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Vineman 70.3 July 20th, 2008
Steelhead 70.3 August 2nd, 2008

I was scheduled to race Vineman 70.3 on July 20th and was really gearing up for the day. After getting two flats at Honu 70.3 during the race and having only started training April 1st due to the birth of my second child in February, I knew there was more in the tank. I also really targeted Vineman as my prep race for Kona to help me determine what I still needed to focus on to get to the start line in October in the best shape possible. I had some great training weeks leading up to Vineman with a bang out triple on the Sunday before the race. It was so great that when I woke up the Monday morning of Vineman week, I was a little tired but also noticed that I had some discomfort in my right glute. I figured a day or two of rest and a massage would take care of any ailments. By the time Thursday came I was questioning going up to race as my glute was not getting any better; in fact, I was only capable of running 20-30 minutes at a time before the pain scale went above a 6. Then on Friday I woke up with some weird virus leaving me exhausted and nauseous all day (I know what you are thinking, oh gosh, she is pregnant again!…uh…no). I had been telling myself for weeks Vineman was my race to get the info I needed for Kona as well as I was in need of a paycheck so I had lots of motivation to push through and not listen to the signals I was getting to not race. So, you can imagine my shock when I woke up Sunday morning and discovered my GURU Crono had been stolen. I will spare the details but thanks to my husband and two Santa Rosa detectives (who are doing IM Arizona in November), my bike was recovered and I picked it up on July 24th.

That leads me to the second half of the story. My chiropractor, Rikki Johansen from Health Logic, had been working on my glute and I wanted to race but needed to find one quickly so I could still recover properly for Kona. With the help of Tribike Transport I was off to Michigan to race Steelhead 70.3 on Saturday August 2. I had to scramble to get help with the kids but thanks to neighbors everything fell into place easily and I left San Francisco Thursday for the Saturday race. Friday was a whirlwind trying to get everything ready and Saturday I was ready to race and see what I originally wanted to see three weeks earlier.

Race morning the wind had really picked up and Lake Michigan went from looking like glass to choppy, nasty little swells that was going to make for a tough swim (I was okay with that). Apparently is was too much for the race to handle so after we walked a mile to the swim start they cancelled the swim. An hour and fifteen minute delay and a new format of a 3k run, 56 mile bike, 13.1 mile run I was off on my race venture. As in my previous reports I set several goals for myself: Goal number 1: Build into the race and feel my glute out on bike and run; Goal number 2: Ride a 2:30 or better. Ride the bike hard-stay in aero position as long as possible, bring in training methods, Ride the bike HARD!

Goal number 3: Run a 1:30 or better. Run based on glute, do not push through pain of a 5 or above; Goal number 4: Walk away with info on what is need for the remainder 10 weeks in Kona. The 3k run was a nice warm up run for the bike and I ran hard but not all out. I had a nice bike mount and I was off to ride HARD on the bike. It was pretty windy and I was able to stay in the aero position for quite a bit. I was riding solo until around mile 13 or so when I was passed by two age group men. Here is where I had to make the decision. Let them pass me and never see them again or STEP IT UP and try and ride aggressively which historically I have not done. Well, so much for history. As soon as they passed me, I stepped it up and proceeded to stay my 4 bike lengths back and practiced riding in the legal zone.

It was hard and I was riding really hard to do it. After a while we finally all spread apart and I tried to keep them in sight. By mile 45 I was getting tired but was able to stay on pace and keep the guys in sight. I rode a 2:20!! Holy cow! I do believe that is a PR by at least 10 minutes!! Goal number 2- accomplished.

My legs were pretty fatigued by the time I hopped off the bike so my plan was to take the run out conservatively. I started the run and was expecting over a 7 minute first mile, but my first mile was 6:50. I had quite a lead so I didn’t feel I needed to crush the run. The rest of the run I continued to run between 6:35-6:45 all the while staying
conservative. The glute was a bit tight but nothing out of the ordinary. I ran a 1:28, Goal number 3-accomplished. All in all the race was great; it was a crazy, busy, quick trip but I am happy I did it. I won overall and I have the information that I wanted and now it is crunch time for Kona. I can’t help but think that my bike getting stolen was a blessing in disguise. I am really looking forward to what lies ahead on October 11.

Thanks Team.

Continuing to Let it Go,
Gina