You are beautiful, challenging, rewarding and so easy to love. In the spirit of reflection, here’s my chronicle of CdA 70.3.
three years // three very different races
2016 // 5:16 // 4th place // 70.3 Worlds qualification
CdA 2016 will forever hold a special place in my heart. That race was my first strong triathlon from start to finish. I can remember the feeling like it was yesterday: crossing the finish line knowing I had finally put together a swimbikerun that I would be proud of for eternity. The placing/result really meant nothing because the effort was there across all three disciplines. You literally couldn’t wipe the smile off my face! When I found out I was on the podium, I was ecstatic and then when I found out we were going to Australia for 70.3 Worlds, nothing could top the day!
From that point on, my definition of “racing” had drastically changed. I learned how to be in tune and not just use a power meter, but feel my way through a 70.3 bike portion. And then I learned that I would still be able to run off the bike, pretty important for triathlon! It was the first time I pushed the pace on the run to the point where I wasn’t sure I could hold on, but I kept trucking with confidence and sheer enthusiasm for the challenge.
2017 // 5:13 // 8th place // 70.3 Worlds qualification
In the year following my 2016 race, I got really good at piling on the expectations for what I could accomplish on this course. Ohh the curse of expectation! I went into the 2017 race with some clear goals, but not-so-clear on execution. Having qualified for 70.3 Worlds the year prior and with 2017 70.3 Worlds on US soil (MUCH easier travel!), I wanted a spot again. I wanted to prove to myself that I could earn it two years in a row.
What was lacking was the confidence in my training that would yield the time goals I thought I’d hit. For better or worse, I am the type of athlete that takes a lot of pride in my daily training sessions and I visualize myself on race day crushing my goals. I have developed this over the last several years, but have only really learned how to apply it on the run.
In 2017, both my swim and bike were slower than 2016. My run time fueled my overall PR. Ideal? Nope! But you win some and you learn from the rest. What I learned is that I have some serious technique gains to make in open water swimming and strength gains, specifically related to alleviating back pain, to help on the bike.
After my 2017 race, I committed to putting effort into a designated back strengthening program. Because I couldn’t remember any year racing triathlon when I didn’t have back pain on the bike. And increased expectations coupled with additional, unnecessary pain results in a VERY poor mental state and under performance; the story of my 2017 race. I was lucky enough to get a rolldown spot to 70.3 Worlds, but felt the sting having not improved my swimbikerun.
2018 // 5:09 // 11th place
January 1st 2018: day one of a new year, new goals, and new REAL commitment to overall strength, including back strengthening. Note: it took me another six months after CdA 2017 to actually start working on strength!
My 2018 A race is Ironman Chattanooga so my goals have shifted a bit. 70.3 Worlds was not something I was racing for, but I went into CdA 2018 wanting to see where my training was six months into the year. Including the six months of dedicated heavy power based strength training (thanks to my talented hubby!). There have been gains made, but racing would be the true test in how my body is responding.
Leading up to the race, I was so focused on racing a 1:39 half marathon (a goal I decided on January 1st!) I saw it happening well before it did. I had so much confidence, I knew I would be relentless in attacking it on course. What I didn’t know was how my swim/ bike training and strengthening would change my race day effort/results. I chose to go into the 2018 race with ZERO expectations on the swim and bike, knowing I’m always a work in progress and sometimes progress looks different for different people.
Annnnnd I sure am glad I didn’t create additional stress with unnecessary expectations! I raced my race on the day, to the best of my ability. I was committed to maintaining race effort from start to finish, which I did. In the end, yet again, my 2018 swim and bike were slower than 2017. Frustrating? Yes! Frustrating enough to impact my confidence in my run? Hell no. Because that’s the sweetest thing about long course triathlon: it’s a journey of a lot of miles. It’s so so rare to have a race with 100% perfect miles from start to finish, so you take what you can get and keep moving forward believing that a good mile is just around the corner.
When I felt my back pain come on strong earlier than ever before on the bike (mile 10!), I could have very easily put myself in a hole believing that I will have back pain forever. But as my rad coach Haley says, our minds try to play mean tricks on us and we don’t stay in one state forever. Where focus goes, energy flows. I ran my heart out, smashed my run goal time, and celebrated my new 4min PR!
There are still so many improvements to make! I’m convinced that one day I will have a better relationship with open water racing AND my positioning on the bike! I'm lucky to have a tribe of special people in my corner helping make magic happen. Taking this race result to heart and working harder than ever to show up to my start line on Sunday, September 30th fit, happy, healthy, and grateful for the journey of a hellavu lotta miles.
XO.
V
