It is TIME
time to post the results of my 2011 'racing' season... two years ago, I had some arthroscopy on my right knee. But it was not to 'fix' anything. It was only to clean up the crap for whoever eventually does my TKR when I'm "old enough".
In the meantime, I worked out. a little here, a little there. But I wanted a goal. So I decided my goal would be: Wool Capital Triathlon (Olympic Distance) in San Angelo, Texas, on 14 August, 2011.
I had previously done only one Olympic distance triathon --the inagural Longhorn in October 2007. This was essentially the Austin Danskin course times two. I'd done the Austin Danskin several times by then. Did I already mention that I'm not a swimmer??
My first olympic race-- 1500 swim: 58:31, T1: 3:44, 24.8 mile bike: 1:23:18, T2:2:55, 10k run: 1:24:02. Not a great showing. But it was still freakin HOT here..
Between that race and this year, many many factors came into play such as chronic insomnia, knee surgery, etc.
Most notably, last year I decided to go on the hcg protocol and (finally) dropped 60 lbs..
Meaning, in 2011.. a leaner and meaner Annette was ready to race.
On the schedule was:
May - Skees Greets on Mother's Day (to honor Momma)
June- Lake Pflugerville Tri (I usually get my HFE all star volunteer award because I volunteer so much, but I wanted to RACE something!!!)
July - raced at my 6th Marble Falls Tri - I love that venue because my sister lives there and I know the race director
(side note: I volunteered at Couples to earn my HFE points)
August: GOAL RACE- Wool Capital Olympic in San Angelo.
May, Skees, was kind of a disappointment, but I did finish: 1:26:53
June, Lake Pflugerville.. oh, crap.. that freaking wind!!!! their timing system didn't record splits but my overall time was 1:56:31 for 500m swim, 14 mile bike and 3 mile run
July: Marble Falls Tri: 1000m meter swim: 35:15, T1: 3:15, 23 mile bike: 1:25:15, T2: 1:38, 4.4 mile run: 53:47
August: well, who knew it would RAIN 5 INCHES in San Angelo the day before the race??
Day before WCT: in Llano, after I'd driven thru some rain showers, noticed a bank time/temp display. 78 -- indicating a cold snap.
I continued on to San Angelo. Arrived on Friday afternoon before race.
Went out to race site. Scoped out things best that I could and determined that here is most probably where we'll swim:
Saturday morning, just before 9am, went to breakfast area with overcast skies. 10 seconds later -- DOWNPOUR!!!!!!!!! what the hell is that??? other guests were from Corpus and we were all taking pix of the rain while drinking coffee in the breakfast area... I explained to Bert, the breakfast lady, that I needed a toaster for my english muffins way before they would be having breakfast on Sun (Race Day) at LQ and she.. loaned me a toaster for my room. how the heck does that happen? oh yeah, I had the huevos to ask. Heard from Emmie, we went to check in our bikes, got approved by Randy himself---
A nice surprise was that Coach Cindy, who had hinted she might do this little race on her way back home from Davis Mtn Fitness Camp, arrived Saturday afternoon. Also arriving were the Lindas and Katherine M. as our More Cowbell Corps! At the pre-race meeting, IronJack said he would have to modify the run course - it would not be the ever-popular 10K run on the Red Dirt Road from Hell - due to safety reasons he had to cut the run 'short' and make it an out-n-back 5 mile run on the road leading into the park. Night before pre-race meal (nuked in hotel lobby microwave since there were no room microwaves): boneless skinless chicken breast with steamed broccoli. Another nice surprise was that Kenneth and Vickie showed up also as More Cowbell Corps! Met them for a "Carboloading" drink at a restaurant near their hotel. Back to our rooms, mindless TV till approx 10pm. Insert earplugs...
Race day:
woke at 5:00am, at 5:30am-- coffee and english muffin w/almond butter. Left hotel at 6:00am. arrived at race site 6:15.
Pre race photo:
No national anthem, no prayer, only IronJack announcing "to signify the start of the race, I'm going to expel some gas" We all took off swimming toward the old bridge pilings indicating the swim turnaround.
After we got in water, here is the More Cowbell Corps on shore:
I made it to the swim turnaround point sooner than I expected (didn't look at watch, which was probably wise), but on the way back, some dude slammed into me while just swimming.. really?? why are you swimming in circles??
about 200 m from the swim finish, I started noticing.. what are those drops of water on the surface?? a really big fish?? it's starting to rain?? well, it was answer #2. It started to POUR down rain but I didn't observe lightning and the boat didn't call to me "stop swimming", so I KEPT ON SWIMMING!! Although this is not a record-breaking 1500m swim, it IS my personal record for an Olympic distance swim. Our faithful More Cowbell Corps were there cheering for us, soaked to the skin at this point and probably cold (believe it or whut!)I have to say as I exited the swim in the downpour,seeing my stuff in transition in an inch or so of water............ Mentally I crossed off any "personal best" Olympic times. But I put on my soaking wet socks. and my soaking wet bike shoes. and my soaking wet headband, helmet and sunglasses. I took off on the bike very conservatively. Undaunted, I figured, well, hell, it might not be an Ironman, but we are demonstrating the Ironman spirit by "keep on keepin' on" (that's for Amber Zielinski!) There was only one official photo of me for the event, and there is a 'proof' over it. I prefer to leave it like this as it is 'proof' of the RAIN!
The first 4 miles or so of the bike were in the downpour and I rode so slowly...... after I got out on Knickerbocker, it cleared up a bit and I thought... "can I crank it up to 16mph or higher average?"
As the chipseal shoulder became the default riding surface of the day, I dug deeper to remember Chrissie Novak's advice during the Computrainer session... (200 watts... 200 watts....... power... power..........)
I tried to have a good cycling cadence/rhythm.. I saw Coach Cindy on her way back.
after the turnaround, I noticed a bit of a crosswind.. and my (melted due to the rain) bike number wanted to float away.. I decided it would be better to grab the remnants of the number and put in my tri jersey pocket rather than chance disqualification due to abandoned equipment. Because Carol and the other USAT officials were out there in force.
The day before, IronJack had told us to ride "English" on the way back into the park, because the right hand side of the road would be taken up by runners going out/back. I got mixed signals from volunteers coming back in on the bike but did my best to not hit any cars or runners.
I saw all my peeps - including Emmie -- as I racked Buzz and headed out on the run. Just after mile 1 I saw Coach Cindy on her way back in. I ran and ran and only stopped a couple times for water (from my own pack). Between mile 3 and 4 I saw guys walking but I knew that was a desolate stretch and walking would only make it seem longer. I did not walk any of that stretch. I kept running.
I finished WCT under 3:30, which is way better than I thought I would, but then it was not a 10k run. So my time for WCT is a PR, because it's a distance I've never done before. And I won 1st place, Athena, 40+!! 2011 WCT: 1500m swim: 55:46, T1: 2:27, 40k bike: 1:24:55, T2: 2:01, 5 mile run: 1:03:47. Total time: 3:28:58. Coach Cindy took 1st place in the Female GrandMasters division.
It was so nice to see More Cowbell Corps out there supporting us, 200 miles from home! We all wished we could bring back some of that rain to Austin...
The next weekend, I did the Sweet & Twisted tri. ( @ Camp Champions, where my sister works) I thought it would be a great season finisher race!!
S & T --500m Swim: 15:29, 15.2 mile bike 50:16, 2.4 mile run 26:31. Very nice little "workout".. helped present awards and then clean up venue. yee haw!!
In the meantime, I worked out. a little here, a little there. But I wanted a goal. So I decided my goal would be: Wool Capital Triathlon (Olympic Distance) in San Angelo, Texas, on 14 August, 2011.
I had previously done only one Olympic distance triathon --the inagural Longhorn in October 2007. This was essentially the Austin Danskin course times two. I'd done the Austin Danskin several times by then. Did I already mention that I'm not a swimmer??
My first olympic race-- 1500 swim: 58:31, T1: 3:44, 24.8 mile bike: 1:23:18, T2:2:55, 10k run: 1:24:02. Not a great showing. But it was still freakin HOT here..
Between that race and this year, many many factors came into play such as chronic insomnia, knee surgery, etc.
Most notably, last year I decided to go on the hcg protocol and (finally) dropped 60 lbs..
Meaning, in 2011.. a leaner and meaner Annette was ready to race.
On the schedule was:
May - Skees Greets on Mother's Day (to honor Momma)
June- Lake Pflugerville Tri (I usually get my HFE all star volunteer award because I volunteer so much, but I wanted to RACE something!!!)
July - raced at my 6th Marble Falls Tri - I love that venue because my sister lives there and I know the race director
(side note: I volunteered at Couples to earn my HFE points)
August: GOAL RACE- Wool Capital Olympic in San Angelo.
May, Skees, was kind of a disappointment, but I did finish: 1:26:53
June, Lake Pflugerville.. oh, crap.. that freaking wind!!!! their timing system didn't record splits but my overall time was 1:56:31 for 500m swim, 14 mile bike and 3 mile run
July: Marble Falls Tri: 1000m meter swim: 35:15, T1: 3:15, 23 mile bike: 1:25:15, T2: 1:38, 4.4 mile run: 53:47
August: well, who knew it would RAIN 5 INCHES in San Angelo the day before the race??
Day before WCT: in Llano, after I'd driven thru some rain showers, noticed a bank time/temp display. 78 -- indicating a cold snap.
I continued on to San Angelo. Arrived on Friday afternoon before race.
Went out to race site. Scoped out things best that I could and determined that here is most probably where we'll swim:
Saturday morning, just before 9am, went to breakfast area with overcast skies. 10 seconds later -- DOWNPOUR!!!!!!!!! what the hell is that??? other guests were from Corpus and we were all taking pix of the rain while drinking coffee in the breakfast area... I explained to Bert, the breakfast lady, that I needed a toaster for my english muffins way before they would be having breakfast on Sun (Race Day) at LQ and she.. loaned me a toaster for my room. how the heck does that happen? oh yeah, I had the huevos to ask. Heard from Emmie, we went to check in our bikes, got approved by Randy himself---
A nice surprise was that Coach Cindy, who had hinted she might do this little race on her way back home from Davis Mtn Fitness Camp, arrived Saturday afternoon. Also arriving were the Lindas and Katherine M. as our More Cowbell Corps! At the pre-race meeting, IronJack said he would have to modify the run course - it would not be the ever-popular 10K run on the Red Dirt Road from Hell - due to safety reasons he had to cut the run 'short' and make it an out-n-back 5 mile run on the road leading into the park. Night before pre-race meal (nuked in hotel lobby microwave since there were no room microwaves): boneless skinless chicken breast with steamed broccoli. Another nice surprise was that Kenneth and Vickie showed up also as More Cowbell Corps! Met them for a "Carboloading" drink at a restaurant near their hotel. Back to our rooms, mindless TV till approx 10pm. Insert earplugs...
Race day:
woke at 5:00am, at 5:30am-- coffee and english muffin w/almond butter. Left hotel at 6:00am. arrived at race site 6:15.
Pre race photo:
No national anthem, no prayer, only IronJack announcing "to signify the start of the race, I'm going to expel some gas" We all took off swimming toward the old bridge pilings indicating the swim turnaround.
After we got in water, here is the More Cowbell Corps on shore:
I made it to the swim turnaround point sooner than I expected (didn't look at watch, which was probably wise), but on the way back, some dude slammed into me while just swimming.. really?? why are you swimming in circles??
about 200 m from the swim finish, I started noticing.. what are those drops of water on the surface?? a really big fish?? it's starting to rain?? well, it was answer #2. It started to POUR down rain but I didn't observe lightning and the boat didn't call to me "stop swimming", so I KEPT ON SWIMMING!! Although this is not a record-breaking 1500m swim, it IS my personal record for an Olympic distance swim. Our faithful More Cowbell Corps were there cheering for us, soaked to the skin at this point and probably cold (believe it or whut!)I have to say as I exited the swim in the downpour,seeing my stuff in transition in an inch or so of water............ Mentally I crossed off any "personal best" Olympic times. But I put on my soaking wet socks. and my soaking wet bike shoes. and my soaking wet headband, helmet and sunglasses. I took off on the bike very conservatively. Undaunted, I figured, well, hell, it might not be an Ironman, but we are demonstrating the Ironman spirit by "keep on keepin' on" (that's for Amber Zielinski!) There was only one official photo of me for the event, and there is a 'proof' over it. I prefer to leave it like this as it is 'proof' of the RAIN!
The first 4 miles or so of the bike were in the downpour and I rode so slowly...... after I got out on Knickerbocker, it cleared up a bit and I thought... "can I crank it up to 16mph or higher average?"
As the chipseal shoulder became the default riding surface of the day, I dug deeper to remember Chrissie Novak's advice during the Computrainer session... (200 watts... 200 watts....... power... power..........)
I tried to have a good cycling cadence/rhythm.. I saw Coach Cindy on her way back.
after the turnaround, I noticed a bit of a crosswind.. and my (melted due to the rain) bike number wanted to float away.. I decided it would be better to grab the remnants of the number and put in my tri jersey pocket rather than chance disqualification due to abandoned equipment. Because Carol and the other USAT officials were out there in force.
The day before, IronJack had told us to ride "English" on the way back into the park, because the right hand side of the road would be taken up by runners going out/back. I got mixed signals from volunteers coming back in on the bike but did my best to not hit any cars or runners.
I saw all my peeps - including Emmie -- as I racked Buzz and headed out on the run. Just after mile 1 I saw Coach Cindy on her way back in. I ran and ran and only stopped a couple times for water (from my own pack). Between mile 3 and 4 I saw guys walking but I knew that was a desolate stretch and walking would only make it seem longer. I did not walk any of that stretch. I kept running.
I finished WCT under 3:30, which is way better than I thought I would, but then it was not a 10k run. So my time for WCT is a PR, because it's a distance I've never done before. And I won 1st place, Athena, 40+!! 2011 WCT: 1500m swim: 55:46, T1: 2:27, 40k bike: 1:24:55, T2: 2:01, 5 mile run: 1:03:47. Total time: 3:28:58. Coach Cindy took 1st place in the Female GrandMasters division.
It was so nice to see More Cowbell Corps out there supporting us, 200 miles from home! We all wished we could bring back some of that rain to Austin...
The next weekend, I did the Sweet & Twisted tri. ( @ Camp Champions, where my sister works) I thought it would be a great season finisher race!!
S & T --500m Swim: 15:29, 15.2 mile bike 50:16, 2.4 mile run 26:31. Very nice little "workout".. helped present awards and then clean up venue. yee haw!!