Pewaukee: Round 2

Pewaukee Race recap

A year ago I did this race with my best pal Spaude. She was 4 months postpartum and raced her first triathlon and killed it! I think it was then I felt confident in starting my own family because she showed me I can still be capable of being me and being competitive. Matt and I had known that at the end of last summer we would start trying for a baby, but after that day I knew it was the right time and I was so happy about where we were in life. When I had raced the Olympic distance last year, I was the 2nd overall female:

My award was a free entry into this year's race so I couldn't pass that up. I had decided that being just shy of 3 months postpartum, it would be better to do the sprint distance. My first long brick was 3 days before the race: 40 mile bike and a 3 mile run. I felt awesome in this workout and texted Matt my results. His response was: "so what you're saying is you could have killed the olympic..." my response: I still wouldn't have been at the speeds I would have wanted to be competitive for a top spot that I wanted. Of course I knew I needed to be realistic and get the race under my belt without thinking of placing, but I am competitive and I can't just push that aside. My pal Spaude and I are also competitive with each other and I didn't want to have that pressure against her in the oly either. So I did the conservative thing and tried to push myself in speed with a distance I could hold and not over do it early in the summer..

The day before the race I did a pre race brick: 45 minute bike and a 10 minute jog. After my long brick that week I was tired and my legs were tired. As I started to pedal I was heavy. I was glad I did it to try and get out the heaviness and be ready for the race but I was also nervous how I would feel race day. Normally I am optimistic getting out that heaviness is good, but with the lack of sleep I didn't know how my body would continue to respond. With this race I not only had to pack myself, but Cade too. I was more concerned with forgetting something for him, than I was for my race day needs. It was nice having something/someone else to think about to help keep my race nerves minimal.

We stayed the night at Spaude's because she lives 10 minutes away from the race. Cade has been doing well with his routine of wake up, eat, play time/ awake time for 20-45 minutes after nursing and then back to a nap for about 1-2 hours. However, being at a new place he was alert and wanted to be a part of it. If he doesn't nap though, his crying period escalates to a point that is difficult to bring him down from. So Matt and I tried to keep him on his routine and get him to sleep. He refused. He seemed to want to nurse more frequently which I contributed to him wanting familiarity and comfort in this new place. When we would put him in his rock and play he would be wide awake and smiling and cooing, which was super cute, but not what we needed when he'd already been awake for 3+ hours straight... Matt was in charge of feeding Cade as he has done with my other races the night before, but this night Cade just would not sleep. I was awake listening to him cry while Matt did his best. There were times he could calm him down, but it wouldn't last long. Finally at 3am Matt turned to me and said he didn't know what to do. I took Cade to nurse him and while I was propped up in bed, held him until 4 am when the alarm went off. He was calm and slept in my arms for that hour, while I was half way awake. The power had gone off in the middle of the night and I had thought to myself: if Spaude over slept and we missed the race, oh well. I was exhausted and felt kind of defeated already. I got up to get food, start changing and pumped one more time so I was as empty as I could be prior to the race. I told Spaude I didn't really sleep and I am just throwing my arms up about the race and saying screw it, here we go. Matt dropped off Spaude and me at transition before going to get himself some breakfast. We went to find a rack because it was open racking. We picked one close to the bike and run exit which ended up working out great. I usually take my tri gear out of my big bag I bring it in so I'm not that person at a rack with a huge bag, but I didn't have time and I didn't care at that point so I was that person. But I did position myself in a middle rack section that had that little extra space where the next rack connected. The start this year was just a first come first serve TT start. No rhyme or reason. I was grateful they still had elite waves though to know where I could start in front.

Swim

2016

2017

The sprint group went off and it was a seaweedy swim. I felt good with my sighting but as usual was on my own. Our elite wave was small and I focused on keeping pace the whole way. It was a super short sprint swim: .25 miles (ended being a bit longer, but still short). Once I got out a spectator yelled that I was the 3rd female. I got my wetsuit off smoothly, but was still slow in transition as usual; I really need to schedule transition practices into my workouts...

BIKE

As soon as I got to the mount line the 4th place female was right next to me. I had trouble clipping in so she got in front of me but her and the guy next to her seemed to also be getting a super slow start, so once I was ready they had boxed me in and I had to wait for an opening to get around. I started to catch 3rd but didn't realize we were turning so I backed off on the turn and tucked in behind her and she didn't like how close I was so she got going. It was early and I knew it was a hilly course so I had to ride my ride at this point. So I sat in 4th on the bike the whole ride. I felt comfortable pushing my watts and I felt in control. One thing that felt messy was my handling on turns. I feel out of practice since last year. Because of the shorter distance, I originally didn't even consider nutrition. My coach let me know that was silly and with breastfeeding, I NEEDED the calories. So I had a sports drink on the bike. My plan was to take a gel as I was coming into transition or at the start of the run. Before the race I had completely forgotten to take my gel out if my bag.... baby brain- I forget everything... as I came in to transition I was in a go go go mode and didn't bother with the gel or my hand held. So 16 miles back and I had averaged about 19.3mph. Last year I averaged 20.7 for the 20 mile Olympic, which made me feel good that I am getting closer to where I used to be.

RUN

I knew with the TT start I had to keep moving as best as I could in hopes to keep my current 4th place. My body felt good at the pace I was going. There were times I wondered if I could push more but I held back because I didn't need to push injury with no sleep. I do feel I worked hard for what I have been used to and if I had pushed harder, I don't know how long it would have lasted. As I was running I was relieved I had to only worry about 3 miles. At that moment 6 just seemed daunting to me. I have run 6 in training runs, but they were slow and on race day I want to be there to race. In the grand scheme I probably should have taken a gel, even to just have it as practice for the longer races, but I was fine once I finished.

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2017

learning to smile :)

The run course is an out and back so I was able to see my girl Spaude and give her a high five as she was taking down people left and right on her run. As I ran into the finish I heard Matt cheering and one thing he wanted me to do was smile during the race. So that's what I did. I gave him a huge smile because I was happy I did it and happy to see him always supporting me. I had averaged 7:20 on my run for 3 (the year prior I was at 7:09 for 6.2). I continue to make forward progress back to where I want to be and hopefully continue to surpass it.

2016

2017

After I had finished, one of the women I talked to in transition at the beginning of the day came in after me asking how I did. I told her my time and she was 3 minutes faster after starting behind me. So that meant at best I finished 5th overall if no one else behind me was faster. I was just hoping no one in my age group was faster so I could feel a sense of accomplishment for the work I had put in after having Cade. I ended up 6th OA and 1st in my age group and I look at that as a big win. And Spaude earned 5th OA in the Oly and 1st in her age group.

I was impressed that once I was finished, I felt great. Legs didn't feel heavy or sore, and I seemed to have recovered fairly quickly.

2016

2017

Our lives are quite a bit different than they were 10 years ago when we first met my freshman year of college. But we both agree- we wouldn't have it any other way! To be able to share this part of life with your best friend is not only awesome, but comforting in so many ways. At the end of the day I came to this race to see where I was at and race with my friend. I would have loved to be as competitive as last year and place top 3, but I am pretty darn proud of where I have come so far. I feel like things will only continue to get better and that makes me happy.

So shoutout to Spaude for being a great role model athlete mommy that I can continue to look up to!