Xterra Lory Race Report

Swim 1/2 mile, Bike 12.2 miles, Run 8k

I signed up for my first Xterra (off-road) triathlon way back in March when I had been riding my mountain bike. It sounded fun and different and I do like mountain biking. Then summer came and I had a lot of road triathlons to train for and the mountain bike fell to the wayside. After surviving the Boulder 70.3 somewhat intact and the subsequent vacation, I was ready to mountain bike again. Unfortunately, I only had 2 weeks left until Lory. I got in 2 quality mountain bike rides, one of which was pre-riding the course in Ft. Collins a week before. I was glad to find the course was not technical, but I was apprehensive about riding so fast on single track with other competitors.

Come race day, I was able to carpool with my friend Heather, who is a very good Xterra racer. Having a companion made the 90 minute drive to Lory State Park go by fast. Transition was very much like a road triathlon, except instead of a parking lot, we were in a field. And instead of fancy TT bikes, there were fancy mountain bikes:



Also in Xterra races, instead of being in a wave with your age group, you are grouped according to swim and biking ability. I had rated my swim ability high and my mountain biking less than average, so I was placed in the last wave, 7, which didn't start until 8:40. The swim was billed as an out and back in Horsetooth Reservoir, but because of how the buoys were placed, it was really a long loop. As usual, I seeded myself in the front row, and as usual, I had 5 people jump on me when the gun went off. The first couple minutes were chaos as the jumpers realized that they really couldn't swim that fast for 1/2 a mile. I was soon out by myself, until a guy was swimming right next to me and pushing me off course. I had to stop and go behind him to the other side since he could not be convinced to angle the right way. I seemed to pass a lot of people in wave 6. My swim time was about 15 minutes (the timing mat was up the hill by transition) and only one person in my wave swam a pretty fast 12 minutes. Otherwise, there was a girl out of the water 20 seconds before me, and a girl who came out right with me.

T1 - the first transition was a bit slower than my usual ones because I had to put on my camel back and bike gloves.

The bike went much better than I thought it would. I'm embarrassed to admit, but when I did the pre-ride with D3 friend Jon, I forgot my helmet. I NEVER ride without a helmet, but we were in the middle of nowhere and had a time constraint, so I rode the course without one. Needless to say, I rode very conservatively. So on race day with race day adrenaline, I was feeling pretty good and rode faster than I had expected. Being back in wave 7, I did have to pass quite a few people. Sometimes we would get stuck in a line before there was an opportunity to get around and while I could have gone faster, it was nice to recover. The course was 2 loops with rolling hills, a couple sharp turns, some bridges and a few rocks. A guy in an Runner's Roost kit was riding behind me most of the way. He said there was no point in passing since we were going the same speed. We chatted back and forth periodically. There were a couple short steep hills that I had to walk up because people had stopped in the middle of the trail to walk their bikes and there was no way around. I finished in 1:10, about 10 minutes faster than I thought I would.



T2 - ditched the empty camelback (probably 16 oz of gatorade) for my fuel belt with 10 oz of gatorade (the aid stations were at .5 and 3.5 miles.)

And the run was tough, like I knew it would be. The first 2 1/2 miles went up a ridge, about 650 ft of elevation gain total. I wore my Garmin for the first time in a triathlon and except for not starting it for the swim, it worked pretty well:



I did a lot of walking, and would jog when it flatten out. I did pass a gal jogging while I was walking and I wanted to tell her there were no points awarded for style. The downhill was a relief, but I took the first mile too fast (and turned my ankle a couple times) and then was out of gas for the last 1 1/2 miles. My watch put my pace at 12:02, but really it was more like 16 minute miles up and 9:00 miles down with some 9:30 efforts at the end. And I found it difficult to move my feet nimbly over the uneven, rocky terrain. Also, it was getting pretty hot on the shadeless ridge, even hotter for me since I started 40 minutes after wave 1.



At the end of the race, there was a sweet slip 'n slide. It was the best finish ever, even though my shoes got wet and gushy for the rest of the day.



Swim: 15:45
T1: 2:11
Bike: 1:10:57
T2: 1:34
Run: 58:38
Total: 2:29:04

5/21 AG
33/99 female
135/266 overall

All in all, I had a lot of fun and would do another Xterra. I would want to practice more trail running and my crappy old mountain bike probably needs to be replaced. Right now I haven't ridden a nice new bike so I don't know how bad my bike is, but when Heather was putting it on her bike rack she did mention how heavy it was. And it's not even a big bike!

And one last picture... As we were driving south on 287 south of Longmont (I-25 had stopped by Berthod) I looked out the window to see this:



Now, waiting at an airshow to see a stealth bomber is one thing, but not being aware that there even is an airshow and being somewhat in the middle of nowhere and seeing one is pretty wild. We followed it south all the way to the Jeffco Rocky Mountain Airport and caught it as it did its flyby, it went RIGHT over the car. I am very sad that Alex wasn't there with us.

Outdoor Divas Sprint Race Report

Swim: 750 meters, Bike: 12.4 miles, Run: 5k

I found the key to feeling good about a race is to go into it with low expectations. REALLY low. I only signed up for this race because back in May, I was pestering my sister-in-law Sarah about doing a triathlon. She had been talking about doing one for a couple years, but so far there was no doing. So Sarah said, get on the computer, find a race and let's sign up! She wanted one later in the summer to allow for some training and was more in favor of a woman's only race. Outdoor Divas fit the bill. The only problem with it was it was only a week after the Boulder 70.3. But no matter, I said, we shall triathlon anyway!

So as I mentioned in the 70.3 report, I finished that race, then took a 7:30pm flight to Maryland. Once there, I drank beer, leisurely swam a couple times, experienced a few days of DOMS* and then had a connecting flight back Saturday, getting home around 8:30 pm.

I did not have high hopes of "racing" and kept reminding myself that I was Completing An Event. One nice thing about WithoutLimits races is they start at a much more reasonable hour of 8:00. I got to sleep in until 5:15, and left the house a bit after 6:00. In an astounding bit of coincidence, Sarah and I pulled into the parking lot at the same time.

I started in wave 3, going off around 8:30, Sarah was wave 2, about 5 minutes earlier. I think I noticed being at sea level for a week most during the swim. I felt that I was gasping for breath more than usual. I took an inside route (this counter-clockwise course also favors my left-side breathing) and missed most of the traffic. I think I passed most of the girls in wave 2 somewhere in the lake.

Look, another getting out of the water picture! It looks like there is fat oozing out of my wetsuit, but if you look carefully, there is someone directly behind me. Plus, my zipper is still mostly zipped up and I assure you my wetsuit is not ripped on the sides. I do, however, not have an excuse for my expression.



Sarah was in transition when I got to my bike and I was so happy, I know she was most worried about the swim. I hopped on my bike for the first time in a week and started hammering. My legs did not feel fresh and perky.

One problem with this course is that the 12 mile bike consists of 3 loops. There were about 500 competitors, with a wide range of skill and fitness levels. The end result being that by the 3rd loop, it was very congested. I was passing 4 women at the same time and I saw some sketchy behavior out there, like women passing on the right. No one passed me and even though my legs felt like jelly the whole time, my bike split was 2 minutes faster than the Summer Open Duathlon debacle, and my average power was 12 watts higher.



I started the run a bit hesitantly. Legs felt tired, but not weird tightness or cramping. There weren't too many girls out there yet and I only saw one women in my age group pass me. She ran 4 minutes faster than me so there wasn't a chance that I could try and hang on. It was hard to judge how I was doing since my age group had been split into two waves, the second going in wave 5. Somehow I managed a 28:35 5k, which after the 70.3 disaster I was pretty happy with.



Swim: 14:12
T1: 1:27
Bike: 33:58
T2: 1:08
Run: 28:35
Total: 1:19:19
5th AG (out of 105)
31st overall (out of 477)

I ended up only :25 seconds short of my PR on the course, and considering how beat up I felt I was pretty happy with that. See, lowered expectations! I'd like to really hone in on some speed workouts in the next 6 weeks and tackle this course for the last time this year at Oktoberfest and hopefully shave off a couple of minutes (crap, you see what I'm doing? I'm raising my expectations).

And, of course (and there was never any doubt) Sarah finished too. Yay Sarah!



*DOMS - Delayed-onset muscle soreness. Not to be confused with instant-onset muscle soreness. And oh yeah, it's possible to have both at the same time.

Boulder 70.3 Race Report

Swim: 1.2 miles, Bike 56 miles, Run 13.1 miles

Yup, I'm just going to jump back in like it hasn't been 8 months since my last post. Lots of stuff has happened. I might fill in some of the gaps, but probably I won't. So here it is in August now and Boulder 70.3 was to be my "A" race of the season. Yet even going into the race I knew I was not going to have my best performance ever. A foot injury in February prevented me from running much and I knew my training was lacking. But I hoped I could at least shuffle through the run and beat my time from 2 years ago.

Normally I don't have many pre-race adventures but I had a doozy this race. This season I have been biking over to the races at Boulder Res. It's about 6 miles and takes me a bit over a half an hour pedaling very easy. This morning, I ran over a nail or something and flatted at 30th and Valmont. PANIC. Now, I'm a very proficient tire changer so I wasn't worried about that per se. My first concern was that I don't leave myself a whole lot of extra time before the race. This race started at 6:30 and transition closed at 6:15. I flatted at 5:35. Once I could breath normally, I changed the tire relatively quickly and did my first ever fill with a CO2 cartridge. During the change I kept calling the house to see if Jeremy could drive up with another spare tube. I think it's just bad karma to ride or race without tire changing equipment. I called at least 10 times and no one woke up. I accepted that Jeremy would not be able to help and finished the ride to the Res. I got there about 6:00 and got my area set up and then pulled out my tube to see if I could patch the hole really quick. I couldn't find the puncture, then one of my rack mates (seeing me on ground trying to blow an inter-tube up with my mouth) asked if I needed any help. I said, "Well, what I need is a new tube." and she said, "Oh, I have 3 extra ones, take mine." I hope she had an extra good race. My teammate Sally gave me another CO2 cartridge and I was back in business.

I was in wave 10 so I didn't start until 7:15. I used the time from when transition closed to my start to stand in a port-a-potty line. I had a very nice chat with a guy from Alaska. My swim was pretty uneventful. I was swimming with a small group of women and stayed on course pretty well. Ironman changed the swim course so that the first leg wasn't directly into the sun and that helped a ton. The only incident worth noting was near the end. I was drafting off another women from my wave on her right side by her calves. She passed a guy who had started 2 wave in front of us and I got stuck in a bottleneck. I did not hit the guy but I might have brushed his shoulder. So I was pretty surprised when he came back with a punch the the ribs. There is no real swim stroke that could have created that hit, it was intentional. I hope he had bad race karma. I made my goal of a sub-40 min swim (which always seemed very reasonable, but I hadn't done in my previous 2 halves).

Here I am on the left exiting the water. It's pretty rare to get an official race picture of any part of the swim:



My bike leg was awesome. If anything, I am glad I raced for this part. I was feeling strong (could have had something to do with actually training on the bike, plus an 8 day bike tour of Oregon in July). I had a race plan and I followed it to the letter. I kept my power where I wanted it and took in all the fluid and nutrition I had planned. I felt strong and smooth. The course is two loops, and on the first loop I passed a guy and he didn't like that. So he re-passed and was really pushing it. His legs were going up and down like pistons and it just hurt to watch. I let him go, then on the same part on the second loop I passed him again. He made one more feeble effort to get me, then dropped back for good. I passed 6 women in my age group on the bike plus lots of others from the other 9 waves. My average cadence was 89 (woot!) and my average (not normalized) power was 126. I rode the second loop faster than the first and my bike split was 8 minutes faster than 2 years ago.



And then came the "run." Right out of transition my left hamstring started cramping. I have never cramped before (though I did have tight calves at the Summer Open duathlon) so I tried to jog it out, hoping I'd loosen up. I didn't. My first mile was over 12 minutes and my hopes for a sub 6:00 hour finish were already dashed (I needed to run about a 2:20 half marathon for that). I was wearing my race belt with Infinite in it and I tried to drink it hoping that the salt would help with the cramps. It didn't, but it made me feel nauseous. Oh, did I mention it was already 90 degrees at this point? I don't do well in the heat under normal circumstances. By mile 4 I was feeling nauseous and started to get dizzy, plus my right quad starting the cramping fun. I really wondered if I was going to DNF. At any rate, ending up in a medical tent was NOT part of the plan, as I was getting on a plane in 7 hours. I started walking even more with the intent to finish uninjured and somewhat healthy.

As usual, running by the finisher chute was depressing. I remember being a spectator last year and wondering why so many people were walking though the Res area where the crowd is. I had thought, "At least jog here people!" Yup, here I was, walking. I really really didn't want to do the second lap. As I was leaving the Res, I saw Jeremy driving in with the boys. He hadn't planned on coming and I was so happy to see him. And then - a miracle occurred. One of my acquaintances (through tri-friend Liz) came by. I had met Lauren at Stroke & Strides but didn't know her very well. She was starting to struggle, as this was her first half Ironman. So we started to run together. We'd pick a landmark that we would run to, then take a walk break with another landmark to start our run. And we chatted. It was great. The second lap seemed to fly by.

Here we are going into the second aid station. Becky and Ariel were volunteering, Ariel is selling me some gatorade.



The first time I went by the photographer, I was walking with my head down. They didn't send me that picture. This time, we decided to jog by for a nice picture:



I'm not sure what our run/walk interval times were (probably about 2 minutes each), but near the end of each run my cramping was almost unbearable and then it was almost relaxed by the time we started running again. Not only did I feel better the second lap, but I ran it faster too. I was sooo happy to be done. Lauren made us sprint the last 1/4 mile and she had more pep so she finished a couple seconds in front of me:



My new BFF Lauren. I cannot imagine how hard this would have been without her:



So overall, not my best race experience. I really thought that if I was really struggling, I could still do at least a 2:35 run. But it did give me new appreciation for how well Ironman Wisconsin had gone, believe me, I NEVER felt as bad as I did today during my full Ironman. So, upward and onward.

Swim: 38:11
T1: 3:06
Bike: 2:49:43 (ave 19.8 mph)
T2: 2:54
Run: 2:48:04 (12:49 miles)
Total: 6:21:58

I only wish I had cleaned my mtn bike sooner

I had another great mountain bike ride today. There's something about mountain biking when it's 30 degrees that is much more enjoyable than road riding at that temperature. Probably it has something to do with averaging 10 mph instead of 16, it just feels warmer.

I headed over to Marshall Mesa again and took the community ditch trail. There was a point about 30 minutes into my ride that I thought I'd better turn back since snow looked imminent, but then it cleared up and was fine:



Then I came back up the mesa and crossed hwy 93 again, met a lot of cows on the west community ditch trail and did the some Spring Break loop as last time. I was planning on retracing my path back to Marshall Mesa, but my arms were way too tired to come back on any more dirt, so I took the road home. 2 hour ride, 18.9 miles.

Brighton 5k Turkey Trot

This week was fairly unremarkable. On Monday I did a 4 mile recover run to get blood circulating through my legs. The 10:40 pace nearly killed me. How can I PR is races and then barely be able to run 2 days later? I was still feeling fatigued at masters and it was the closest I've been to getting out the pool early. Only the reassurance that my lane mates would, in fact, give me crap about it forever kept me in. Peer pressure is a strong force. In the afternoon I had another painful massage on my lower legs. The therapist thinks I went from heel striking to over compensating and hitting too forward on my feet. The wear on my Newtons near the toe would agree. I don't think the Newtons are the problem, exactly, but how I run in them.

On Tuesday I met with a naturopath to discuss other options in acne therapy. She had my hormones tested and felt they were all in normal range, so she suggested that I try following a paleo diet for athletes - pretty much no grains/starches, unless I'm going to workout with in the hour, or it's within the hour apres workout. I was not impressed, I don't like diets and I do like eating starches. Nevertheless, I'm going to give it a shot since it is something I haven't tried yet. I'm also playing around with gluten and dairy free, so I'm going to try to limit my carbs to no gluten.

I wasn't feeling much more motivating on Wednesday so I did my easy run/strider workout. Guilt over not really training this fall pressured me into doing 10 18 second striders rather than my usual 8. And Friday morning I squeezed out 2 more painfully slow miles to justify my gluten free hot cereal in the breakfast.

And on to the race.... Like last year, Becky joined me for a brisk 5k in scenic Brighton. This year I left with plenty of time, did not get lost, and was at the starting line when the gun went off. It was so cold that I had my cuffins pulled over my hands (and watch) so I didn't check my pace until mile 1. Uh oh, 7:55. I don't run 7:55 miles. I did slow down and the remainder of the race was extra painful, but at least I didn't blow up as much as I did at last year's Colder Boulder. I pulled out an 8:22 and then an 8:32 for a new PR of 25:46. And Becky took 2 1/2 minutes off of last year's time with 26:52.



After the race, I checked the results and was completely shocked that I got 3rd place in my age group. I have never podiumed at a running race. And while I try not to be negative, it did seem like my age group was especially under performing at this race. Here's how I would have placed in other female divisions:

9 & under: 1st. Yes!!!! Take that, ankle biters!
20-24: 2nd
25-29: 10th
30-34: 8th
40-44: 6th
45-49: 3rd
50-54: 1st. Woot!
55-59: 4th. Those are some fast old broads.
60-64: 3rd. More fast old ladies.
65-69: 1st! I could beat my mom!
70+: 1st. But a 70 year old ran 26:49. Is that not freaking unbelievable? I hope to still be mobile at 70.

After I saw I won, I had to wait around to collect my medal. I had a breakfast burrito but couldn't eat the free Cold Stone ice cream, even if I wasn't trying for dairy free. My core temperature plummets after winter runs and I was freezing for hours after the race.

Luckily my coach, Mike, ran too and placed 2nd so we waited together. I'm not sure the 90 minutes of my life were worth this, but it is my first real medal that's not just a finisher's medal:

Longmont 10k Turkey Trot

After the Eerie Erie I decided I was ready to start really running again. I was planning on recycling the running program I did last fall - perfect since one of my runs per week was with a group and I never did what was on the plan anyway. I ran Monday and Wednesday after Erie and by Wednesday decided that my Tibialis muscle (runs up the inside of leg under the tibia bone) was unnaturally sore. Actually, I had begun to notice it about 3 weeks ago (from today) but as it neither got worse nor better, I ignored it. And as it had been 2 weeks at that point, I decided to give running a break for a week to see if things got better. Things did not get better, nor did they get worse. And I'm starting to wonder if I'm an injury-hypochondriac or if I'm just really in tune with my body and extra cautious. And speaking of injury - my calves are still a little tight (as in, I feel my heels in the morning, but it doesn't hurt exactly) and I can't tell if that's ok, of if it's a sign that there's still a problem. Anyway, that wasn't exactly clear but I have another appointment with my masochist massage therapist tomorrow and will have a better idea what, if anything, is going on with my lower legs.

By this week I was ready to run again and did a couple short runs in my old Asics. On Tuesday I did a warm up followed by 4 x 400's and it was awful. Well, awful as in hard and painful and not fun. I guess doing 18 sec striders and then jumping into 1:50 intervals is a big jump. Thursday, I just reverted back to my old 8 x 30 left foot strike striders. My lower legs did not feel any different with adding running back in, so I decided to do the Longmont Turkey Trot.

Saturday's temperature was just about perfect for running - somewhere in the mid-30's to '40's. Since I was able to hold an 8:35 pace for the last 2 miles of the Eerie Erie, I wanted to push myself a bit harder this race to see what I was capable of. The course was pretty flat and fast (no dirt roads like Erie) and I was able to hit my first mile right where I wanted it - 8:52. Around miles 2-4 a guy started pacing off of me in right in my blind spot and it helped me bump up the pace a little. I hit miles 3 & 4 around 8:30. I started to get really tired around 5 1/2 miles and I didn't have the kick that I like to have at the end of a 10k, but I didn't drop off too much either.

Mile Splits:
1- 8:52
2- 8:45
3- 8:35
4- 8:33
5- 8:51
6- 8:45
.22- 8:12

All that added up to a new 10k (real 10k - my watch even had it at 6.25 miles) PR - 54:26. Which I'm very excited about, except that next time I'll want to beat it, and it will be hard. Sometimes I think I really enjoy the idea of racing, but when I'm out there doing it, not so much. This race was pretty much a suffer-fest, but as always, after the post race endorphins kicked in, I was already planning the next one.

First Mountain Bike Ride in 8 Years

Yep, me and my 15 year old hard tail were finally reunited. See, I used to mountain bike quite a bit. I'd say 12 years ago I did 30% off road and 70% road riding. Then Jeremy had a mountain bike accident which not only broke his bike, but also caused some expensive and painful dental work. So he gave up mountain biking and my bike went into the shed. Occasionally I'd thought of riding it again, but as years passed, the amount of work to make the bike rideable seemed insurmountable. Finally, I pulled it out this year. I took it over to U-Bikes and asked what would need to happen to make it go. They recommended about $125 worth of work, but thought it would be rideable with some new tubes and the tires pumped up. That all happened about a month ago, and for the last 4 weeks my mountain bike got an upgraded spot in the garage, but the cleaning and tire changing still seemed like too much work. I finally got inspired when I realized that today could very well be the last day of Indian summer and when I got down to it and did the work, it really did only take 45 minutes to have a mountain bike again.

Now the other reason why we stopped mountain biking was that it seemed like too much work. You had to put your bike in your car and go somewhere to ride. With a road bike, you need only point it out of the garage and then there are 100's of miles of possibilities. Today I took the same strategy and pointed my mountain bike out of the garage and rode to the Marshall Mesa trail head in 15 minutes. From there, I rode up the mesa:



And then crossed highway 93 and rode Dowdy Draw to a new section that opened fairly recently, Spring Brook. This trail was a nice loop and though only 3 miles, was really nice single track. I like mountain biking, but I don't like the kind of mountain biking that involves jumping over fallen trees or off 5' high rocks. This kind of mountain biking:



By the time I finished the loop, I needed to just take the Dowdy Draw trail to Elorado Springs and ride home on the road so I could still make it to masters.

And the best part of living is South Boulder is that there are still many many miles of trail that I did not ride today. Hopefully there are still some riding days left this year and I can go a different route. Hey, who knows - maybe I'll even do an Xterra triathlon next year.

Introducing Blue Lightning

The forces of the universe aligned, and now I have a triathlon bike. One of my master's coaches, Luis Vargas of Mark Allen Online, was selling his wife's bike. Now, he being with MAO, I'm sure he gets very good deals on bikes (free perhaps?). And the asking price for this bike was just too good, especially since this bike was hardly ridden and is carbon with Shimano Dura Ace components. I was a bit concerned since having met his wife, she is a few inches taller than me, but I got a great bike fit at Colorado Multisport and with a few adjustments (and new aerobars and saddle) the bike is perfect.

And why did I need a triathlon bike? A road bike with aerobars is not quite right. A road bike has a frame geometry suitable for road bikes, but a triathlon bike has differing geometry to account for the aeroposition.

I took the bike out for a 25 mile ride last weekend and it felt good. The bike has a more aggressive position than my road bike but it's light and fast.







And for those keeping track, if I would do the dirty work and clean my mountain bike and change the tubes, I would have 5 bikes. Jeremy only has 4. Ha, I win!

Happy Halloween!

We started our Halloween festivities the weekend before with our neighbor's pumpkin carving party. Both boys were in charge of designing and cutting their own pumpkins. Alex carved the one on the left, and Adam did the one of the right. Adam enjoyed it so much that he cut faces into 4 sides of his pumpkin:



For the party, I made owl cupcakes (since I promised Alex I would make them sometime in October). They looked easier than the birthday penguins, but still proved to be time consuming. I did both regular and mini-sized cupcakes. We took the big ones to the pumpkin party:



And the mini ones to Alex's first bookclub meeting:



Several months ago, the boys told me they wanted to be Harry Potter for Halloween. I was not terribly excited about this, as officially licensed and as-seen-in-official-costume-catalog costumes run $30 for the robe, then another $5 for each completely mandatory accessory such as tie, glasses and wand. But then, a few weeks before, they both changed their minds. Adam wanted to be a spy, and Alex a ninja. On a random Target trip, I found a $7 ninja costume, and then on Halloween day, I found a $4 mask and hat for Adam.

So here they are Adam the Hamburglar Zorro Musketeer Spy and Alex the Ninja:



We only trick-or-treated around one big block. Alex started out trick-or-treating for candy and UNICEF, but then decided he had enough candy and only asked for change. I guess getting sick last Halloween left a big impression.

I waited until Halloween to carve my own pumpkins:





We did keep the boys' pumpkins around, but they were a bit mushy and moldy:

Eerie Erie 10k

So I'm not exactly back to training, but I have been running somewhat consistantly. Most of my runs now are 30-40 minutes with 8 x 20 second striders thrown in. Generally that feels ok, but I'm still dealing with some calf tightness, and some weird new shin tenderness in my right leg. I have a feeling my legs/ankles are still adapting to the Newton's, so, much like weight training I'm expecting a bit of soreness as previously less used muscles start working. But I also don't want to push anything and get a real injury.

The Eerie Erie 10k was my first race since the Ironman. What with not really training (only doing one easy run an hour long) I didn't know what to expect. I was seriously worried I wouldn't break an hour and that would have bummed me out, even though I know in a couple of months I could be trained at that level again.

Since it's a Halloween race, this year I dressed up. Not only was it fun, but I saved $2. My training group's theme was tutus and tiara's. Tutu's are actually hard to find, but I remembered seeing some at the children's consignment store and managed to get one over my hips.



The first thing I noticed during the race was that my heart rate shot up very quickly. I remember staying in the 160's through 2 miles last year, but this year I was quickly up to 170. I've had the same thing happen in recent training runs, at the same perceived exertion, my heart rate is 5-10 beats higher than before Wisconsin. I felt pretty good through 4 miles, then my coach ran past. I had my music on really loud but we said hi. She was running :45-1:00/mile faster than I was and after sticking with her for a mile, I realized I could hold it to the end. I was so excited to see 53:xx as I ran towards the finishing chute. Me? Run a 54:00 10k? That was my Bolder Boulder goal this year. Hot Damn!

Then I noticed my watch said the course was 6.04 miles, .16 short of a 10k. Well, that's ok, I thought, I still beat last year's time by 3:30. I'm a stud! Then we looked at the official results, labeled, 5.9 mile race. 5.9 miles? That's not a 10k! It took some extra slouthing at home to figure out that this year's race skipped a 3 point turn that according to google maps is about .35 miles extra. So according to my advanced math skills:

1. I would have beaten last year's time by 15-30 seconds.

2. The original course has to be long. My GPS was screwy last year, but I think that it was really 6.3-6.4 miles. So

3. When I did Rudolph's Revenge last December and thought due to my hard training I took 2 minutes off my 10k time, that may not have been the case exactly. It's hard to compare course, but that race was closer to the 6.2 mile mark.

4. My higher heart rate is a sign that I lost some aerobic fitness in the last 7 weeks. Rather than use this race to determine a new lactate threshold level 5-10 beats higher than 3 months ago (and thus shift all my zone up by 10 beats), I need to do more zone 1/2 training runs before charging into speed training.

5. I now have a PR for a 5.9 mile race - 54:09. But with my Garmin at 6.04 miles, it puts me at a 8:57 pace, and that makes me happy.

So, it's not plantar fasciitis

And I think that's good news. I've been frustrated that even thought I've taken 3 weeks off after my race, my heel pain in my left heel has gotten worse, not better. I showed the general symptoms of plantar fasciitis (mainly heel/arch pain especially first thing in the morning) but I hadn't had it looked at too deeply. On Monday I got a massage and the therapist told me that I did not have plantar fasciitis, but that my calf muscles were so tight that they were cutting off circulation in my heel, causing the pain. My left calf appeared to be particularly tight because it had torn at some point and had some scar tissue. He massaged the heck out of it and I'm to take at least a week off from all running and biking and to ice bath it for at least 3 days.

If it wasn't for the heel pain, I would never had guessed I had an injury. Sure, my calves get tight, but during Ironman training it's pretty hard to differentiate between normal and abnormal soreness/tightness. And of course now that I really am supposed to not run or bike, it's all I want to do. Swimming and yoga aren't cutting it, though the Pilates class last week was... interesting.

Last week I also invested in a Strassburg sock to sleep in. The idea is that the heel is tighter in the morning because at night we tend to point our toes and the calf muscle shortens. This device keeps the foot flexed and the calf muscle longer. I'm getting used to sleeping in it, but as I've said, my heel still hurts in the morning.

Adam needs glasses

Last week Adam came home from school with a note saying he had failed the school eye exam. I was very surprised that anything was wrong, he's never given any indication that he doesn't see well.

Apparently his left eye is 3-4 times more farsighted than his right. The eye doctor was concerned that while his brain is still registering input from the left, it might soon give up on the blurry data. And then he'd have a lazy eye like his mama.

So he's going to have glasses, which will hopefully send a clear signal to his brain and his brain will like that and keep using it. He'll have a 3 month check up to make sure things are working and if they are getting worse, he may have to go the patch route - like his momma.



Oh, and Adam's school had a reward jammie and stuffie day, I don't normal endorse jammies outside of the home.

Adam chose the most round glasses, the closest he could come to Harry Potter's:

Annual Bike Spill

My last bike spill was September 12, 2009 so I guess I've been overdue. I was riding with the Rally group this morning on the dirt roads North of Boulder. I don't mind riding on dirt on my road bike, but today I wasn't paying attention. I went for my water bottle and my front wheel hit a big rut and when 90 degs. I went diagonally over the handle bars onto my right side. My head hit hard, that's why I wear a helmet. I have scraps on my knee and elbow and a bruise on my hip but nothing seems to be seriously damaged. I'm going to the chiropractor this afternoon to get my neck adjusted before the muscles tighten, I can tell I tweaked it.

And so that's my yearly reminder to pay attention when I'm riding.

What now?

So I managed to keep my resolve not to do any triathlon related sports for exactly 1 week. Last Sunday was a beautiful day and I really wanted to take my bike out for a spin. I only did 50 easy minutes, but it felt great. I'm so happy that I don't hate my bike!

I did keep my promise to try yoga at my gym, it's still boring. I did two classes on Monday and Tuesday and while it didn't feel like a workout at the time, I was a bit sore on Wednesday. So rather than do more yoga, I did the Rally ride, which I've done on and off this summer. It was a great social ride, like getting coffee only on a bike. That ride was 2 hours long and everything still felt great.

Since I had already ridden my bike, I figured I might as well swim on Thursday. I plan on doing the Monday and Thursday master's class with Grant. I really need to work on my form, and he has a way of telling me how to change what I'm doing in a way I can actually understand and respond to. Thursday's class was great, it's an intro class and there's lots of form and drill work. I have an issue with lifting my head when I breath, and Grant showed me how it's not an issue with my head, but rather how I'm rotating my body to breath and with a few easy pointers I was able to make a big change in my stroke.

This morning Liz joined me at the gym for a Cardio Fusion class, which would be better named Step Class from Hell. Definitely the hardest thing I've done in 11 days. There was a lot of cardio step stuff that was hard to follow and hard to execute, then some weights which were equally difficult. I think I want to try NIA or pilates next week and I'll pretend it's because I want to see what all the classes are about and not because this one kicked my ass.

I plan to ride a bit and swim a bit and maybe even run (I'm going to go to the Newton run clinic tomorrow) and also do some more yoga or other classes but in an unstructured way for the next few weeks. Then I'll get back on a training program for the winter, concentrating on my week sport again, running.

Last night our Ironman group met for dinner to celebrate our accomplishment. Surprisingly, everyone was open to the idea of doing another Ironman next year, and several race ideas were tossed around. I don't know if Western Australia is going to work for me, but there are a lot of cool places to race. This week I did start thinking about next year. I would like to sign up for the Boulder series and the Boulder 70.3, but if a group (this or D3) decides on another destination race, I would rather do that. So I am trying to put a lot of pressure on people in decision making positions to get things rolling.

The group: Me, Dan, Eney - coach for -, Marcy, Alison, Sara

Postscript

First, now that I know my real coach Mike is going to read this, I need to give him a big thank you. I mentioned Endurance Nation a lot in my race report and while they helped me come up with a solid race plan, Mike was the one who got me through a year of training uninjured and Ironman-primed. I'm so glad I found the D3 group to train with this year and I'll be sticking with them for a while.

Overall, I am extremely pleased with how this race went. I survived a mass start swim of 2550. I rode a strong bike leg that, while not as fast as I hoped to be, was strong for the course. I did not have any mechanical issues, nor any crashes with my fellow 2550 athletes. My marathon was only 7 minutes slower than the Portland Marathon I ran in 2000. I ran (jogged/shuffled) most of the way, and that was a big goal for me. I followed my nutrition plan and didn't get sick or bonk. I didn't need IV fluids at the end. In summary - my race execution was spot on.

It's now Thursday and I'm coming down off my post race high. I still am pretty sore in my quads and the past three days I have avoided stairs and need arm support to sit on the toilet. But really, I was thinking I would feel much worse. I've been this sore before, just not this long. I plan to take this week off completely from all exercise, and then next week I'd like to try some yoga classes at my gym. I'm going to take 1 month off from all triathlon related sports. I need a mental break as much as the physical so that when I go back I'm excited and not burned out.

And what does the future hold? I'm not ruling out another Ironman but I also wasn't in the line on Monday to sign up for IMWI next year. Most of my anxiety with this race was my fear of the unknown. Having done it, and seeing all the different types of athletes who completed this race made me realize that Ironman really is open to anyone willing to put the training in and the guts to go for it. Many of the Ironman athletes I saw racing were extremely fit men with 3% body fat. But there were a lot of regular looking people too. There were many women with a little extra curve (and men too) who finished. It may have taken them 3 more hours than I took, but they did the same course and earned the Ironman title. I was even passed by a blind athlete - he swam with someone on a tether, rode a tandem bike and ran again with his Iron helper. Amazing!

I like racing the half Ironman distance - it's long enough to be a challenge and worth traveling for, but not as much training and time commitment as a full. I will probably do the Boulder 70.3 next year, as well as the D3 trip - wherever that may be. I would like to get a triathlon specific bike, I think that will put me in a more competitive position in the shorter races. Liz is signing up for Ironman Arizona 2011 and while I'm not saying yes to that yet, I'm not saying no, either. I love triathlon training and next year I'm going to strive to find a balance between being fit and not being stressed about training.


(And no, that's not a real tattoo. I haven't decided if I'm going to get one or not. But when Jeremy got home he said he was half expecting me to already have one.)

Aftermath

After Jeremy found me, I learned that he had already picked up my bike, but none of my bags. He said he saw the special needs bags out by the capital so we walked a couple blocks over but they were gone. Then we walked back to the convention center to grab my transition bags. My family had found a parking space in the convention center, so I didn't have to walk any farther. Jeremy said I was doing much better than he expected, I think he had been preparing himself to be ready to carry me to the car. I skipped the post race massage (not only did my muscles hurt, but the OUTSIDE of my body hurt, especially my upper arms and abdomen. I could not imagine anyone touching me) and also the post race meal (eat? no thank you).

We got back to my Grandma's house and I managed to shower by myself and eat a few grapes and a cookie. Then it was bedtime. I slept better than expected, but not great. In the morning, my sisters and I headed back to the convention center for the finisher's merchandise and to find my special needs bags. We got there around 9:30. I had to walk a block to get my bags while my sisters held a place in the store line. We also found a really long line and I asked someone what it was for. That was the registration for next year's race and there were a lot of people in finisher's hats and shirts standing in it. We had to wait in the store line for about 15 minutes before getting in. The store opened at 7:00 and most of the stuff was pretty picked over. I found a jacket I liked, but the small was a bit too tight in the shoulders and the next size up was XXL. Probably for the best that it didn't fit, it was $140. I found a spandex pull over for $50 that I got instead. I added some stickers, M-dot temporary tattoos, socks, a t-shirt and I don't know what else that put me around $100.

Our last stop was the official race photography booth. I bought all their digital images, and got two printouts of my finisher's photo. I was feeling pretty good about my time until I saw the two older ladies (51 and 54, ages on calves are handy) in front of me pick up their pictures and they both finished well over an hour ahead of me. I'm not sure what I was expecting, even the 73 year old beat me.

When were were done with the convention center, we headed out of town towards Milwaukee to go to the airport. On the way there, we stopped at Culver's for lunch around 11:30. I was finally hungry for the first time since the end of the race and that was the best hamburger I have EVER had. The Heath shake was pretty good too, but I couldn't finish my fries. I love eating when I'm really hungry. My rough estimate of how many calories I burned yesterday was around 5500.

We got to the airport a bit early and had lots of time to lounge around. We saw several other athletes in their finisher's hats and shirts. I love the unspoken rule that that's just what you wear the day after. Our flight left at 4:55 and we got into Denver at 6:25. I took the RTD bus to Boulder and got in around 8:30. The 3 block walk back to my house was interesting. I had been walking around all day at the airports but any time I had to walk after sitting for a while was extra stiff and occasionally my legs would give away and I would lurch. I took another Advil PM that night and had the best night's sleep in months - I was out for 10 hours.

The Run

I felt surprisingly good heading out on the run. My legs were working fine and I kept thinking of the Endurance Nation coaches - feeling good? Slow down! The first mile is downhill and lined with spectators and even though I was thinking "slow down" I still ran a 10:30 mile. My race plan was to run/jog/shuffle between aid stations and walk through them taking in something every time. I took my first gel at the last bike aid station, then I took a gel about every 5 miles on the run. I had a cup of water and a cup of Perform fake-gatorade at every aid station for the first 13 miles. The second 13 miles I took water and a cup of lukewarm chicken broth.



I hit a port-a-potty around mile 2, that would be the last time I would need to pee for the next 7 hours. The first 3 miles were perfect. I had a smile on my face and I was feeling good. I was also thinking I was going to finish under 13 hours at that time - in transition I switched my regular watch for my Garmin, which read 2:40pm. I kept adding 5 1/2 hours to 2:40 and coming up with 8:00pm. But then I thought about my swim and bike splits that were close to what Liz did at Arizona last year and she was a bit over 14 hours. I could not make the math work until finally I realized my Garmin was still on Denver time and then it all made sense.

Around miles 4-7, I got some minor stomach cramping, the kind I was getting in some of my training bricks. During this time I got a little gassy as well, but luckily had no need for another port-a-potty. I thought the day was a bit warmer than I prefer for running (we had a clear day and highs in the lower 80's), so I took ice at every aid station the first loop too, and put it under my hat and in my sports bra. I also had a sponge down my back that I poured cold water on. I was carrying my dedicated mile list but after a couple cups of water poured on it, it was a soggy pulpy mess. But I kept it in my pocket and still thought of everyone throughout the race.



The run course meandered through downtown Madison and most of the time I had no idea where we were. It consisted of two out of back 13.1 mile jaunts. Around mile 5, we took a lap around the football stadium.



There were two areas that had a lot of spectators - the mile up the finish (or the beginning of the second lap) by the capitol and then another area on State Street. A bit of the course ran along the lake and in the shelter of trees. It seemed that there were spectators everywhere and since our race bibs had our names on it, hundreds of people shouted, "Go Wendy" all day long. I had to look at these people to check that they were not my family. I heard one racer saying, "The spectators should be wearing name tags too, so we can say, 'Thanks John.'"

I'd say my first 6 miles were pretty good, the second 6 were a bit more uphill and harder. The second 13 mile loop is where I feel like I earned the Ironman race. At the beginning of the second loop we could get our special needs bag. I took my bag of 3 more Advil to take at mile 18 (roughly 4 hours after my first dose), 2 more gels and left the extra socks and long sleeved shirt.

Right after the turn around I saw my family again:





Around mile 15 is when it started getting really hard. A lot of people still racing were now doing more walking than jogging. I noticed these walkers starting to hook up together and talk. It seemed to be a bad situation to get into, much like the woman ranting in transition 1, I tried to avoid them. I heard people talking about how the rest of their race had went, how much their legs/feet/whatever hurt, why they were doing the race in an ACL knee support, etc. It seemed like finding a walking buddy was like getting the perfect excuse to take it easy. There was one girl that talked to me a bit but she was running 4 minutes, walking 1 and I told her I had a different strategy that I needed to stick to for mental reasons. We were pretty much together for 8 miles (she would pass me running, I'd pass her when she walked), then she hooked up with the guy in the ACL support guy and they fell back and I didn't see her again. As soon as I started the run, I knew I had over 8 hours to complete the marathon and I could walk the whole thing if I wanted too and still come in under 17 hours. But did I want to? NO.

So around mile 15 my dedicated mile list contracted to one small mantra, "Keep moving, people are watching. Keep moving, people are watching." And everyone once and a while to spice things up I would think, "You are doing a fucking IRONMAN!" I kept a smile/grimace on my face and kept moving. I did walk a bit more than I planned on the second loop. I walked up some hills, and sometimes I walked a bit farther than the end of the aid station. I kept telling myself that jogging really didn't hurt that much more than walking and to KEEP MOVING. I hit mile 18 and saw the Endurance Nation guys in their pink speedos. There were right, at mile 18 you really needed to dig deep to keep going until the end. And since mile 18 was on one of the out-and-back parts, I saw them again at mile 21, when I really needed a lift.

It's a good thing my brain was foggy around mile 18. I realized that if I walked the last 8 miles, it would take me about 2 hours and 15 minutes. And I did not want to be out there that long! Good thing my brain couldn't do the math that if I jogged at my current pace, it would still take 1 hour and 35 minutes. If I had gotten that far, I might have decided that 45 minutes was a decent sacrifice.

The last 5-6 miles were all in the dark. Running in the dark was almost helpful. It was like the physical manifestation of the tunnel vision I was experiencing in my head. Just keep moving. Just keep moving. I remember hitting mile 24 and thinking I was almost there. A guy ran by and said, "Was that mile 24?" and I answered "Damn straight!" We started hitting the crowds of spectators around mile 25. I told myself I was not walking again and I should give it all I had. I picked up the pace even though it was uphill. I ran past a girl that kept passing me when she was running, but I would pass her when she walked. I told her, "You have a mile to go and you are strong when you run so RUN." And she took off and I never saw her again.

Right before last turn to the finisher's chute I passed 2 guys walking. When I passed them, they started to run again. I ran faster, thinking, "Oh no you don't. I want to hear the announcer say, "Wendy Sweet, from Boulder Colorado, you are an Ironman! and I don't want to hear your names or see you in my finisher photo, you lame guys walking 1/4 of a mile from the finish." And so I took off and I didn't hear their names and they are not in my finisher photo.







The end was not as emotional as I thought it would be. I was just so tired and so glad to be done. As soon as I crossed the finish, I got my own celebrity treatment volunteer. He gave me a space blanket and directed me to my finisher medal. He helped me in line for the finisher photo and then to the family and friends corral to find Jeremy. He asked lots of questions about the race and kept me talking. I'm sure a lot of it was to make sure I was ok and didn't need to go to the medical tent. We found Jeremy and I was handed off.

Run Recap:
Split 1: 11:29 miles
Split 2: 12:10 miles (more uphill than the first section)
Split 3: 11:58 miles (same section as split 1)
Split 4: 12:17 miles (same section as 2, pretty good for how much more walking I felt like I was doing)

Total time: 5:14:08, 11:59 average miles

My rank coming off the bike was 1780 and I finished in 1556 place, meaning I passed 224 people on the run. Roughly 2700 people registered, 2550 started the race and 2398 finished.

Total Race:

Swim: 1:26:17
T1: 12:05
Bike: 6:56:35
T2: 6:19
Run: 5:14:08

Total: 13:55:24

The Bike

The first thing that has to happen on the bike is getting out of the parking structure and down the double helix. It's a no passing zone and the turn is pretty tight. And almost immediately after there's a section on the bike path that is also no passing with some tight turns to go over bridges or under tunnels. So the first 20 minutes were at a very easy pace with not much else to be done. After we got through Madison and on to the road to Verona, I started my nutrition plan. I was to drink 6 bottles of Infinite (a mixture of carbs, protein and electrolytes) and eat a Clif Mojo bar and a package of Powerbar Gels. I decided to eat the bar first, which I had already taken out of its wrapper and cut into bite sized pieces before the race.

The road to Verona was uphill and I was feeling good. I remembered the advice of Mike my coach, ride the first hour really easy. That worked out well because the the first hour got me to Verona, then there were two challenging loops ahead of me. Most of the bike course is a blur, but I do remember there were lots of hills. On the first half of the loop, the hills were not very steep or very long. I downshifted at every hill and watched my power numbers and didn't let them get much over 140 watts. As I crested the hill, I tried to shift and keep my power even to get more speed going down. I did a pretty good job of that, the end result being that everyone passed me going up hill and I repassed them going down.

I got to Mt. Horeb around 2 hours riding time and it was the perfect spot to stop and pee. A lot of Ironman athletes don't take the time to stop and pee during the bike section, but I had decided long ago that I wasn't winning this race and it wasn't worth it to pee on my bike. And stopping to pee proved very easy. The aid station was on a uphill section so we weren't going very fast anyway. A volunteer held my bike while I went into the port-a-potty. The whole deal couldn't have taken more than 90 seconds. And the fact that I had to go 2 hours into the bike was great, it meant I was keeping up with my hydration (the last time I peed being somewhere on the back section of the second loop of the swim. Yes, I have no qualms about peeing while swimming). I also took this time to switch my timing chip band from my left ankle to my right. For some reason, I start getting a weird pain in my ankle and foot during long course triathlons, but after switching the band to my right, I didn't notice it again for the rest of the race.

The second half of the loop is where the course got more challenging. There were some great downhills, but they weren't straight. I saw one ambulance loading up a cyclist on one of the downhill curves. And then there were 2 big climbs that were steeper and longer than anything in the first half. On both of these hills I switched to my granny gear, something I reserve for Olde Stage and the top of Flagstaff back home. My power was still at 170 watts at this gear. These hills are great though because a lot of spectators line the roads and cheer all day long. I saw some great signs on these hill, my favorites being, "Holy Shit, you are doing an Ironman!" and "HTFU."

Each loop was 40 miles long, beginning and ending in Verona. Verona puts on a little festival for the race and there are lots of spectators. I was so happy to see Jeremy, my Dad, Alex and Adam cheering for me at the start of the second loop.





Also, the second time through Verona we could pick up our special needs bag. I had to stop for mine because I put my second set of Infinite bottles in it. This had been a source of stress for me some weeks before the race - how was I to carry 6 servings of Infinite on my bike that has room for 3 water bottles? On my training rides I put the powder in Ziploc baggies and mixed with water at gas stations, but that was not a good way to handle it during the race. My coach suggested making 2 triple strength bottles and mixing a 3rd of the bottle with water in my aerobottle. I didn't like that suggestion because I knew the course was hilly and I preferred to be sitting up drinking when I was going up the hills and that's hard to do with an aerobottle. At the race expo I asked the guys at the Infinite tent what they would suggest and they gave me the idea to put the bottles in my special needs bag. I put the empty bottles in the bag, poured one bottle in my aerobottle and put the other two in my cages. Voila, 6 bottles of nutrition, each mixed at the exact right concentrate. I also put some Pringles and a Snickers bar in the my special needs bag. The Snickers bar wasn't doing anything for me, but I took a handful of Pringles with my extra bottles.

Naturally, the second loop was harder to get through than the first. I hit Special Needs at 3:27, so I knew I was looking at a 7:00 bike split. While I had hoped to be closer to 6:30, I felt like I was riding a strong bike without cooking it and I did have a marathon to get through. Still, 7:00 is a long time to be out there riding by yourself. I started thinking of things to say (or, hopefully not say) to all the people I passed, or who passed me. Ironman Wisconsin sold cow printed jerseys at the expo and I did moo at the few people I passed wearing these. They did not moo back. Then there were the same people that would pass me going up hill and I would pass going downhill and I would say, "Hi again, John." I peed again at the Mt. Horeb aid station. That was somewhere around 4:30 hours so again, I was keeping up with my hydration. I did have to wait in a small line of maybe 3 people so this stop might have taken up to 3 minutes. Still worth it.

Somewhere around mile 70 my lower back started hurting. It hurt to stay in an aero position and it hurt to sit up. I shifted a lot between the two for a change, but it never really stopped hurting. I was so happy to see Verona for the last time of the day, but for feeling like the ride out to Verona was all uphill, it was weird to feel like the ride back was still uphill. On one left hand turn I over did the corner and ended up on the dirt shoulder. I didn't panic and I got back on the road ok but it was a good wake up call that I was getting tired and my reflexes weren't what they were 6 hours ago.

I don't really remember getting back to Monona Terrace, other than I had no idea where we were other than somewhere within city limits but not downtown. And then we could finally see downtown and the capital. I saw my family again right outside Monona Terrace and the boys were joined by Becky, Laura and Ariel.







I loved my signs that my sisters made!

Overall, I think I had a decent bike. I could have ridden harder, but who knows how I could have run then? As Endurance Nation says, there is no such thing as a good bike split and bad run split. There's the bike you *could* do and the bike you *should* do. But I could have been a bit more consistent. My first 40 miles average was 16.5 mph, the next 43 at 16 mph and the last 29 miles at 15.8 mph. My total bike time was 6:56:35 for a total average of 16.13 mph.







T2: Riding back up the parking lot helix was a lot more fun and faster than shuffling up it after the swim. I was able to hand my bike off to a volunteer who re-racked it for me, then there was someone waiting with my transition bag to help me in the changing room. I did a complete wardrobe change - bike clothes off, running clothes on. I even changed my sports bra and socks and made sure to put body glide on again in all the relevant places. And lastly, I took the 3 Advil I had waiting for me in the bag. Outside, I went through the sunscreen gauntlet again too. I really didn't feel like this transition was any faster than the first, it must have been that I biked the helix instead of shuffling. Total time - 6:19.