Hello hello! It’s just a couple days after Indian Wells and I’m still sore AF as I write this. I also have a lot of thoughts to share and that’s why I’m posting right away, rather than procrastinating like always haha.

So yeah. This was my second big pro race and my third 70.3 for the year. I feel like maybe I didn’t plan my season in the best way for my own needs. My 70.3s were very spaced out – one in April, then September and December. I felt like I was training hard the entire year with no breaks.

I did Oceanside in April before taking my pro card and before hiring a coach and that still remains as my best 70.3 by far (if that tells you anything about my season).

Anywho, back to Indian Wells! So I had a great training block ahead of this race and felt very confident that I could perform well. I also thought I had dialed in my nutrition pretty well after the massive cramping issue I had during SC 70.3. I went into this race feeling confident, relaxed and excited.

I won’t bore you with every detail, but I’ll break down each discipline.

Swim

Honestly I don’t really ever think much about the swim in the first place. Mainly I usually just want to get it over with so I can get to the bike! Also my swim times literally never get faster. I’m pretty much stuck at the same speed for open water.

Anyway, the rumors were true about the IW swim. It was FUCKING COLD. I saw a lot of people wearing booties and neoprene swim caps, which I totally understood. However, I was pretty much fine in just my wetsuit (mind you- I have sleeves. I would not recommend doing this swim in a sleeveless wetsuit!!). The water temp was 57.2 F which is the coldest I’ve ever swam in! But SC wasn’t too much warmer so I felt prepared.

There was some initial cold shock, especially once my face hit the water. I felt like it almost took my breath away for a second, but then I quickly got into a rhythm and forgot how cold I was.

The lake itself was super clean and calm. The buoys were visible, siting was good and the distance was right on point (I feel like I did a lot of races this season where the swim was way too long).

I ended up swimming about 29 minutes flat. Which is fine. I’ve swam faster before though. I ended up being the 10th fastest pro woman.

T1

Transition was about .25 miles which is kind of long but it wasn’t unbearable. Since this is a point-to-point transition, we had actually checked in our bike gear bag the night before the race and they hung all our bags on a rack.

I ran through transition, grabbed my bike gear bag and ran over to the chairs they had set up. This is where I removed my wetsuit (which was SO HARD because I had no feeling in my hands) and put my helmet, shoes and socks on. Then I ran and grabbed my bike.

Bike

This bike course is really flat so I had high expectations for my time. My fastest bike split for a 70.3 came from Oceanside, which has like 3000 feet of climbing, so I figured I could absolutely beat that on a flat course.

The first half of the bike, I felt awesome! It can be kind of discouraging as a pro because you’re the first ones out on the course so you’re alone for a lot of the race until age group people start passing you. However, I felt like I didn’t get passed toooooooo much and I managed to pass a couple of other pro women.

During the first half of the race, I kept checking my watch and I was definitely on track to PR. However, during the second half, I noticed the wind had started to pick up just slightly. We got pretty lucky with the wind otherwise, but the slight headwind dropped me from a 21-22mph pace to like 18-19. This isn’t a huge difference, but it was enough to annoy me.

As I kept doing the math at my slower speed, I knew I was getting closer to NOT beating my PR. This made me mad so I started pushing harder. This is the same mistake I made in SC too. I pushed way too hard and tired out my legs more than I intended.

I came in with a bike time of 2:38 (a minute off my PR) and I was the 12th fastest pro out of 15.

T2

I ran my bike in and racked it. I was so exhausted as I put on my running shoes. I wasn’t sure how the run was going to go, but I tried to keep a positive attitude despite my disappointment about my bike time.

Run

Ugh. The run.

During this training block, I ran SO MUCH. I was putting in 30 mile weeks (which is a lot for me) so I fully expected to be able to maintain a decent pace. NOPE.

Mile 1 was pretty okay for the most part, but once I got to the first aid station, I could feel the cramps creeping up in the same place as they did at SC – in my lower quads. However, I was more prepared this time and brought a pack of salt pills in my kit. I took one of them and stupidly dropped the other one on the ground somewhere. UGH. The one pill did seem to help a bit though because I was able to slog along without completely seizing up.

The rest of the run was a fight for my life honestly. It ended up being a lot hotter than I anticipated and palm trees don’t offer much shade!!

For this run course, it takes you out on a road for a couple of miles, then you go into a golf course and run on the golf cart paths, then you go back out onto the same road as before, pass the finish line and then do it all over again.

The golf course part of the run is SUPER hilly and not only do I despise hills, but I knew if I tried to run them, the cramps would come back. I ended up walking the hills and aid stations and then running pretty slow the rest of the time. I was really just trying to finish and trying not to cry like I did at SC lol.

I tried to maintain a positive attitude despite wanting to die the entire run. I saw a ton of people who follow me on Instagram and hearing them cheer and pump me up really kept a smile on my face. How could it not!?

At each aid station I drank a sip of water, Gatorade and Coke and shoved ice down my kit. This combo really kept me going! But I also started to struggle with nausea since I had so many liquids in my stomach!

Anyway, I plodded along to the finish line with a run time of 2:06 (not good for me AT ALL considering my 13.1 PR is a 1:37 like damn I should AT LEAST be under 2 hours). My overall race time was a 5:21. Which honestly isn’t even bad. I think that it was actually my second fastest time ever, but I was just so far off my PR. And I was the last place female pro by a lot. Again.

So yeah… I have a lot of thoughts about this race and this season.

I hired a coach back in June after I got my pro card. I mainly wanted to focus on getting better at running. His coaching philosophy is polarized training, aka more zone 2 and almost no group rides.

I was skeptical at first but I stuck it out the entire season to see if it would work for me. I sacrificed a lot to stick with this training plan but in the end this clearly wasn’t the plan for me. My fastest bike split AND run split were both from Oceanside, back when I was doing my own thing (riding A LOT).

Since IW, I did part ways with my coach. He is a great guy, but I just don’t know if being coached is my vibe. Like… this is my hobby. I’m not going to the Olympics and honestly, even as a pro, I don’t think I’ll ever make any money doing this sport. So why should I follow a training plan that brings me no joy? A hobby should be fun.

Anyway, going forward, I’m definitely going to incorporate some of the things I learned from him. I also plan to run more than I did before, but I’m going to start doing my group rides again. That’s how I got fast on the bike in the first place! These rides also give me great bike handling skills, confidence and they’re practically my entire social life. Group rides make me look forward to waking up at 6am to ride, instead of totally and completely dreading a 3 hour solo ride.

I also think I want to do more bike racing next year than I did this past year. Bike racing is fun! And I’m good at it!

Anyway, as far as next year’s triathlons and my pro card.

I do plan on keeping my pro card. There’s really no point in not keeping it, right? The perks are awesome! I guess if I wanted to go to Kona or something then I would switch back to age group. But I’ll have my whole life to qualify for Kona! I don’t know if I’ll ever qualify for my pro card again! So yes, you’ll still see me in the VERY back of the pro wave, but hopefully with a smile on my face!

I also don’t know what races I want to do next year. I feel like I raced too much this year, but I also love racing! So I don’t know. I definitely want to do Oceanside 70.3 since it’s close to LA and a really fun race! Then maybe another mid-season 70.3. I think maybe I want to focus more on Olympic distances too. I really think that might be my best distance- a longer swim, I’m able to get far enough ahead on the bike and people don’t have enough time to catch me on the run!

Okay, now I’m rambling. If you have stuck along until now, thanks! Stay tuned for updates as I try to figure out my life going forward!

As of now, I have already dove in the off-season with open arms. I have barely moved my body since Sunday. I’m planning on doing nothing physical all week and then doing my favorite group ride on Saturday. Maybe a hike too? I miss hiking! I could never hike during the season because it made me too sore for running!

I’m also going camping in Death Valley soon so that’ll be fun! Oh and I have about 1000 weddings next year too. There is just a lot of fun stuff going on, so I need to take some time to plan out priorities and whatnot.

Okay, now I’m actually done rambling! BYE!