Kerrville 70.3 Bike: And She Rides

(Welcome to Part 3 of my Kerrville 70.3 story - be sure to catch up with the Prelude and Swim - I'll wait here!)

The energy coming out of the swim and T1 was incredibly good.  I noticed that the winds had picked up, but there was no rain yet and that was a good thing.  Time to take Vivace and go for a little spin!   The bike course was one giant loop that we rode twice.  We headed southeast along a highway for the first dozen or so miles before turning onto a beautiful country road for the next 8-10 miles then we headed back towards Kerrville on another small stretch of highway.  Once again, I focused on settling in and getting a good, steady pace.  My plan for the day was to not go out to fast on anything, but to get a good solid start.  Coach Frank backed up my thinking when he said these same things at the team dinner the night before.

I passed several people on the first five to ten miles of the bike, while I am a slow swimmer I am not so slow on the bike.  This was a little bit nerve wracking as we were riding on the shoulder of the highway at this point.  There wasn't a ton of traffic, but the surface was rough at times and there was some chip seal too.  Things really settled in for me once we made the turn onto River Road.  I wish that we could have ridden the whole thing on that stretch of road because it was really quite beautiful. We passed through a tiny town, but other than that there weren't many cars or people around.

The roads were wet by then and I could tell that it had rained in some spots, I was extra cautious on the turns and the downhills because this was no time for a crash.  The puddles only got worse as the ride went on, and I got rained on a couple of times.  It sounds like I got pretty lucky though because Mr K said he rode in a driving rain at points.  The last part of the first loop began to wear on me a little bit because I was so ready to see the end of it and be on the second loop.  I knew that this restless feeling might be even worse the second time around and I tried to prepare myself for it.

It was a bit of a boost to ride by the race site and start the second loop - halfway done!  I wasn't sure of my average speed, but I knew that my five mile splits were coming in consistently and at a good clip.  My heartrate was also staying nice and controlled and I knew that would serve me well over the course of the day.  I was eating and drinking on schedule and I felt pretty good, other than starting to get that "I've been on my bike a while" feeling.  My right hip was getting a bit stiff but I was able to deal with it by changing positions on the bike on occasion.

The first part of the second loop was even more treacherous this time because the wind had picked up.  The crosswind was so scary at times that I had to get out of aero just to feel more secure on the bike.  This also happened to be the section where the road was a little bit rough and where some of the faster guys were passing me so it was a bit of a white knuckle ride.  I was very ready to make that turn towards River Road.  I had a huge "heck yes!" moment during this part of the ride when I grabbed a water bottle from a volunteer at the aide station and jammed it into my aero bottle without stopping.  Seriously, that just makes one feel a bit like a badass and it is only the second time I have ever done it.

Now for some honest talk:  triathletes always talk about peeing on their bikes.  It seems to be a little bit of a badge of honor, for some odd reason.  I'd never given it much thought until I was on the backside of the course with no aide station in sight.  I kinda needed to go....could I wait for the next stop....did I want to get off my bike?  I decided just to let it go...and I laughed to myself about it for the rest of the day.  Who have I become?

There was a random guy out cheering on a small out-and-back section and seeing him the second time really lifted my spirits - especially when he pointed out that I had ridden nearly 50 miles!  I was so ready for this ride to be over, but I hadn't really realized that I was less than 10 miles from the end of it.  I saw several people on the side of the road with flat tires and I just triple crossed my fingers that I would make it into T2 without any drama.

I had set some very broad time goals for myself on the bike and on the run.  The bike was the bright spot in my 1st 70.3, which started with a dramatic swim and ended with a tough run.  That ride is still one of my best ever and I rode that one in 3:16.  I wasn't sure if I would be able to top that here, and still have good legs for the run, but I decided that I would be happy to match that time.  Spoiler alert: I beat my previous time by about 5 minutes.

T2 was waiting for us! I still know where my bag is!

I have grown and improved so much as an athlete in the past year, and I think that my biggest area of improvement has been on the bike.  I worked hard and made a lot of gains last summer and I was determined to keep my bike fitness during the off season.  I was fortunate to have discovered the Shawnee Trail Cycling Club and we join the Thursday night rides almost every week.  Riding with that group not only helped me maintain my skills, but increase them as I even moved up a pace group during the off season.  I would be remiss if I didn't mention my new bike in all of this, Vivace is one fast ride!

I had all of these things in mind as I rode back into Kerrville and towards the transition area.  I was having a great day swimming and riding my bike and now it was time for my most favorite of all - the run!

Bike: 3:11:05 (56 miles - 17.6 mph)
4th AG
5:24 T2

Kerrville 70.3 Swim: Take Me to the River

(This is the second installment in my Kerrville 70.3 story, if you haven't caught the Prelude yet you can find it here.)

I felt as if I slept fairly well, albeit lightly, the night before the race.  I was ready to get out of bed when the alarm went off and we quickly went about the business of the day.  At one point, Mr K opened the door of the hotel and it was absolutely POURING outside. We are talking cats and dogs, rain coming down super hard kind of stuff.  This wasn't a total surprise since Mr K told me that it would rain early and then was not in the forecast again until later in the day. We laughed it off and reminded ourselves that the race start was more than a couple of hours away.  It had already stopped by the time we loaded the car and we discovered the streets to be totally dry a mere mile from our hotel.

Team K reporting for duty!

The finish line was about two miles from the start, so we parked near the finish and took a shuttle over to the start.  My incredibly relaxed attitude remained in place as we arrived at the swim start.  I think that the size and energy of the race had a lot to do with it, very little hype - just some folks who were out to have a fun day swimming, riding, and running.  They had divided us up by swim waves and I had plenty of space in my assigned area.  I kept feeling like something was missing and then I remembered that my running stuff was waiting for me down the road in T2.

Ryan, Mr K, & Nestor 

The time leading up to the race start always feels as if it takes an eternity - the hurry up and wait game is hard.  I was very thankful that my swim wave was the first one after the open category simply because I wouldn't have to wait a minute longer than necessary.  The start was in a time trial fashion, meaning they released us into the water one at a time about three seconds apart.  It sure made for a pretty mellow swim start and gave me a nice opportunity to settle in, find my rhythm, and get to work.

The swim was in the Guadalupe River and it was just divine.  I think that I could have swum there all day - the temperature was perfect and it was a little bit clearer than the lakes that I am used to swimming in.  It was super easy to sight to with the banks of the river on each side and the grey sky making the buoys super visible.  I had been told that they were 100 meters apart and I just focused on getting from one to the next.  It wasn't long before I saw swim caps from the wave after mine coming around me. I wasn't too surprised either since I know that I am not a fast swimmer.

I had so much drama during my swim at Redman 70.3 last year - I lost my nose clip early on and ended up swallowing a bunch of Lake Hefner.  I also ended up backstroking about half of it and crawled out of the lake mentally exhausted after an hour and six minutes.  My goal for this swim was to get through it calmly and with no drama.  I'm happy to say that I was able to settle in to my usual breathing pattern and just cruise.  My sighting was spot on and according to my watch I only swam .04 of a mile extra - not too shabby!

Hard to look cute in a swim cap! (Pic: Coach Frank)

I never got too tired, but rather impatient since I was ready to have this part behind me and get on with my race.  Stoke, stroke, stroke, breathe, sight.....over and over again.  I could feel myself smiling under the water as I made the approach to the swim finish.  I had done it, what a relief! I could tell that it was going to be a good day.  I was smiling all the way up the HUGE hill to transition (seriously, that thing was like a small mountain).  I decided not to try to run up it and the guy next to me gave me a big high five and wished me well on my day.  The vibe in transition was super positive, I think that everyone feels relieved to get that swim done.

A shot of the big hill we had to run up to get to T1

I noticed that the wind had picked up quite a bit while I was in the water and the skies were still very grey.  No time to worry about that now, it was time for Vivace and me to ride.

Swim: 53:36  (1.2 miles)
16th AG
T1: 4:52

Kerrville 70.3 Prelude: Donkeys and Sunsets

Sometimes things just come together so perfectly that you surprise even yourself.  I've had a super strong training and racing year and my training for Kerrville 70.3 followed that trend.  I had more "life" happen during this training cycle than in most and I didn't get to follow my training plan down to the detail, as is my usual tendency.  Regardless, I felt so much stronger and more prepared than I felt heading into my first 70.3 triathlon exactly one year ago at Redman.  In fact, I felt downright chill and had a calm that was almost eerie.  I was so mellow about the whole thing that I started to worry that I was a little too calm.  Did my mind really comprehend what we were about to do?  I did the typical race weather stalking, but the forecast got worse with each peek that I took.  It started with a 60% chance of rain early in the week and ended with a 100% chance of thunderstorms by the time I looked on Friday.  I decided to stop looking at it or even thinking about it as it was something that was totally out of my control.  We would either race, or we would not race.  We would get soaked, or we would not.

Texas, y'all.

On Friday afternoon, Mr K and I packed up the car and headed towards Kerrville.  Driving through the backroads in the Texas Hill Country as it was bathed in the beautiful sunlight of the golden hour filled my heart with happiness.  Those roads and that scenery are like a love letter to my beloved state and seeing them looking so gorgeous really set my soul at ease.  As we passed through Hico, we saw a man walking with a donkey who was pulling a cart that said "will work for carrots." I hollered with excitement at Mr K "DONKEY! DONKEY! I THINK I SAW THEM ON CHANNEL 8 ONCE!!" Well, if you know Mr K then you know that he has never met a stranger and before I knew it he had pulled over on the side of the road so that we could meet them.  As chance would have it, I was right, Charlie and Smokey had been featured on a story on WFAA earlier this year (go watch the story here - it is a good one!). It was such an honor to meet them and talk with them for just a little bit.  As you might know, I consider the donkey to be my "spirit animal" and their random appearance along the road gave me an overwhelming feeling that everything was going to be alright.

We took it pretty easy on Saturday morning before meeting up with Coach Frank and his group from Tri-Now for a practice swim.  Many thanks to Frank as he was super supportive of Mr K and I all weekend and included us in some of their team events and the Saturday evening meal.  The place where we swam was all too familiar to me as I had been there on two prior occasions. Two and a half years back, when we were at a spring base camp with Tri-Now, I stood on the shore of the Guadalupe River and watched Mr K do his first ever open water swim.  I thought that those triathletes were so cool, but I couldn't imagine myself ever swimming like that.  The water didn't scare me as I spent much of my childhood in Lake Texoma, but the act of swimming itself seemed downright daunting.  I visited this same area later again that same year when the FIGJAM group came down to the Hill Country for a long bike weekend.  This time I watched Drum and Julie swim in those same waters and again, I thought that the were pretty awesome.  Now it was my turn, life is funny that way.  Mr K and I both did the practice swim in our wetsuits only to learn later that the water was too warm and it was not going to be wetsuit legal.  I'm not sure I've ever swum that far in the open water without my wetsuit and I tried not to let that worry me too much.

The rest of Saturday was spent hustling around town, dropping off bikes at the first transition area and bags of running stuff a couple of miles down the road at the second transition area.  I've never done a tri with a split transition before and it takes a little bit more pre-planning.  There is just so much stuff involved - thank goodness for check-lists! Everyone was optimistic about the forecast since the thunderstorms had been taken out and the rain was scheduled to come in later in the day.  This thing just might happen after all!  I don't think that I have ever had such a happy and positive feeling before a race.  I wish that I could bottle it up because it was a pretty amazing feeling.

Vivace and I were ready to tango.

We enjoyed a nice dinner with the Tri-Now folks and soon it was time to head off to bed.  The big day was finally (almost) here and I could hardly wait for my alarm clock.