70.3 Worlds Preview Part 1: The Women

As mentioned, I wrote a preview on the Ironman 70.3 World Championships in Vegas for LAVA Magazine, and I have a whole bunch of good notes left over from the writing process that I can't just let go to waste on my hard drive. I took a lot of time to research results, stats and info on the top 24 contenders (12 guys, 12 girls). Funny observation: Despite a triathlete's nature to be "Type A," I found it hard to track down all these numbers and race results with some pros. Yes, some of our pros have great, up-to-date websites, but some not so much. I think the girls have it together more than the dudes! But I got what I needed...

Today we'll start with the ladies. By the way, this is not what I published in LAVA. Plus, I'm only choosing eight each. You'll have to read my article for the other four...

The 8 Women

Melissa Hauschildt (nee: Rollison)

Notable:

Break out year in 2011 with 1^st in every race she did -- Muncie, Vineman and Steelhead and Vegas 70.3 Worlds, plus Noosa Olympic in October, Nepan in November, and 70.3 Asia Pacific Champs in Phuket in December (the last of which she went 4:17:01, a course record).

2012 Season:

1^st Australian Long Course Champs in Feb -- 4:14:39, a course record

4^th Abu Dhabi -- 7:05

1^st Byron Bay Olympic in Australia

2^nd Boulder Peak 5150

2^nd Vineman -- 4:11 with fastest run

2^nd Boulder 70.3 -- 4:09:44, bike record

Linsey Corbin
Notable:

In 2011 she suffered an injury that altered her training during the middle of the year. But it actually worked out well for Linsey and she ended her year going 3^rd at Vegas and 2^nd IMAZ. She she value in how she executed her training in 2011 and applied some tweaks to her training in 2012.

2012 Season:

2^nd  San Juan 70.3 -- 4:18:38

5^th Oceanside 4:29:46

2^nd Wildflower 4:32:09

1^st Hawaii 70.3 -- a course record in 4:26:09, on what’s said to be some of the toughest conditions that course has seen.

5^th Boise (shortened course)

1^st IM Austria 9:09:58, edging out Erica Csomor.

3rd Timberman 70.3

Heather Jackson

Notable:

Once known for being a powerhouse on the bike, Jackson has shown she's the complete package now. In 2011 her 70.3 results were consistently top-5 with 4^th in Vegas, 2^nd Oceanside, 2nd Steelhead, 3^rd Augusta, 4^th Boise, 5^th Rev3 Quassy, as well as 6^th NOLA. This year she's been spending time training in Boulder, Colo., before Vegas instead of San Diego. She's also training for the Xterra World Champs on Oct. 28.

2012 Season:
1^st Palm Springs Desert Classic 

2^nd Oceanside to Mel McQuiad with a 4:21:57

1^st Wildflower -- new course record, 4:26:29

1^st Encinitas Sprint 

4^th Rev3 Quassy 4:34:07

1^st San Diego International 

4^th Vineman

2^nd Ironman 70.3 Calgary

Angela Naeth

Notable:

In 2011 she had four podiums in 70.3s including 1^st at Boulder and the Leadman Epic 250. She's coached by Mark Allen. In my opinion, this year is panning out to be the best year of her racing career so far. She was 7^th in 70.3 Worlds in 2010 and didn't do Vegas last year.

2012 Season:
1^st 70.3 South America Champs in Panama -- 4:15:31, fastest bike

2^nd Abu Dhabi -- 7:03:00

1^st Leadman 125 Vegas -- fastest bike

6^th St. Anthony’s 

1^st St. Croix -- course record

3^rd Rev3 Quassy -- fastest bike, 4:28:24, less than a min off 1st-place Rinny’s time

1^st Syracuse 70.3 -- 4:16:27, course record

1^st Rev3 Portland -- fastest bike (and it was a hard bike this year) and fastest run

Meredith Kessler

Notable:

In 2011 – won Canada and 2^nd at St George andCDA, her 70.3s weren’t as great as they’ve been this year. In 2010, though she won vineman WF, as well as CDA. How could you top all that? But she managed to so do so and her 2012 has been even better! In talking with her, she said she would have liked to have raced more after Vineman and before Vegas but Coach Matt Dixon thought otherwise, haha. This will be her first time doing the world championship races; she's doing both Vegas and Kona. ((She's my pick for the win at Vegas.))

2012 Season: 

1^st IM NZ shortened to a 70.3 due to weather -- 4:22:46

3^rd Oceanside 4:23:40

1^st St George  --  10:12:59 (15 OA)

1^st Eagelman 70.3 4:12:40 june 10

1st IM CDA 9:21:44

2^nd Rev3 Portland

1^st Vineman 70.3 -- beating a lot of the top names we'll see in Vegas. A sign of things to come?

Leanda Cave

Notable:

In 2011 Leanda finished the year very strong, possibly her best end of season ever, with 6^th at Vegas, following that up with 3rd Ironman World Championships, 1st Miami 70.3, 2nd ITU Long Distance World Championships Las Vegas, and a WIN at IMAZ. This year she suffered a bit of an injury -- a tweaked back in a t-run that had her down for several weeks -- but should be solid for the upcoming championship races.

2012 Season: 

4^th 70.3 South America Champs Panama -- 4:21:42

4^th WF 4:36:24 

2^nd Colombia 5150 

1^st Escape from Alcatraz

DNS Syracruse, Muncie due to injury 

5^th Vineman – first race post-injury setback

3^rd Boulder 70.3 -- 4:10:55

Kelly Williamson

Notable:

In 2011 she finished her season strong with 13^th in Kona going 9:29, and 6^th at IMAZ. Last year she had 70.3 titles in San Juan and Buffalo Springs (defended this year), and was 2nd in Muncie and Boulder. This year she's training for Kona again, not to mention she'll do HyVee the weekend before Vegas. I think she can handle it ;)

2012 Season:

2^nd 70.3 South America Champs in Panama in Feb -- 4:19:11, fastest run 1:16

1^st San Juan 70.3 4:14:38

1^st Texas 70.3 (US Pro Champs) 4:13

5^th St Anthony’s 5150 

1^st Rev3 Knoxville Olympic 2:01

6^th Rev3 Quassy 4:39 

1^st Muncie (Olympic distance)

Jodie Swallow

Notable:

After a high of winning the 2010 70.3 Worlds, 2011 was not such a great racing year for Jodie. She dealt with injury, a plantar fascia tear, for the full year wasn't able to defend her title. She also had coaching changes, leaving TBB. This year she began strong coming off the injury and had a couple good showings, but then things turned south again with stress fracture in her foot. She's said on her website that her main goal is to heal well in time to gain back the 70.3 Worlds title she earned in 2010.

2012 Season: 

1^st 70.3 South Africa 4:39:01

6^th Abu Dhabi -- 7:10:29

1^st Boise

2nd Syracuse 70.3 -- 4:19:09

2^nd Muncie 

3^rd ITU Long Distance World Champs in July -- 6:12:48 (Steffan was 1^st in 6:04)

70.3 Championships: Last RR of the Year

First off, THANK YOU! The most special thing about racing in Clearwater was the support I received from everyone--family, friends and my random Internet amigos. I traveled out to Florida all on my own; yet, never once did I feel alone. At the beginning of this year, I could count my triathlon friends on one hand... no longer the case. And that does wonders for my racing. To know people are Athlete Tracking me or even just thinking of me is the best motivator possible. So thanks to everyone who reads this blog and to everyone who sent me a good luck message at some point.

So Florida. Imagine sunny blue skies, high temperatures, humid air, mellow sea breezes and a sparkling crystal-clear ocean. Then throw all that away and replace it with overcast gray skies, cold temps, angry oceans and gnarly winds. Yup, that's what I arrived to. Well, actually, I arrived at 1 a.m., so I couldn't really assess the weather till sunrise. From my hotel room in the Holiday Innnnnn, this is the ickiness I saw: This pic doesn't do the choppy, currenty mayhem justice:
I meant to get in a little workout Thursday, but the day got away from me. From meeting up with friends, athlete check-in, bike pickup and finding the local grocery store to stock up, before I knew it the sun was setting and I was headed to the Athlete Dinner with Ben and Perry (met Ben back in Kona). We rode our bikes over to Sand Key Park--probably not the best idea because it was pitch-black riding back, but I let the boys lead the way so they could eat it and not me. (No one ate it.) By the way, I was very impressed with the dinner served to us. Honestly, it was better than what we got in Kona! And we even got big ol' M-dot cookies!

Thursday night, I noticed the problem with my bike. Thank god I was able to get it fixed Friday. Lesson learned: Always get to an Ironman with at least two days to hang out before the race to adjust, settle in and take care of any potential disasters.

Friday morning I went on a ride with fast people from SD: Chris Berg and Lauren Chiodini. It was my first time hanging out with Lauren, and glad I did! Besides the fact she's A LOT faster than me, we are very similar: same age, from south OC, played volleyball for the same club, high schools were in the same league so our VB teams played each other, college in SD, mutual friends. Parallel lives that finally crossed in Clearwater. Small world. I'm stoked b/c now I have another chick training partner who kicks ass! (It's always good to have fast friends rather than AG rivals)
After the three of us rode part of the course for about an hour, it was time to check in the bike and gear bags. It's pretty cool to get your own escort through transition. Very VIP-ish.
As tempting as it was to play outside all afternoon (the weather had improved a ton!), I instead sat on my butt for probably eight hours watching movies, texting, talking on the phone, FB-ing, eating---RESTING. I did nothing that actually required intelligence. It was pretty awesome. And since I had a kitchenette in my room, I didn't even have to leave for dinner. I was all prepared and had a perfect pre-race meal.

RACE DAY
For the first time ever I didn't have trouble sleeping. Woke up energized at 4:30. Did the usual routine, had the usual oatmeal concoction then headed out and walked the ~15-min trek to transition. Once there, I realized I forgot my swim goggles. Crap. The only time I was wishing I had a sherpa with me; instead, I jogged back and grabbed the goggles. Still made it to transition with time to spare. Whew. Chatted with friends, and was feeling calm. Even in those few last minutes as I got corralled to the swim start line, I was talking with Colleen, and it was as mellow as if we were in the ticket line at the movies, not about to start a half-Ironman Championship race. Sucked down a last gel and it was go time.

SWIM
As you may have heard, the swim course changed from the Gulf to the bay due to the insane chop and currents in the sea. As a result we had a "time trial" start. Huh? A first for me; I was clueless until I was doing it: single-file line, walk to the end of a little dock, plop into the 3-feet-ish deep water (no diving) and get going one at a time. It was weird. A very anticlimactic beginning to the race.
As always, I was blinded by the rising sun. Ridiculous! My saving grace was being in the mix of swimmers and letting them guide me from buoy to buoy. The good thing about time-trial starts is that there's no massive crowd of people thrashing around at the beginning. However, about 10 min into my swim, the faster guys who started behind me were catching me and I got the token MAJOR blow to the head. Had to stop and regroup for a good 30-40 seconds. Ouch. But overall, I felt pretty good swimming. The only other bad part was the taste/smell of the water--like pure diesel. Nauseating.

Exiting the swim was a challenge. We had to narrow into a tiny little dock, while dodging wooden poles in the water. The exit was right by a red pirate ship (random), which helped to sight. Still, I slipped and tripped climbing up that little ramp. By the time I hit the mat it was just over 35 minutes. But I think my swim time was sub-35 if you don't count the inefficient exit I had. A PR for me! (Now I'm setting my sights on 32 min or faster for Oceanside in March.)

Thanks Heidi (Lauren's mom) for getting pics of me! Too nice...

T1
Wetsuit strippers rock. But the whole bag thing/changing tents was new and I was confused. Slower transitions than normal, but whatever.

BIKE
My one time to shine. Like I said before, I was determined to stay away from any drafting. Didn't care if that meant a lower ranking/slower split. I wanted to ride my own 56 miles. Unfortunately my knee was bothering me right away. I was pissed. But since the bike doesn't pound the knee like running, I said to myself, "Screw it--if there's a change I can't run the full 13.1 miles b/c of the knee, I might as well hammer the bike as hard as I can to shoot for a good split."

Generally the course is pancake flat, but there are several gradual hills--nothing major. Plus there are a lot of turns and narrow roads. It's a good recipe for drafting, even if you're not trying. I can see how it's easy to get caught up in a pack. You literally have to stop/slow way down to avoid them. Which I did. A bummer, but it is what it is.

I still very much loved my bike experience. (In another life, I'll be a pro cyclist.)

I've almost perfected my bike nutrition, this time taking in a variety of gels every 20-30 min, sipping G2, water and water+Nuun—like clockwork. Next 70.3, however, I will bring along some actual food. I need to mix it up with the gels, which get nauseating after a while.

By mile 49 I was so ready for the bike to be over. Another indicator that I'm not yet ready to do a full Ironman. Total bike time- 2:31, avg 22.2 mph—major PR.

T2
Oops, I tried something new. Proof (see shoes attached to pedals)....

RUN
First of all, this run IS NOT flat. The bridge you run over 4x is a painfully long ~12% grade uphill—like full on ships travel underneath it, a lot bigger than I expected. Of course, you get to run down the other side, but it still sucks. (Looks like the bridge in the picture posted above.)

I started off strong, ignoring the knee pain as best I could because the thought of a DNF killed me—really, it wasn't an option, I'd walk if necessary. At first, I held a good pace from low 8's to sub-7's. I made it through the first loop in decent time. Then sh*t hit the fan. The knee was aching. My body was aching. I wanted so badly to at least hold an 8-min pace, but toward the end I fell apart. Yes, the knee undoubtedly played a role, but really the fact is my legs just didn't want to go anymore. (Yet another reason why Ironman can wait a couple years.)

I still PR'd the run, going sub-1:50. But I wanted to do better than that! Grrr! With all those painful hours spent running, I should have done better than that!!!

FINISH
I somehow managed to pick up my pace to ~7:30 for the last mile+, realizing I was getting close to the 5-hr mark. Just missed it. I crossed at 5-0-stupid-1. Immediately, I beelined for medical to ice my knee.

Meanwhile, I was afraid to remove my shoes and see the blister damage on my arches. But, I'm starting to connect the dots: Those blisters are definitely caused by my high-arched-feet-gone-flat, which, in turn causes me to run in poor form and, thus, the knee pain. Ha! Biomechanics in action! Changes are being made.... I think I've caught the problem before it's too late!!!

POST-RACE
The post-race food was pretty crappy, especially the pizza. That disappointed me more than the :01 attached to my 5-hour finish. I ate just enough to hold me over, said some hellos to friends, then rode my bike back to the hotel, crazy, I know. Ate some real good food there.

I thought I'd fit in a nap, but it never happened. Next thing I knew, I was headed to the Awards Dinner with Ben, Lauren and crew. A view of Sand Key Park/Awards Dinner from my room:I felt great Saturday night, believe it or not. My body is getting used to half-Ironman racing on some level... earlier this year, after Oceanside I pretty much was worthless by 4 p.m., after Vineman I had about 1 glass of wine and was dozing off at dinner (remember, Ian?). But at Clearwater I charged through the night until almost 2 a.m.

Besides the most hilarious awards speech ever given by Michael Raelert (winner), the two things Clearwater's awards had that Kona lacked:
Awesome fireworks...
Best mini key lime pies ever... After awards, I got our dinner crew to meet up with the Breakaway Training crew at the Sheraton Hotel bar. With a drunk Chris drinking foo-fooey appletinis, Felipe's birthday, two podium athletes in the mix (Lauren and Ben's friend), me & my wine, a friendly bartender and post-race delirium, good times were had. See pictures on FB.

I continued on to the post-race party at Shepherd's, where only the hardcore racers were still up and energized ;) Triathletes can be like monks before a big race, but man can they also party and drink hard when all is said and done. Pretty funny to see. I danced for quite a while—don't know how considering my knee hated me and the legs were stiff and sore. You only live once, though, and who knows if I'll ever be back in Clearwater to race.

As expected, I felt like total crap on Sunday. Like a semi-truck had rammed into me.... repeatedly. But successfully made the long journey home. And offseason has officially begun. Ahhhhhh :)

Brief Clearwater 70.3 Recap

I have tons to do today, including getting a new cell phone thanks to a silly mistake on Saturday night, so a real race report on Clearwater will certainly be up soon. But for now, here's a few thoughts (and photos) from my Ironman 70.3 World Championship experience:

1. Drafting

Yup, it's all over the place. Here's how I dealt: I didn't go into the race with hopes of landing on the podium. I knew jumping into a peloton of riders would be my only shot at moving up the ranks, and that just was not worth it to me. So I'm proud to say my bike time was all my own effort; I refused to get caught up in a big group, despite many opportunities to do so. However, in letting the many pelotons pass, I was forced to slow down majorly—like get up out of aero, stop pedaling and go from 23-25 mph to 15-16 mph to let the pack pass... every time it felt like an eternity. I'm certain my bike split would be at least 4-5 min faster had I been able to keep going my own pace and not slow down to avoid draft packs. It's crazy that drafting, and honesty, can slow you down from your true potential.

2. My Goal

I got it! Plus one stupid minute. 5:01... I hate that :01. Oh well. I'm still going to say I PR'd by "about 20 minutes" since Vineman (40 min since O-side). That time was good enough to get me top 10 in 20-24F... I'll take it!

3. I PR'd in all three
Swim- 35 min
Bike- 2:31
Run- 1:49

My swim has improved by 4 minutes since my first half-IM this year at O-side, and my run by about 5 minutes. I wanted a better run, I know I could have executed a better run based on how training was going, but Saturday wasn't my day to do so, mostly because of my knee. As for the bike, given my blatant slow-downs and vow to ride on my own, I'm content with my time and the improvement I made.

4. The knee
So, what's up with my knee? Well, I've had a lingering "issue" for several weeks now—I've been in denial (an "If I don't acknowledge it, maybe it will disappear" sort of thing). But it's there: Medial pain on my R knee (from surgery? who knows). The pain subsided during taper, so I prayed that meant it was gone for good. Nope. As soon as I hoped on the bike, I felt it. I was literally wondering if I'd be able to run the full 13.1. I took Ibuprofen the days before, during and after the race to mask the pain (5 or so?). But I think wanting to finish the race decently well no matter what helped more than some pills. Hopefully I didn't do a lot of damage by running on it for that long. Thankfully, as of now, Sunday, I'm not in constant pain. I'll find out what's really wrong as soon as I can get in to see my knee specialist.

Me on the right:

5. Everything broke and now I'm broke

My bike: When I picked up my bike from TriBike Transport it was making this awful grinding noise and each revolution felt clunky—definitely not normal, not good. Ahhhh!!! Took it to bike tech, and in about 1 min, Taz determined I needed a new chain. What a rookie! $100 later, my bike was repaired and raced beautifully.

My watch: My trusty Timex watch also saw it's last days in Clearwater. Thankfully it waited until after the race to die on me. I'll miss that little guy, he's been through a lot with me in the last couple of years and never failed me. I'm thankful he held on for one last hurrah.

My phone: On Saturday night I was washing my face, and it was late. Like 1 something in the morning. I had just gotten in from the night's celebratory festivities and, yes, I had consumed alcohol, but by no means was I wasted. Just exhausted (rightfully so!). In one clumsy sweep, my cell phone was in the sink, in a pool of soapy water. It's still hanging on by a thread, but I'll be getting a new phone asap.

Conclusion: Triathlon = $$$$$. Doing Clearwater all on my own—no travel mates, no sponsors, no financial aid—wasn't cheap, but it was worth it... The nightly view from my room:And on that note, family and friends be warned: this coming holiday season, instead of presents you can expect big hugs and homemade "stuff" from me.

That's it for now. back to work for me. I'll have my full race report in a couple of days. I have lots of good stories, so stay tuned!