Race recap - imgulf70.3

This is a nice little recap of Amy Woods recent race in which she qualified for Worlds. It is a thorough recap of her experience with work-ons provided. Enjoy.

Week before the race I was nervous and started to wake up really early in the morning.  Appetite was off, but I was eating.  Perhaps that’s why I lost weight the week before the race.  I felt fine, though. Night before race : rice noodles and chicken.  Stomach all good.  I do better with white meals…my gut is stupid. :) I slept well the night before the race, too. Got a solid 6 hours which isn’t bad the night before a race, right?

Pre race: ate a PB and J and half a banana and coffee for breakfast around 4. Ate the other half banana in transition. That is all I can get down on race morning. I know you want me to eat more but I can’t. Sipped some water in transition and took it down to the swim chute. There was no swim warm up allowed and they didn’t want you to leave transition so I couldn’t get a warm up run in. But I did some dynamic movement in the swim line. 

Swim: successes- kept swimming the whole way... stayed calm. No panic. Good sighting. Relaxed start. Nice temp and wetsuit legal. Didn’t really have any people attacking me . Shoulders felt good!
Challenges: a bit rolly and current-y. Definitely had to work for strokes and to stay on course . Biggest challenge was pace. I have definitely gotten faster this year but I have had faster swims in the past. Not sure if this was because I haven’t had much OWS experience yet this year or if am I just destined to be a mid pack swimmer. My shoulder won’t let me swim every day, so maybe I should just roll with it. I wasn’t disappointed with my time, but just jealous of the faster women. 

Transitions were smooth. No issues there. 

Bike: everything went great on the bike. Like I said, my HR was a bit higher than you said to keep it at, but I felt really good and knew I could hold the pace. Legs felt strong. Honestly I wonder if I could have pushed even harder.  However, I did not get water at aid stations like Billy wanted me to (so I could pour it on my head). I just went right by them. 
- Stuck to the nutrition and hydration plan.  Drank every 10, at every 20.  Mainly ate 3 clif blocks every 20, but sometimes there was a bite of honey stinger waffle in there. I took a Caffeine pill half way through…around 1:15. I ended up drinking 2.5 bottles- 2 SOS and .5 bottle of water.  Stomach was great. No issues with burping or nausea.

Run: successes: steady steady pace. Felt strong at the end. Hydration and nutrition on point. Salt tabs at mile 4 and 8. Caffeine pill at mile 8. The only change I made is that I took 4 gels (not 5). But I had no stomach issues. I walked through every aid station to get water in me, dump it on me, and pour ice down my shirt.  That really helped a lot. Legs were solid. Race sneakers felt comfy and fast. 

Challenges: overheated right at the start but got that under control at the first aid station. Biggest challenge were the side stitches that caused me to run slower than I wanted. First, I felt a little “something” on my lower left side that could have been a muscle? Not sure. Didn’t hurt, just was aware it could turn into something more. Then at mile 2.5 I got a right side stitch below my ribs... diaphragm? I feel like this happens when a) I get my HR too high or b) something fatigues out. Not sure. I was able to quickly make it go away by walking through the aid station. But it came back 1/2 mile from the end when I pushed pace before the finish line. I really really want to figure it out because I totally could have fun faster than I was going. My legs felt strong. I have gotten this side stitch in two other triathlons and in my virtual Boston marathon at the end. Most of time I can walk it off and breathe it out and it goes away. I did not get it in Maine 70.3 . 

Other thoughts-

• Bike got boring ... I mean, don’t get me wrong, it was so so fun to just haul ass on a closed course. I love it. But it’s a meh bike. And I won’t come back to do this race until they change the last five miles of the route. It was really really dangerous on front beach road. Cars were all over the place and pulling out and turning and we were in one little bike lane. I’m happy that I had outdoor riding experience to help navigate it, but it was dangerous. A car pulled in front of me to turn but I did see her coming. 
• Again I proved to myself that I am mentally strong in a race. No matter what happens I will stay positive and stay strong. I’m proud of that. Once the gun goes off and I’m in the water, I feel confident that I am giving my best effort. 
  
  

Next steps-

• I need to work on pre race anxiety but I think I was more of a head case for this one because it was my first race back. It was my First race under Billy's coaching and with I race like a girl and working with you. Also, I really wanted to qualify for worlds. So I put a lot of pressure on myself to show people what I could do.
• I want to get faster on the bike. Not sure if I do this by more strength training or just more biking. I feel like I can do even better than I did at this race, though I passed a lot of people which was fun! I do find it hard to go fast on the roads where I live because I don’t want to get hurt. Not sure if that matters or not. 
• I want to go sub 5 hours for a race one day. It won’t happen on a hilly course or until I get my swim time down a little. But that’s a fun dream for another day. I came close in Turkey 
• I want to really nail the run on my next 70.3. And that means figuring out the side stitch. I know I can run faster. This might be one of the biggest things I am thinking about right now. That my run should have been faster 
• I felt super prepared because of our core blocks. I knew I could swim bike and run long distances in a day. 
• I really want to podium one day in a big race. 
• It was nice going into this race feeling strong and injury free. So thanks. :) I liked the taper schedule for sure. I didn’t feel flat or tired on race day. 

Wow that’s a lot. But I love analysing race stuff and I love reading people’s race reports. So hope it wasn’t too much! 

Amy Woods 
amywoodsfitness.com
@amywoodsfitness