Mooseman International Distance Race Report: Finally Progress!

In just my fourth triathlon and first race of my second season as an endurance athlete I finally flashed signs of progress and reached my timing goals! The Mooseman International Triathlon held on June 6th at Newfound Lake, NH proved to be my best race yet and has me tremendously excited about the upcoming season and beyond. Headed into the race I had wondered if I would ever reach my timing goals if some great training sessions on the bike would translate into success on the course and if my blood sugars would finally cooperate, on Saturday things started to come together and while I have a ton of work left to do when I crossed the finish line I was proud of not only finishing but of the time I finished in.

Pre Race:

Kim and I headed up to the Common Man Inn, in Plymouth, NH on Friday after work. I packed my usual pre-meal race of a 1/2 lbs of ground buffalo, whole wheat penne pasta and Rao's Tomato Basil Sauce in rubber maid containers, while Kim was able to enjoy a fresh pasta dish at the Inn's restaurant. Shortly after our meal we watched Slumdog Millionaire and waited for Anna, a friend of ours who was doing the race with TNT.

I used a regular bolus for my meal of 85 grams of carbohydrates but that proved to be a bit of a mistake. About an hour after dinner my blood sugar was 58, and remained below 70 after half of a clif builder bar. At midnight my blood sugar started to rise, when I woke at 5am my blood sugar was 200 - not awful for a race day morning but way higher than I had hoped. I still need to refine my bolus schedule for my pre-race meal, I had unfortunately left my notes on what I did for the marathon in my Virginia apartment.

My breakfast consisted of 2 slices of whole wheat toast with Almond butter; bolused with 1.5 units of insulin and could feel my blood sugars coming into line. After breakfast is when the fun started though!

We left the hotel at 6:15 am, probably a bit later than we should have. On the drive over I had my clif bar, and turned my pump down to 40%. Parking at Mooseman tends to be a bit of a disaster. We finally pulled into a spot at 6:48 am, leaving me just 42 minutes to set up my transition area and get into the water for my swim start. The parking lot was about 3/4 of a mile from the race site, during the walk I downed my nutrition mix with 2 scoops of cytomax and 1 scoop of pre-formance. When we arrived to packet pick up at 7:00 am, the volunteers couldn't find my packet! Finally they set me up with a new race number, but it was now 7:18 am, I had 12 minutes to make it to the swim or I'd be DQ'd!!!! Kim didn't fare much better as she had left her wet suit in my car and had to run back to the parking lot to get it for the race! We really need to leave earlier for our next race....

Swim:

I frantically entered transition and set up my area as best I could in 5 minutes, thankfully due to the new race number I was set on a back rack virtually by myself. I didn't have a chance to take my bike gear out of my transition bag or place my running shoes on my transition mat - there simply wasn't time; I did however take the time to test and was so thankful my meter read 228. At 7:25 am I sprinted over to the swim start, about a 1/4 mile from the transition area while bobbing and weaving my way through the athletes who were in later waves. I literally made it into the water 1 minute before my wave went off!!!!

There is potentially nothing worse than entering 60 degree water, in a full sweat with your heart rate above 180. Sprinting to a swim start in a triathlon is not something I would ever suggest. Placing my face in that cold water with a high heart rate was awful and caused me to hyperventilate almost immediately. For the first time in any race I thought about quitting. I couldn't get my body to relax since I was so hot from my sprint over but so cold in the water. I decided to breast stroke for a few hundred yards to see if I could clear my head, finally my heart rate started to slow down, my core temperature cooled down and I was able to put my face in the water. At that point my stroke came back to me and I was able to catch up to the middle of the pack by the end of the swim. I finished the swim in 30 minutes with a blood sugar of 170 - the sprint over did nothing to help my time but 30 minutes was too awful, give the circumstances I was pretty happy with it.

Swim Grade: B

Swim Nutrition Grade: A

Bike:

I can't really say I actually had a T1 transition, it was more a dive into my transition pack to find everything I needed to set up my bike. My transition time had to be at least 6 minutes, which is awful but there was nothing I could do. My Rocket Science transition pack actually saved me a ton of time, the back pack has a specific pocket for each piece of gear, this was the only thing that kept me organized on race day with the confusion at the start.

After loading up my bike with everything I needed I headed off to the bike course to hammer. My Garmin took a while to kick in but once it did I was happy to see I was holding a pace of 23 mph - the Mooseman course is really hilly so I knew I needed to crush the flats to post a good time - my goal was to ride at a 20 mph pace. Headed up the first hill of the course my chain fell off the front ring, I knew the 2 minutes I lost putting the chain back on was going to cost me that 20 mph goal but I also knew it wasn't enough time to be disastrous.

For the 27.5 mile bike course I used a 1 nutrition bottle strategy. I filled my water bottle with 3 scoops of cytomax (70 grams carbs), 2.5 scoops of carbo-pro (90 grams carbs), 1/2 scoop of pro-formance (20 grams carbs) and 1 gatorlyte packet. The mix seemed to work perfectly as I felt strong the entire bike and at no point did I feel any ill effects from blood sugars.

I hoped back on my bike and was really happy with the way I was riding. I didn't want to push it too hard as I had only done one transition run in training and also didn't want to loose my legs. I hadn't had a chance to stretch before the race so also knew the chance of pulling a muscle was pretty high. Throughout the bike leg I had back spasms which cost me some time on the hills but all in all I rode just about the way I wanted to. I finished the bike in 1 hour and 26 minutes for a 19 mph pace and came off the bike with a blood sugar of 168. I think my chain popping off cost me the 20 mph goal, but I'm satisfied with averaging 19 on that course but know I can do better.

Bike Grade: B+

Bike Nutrition: A

Run:

Much like my T1 transition, my T2 transition was no better. With my solid blood sugars and knowing the run was just 6.2 miles I decided to pound 1 fuel belt bottle filled with 1.5 scoops of cytomax, a thermolyte tablet and 1/4 scoops of pro-formance in transition. The decision worked perfectly as I finished the race with a blood sugar fo 185 - 17 points higher than my blood sugar when I left T2, exactly what I was shooting for!

My goal was to finish the run in less than 54 minutes, my ultra aggressive goal was to finish the run in under 50 minutes but wasn't sure if I had trained enough to hold an 8 minute pace for the entire run, but I knew I could break 9 minute miles if I fought through the pain. Even after calibrating my Polar RS800 it proved to be off!!! I have made the decision to get rid of the watch and join the Garmin crowd, I'm sick of technology not doing its job. My watch shows I ran 6.47 miles, almost .4 miles longer than the actual course. My final run time was 52 minutes and 52 seconds for an 8:31 pace - my best pace in a race of this distance since the Bear Mountain duathlon 2 years ago! Maybe training on all those hills in Charlottesville really did pay off. Better yet I ran the 6.1 miles at an even pacing split!!! That is proof that my training is really working.

Run Grade: A-

Run Nutrition: A+

Overall I am super psyched about how I performed on Saturday. I finished the race in 2 hours, 57 minutes and 33 seconds, good for 356th place out of 884 athletes. Rather than leave this race frustrated about something that went wrong which was out of my control I leave this race hungry for more. My passion and desire to improve in this sport and challenge diabetes is as strong as ever, it's amazing what some signs of progress can do. Now it's time to bust my butt for the Mussleman Half Ironman in a month and 1/2, I still have miles to go before I can sleep. Plus, I wasn't the only one to have a great racing in a Triabetes Race Kit, PJ, a fellow type 1 diabetic also is part of Triabetes, we met after the race adn it was great to share the excitement with another Type 1!

A huge congratulations to both Anna and Kim for outstanding races. This was Anna's second triathlon and she did an outstanding job. She headed into the race nervous she wouldn't be able to finish the swim and really doubtful about her ability on the run. She however rocked the course and crossed the finish line with one of the biggest smiles I had ever seen. Kim did a phenomenal job, her run time was hurt a bit because she got punched in the calf during the swim which had her calf spasming for the entire run. However, she did an awesome job fighting through that, did a great job on the bike and had a stellar run. The three of us were all pretty happy after the race.

Race Report: Mooseman Half Ironman; Just Gut It Out!

Hot, humid and hotter!!! Those are the 3 words I'd use to describe the Mooseman Half Ironman on Sunday June 8th. While the Mooseman course didn't present the 107 degree temperature that Eagleman did last weekend, the 95 degree heat was plenty hot enough! The day presented several highs and lows, offered tremendous learning experiences for Lake Placid and allowed me to accomplish my most important goal; to just have fun.

Nutrition

The heat & humidity wreaked havoc on my nutrition plan. From the moment I broke into a full sweat during my dinner the night before the race I knew Sunday was going to be "different." I didn't digest my bowl of whole wheat protein pasta and 1/2 lbs of ground beef as quickly as I normally do so an hour after my meal I was down to a blood sugar of 55. This low took 2 glasses of orange juice and a chocolate bar to correct for. However, that night I woke up to use the bathroom 3 or 4 times and was greeted by a blood sugar of 225 when my alarm went off at 4:45 am.

My blood sugar naturally returned to 165 by 5:10 am so I took 1.5 units of insulin for my pistachio muffin. At 6 am an hour and 1/2 before the race I turned my pump down to 35%, had a clif bar and then my pre-race nutrition drink, 20 minutes before the swim start I was at 189.

5 minutes before the swim I had 2 scoops of carbo pro and 2 scoops of cytomax, I had hopped this would allow me to exit the water at 200 but when I got through the wet suit stripping area I was down to 120. While that blood sugar would be awesome on a Tuesday at the office, my face in this picture tells you all you need to know about that bs on race day:


I waited in transition for close to 10 minutes while drinking my "emergency" blood sugar booster - a highly concentrated water bottle with 3 scoops of cytomax and 1 scoop of EFS. My blood sugar rose to 144 quickly after I finished the drink, I gobbled up 1/2 a clif mojo bar and then headed out for the bike.

On the bike, the heat really started to get to me, I drank 5 water bottles but never peed although my blood sugars was 180 both times I tested on the ride, I think they may have been higher then the finger pricks showed. Due to the pot holes on the Mooseman course I ejected a bottle of my nutrition during the 2nd lap of the bike - made the smart move by pulling over, running back to get the nutrition and then hopping back on my bike, staying healthy is way important than a fast time! Entering T2 my blood sugar was 212 which let me rush to the beach to begin my run.

Throughout the entire run I felt like no mater how much water I drank I couldn't get enough of it. At one point I asked an aid station for an entire water bottle, pounded it and was still thirsty as anything after it. The high heat and humidity made me look like someone spray painted my tri suit with salt and the cramps in my legs were unreal. Now that we're in the hotter summer months I'll be visiting Lauren again to revamp my nutrition plan and figure out why I couldn't quench my thirst at Mooseman.

Nutrition Grade: B-, smart decision in T1 to wait for my blood sugars to go up but did not use a dual wave bolus the night before the race for a high protein meal; needed to adapt nutrition plan to the heat better

Swim

After the Terrier Open Water Clinic last week and swimming with my Train-This friends in Newfound Lake the day before the race I was exited to get into the water to see how much I had improved since Bassman. I got into the lake 15 minutes before the swim started, warmed up doing backstroke and spent about a minute doing regular free style. At 7:30 I was ready to go, the first wave of the day was for men under 34 and male elites! Going off with the pros was pretty freaking intimidating.

When the gun went off, I put my face in the water and just swam - no freak outs, no major problems, which was such a huge improvement from Bassman. When my shoulder started to kill me I switched to back stroke, and to get a quick breather I did breast stroke during the swim. I stayed mainly on course and really enjoyed just being in the water. My stroke still needs improvement as I was breathing every 2 strokes instead of alternating sides every 3 strokes like I do in the pool but my time was greatly improved over the last open water disaster. I believe the biggest challenge is the mental block that an unknown distance presents. When I could clearly see the finish of the swim my normal stroke returned allowing me to feel much more efficient in the water; I think overcoming this mental block will allow a huge improvement without too much additional work.

Swim Grade - B, 39 minutes 16 seconds - huge improvement over Bassman still 4 minutes slower than the goal but not a disaster.

BIKE

How can something this pretty:

cause me so much pain?????

I started the bike in a blaze of fury, at a cadence of 90 in a comfortable gear I sped up to 22 mph heading into devil's hill. I had heard so much about this hill and was expecting a battle with the beast. I shifted into the small ring up front, put it into an easier gear in the back and spun up the hill comfortably. Devil's Hill was short and steep, much different than the long more gradual climbs at placid; Coach Egg will be happy to know I didn't even have to leave my saddle to climb the hill. When I reached the crest of the devil, disaster struck.

I went to shift into my big ring but the gears wouldn't move - the freaking front derailleur issue happened again! I pulled over to the side of the road to lift the derailleur but still had no luck shifting into the big ring. About 5 minutes later my seat post fell, forcing me to pull over again where I worked on the gear issue and the seat post for a few minutes. 10 minutes after that my seat post feel for a second time and I still couldn't fix the front derailleur. Throughout this process I lost about 15 to 20 minutes off my bike time.

For the rest of the Mooseman bike course I was stuck in my little front ring. I had to coast the downhills because I didn't have a big enough gear to speed up on them and lost 1 to 2 mph on the flats. I was also forced to race at a cadence much higher than what I'm comfortable with. On the flats I hit 105 pedal strokes per minute and on the downhills was above 115. I negative split the bike by 5 minutes and gutted out a decent performance but am furious that a bike which cost me so much money breaks so consistently. I'm going to contact Orbea this week to find out WTF is going on with the issues I seem to always have.

Bike - B-, 3 hours, 14 minutes - a gritty performance with major mechanical issues, way off my goal time of 2 hours 50 minutes but I didn't launch my bike into the lake with all the mechanical issues like I had wanted to!d

RUN

The real fun started on the run. As I mentioned in the nutrition section from the second I started the run I could tell something was "off". I almost felt like I did prior to T1 diagnosis where no matter how much water you drank you were still thirsty. I set out with 2 of my Train This friends and was psyched to have 2 pretty fast people to run with. Sarah was able to maintain her pace, Kevin and I were not. My plan on the run was to start off at an 8 minute pace and then ramp it up to a 7:45 pace on the second loop of the course - that simply didn't happen. My legs were cramping so badly that I could barely muster a 10 minute pace; the heat was almost unbearable during the first 2 miles of the run course; the only section of the course without an aid station. I felt delirious, dizzy and awful for 99% of the run and tested about every 20 minutes. At one point my cramps were so bad that my right foot turned completely outward, I thought to myself all I have to do is keep moving forward. My blood sugars were near 200 for the run which I think led to some of the dehydration issues, I also may have screwed up my salt intake and was just suffering from a total nutrition melt down.

Run - C-, 2 hours 21 minutes, 10:48 pace; I pushed through the run on a very tough day but my pace is GOD AWFUL, my E pace for training is 8:50, and I've been able to easily maintain a 9 minute pace off the bike without hard effort for all my brick training. Nutrition had more to do with my performance than anything else but I am not satisfied posting a 2 hour 21 minute half marathon.

OVERALL

While I'm not happy with a final time of 6 hours 25 minutes I'm ecstatic with how I approached the race, and the gritty performance I needed to get through Mooseman. From blood sugar issues after the swim, to mechanical issues on the bike and finally a total blow up on the run I stared adversity in the face and made sure I willed myself to the finish. I've never had doubt in my will power, focus or desire so I know given almost any condition I'll be able to find the heart to get across the finish line; that however doesn't guarantee me of meeting my performance goals.

As I said before the race my goal was to go out there and have fun. Staying at Train-This New Hampshire's headquarters (2 cabins we rented on the north end of the lake) really set the tone for a fun weekend. Bill, Hannah, Shannon, Kevin, Jeremy, Adam and Sarah (who came in second in her age group!) are all just such great people and Bill's daughter Hannah brought smiles to our faces all weekend. Having others to race with and share the experience with let me soak in everything Mooseman had to offer. I met some great people in transition, cracked jokes with some guys on the run course, asked people how their race was, got a hug from a random sweaty girl at the finish and talked to other bloggers. On the 8th I found out what triathlon is all about; I pushed myself to the limit, left it all out on the course and asked everyone whom I could find how their race was. My time might not have been what I wanted but the insight I gained and enjoyment I had was worth every second of the 6 hours and 25 minutes:


Overall Grade - C+, a gritty performance makes up for alot but doesn't earn enough brownie points to let me be satisfied by my time.

I'm now feeling as tired as the pooch in the picture, but ready to get my legs fresh and push for Placid; Coach and I have some questions to answer, and some things to figure out. I'm now half way to the goal but the mountain is considerably steeper for the next 6 weeks.