Six months ago, I felt that my triathlon racing was on a decline and that improvements were no longer a possibility for me. I felt as if I was working incredibly hard, being smart about training but I continued to get more fatigued and slower. It just didn't make sense. Thankfully, I found an amazing doctor who spent hours with me to figure out what was going on hormonally in my body. We did blood, saliva, urine testing until she had a complete picture of what was working... and what was clearly not working. I wrote about some of the findings here.
From October to January, I trained relatively lightly but really eased back on swim, bike and run in order to allow my body some rest and recovery... if I didn't feel like riding on Saturday morning, I would skip it and spend the day on the couch and not feel guilty about it either. It was as much mental recovery as anything.
At the beginning of January, I was back on the plan with Matt Dixon of purplepatch fitness. I can't say enough great things about how Matt supported me when I was feeling less than stellar last year and believed that there was a solution besides "getting older and slower"!
While training for Oceanside had been going fairly well, I did have a few hiccoughs in the final weeks of preparation. I'm noting them, not to make excuses, but as a reminder of the details that go into training and racing for triathlon.
Bike fit - I made the switch from a Specialized Sitero saddle to an ISM saddle in February and worked with Paul Buick to refit my bike position. Unfortunately, I was experiencing excruciating back pain after 2 or so hours of riding. After the Tucson camp experience in early March, I did a couple of 3-4hr rides in San Francisco pain-free... the difference? Blanco had accidentally rebuilt my bike in a higher saddle position... which turned out to be better for my back but didn't compromise my pedaling.
Synovitis - I have been experiencing tenderness in my left foot that made it painful to run for much more than 45-60 minutes. While a podiatrist recommended new orthotics to try and relieve the pressure, they didn't work as were merely treating the symptom and not the root cause. In contrast, chiropractor, Mike Lord, has helped me strengthen my foot so that I was able to race pain-free.
That was an incredibly long preamble to a race report!
Saturday morning dawned misty and foggy and while the temperatures were not cold, I was slightly worried while setting up in transition that I might be underdressed for the bike ride. My wave departed at 7:17am, the first female AG wave, and luckily by that time, the sun had begun to break through... and the wind began picking up too!
The swim start was uneventful as I was barely touched getting off the start line and had clear water to the first buoy. That *space* did not last as I quickly caught up with prior waves (just 3mins between waves) and the swim course began to feel incredibly crowded. Swimming up, over, around back strokers, breast strokers and strokes that I couldn't name. The swim felt fairly rough near the turnaround point where the water is less protected by the harbour wall so that's my justification for a slower swim than last year... 34:36 was 16 seconds slower. I was vaguely disappointed with the swim time but I've been in this sport long enough to dismiss my time and "move on".
I was excited for the bike. With the exception of being sick in early March (end of Tucson camp), riding had been going well. I'd even ridden with purplepatch pros Holly Lawrence, Emma-Kate Lidbury and Sarah Cameto the weekend prior and didn't get spit out the back on the hills... though they were riding easy! The goal was to focus on 190-200w and ride closer to 230-240w on the hills. That seemed fairly reasonable given recent training. I felt like I was flying on the bike in the first hour, you always do on the flat terrain with the tailwind out to Christianitos Road. However, my back started to hurt and I when I hit the first climb on the course around mile 28, I realized that I couldn't climb seated because my saddle height had slipped. I felt as if I was riding like a circus clown! I ended up riding the hill out of the saddle, asking the guys around me if I could borrow a multi-tool since I wasn't carrying one. A very sweet gentleman offered to stop as he wanted to stretch his legs and he kindly loaned me the allen key so I could raise the saddle ~2" and tighten it up a lot more. I was on the side of the road for about 2 minutes so not a big deal but I had lost the guy (51 year old Roger!) that had been riding legally back and forth with me. Back on the bike, I set about making it back to Oceanside as quickly as possible. I really wanted to ride sub 2:40 on this course as I had never done so. With about 5-6 miles to go I pass a guy and all I hear is "she's back... way to go Jordan" and I realize that I have caught back up to Roger... it made me laugh and I really appreciated his cheers and support.
Back into Oceanside town and I glanced at my watch and saw that sub 2:40 was happening, and the actual bike split was 2:38:50... but I did slightly curse myself for the pesky 2 minutes on the side of the road fixing the saddle... I had under-tightened the saddle when adjusting it the day prior.
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| Bike file for Oceanside - 190w average power |
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| photo credit: Luke McKenzie |
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| Ragged looking run form but great kit! photo credit: Jen Temperley |
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| 40-44 podium - finally an AG win at a 70.3 race! |
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| Getting a hug from Rachelle Jorgensen |
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| Post race celebrations with Jesse Thomas |
While I am a Betty Designs athlete and I raced in the awesomely bright new Betty kit, I chose to wear the #50womentokona t-shirt on the podium... of course, paired with a Betty Designs trucker hat! In case you missed the announcement last Friday, I am a founding member of TriEqual, an organization dedicated to fairness and equality in triathlon. Our first goal is to get equal slots for female and male professionals at World Championship races but we have a broader goal of achieving access and diversity in triathlon for all.
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| Women's pro podium plus some Supportive dudes wearing #50womentokona tees! |
Huge thanks to Blanco, my main squeeze, for letting me follow my passions. To Matt Dixon for his support and coaching knowledge. To Kate Ligler for helping to make me strong. To Kiki Silver for helping me get healthy. To the entire Purplepatch community, pros and amateurs, that provide so much support in training and racing. To SagMonkey for taking care of me all weekend. To Jess of Harmony Bars for making the best tasting bar ever. To Kristin Mayer of Betty Designs for making the best and brightest looking kit.
