Season 2010 completed.

5 years in row I keep coming to this race, Ironman Florida, the only race I am doing over and over again. And I don't really know what it is: is it the race or the place or the good time I always have in Panama City...., probably all together. This year was a little bit different. First of all I never was there while it's raining and it rained so heavily that we couldn't enjoy the sunsets. Second of all I didn't have my support crew :(, who came with me to Panama City for the last 4 years. After rain stopped showering, the weather temperature dropped to 36-40 degrees, but sun came out and the town started to get it's color back.

The race day weather wasn't very different, maybe a few degrees less and no strong wind like the day before. I thought if I manage to stay warm on the bike I'll do well at this race. Two second places previous years gave me a confidence.

Swim: the water was choppy but nice and warm and I thought during the swim that it probably last time when I feel warm today and it was true. I came out of the water with Erika, which was a good sign for me... I could keep an eye on her on the bike. She is strong cyclist and very strong runner. But I spent so much time it T1 when I absolutely lost her.

Bike: It was cold and windy. The course was different than previous years, more highway rides. I managed to stay more or less warm and finished the bike on 6th position, which is not bad for me as I usually catch girls on the run. Not this time though.

Run: I started to run and I felt like I am running fast. I guess I had a high cadence, but I didn't move very fast. I have a good explanation why my run wasn't strong in november, but who is interested in excuses? I'll just say that there is a lot to work on for the next year.

Another top 5 Ironman finish. And in spite of a fact that it was a long season and I am pretty tired right now I am all fired up and looking forward for the next season. But first of all I have to rest well. Good vacation is a first step for the good season.

Kona 2010

High altitude training, Cochiti Lake Triathlon.

It was a right decision to go train in my favorite place, Los Alamos, NM. Even though I couldn't run for a while, but I was able to ride the bike and swim and just enjoy my time in this beautiful little town with my friends, I've met through past couple years. There are a few places in the world, which make me calm and help me to get rid of any negative emotions and Los Alamos is one of them. Thanks a lot to Kim and Susie for letting me stay in your houses, it helps us, people who travel a lot, to feel home far away from home.

At the beginning of the camp I felt like I kind of lost my shape, going through all those injuries past couple months. But it never feels great coming to 7 and something thousand feat from the sea level. It took about two weeks to start slowly getting used to the elevation. Last couple years I find myself liking to train with people, it was very helpful to swim with the Masters class 3 times a week in the highest 50 miters swimming pool in North America (Aquatic center). I've had a few Epic workouts ( everything feels Epic on this elevation, by the way): 5 hours bike ride, climbing the mountains, going through scenic view mountain nature and some historical places; I've done also 3 hours 45 min hike-run with My friends Kim and Paul (my longest time spending on my feet before was 3h. 30 min at the Ironman race), we started from 8 something thousand feat and finished somewhere around 12.000 feat. But the most painful always was and is the Time Trial bike ride, organized every week in summer time by Clay: it's just 8 km, but it hurts like hell :) (the dry air, the hit, t

he elevation, and a climb about 4 km long).

As I mentioned before I wasn't running for a last couple months, but I started running last week in Los Alamos and I really wanted to do the race at the end of the camp and I was lucky that Sport Systems was setting the race near Santa Fe and Albuquerque at the Cochiti Lake. I've been at this place before, it's a great aria for training, open water swim and especially for the triathlon race. Thanks to organizers they set me for the race and provided with everything I needed. We arrived to the race site the day before the race, the weather was beautiful. It's a great place for a fishing, kayaking, sailing, hiking and for many other activities.

Swim: The bike course was one loop as a triangle swim. The water was pretty warm, but as long as the swim is wetsuit legal I'll am not going to swim without one. I was lucky enough to get out of the water with my friend Clay and the other guy (the guys I was swimming with the entire course).

Bike: Bike course is taking part partly on the dam, which is pretty much flat and with kind of long uphill close to the end of the bike segment plus one km steep downhill to the transition, which you have to climb going out of transition at the beginning. The whole course feels mostly flat, but not the very fast one, as you are riding at 1700m altitude.

Run: The run course is not complicated, but not the easy one as well. Maybe because I wasn't running much passed few months or it's an altitude or a hit or maybe all together. But I felt like I am not moving anywhere. It's out and back run with one km steep uphill going out of T2 and of course on the way back it's a downhill. And rest of the run course is taking part on the dam.

I think it's could be a great place for a half Ironman distance. This course would be a very challenging, spectacular and enjoyable in the same time.

I would like to thank again the race organizers and especially Angy, the race director and Jason, the race volunteer, who made my trip back home much easier.

Listening to the signs.

I would love to write another exciting race report and share with my team mates and friends my success, but last couple months injuries were holding me back from full running and competing. After training in Florida in a winter time and a very good race in Japan I was pretty tired with my body and mind, but I still planned to do a few more Ironman 70.3 triathlons before I take a short brake. Already back then my body started to send me signals, which I didn't want to listen to. After Strongman Japan I got a heel pain and I thought it happened after slightly moving a cleat on the cycling shoe. But such a small change usually doesn't cause any major pain unless your muscles are too tied and tired from over using them. I should've listened to it, but I kept going thinking that it's nothing serious and ache will go away very soon and I still have enough time till my next race. But 4 weeks wasn't enough to get rid of the pain without taking a good care of that injury. I went through the race and quit after 5th km on the run (swimming and biking didn't hurt).

Other than injuries the sign of overtraining is a lost of motivation. I couldn't believe myself, I was like a different person. So inspired and motivated 3-4 months ago, I had a hard time to go through my favorite training routings now. After the race in Florida, which I mentioned before I've decided to take a full 3 days off and put my leg in the orthopedic boot to avoid any movement of the injured heel. It helped and I went back to training ....., of course...., I had another race in a few weeks, Ironman 70.3, Mooseman. I didn't have any high expectations from that one, just wanted to go through run and see if the heel can handle it. And yes, it could, I socked on the bike and finished 6th not very happy with my results, but I could go through half marathon without pain.

By the plan I made before this season I had to have a week of the rest, but because I haven't trained seriously in May I've decided to keep going. And, yes, it was wrong again. Just a few days after Mooseman I slipped on the stairs and heat one of the toes very badly and got a small fracture in one of the 4th toe bones and another couple weeks with no running :(. What the accident? But maybe it's just another sign? It took me a whole week to put myself together and become with a new plan for training and racing. But I finally had that one week of rest. And let hope I'll be fine from now on.

The title has been defended.

Now I can say that the season 2010 had officially started. The first big race took place in Japan passed weekend, it's All Japan Triathlon, Strongman. One of my favorite courses. It is a really huge event for such a small Island like Miyakojima with population just 55.000 people. 26 years old race has it all: the sun, the wind and the sea. Although this year one component was missing, we didn't see much of the sun. It was raining a few days before the race with a strong windy condition of the weather. I was double excited to go to Japan this year: for me and for my new coach, Wolfgang Guembel, who is a professional triathlete as well and who got an invitation to compete in the race too. It always nice to have somebody, meeting you at the finish line and share a good or not so good race day with you, like I usually have a Timex crew or Team mates at the races in North America. After a long trip I had 5 days to adjust to the time difference, which is 12 hours with East time zone. Not everything went smooth before the race: I was getting excited to try my new Orbea Ordu bike on the long course, but I couldn't put it together, something was wrong with a headset. I gave up on trying to fix it and it was time to find a mechanic. I was very lucky that the mechanic, who supports the Japanese Olympic team was there with all his tools. My advice to the athletes who travels with bikes and take them apart by themselves: if you need to replace the handlebar or an aerobar do it from the side of a stem where it connects to the bar, not to the headset tube. I don't remember the mechanic name, but he fixed the problem and really save me. The weather on the race day wasn't different from the previous couple days: 20% of rain and 30-40 km/h wind. Glad I was training in Florida this winter, no kidding the weather in Florida this year was the same. Swim: I got a front spot at the start. It's a mass start (1500 people is a limit for this race). Actually it wasn't too bad until after the last buy, suddenly I was surrounded by big pack of people trying to heat me and crawling on the top of my legs. Actually someone did get to the target and heat me in the head so badly that I heard a bell ring. When I exited the water I was pleased with the time splits on my watch, I swam 30-40 second faster when last year. Bike: I was listening to my coach and I've tried to hold back a little bit during the first our on the bike and control my Power Wats and I thought I did. But the middle part of the bike course didn't feel like I was going with a good afford. Or maybe it just was in my mind after I saw a leading girl drafting behind two guys. It took me a while to catch her, 120 km. At the last part of the bike course I felt better. Run: It's a hard course and the marathon run is not an exception (it's out and back with rowling hills). I didn't want to get excited and get cared away because I was leading the race. I needed a strong, steady run to hold my position and when it comes to the run I usually know what to do and how to control my pace. After turn around I saw Emi, second girl and it looks like she was very close, so I've tried to run a bit faster on the way home. Miyakojima people are very supportive, it looks like at list half of the Island population were out there on the course. 3-4 km to the finish line we ran through downtown and hundreds of people were screaming "Gumbate" , "Vydo". I was talking to myself: "don't get excited, don't get excited, you still have more than 3 km to go".

Finish: It's a great feelings to win the race and to defend your title. But even better feelings are when someone is waiting for you at the finish line. It was my coach and a good friend, Wolfgang Guembel, who also had a great day and won the race.

I think had one of those races when you don't make any mistakes and your plan has completed on 100%. I got two fastest time splits (bike and run) and went faster in all three disciplines compare to the last year. Although I screwed in T1 a bit, went to the men's changing tent. My friend called me back 3 times and I couldn't understand what he wants from me until I looked around :). I wish that was a worst mistake during the race I ever have made.

That was a really great and fun trip. First of all I didn't feel like a stranger any more in Miyakojima, I saw some familiar faces, some people remembered me from the last year and I wasn't alone. Then I've met new people and made the new friends, most of them are Australians (several athletes from this country did the Strongman race too). I think Australians are really cool people and they are a lot of fun ;). Spending last day of the trip in Tokyo, walking with an umbrella during a rainy day was something to remember too. During the race I thought that I don't really want to do the race again (it's a tough course), but now just writing this post and bringing up still fresh memories I am already thinking: I really want to go there again.

Race results

Some missing news.

It's already  a third or fourth time when I am trying to update my blog. I missed a couple last months and now I don't know where I should start or should I skip all my last news and start from the last one. No, I'll just go through it slightly reviewing them without dip details, but with some pictures:

1. I left Ukraine at the end of January after the last Ukrainian winter Holiday. And I went to Canada for a first time in my life to meet my friend, Wolf and drive to Clermont with him for a few months of winter training and to see my best friend, Oksana. It was a nice 4-5 days in Montreal and a fun time at Niagara Falls, in St. Catharines. 

             

2. Then we went to Florida by car, it took us around 19 hours to get to Jacksonville from St. Catharines. It could be a nice big story for one separate post. A road trip, one day long made its own fun story, but I'll cut on this one. 

3. More fun in Jacksonville. One day (that was Wolf's birthday) we had a beautiful day, playing golf (just shooting golf balls actually), trying to take pictures with an alligator in a small lake (first one I've seen so far in Florida) and with a great Birthday Party at the end of the day. 

4. I miss that time now, but a few months back I started to feel like I've had enough of rest and fun time and I started to feel hungry for some serious training. And at the very beginning of February we arrived to Clermont to prepare for a season 2010. And this year is going to be different than my last few years when I was training on my own. Now I have a coach, Wolfgang Guembel, the Canadian Pro triathlete and one of NRG performance training coaches, who agreed to work with me and so far, I think, it's coming out pretty well. I thought I was working hard through all my years in triathlon, but only now I am realizing what does hard work really means (I still love it though  :) ) 

5. I am missin

g something here again: I am a Timex girl for the year 2010 again. And into three weeks of my training I had to leave Clermont for a weekend and join my team maits for the Team Timex camp in New Jersey. Either my English is getting better or in four years we got closer and made a really good friends in the team or maybe it's the cold weather held us indoor and we didn't spread out and we had enough time to get to know each other or maybe it's my room mate, but anyway I really had a great time in New Jersey, during the Team Timex camp at New York Giants facility.

6. After the camp I had a first few short course races back in Florida: one of them was USAT Development race here in Clermont and the other one was MIT race in Miami of course. The Miami race would be another good story to tell in my blog, but, sorry I am skipping this one too. I'll just mention that I travel to south of Florida with Wolf, Max and Viktor and it's always fun to hang out with them. I was very happy about my bike and run splits and a little bit upset to lose 3 seconds to the 6th girl.

USAT Development race results; MIT results.

7. I didn't have much time to rest after those two races. I've been invited to do All Japan Triathlon, Strongman, this year again. I am as excited about it as last year, maybe even more. I really like this race and the atmosphere and just an opportunity to go to Japan again. But I had three hard weeks of training blocks ahead of me. And now I can proudly say, I survived it without too much whining and complaining. Although my coach might think differently :).  

Now I have one more week before I go to Japan and I am looking forward to the long trip itself too. After staying at one place for more than a month it time for me to travel. 

The project.

After such a great and relaxing time in Truskavets I was well charged and almost 100% healed from my foot injury. I finally came home for a few months of settled life, which I was looking forward to. But it's usually not a fun time back home during the winter, when it is snowing one day then raining a next day then temperature drops down below 0 and nothing you can do, training wise, outside. But the worst part about the weather in my city, Lvov, that during this time of the year you don't see the sun very often. Actually you don't see it at all. So, I needed to find something to motivate myself to keep moving myself. And I came up with an idea to do the renovation of my apartment in 30 days. To go from that  

                through all that:

to make it lok like this: 

The idea was great and it really kept me busy (I was leaving my flat when workers arrived, trying to train for several hours, while they were working. Then I was running around city, buying some stuff that the workers were needed. I was coming home after 6 p.m. cleaning for an hour at list and on and on and on) till the last day of year 2009. Then Ukrainian holidays started, also one month long. I had a great week, spent with my mom, who came to visit me from Moscow. After she left back home I had one more week of my "settled" life, enjoying the time in my cozy flat. Two and a half months at home passed so fast and time to start prepare for the season 2010 was just around the corner.