to push each other. But we have a coach who stops us to tell us what we are doing wrong and uses video to help show it. Together that means we see slow but steady improvement, even with only 2 days a week in the pool.

One of the many downsides to this new COVID swimming is that we are limited to just 45 minutes. That really shortens the yardage that we can do in a session to 2000-2500 tops. So we try to make the most of that time, and really focus on technique.

But we all make the most of the time we have.

Tuesday, September 15, 2020

My First Multisport Win! Square Lake Race Report

Like most of us, 2020 was a turbulent and weird year for me. The year started with taking a job in Phoenix that was to start April 1, but then COVID happened and cancelled those plans along with so many others. But another summer in northern Minnesota isn’t so bad, we adjusted to the new routine, and I continued to train.

A running injury in May meant that I did very little run training this summer (I am a terrible runner anyway). Three mornings a week I open water swam in various lakes around Duluth with a few other athletes, and I also did a ton of biking including my first century ride. I much prefer biking to running and the weather here was fantastic all summer for training. So when I saw that Square Lake 70.3 had an aqua-bike division I saw it as a chance to open water swim one last time before being stuck in a pool all winter, and to see how fast I can ride 56 miles.

On race morning, when my alarm went off at 5am, the first thing I did was look outside and saw that it wasn’t raining. Then I looked at the radar and it looked like most of the rain had already gone through. All good news since I was not looking forward to racing in the rain. I packed up the car and drove through the fog and light rain to the park.

After picking up my packet I headed to transition to set up. Everyone was well spaced out for the race and that was really nice. I wish every race could do that! With a delay to the race start due to fog, I got to spend a bunch of time just chatting with the people around me. A mix of veterans of 70.3 and first timers of this distance. All of us were glad to be able to get out racing this year so much thanks to the organizers.

With bib numbers being assigned alphabetically, I was in the last swim group. The first swimmers were coming into transition to head out on the bike as I walked to the swim start. I chose to wear my sleeveless wetsuit today as the water temp was reported to be mid 60’s on Thursday which is typical for what I have been swimming up here in Duluth all summer. However, once I dove in, I found the water SHOCKINGLY cold. It took me a bit to recover from the shock and then get into my groove.

A solid middle of the pack swim time just as I expected.

After a quick (for me) transition I was out of the bike. The course was every bit as hilly as I have heard! I had driven it the day before but riding in a car you just don’t get the same sense of elevation. But I train on hills quite a bit up here, so I was pretty used to it.

Aside from hilly, most of the course was quite beautiful. I saw turkeys, deer and swans during my ride. I made sure to smile and thank all the volunteers along the way and was appreciative of the spectators out on the course cheering on all the racers since my Sherpas and cheerleaders stayed home.

When I started the bike, I had no heart rate displaying on my bike computer which I found odd. About halfway through the race I realized that it was a NEW HR strap and I had only ever paired it with my watch. So, as I was riding, I paired the HR strap to my bike computer and then I had HR. Stupid me.

I held a good power number right up until about mile 53 when my legs started to really complain, and I started that internal dialog between my brain and my legs. “Just keep going until the next turn.” “Just one more hill to the park.” Thankfully the brain was convincing, and the legs held out to the end.

I crossed the finish line super happy with my effort. Power and HR exactly where I wanted it, speed was a bit slower but that I blamed on the wet conditions. I knew I had done pretty well because there were not a lot of bikes in transition yet.

When the results came out the next day, I got my first ever multi-sport victory!

This race was a lot of fun. It was a difficult bike course, much different than what I have done before in races, and the weather made it more difficult too. But the organizers, athletes and volunteers made the whole event worthwhile so a big thanks to everyone for creating a safe and fun event.

Wednesday, September 9, 2020

POOL Swim

With the weather being significantly cooler up here now, I think the days of open water swims are done. I booked a time in the now open YMCA pool. 45 minute time slots, and only one person per lane. This morning was my first pool swim since March 13th. I keep my written workouts in zippy bags and I chose the workout that was on top because it seemed like the right amount of yards for the 45 minutes of pool time I had. I was right. 

Nothing crazy in this swim and it turns out I do remember how to do flip turns too! I was actually pretty pleased with my times for the first time back in the pool.

But the 45 minutes goes by fast and then they kick you out.

So a good way to start the morning.