Checking In With Pro Liz Blatchford: IMMT & Vegas Plans

I mentioned on my last post about writing the Ironman 70.3 World Championship preview. (To answer your question, Sunnyrunning), the list of pros we compiled was mostly a co-effort between Brad Culp and I, and the points rankings played a role in helping to choose. Beyond that, I also like to dig around on the pros and see who's worthy and interesting to feature. That's how I chose Tim Reed for the list, who I just had on endurance planet podcast, and other rising stars like Liz Blatchford. Liz is now focusing on long-course racing full time, after coming off an ITU/short-course tri career that ended with not being selected for the London Games last year. Sad ending for a very talented athlete. So you can imagine she's hungry for some championship racing at the 70.3 and full IM distance now! She won her first IM at Cairns recently, among other smashing wins and performances, proving she's the real deal.

She recently indicated an interest in racing IMMT (this weekend) as a last-chance effort to get Kona points for this year. She was one of our Vegas picks, so I contacted her after finding this out, wanting to see what was going on and how an IM just 3 weeks before Vegas may change her plans. Here's a little peek at our interview below. It will be soooo interesting to see how this situation pans out for Liz! Love this stuff....

Q) TP: Are you still doing Vegas this year? I saw that you might do IMMT for Kona points, and wondering if that is still the case.

A) LB: I am racing IMMT to try and qualify for Kona. Given Vegas is 3 weeks after I am undecided at this point if I will do Vegas. I will have to see how I recover from Tremblant and also see whether I have qualified for Kona. 

Q) TP: If you do race IMMT and Vegas, how do you think the IM in late August will factor into your Vegas performance?

LB: I'd say very likely. I have only don the one Ironman earlier this year and didn't feel particularly recovered 3 weeks later. However I am better prepared for this one so will have to wait and see.

Q) TP: How has it been moving from short-course to long-course racing? You seem to be dominating the distance (congrats on Cairns!). 

LB: It's been great. I'd been doing short course and ITU for so long i was probably getting stale and even loosing the love. Long course is so different with so much to learn and new ways to test myself so it's been really refreshing and i've definitely re-found my love of triathlon. Deciding to chase Kona this year is really motivating and an exciting goal and not a bad destination to go an torture ourselves;)

Q) TP: How was it racing Melissa Hauschildt at Koh Samui? You did great against her!

LB: Since I switched to long course racing Mel and I have raced in more races than not. We've had some great battles. She's a fantastic athlete and in brilliant form right now. I think she has won every race she has finished this year? She'll be one to watch in Vegas for sure. Koh Samui was such a fun race and another beautiful destination - i'm all about the destination racing! haha:)

Steelhead 70.3 RR

Where do I even begin with this one? A lot of highs and lows came with this race. The weekend started out well and everything was running smoothly, including some incredibly good weather in Michigan that is apparently rare for this race. Instead of a lake with 4-6ft swells, we had this calm, serene body of water:

Lake Michigan the day before the race. Perfection.

There were even thunderstorms in the forecast for race day but come Sunday it was so nice -- low/mid 70s, some clouds early on then sun and very mild winds (again, sounds like a rarity at Steelhead).

Going into this race I knew I had a couple hurdles. First, racing more fatigued. I didn't really taper for this race compared with every other 70.3 I've done. That was on purpose given the short turnaround post-Vineman, and it left some question marks but it was part of the plan. I was up for it. Secondly, "adapting" to the time change in less than 48hrs. We traveled Friday afternoon so there's no doubt my body still was thinking it was 1am when I woke up Sunday at 4am ET. I tried to ignore all that, though, and trick the body into thinking it was fresh and ready. Race morning I seemed to be ok, but some things were off. **TMI alert!** For example, this was the first time in my history of racing that I was not able to go #2 before a race! I just had to deal with it.

course recon -- I see cones!

Pre-race was fun. I really enjoy traveling to different parts of the country that I probably wouldn't visit otherwise. We flew into Chicago and made the boring drive to Benton Harbor, MI, which is a very small and low-key town. A one-Starbucks-in-town kinda place. Parts of it are cute, parts are run down and ghetto. The nearby towns, like St. Joseph, are cute but quaint. That said, a good venue for racing because lots of open, country roads with little traffic, lots of GREEN everywhere, and big parking lots thanks to it being the mecca of Whirpool--I've never seen so many (or any) of their offices.

Riding the run -- highly recommend.

                                                                          One thing we did Saturday, which I loved, was ride the run course and drive the bike course. I've never done both those in their entirety and it was fun and helpful! As for pre-race eats, we found decent places but that was very tricky in this part of Michigan. Slim pickings. Whole Foods? Yea right. Thus, the food aspect is deserving of a blog in itself, to come :)

Onto the race... I'm going to do this RR differently and start with the finish. I feel the finish is the most important part, and gives the rest of the story more merit. (Plus if you skip the rest, you at least get the happy ending here.)


Finish
Crossed the finish line in 5:14 and change. Every muscle was screaming, and I feared if I stopped I'd be stuck. I kept walking for a good 10 minutes to shake it off. I felt like puking, crying and falling over all at the same time. I hurt pretty bad. "What...just...happened... why did that hurt so bad?!"

I had a while to wait for John because he started 30min after me. I asked a guy to check results on his iPad so I could see where John was and guess how much longer until I saw him. I also had him check my results...

Surprise. Turns out I was 2nd AG. What?! That meant Vegas potential. I went to investigate. Turns out I qualified for Vegas 2013, as there were two slots in my AG! Um, really?!?!?!?!?! I mean, Vegas is what I've had my eye on--it's something I've wanted to EARN, and doing so at this race was a big triumph. It was a testament to not giving up even on a bad day. I'm still a little in shock that my journey at Steelhead 70.3 ended on such a high note because it was a tough, tough day for me.

Vegas baby! Was advised, "cover your code so no one steals it" haha.

From the beginning...
Race Day

I got abnormally nervous beforehand starting Saturday night while trying to sleep. This is very rare for me these days. Maybe it's because I'd dished out so much money to make it to Steelhead and, therefore, felt the pressure to "do well" whatever that means. As a coach and someone who's studied sports psych, I tried to do all the tricks to mellow out. Not until we made the the 1.2 mile trek down the beach to start the point-to-point swim, did I start to feel focused, ready and excited to go. Powered down most of a banana close to go time, and got in the zone.


Swim
I had dreams of a 35 or faster swim in my head. The swim was a run-in start and run-out exit (including run up the beach in deep sand), which certainly slowed up some of our times. But forget that even, I swam like crap and felt like crap. About 1/4 into it I got this intense nauseated feeling like I was going to hurl. I could feel that banana in my throat. I was trying to ignore it and not totally vomit. Meanwhile, I was not able to hold on to any feet for a draft and was basically in no man's land zigzagging around. On the positive side, my kick felt stronger and there were no leg cramping issues yet again. Truthfully, I had no idea if I was going fast, slow or in between. So when I stood up and saw close to 41:xx on my watch I almost burst into tears right there! I was baffled and disappointed. Stupidly, I slowly walked out of the water and up the beach instead of hustling, adding more time to my swim split. I was thinking: "What the #$*& is wrong with me? Sick? Fatigued? Both?"

T1
My swim time had me close to wanting to just check out and go through the motions, but I still had that urge to compete and go for it. I didn't travel all that way to blow a race because I felt sick and tired, and had another bad swim. I wasn't dying, I could continue on. I just had to play my cards right.

Bike
The bike was pretty mellow, uneventful and a rather easy course. Except for maybe 2-3 climbs, the uphills weren't even what I would call hills compared to what we have in Calif. I never even got out of the big ring the whole race. I think there was still close to 1,000ft elevation gain, though. The ride goes through the Fruit Belt area and a couple times the road conditions get a little crappier, but not terrible--Vineman roads are worse I think. The majority of the time the roads are smooth and fast. Winds were mild at best so that helped keep things speedy. Also unlike Vineman, I felt like I had a lot of space to ride my pace vs. getting stuck in traffic. That was nice. Passed a handful of girls in my AG, but didn't see much 25-29 action.

I was trying to shake the terrible feeling I had in me, but it was a battle. For nutrition I relied on Skratch Labs drink mix, which--thank goodness--settled well and didn't exacerbate my unhappy stomach situation. I couldn't handle much else other than some of a bar. Caloric fail. I should have easily ridden 5-8 minutes faster, but given how I felt I made a conscious choice on the bike to save something for the run. That's always a tricky game to play and one of the things that makes triathlon so tough. Looking back, I think I made the right call.

My bike split was a 2:41:xx or something. Better than Vineman, at least. For all the time I lost on the swim, I gained some back on the bike and was heading into T2 in about the same time I had at Vineman. Still feelings of uncertainty crept in. Self-talk: "Yes you feel like sh*t but just control what you can, DNF is not an option even if you puke more. It's just 13 miles. Manage your energy."

T2
Side note: I liked their transition area, it was very fair--one long stretch that we all had to go through the same way, for both T1 and T2. Easy. I'll be honest, in this race I used transitions for some rest/relief rather than to cut time. Just another sign that my A game wasn't quite there.

Run
Like the swim, pre-race I had dreams of fast run times, i.e. for me a 1:40 or faster. Hm. Let's put it this way: When I started running at Vineman I felt strong and ready (it hurt but wasn't death marching). But when I started running at Steelhead, I felt weak and tired (more like shuffle/death march from the get go). But out of the gates I got some motivation when I saw a pro male on his last mile puking and still running fast as hell. "If he can...." I was all over the map with pace in the beginning, and quite frankly the whole race. Mile splits from 7:41-8:31. Part of that was the course: Heck, it was tougher than expected even having biked it! I don't think their 200ft elevation gain is not accurate (my garmin said 550ft, hm?). There were a few mean short, steep hills and lots of slow gradual climbs, and it didn't feel like the downhills matched the climbs. Haha.

I won't lie, there were times when I was holding back tears because I was hitting the wall so badly and sick of feeling so sick. One of the only things I had going for me was that 13 miles doesn't seem so long. "Just take it one at a time." I did some math around the halfway point and realized a 5:15 or faster was still possible so I made that my new goal. So long, sub-5:00. I just put my head down and hurt till I finished. I won't go into all the gory details because that run was not my finest for many reasons, but I finished. Run split 1:46.

~~~

Final Word
So there it is. Highs and lows for sure. Overall, there's so much to be proud of here, and there's also so much work to be done. There's a good chance my "bad" day was a result of fatigue going into the race, pre-race anxiety gone bad, and....? To still finish, podium and qualify for Vegas makes it a lot sweeter, but I still know I have a ton of work to do. I probably won't do any more 70.3s this year, but I will still race some shorter stuff, run races, etc. And I'll continue to build that swim fitness--it's only just beginning.

Next up... dining tips for Steelhead 70.3, post-race day trip in Chicago and more!

Ramblings: Steelhead-Surfing-Vegas

Well, it's been a month since Vineman so that can only mean one thing: time for the next 70.3! On Friday we depart for Chicago then will be driving over to Benton Harbor for Steelhead 70.3 on Sunday. I've never been to this part of the U.S. so I'm excited for another adventure. That said, I'll be honest, there was no part of me yearning for a trip to Michigan (no offense MI); this particular race just had the right timing and is domestic so I'm not totally breaking the bank :) I do keep hearing the general area is great though -- fruit belt or something like that? -- and the course seems fairly mellow as long as crazy weather doesn't screw with the swim (again), so we should be in for fast & fun times. Plus, Monday we'll head over to Chicago to be tourists for a day and enjoy some post-race indulgences before heading back home. (Good pizza place recommendations anyone?)

Training had been going well. I'm more in maintenance mode and volume hasn't been insane. I've had some great days and some "eh" days. At times, I expect more out of my body at times than it's willing to give, so that's been a bit frustrating (everyone is nodding their heads in agreement, right?). When I get frustrated I then have to get real and remember that the past four weeks have included two taxing races, way more travel than I'm used to, work "chaos," etc. I don't feel that I'm wearing my body down too much, just trying to do enough without overdoing it. I have those chill days every now and then too... like this past Sunday I bagged a full bike ride to instead surf with my little family (they begged - how could I say no?). I can't even remember the last time I paddled out with my all three of them, mom, dad and sis! It was a perfect day of catching more waves than I can remember... not to mention those occasional ones where I'd catch the same wave as mom, dad and/or sis? Priceless.

I was actually impressed with my surfing skills after a bit of a hiatus from the board. Maybe it's all the swimming as of late! I'll tell ya, the one area of training where I've been hammering it and with which I'm happier than ever is my swimming. I've been putting in more days in the pool and working on my weaknesses. My biggest weaknesses is my kick. I lost my fins, so that's made a difference on those kick sets (I never used fins a lot before, but I did use them on kick sets). I can already see improvements in just using my own god-given flippers to kick away. Of course, I've been working on technique, speed and other areas and it's safe to say I've dropped a good amount of seconds off my 100 pace... or at least, I don't feel like death when trying to hit certain times.

I hear the swim at Steelhead goes with the current, whichever way that ends up being on race day. Maybe that will help my quest in shaving minutes off my half-iron swim time :)

In other news, I had one of my athletes snag a spot to Vegas at Philippines 70.3. Sounds like that race was brutal, especially on the run with the heat and humidity!

Speaking of Vegas, I just wrote a preview for LAVA Magazine on the top 24 athletes to watch at Vegas this year. I compiled a lot of freakin stats on people. I used quite a bit of that for the article, but I still have this enormous list of info on people... I might turn some of it into some blogs. It's interesting to track the season's of the pros and see what they've been doing. Gotta say journalism + triathlon is fun.

That's all for now... time for a quick taper swim/run. It's overcast for the first time in days here in SoCal, and for once I'm actually welcoming the lack of sun and cool air. It's been h-o-t and I'm sick of all the sun exposure I'm getting. #socalproblems

Vegas... It hurt, but was worth it

Thanks for all the comments on my compression post. I will keep you guys updated with that!!!

In the meantime, I probably owe ya a little recap of our recent Vegas trip. So here's how three tri chicks roll Sin City...

Had I known I'd screw myself over and lose several days of quality training due to this trip...well... hell yea I'd do it again! Balance, right?! But, that said, I won't be doing that again for a long loooooooong time. Vegas is a harsh place. A once-a-year trip is all I need, if that. The smell of cigarettes alone is enough to keep me away--yuck!

Thankfully I was traveling with like-minded girls, Tatiana and Sara, so we all experienced a major 180-degree lifestyle change in a matter of 48 hours.

So, after an awesomely painful & good two-hour trainer session on Friday morning, we all met up and headed out. It was a fun drive... oh you wish you were a fly on the wall in our car ;) Got there just in time to hit the town...This picture is causing a stir in Tatiana's world apparently lol


Friday night we were at The Wynn and Encore the whole night. Had a way-too-expensive gourmet dinner, but well worth the splurge. Then thanks to Sara's hookups, we got into a Vegas show, La Reve, which is like Cirque but all in and over a pool of water. It's pretty epic what those people are physically capable of doing. I'd probably never pay to see a Vegas show, so I'm glad I got this opportunity. We even got a backstage tour with some of the stars (Sara's friends).

Before La ReveAfter, backstage with the crazy gymnast girls, wow!

After La Reve, we hit up a club, Surrender. Apparently Lance Armstrong had been there a couple nights prior. Too bad we missed him; instead we got the lame crowd, so we bounced pretty early--in Vegas terms--and headed to bed.

Saturday day was awesome. Tati, like a crazy freakin psycho, tried to go swimming pre-dawn while we were still sleeping! Wtf? Well, good think Vegas doesn't wake up that early so she had to wait. After Sara and I were up, I rallied the troops for a morning "urban run" along The Strip. It was nothing major mileage-wise but a total blast and included some stair sprints, people-dodging and, of course, sight-seeing and picture-taking!we discussed the potential of swimming in there lol....

After a mellow refueling break back in the hotel, we then headed to a pretty legit lap pool nearby. I was not expecting much from myself, but the swim went better than expected. Still, I cannot hang with Tati and Sara, those girls are speeeeedy! All in all about two hrs of training for the day; why we did that? I have no idea lol.

After the swim... hungry and over working out for the day.

Finally it was time to get ready for Saturday night..."the big night" for us that included The Black Keys live at The Cosmopolitan. We started with some quality recovery nutrition: red wine, Pop Chips, cheese, turkey, Pirate's Booty and Bacardi+Diet Cokes. Mmm Mmmmm.

The classic "getting ready in the hotel room pics." (I brought way too many clothes, yet I ended up wearing Tatiana's dress. Go figure)
After another nice dinner at Olives, which was amazing and very gluten-filled, we hung at The Cosmo--the place is super fancy shmancy. Somehow some Jameson made its way to us. Oh god, what was I thinking?! I'm a sucker for whiskey. But oh well, I was pumped for the concert and taking advantage of this rare occurrence of late-night social fun.

We met some interesting folks

Then the concert. I'm a huuuuge Black Keys fan so all I can say is: EPIC. I loved every second of it. During their set I was pretty much in my own world dancing and head-banging away (yes, I head bang at concerts!!!).... but oh man I was so dang sore the next day from that (or maybe that's because the dancing started at 10 p.m. and didn't end until an ungodly hour. Ouch).
Timex watches... don't leave home without them....
After the show, The Cosmo was a blur of people having fun. It was fun. At some point we made it into a club, but it was a little too much for me and not my scene (actually no club will EVER be my scene, but this one in particular was just over the top and annoying). Tatiana agreed and we were ready to go, but somehow we got separated, and then I ran into some friends and we went to a more mellow place and danced and danced.... a late night, considering the concert had ended around midnight.

I guess you can say I got a pretty darn good workout with all the dancing. Can I log that? lol

I was able to get some sleep but still woke up too dang early on Sunday. Thankfully the girls did too. We hit the road early. There were lots of good laughs recapping the night, but also lots of moans--our bodies were in shock from all this "foreign" activity. I was home in time for a couple quality recovery meals, then a lovely bedtime of 8:30 p.m.

All in all: Vegas was fun, but not for me. I like my triathlon lifestyle, grandma-ish tendencies and uber-healthy habits. Even so, it was good to get away because I came home focused and extra excited to work, train and do what I do!


Question for you guys: Do you ever majorly stray from your training and regular busy lifestyle for a night or weekend of craziness? If so, tell me about it!! Most of all, don't feel bad about those little "let-loose" sessions--own 'em! It's balance.

A Mini Vacation? Is it True?

I'm sneakin away! Going to Vegassss with the girls, Tatiana and Sara! Yes, we know how to have fun together... here's us last December-ish:
It will be an interesting trip because as you probably know the three of us are all into some heavy training right now and aren't known to be late-night party animals (that's only for the Kona After Party, right? lol). So we're just going to see what happens. A little training, R&R, partying, gourmet food, and the highlight: seeing The Black Keys live in concert :)

Fun times ahead... I will try to document with pics as best I can!

That said, I'm not going to lie, I feel super super guilty sneaking away on vacation with the pile of work--school, regular work and training "work"--I have! Deadlines galore, studying, etc, etc, etc. Oh well. The Vegas trip is short, Friday to Sunday, and we all need it. But after, I can pretty much expect my life to be straight up ridiculous until May when/if I graduate.

Have a great weekend!