Victory at San Francisco Triathlon at Alcatraz!

I think that the beginning to a great race starts the week before it happens and for me this was certainly true. The Tuesday after a very sad DNF at Nationals I went back to my Austin home. As soon as I arrived I felt my whole being relax. Wednesday I ran on Townlake, did bike intervals on south mopac, saw my friends at Rogue, got the best hug and massage by Kevin (RMT) and got to coach the amazing Rogue triathlon swim group which always brings me to why I do what I do. Thursday I was at the track and never ran better. My health and my spirit were back.

Friday morning getting to the airport was a little rough as the cab was 1/2hr late for a 4:30am pick-up. The stress of checking in before the cut-off time, getting my bike and me through security and making it onto my 6am plane enabled me to meet an incredible person though. By the end of the whole ordeal I still had a smile on my face. My bike didn't make it but that was ok,

I have been there before. As soon as I arrived at Noreen's, my amazing homestay, I also felt at home. She had plans for a lunch of quinoa salad, dinner including Rebar potato pizza and fresh out of the oven banana bread to keep me going all day long. Really now, does it get any better!

Noreen, having done Alcatraz three times, took me to see the incredible bike course. Other than Pacific Grove triathlon, I have never been on such an incredible course. The views of Golden Gate bridge, Alcatraz, the dunes, the Presidio were amazing. I kept laughing as I quickly realized how hard a race it was going to be. It is a there and back course but really it just seems like it is up and up and up! I wondered if Zane knew what I had gotten myself into - of course he did. He

also knew that I would absolutely LOVE the challenge of it.

Tri-California did an amazing job of the logistics and organization of the race as it could not have been easy. First there is getting over 1000 bikes and people organized in transition, then onto a bus to meet a boat that would eventually take us out to Alcatraz. The energy on the boat from the age-groupers was incredible to be part of. At 7am though it was down to business - we walked along the thin boat rails and the gun went off... I had one mission and one mission only. Follow the lead boat to ensure that I caught the current properly. It was a little rough to do as my idea of this may have been a little different from others as I wanted to cut over to that boat. Eventually I freed myself and was able to swim properly. I swam the whole thing on my own but came out almost the same time as fellow competitor Kirsten Peterson. Amanda Stevens was only a few steps ahead.

The first 15 km of the bike course was Amanda and I switching back and forth for the lead. Amanda then took the lead on the Great Highway using her awesome time trial power. I never let her out of my site and eventually, getting back into the hills, was able to close the gap. Like in the 70.3 I controlled my power resisting huge surges as I wanted to ensure a fast and solid run. I believe I played it perfectly because when I got onto the run course my legs still felt good. I immediately started chipping down on Amanda's lead and at the first hill overtook her. Then came the downhill. Guess I need to work on this as Amanda's legs turned over like a pinwheel and once again we switched leads. Then came the strength part - run along the super soft sand followed by the infamous 400 step sand ladder. It is exactly how it sounds. I knew if I wanted to win this race I had to power my way up the ladder and keep the pressure on for the remaining part of the hill - no looking back. There was another downhill and I did not want her speedy legs to catch me! I gained time on her and then just dug in until the finishing shoot not giving in for a moment until I knew I had it.

Crossing the finish line in first on such a prestigious course and with competitors Amanda Stevens and Melanie McQuaid was incredible. The journey to this race once again showed me so much about myself. The race was sheer joy, adrenaline and incredible athleticism. Now, watching the Tri-Cal TV interview, reading the slowtwitch article and receiving such an outpouring of support and excitement from friends, I am in awe of what this journey I am on brings out in me and in others. All I can say is I can't wait until the next one but until then, I am going to continue working my butt off!

Article: San Francisco Examiner

Knowing when to call it quits

I don't know the right answer to this question necessarily but I did just that yesterday in my race. The last few days before the race were rough for me. I got a cold. I tried to believe that it was just in my sinuses, that I didn't really need to breath through my nose at all, that my head, despite feeling heavy, was going to be ok. I drank tea endlessly and tried to do all the right things to get better. The funny thing about rest though is that as soon as you do it, your body can either get stronger or it falls apart. Mine fell apart.

When I woke up yesterday morning, my first thought was that I wanted to go back to bed. This is not ideal when I should have been itching to get out there! I ignored my malaise and continued with my pre-race rituals. Got to the race site and was ok but still way too blah for a National Championship Race. The gun went off and I had a good start. I was actually in the lead for the first lap of the swim but then it went downhill - my body started to shut down. I was only 10 minutes into the race. I dropped several places in the second lap and despite making a huge effort to bring myself up, I had nothing. Running to transition was brutal and I watched the lead pack get away. Normally in this situation I will fight to catch up and I did but the fight was a bit of a pathetic attempt as I could hardly breath. My power on my SRM was low and I felt like I was going to die... not great. I tried to get myself going but no amount of postive talking was going to get my body to recoup this one. The chase pack caught me and I told them to not count on me - I was using half a lung. This is when I knew that my race was over. I was not going to have the race I knew I could do. I also knew that if I continued I would be putting myself further into the hole I started in. So I called it quits.

Upon reflection now, it is really hard to know what this is like until you do it. I actually don't know the last time I ever quit anything. Sure I have lost confidence or blown up and didn't put my normal 200% into something - but quit? I don't think I ever have actually done that - not in synchro, school, races, workouts... Last year I raced until I passed out - twice! To me that was better than quitting.

So here I am the morning after the race, sitting here with a box of tissues beside me and a cup of ginger lemon tea wondering how long it takes to get over this little bump. I look forward to feeling like me again and giving it my all. I am trying to be easy on myself and let it just be what it is. Although I am not a huge believer of horoscopes - they can sometimes be fun and fitting. Mine today:

"An idea that meant nothing to you yesterday will mean everything to you today and you won’t be happy until you have investigated it further. It’s not true that Capricorn is interested only in practicalities. You’re philosophical too."

So I may investigate this a little further, will learn from it and then get down to my practical self again and move on to the next race - San Francisco Triathlon at Alcatraz! Until then, I can't wait to get back to Austin, the warmth, my friends and what I seemingly call home now.

Training in Kelowna

I seem to balance my days with training, picking vegetables from the garden, searching for recipes, little more training and then making vegetable feasts! I have feasted on swiss chard salad with apples and pecans, cucumber peach salsa, plum chili salsa, caprese salad, brown rice mushroom risotto with zucchini. The best yet was a zesty orange zucchini loaf with cream cheese icing. Unfortunately I got one slice and the dog ate the rest. So yes trying to keep the dogs out of trouble (ie leave NOTHING out, up high, in tupperware containers etc) seems to be my biggest challenge. In the scheme of things - not bad. The picture is representative of my daily harvest here.

Training in Kelowna has been pretty great. The riding is always up or down and through incredible orchards and vineyards. Often you turn a corner and are offered an incredible view of Okanagan lake. It is quiet, drivers are used to cyclists and for the most part, seem to be pretty relaxed. Apart from the orchard/winery industry, tourism feeds the economy here so people may be more inclined to be nice.

This past weekend I went for a dip in the lake. I remember it being warmer than it was. I only managed 30 minutes before I had to get out and warm up in the sun. I was also treated to a hot chocolate after which really helped me to warm up! I wonder if I am the only one in Kelowna looking for hot chocolate on a beautiful summer day.

The absolute highlight thus far has been running along the Kettle Valley Railway, up at 4000ft with the most incredible views of the Okanagan valley. The dirt trail takes you across 15 train trestles and through 2 rock tunnels. There were tons of people on their bikes, stopping for lunch and enjoying the sites. I was in bliss. I also have not run on much flat terrain of late so this too was a treat as I felt like I was flying!

Today I am up for a swim and have scoped out a few more recipes to get through the mountain of zucchini and cucumber that we have here. Another loaf of zucchini bread has just come out of the oven - this time though Fernanda and I will be the only ones to enjoy it!

Fourth Place 70.3 Calgary!

Ok a little delayed but here it is.. my race report! The day started at 3am with breakfast listening to the wonderful noise of rain pouring down with only thunder interrupting the patter. Excellent!

Nevertheless, I was off to meet the bus at 4am and get out to the race site. I can't say that I remember all that much about the bus ride but do remember that it was early, cold and dark. Forty-five minutes later we all arrived and I walked to my transition area - a huge pool of water. One potential bonus was that I had a lot of space as no one else really wanted to brave the additional swim through transition. The other advantage to a cold rainy morning is that the water felt surprisingly warm in my warm-up!

When the gun went off I quickly realized that I messed up a little on the start line as I hung back a little. This meant that I had to fight my way to the front. Men and women went off together so it was a little different for me than in the ITU races. To be honest, I think that although the bodies I had to battle were a bit bigger, there was a lot less silly antics (feet grabbing). My swim felt strong and steady. I had a good rhythm. Because of my poor start I missed some drafting potential and had to swim on my own for a large part of the swim trying to bridge the gap between the lead group and myself. I almost succeeded. I did create a huge lead (2:20) though among the women - of course I had no idea of this running out.

One thing about me is that I hate being cold. The rain had stopped thankfully but there was no sun to be found. This meant braving cool temperatures for 95km. I decided that as long as I could wear socks I would be ok. So I grabbed my bike, ran out of transition, and close to the mount line I put my socks on. Of course the video camera was on me as I was in the lead so I thought - oh man this is sooo not going to look professional! I laughed and just kept thinking - this is my first one and I am allowed to make a few rookie moves :)

On the bike I tried to find my rhythm right away. I usually have a tendency to just want to hammer it out but kept thinking that I really needed to contain myself if I wanted to maintain a solid performance. I probably was a bit conservative on the bike for this reason. Heather Wurtele had a stellar bike and passed me, then Mirinda Carfrae came up and also passed me. One person was ok but two! Never mind that Mirinda is a world champion. I didn't want to have to be the one always worried about the draft line so I passed her back and didn't look back. The second half of my bike was stronger than my first. My rookie mistake on the bike was that I kept looking at the mountains and thinking how pretty it was. My head had to turn to do this and if you have ever seen an aero helmet, if you turn your head you are anything but aero. Oops. I had to stop enjoying myself out there so much.

I came out of transition and Mirinda was hot on my heals. She quickly passed me and I had to remind myself to slow down - I had 21km to do and was certainly not going to be able to do it at her pace. Thank-goodness I had my Garmin because as much as I wanted to hold a 6'/mile pace, it was not going to happen. The run felt pretty good although I wondered at around 4km if my legs would ever come around. It was like running with bricks. They did though and I honestly was shocked at how quickly the turn-around at 10km came. I was sad to see though that Linsey Corbin was coming up on me so quickly. I just kept trying to keep my pace up. The rookie mistake that I made on the run was my nutrition. I knew I had to continue taking something in and I tried but the whole chocolate Gu thing in the flask was not working for me despite training with it. I kept forgetting to close the lid and it kept getting all over me. Chocolate Gu is not what you want all over and I kept thinking how beautiful it must look with brown smudges all over my hands and face. My ego got in the way :) So over the half marathon it was lucky if I got in one gel. oops. I hit a wall at 19km and shortly after Linsey flew by me. Uggg. So close yet so far. I came to the finish line though with a smile on my face. The announcer was rather funny - he kept saying ' we don't know much about Tenille Hoogland as this is her first 70.3 but she has been doing half marathons etc.... ' The last half marathon I did was in Toronto in 1995. I did it just under 2 hours and it HURT!

I loved this race and loved the whole experience of being in Calgary while undertaking my first 70.3. It truly was everything I hoped for (although the podium would have made me very happy). I really look forward to my next one and pushing the envelope maybe a little more on the bike. I also will have done more than one long run by this time so will have a bit better fitness in this department. Oh soooo scary how well I could do at this distance if I trained for it and had a proper TT bike!

Since the race it has been straight to training for Kelowna Pan-American Cup/Nationals. It is back to speed and being on the red-line for 2 hours. To be honest, the 70.3 although hard, is not as hard as the intensity that comes from an ITU race. Maybe because I was conservative in my race but to sit on that thin red line is challenging mentally and physically. I usually don't see anything in an Olympic race except the feet, wheel or pavement in front of me. I certainly don't have time to think, oh those mountains are sooo pretty!

Stay tuned... hopefully I will be running around a little less in the next while and better at blogging. The season has just begun!!!

For articles on the race click here or here.