Savageman 30.0

There's so much to say about this weekend, how can I possibly get it all typed up!?

Woke up Saturday morning for the 30.0 feeling rested and ready. Still a bit of a headache and still some concern over the cold temps. Had my usual coffee, banana, eggs breakfast. Since the first wave didn't go off until 9:30am, there was plenty of time this morning.

We arrived to the site and found out that we were early compared to everyone else! This was nice as there were no lines, especially since my new tire FLAT! I got the tube replaced quickly and tried to forget about it. Worrying about that during the swim wouldn't help me any.

Oh, was it cold. I wore my new bike gloves to keep my hands comfy, layered on lots of clothes. It didn't help any when the announcer said air temp was 45-47F and water temp was 64-65F. What!? My coldest ever swim prior to this was 64F in Lake Michigan and that was COLD!

SWIM: 0.932 miles in 31:56 15/25 in AG --a PR!!!!

In the end, the water wasn't so bad. It felt good compared to the air, as the air now also had a cold wind to freeze exposed skin. I was in the 2nd wave, and after a short but sufficient warm-up we were off! I had positioned myself in the middle of the field and expected the front end of the pack to move away from me. But instead I was stuck in a field of swimmers for a lot longer than expected. Early on I was punched in the right cheek, thankfully I got my goggles back on and just kept going. Once things cleared out, I settled into what felt like a fast swim. Seaweed was visible in the clear water and that gave me a gauge of movement and speed. Round Thomas the Turtle for the first turn, then off to the Swan for the last turn. Simple rectangle course. No big chop, no sighting problems, kept calm, and enjoyed it!

T1: 8:42, one of the slowest of the day! My hands were numb, I had trouble pulling off the wetsuit (and cramped the left calf), putting on gloves, zipping, everything was a struggle. I made myself calm down and shake off the need-to-hurry feeling. What was the hurry? Get it right!

BIKE: ~22.8 miles in 1:33, ave 14.8 mph.

The goal of this ride was to keep it easy. No pushing, no rush, no race. Gear check. Warm up. Shake down. Even though the course was mild, there was no need to hit it hard. The 30.0 bike course had it's hills, but they were very do-able.

So while the course was pleasant, the weather wasn't. I was cold as soon as I removed the wetsuit. I shivered the first 5 miles of the ride and couldn't get into aero. The wind blew right threw my jersey and was a bit merciless in doing so. Wild shivering in my chest and shoulders was sapping energy, but it was only 23 miles and I knew I could keep going in this for such a short time. Just keep calm, and stay smart. The new tire on the Bird was inflated and smooth, but revealed a bump-bump-bump feeling at high speeds. Something to look at. Later. Did only Infinit on the bike. Wasn't enough time to need anything else.

T2: 2:25 This was a smooth T2, I felt great and rolled right through it. I removed the bike jersey and added a long sleeve tech T over the armwarmers.

RUN: 6.2 miles in 56:58 for a 9:11 pace.

I may have felt great, but my feet were numb. The first 1 mile was just a clomp-clomp feeling, and I worried about turning an ankle (even though I might not feel it!) on the trail that we started out on. We didn't get a course preview for the run, I figured this was my preview, since I'll get to see it again 2x tomorrow. Oof! Two big climbs, one on pavement at mile 2 the other a rough fire road at mile 4 or so. I ran both, using my Chubbie hill training to billy-goat right up.

Once my feet thawed, this was a fun run. I did 9:36 and 9:40 in the first 2 miles, then 8:25 in the next! Slow down! I wasn't so much focused on pace as I was effort. I kept evaluating--did this feel easy? It did. TH was just ahead of me, and as much as I'd like to run with her, I held back so as not to burn that match. Save it for tomorrow. No nutrition here, just did the run.

Overall: 3:13:29 14 out of 24 in AG, and 67 out of 147 gender. In any other race, I'd be disappointed. For this one, I was happy. This race blew the carbon off the spark plugs, so to speak. My headache was gone, my energy levels better than pre-race. This was an incredibly fun course. And I loved that I could just sit back and enjoy it with out the rush. At one point I debated turning off the Garmin!

I learned a lot today about tomorrow. I needed the windbreak jacket I packed. I needed toe covers (thank you IT!). I needed liquid nutrition--between the gloves and hills and cold temps, bars weren't going to work.

Saturday afternoon had the challenge of recovering and refueling coupled with prefueling and repacking. But I wasn't as bad as I thought I'd be. I treated them as separate races and followed my plans of staying cool and taking things one at a time. Went to bed feeling confident that if I stayed smart tomorrow, I'd have a good day.