So that is what sub 5 feels like!

Yay, I finally broke 5 hours in a half irondistance race. I cant tell you it has changed my life, if anything it will make my life a bit more painful in the next week, but I am happy to say I think i worked hard for that soreness and inability to go down stairs:)

Yesterday I raced the Lake Chisago Half Iron Distance Triathlon. It's about 45 min from my house and early in the season when i got shut out of Door County I figured Racine was it. But then that weekend was my mom's 82nd birthday ( and mom now i know how it feels go down stairs like you do:((
And in hindsight that weekend was brutally hot for all of you to race. So this worked out ok, you can never complain about sleeping in your own bed, thou getting up at 3:30 am in your own bed seems more wrong than in a hotel!

I dont have much to report stats wise yet and have no ACTION photos, but i will give you a quick recap.

Weather looked to be good, actually COOOL!!! I know, weird. My good friend ( and partner in crime) Renee came from Wisc to stay and since she got in friday we had all saturday to bum around, do our pre race stuff, eat, nap, shop andOF COURSE watch the TDF. Tangent. I am so sore today ( monday) and SO SAD there is no more TDF to watch. ( insert pouty lip)

Ok back to the race.

I heard this course was EASY and FLAT and 2 years ago i know it was short, and EVERYONE broke 5 hours. Ok that isnt true but it was surely a PR course. In the mean time i know the roads were changed and the course is now true. And after yesterday I think we all thought "this is deceptive!" It wasnt Hilly but it sure wasnt flat on either the bike or run.

The swim. Oh the swim.
When you see the line of buoys and wonder where the rest of the rectangular course is you have to take pause and figure that they had to put in more buoys. nope. Fog rolled in and so you couldnt even see the line of buoys. Being in wave 2 we had a good shot out and the canoes were at the end to stop us from swimming further to the other side of the lake ( nearly there anyways) but on the way back in it was a total cluster. Imagine sighting to see masses of green caps coming AT YOU. I was pretty sure i was on the right course and others had drifted over to us, but who knows i didnt spend time hanging around i just swam RIGHT RIGHT RIGHT. it was a total Cluster. and I know a few people that knocked heads. Not a fun swim at all. Oh and the water temp? Well over 78, very hot, we were little lobsters. But this RD always says wetsuit legal. So go with the masses i guess.

I felt good, other than the sheer panic of getting wopped a few time. and i thought "ok this is good practice for IM!"

Not sure my time, but i used the strippers who looked bored and came into T1 with a girl who hadnt used them and watched her sit down and thought "hmm, i made a good choice." I think my swim time was 32:xx so happy with that for now.

Bike: The first 5 miles are tough for me, my VMO's ( medial quads) are usually tight. I popped a Salt Stick and voila, all good. I started my feeding plan immediately. No matter what the clock said i was practicing for IM. I had it in my head that the bike sets up a good run, so i forced fluids when it was not hot at all, reminding myself that the fluids i had were Kcals, and i saved the water for post gel. I took 5 gels on that bike, and 2 bottles of perform. It may not seem like alot but i am not a big drinker, i just dont drink that much when i ride. But i had great energy, into the wind, when the packs went by  I just knew i had to work the wind and not cheat. So i rode clean. And other than one pair that i yelled " you may as well be on a tandem" I just shut up and rode my race. And no marshalls.
time? not sure.

Run: Goal was sub 1:40 and my plan was to take it out easier and then see what i had left at mile 6-7.
It was getting hot, sun came out at the end of the ride, and i was ok with that. IT wasnt hot, just around mid to upper 70;s but still the sun made it worse. Water and Gatorade stations were pretty randomly placed and we were sharing the stations with incoming and outgoing runners so i again had a few collisions with runners. I dont think i had too much of an issue with anything till around mile 6 my Left Hip started to really bug me. I have had some issues with that glute so i was praying i could get thru this. I ran with Suzie for a few miles and i could hear her behind me. I knew there were some really fast women right on my tail but i also knew they werent in my AG:) But i still wanted to do well OA if i could. I didnt look back until i entered the park and i saw nobody so i just kept it together, hoping to not have a finish like in Kansas, and got thru the chute with nobody right on my tail. And I did go sub 1:40! I think i was 1:38:xx which is a huge run PR for me in that distance.

Aftermath:
Hung around for awards, i didnt get a cool DALA horse but we got a Trivet with lots of swedish colors and Rich even got one! The stud got 3rd out of 21 in his AG. That is huge for him, so proud of him! He took it to work to show all his staff what a stud he is. And after the race i said to him " you got the same award as i did, but i had to do more than twice your distance!" I was kidding. But he had a great reply:
"Yes, i know. All the glory and i did half the work, you will learn." ha, too funny.

Renee had to drive back to Wisc but before we left we had to snap a picture. As you may recall when we were in KS in 2010 we got this pic:

 Now Chrissie was not in Chisago City, MN but the next best thing to Chrissie?
Well DKT! What a fantastic champion, and so he filled in for CW:

 David's blog is some fun and honest reporting on the real life of a real pro that doesnt spend his life trying to win Kona. A working man pro with a fantastic wife, my good friend Hannah, and a super shop that he works very hard for, Gear West Bike and Tri.

All in all this race was a good test for me. I am not sure i would go back unless they got it cleaned up a bit, but hats off to the RD who really did her best to accomodate 1800 athletes in a small space!

Next up? 5 days to recover and then we hit the course in Madison next weekend. Woohoo.
Send me some recovery tricks! ( oh besides the obvious, rest, compress, ice, massage, protein, eat well, etc..!)