I was the overall female winner at the Island Lake Triathlon today, and PRd by about 4 minutes on that course, so it was a pretty cool feeling.
The Swim: 1500m. They changed the swim course this year (today was my 4th year racing this race). It was just a straight line out toward the back of Kent Lake, and back. We swam two laps of the course. So, the air temperature was close to 80 and very hot and humid at the start. I had emailed the race director earlier in the week to get the water temp, which was 69. Today, it was 72. I wasn't going to bring my full wetsuit with the sleeves in this heat and humidity, so I grabbed my sleeveless. I even took it with me into transition. However, I was starting to sweat just walking around. I truly don't like wearing those things, because I feel restricted in everything, breathing, kicking, arm pulling, etc. I only like to wear them when the water temp is below 65. Even then, still sucks.
I made the decision not to wear one, because personally I thought it was just too hot. Also I didn't want to have to deal with the extra time being in transition, lol. I get that it can help you swim faster, but today, I thought it was in my best interest not to wear one(pretty much everyone else wore one, haha) I get pretty warm when I swim anyways, so I just wore my Team USA suit! I had a great swim, wore my earplugs to prevent dizziness, and stayed as close to the buoys as I could to swim my fastest. My swim time ended up being 25-something, which is normally slow for me, but I looked at everyone else's time for the day and everyone seemed slow. So I think the change in the swim course may have been slightly longer than 1500m.
The Bike: I honestly wasn't fully recovered from a run workout I did earlier this week. I noticed the soreness right away. I was using this race as training, but still, it was too much. So now I know what not to do the week of a race. Despite that issue, I managed to clock in at a 1:06-something (official results not online yet and I forget the milliseconds). That is a 3 min PR for me on that bike course (not a PR for the 40k, just that course) I think that course is challenging because there are a lot of small hills the whole 40k. It usually kills my legs. My wattage was ok, it could have been higher if my legs felt fresher, but I'll take it! Oh, and my Cannondale Slice with my Rolf Prima race wheels make for a very smooth, fast feeling ride! I also did better on cornering for myself.
The Run: Killed me. It always does. 47:33, not bad, that's a 7:39 pace in this heat and humidity. Since I was already sore, plus the bike, I felt it in my legs. I had a hard time. I seriously thought the second place female would catch me because I saw her after the turnaround, twice, lol, because we had to do two laps. I tried to run faster, but the heat didn't want my body to go faster, either. So I just let it do what it could in the heat, and was ok with being passed if that should happen because I wasn't about to get heat exhaustion. When I got to the second turnaround again, I saw the second place female around the same spot, maybe closer. I didn't want to get passed, I wanted first since I was still in the lead, so I booked it (well, as much as I could in that heat) the last mile. That was hard, because it was hot. My work paid off, though, because I finished first yay!!
My overall time was 2:21-something. I could have gone faster if my legs were totally fresh. Now I know what I need to do during race weeks. But I think the humidity and heat had an impact as well! I have a feeling it's going to be hot this summer. So we better practice running in the heat! Cozumel will be hot, so I am glad I have this race under my belt. Happy adventures! :)
