Well, apparently I took that to heart at Chattanooga 70.3
Except none of the other pro girls got the memo so I was the only one partaking. This was undoubtedly my career worst swim. It could have been the wallop to the head and the goggle mishap. It also could have been the fact that I can't tell my left from my right when I have race adrenaline careening through my veins. Regardless, I discovered that when you swim like a donkey you have to run your donkey ass off to get back to the top. (Thank God I love this sport)
Let me briefly back up and say Chattanooga, TN is beautiful! It is green, and lush, and chock full of trails for running and biking. It also has some pretty rad coffee shops, ice cream shops and donut shops. (If you don't judge a town on the donut quality then you clearly don't have your priorities straight.)
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| Donuts. |
Chattanooga will be a fantastic venue for the 70.3 World Championships in 2017 and I can't wait to return.
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| This is what you do on taper |
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| GREEN! |
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| Chattanooga! |
I figure I will start this race report with a little diagram of where the swim went wrong. The triangles are the buoys and the arrows show you which way the course runs. Pretty straight forward, right? Except I am out in left field. Doh!
I sprinted into transition and yelled to Ryan, "oops!"
I was 13th. Time to get to work! I knew I was pushing hard during the start of the bike but it was only after I checked the power meter file did I discover I pretty much set 2 back-to-back 20 min efforts. At around mile 30 of the bike I found myself in 6th. I took a second to reset, eat, chug the Infinit and focus. And then I continued to charge up the hills and ride smooth and strong on the flats.
Before I knew it, I was flying into transition on the speedy Felt and I saw Ry jumping up and down telling me I was in 6th and giving me splits to the next 5 girls. Unfortunately, the 5 girls up the road were 70.3 champions, Ironman Champions and the World Champion - the best in the sport! Quite the list of girls to try and run down!
The beautiful, rolling terrain took my mind away from the pain of chasing and being chased. I knew I was cruising along and could feel the excitement building. It was turning into one of those races where I could keep pushing and pushing and pushing. This is the best kind of race! The last 10K I clicked off 6:16 per mile to have one of my fastest run splits off the bike. After having a difficult swim I was pretty stoked to finish 6th among some of the best girls in the sport. This is all good news for the upcoming Ironman in Austria!
Massive Thanks To My Team:
Delta Dental
PBM Coaching
Velocio Apparel
Rudy Project
Beet Juice
Infinit Nutrition
MC Cycle and Sport
Ry GUY!!!!!
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| As you can see I am not even on the map. Doh! But I made sure to depict the girls going the correct way in a very plump fashion to make me feel better about the current situation. |
I was 13th. Time to get to work! I knew I was pushing hard during the start of the bike but it was only after I checked the power meter file did I discover I pretty much set 2 back-to-back 20 min efforts. At around mile 30 of the bike I found myself in 6th. I took a second to reset, eat, chug the Infinit and focus. And then I continued to charge up the hills and ride smooth and strong on the flats.
Before I knew it, I was flying into transition on the speedy Felt and I saw Ry jumping up and down telling me I was in 6th and giving me splits to the next 5 girls. Unfortunately, the 5 girls up the road were 70.3 champions, Ironman Champions and the World Champion - the best in the sport! Quite the list of girls to try and run down!
The beautiful, rolling terrain took my mind away from the pain of chasing and being chased. I knew I was cruising along and could feel the excitement building. It was turning into one of those races where I could keep pushing and pushing and pushing. This is the best kind of race! The last 10K I clicked off 6:16 per mile to have one of my fastest run splits off the bike. After having a difficult swim I was pretty stoked to finish 6th among some of the best girls in the sport. This is all good news for the upcoming Ironman in Austria!
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| Look at those ups courtesy of Hoka One One! |
Massive Thanks To My Team:
Delta Dental
PBM Coaching
Velocio Apparel
Rudy Project
Beet Juice
Infinit Nutrition
MC Cycle and Sport
Ry GUY!!!!!
Nice Race Amber! Can't wait to see how you do in Austria :)
ReplyDeleteDanny