[Part III of Race journal: Tri Santa Cruz, August 2018] June-July 2018: almost there

[Forked from the entire race report for ease of reading]

Previous: [Part II of Race journal: Tri Santa Cruz, August 2018] March-May 2018: the actual training begins

June 2018 (Biking + HIIT + OWS + Swimming + Running):

I was back from my backpacking trip, which was also my short break between switching teams at work. I was signed up to run the Ragnar Relay in Pacific Northwest, a 200ish mile race with a 12 person team. This one requires every runner to run three legs and stay in a van for the rest of the duration (~30-36 hours). While training for my triathlon was a big goal, training to run at a pace that didn't disqualify my team at Ragnar was an equally important one to me at this time. Because of my triathlon + HIIT schedule, I was only able to make it to one the track sessions. Given the distances I had to run during the relay (the longest one was 9 miles), I had to run a total of 18.3 miles. I decided that desperate times called for desperate measures and running needed to make its way back into the schedule. Given that I had recently started with a new team and didn't have the time to add more training hours in the morning or reasonable evening time, it meant a return to the treadmill.

I started with a 4 mile run on the treadmill during my first week back and it was around 10:30 pace which is fast given my normal pace (I'm painfully aware of how that is still considered slow!). It felt good but I knew that I needed a lot more practice. I resumed Open water swim + Bike sessions with Team Asha, which felt awesome! Our brick had gone up to 4 miles but was thankfully on a track, which is my favorite (I love the tracks so much that the back story deserves a post of its own :D).

Prasad gave me some much needed feedback during one of the open water swims about how I was almost coming out of the water completely just to take a breath. Because of other stuff, I hadn't been doing as many pool swims and it was clearly showing. I resolved to make that a priority again.

I was still having trouble changing gears and going faster on the bike. I was frustrated because I would be at the end of the pack and even though I wasn't tired, but my bike won't go any faster. I was also nearing the time to get a bike tune up so I took in my bike to SB around mid-June. Basically I found out that my rear derailleur had somehow split into two and one half had fallen off! The guy at the bike counter said he had never seen anything like this, especially because I was not in any accident and the bike hadn't seen any damage. I asked him if I could keep the derailleur as a souvenir (he asked me to make a necklace of it!). After they fixed that, changing gears became so much easier! It wasn't that I raced to the front of the pack and lived happily ever after, but it was a huge upgrade in terms of amount of effort dispensed. Moral of the story, when in doubt, blame something else! :D

Over the month, I fit in shorter runs at my target pace (~10:30). I also talked with Soujanya and Deepak about Spin sessions and realized that my bike training could be much better if I made it to the spin sessions so I cautiously doubled up on the same day or another day to ensure that I made it to Spin session on Thursday evenings. Ironically, a bigger challenge was getting to Baylands park on Thursday evenings at 6:30 from my new campus- the traffic was brutal! I also had to do some crazy prep the previous days to make sure that I had enough change of clothes for days of two workouts (and of course, enough clean clothes). 

July 2018 (Biking + HIIT + OWS + Swimming + Ragnar Relay):

We had our first 30 mile bike ride on July 1 and it marked an important milestone- I got my first flat in the middle of a bike ride, and that too at mile 16. We did a turnaround at mile 15 so this ensured that I had no option but to fix this (even if I wanted to call for help, it would have been futile, FIFA world cup ensured that all my friends would curse me to no end!). Thankfully Deepak and Soujanya were right behind me and patiently waited as I started putting my theory lessons (thanks, James!) into practice. Barring the point where the chain had to be taken off (it was the rear tyre), both Deepak and Souj let me work on my own and change the flat. It was both super encouraging on their part to be so patient! 

My swim lessons were continuing on the side but I was also becoming aware of how much I had to fix- your hand needs to slice through at a certain angle, your core needs to be engaged, your leg muscles need to be engaged in a certain way- it all made me realize how much thought and training needs to go into making the body one aerodynamic unit.

Ragnar relay was on July 13-14 and I got in couple of 4-6 mile runs in the week before that. We flew out to Seattle couple of days before the race and I only walked on those days. I was also experimenting with taking it easy before a race to see if it actually helped (fortunately or unfortunately, this proved to be super helpful for my triathlon). I'll add a separate post on Ragnar, but overall I was happy with the pace and the fact that I finished without injury! This also indicated to me that I may not be the fastest in the run position for triathlon, but I'll be able to pull through for the sprint atleast. Because the second and third Ragnar segments are done without as much of rest and break, it felt good to know that mentally I was prepared to push through.

Back in California, I felt ready to go back to something that would make my commute much easier.. back to back workouts! I reasoned that I took my bike with me to my office early in the morning and then left around 4:30 to make it to the second campus where I could do HIIT, then it was a short 7 minute drive to Baylands at 6pm. For others, these things were probably not a big deal- but I had moved to California last year and only started driving my own car for commute around a year ago so driving anywhere is still a big deal.

The weekend after Ragnar was the Donner lake swim. It was our first 'race' as a group and it was awesome! I started slow as we had been told over and over, because of the altitude. It was a half mile swim and the water was super clear. You could see the sun rays filtering through, as you could sometimes see the kelp (the kind that drags down the protagonists in horror movies!). I loved the swim- my goggles kept leaking but I tried not to let that work me up. There were clearly not enough people at the race- I came second in my age group. We all joked about it and hijacked the podium, but it was really good to see how far I had progressed in the swim! The same weekend we also did our longest bike ride of the season, 32.3 miles - it was a crazy weekend!

At this point, it won't be a stretch to say that I was loving the routine:

Sundays: Bike ride + brick run, Monday: Swim/rest, Tuesday: HIIT, Wednesday: Swim/rest, Thursday: HIIT+Spin, Friday: Swim, Saturday: Open water swim.

That weekend we were going to do a mock tri. I was checking my calendar for the week after that 32 mile bike ride and I realized that I didn't have morning meetings on Wednesday that day. I was so much of an enthu cutlet that time that I felt that I should try out a mock tri in the gym+pool. I was completely exhausted by the end of it and had to substitute a Spin for a stationary bike (since I couldn't find a normal bike in the gym!) but was totally worth it - I felt ready!

July 28 was IM 70.3 in Santa Rosa- it was both fun and inspiring to watch our team members, alumni, coords and Coach doing such an awesome job! We also saw the pro athletes and age group leads roll out, was very surreal. I also saw couple other Indian women racing, I am always extra inspired to see other Indian women race since I don't see too many, so this was super exciting as well!

August was beckoning- Now we were down to the final 11 days before the race!

Next: 
[Part IV of Race journal: Tri Santa Cruz, August 2018] 11 days of August, and the race day!