The (Not so) Big Bad WildFlower Weekend

This past weekend, I packed up my tri-gear and headed down to Lake San Antonio, the Race site for the WildFlower Half-Ironman, with the YMCA tri-group for a fun-filled, yet down to business training weekend.

So, I'm a dummy. I took no pictures this weekend! None. Zip. Nada. Zilch.

You know why?? Cuz this dummy forgot to pack her camera!

WTF Azra!

My new year's resolution two years ago was to take more pictures and needless to say, I haven't really followed through on it. I even bought me a cute, mini, skinny little sony cybershot, just to ensure that I'd carry it around with me every where and snap pics left and right...but no dice. I really need to get better at that.

OK. Onward with the weekend. I had so much fun! Arrived in Lake San Antonio park area at ~7:30 pm and got tho-rough-ly lost for a solid 1h trying to figure out where our cabins were in the dark.

Once I finally found the cabin, I chit-chatted with my cabin mates for a bit and we went to sleep shortly after. We had a pretty long day ahead of us filled with lots of (yep, you guessed it) swimming-biking..and on yeah...running! but not in that order this time hehe.


First, the Bike:

We woke up early in the morning (for me at least) and got set to start riding by 8:30am. So now, as you may know from my previous posts, I've been scared to no end by everyone about how brutally hilly the bike course is on the WF. As a result, I've been very focused on trying to get in Hilly rides every weekened in preparation.


Well guess what, the training paid off cuz I gotta tell ya, that ride didn't seem all that bad!

There's a portion of the ride called "the Nasty Grade" that's supposed to be this ohhh so big bad hill that'll punish the heck outa you but you know what, I gotta be honest...Nasty grade really wasn't all that nasty to me. Which is a good thing!

Scratch that, IT'S A GREAT THING!

I actually rode rather conservatively on the ride in fear of this big baaaaad hill that's supposed to just tear me down to pieces. Well, this hill came, and yes it was steep, but before I knew it, it was over and I thought to myself :

"Is this it??"

And then, as the uphill started turning into a downhill I realized...

"Awww yeah girl. That's it!"

(sorry, quick Flight of the Concord reference)

I most certainly could have put in more effort in the first 35-40 miles of the ride since the hill doesn't really start till mile 41 anyway. And the down hill after that was just this big, bounding, swooping, wide-turning perfection of a down-hill that was ALL fun and NO scary twisty turns. Me likey.

Next time, i plan on going just a little harder for the first 38 miles or so before giving myself a tiny 1-2mi breather in prep for this hill.


I did a 30 min brick run off the ride and alright, I admit. My poor gams were definitely tired. Not overly exhausted or fatigued, and certainly not something that a few more weeks of training won't fix, but certainly something to keep in mind as I train.

Later that day, we practiced 5-6 swim starts in Lake San Antonio. And miss scaredy little cat (me) decided to put on her big gal pants and hang in the middle of the pack with the big boys instead of staying back in fear of getting smacked in the face. Well, guess what...the SF YMCA tri folks don't mess around in the water.

During one of the swim starts, I got elbowed, square in the eye! Man that was painful! Not to mention it startled the heck outa me..so much so that I let every-one go ahead of me.

Note to self: Start in the middle but swim wide initially and protect your head from getting kicked, smacked and elbowed!

The swim start practice followed by a 15-20min swim was the last of the workouts for Saturday and I was definitely pooped. I got to the cabin, took a shower and then went off to Cabin 14, where we were to have dinner and a mini-dance party, which was to conclude at 10:00pm sharp.

That's a triathlon party for ya. Starts at 6pm, ends at 10pm with everyone in bed by 10:30pm ...11:00 tops! We had a 7:30am run to get up for don't ya know!!

I wish every party would end by 11:00pm..then I wouldn't feel like I was missing out on all the cool happenings by cutting out early since I have this thing called triathlon training that I have to wake up and do everyday.

Anyway, I brought this yummy mango salsa as my contribution to the party and it was a total hit. Everyone loved it and I was very happy that they did. After much grubbing and talking, and a little bit of joking around and dancing...we went off to bed.

BTW, just thought I'd mention it, but Phoenix (my bike) got several compliments on Saturday . Mama was very happy :)


The next day was the run and I gotta say, I definitely underestimated that bad boy. I knew that the run would be hilly, but for some reason, I was anticipating short, steep hills by the way people talked about the race. I had been practicing these during my runs. Alot. I thought I'd be ready. Boy was I wrong. These hills weren't short, sweet and steep and at all.

No sir.

These were long, grueling, big bertha hills that stretched gradually on and on...and on....and (last one) ON! I was NOT ready for that, especially after the killer training filled saturday.

My legs were so dead for the run. I mean, I got through it okay and I even got a second wind of energy towards the last few miles but I definitely realized that I need to shift my run focus a little bit to encorporate more slow, gradual climby hills vs. short, steep hills.

After this weekend, I feel pumped up and ready to tweak my training to fit to the race. I am confident that with just a little adjustment on the run terrain, proper attention to my nutrition, and consistent hillwork on the ride, I will feel good once race time comes around.

This week, (thankfully) is a recovery week. That means reduced training and shorter long rides and runs. Hoorah! I need it that's for sure.

...Although I sorta can't wait for my 70 miler ride coming up next weekend!! Is that masochistic??

Whatever it is...It's so nice to finally look fwd to these monsters instead of dreading them. And I got consistency to thank for it.

Consistency, determination and hard-work, I'm finally convinced, are the key to success in anything, I mean anything you do in life. You do the work, you reap the results :). It's as simple as that...and all it took was some serious tri-training to help me re-realize that.

Azra