I was really happy with how the race weekend went. I got to spend great time with other athletes and teammates, thanks to the fact that many of us stayed in the host hotel (which had spacious rooms and great amenities, including free internet, thanks Holiday Inn Worlds Fair Park!). And I enjoyed checking out the new Lazer Helmet colors at the expo.

Two of my favorites... Lazer + Rev3!

Race morning felt pretty routine, now that I’m in my fifth (!) year of racing. I woke up at 4 for the 7 a.m. start, had a breakfast with home-made muesli brought from Colorado, kitted and race-numbered up (p.s. those of you who are in the market for a new race kit, I recommend the Pearl Izumi kit! Great fit, soft material that doesn’t chafe and doesn’t overheat, I really loved racing in mine). I decided against sunscreen, and judging by the run photo below, I forgot to do anything race-suitable to my hair. Oops. I made my way to transition by 5:45, talked and joked with my competitor friends, might or might not have hidden my smile and my precious rubber bands and foggle from frenemies, did a warmup jog, put on my wetsuit, and realized I’d better hustle to the start.

The race itself felt not-routine because my swim felt better than ever! I was so excited. I’ve been feeling good in the pool, and before leaving I decided that I would “shoot for the stars”, failing that, shoot for a 25 minute swim. Don’t laugh, I didn’t know how to swim at all when I started this sport. Anyway, I did it, I swam 24:45 and am still thrilled. That’s two minutes faster than my previous fastest. The next step is to work on my start speed, which is the same pace as my 1500m speed at the moment… Oh and I also raced in my sleeveless wetsuit for the first time ever. I think it’s a better choice for me, my shoulders and arms are kinda big for the full-sleeve suit.

Heading out of T1 at Rev3 Knoxville

The bike started out pretty well but about 20 minutes in I started to get searing pain in my back and right hip. This disappointed me more than it surprised me – over the past 2 years, I’ve gotten the same debilitating pain in races, and it’s started sooner and sooner over time. It always goes away as soon as I start running. Last year it usually started 60-90 minutes into a race, which would have gotten me to T2 in Knoxville last weekend just fine, but no such luck. (Side note, my 170mm SRAM Quarq CinQo powermeter is for sale. I’m switching to smaller cranks.) Nevertheless, I biked the same time as last year, and really enjoyed the winding and rolling Tennessee roads.

On the run at Rev3 Knoxville

The run was an out-and-back along the downtown greenway. I kept a decent pace but without the motivation of being in contention for a top-10, I didn’t quite tap into that top end pace I like. The aid stations were an improvement over last year because instead of water cups, the volunteers had latin american/african style water bags! So much more effective in transmitting hydration!

At the end of the day, I wished I’d finished better than 20-somethingth place, but more than anything I am really happy with my improvement in the swim and the impetus I needed to make some changes that will help me clear up this back issue. I’m confident I can address it, and get back to feeling strong in what used to be my best sport!

Thanks to Rev3 for another great race. I can’t wait for Rev3 Portland in July! In the meantime however I will be racing two Xterra’s… stay tuned for reports!

The swim was pretty normal, there isn’t a whole lot you can do to make an off-road triathlon’s swim more “rugged” than an on-road triathlon’s. It was a little bit cold though. My swim was OK, I started out on a girl’s feet and after a couple hundred meters I realized hey wait a minute, this girl is SLOWER than me! And so’s this one! But the rest of the group was gone so I swam on my own, until guys started passing me. Next time I need to suss out who in my field is a touch faster than I am so I don’t get on the wrong set of feet again.

The bike was pretty not-normal. In fact T1 brought me back to my beginner days, I put my shoes on in transition! The bike course itself was kind of hard, and unlike in road tri’s, I felt tentative and even had to get off a couple of times. There were a lot of steep rollers, nothing sustained, just lots of power climbs, lots of sand, and really cool desert views, including this one snapped by Nils Nilsen.

The run was my favorite part. It went along part of the bike course, so there were some really steep uphill drags, and this time they sure did feel sustained! But it was awesome, and I felt happy to be running. I wore my new Pearl Izumi Iso Transition race shoes. In fact it was their maiden run, which I know it is not generally considered a good idea to do something new on race day but after trying them on and inspecting the care and technology behind the shoe design, I was confident about my decision to race in them. They did not disappoint, what a great shoe!

I finished 12th of the pro women. It was a fun day for sure, but I’ve delayed reporting on it for one good reason and one bad reason.

The good reason is that school has been full-gas in a really exciting way. On the Monday after the race I successfully defended my master’s “thesis”. That’s in quotes because it’s less a thesis and more an illustration of why I am worthy of continuing on towards the PhD, but in the meanwhile I am earning my master’s degree.

The bad reason is that I wasn’t super happy with how I raced, and it’s hard to write home about moments I wish I were more proud of. At the same time, being driven to do better is a big motivator for me in this sport, so it’s helpful to acknowledge what needs bettering. In this case it’s my swimming and my mountain biking. I got discouraged out there, because biking is not supposed to be a liability for me, but that’s all the more reason to keep practicing and keep building confidence.

Next up: Rev3 Knoxville in just over a week!!

So that’s kind of exciting. To recap 2011, I was the bronze medalist at the 2011 Duathlon National Championship and then the second American/12th overall at the ITU Duathlon World Championship in Spain.

In my mind it doesn’t quite make up for the fact that USA Triathlon changed the date & location for duathlon nationals after indicating that they’d be the same as last year, and changed the funding structure for worlds such that I will not be a duathlete this year… but I’m still happy about the honor!

That’s me on the front of the group at the world championships…

So it went: 50k road bike, 13k road/dirt run, 25k mountain bike, 9k beach run. The race is point-to-point with three separate transitions, so at Christmas after a suitable amount of wine I successfully roped Dan’s uncle Michael into sherpa-ing me at the race! Except in South Africa they call this “seconding”.

The road bike was the most worrisome for me. It was a mass start, and by mass start I mean girls, boys, relays, Conrad Stoltz, everyone. Drafting was allowed, any type of bike was allowed, even headphones were allowed! So I lined up at the front and stayed out of trouble. Soon after the start, I noticed another individual girl (numbers indicated if people were on relays or not) who looked strong and marked her for the rest of the ride. I think she may have been annoyed with me but hey, in a draft-legal stage where I’m on a borrowed too-big 9-speed Santa Cruz from 2001, I’m more than happy to let you drag me and 30 guys around because you want to be in your aero bars. That is called “smart racing”.

So this girl and I went into the first transition together in the lead. I ran past her within the first kilometer of the 13k run. I felt great!

However, at the next transition as I got on my mountain bike, I suddenly realized I was going to have serious cramping problems. It was frustrating, here I was winning the race and I had to get off my bike and walk up the steepest hills! At least it was a good exercise in positive self-talk and perseverance, and I bombed those downhills with more guts than I’ve ever had on a mountain bike. As is always the case in a race, you never know what is going on in front of you or behind you. I’m happy to say that I came into the final transition still in the lead.

The beach run was an out-and-back. After the turnaround I saw that I had four or five minutes on second place, with 3rd out of contention unless I died, so I nursed my cramping legs on the way back to the finish. By “nurse” I mean I fell over, but I didn’t want to get victory photos with me looking all sandy, so I got in the water to rinse off and then resumed my victory trot.

My lead shrunk to just one minute at the line, but a win is a win! I am proud of how I raced.

Also, this race was a huge confirmation for me of how important my race routine is. Early in the road bike, I was so uncomfortable on my bike that I knew it would haunt me later. I so wished I had my Kestrel! But I packed my mountain bike because the trails in South Africa are phenomenal, and I knew that 5 weeks of riding them would really boost my off-road skills. Besides the bike, I also had to change my nutrition routine. The only familiar nutrition I had was PreRace! I ran out of First Endurance EFS early in the trip, so I raced with a local product that had much fewer electrolytes. I used salt tabs as well, but they didn’t seem to do much. Finally, my legs were definitely feeling the wear and tear of my trip because I chose not to bring my Recovery Pump boots. Luggage space was precious and I figured 5 weeks without them would be a great chance to see whether my niggles and pains crept back. Next time I go on a long trip, I don’t care if it means I only have 2 outfits to wear, I’m packing the boots…

So, I’m not worried about the cramping in the long run, I have never had that happen before and when I am back on my regular bike and regular routine I’m confident that I’ll stay cramp-free.

It was really great to end my trip with a race. I saw a new part of the country, and got a taste for how athletic and welcoming the sports community is.

I didn’t take an abundance of photos during my last week. I did race on the Saturday though so I may have photos to post from that a little bit later. These are some photos of training, of some of the signs and sights I enjoyed, and also of my last day. We went to a Johnny Clegg concert. I love his music, and actually had played some of it on the radio back in my DJ days, but it was a whole new experience to see him live among his countrymen and with my good friends, new and old.

Also you can see all my photos from the trip on my photos page.

At Guguletu I wore flip flops. There is a lot of glass and dirt and trash, so I walked carefully and wished I’d brought proper shoes. After Guguletu I went into Cape Town and met a friend at the beach, where I walked carefully around iridescent purple mussel shells so beautiful I did not want to break them. For me it was quite an encapsulation of the extreme contrasts here.

The polo match defies description in many ways but in keeping with my website’s tagline, I’ll give it a quick go. The place dripped money, and it wasn’t even a Pretty Woman-type tournament. I did wear a sun dress just in case. The spectators consisted of about 10 cars parked on a steep rise overlooking the field. It was evidently a very exclusive New Year’s Eve invite. We sat on the grass and watched what seemed to be mostly 19-20 year old guys gallop around and around. Some had been flown in from Europe and Argentina to play. I heard one chatting up a girl, she asked if the poor horses were OK. I enjoyed the eavesdrop (but not as much as the game.)

Everyone was also very active so there was lots of training over the weekend, enough to finish off the last of the First Endurance EFS Liquid Shot and drink I brought. I had enthusiastic company for my 3 hour tempo ride on Christmas day (which made up for my distinct lack of enthusiasm… I mean, what if I had gotten presents and was therefore busy?!?). We did a couple of runs on the beach, some paddling (I’m getting better at not capsizing), and a couple of open water swims, including my venture to the other side of the lagoon and back which was something like 4kms, otherwise known as “forever”.

Not once was I solo for a workout! Even the long swim. I had two companions in boats who combined their rowing/paddling with making sure I didn’t get run over or swept out to sea. The currents are really strong and there are way fewer laws here (perhaps no laws actually?) about how fast you can speed in your motorboat and how close to shore you can do it. And Dan’s father (himself a phenomenal athlete) pedaled along with me on one of my second runs so I didn’t get lost. There is not danger of being eaten here. Contrary to some northern-hemisphere assumptions I have heard South Africa is not riddled with lions.

Anyhow, Christmas was amazing. And quite different from holidays with my family, who I love but usually my brother is the only one I can ever drag along with me for training!

I’m about halfway through what is turning out to be my best vacation ever.

This week’s been great. Mostly I have stayed local, which has still felt super adventurous because I’m good at getting lost and at not asking for directions, which I think is a foreign-travel phenomenon because I don’t have a problem asking for help at home. And I went out to Dan’s family’s farm. His dad took me on a mountain bike ride, and an hour-ish long paddle down the river, which was far too intense to photograph (but we saw a fish eagle!!)! Then I had to take a 3 hour nap when I got home to recover.

I’ve been saving up stories and observations about life here and what lessons I can take home with me. There have been lots of photos of people that I have wanted to take but held back in case I offended anyone – for example yesterday on my ride out to Jonkershoek I rode past some kids playing soccer and the light and hills were perfect, but I’d passed a woman walking on the road just prior to that and I was afraid of offending her if I stopped to take a photo. Now I am kicking myself! So I’ll just have to ride out there on many more afternoons in hopes of re-discovering that moment.

In the meantime, here are my latest photos:

It’s amazing, I am so happy I came! Honestly the only disappointment thus far was that on the plane from Amsterdam to Cape Town we had a real-time map of where we were and I slept through Libya. How boring of me to miss it!

Here’s a rough description of the week:

I am in Stellenbosch, in the Western Cape province, where Dan Hugo lives when he’s not in Boulder. On Friday I went with Dan and 5 other guys over to a town called George, also in this province but a good day’s drive away. We did a 100k mountain bike race on Saturday. It was a little insane for me, but the second most awesome part was I got so tired that I started to ride my bike up and down and over all the scariness because I was too tired to walk! I am suddenly WAY more skillz-laden!

The guys are now en route from George to Cape Town by bike. I was charged with driving (btw, to the large handful of you who think I am the worst driver, the “problem” is that my true talents lie on the left side of the road) the car back. I tourist-ed a bit in Knysna (pronounced like knife) and Plette Beach en route back to Stellenbosch.

Here’s a smattering of images: