Adventures in Clean Eating

Oh, hello!  It’s me, Suzanne Speed (formerly Suzanne Casey.)  Yes, that’s actually my legal name these days.  (And now you know why I married him…)  I know it’s been upwards of three months since my last post.  I needed to take some time off from it all post-wedding.  I was exhausted, but all of a sudden had way more free time than I was used to, and wanted to enjoy it with my new husband.  I may do a more detailed wedding recap soon, but suffice it to say that it was everything I could have dreamed of.

Moving on, this past weekend I participated in the Dewey Beach Sprint Triathlon.  I had previously decided that I didn’t have enough time to train for another marathon this year (but hopefully will again next year), so this satisfied my training goals while being a much smaller time commitment.  I actually didn’t have a training plan for this race.  Being my first triathlon, I didn’t have any time goals.  I just wanted to finish strong and have fun.  I knew I already had a good enough level of fitness to finish, so I basically just tried to keep up my running base while becoming a stronger swimmer.  My “training plan” was to make it to the pool to swim ~1000 meters at least once a week (with Pete, since we did the race together with a group of friends), run 3-5 miles twice a week (throughout July/August I had been doing long runs up to ten miles on the weekend, too, since I was supposed to run the Annapolis Ten Miler which was subsequently cancelled the weekend of Hurricane Irene), and make it to spin class… whenever (I don’t own a bike).  By race weekend, I was able to swim the 800 meters in 100 meter increments with 15 second breaks in between, was feeling good about my running… and I hoped I remembered how to ride a bike.

Here’s how it went down…

The Swim: .5 Miles

Last weekend’s weather was not great.  Thankfully the storm didn’t start until after the race was over, but it was kind of chilly.  It wasn’t the beautiful beach weekend we were hoping for when the nine of us rented the beach house back in April.  We woke up that morning to temperatures in the 50s, with some crazy wind.  The waves were nuts.  I signed up for the “Novice” heat, so I wouldn’t have to worry about battling the water with a bunch of hard core swimmers, but that meant that I was among the last groups to start.  I had a good half hour to watch other swimmers battle the waves and get nervous. 

When it was time to start, I placed myself in the back of the pack, towards the side, to avoid getting kicked, which worked pretty well.  This was my first ever open water swim, and I definitely panicked when I first started swimming.  The waves were rough, and every time I moved forward I felt like I kept getting pushed back again.  Once I got to the first buoy, I turned downstream and things got easier.  The strong current made entering the ocean tough, but it pushed me along once I was out there.  Even though I had put a lot of work into perfecting my freestyle stroke, I ended up doing breaststroke most of the time.  When I freestyled, I was moving quicker, but it was sucking up a lot of energy.  I also only practiced breathing on my right, and we were swimming south to north, so I kept getting a mouth full of sea water when a wave would hit me whenever I breathed.  Breaststroke was working fine, and before I knew it I had reached the last buoy and it was time to head in!

…Which was harder than I thought.  The current kept pulling me backward, so getting back to shore took a while.  I audibly squealed when I was able to finally walk.  It was a rather joyous occasion. 

Transition 1

Among the biggest mistakes I made in preparing for this race was not researching the course/transition area ahead of time.  I knew the course was flat, so I didn’t do much hill training, but that was pretty much it.  I figured I’d just follow the crowd.  I didn’t anticipate that once I got back from the swim, it wouldn’t be entirely clear where the bike would start.  Some heats started a full half hour ahead of me, so it was hard to tell if people were just starting the bike or ending it.  I wasted a minute or two trying to figure it out on my own, and eventually had to ask someone (another participant… who understandably was not pleased at my interruption.) 

I do think that for a novice, I set up my transition area pretty well.  I pinned my bib on my shirt ahead of time (I swam in tri shorts and a sports bra… super cute), and laid my socks, shoes, and helmet so that I could get it all on pretty quickly.  I do wish I had packed an extra bottle of water to rinse sand off my feet (there was a crowd around the one hose I saw) and laid out my towel a little better to dry off easily, but it wasn’t too bad. 

Total Swim and T1 Time: 26:14

The Bike: 7 Miles

The biggest mistake I made was waiting until the last minute to rent bikes.  The bike shop near us only had hybrids available for that weekend, but we had few options so we had to take what we could get.  It definitely slowed me down.  Also, the bike had a huge heavy lock it… that I forgot to take off and couldn’t remember the combination to.  Plus, biking is not my strong point anyway, so needless to say I was pretty slow.  After the first turn around, I got a better handle on how to go fast, so I started passing a few people.  Luckily, the bike in this race is shorter than most sprint triathlons, so it didn’t hurt my time too much.

Baha… What a fool.

Total Bike Time: 31:03

Transition 2

This was uneventful.  I just parked my bike, took off my helmet, put on a hat, and got going (it was much clearer where I needed to go this time).  I was getting pretty stoked to almost be done!

Total T2 Time: 1:25

The Run: 3.5 Miles

Understandably, this was my strongest part of the race.  I hadn’t done any brick workouts in preparation for the race, but I expected the transition to running to be tough.  My legs felt pretty heavy for the first mile, but I started feeling goo soon after the fact.  I actually thought something must be wrong with my Garmin because it said I was running between 8:00 and 8:30 miles, which didn’t feel right, but it was true!  I felt strong for most of the run.  The temperature was perfect for running, and I really felt in my element again.  I did notice that a rouge piece of sand was rubbing against my toe and a blister was forming during the last mile, but I dealt with much worse during marathon training, so I ran through the pain.

Total Run Time: 29:53

Total Time: 1:28:34

I know my time wasn’t great, but it definitely reflects the effort I put into this race, so I don’t feel so bad.  I actually finished the last of all my friends, which would normally bug me, but considering how underprepared I was, my bike sucked (my performance and the actual equipment), and my lack of knowledge of triathlon (in general and this specific race), I’m cutting myself a break.  It was my first ever triathlon, and I didn’t know what to expect.  But now, I’ve definitely caught the tri bug!  I want to see what I can do if I put more effort into this!  Next time around, I want to put more work into my cycling.  Despite it being my worst part of the race, it was the most fun part and I want to buy a bike to incorporate it into my cross-training.  I also want to better figure out my nutrition.  I relied on a few sips of Gatorade from the bottle I brought, along with water/coconut water passed out along the course.  I don’t think it was quite enough considering the calories I burned.  I need a better plan next time.

In conclusion, I’m really proud of myself for doing this.  It was much easier than I thought.  I finished feeling really energized.  I feel more beat at the end of boot camp class!  I don’t know why I held off from participating in a triathlon for so long.  I think anyone with a good running base could do a sprint tri- they’re easier than you think!  It was actually really fun, and we had a good weekend at the beach with friends (despite the downpour that ensued on Saturday.)

I want to end by saying how very proud I am of Pete after this race.  I think he’s discovered a real talent for this.  Normally I beat him in 5Ks by a minute or two (not for lack of talent on his end, I just run more often.)  I expected this would be the same, but he ended up finishing almost twenty minutes ahead of me, AND his bike chain broke, so he had to jog his bike for the last .25 miles.  He said the run was the easiest he’s ever had, and he’s never run more than a 5K distance before, much less done so at the end of a triathlon.  Clearly, we have a future Ironman in our midst!